I Will Read Forever

Yes, it's another video that turns out to be an ad, but I just love the message:



I love the mix of paper books and e-readers in the video. It's how my (and I think a lot of people's) reading happens right now: This one paper, this one electronic, another paper...and so on.

I love ebooks. I love that I don't have to haul a long book with me (War and Peace weighs the same as Winnie The Pooh on my tablet or phone) and the covers don't get torn up in my bag (no matter what I do, that happens). I love that I can make notes and highlight passages and those will be searchable on my device or on the computer next time I need the reference.

But until issues like DRM and the ten bazillion formats we have right now get ironed out, I haven't turned my back on paper completely. But I'm definitely moving steadily in the direction of "all ebooks, all the time": I donated 11 grocery bags of books to my library's book sale this month and then moved the largest bookshelf in the house into my daughter's room because she has more print books than I do now.

These days, if I can only get a book in print, I do my darnedest to get it from the library. All the bookshelves in the house are still full, despite that purge, and I'm not buying any more to accommodate the few stacks that still make up part of that never-ending mess in the basement - more have to go, and no more are coming in until they do. But ebooks get a pass because they only take up virtual space. The virtal-ness of ebooks might be my favorite thing about them. (Don't worry, I still have an entire bookcase of antique books I can open up and inhale the "book smell" from - I think I'll always need that)

How are you doing your reading these days? All paper? All electronic? Or, like me, a mix of both?

Video link

Emily Blunt totally looks like Felicia Day

We watched Gulliver's Travels last night and this hit me midway through the movie:

Via bonika at cheezburger.com

I'm a big Felicia Day fan, but the only other thing I've seen Emily Blunt in was Young Victoria. It wasn't until Princess Mary (played by Blunt) lets her hair down (in many ways) in Guliver's Travels that I noticed the resemblance.

I swear I've known people who name their files this way

It still may be better than "Doc1.doc" "Doc2.doc" "Doc3.doc" I once replaced someone who named her files that way. I spent the first week at that job just opening files to see what they were so I could rename them. I should have realized it was a sign. Turned out to be the worst. job. ever.

I think it's time for Spring Break to be over...

...and so does Quinn :)

I never thought Dork Tower would make me cry... (darn you, @muskrat_john!)

DORK TOWER, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 | Dork Tower (Click through for the larger image)

In case you missed it, my own thoughts on Elisabeth Sladen passing

We'll miss you, Sarah Jane Smith. RIP Elisabeth Sladen #doctorwho

When I was a kid, I wanted to BE Sarah Jane...actually, I still do.

io9 has a great article about Elisabeth's work as Sarah Jane, where they point out "Her death is a huge loss to Doctor Who fans, and to fans of strong female adventure heroes everywhere."

I never consciously thought about Sarah Jane as a "strong female adventure hero," but she was. She probably helped shape me as much as any other woman I watched on TV as a kid. Apparently, Elisabeth was an active influence on how Sarah Jane was written. Without Elisabeth, Sarah Jane would not have been who she was, and I wouldn't be who I am without Sarah Jane. I don't remember watching any other show for hours upon hours like I did with Doctor Who (maybe Scooby Doo? Well, Daphne & Velma are no shrinking violets, either).

One of my favorite episodes from the new Doctor Who series is "School Reunion" where Sarah Jane returned, meeting up with the 10th Doctor, David Tennant:

The universe was lucky to have Sarah Jane Smith; 

the world was lucky to have Lis. 

- Russell T Davies

Maybe Will & Kate should come down the aisle THIS way...

Remember Jill and Kevin's Wedding Entrance Dance? T-mobile reimagined it for Prince William & Kate Middleton's upcoming nuptials, with look-alikes and all. Very cute and clever.


YouTube - The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

via Mashable

Dr. Who + Snoopy = Awesome!

Loving Snoopy as a Dalek :)



By Ape Lad
via @bonniegrrl

Titanic sank 99 years ago today

I dug through Flickr a bit and came up with these:

WooHoo! More Red Dwarf coming!

Exciting news from Robert Llewellyn's blog:

The LlewBlog - Red Dwarf - Smegtastic: "In November this year we start to record a new series of 6 episodes, presently titled Red Dwarf X. I’m not sure of the Broadcast dates but we finish recording them in early February 2012. I don't know if this is going to be a prequel to the three specials we made in 2009, or the follow on, or if Kryten will have a new turbo boost for his groinal attachment, or if it takes place on the ship, or Starbug, or if the Skutters will have speaking parts or even indeed, if Rimmer will be any less of a smeghead. All this is to come."

Can't wait to watch!

The babies are hatching!

Check out the Eagle Cam in Decorah, IA - one chick hatched this morning, with two more to go.

Decorah Eagles, Ustream.TV

Thanks to my friend and coworker Teri, The Cheeky Librarian, for the heads up!

Best April Fools suggestion ever

"Voice search to locate nearby kittens will also work on Android devices, and iOS devices with the Google Search App, so try meowing into your phone to find the kittens near you."

Meow Me Now - Official Google Mobile Blog

Imagining people meowing into their phones makes me smile.

Lightsaber Popsicles! Or, "Yesss, delicious Jabba"

Forget the popsicles, I want that jingle as a ringtone!

Oh, wait...ThinkGeek read my mind!

OMG! This is so exciting!

For all my fellow font nerds:

Comic Sans Pro Typeface Family Makes its Debut | Business Wire: "Featuring elements such as speech bubbles and cartoon dingbats, Comic Sans Pro extends the versatility of the original Comic Sans, designed by Vincent Connare for Microsoft in 1994. “Hats off to Monotype Imaging for enlivening Comic Sans and getting it back to its roots as a comic book lettering face. Now everyone can write with more panache – and look even more like a pro using swashes, small caps and other typographic embellishments,” said Connare." [Emphasis mine]

via Boing Boing

P.S. If you didn't click through to Boing Boing...April Fools!

And I thought I was hearing things...

Emergency Sirens Triggered Accidentally - Omaha News Story - KETV Omaha: "OMAHA, Neb. -- Douglas County officials said emergency sirens heard over the noon hour Wednesday were set off accidentally."

CNN knows who to contact about missing cobras :)

So you've probably heard the Bronx Zoo is missing a cobra, unless you're living under a rock (and if you are, have you seen the cobra anywhere under there?)

CNN wanted more information on just how dangerous this cobra is, so they called the same person I would call: my second cousin Terry Phillip, Curator of Reptiles at Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD.

How to catch an escaped cobra:


More of Terry's comments here: Reptile Gardens expert weighs in on snake fiasco for CNN.

And if you'd like more from the Bronx Zoo's Cobra, check out its twitter feed. :)

Tearing down the Kline Center at Chadron State College

I spent many many many hours in this building, working on the college newspaper. There are some great memories in there. It's a little sad to see it go.



via KOTA - WeatherBug

The view from my window tonight

A few days ago, we had 70-degree weather along with with hail and tornadoes (which, thankfully, missed us). But winter apparently isn't quite done with us yet...

Heh...

A chuckle for you at the end of the day:

Facebook Photos Help to Incriminate Bigamist: "A word of caution to any would-be bigamists who may be reading this: If you’re posting photos of your second wedding to Facebook, you might want to make sure your first wife can’t see them."

Could you have said no to this face?

Neither could we, so we brought Quinn home from the Nebraska Humane Society six years ago yesterday (Yes, yesterday. We never can remember an anniversary until the day after *sigh*). 

He's slowly turning into a bit of a grumpy old man but he's as much of a cuddle monster (and bed hog) as he ever was.