Stuff I found on Google Reader today...

For some reason, there was a plethora of awesomeness in GR today, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

First, today is Jane Austen's 233rd birthday! Celebrate by visiting Austen Blog to learn how you can win some Austen swag.

Neil Gaiman had lots of interesting links today, too. In addition to pimping out the amazing Coraline movie website, where you can make a button-eyed picture of yourself:
(I went with the "bookworm buttons," in case you were curious), he also mentioned that there are now 26 different alphabet cards scattered across the internets to promote the movie. "N" is at his site; I'll be looking for the rest as soon as I finish typing this post. ALSO also, the Coraline movie people sent various bloggers incredibly wonderful handmade boxes filled with paraphernalia. This blog's box came with a letter addressed to Dewey; I hope she received her box before she passed, because I know she would have loved it! Carl also got one, and was nice enough to post pictures.

Speaking of book-related web-wide treasure hunts, Scott Sigler has a new book coming out (which you can listen to free as a podcast or read as a PDF; visit his site for more info). There are twelve promo posters for Contagious out there. The list of participating sites can be found here. I think this is an incredibly genius marketing strategy. It certainly got my attention!

Next up: I wasn't going to join any more challenges (I've already signed up for next year, in addition to the I'm already participating in!), but Eva made the Science Book Challenge sound so interesting, I had to reconsider.

And finally, there's a trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine:



I didn't really enjoy the comic book "Origins" story that the movie seems to heavily rely on (I prefer my Wolvie to be a man of mystery), but I'll still be there opening night, because this looks interesting. A little full, character-wise, but interesting.

Weekly Geeks #23 Part II: Winner!

Here are the answers from this WG redux two weeks ago. I realized earlier today that I have misplaced my digital camera, so I've done my best to find the book covers using Google image search. A few of them are pretty old (they belonged to my dad) and some of the newer ones I've just finished reading and will be writing reviews on soon. Probably next week, when I will have some glorious time off for Thanksgiving.

1.
The Dashwood Sisters' Secrets of Love, Rosie Rushton

2.
Harry Potter y la camara secreta, J.K. Rowling

3.
Paper Towns, John Green

4.
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

5.
Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

6.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards

7.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard

8.
The Mermaid Chair, Sue Monk Kidd

9.
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

10.
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle (I couldn't the exact cover for this one, so I found a picture of someone reading it and cropped them out. Sorry, random guy.)

11.
Dune, Frank Herbert (This is actually the 1984 movie poster, but it's the same as my book cover.)

12.
How Right You Are, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

13.
Watership Down, Richard Adams

14.
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman

15.
Thunderstruck, Erik Larson

And the winner is...Heather! Heather, I've sent you an e-mail about your prize. Congratulations!

Weekly Geeks #13 Part II

Last week's challenge was to guess the author photos. Here are the anwers:

1. (One of) My favorite authors:
Frank Herbert, author of Dune, which is where my parents got my name (Jessica).

2. Author of a book I'm reading right now:
Ally Carter, author of I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, which I just reviewed for today's Sunday Salon.

3. Author I have met:
Rabbi Harold Kuchner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

4. Video of an author I've seen speak:

Michael Moore, author of Downsize This! and host of The Awful Truth.

5. Author of the book I most recently finished:
Stephenie Meyer, author of Breaking Dawn.

6. HOT author:
Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother, contributor to BoingBoing, blogger, and wearer of goggles and red cape. Sigh...

A big thank you to Alessandra, Deb, Care, Naida, Joanne, and Guatami for your comments. I used Random's number generator to pick a winner. Congratulations to Joanne! I'll be e-mailing you about your fabulous prize. :)

Weekly Geeks #13

This week's challenge: guess the author photos!

1. (One of) My favorite authors:


2. Author of a book I'm reading right now:


3. Author I have met:
I actually got to have breakfast with this guy - one of the perks of being an honors student in college.

4. Video of an author I've seen speak:

The best part is, he filmed part of this while he was at my university (The Ficus National Convention @ 1:03 - I'm in the front row, next to the guy in the yellow shirt!)

5. Author of the book I most recently finished:
Seriously, if you don't know this one...

6. HOT author:
I think it's the glasses (I also have a thing for Rivers Cuomo).

Think you know who these authors are? Leave your answers in the comments. Anyone who guesses correctly will be entered in a drawing for a free book!

I'm a Labrador Retriever!

One of my fellow MAT students sent out this quiz, and I took it as a joke. But I thought it was pretty cool that it pegged my likely career as "teacher," especially since I was just offered a job at a high school today.

Unmotivational posters

You know those lame motivational posters that usually feature some poor kitten clutching onto a tree branch for dear life under the extremely helpful caption, "Hang In There!"? Well, mental_floss has found some unmotivational posters that are slightly geeky and pretty funny. My favorite:



Although, "CAPS LOCK: Are you ready to unleash the fury?" is also good, mainly because it reminds me of a guitar-playing Tom Green in Roadtrip.

See the rest here.

My Celebrity Look-A-Likes?

Wow, look at that illustrious list...Maria Menunos, Paris Hilton, and a DUDE! Well, I feel pretty.

ALVIN!!!

With the release of the Transformers movie earlier this week, the subject of other beloved cartoons-to-big-screen-movies came up. Best Week Ever has a list of the top 10 movies that ruined their childhood memories, and I just discovered a new one to add to that list: Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Let's check out the metamorphosis of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, shall we?

The trio actually began as a fictional music group. Created by Ross Bagdasarian (who provided the voices until his death in 1972), they enjoyed success with their hit single, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)." The record won three Grammy awards and was even nominated for Record of the Year.



The first cartoon series ran for only one year, 1961 - 1962. It was originally broadcast in black-and-white, but was produced and later re-run in color.



The second cartoon series (the one that my generation is more familiar with) ran from 1983 - 1991, although it did switch names a few times. The series also brought us The Chipettes (female versions of The Chipmunks), an animated feature film, two direct-to-video animated movies, and one live-action direct-to-video movie.

Which brings us to...



This. I actually spent a few minutes looking at this poster, trying to figure out if "Dave" was Jason Lee (it is) or Stephen Colbert. Can you imagine Stephen Colbert as Dave? That would be awesome. Not that Jason Lee won't be, but c'mon. We've all seen the trailer for Underdog, right? So, yeah. Maybe this will be a decent movie. I mean, with CGI'd gansta-wannabe Chipmunks, and the director of Garfield at the helm, what could go wrong?

You can read more about Alvin & co on their Wikipedia page. Here's hoping they don't decide to go after Jem and the Holograms or Rainbow Brite next.

Good-bye, Deli!

Today was my last day working in the deli. Words cannot describe how happy I am. Never again will I have to slice meat, never again will I have to fry chicken (and have my clothes stink like grease for the rest of the day), and never again will I have to cook a Philly cheese steak. I seriously hate those things. Never again will I have to listen to someone tell me they want me to slice their lunch meat "thin, but not shaved" - which makes NO SENSE, because if you wanted it shaved, you would've told me "shaved," now wouldn't you? And, God willing, never again will I have to hear someone ask me, "Y'all ain't got none more a them there's tater salads?" because I almost couldn't keep a straight face the first time.

In other news...hey! look what I made:

 

It's a Simpsons-ized me. Kinda. I'm not sure if the shirt was supposed to be pro-veggie, or just a twist on Bart's catchphrase, but I love it!

The Golden Compass

There's FINALLY an official trailer for The Golden Compass movie:



I am beyond excited about this movie. I even went to the official movie website and "discovered" my daemon.



That was actually one aspect of the book that really appealed to me, the idea of your soul existing outside of your body. And mine is so cute!

Teh floor iz lava!!!1!

When your best friend and your boyfriend both love the same website, and you hear about it from them on the same day, you realize you should probably check it out. It's called I can has cheezburger, and it's in the same vein as Stuff On My Cat. Here's my favorite:



Mainly because my sister and I used to play this game all the time when we were little. Which reminds me of a sketch by one of my favorite comedians, Daniel Tosh:

Cheer up, Emo!Spidey

Monday night, Tiffany, Eric, Pete, and I went to see Spider-Man 3. I wasn't really excited, because I had read all over about how crappy the movie was - one chick on iFanboy.com even called it the worst movie ever - and I didn't want to go in with high expectations, because I knew it would just end up disappointing me.

Imagine my delight, then, when it actually turned out to be smack full of comedy gold. Black-suited Peter Parker turned into the cockiest emo-dork ever, complete with guyliner and lame-ass jazzy-finger-snapping.


Guyliner! Floppy emo-bangs! Total dork!

I even perfected a hair-flinging impersonation that cracked one girl at work up so much, I had to do it at least eleventy-billion times today and I think I now have whiplash. I still can't believe the movie made so much money. It's not horrible, just not very good. And it's frakkin' long. I don't think I could sit through it again. BDH did rock as Gwen Stacy, though, and I'll admit, I did get a little teary-eyed at the end. Of course, it could've been from yawning.

Tonight, we dine in Hell!

Tomorrow night, I'm thinking Arby's.

Code Monkey and I went to see 300 last night. It was a beautiful movie, and I could tell that it was based on a Frank Miller graphic novel - one I haven't even read (yet). There was a lot of fighting and blood, but also a lot more humor than I expected. Some of it unintentional, because before we went, CM send me this:



So when that scene actually came up in the film, I ended up giggling instead of being really moved. Oh, well. Still good.

I may actually buy something off iTunes

 

My love for Jason Schwartzman is no secret, but apparently my fangirl status is slipping, because I just learned that his debut album is available on iTunes. Phantom Planet is one of my favorite bands, but they just haven't been the same since he left. They did invite me to go bar-hopping with them that one time I saw them perform in Athens, though, so I can't completely turn my back on them.

Fortinbras was a Mary Sue

3 things I learned (mostly about Hamlet) from reading A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1899:
1. Hendiadys are one of my new favorite literary conventions. Literally meaning "one by means of two," it's a way of expressing a single idea by pairing two nouns linked by "and." For example: "sound and fury" or "law and order." Shakespeare used 66 hendiadys in Hamlet, over twice the 28 used in Othello, the play with the next-highest amount.
2. Shakespeare was a voracious reader, and most of the ideas for his plays were taken from other, earlier writers. Hamlet is his least original work: the only new aspect was the character of Fortinbras. Fanfic, y'all.
3. Shakespeare did invent other things: namely, new words. Or ways to use existing words in new ways. Over 2,000 words are thought to have been invented by him, and he's also attributed with creating my given name, Jessica, for The Merchant of Venice.


I've been really into reading historical stuff recently. In addition to the Shapiro novel, I read The City of Fallen Angels, by John Berendt (which really, really made me want to visit Venice), Abraham, by Bruce Feiler (which really, really made me want to visit the Middle East), and now I'm reading Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, by John Ehle (which really, really makes me wish my grandmother were still alive, because apparently she was full-blood Cherokee and I'd really like to ask her about it).

Google meme

A leftover from my old lj account:
Google the images
copy
paste
enjoy!

1. The age you will be on your next birthday.


2. Your mother's middle name.

(from the Jew of the Day website - hee!)

3. Your favourite color.


4. The place you lost your virginity (someone's house, their car, your bed, the woods, etc.) or would like to lose your virginity if you haven't.


5. A bad habit of yours.


6. Your favourite fruit or vegetable.


7. Your favourite animal.


8. The last name of your kindergarten teacher.


9. The name of a pet.


10. Your favourite band.