Not Title Day 2.0

Two points to bring up today in a very informal just stopping by, kind of way. Oh, scratch that, make it three.

- I had a very uni-esk lunch yesterday at my friends house, two minute noodles and cake mix. mmm...mmm...mmm balanced and nutricious.

- Today is 'Dress Differently Day' so I'm currently sitting in my room dressed as a newsie. I would have gone outside like this too but I have work later and need to wear my work shirt *Sigh*. Though I did wear my suspenders to uni, just not with the hat.

-And! And! And! Last but not least, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan is out in Australia!!! Our lameness knows no bounds as, as each member of our known-nerdfighters clique gets the book we feel as though we have to tell the masses on facebook, only two more to go and then it will be all of us. Good thing one's birthday party is tomorrow and I bought it for her.

Hope everyone else on the planet is having a nice time. Or at least, a more productive time than well, the girl currently dressed as a newsie.

Until next time,
Katherine

His interstellar science would amaze ya

Ah, the night before the first exam of the year stress-a-thon. It's always a good one. I hate exams, I always go out of my mind. I'm envious of all those who don't go insane in the lead up to exams. I didn't even study ridiculously hard for this one (just the regular kind of study) and it's not that big of a deal but I still feel like I'm going to throw up. pleasant, I realise.

Well anyway. Apart from that, I have come to the conclusion that I obsess waaaaay too much about things. Oh, you already knew that. Ok then. Well anyway, I'm weird. I'm starting to picture kids from my work as background characters from my story, it's a period piece so that's not too difficult. But, it's weird. But, but, but, they look up at you, especially the little one's (see what I did there), with their big eyes and oh my goodness, it's the cutest thing ever.

On another note, the doctor's new sonic screwdriver is green?!? I know I'm the last person on the planet to learn this but, really? green? Are they going to change it back, or is it going to remain green? Oh, questions only time will tell, or those who bother to read ahead.

Until next time,
Katherine.

And just a little touch of going mad

I've got two things to talk about today; Maureen Johnson and Lewis Hine.

I'll start with Maureen Johnson because I think I have more to say in that regard. Coincidentally in my last post I mentioned BEDA (Blog Everyday in April) which I think Maureen may have made up, or at least did, funnily enough, last April. So Maureen Johnson, who is a young adult novelist (I have no idea why I'm explaining all this, it sounds so formal), has been having a bit of a problem lately, the most recent addition to the problem is explained here . But basically some mother didn't want her daughter reading Maureen's 'The Bermudez Triangle' and a Gossip Girl book. I don't really know if she initially wanted the books banned but that article says that she wants a label put on books with (what she believes is) inappropriate content.

Now, this is silly for a whole bunch of reasons. One, the fact that the book's were in the YOUNG ADULT section (people!!!) is a kind of labeling system, it means that the books are meant for slightly older readers. I've gone into book stores and rearranged books that I believe are in the wrong section for this reason (I don't make a habit of this). I also alphabetise book stores too (what can I say I'm a freak). I think it highlights the ignorance of people 1) to not realise there are junior books and then there are young adult books (I disagree with it but I see the reason) and 2) to not realise that young adult books sometimes have content that some may view was inappropriate. We've all seen John Green's rant and I think it says it all.

Also, I think people need to be a little more informed about the books their kids are reading. I continuously want to recommend books to my little group of OSH kids but don't because of content issues. If they were in high school go for it but their ages are a concern. But, one of them was reading Harry Potter and the other was reading 'Tomorrow when the war began'.These books deal with big issues. I myself, read Brian Jacques books at primary school, was actually encouraged to when the librarian found out I liked them. And, yes, they're about animals but you wouldn't call them cute and cuddly. What I'm trying to say is that you're seriously misleading yourself if you think all children's books are Pollyanna incarnate.

I just think it's so lazy to try and get other people to censor books for you. If you are so concerned with the content of the books your children are reading, there are these really handy people called, librarians or there's this really nifty thing called, the Internet. Both, I have learnt, are an endless source of information. Or, you know, you could ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK. unlike a certain Harry Potter book banner we all know and love. Ok, now I'm just getting rude. so I digress.

This issue is silly because young adult books are young adult books for a reason. And I think reading them is not such a bad thing. I actually, would highly recommend it.

Oh, I've run out of steam now... anyway I think Lewis Hine is amazing, but I guess I'll talk about him another time.

Until next time,
Katherine

P.S. I'm not sure if any of this made any sense, I was a little overzealous about it.

What do you think this is BEDA?

Anyway. All I wanted to say is. I don't know. Sometimes I get so caught up with words, it's funny that I'm not better with them. It's like I want to keep them all for myself. Why would I waste them on other people. I love the world's that words can create.

Anway. I'm having a vey much 'I love the internet' type of moment except 'I love words'. I read 'Robert's Rules of Writing' a few months back and I still think about something he said (at least, I think that's where I read it). Someone was trying to be all look at me and asked him what his adivce was for a poet (or something) who hates words. And I weep for their soul, if it is true. But really, even for having the thought. How could you hate something so wonderful?

A mere word is all it takes to spark a thought. And a whole string of them, well; Northern Lights anyone? The Graveyard Book? Little Women? Pollyanna? The Hunger Games? The Book Theif? Dude, Harry Potter? The Outsiders? Perks of Being a Wallflower? Stargirl? A Little Princess?

Sometimes I'm so amazed at what people can do with words, it takes my breath away.

And that's just the written word.

Until next time,
Katherine

I Just Wanna be A Sheep

Bah, Bah, Bah, Bah, Bah... I'm singing this song (which I only remember because someone was singing the 'little speckled frogs' song and someone else brought this one up, yay for Christian primary schools) because I'm such a hypocrite and, as the song says 'they're not hip with it'.

So, I'm pretty sure way back when I went on a little holier-than-thou rant about fan fiction and I kind of. have to. renounce my statement. *runs and hides*

*shouts from behind a tree* I know, I know, I know. I was having fun looking around fanfiction.net and was reading some holes (I just watched the movie) and a little princess and some newsies. I do, however, think it's amazing that there's so much variety, I never knew. So yeah, that's what I've been doing instead of studying.

Until Next time,
from officially the lamest person you know

All We Want To Do Is Eat Your Brains

I'm writing this with the knowlege that I will in no way beable to impart all the awesome that was yesterday to you in mere words but, about this failing, I think I can live.

Yesterday was Supanova, the brother of ComicCon that ComicCon doesn't like to speak about because they're too little to play with his friends.



So we got in free, which was awesome, and spent the whole day running around checking out people's costumes. My friends was Sailor Moon so we tried to get photo's with all the Sailor Scouts. I did find a Morpheus to my Death but didn't get a chance to meet him *sad*. We saw the most awesome twin babies ever, who were Superman and Wonder Woman respectively, we had a little chat to their Dad and he recognised who I was but didn't know Sailor Moon, go figure. And we saw a whole Steam Punk family, four original Pokemon, A lifesize Darlek and Belle and her Beast, in human form. The highlight of the day was definatley glimsing James Marsters, the line was too long to meet him, but yeah, never washing these eyes again.

Until next time,
Katherine.

Oh, I also bought a Serenity shirt which I've seen online before, but it's soooo nice to be able to just buy it. You never get that.

What I love most about rivers is you can't step in the same river twice

The title is, of course, the opening line from 'Just around the river bend' from Pocahontas. It was, after two days, the final decision for our debrief song for the easter activity days. At our final debrief Kyra put on her ipod so we could chill to some music while we thought about our feelings and all that. Shuffle is everyman's curse, it played taylor swift, avenue Q and kiss the girl without anyone, majorly, noticing but in our final reflection everyone was being totally silent, you just heard 'is this from Pocahontas?!?' from our debrief leader. I guess you had to be there. everyone laughed and that kind of signaled the end of our debrief sesh.

As we didn't have an official debrief song we had a few contenders; 'Here comes the Sun', 'I've got nothing' for the lines 'look into my eyes see I'm acting crazy' and 'nothing in my heart but you' and 'Let's Dance to Joy Division' for the line 'everything is going wrong but we're so happy'. I'm pleased with our final choice though which brings me back to the title.

I work with kids a lot but I love going on camp because nobody else in the world (I may be exaggerating) gets to do what we get to do. Our Eddie Rice tradition is that we do one-on-one buddying, so you get the immense privilege of spending time really getting to know a child. But that's not what I wanted to share yet. I love the quote because every time I go one camp I get to meet such special little people, even if you've gone on a million camps you will not encounter the same thing twice. And even over the two days of an activity day, it brings a little spark of joy into my life.

My two buddies were beautiful, I had a 9 year old boy the first day and a 14 year old girl the second. And I am so grateful I got to spend time with each of them. And all the other buddies I encountered during the days. I loved being detectives with my buddy and spending the whole time trying to figure out 'who stole easter', spying on people behind doors and bushes and pointed at people and saying 'hmmm.... very suspicious' and finally glaring down the people responsible because we were so outraged they could do such a thing. I loved dancing and evil laughing and talking in a made up language and having her exclaim 'your as crazy as I am', seriously my second buddy is the coolest person I have ever met, she is like me and my friends but she's only 14, she knows exactly who she is. She is amazing. I loved gushing over Bollywood actors with our resident expert. And playing who wants to be a millionaire then dancing Bollywood style out to the car singing 'Jai Ho' (in our defense, it's the only song we knew) before running after the car when she went home. I loved hearing a little voice say 'Katherine' in the pool before turning around to get a face full of water but receiving the biggest smile, this from a little boy who is hard to engage is any activities and said that his buddy from last camp and his buddy yesterday were his best friends. I love that we can bring joy, but I also love that they bring just as much joy to our lives.

As an aside I think it is hilarious that after I was given the role of taking charge of our team (our team leader was still on a bus with a few kids and my buddy) I decided it might be a good idea to play red rover, we had a lot of boys. It was going ok but then one of the big buddies fell over in the mud. A few minutes later the entire team was covered in the stuff. To make it worse we had some girls come to observe how we do camps, they got just as muddy. Welcome to ERC. See, and you wonder why I've only been team leader once. It was a running thing from then on if we had a water fight we'd also have a mud fight. One of the support was like 'it's always your (our) team, all the others are ok but you WANT to add mud to the water'.

There seems like a good place to stop, though I just want to add that after said water fight my buddy ran up to me to ask if I was ok. That kid is going to be alright.

Until Next time
Katherine

Disney's Facination with Red Neck Ties.

This is something that's been on my mind lately. I'm not really sure why. And, I'm so gonna screw up the alignment of this page. So on that note, here we go.

If you watch as many Disney movies as I do, and, lets be honest, who doesn't, you may have noticed that many of the boy characters, especially in the period pieces tend to wear red bandannas/ neck ties/ cravat type things. This is most commonly in the rascally, larikin-y, sometimes trouble making ones. For Exampl-ay:

Everybodies favourite - Jack Kelly/Cowboy from Newsies


Dodger - Oliver and Company


Jesse Tuck - Tuck Everlasting


And, Bert - Mary Poppins


I also wanted to add Woody and Jack Sparrow to the list but left them out on technicalities.

I might add some commentary at a later point but that's all for now. We had waaaay too much food for easter and now I am a little sleepy. I'll leave you with this though, I watched 'Pufnstuf' (well, most of it), the movie, this morning. And can I just say Jack Wild for the win. Because,you know, why would you simply say a line when shouting it is an option. No, really, I do love him. I did google him for my previous list but sadly the artful dodger does not wear red.

Until next time,
Katherine.

Edit: yes, i do think I will edit this eventually. I would also like to add that I have failed miserably in 'don't buy things in April' oh ebay, how you haunt me.