I'm a slayer, ask me how.

I stumbled upon the Official SparkNotes twitter while in Wisconsin and it had me giggling for quite a long time. If you need some literary humor in your life, you should definitely give them a follow.

Twitter SparkNotes
Instagram Sparknotes_

I kinda want to print a bunch of them out and stick them all over the library.

Poor Pillowfort, so much attention and it was not ready for it. I keep trying to check the site and usually I have it up for about 5 minutes and then I'll try to comment or post and it errors out on me. I have a feeling people will give up soon enough but it is still too bad. I can tell you that EVERYONE uses it from 1-3 because I was playing with it at work (shhhhhh) and in the morning it was fine and then right at lunch time CRASH.

GoodReads just generated my "year in review" but I'm not done yet! I've got a couple graphic novels on my desk that I am determined to finish. Not going to hit my goal of 100 books, but 70 is respectable.

Tree is decorated!



Kermit is one of my favorite ornaments. I tried to share it on PF but it kept rotating the image and I can't stay logged in long enough to fix it. :\ John Denver and the Muppets "Christmas Together" album is my favorite holiday album. Whole thing is up on Spotify too which makes me happy, means I'm not alone! If you have not listened to it, make sure you do. Especially "Silent Night" since it is the 200th anniversary of the writing of that song this year.

EDIT: HA YouTube to the rescue!


Do you have a favorite Christmas ornament or holiday decoration?

You probably didn't notice, but I haven't been online in awhile. Two weeks ago, I got a cold and then was invited to help with 3 days worth of interviews. Let me tell you, sitting in a room for 7.5 hours interviewing 28 people over the course of 3 days is EXHAUSTING! And it is even worse when you have to blow your nose every few seconds. So, yeah, I was not in any condition to do much when I got home but lie around, either in front of the TV or in my bed.

And then I was whisked away to Wisconsin for our annual trip to the in-laws in cheese land. Pretty sure we gained at least 6 pounds each there. And my heart rate...oh I will not go into it right now but I'm so glad to be back on the east coast. **hugs her liberal/progressive coastlines close**

And now I'm looking at my email and after clearing my inbox of junk and other assorted notes, I have 117 notifications from LJ/DW saying you have all posted something recently.

So, let's be real, I'm not going to be able to do any in-depth read of these entries, not if I want to reclaim my inbox anytime soon. Let's just say that I skimmed everything, commented if compelled, but most likely just made sure everyone was happy and healthy before moving on.

Because I hate having unread items in my inbox but I don't open my notification emails until I've read the entries...it's a whole big thing for how I've organized it all.

Yes, I'm crazy. Crazy about keeping up with everyone's posts! But not this day, this day, I wish to just have an inbox with 0 unread messages!

Imzy just launched a "follow" feature for people. I feel bad for them, if they had done this a few weeks ago, before the big LJ fallout, they might have been able to snag more people from LJ. Ah well.

I might go poke around the site again now that this feature exists though. I really don't know the last time I logged on!

WHY is the Fallout Shelter game way more addictive on my PC than it was on my iPad???

We both downloaded this game and managed to lose several hours to it this weekend.

...it is kinda nice though, as I can play it while reading LJ, bounce back and forth to collect stuff.

If anyone needs a time sink, this is an easy one!

I also got sucked into Disney Emoji Blitz which is just like any other matching game, except that you earn the emojis for your keyboard. So now I can send people little Mickey Mouses when we are texting. And also a virtual churro.

Tim is still hooked on Alphabear, though I haven't played it in awhile. It is pretty much Boggle with adorable bears.

Someone mentioned the li.st app at our Social Media Committee meeting so, of course, I couldn't resist downloading that. It is addictive sitting and thinking of things I can make lists out of. Apparently it was created by B.J. Novak (he used to write for 'The Office'). Anyway, if you are on there, please friend me!

And thanks to pleasant_valley I am now on a search to collect all of the E.T. Funko Pops. I managed to get E.T. from Amazon with a gift card I had saved up, and I think I should be able to pick up Gertie and Elliot from Gamestop later this week. She warned me they were retired and eBay had some ridiculous prices, but I saw the local store had them in stock so I sent a hold request. SOON!

I also had enough points on my Discover card to get a free copy of 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' so I've been playing that a bit too. I love Lara Croft. I just feel like a kid again playing these games, even if they are shiny and new.

Of course, I have to leave it all behind soon. We travel to Wisconsin again this week for Tim's sister's wedding...it's a short trip, just going there, seeing the wedding, then coming home. As always, I am dreading the politics of that house. But I will just hide with Sylvia and Nicole and sing Weird Al songs to drown out the crazy.

And I have a buffer day when we return so I can play all my games and relax before going back to work!

I usually save my book posts for after I've finished the book but I have GOT to talk about this book right now. Mostly to say YOU GUYS HAVE TO READ THIS. Even if you don't end up agree with Jon Ronson's conclusions (which I don't even know what they will be right now as I'm only halfway through) it will make you think twice before tweeting anything about anyone, especially someone you don't actually know well. Or even just clicking on an article that is shaming someone.

The thing that really grabbed me was his initial research into public shaming as an official punishment. It was outlawed in the late 1700s (except for in Delaware, who apparently didn't take it off the books until the 1960s??). Why was it stopped? Because the onlookers were too INTO IT. People wanted to see others suffer, they joined in, they demanded MORE punishments, harsher treatment.

And somehow it has creeped back into our society via social media. And it may be more brutal because of the anonymity people feel they have online, the detachment from the people that are actually being hurt.

I dunno, after all the social media storm around Baltimore, with people posting photos and videos and misrepresenting some things...this book hit harder than I was expecting. Ronson's style is VERY readable, he has a snarky tone, but he doesn't let himself off the hook. He includes himself, using a royal "we", when it comes to talking about the problem. He's not talking about trolls, people who make a living about attacking others online, but just how every day normal people, like you and I, can get sucked into these attacks...and when we do it we think we are doing something good, that we are part of some social justice movement but in many cases it's a case of he tweets/she tweets and everyone loses.

Gah, I haven't read a book this quickly in a long time. I'm halfway through it and I have a hard time putting it down but I really want to recommend it.

My friends who are #DoctorWho fans will like this: I just saw a woman in a skirt covered with Tardises (Is that plural correct?) at @aacpl.

— Jennifer Donatelli (@jldonatelli) April 23, 2014

Guess who this person was tweeting about.

To make it more hilarious, our head of social media was tweeting back at this patron the whole time, unaware that I was sitting NEXT TO HER wearing said skirt.