Hurry! These babies will go fast!

Law and Order SVU Valentines.

Need I say more? I especially like the Ice-T card.

Classy!

Reading Recs

1. Feed by M.T. Anderson - Futuristic, anti-consumerism novel. Funny, tragic, and makes you go hmmm. Best first line: "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."
2. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly - Historical fiction with a touch of mystery. If you liked "The Secret Lives of Bees" with the teenage protagonist, you'll probably like this.
3. Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas - A modern "A Catcher in the Rye"
4. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer - Vampires in high school. Very cool and entertaining. Not scary.
5. East by Edith Pattou - A retelling blending "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and "Beauty and the Beast"
6. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson - Great character voice
7. Looking for Alaska by John Green - Extremely well spoken prep school kids. Have fun catching all the literary references.
8. A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb - Creepy but beautiful romantic ghost story
9. The Giver by Lois Lowry - one of my favorites
10. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray - Supernatural mystery set in British India and other locations

The above ten titles are all books I'd recommend if you are looking for a good meaty story but don't have a lot of time. All are quick reads. They are all also written for young adults, which means kids 12 to 18 years old. YA lit is hot, jump on the bandwagon.

Currently reading: Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird

Bad news for the whale shark

I know I've been posting a lot of science stuff on this blog lately. All the science stuff is very interesting to me, but maybe not to you, my reader. If that's the case, please just skip the next paragraph.

The world's largest fish, the whale shark, is getting smaller according to a report. Over Christmas, we visited the brand spankin' new Georgia Aquarium, which also happens to be the largest aquarium in the world. One of the main attractions at the aquarium is a pair of whale sharks. Whale sharks have a terrible track record in captivity, so I was enthralled and curious to see how the aquarium was going to keep them alive. (The aquarium trained them to eat before capturing them and they seeem to be doing fine so far. They were sent via UPS from Taiwain to Georgia, by the way.) I think my recent encounter with the whale sharks is why the article caught my attention. For the other four people with me at the aquarium, do you remember your whale shark fact o' the day? Their skin is only four inches thick!

Anyhoo. I'm in San Antonio now getting ready for the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Actually, I'm spending a few days ahead of the conference to-do with my aunt. We've been taking care of some conference-related errands I had to do, shopping (I have new James Avery baubles), and tonight we're going to the Spurs game. Tomorrow I officially start my conference work.

Take it easy.

Weird Science

The Drudge Report had some interesting headlines today that made me stop working. I had to read them. The first is about some scientists who have made glow-in-the dark pigs. There's even a picture of the little rascals glowing away. First, I wondered why on earth glow-in-the-dark pigs are necessary, but the article does give some good reasons. Even the pig's DNA is green. Weird.

The second interesting article is one about some anthropologists who think early humans were hunted by large predatory birds. Scientists had first hypothesized that the damage evident on these prehistoric skulls was caused by a saber toothed cat or something. But now they think it was caused by birds. That's a huge freakin' bird. Yikes.

And the third weird science discovery of today is that my cat likes to eat dry Cheerios. Go figure.

"Have you seen the weatha?"

After a New Year's weekend with rain, wind, and chill, it is now 80 degrees here. Ahhh.

Even though the weekend had horrible weather, did you see those people out for the Rose Parade acting like it wasn't miserable? I watched the parade on tv and I was amazed by how many people braved the conditions and sat through it. But what's even more amazing is the people who had to be in the parade. Those high school kids who were probably so excited to have been included in the parade and then spent who knows how long raising money for the trip, hours of practicing, had to slog through rain and wind in usually rainless Southern California. Stupid storms.

So hats off to the parade marchers and float riders, and to the crowd who stayed with them to keep them going. I know two people who went to watch the parade. Both said it was impressive that the floats held up so well and that the marchers almost always had smiles on their faces. One of them said she was soaked to the skin but her contingent kept yelling encouragement to the marchers and they would get waves and smiles in return.

I did watch the game Wednesday. I cheered wholeheartedly for Texas to beat USC. Gasp! I'm glad they won. Of course, I was wearing my A&M slippers the whole time.

I am soon off to San Antonio. It's another work trip, but I'm going a few days early to visit my aunt and go to a Spurs game.

Later chillins.