Joey Pigza Quote and Food Blog

I haven't blogged for about a week due to being out of town visiting my grandparents in Alabama for Thanksgiving and being generally distracted as it is the end of school, amongst other things. So I figured I would catch up on blogging by combining Sunday and Monday's post again. The Blog of the week is one that I have been obsessed with for two days called Momofuku for 2.  For those who have no idea what Momofuku is, it is the cookbook for the restaurant of the same name in NYC, created by genius chef David Chang (who Anthony Bourdain also thinks is brilliant, which gives him even better credit in my book). I had read the cookbook myself after waiting for it for over a month at the library, and thought his recipes were really ingenious twist on classics, plus the photos were gorgeous and it really makes me want to go to NYC to try it out. Chang now owns five Momofuku restaurants, which you can see through this link for more info. The author of the food blog Momofuku for 2 not only creates classics from the cookbook, like the Potatoes & Clams in Bacon Dashi  but also many other delicious creations such as French Onion Melt Sandwich, Thai Noodle Salad (which is very similar to a dish I have eaten in a Thai restaurant), and the best sounding title for a recipe Blueberry Boy Bait.

The quote of the week is a random one from Jack Gantos's third Joey Pigza book in the series called What Would Joey Do?, which is about a young boy who has ADHD and is just starting to get his life under control again. In this book, his mom who moved back in with him in the first book is dating again but Joey is not sure about the new boyfriend. I just thought it was funny. 

• “She won't call me anything like strange or abnormal or peculiar. She just says things like 'Oh, don't mind that Joey is trying to get pet termites to live in the woodwork. He's not like other boys. He is out of the ordinary.' And Booth whose head is so rectangular it looks like a shoebox with a nose stuck on one long side, gives me that I-didn't-raise-you-to-be-this-way-but-I'll-put-up-with-you-as-long-as-your-mom-is-my-girlfriend-otherwise-I-would-put-you-in-a-rubber-room look. In return I give him my Don't-fall-asleep-on-the-couch-because-when-you-wake-up-you-might-find-that-I-slowly-cut-all-your-clothes-off-and-when-you-stand-you-will-be-totally-naked-and-Grandma-and-I-will-have-your-camera-ha-ha-ha look.” Joey Pigza in What Would Joey Do

Cute Library Video

This short clip is from the Finnish Library Association and is about teaching your kids good habits, like reading. Once again, it was from Facebook, from the Help-A-Librarian page I'm part of.

Last 20 episodes and a new series

I am on the last 20 episodes of the Inuyasha (not counting the Final Act series episodes) and can I just say how frustrating it is!!?!  They've brought back Kikyo again, after "killing" her off like 30 episodes ago by the main villain Naraku, but now her spirit is back. As annoying as Inuyasha can be at times, I do believe that he is meant to be with Kagome, which is freaking hard when his ex semi-dead girlfriend keeps popping up. This time, Kagome had the choice about whether or not to save Kikyo and she did it without hesitation, though afterwards, Kikyo bolted and didn't wait for Inuyasha to show up. Then the fact that Inuyasha didn't go after her says something as every other time she's been injured, he follows her. 


That all being said, the ending of the series was crap. Nothing was resolved, including the main villain and all his associates still being alive and Inuyasha/Kagome relationship being same old same old. Now they have made a 26 episode series called Inuyasha: The Final Act, which has already been released in 2010 in Japanese with English subtitles. However, I find my comprehension and distraction level is way higher when watching the Japanese version, so I'm waiting till they release the dubbed version, which should be soonish (hopefully by 2011) as they've already gotten most of the old cast together (minus the voices for Sesshomaru and Kagome). I would like to watch the movies too, though those might have to wait awhile. 


In the meantime, I think I might start watching a new series called Kekkaishi, a series I actually know about as I've read the first 4 or so mangas, and I must say that so far they've done a good job. I really like the manga and the author, Yellow Tanabe. Here is a summary of the storyline.

*Muppet Wiki*

I'm a day late with this, but I've been swamped with school work,  so I apologize. Well that and I couldn't come up with a good website to share until now, lol. I finished my portfolio Sunday night and submitted it so just waiting for the feedback on it. I spent about half of the day today working on a paper for my reference class which was due tonight, and now my brain is fried and my lower back is killing me from lugging a heavy bookbag and laptop all over the library. So I'm watching Inuyasha episodes and relaxing. I think I might have some ice cream after I finish this post. 

 

So the website of the week is the Muppet Wiki, which I discovered last week while browsing the web.  As they say on the website, it is a "collaborative encyclopedia for everything related to Jim Henson, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and The Muppets Studio. The wiki format allows anyone to create or edit any article, so we can all work together to create a comprehensive database for fans of the Muppets." I think it is a great idea! I have loved the Muppets ever since I was little, probably 8 or 9, and I grew up watching Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, The Muppet Show, and Labyrinth. I was a little miffed when the Jim Henson Company (JHC) officially sold the rights to the Muppets to Disney (both companies I love watching movies and TV shows from, but they were owned by Disney before unwillingly and it just looks like they sold out). I know they probably did it because Disney is able to market them in ways the JHC couldn't dream of, because they have so much more money, but it kinda seems like they sold out. But anyways, I ended up browsing the wiki for news of the new Muppet movie that should be coming out next year's Christmas Day. So yay, excited to hear that! So take a look around the wiki and enjoy.

Quotes about reading to children

Since I have just finished my portfolio and submitted it, it makes sense to do a book-related quote. It's funny that I was better at writing about Youth Services than I was the reflective essay that actually counted towards graduation. Either I found this quote somewhere along the line while researching something online or it was one from one of my Children's Literature classes. In any case, it is a great quote and one that should be followed. 

• "Read and tell stories to children when they are babies, and they will love the colors and shapes of illustrations and the relaxed mood of your voice. 
  Read and tell stories to children when they are toddlers, and they will shiver at the recognition of animals and listen with delight to rhymes.
  Read and tell stories to children when they are true walkers and talkers, and they will laugh at funny incidents and fall in love with special characters.
  Read and tell stories to children when they are in their first years of school, and they will appreciate the opportunity to retreat from learning and embrace the world of relaxed imagination.
  Read and tell stories to older children and adults and they too, will find themselves transported into the world of image and wonder."--Ken Roberts

Portfolio Drama

I am finally working on my portfolio that is due on Monday. Part of the holdup was that I didn't know how to add content to the digital part of the portfolio, which is the part that the committee grading it will be seeing. Well that and I'm stumped as to which papers to add to it, which was why I hadn't really worked on it earlier. It has five areas of competencies that I have to include: information and its organization, provision of information services, organizational/leadership/management issues in information agencies/services, application of technology and research to evidence-based practice, and lifelong learning/professional development. So far I have two papers up, and need to find three more, plus write a reflective essay on why I have chosen those particular papers, looking at the classes I took and what worked/did not work, and reflecting on the program as a whole (i guess, only part I'm REALLY not sure about). I am hoping to get a look at a friend's portfolio to see how it should look. 

I was finally told by my adviser that I didn't have to find papers for the other nine Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) competencies but only write a reflection paper on them based on what I learned during my degree. So I have conquered this part of the portfolio first, and have created a pretty decent first draft of that, minus two competencies I just can not think of what papers/class to use.

Inuyasha Part 2

Well, I am currently 100 episodes into Inuyasha and I am loving it! My favorite character outside the main group (Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Shippo and Kilala/Kirara) is Kouga, the wolf demon who is in love with Kagome, which of course, infuriates Inuyasha to no end and he is always challenging Kouga to duels to the death as a result. Yes, he is possessive of Kagome, but at least he declares his love and tries to express it, unlike Inuyasha who is too scared to really tell Kagome. I never really noticed it when I was watching the show before, probably b/c they were out of order, but Inuyasha's brother Sesshomaru is pretty hot. 

I found out today that there are 26 new episodes that came out between 2009-2010 in Japanese with English subtitles called Inuyasha Final Act. They say that the English language version is in the works, so I might have to wait for that. They are supposed to follow the manga and pick up where the first 6 seasons left off. I am also interested in watching  Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which is supposed to more closely follow the manga (compared to the original series, which starts out the same, but the characters/decisions/storyline changed as it went on). Truth be told, I've only really watched two anime series, and Fullmetal Alchemist was my second series and I absolutely love it (and would love to own it)!