My Creepiosity

I found this book today at Barnes and Noble called Creepiosity. Basically it's a book that is really a list of things that the author finds creepy. Now, you know how I like lists and I must say that, upon flipping through this book, I was inspired. So, here it is....

My Creepiosity

• Animals that stare at you without blinking for a little too long
• Dogs dressed and posed as humans
• Towns and times when there is no one else around and no movement and you feel like maybe you missed the rapture
• Madonna's arms
• SJP's hands
• Kyra Sedgwick's neck
• The creepy check out guy at Wal-Mart
• The hairy old guy at the Chinese restaurant in Bloomington who wraps up the egg rolls with no gloves on or anything to keep his abnormally plentiful hair out of said eggrolls.
• When the GPS leads you behind a warehouse
• When someone isn't touching you but is so close that you can feel his/her nearness
• Spiders
• Joan Rivers
• Middle aged people obsessed with teen trends like the 40 year old lady who is Team Jacob and yelled out during Eclipse, "He's legal now!"
• That guy... you know who you are
• When the wind just suddenly stops
• When your cat is looking at one fixed spot with an alert and about-to-run-away face
• That woman's voice from Poltergeist
• Random spiderwebs in your car so that you know he's there but you can't be sure where
• Swings blowing in the wind at night in an abandoned playground
• When there's a loose hair touching you and you can't see it or get it off
• When a guy you barely know comes up and puts his hand on your shoulder, arm, or small of the back
• When you're home alone and the dog starts barking ferociously
• When something turns on without anyone being around it
• When no one else is around and you swear you just heard whispers
• When a group of deer are hanging out in the field/pasture and just stare at you when you come upon them instead of running away
• When you put dolls in the washing machine and they are just staring out at you as you close the lid and, after you start it, you can hear their heads banging around
• 
  

Please feel free to post your own comments and suggestions. I would love to add to the list.

Ok - so nothing much to post lately. I've been working, sick one day with dizziness and lightheadedness, and watching Gilmore Girls. Which is, by the way, my new tv show obsession. Sorry 'bout it.

Summer reading is finally over officially. However, I do have one last program on Saturday. I'm taking a group of teens to the Peoria Zoo for a Behind the Scenes tour and regular zoo shenanigans. Then.... done, fin, end, hallelujah. Another summer reading down.

Speaking of which, this is my fourth year doing summer reading. My fourth summer as an actual real world person working and not going to school. That's scary. I've done a Mission READ: To the Library and Beyond, Get In The Game... READ, Read on the Wild Side, and Scare Up A Good Book. Next summer is A Midsummer's Knight's Read and I'm already planning. What is happening to me?

Also, any ideas? We're talking Medieval, Knights, Jousting, and all that jazz. I'm already collecting wrapping paper rolls for a jousting decorating party/event/whatever I end up doing with the whole jousting thing. Other ideas, creating a family crest, watching A Knight's Tale with dreamy Heath Ledger may he rest in peace.

Finally, I just had to post this video for Rosy and whoever else will find some joy out of it. The End.

BONES - Comic-Con Reel 2010

I've watched this video a couple times already and just felt like sharing. This next season of Bones is going to be awesome!

Also, from one of the Comic-Con panels we have some news on what will be happening on Bones in the future including the team back together again, a new girl for Booth?, Bones realizing her true feelings for Booth?, International fun, and more! I can't wait!

On This Day In History...

Not only was I born on July 19th but a lot of other somewhat less interesting things happened too. :)

_________________

200th Day in the Gregorian Calendar (201st in leap year)

Famous July 19th Birthdays
Samuel Colt 1814
Edgar Degas 1834
Kathleen Turner 1954
Lizzie Borden 1860
Campbell Scott 1962
Anthony Edwards 1962
Garth Nix 1963 (author)
Jared Padalecki 1982

Today In History
1799 - Rosetta Stone found in Egypt
1848 - Women's Rights Convention took place in Seneca Valley, NY. Bloomers were introduced at the convention.
1860 - First railroad reached Kansas
1870 - France declared war on Prussia
1877 - First Wimbledon tennis championship held.
1880 - San Francisco Public Library starts lending books.
1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign in Europe.
1943 - Allied air forces raided Rome during World War II.
1946 - Marilyn Monroe acted in her first screen test
1954 - Elvis Presley released his first single was released.
1960 - The pilot episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show aired!
1961 - First in-flight movie shown (TWA)
1967 - First air-conditioned New York City subway car
1969 - Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Woman" was released.
1969 - Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
1996 - Olympic Games open in Atlanta.

Holidays
Laos Independence Day 1949
Nicaragua Liberation Day 1979
Burmese Martyrs' Day

Famous July 19th Deaths
1374 - Petrarch
1692 - Sarah Goode - hanged for witchcraft as a result of the Salem Witch Trials
1692 - Susannah Martin - hanged for witchcraft as a result of the Salem Witch Trials
2009 - Frank McCourt - author of Angela's Ashes

I Write Like

According to the analysis on my last blog post:

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Dancing With The Stars Season 11

As all of you know, I love celebrity gossip. If you didn't know this then we don't hang out enough. I mean, where would I be without my odd viewpoints on the lives of celebrities. They lead much more interesting and scandalous lives than I would ever have the nerve to live so why not dissect it.

So, with these almost sickly need of celebrity news it is no surprise that I am one of those Dancing With The Stars geeks.

It's a show that can pluck dying career celebrities and give them a new start or take virtual nobodies and turn them into stars. Hello Giles Marini, I'm talking to you. Being the naked guy in the Sex and the City Movie might have made the DWTS producers notice you but it was the show itself that made you a name known in almost every household in the country.

Let's not forget about the little jump in notice it has given to other notable celebrities (Melissa Joan Hart was the star of an ABC Family film and is now working on a new series staring Joseph Lawerence), athletes (Louis Vito was virtually unknown before but had tons of fans cheering him on at the last Olympics), and rumor-mongers (Kate Gosselin now has a new show and another in the works).

And that brings me to the next upcoming season of DWTS. Many people are speculating who might be the next picks for the new season. I love the viewpoints of this person. And so, with his suggestions and my own thoughts I will now unveil my dream candidates for future seasons of Dancing With The Stars...

JOHN STAMOS

I know it won't happen this year with him guesting on Glee (SQUEEEE!!!!!) but he's one I would definitely like to see shake things up on the dance floor. Just coming off a scandal is always a big draw too! PS John Stamos aka Uncle Jesse and a suppossed sex scandal... could he get any better? I less than three him.

DICK VAN DYKE

Who would not love to see this guy step it up and amaze everyone with his dancing abilities. Let's not forget his skills on shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins. I want more Dick Van Dyke in my life. And ok, I'm not sure about how well he could dance at almost 85 but I have faith in him.

MARY TYLER MOORE

Then, let's not forget the other half of the lovely couple from The Dick Van Dyke Show, Laura Petrie aka Mary Tyler Moore. Mary hasn't done a lot in recent years except for things like her humanitarian work, animal protection work, etc. I would love to see her come back with a vengance and dance her feet off at almost 73. Plus, with diabetes, she could turn into an even bigger spokesperson. I would LOVE to see her on the show sometime soon.

BONNIE HUNT

Bonnie Hunt. One of my favorite people no matter that she hasn't had a so called big role in a while. With her recently wrapped talk show Cousin Bonnie would be a perfect choice to make an impact on DWTS. Let's not forget the woman is hilarious. Think of all the great one liners and teasing comments she could give her partner. I would love to see her matched up with Maks. I would love to see her matched up with anyone as long as she's on the show!

LINDSAY LOHAN
You knew it was coming. Sad but true, I still like LiLo. Yes, I even use her shortened nickname. But coming off her trial and her 90 day/most likely two week jail time, this girl will need something to do to lift her spirits and her career. I could see her making an impact on the show and hanging around for a while. Let's just hope she can get her jail time out of the way quickly, learn her lesson, clean herself up permenently, and get herself on DWTS.

JESSICA SIMPSON

We all know this girl needs a new break or recharge in her career. After the very public divorce, weight issue crap, break-ups, and other issues I can see Jessica showing up somewhere like DWTS. Or, another good idea? Ashlee Simpson? I would be good with either.

SOMEONE FROM THE CAST OF LOST

Lost is over and the cast is all moving on to bigger and better things. Ok, well maybe not. Some of the cast might need another lift in their careers or even something to help them break away from their Lost character past. Let's take a look at who our choices are:

*Ben Linus aka Michael Emerson - could use DWTS to break out of his evil leader role

*Sun Kwon aka Yunjin Kim - After playing the Korean wife for the last 6 years she could use the show to show her spunky and sexy side.

*James "Sawyer" Ford aka Josh Halloway - who wouldn't want to see him in a suit or shirtless or just dancing. I'll take it.

*Hugo "Hurley" Reyes aka Jorge Garcia - I'd just like to see him do something a little different.

*Vincent the Dog aka Madison - oh wait... I've gone too far.

MATT LEBLANC
Who wouldn't like to see one of their favorite Friends stars on Dancing? And out of everyone in the cast that could use a little time in the spotlight, Matt LeBlanc is really at the top of the list. I mean, Courtney Cox Arquette has her new show, Cougartown (which rocks by the way), Jennifer Aniston has movies, Matthew Perry has his new upcoming show and a movie in the works, David Schwimmer is producing, and Lisa Kudrow has little side projects here and there. So if not Matt, probably Lisa would be a good pick but Matt totally gets my vote.

MATT LAUER

Matt Lauer, Where is this guy. He had his little scandel this last spring but other than that he has not been on the map anywhere. We need to see a new side of Lauer and Dancing with the Stars can give that to its contestants. I mean, last year's contestant, and #3 girl, Erin Andrews got a jump from her tomboy past and some distance from the key-hole peeper scandel. Matt, it's your turn.

BRIAN WILLIAMS

Brilliams! I LOVE this guy! Don't ask me why. Maybe it's the cameos in movies and tv shows like 30 Rock to Sesame Street ("Squid, squid, squid, squid squid")or slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon. Maybe it's just the fact that this guy is incredible but B-Willy is one of those guys that could pretty much do anything and I would be ok with it. I know he probably won't be on since his career is pretty much booming but he makes my list.

CANDACE CAMERON BURE

Candace Cameron would be a fantastic addition to any season's cast of DWTS. After playing DJ Tanner for so many years she could use a new role to get her into a major public light to show everyone she's still out there. And I'm not talking about her role on the ABC gymnastics show Make It Or Break It. Not that I don't absolutely LOVE her on that show but I would love to see her do more. And while we're adding her we might as well put Jodie Sweetin in the running too. And maybe Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen too. Ok... maybe not.

TONY SHALHOUB
With Monk wrapped up this last year is there any reason Monk would not need something new? A change? After playing an OCD brilliant detective for the last nine years this could be just the thing to help Tony Shalhoub to break out of his old role.

DAVID HASSELHOFF

Haha! Heck yeah! Let's sign the Hoff on for some Dancing action. We all know this guy could use some positive publicity. After the drunken cheeseburger, leaving America's Got Talent, and all his other hijinks, we could really use a little look back at what made Hasselhoff so great back when he was on Baywatch. OR it could be just really funny and entertaining. Either way, it's a win.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLER

After just having a baby and not having a big career move in a while, Sarah Michelle could use a break, something to bring her back into the spotlight. And people coming back after having a baby usually do well. I mean, look at Brooke Burke. She won her season and is now co-host of the same show she previously won. So, SMG has been on my list of hopefulls the last couple of seasons.

KIRK CAMERON
What every Dancing With The Stars cast needs is an 80s heartthrob to round out the cast. My choice would have to be Kirk Cameron. He's kind of become the Christian prototype and I would love to see him get a little bit of that Mike Seaver action going on to show everyone he isn't the boring Christian but a much more interesting Christian. A win for both sides. And if Candace Cameron Bure is on the show we could have a brother-sister fued the likes of Donny and Marie.

TOM SELLECK

This would totally make my year. Who DOESN'T love Tom Selleck aka Richard from Friends aka TOM FREAKING SELLECK. He definitely needs to bring his mustached self back to tv. PS He was in the film, Killers, this year and it was amazing. Tom Selleck for DWTS. Enough said.

Any other ideas?

By the bye, here's my cast wish list from last year from my livejournal with videos and photos. Good times.

Question of the Day

If I'm a "Librarian By Day", what does that mean I am by night?

Blog Share

For all my friends who are fans of the Twilight series and cats (or not. I guess you could enjoy making fun of Twilight: Eclipse as well), check out this blog post. It's Eclipse told through LOL-cats. Enjoy!

A Double Rainbow Weekend

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a great weekend.

It started off with not having to work on Saturday (!!!). I mean, how often do I get to do nothing all morning on a Saturday? I slept until noon then got up to take a bath and shower and read. From there, I just relaxed until 4:00 when I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for Eric Lowery.

Eric is a friend from when I went to the Methodist Church. He was always one of the leaders and a big goofball who acted like one of the kids so we all liked him. It was great to get to go to the party for him and see some of the people I don't really get to see anymore.

After Eric's party, Beth, Laura, and I headed to Bloomington to celebrate Beth's 27th Birthday. We ate dinner at Friday's and went shopping and finished the night off with Coldstone. Everything was delicious, the company was good, and we had a great night.

Sunday, after church, we headed home to prepare some food and go to a cookout at Uncle Dan and Aunt Lynn's. The whole family was getting together since my Aunt Jayne and cousins Beth/Liz and Matt were visiting from Texas. I haven't seen them in a while and we all had a great time playing bags, bocce ball, eating, drinking, playing with the little kids (Kaden and my cousin Jocelyn's son, Connor), and just hanging out and chatting. We also all, in Steffen gathering tradition, ganged up on teasing and beating up on my cousin Matt (he's 18 now but he's still the youngest of our generation - not counting Katie who is like 7 and live in Texas so we never see).

Cousins Kaden and Connor play in the pool

Kelly, my mom, Uncle Dan, Aunt Jayne and Grandma at the cookout.

Beth, Aunt Jayne, and Grandma with a bocce ball group in the background.

Matt, Beth, Sarah and Connor. Matt is sporting his girl pants and a cupcake belt while drinking his fruity girly drink. Don't worry. He was teased mercilessly.

And of course, Josh beating up on Matt. Beth got in on the action too this time while Sarah, Aunt Connie, and Nate watch.

It was quite the party. We even had someone pee in the yard. And ok, he was only 1 1/2 but still. That's something. It's not every party that someone urinated in the yard.

And then, to top it all off, Sunday, the 11th was Zoe's 10th Birthday! I can't believe she's that old! It's not possible! It seems more like she's 6 or 7 at the most! But we celebrated my girl with gifts of treats, a fancy feast appetizer snack, puff balls (her fav toy), and a catnip scratcher. She loved them all. Here's a photo of us taken on her 10th birthday. She looks quite happy.

As if the events of the weekend were not enough to make it fantastic, thanks to Nathan Fillion, via his twitter, I was shown the hilarity of the Double Rainbow video. "Full on double rainbow all the way!" "What does it mean?!?!" Enjoy.

It was his goal to get everyone using the phrase "Double Rainbow". As in, "This weekend was so double rainbow", "It was a such a double rainbow movie that it was almost a triple rainbow", and "Nathan Fillion is so double rainbow for bringing this into my life." So, go forth and double rainbow. It is your new mission in life.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It.... *insert music here*

At work the other night, Lisa and I were talking about the oil spill and end of the world predictions. With oil still gushing and further cracks appearing leaking oil into the gulf as well it seems like this situation will never be repaired.

Lisa mentioned that in Revelation, there is a passage that many people believe the BP oil spill reflects. Here it is, Revelation 8:8-11

(8) The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all
ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, (9) a third
of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were
destroyed.
(10) The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star,
blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the
springs of water— (11) the name of the star is Wormwood.[a] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
(12) The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

So, to decode what is being said, the mention of the sea turning into blood is something that many people see as a reference to the oil spill since the oil on the water does make the Gulf look like blood on the water.

Then we have the creatures of the sea dying, obvious with all the dolphins, turtles, fish, and other Gulf animals washing ashore dead and dying.

Finally, for the second part of verse 9, we have the ships being destroyed. To go back to the Gulf situation, there is a bubble of methane building up beneath the surface that, if it bursts, could create a massive tsunami that could go 200 miles inland (Louisiana, Texas, and other Gulf regions would be wiped out). For another option, the sea floor under which plenty of oil had previously inhabited, could cave in because of the pressure of the water on top of it, and cause a massive tsunami. Or maybe we'll have two. Either way, I'm kind of glad we live in the middle of Illinois. And, either way, a lot of ships will be destroyed.

Verse 10, comet or meteorite? The alignment of the plants back in the dinosaur age happened around the same time that a massive meteorite struck the earth possibly killing off all the dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. As we speak (or you read this), the planets are started a partial alignment (Uranus, Jupiter, Mercury, the Sun, Venus, Mars, and Saturn with Earth perpendicular) that will culminate around July 11th (Happy Birthday Zoe!). This will cause water swelling, earthquakes and other similar fun things. P.S. Full planetary alignment will happen in 2012.

And for the rest of the portion of Revelation posted above... well, I'll let you use your imagination.

So, as to the part where I believe all this stuff? I don't know. Maybe in part because the planetary alignment and effects of all the geological changes, there have to be some effects but to say the end of the world? I guess we'll find out. But, either way, Hold on to your butts.

Oh, and to make you feel a little better about the whole situation, there has been an idea to nuke the oil leak area to help stop it. Reminds me of the whole "Good Idea, Bad Idea" with Mr. Skullhead bit on Animaniacs.

Blog Share

I had to share this blog post from author, Shannon Hale. She talks about grammar, the prescriptivist vs descriptivist viewpoint and other grammar rules. Shannon Hale's blog

Now, I am a descriptivist. Language is always changing and outdated rules and ideas should be changed or gotten rid of in order to keep up with the current trends and ideas. I don't mean that it should be okay to add a 'btw' into a scholarly paper or something of the like, but certain rules (I'm talking to you "not ending the sentence with a preposition") should be changed. We don't all speak or even write like Jane Austen, Mark Twain, or any of those classic authors anymore so why should we keep outdated grammar rules going? I say, end your sentences with prepositions and have no shame!

To quote Tracey from 30 Rock: You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition at.

Here's my favorite part of Shannon Hale's post:

Apostrophe misuse is a major one, though I admit it doesn't annoy me so much as entertain me. There's a business called Snyder's Brothers Meats. I like thinking about this Snyder character, who has nothing to do with the meat business, but he must be some heck of a guy that his brothers love him so much they named their business after him. Those brothers of Snyder, so diligent in their meat shop, so mindful of their vegetarian brother.

Summer Reading 2010

Summer Reading has been overwhelming my life lately. The theme this year is Scare Up A Good Book and I've been striving to make it fun for the teens. We even decorated the teen section this year. Here's one of the endcaps...

Along with the theme, I've had some great programs this summer and pretty steady attendance despite the fact that our lock-in plans were aborted by the board (a whole nother story).

I've also been working with the high school's Summer Reading program, Readapalooza. They have three required books this year and meetings to go along with them. I was a little hesitant at first, thinking they were trying to steal my thunder (much like the bookstores and Aaron Schock) but have realized that it's a great place to pull in other and older teens.

Here's what we've done so far at the library this summer besides our regular monthly WABoT (Washington Advisory Board of Teens) and ANIME meetings:

• Movie Night: Coraline
• Craft: Goth and Monster Sock Puppets
• Serengeti Steve's Reptile Experience (http://www.reptileexperience.com/)
• Paranormal Investigator Chad Lewis (http://www.unexplainedreseach.com/)
• Book Club: Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder
• Movie Night: Haunting in Connecticut
• Scary Stories in Glendale Cemetery

Next up is our Fear Factor Food event where the teens will be encouraged to try some odd or interesting food options. I'm trying to do a mix of so called normal foods that they might not have thought of trying (soy milk, sardines, anchovies, sushi), foods they wouldn't try on their own but might with a group of other newbies (octopus, squid), and foods that are weird and new (crickets). I also got some different flavored baby foods for fun. Let me know if you have suggestions. The event is this Thursday. Hopefully all goes well!

Our final even is going to be at the end of the summer. We're taking a group to the Peoria Zoo for a Behind The Scenes Tour. It should be a fun summer as long as everyone keeps showing up.

I do wish more teens would realize the library isn't a boring, quiet place full of dusty books and realize it's a fun, exciting place filled with activity and discovery.

The effort continues...

I've been feeling the urge to start a new blog lately. I have one on livejournal but need a change. That blog seems like old Emily. And while I'm still very much in tune with that old Emily, I need something new. So here it is...

We'll see how it goes. Usually, I post sporadically with a run of posts for a couple weeks followed by a dead time of a couple months or more but maybe this time it will be different. Or maybe not...