confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

...in another city.'
~ George Burns

And sometimes, as much as I love my family, being in another city would be better for my continued health & safety. Families are strange little things, aren't they? I have been able to watch my youngest sister (the baby, if you will) navigate her way through her very first pregnancy and it has been a very interesting time. To say the least - the things that pop out of her mouth *shakes head* It's Wednesday and I missed my regular 'my family & other animals post' where I share a funny, sad, silly story about my oddball family, so you're getting it tonight, instead. It'll be two conversations that I relate - one about the impending baby's name, and the other right now while Miss Knocked Up is having contractions (at great risk to my own life, I might add).

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...No man will ever make love to a woman because she waxed the linoleum - "My God, the floor's immaculate. Lie down, you hot bitch."
~ Joan Rivers

I detest house cleaning - it may make others feel virtuous but I find that it gets in the way of whatever it is that I want to do at any time: lying around, reading, watching tv, playing on the interwebs, picking my nose, ANYTHING. Sometimes, though, it's a necessity. Especially when you're preparing to move house. And the highlights of it all are when you come across unexpected little treasures. Like I did tonight. It's Monday so this is my 'on the shelf' or 'what I'm reading' post and, believe it or not, the house cleaning bit ties in to my latest read.

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...are what makes it so powerful'
~ Jonathan Zittrain (Professor of Internet Law at Harvard)

Twitter is not everybody's cup of tea and nor should it be, but neither is it the demon that some people believe it is. Your own personal experience of twitter is all down to you. It is as meaningful as you make it. It is as much a business tool as you want it to be. It is as useful as you allow it to be. It can be as lighthearted or as serious as you are.It's a blank slate just begging to be utilised. And utilised properly. Is your experience a crap one? Then you're following crap tweeters. I'm sorry - that's as nicely blunt as I can ever be. I've said it before and I'll say it again: make sure you have a healthy ego before putting your library staff through web 2.0 because you will need it. Yeah, it's Friday so technically this is my Ms. Cranky McRanty Pants post and I'm going to do what I said I wouldn't - I'm going to use my blog to respond to our staff who found the web 2.0 twitter exercise to be so much bunkum. And I'm taking the kid gloves off.

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...except when milk comes out of my nose.'
~ Woody Allen

It's Thursday, I'm half-frozen and after having spent the early portion of my evening fielding homework chat queries and singing Edith Pfiaf at the top of my voice after staff were gone home, I am in need of a giggle. So I go where I go when I need a laugh. Yes, that's right, the interwebs. This is my 'video clip of the week' post.

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...they would show that "Members not Present" and "Subjects Discussed" were one and the same.'
~ Robert Brault

Sometimes here in the blogosphere, like when I write about my family (and today is Tuesday so this is a 'My family & other animals' post), I often wonder if any of them will drop by my blog and, upon seeing themselves in print, throw a wobbly. And then I think, 'Well, who cares if they do?' I do acknowledge that maybe they won't like their foibles, idiocies and vulnerabilities out on display for all to point and laugh at...so don't be stupid, then, is all I can think of to say in reply. Don't give me so much material to use :) Growing up as 1 of 9 children made for interesting times. As a result I'm slightly neurotic, terribly grumpy, sharptongued and I hate to share. Hate it. And by that I mean that I don't like to share anything: space, toothpaste, cups, air - you know, the usual. I'm ok with the embarrassing stories LOL

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...in the living of a good life.'
~ Mortimer J. Adler

I think, book wise, I'm living the high life. For a while I've felt like my book mojo and blog mojo was broken. Or lost. Or maybe diverted. Some of that I blame, in a good way, on Carriger's 'Changeless.' The ending threw me for a six and, for a while, things seemed a bit flat, the other part of that I put down to being slightly burnt out (at least book wise). Slowly (very slowly) but surely my romance novel mojo has come back. My nonfiction mojo...hmm, not so much. You know that tingle you get from a book you pick up that just seems full of so many possibilities? I got it on Sunday when I finally started sorting through my latest requests and found the travelogue below. It's Monday and this is my 'on the shelf' or 'what I'm reading' post.

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...I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good. '
- Oprah Winfrey

Househunting, whether it be for myself or myself and a sibling, fills me with trepidation. In fact, I'm convinced I'd have more fun if I slit mine own eyelids and cast mine eyes to the sun. Are you getting the point? And yet I find myself househunting somewhat frantically because the closer my sibling gets (I 'fondly' refer to her as 'Miss Knocked Up') to her baby-due date, the more vocal she gets about wanting out of the hood. As weird as it seems, I will miss this street.

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...or just stand there and bleed?'
- line from Tombstone

Top 5 western movies I'm totally gutted we don't have in our library dvd collections

Friday is usually my Ms. Cranky McRanty Pants (PMS and a shotgun style) post but, for ages, my cranky mojo has been missing. First it was my book mojo, then my cranky mojo and, of late, my blog mojo. Tonight's subject is not so much a rant as it is a wistful sigh in the form of a list of things I really wish we had in our library collections. To be more specific, 5 western dvds I desperately wish I could find on our shelves. How did this post come about? Err well shoot I wanted to see if we had any of the Josey Wales movies or any of Clint Eastwood's westerns and nada, zip, zero, zilch :( I haven't listed any of those here because *sigh* it would bump this list up phenomenally.

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...when you get out of your corsets at night.'
~ Joyce Grenfell

But don't women look fabulous in them until that moment? Corsets are...well, they're stunning. Something about them makes me go 'Ooohhh.' It could be partly tied up in why I enjoy historical romances (the good and the bad novels) - that era of contradiction. Every thing about the time was about delicate sensibilities yet the clothing, in my mind, was the dead opposite - the plunging necklines, so much flesh on display, everything pushed up and primped and made vulnerable looking. It's absolutely delicious! Depending on your bent (or kink as it were) the diverse range of corsets makes my head spin. I've seen the odd the beautiful, the tacky, the sensual, the fantastical, the practical, the most ethereal and the most ugly designs thanks to Twitter, Tumblr and good old Google.

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...your sister knows when you've been bad and good.'
~ Linda Sunshine

It's Tuesday - which means this is a 'my family & other animals post.' This is where I usually share some funny/heartwarming/sad/oddball story about my family. With 8 other siblings and 2 madcap parents you can bet I have LOTS to share. The conversation I overheard earlier this evening was between 2 of my sisters (who think that because I'm typing I can't hear them).

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Title: Changeless (book 2 in the Parasol Protectorate series)
Author: Gail Carriger
Publisher: Orbit
Year: 2010
Genre: Steampunk romance
Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars (I took off one star for grumpiness - that ending ROCKS but SUCKS majorly)
Synopsis: The story opens with Alexia enjoying married life when, thanks to her husband having to rush off, she finds herself playing sleuth again and following him, only this time the circumstances are not what she's prepared for. And that's when things begin to get really interesting.

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...Not every man really lives.'

Title: Deadline
Author: Chris Crutcher
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Year: 2007
Genre: Teen fiction
Verdict: 5 out of 5
Synopsis: Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."

What if you only had one year to live...and you knew it?

"Going out quietly is a lot more complicated than I thought."

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...that does everybody a great deal of good.'
~ Edwin Denby

It's Thursday (right up until midnight, anyway) and this is my 'video clip of the week' post. And it's a good 'un! Yes, I would say that, because I like it and this is my blog so I can do that ;)

Two words: Ricardo Montalban. If I had to add another word it'd be: Rroowwwwr! What do you mean that's not a word? GTFOH. Watch this clip and THEN tell me that it's not a word LOL

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...the blessed chloroform of the mind.'
- Robert Chambers

Oohh it's Wednesday! That means this post is an image/book title that caught my eye. I have a good one and I'm half serious/half jest about the question it raises in my mind. I like the title because you don't get this particular ethnicity much. I've also requested this book but it seems I have a bit of a wait. Apparently lots of other women want to read about the ribald Russian ;)

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...is a blessed condition that allows us to become our best while looking our worst.'
~ Marge Kennedy

I would like to point out that this is a picture of lungs and NOT tubes. There is method to my madness. Some days. It's Tuesday - all day today - which means that this is a 'My family and other animals' post. Today's family member worth mentioning is Markhiem, my 13 year old nephew.

Markie turned 13 a few days ago and it's awfully cliché but it seems like just yesterday he was asking for more Winnie the Pooh stories. I remember his first day of school - it was a toss up who was going to cry first, his mum or me. In the end we both did. I taught him to read when he was 4 and back then he loved books so much. Thanks to a crappy school system they undid everything and now he hates reading. Awesome. Doh.

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