confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

"I have had much to learn from Sweden's poetry and, more especially, from her lyrics of the last generation."
- Knut Hamsun

A bit of a break from my norm. (And then I realise that I don't have a norm. Huh). I lovelovelove to look up international idol/talent audition clips on YouTube. That's probably not such an odd thing I mean, people look up all sorts of stuff on YouTube. Where I may differ slightly is in that I watch them, am constantly blown away by the performances, and then bawl my eyes out. Especially if they're kids/teens. I'm not sure why. I just know that I do it, and I enjoy it. (Both the music, and the crying). Do I speak Swedish, German, Dutch, Bulgarian, etc.? Good grief, no. I can't understand a single word they're saying. But I can read their faces and their body language, and something about European idol/talent competitions is a little less composed than its American counterpart with stonefaced judges. I revel in the judges' ability to let loose and sing along, utter a curse word or two in appreciation, clap in time and, just generally, be greatly encouraging of the contestants. It's a lesson we could all take away from it, I think. In this post I'll stick to past Swedish audition clips of some sort or another. Also? I'm moving to Sweden, dammit.

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I spend the first part of my day catching up on RSS feeds for *screws up face and counts* some 260+ blogs/websites covering all sorts of things. Seriously, all sorts of things. What I leave till last, though, are the video clips! I'm not a morning person, so the idea of breakfast o'clock fills me with horror on any given day. If I must eat first thing in the morning, gimme coke and M&Ms. So, where some people eat breakfast...I catch up on RSS feeds. But it's the videos I love the most. And this morning? These ones in particular.

SillySparrowness builds a TARDIS



ADORE her reason for doing so TIMES A THOUSAND. (Yes. Caps were necessary).

Wrecking Crew Orchestra



Thank you, Topless Robot :)

Kristin Bell's emotional meltdown over meeting a sloth



Baby sloths are adorable! Grown-up sloths...mmm not so much. Really. And if you don't believe me, then check out this photo. That scares me a whole lot. Bell's meltdown? Aww! (And yes, this has been around for a little while now, and I've been meaning to see it but only did this morning and, even then, only because a J2 fanfic writer I follow had posted/mentioned it at some time or another recently).

...that people skip."
~ Elmore Leonard

If you could choose ONE word to live by this year, what would it be?

I've been absent for ages because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I don't feel I have the same almost-anonymity I want/thought I had and so I can't just go BURBLEBURBLEBURBLE about stuff. So, no posts about work. Except general stuff. When I blog about work...work gets nervous :P Although you (the invisible YOU) all know that nobody reads my blog. It is one voice among so many and is really just a place for me to talk about, well, not very much. Interesting to me, and that's about it. People have more interesting things to do. Don't you people? Doesn't mean I won't blog about libraries ever again, though. Just not specifically about mine. Meh. Enough about that. Let's get on to my non-resolution for 2012: one word.

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...aren't very new after all.'
~ Abraham Lincoln

In which Tosca discovers that Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur have read her mind about some of the exasperating crap that makes up modern culture and have written another book about it. Yay. (And wishes she could say that she'd found it using some fantastic scientific method but admits to using a keyword search for, well, 'shit'). Or something like it. Did you really expect anything classy?

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...is a four letter word.'
~ Lenny Bruce

In which Tosca shares a book cover that made her forget what she was looking for in the first place, and a dvd title that will give her the swear-fest she wants to indulge in but won't, and do it in a classy way to boot (maybe)...because she can.

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...you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.'
~ Albert Einstein

In which Tosca offers up an unusual title she found in the catalogue purely by accident (funny what you find when you perform a keyword search using the word 'fuck' isn't it?), remembers she never congratulated her older sister on her success...two years ago *shamefaced look* and shares a work blog post here.

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...if the kid can read!'
~ Mitch Hedberg

In which Tosca finds two unusual book titles in the catalogue and feels a burning need to share them. Umm but kids probably won't read them. Even if they could do so.

It's Wednesday which means this is a 'What the...?! - funny, stupid, oddball book titles' kinda post. No intro because 1) I can't be bothered and 2) the books don't need one, really. They're about organic waste as fertiliser - what more can I say? And, maybe the next time someone shovels me bullshit, I know what to do with it...grow flowers.

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...that determines what you will be when you can't help it."
~ Oscar Wilde (did anyone have better quotes than Wilde?)

When I don't have to read, I read fanfic and sometimes confuse it with the actual tv show it comes from. Made up fan stories about a made up tv show. Confusing make-believe with make-believe? Uh-oh. Maybe, I'm reading a little too much of it. But how can I tell? When is too much fanfic enough? Is it when you reach that point where you find yourself getting confused between what happened in fanfic and what happened in the episodes? Or is it that moment when you realise you've read more fanfic than library books in the last 5 months? Or is it when you find yourself speaking in fanfic comment style to your siblings (I told my sister that I was 'Ded of hotness.' Needless to say, she said, 'You're a dork.')? Or is it when you see all tv shows in fanfic terms (is it normal that I saw Blaine/Glee's 'Baby, it's cold outside' as 'dubcon')? Or is time to call it a day when you find yourself crying over a 50 chapter long story where Jensen dies and leaves Jared desolate, even though you know he's alive and they're both happily married to women? I have done all of those. So...when was enough again?

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...It's an odd candy store, obviously...'
~ Jake Gyllenhaal

Our new catalogue is an odd candy store indeed and these days I find myself stuck for choice for interesting titles/covers, 'cause wow have I found some great ones since 1st Nov 2010! I'm not going to make any judgement calls about the selection below. In fact, I'll say nothing other than they caught my eye. This is a List of 5 (not a Top 5 because I'm sure I'll find more by this time next week) of books I found while cruising our catalogue. Honestly? There was no system to how I found them. I just did. And all of them I'm going to request purely out of interest/curiosity. All items are requestable via the Auckland Libraries catalogue :)

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...Wait, I mean I've lost my mind, I can't find it."
- Eminem in the song 'Come on everybody'

Yes. It's true. I like Eminem. Deal with it :) It's my first week back blogging and already I forgot (hence the 'absent-minded' quote) to post last night *rolls eyes* So today you get a twofer (two-for-one): Tuesday - My Family & Other Animals (things my family say or do that are funny, silly, downright stupid etc.) and Wednesday - What the...?! - funny, stupid, oddball book titles/blurbs etc. So...theoretically, twice the goodness. Or badness depending on which side of the fence you're on o_O I'm desperately bashing away at the keyboard to get this published so I don't gotta add a Thursday post with this one, too LOL Bad Tosca >.< So for your viewing pleasure, here's a mish mash of Mr. 6, the rozzers (or the police, as we know them), three husbands that grew on a tree LOL Read on! You'll see what I mean :0)

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...standing on its head with its pants torn.'
~ Irvin S. Cobb

I'm as fond of a laugh as the next person and, depending on who's standing beside you, maybe even more fond than is ordinarily acceptable (although I dare you to define 'ordinarily acceptable' pfft). So when colleagues send me hilarious book titles and hoot-out-loud-with-laughter video links well, what else am I meant to do but spread she giggles? This is a combination post of a video link/book title because hey, I can. That and I was far too lazy to do so last night after quiz night (where, I might add, we kicked some geek butt).

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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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...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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...trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.'

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