Passion for Italian

So apparently I've been busy the last two weeks. Missed on Tuesday and missed again yesterday. But, so you don't miss out on some fun ideas, here is your Monday Fun on Tuesday :)

As I contemplated a food program to do, I kept coming back to Italian food. But, I was told by several interested parties that spaghetti is just over done, so I thought of something else to do. Judging by the comments of the folks that tried our little cuisine, I think we did pretty goood.

During our cooking program I try to do three recipes. I split the kids into two groups, with a recipe each, and then as those cook, we put together the third recipe all together. Works out pretty good.

Quick Marinara Sauce

As many of us know, you can't do Italian food without some marinara sauce, so here is the quick recipe that I used. We poured it onto our Italian Wontons.

Italian Wontons

Even though I had never done them before, they were so awesome! Three words of the wise; wonton wraps are normally found in the produce section, wear an apron while frying the awesomeness, and almost remember to bring a pair of tongs!

Italian Cheese Bread

Oh my goodness and golly day, this bread is awesome! While we fried the wontons and stirred the marinara sauce, this was slowly baking to perfection in the oven, and no one who tried it was dissapointed. Another word of the wise; bring a nice knife and a cutting board to your library :) Makes things a whole lot easier lol.

Not your typical Italian food, but it was all definitely worth it.

Blekko: Slash the Web!

This isn't technically Techno Tuesdays anymore because this is Wednesday. But, because I couldn't post yesterday, I figured I'd still give you some awesome website action!

So once a quarter myself and other members of SPLAT (Special Project Library Action Team) get together and talk about cool websites, trends, and the future of libraries in Idaho and beyond. Blekko is something that has come up at a couple of meetings, so I wanted to share it with you :)

Blekko's primary elevator speech is that it is the spam free search engine. They use human editors to help eleminate low quality websites that fill other search engines. Who doesn't want a bunch of ads and lame sites when they are searching (insert hand raise here)?

Another big part of what Blekko does is slashtag searching. What is that? "It is a tool used to filter search results and helps you to search only high quality sites, without spam or content farms." A couple examples are /date /like /news and /gossip. Each one of these slashtags will limit your search term to that particular subject area. Pretty cool, no?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a big part of many company's search to be the top results on a search engine. The thinking behind SEO, is that search engines are based on computer programs, so if you know what they are looking for, your website could be higher on the list of results.

Blekko makes this easy by having information on inbound links to a website, when Blekko last crawled (a program that checks out new information on websites that are then used on the search engine results) the site, and how many pages are on that particular site. Just use the /seo slashtag, and you're on your way. You have to have a Blekko account to use this feature, but it is once again pretty cool.

Blekko also does a Grep once a day. What is that you may ask? They ask their users to submit things they want compared, and then Blekko does a report on it. One example was +1 button vs. FB like button vs. FB share button.

Sound interesting? Well you can easily compare Blekko with Bing and Google to see what you like the most. Just type in a search term and the slashtag /monte, and it will show you results from all three. May the search be with you!

Mockingjay: When An Author Stays True to Her World...

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Why did I read it?

Because I literally had to start the third book once Catching Fire ended lol

What happened?

SPOILER ALERTS

Unbelievably, much to the chagrin of the capitol, both Katniss and Peeta once again survived their time in the Hunger Games. But, this time Katniss didn't escape by threatening to eat some poisoned berries. She escaped by destroying the force field encasing the arena, and was rescued by District 13 hovercrafts!

Unbeknownst to Katniss, and the rest of Panem, District 13 was not destroyed at the conclusion of the rebellion seventy-five years ealier. Instead, they moved completely underground, and have been waiting for their opportunity to once again challenge the Capitol. Katniss was just the figurehead they needed for all-out war on their persecuters.

There are only a couple of problems. Katniss isn't sure she wants to be a pawn in District 13 hands,  Peeta was captured by the Capitol, and with each step she takes, she is more unsure who she can really trust, and whether or not she, or anyone she cares about, will get out of this alive.

What did I like or not like?

Let me say here that this is NOT a happy trilogy. There is a semi-happy ending, but there is a lot of death, dying, suffering, questions, betrayals, and sacrifice that lead up to it.

But let me also say here that this trilogy blew me away with how awesome it was! I got done reading and all I could think was how amazing the storyline ultimately was. Each choice, each small circumstance affected everything else, and the characters were absolutely realistic and true to the last page.

Many people I have talked to about the trilogy say the third book was violent just for the sake of being violent, and that Suzanne Collins didn't have to make many of the choices that she did. More people could have survived!

But, this is my take on it: Suzanne was just being true to the world that she created. From the very first chapter of The Hunger Games, Suzanne created a dangerous, violent, unfair and chaotic world, and when the stakes went up, these things took their affect as well; with disatrous consequences.

I've also had friends who disagree with the books themselves. They don't agree with the thought of young adults killing each other being seen as entertainment.

Here is my take on that: While The Hunger Games are entertainment, and are hugely popular, they don't view death and killing as entertainment, and they also don't condone it. The characters in Suzanne's world have to deal with these realities, but with every chance they get, they strive to remove these atrocities from their world.

So, those are my quick thoughts on an awesome trilogy. If you have other ideas, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter, or leave a comment below. Or, you could track me down at the Hayden Library, and I'll be more than willing to spend a very long time chatting about this series with you :)

Altered Book Collages: Imagine, Resue, Repurpose

Has anyone heard of altered books? Basically, you take a book that isn't going to be read anymore, and you repurpose it into a craft project.

Some people make purses; some people make wreaths; some people make poems. But no matter what is made, I thought the idea was super cool!

First of all, it's cool because it is something totally out of the box.

Secondly, it's cool because it breaks all the rules. You aren't supposed to cut, paste, or damage a book. But, if the book is destined for a landfill, why shouldn't we use it as a craft project? If a book has been well-loved, why not love it one more time?

Lastly, it's cool because, well, its just cool!

For our first foray into altered books, we just did collages. Working at a library, there were plenty of discarded books to choose from. Then it was simply a matter of grabbing stencils, yarn, stickers, markers, fancy scissors, and buttons, and letting the kids imagine what their books could look like. Some of the kiddos decorated the covers, other kids picked a pair of pages inside, while other kids posted a single element onto each page inside.

The kids had a really good time, and I'll definitley do altered books again. Might be a different project next time, though, because there are so many ideas out there!

Catching Fire: Need I Say More?

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Why did I read it?

With the huge success of The Hunger Games movie that just hit theatres ($253,006,396 in 11 days according to Box Office Mojo) everyone is talking about The Hunger Games right now. I originally read The Hunger Games in 2010, but because of a crazy schedule and other books, I wasn't able to finish the series. So, when I heard the movie was coming out, I reread the book, and this time, I couldn't stop until I had finished Mockingjay.

What happened?


SPOILER ALERTS
(Not a ton, but its hard to do a synopsis of a second book without giving some stuff away)

Both Katniss and Peeta survived the 74th Hunger Games! This is a situation unheard of in Panem history and there will be consequences. The Hunger Games were designed to give the illusion of hope while demanding respect and fear and exacting control. With the stunt that Katniss pulled, this control has been called into question and the scent of rebellion is in the air.
Preparing for the Victory Tour, a quick trip around the districts designed by the Capitol, Katniss is approached by President Snow himself. Snow makes it clear that he isn't forgetting her defiance, and that he isn't afraid to destroy everything she holds dear if she steps out of line. Okay, don't mess things up on the tour, got it!

But, the choices that Katniss made have taken on a life of their own, and she soon realizes that nothing she did or didn't do on the tour could change where Panem is heading. In an effort to stamp out this fire that is quickly catching across Panem, President Snow issues a special edict for the 75th Hunger Games, and no one could have seen it coming.

What did I like or not like?


Holy moly and pandemonium, I love these books! The Hunger Games was amazing, but the way Suzanne was able to build the scope of the story while remaining so true to the original world is spectacular.

So many trilogies suffer in their second book because the author doesn't want to give away too much of the story. They almost drag along until the third book. But, this is something that Suzanne doesn't have a problem with. There is so much story to tell that this story will glue you to your seat and not let you up.

Suzanne also does a great job giving us new revelations in each character, but never changing who the characters are. It is no wonder why these books are so popular, and if you haven't read them, I would highly suggest them.

Next Book Blurt I'm going to be chatting about Mockingjay, and a little bit more about the ideas behind the trilogy. Stay tuned!

Teen Librarian's Toolbox: If You've Got the Passion...

So originally, I was going to do a post on The 2012 Project but then I figured that I should probably tell you a little bit about the site that this brilliant idea comes from. So, this week we will be talking about Teen Librarian's Toolbox :)

"Ths mission of TLT is to provide fast, easy to use resources for teen librarians who are short on time, staff, and money . . . but not on passion." I don't know many teen librarians who don't fit into that category, and I think TLT does a good job fulfilling this mission.

TLT is made up of three people, Karen Jensen, Cutler Creech, and Tim Jensen. Karen has been a Young Adult/Teen librarian for the past 19 years and a reviewer for VOYA magazine for the past 10. Cutler is an eighteen year old author who loves dystopian novels. Tim, Karen's Mr., loves Monty Python and might sometimes steal books that Karen is reading.

In addition to The 2012 Project, which is super cool, she writes book reviews, Reader's Advisory Posters,  Teen Programs in a Box (who doesn't need a ready made program sometimes), and stuff about YA advocacy.

I've connected with TLT on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and if what she does sounds interesting to you, I'd highly advice her resources.

Guitar Hero at My Library

As I mentioned in my last post about video games, 5 Websites for Gaming at Your Library, March was the first month we could actually do a video games program because of holidays. But, we were finally able to do it, and we had a great time.

A couple years ago, we were able to purchase a Wii, the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock game, and 2 Wii guitars. I've used these off and on for programs in the past, so I thought it would be appropriate for Guitar Hero to be the first game we played.

While doing the program there was a couple of things that I noticed. First of all, my younger patrons had a great time helping me set up. I had a meeting right before the program, so I just a little bit behind. But, the majority of the kids didn't seem to mind as they pulled out Wii cords, synced controllers and assembled guitars :)

Another thing I noticed was that my projector didn't want to find my Wii. I just looked it up on Google, and there are plenty of other people using Wiis with a projector. But for some reason, mine wouldn't. I think I'm going to keep trying though, because video games on a bigger screen is always better.

Finally, having board and card games out while playing the video games worked really well. If it wasn't your turn to play and you didn't feel like watching, it gave you something to do. I also think its a fun way to let kids know that board and card games can be a lot of fun as well.