The Secret Book/Movie of Walter Mitty

Did you notice my last Book Blurt talks about movies as well? Now this could be because of the fantastic proliferation of book to movie adaptations that we are currently enjoying. It could also be because I watch a lot of movies (and many of them are based on books right now). But, it might also be because I'm reading The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, and even though I'm loving it, it's taking me awhile to get through it. 

But enough back story (except for my next few sentences which are also introductory, and happened in the past). I watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (directed by and starring Ben Stiller), with my peeps at the Hayden Discount Cinema a couple months ago, and I loved the film. I then preceded to purchase the movie when it hit Blu-Ray, and have shown it to many of my other friends and family. As you may or may not know, I get easily excited about things anyways, but I really, really like this flick, so I've shared it with quite a few people. 

The movie centers around Walter Mitty, a Negatives Asset Manager (handles all the film picture negatives) at Life Magazine (which actually closed in 1972 if you can believe it), who randomly zones out to imagine a much more interesting life for himself. This whiplash from reality to fantasy made for a fascinating trailer, and sets up a movie with an interesting premise. What would happen to someone who daydreams too much, if their life actually became interesting? Answer; a really awesome movie about courage, grabbing life by the horns, and heading into the unknown (which also includes the fantabulous song by David Bowie, Major Tom). 

Now how does that factor into anything to do with a book? As it turns out, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was actually made into a movie starring Danny Kaye back in 1947, and before that, it began its life in 1939 as a short story by James Thurber. Instead of a film negative guru, or a daydreamer caught in a conspiracy (Kaye's version), Thurber's very short story features an ordinary man taking his wife on a shopping trip. 

Between buying overshoes and paying the parking attendant, Mitty is a naval captain, an airplane pilot, a sought after surgeon, and possibly the most interesting man in the world. While the most recent version of Mitty doesn't have anything to do with the book (except the shared title), I don't fault the movie in any way. The movie takes Thurber's concept of a man who dreams on his feet, and turns it into a comedic, fantastical modern adventure. 

If I wasn't so busy as a plucky space cowboy, I would suggest that you read the short story, watch Danny Kaye make a lovable fool of himself (which I still need to do), and then round off your Mitty experience with Stiller's newest adaptation that I've enjoyed watching again and again and again and again and...

YPULSE: Youth and Millennial Marketing

Originally posted on Special Project Library Action Team's blog, but I figured I'd share my thoughts here as well =D

I’m all about stealing other people’s great ideas (which is why Creative Commons is such a great idea for me hehe). Now my boss (the awesome Karen Yother) likes to refer to it as “not reinventing the wheel,” and others comment, “that everyone remixes used ideas.” Either way, this week’s post is thanks to (the also awesome) Nick Grove, who mentioned YPULSE to me at our last quarterly SPLAT meeting.

YPULSE offers a wide range of resources aimed at understanding the trends and attitudes of tweens, teens, and young adults. Through a Youth Advisory Board, an online research panel, and a mobile social Q&A network, YPULSE offers content, data, and insight on the next generation of consumers. Now this kind of market research doesn’t come cheap, which is why the silver and gold subscriptions will cost you a pretty penny per month. But, they also have a bronze subscription (which only costs you an email subscription) that gets you a couple of features worth mentioning.

One such feature is the Daily Email Newsletter, that sums up the latest youth marketing news. The YPULSE infographics, articles, and detailed data are kept hidden for silver and gold members. But, there are many articles that reference third party sources you can check out at your convenience, and a small synopsis of each of the YPULSE features are still included to give you an idea. The Email Update also shows the results of a daily poll featuring questions on social media, music, and movies, and you can even ask one question of your own per month.

Now I’ve only been getting the YPULSE newsletter for a couple weeks now, but there have already been a few tidbits I’ve found interesting. Did you know that Sup is a new app wanting to duke it out with Snapchat, Push for Pizza is an app that will order you a pizza with one push on your screen, and that a writer for Vulture thinks Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takes itself too seriously? Obviously these things aren’t library breaking revelations. But offering events and services for this age group is integral to continued library success and if someone is offering some free tidbits, my question is where do I sign up (and if you have any ideas worth stealing, which I know you do, feel free to send them my way!).

Flipster: When You Need a Free Magazine

I recently joined the modern era by getting myself a smart phone. *Gasp* "Nick, don't you know that those have been a necessity for, like, several years now?" Very true, and now that I have one, I'm never going back to a "dumb" phone hehe. I bring this up because there were a whole bunch of pre-loaded apps that came on my device, and I'm nervous to try many of them because I figure they are just previews of services that will very quickly want my credit card information.

Its a bummer, because some of them might actually offer some free content, but I don't want to risk it. But, I have some good news for those of you who are like me. The Community Library Network has just subscribed to an e-magazine service that comes at absolutely no cost to you now, or later. 

The service is called Flipster, and I just put the latest issue of Consumer Report onto our office's iPad with very little effort, and at no cost. "Now, Nick, didn't the library have a subscription to a service called Zinio that did the exact same thing? In fact, didn't you do a blog post about it?" Very true again. Our network has replaced our Zinio subscription with Flipster. But, many of the same titles are available on the Flipster platform, and the ease of use on Flipster is fantastic from what I've seen. 

Flipster lets you view current and past issues of magazines on your internet-connected computer or mobile device. Its as easy as having your library card and going to CommunityLibrary.Net/eStuff. If you have an iOS device (Android as well at the end of the summer), you can download the free app and download full magazines onto the app for offline viewing. 

So if those pre-loaded apps are looking a little spooky, but you'd still like some free content, try out your library's free e-magazine service and let me know what you think. 

Player One Ready! Life-Sized Pac-Man

So last summer we had way too much fun with Life-Sized Angry Birds, so this summer we decided to bring another digital game into the real world. In a word, the results were AWESOME!

Set-Up

Look up Pac-Man on your favorite search engine, and you'll get quite a few screen shots of the classic video game mazes. I used construction paper to lay out the maze as I was short on time, but if you wanted to be technical about it, you could grab some masking and measuring tape and go crazy!

We used a whole bunch of die-cut circles for the dots, but you could use plastic coins, LEGO pieces, or any other small item that you have in copious amounts. 

GamePlay

Select one player as Pac-Man (or Mrs. Pac-Man as the case may be), and two players as ghosts. Assure the rest of your participants that everyone will have a chance to play both parts. We gave each player one minute in the maze to pick up as many dots as they could. The ghosts had to stay in their center starting position for ten seconds, and then they could start giving chase. Typically speaking, the ghosts had to walk backwards or step heal-to-toe to slow them down a little bit. The round ended when the time ran out, or Pac-Man (or Mrs. Pac-Man), was tagged by one of the ghosts. 

The key to everyone participating was rotation. All of the participants started in a line, and the first participant was Player One and the second and third participants were the ghosts. When Pac-Man (or Mrs. Pac-Man) was tagged, they went to the end of the line, and the first ghost became Player One, the second ghost became first ghost, and so on and so on until everyone had a turn to play each part. 

When each round ended, the two ghosts would reset the maze by replacing the dots that Pac-Man (or Mrs. Pac-Man) had collected, and the game would begin again. 

Extras

Keep a High Score Board with each participant's name.

Find some Pac-Man sounds and have them playing while the rounds are happening.

Consider a way to have Pac-Man (or Mrs. Pac-Man) grab that power-up that allows them to eat the ghosts for extra points. Maybe have a ball they can grab that lets them tag the ghosts and send them back to their starting location. After a certain amount of time, they'll have to surrender the ball. 

Why Do We Watch Movies Like The Fault in Our Stars?

Disclaimer: I'm cheating this week. I read a book that I could talk about, but I'd much rather talk about the movie that I just watched last night. I figure I'm not cheating too much (as the movie is based on John Green's The Fault in Our Stars), but I'm definitely cheating at least a little (as I haven't read the book yet).

Let me begin by saying that I loved the movie (and once again mention that I haven't read the book yet. I can't comment on how good of an adaptation it was. But, I have on good authority from my sister that it is an excellent adaptation of the novel). The story was powerful, the acting was incredible, and you couldn't help but keep thinking about the theme, characters, and catharsis of the film.

But, I also couldn't help but wonder; why we do this to ourselves? Why do we watch movies like The Fault in Our Stars? Why do we read books like The Fault in Our Stars? Do we like to be sad? Do we enjoy watching other people suffer? Do we not have enough troubles in our lives that we have to go experience the fictional struggles of made-up characters?

I don't think that is it at all. I think there are plenty of reasons to go see and experience these types of books and movies, and they aren't near as cynical and cruel as my last paragraph. I think some of it is curiosity, some of it is having our own experiences and suffering validated and experienced on the silver screen, and some of it is because these movies and books are typically put together better than others.

However, the main reason I came up with last night is this; we watch these stories about dying because it reminds us to get living, and to do it better than we have been. This motif has been told, sung, and retold, and resung a million different ways; but it hit me afresh last night.

We go to see movies like The Fault in Our Stars because we need that reminder that life is painful, unfair, and twisted. We go to see movies like The Fault in Our Stars because we need that reminder that life is beautiful, unexpected, and worthwhile. We go to see movies like The Fault in Our Stars because we need to be removed from our routines for an hour and a half and actually evaluate how we've been living, rather than just what we've been doing. We go to see movies like The Fault in Our Stars because our pain is real, but so is the truth that life is worth living anyways.

3D Printing in the Cloud

                      
That kinda sorta sounds like an oxymoron. Isn't 3D Printing about manufacturing things one layer at a time? Isn't it about bringing your ideas into the real world? How can you do that in the cloud?

Well, you're right. You can't do that in the cloud. You are still going to need a 3D Printer sitting somewhere in your vicinity. But the whole design-a-model, get-your-design-to-the-printer, fiddle-with-your-settings, and control-your-printer part can be done through the cloud thanks to a fancy little device called Skyforge.

Skyforge is a combination of hardware and software that connects your 3D Printer to the cloud. Instead of using a USB connection to lash your computer to your printer, you can just pull a design from the cloud. Instead of having to go through multiple programs to get something print-ready, you can just use Skyforge's interface. Instead of needing to email a client about how much it will cost, you can just send them to Skyforge who will let them know itself.

Now, Skyforge isn't free. In fact, there are some young entrepreneurs that are asking for your support on their Kickstarter page. But, if you are an organization who wants to make their 3D Printer more user friendly, or an individual who does a lot of 3D Printing, Skyforge might be just what you were hoping would materialize.

Our Wibbly Wobbly Doctor Who Party

Just in case you couldn't tell from my Pinterest board, I love Doctor Who! All the whovians who attended our Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Doctor Who Party apparently also share my affection for our favorite Time Lord =D
If you would like more information on any of these activities, you can check out the Program Outline I put together for our Youth Services Resource page.

Snacks
Adipose Marshmallows (I must admit, I had to look the Adipose up...)
Apples with Faces (we just used some plastic knives to carve the faces)
Fishsticks and Custard (pound cake rolled in butter, dipped in Vanilla pudding)
Arizona Iced Tea (or you could brew some actual tea to be more authentic)

Crafts/Activities 
Duct Tape Bow Tie (because bow ties are cool)
Sonic Screwdriver Pens (because your night wouldn't be complete with some whirring sound effects)
Tardis Cubee Folding Craft (printing these on cardstock would probably work best)
Gallifreyan Nametags (use the spiffy application to print customized nametags)

Games
Weeping Angel Tag (use a flashlight to stop those Weeping Angels in their tracks)
Weeping Angel Tag Alternate (point to make them stop, run when the gamemaster says "Blink")
Empty Child Tag (don't let those empty children touch you)
Doctor Who Matching Game (The Doctors, their catchphrases, popular companions, and baddies)