[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
Wore my shirt to work Friday, and as an elementary teacher it was a powerful lesson for my students and for me.

Colleagues spoke of their love of all things sci-fi and shared Star Wars jokes. And my students agreed that girls could like Star Wars. And that boys could like Barbies.

I also officially became the most popular teacher in the Primary division as I paraded through the halls in my Stars Wars shirt.

Thank you Katie and Katie’s mom for this opportunity.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
So I am not going to be in my usual sartorial splendour today. And no, it’s not because I am lazy.

In case you haven’t heard about Geek Pride for Katie Day, it is in honour of a little girl in Illinois who love Star Wars. She loved it so much that she had a Star Wars water bottle. Until the boys started teasing her, saying Star Wars is only for boys. She stopped taking her waterbottle and looked for a more "girly" one instead.

When her mom figured out what was going on, she wrote a blog post about the whole incident, which went viral.

Thousands of female (and male) Star Wars fans sent notes telling Katie that girls could like Star Wars and to feel free to be herself. Yes, I was one of them. Further to that, geeks world-wide have agreed that today, December 10 would be Geek Pride for Katie Day. As a show of support for Katie and all others like her, we will wear our Star Wars T-Shirts. Katie’s school is even having a Proud To Be Me Day, encouraging kids to wear something that shows what they are interested in, not matter what it is. Because it is 2010 and people should not be bullied because they do not fit outdated gender norms.

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[  Mood: Distorted ]
[  Currently: Eating Breakfast ]
So I read this article and posted it to Facebook with a note. Facebook decided people didn’t need to see all of that note. But it didn’t warn me it would dump half of it. So I decided to recreate it here.

Yup – this was me. And while I was never as heavy as this woman, I remember being called every name under the sun. Even by some people who I have friended on Facebook.

And the "helpful" family members telling me to lose weight. (My dad still does this. He means well, but come on.) Or the little notes my mother left me telling me not to eat the half jar of pickles, not realizing that it might be depression or an emotional release after a day of hell. An attempt to get endorphins any way I could.

I was a child, so I didn’t know how to handle these things. I changed. And not for the better. My grades tanked. I started missing school. I became obnoxious, almost as if I wanted to give them an excuse not to like me that had nothing to do with my weight. Anyone who knew me back then would have told you I was a difficult person to like.

So if you know a "fat kid" like me, be the adult that so many of us longed to have in their life. Support them.

[  Mood: Happy ]

Stephanie Plum is an icon of modern chicklit. With Janet Evanovich’s humourous writing, she has legions of fans who snap up the latest edition as soon as it hits the shelves. These same fans are also divided into team Ranger and Team Morelli, a reference to which impossibly handsome bad boy Stephanie will finally choose.

The problem with Evanovich’s work is, like many long running series, it is starting to get a bit stale. You know that Lulu is going to be on some crazy diet while wearing some crazy outfit, Vinnie is going to be doing something illegal or immoral with something animal, vegetable or mineral, Grandma Mazuer is going to try to open a casket at a viewing and that Stephanie will not have improved as a bounty hunter. And given that the series has at times become a literary paint by number, you just want Stephanie to pick a guy and move on.

You almost don’t want to go back, but you remember the laughs that Evanovich is able to deliver each volume, and you are like a junkie wanting more.

So it was with some shame and trepidation that I turned to the sixteenth instalment of the series. And I was pleasantly surprised. It seems that Evanovich decided that Stephanie`s world needed a bit of a shake-up. So Vinnie has been kidnapped by his bookie and if the ransom isn`t paid, he will be killed. This leads Stephanie, Lulu and Connie on a series of misadventures trying to capture enough FTAs to raise the money. When they realize that isn`t enough, they turn to crime and hold a large garage sale in the bail bonds office.

And this choice makes the story seem fresh and new, like a wind blew through cleaned out the old, dated parts of the Plum Universe. I was in such a good mood at the end that I almost forgave Evanovitch for ending the story with everything having returned to normal. I would have liked it better if she had found a way to have Connie running the bale bonds office from now on, with Vinnie relegated to FTA retrieval or figurehead status. Or maybe Ranger as the silent investor. Something, anything, so that volume seventeen wouldn`t be more of the same.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Editing the Podcast ]

Protons can decay.

For science geek Will Tupence this news means his world has radically shifted. Nothing is permanent. Everything can eventually disappear.

What shocks Will is that no-one else in his life seems to care. His little sister continues to torture him. His friends continue with their Monopoly ritual and his teachers barely mention the event.

And then he accepts it and moves on, and the book barely mentions the proton decay again. Instead it focuses on Will realizing that he has feelings for his best friend Mi-Su and his nasty ongoing war with his younger sister Tabby.

As others have mentioned, the book almost seems like two separate works fused together, as if Spinelli was a little too lazy to rewrite the first half when he thought of something better.

It is still an eminently readable book, and Spinelli is a big name, so this will sell well. But this is not Stargirl nor is it Maniac McGee.