Just found this: another pretty awesome Australian video encouraging an awareness of bullying issues. The video was created for Beyond Blue, an Australian organisation which aims to prevent and support instances of depression. In the video, a boy is being bullied and tormented because he is left-handed – this is linked to LGBT issues and raises the question: why would you torment someone for being who they are?
A very interesting video!
Filed under Films, Of concern, Random, Social commentary
I found this delightful article on libraries in The Australian magazine over the weekend. I thought it beautifully described libraries and their place in society and just had to share it!
This is by far my favourite quote from the article, captures my feelings almost exactly!
Libraries are embracing the cool factor; they’re becoming sexy sanctuaries of thought that force you to pause in the mad rush of life.
Click the link below to read this fabulous article!
Filed under Librarianship, Random
I am an avid collector of quotes. I love reading something and have it immediately stand out, immediately connect with me. And I thought that I might share some of my favourites with you all.
From Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier:
If a man truly loves… he gives no heed to what others may think. His heart has no room for that, for it is filled to the brim with the unutterable truth of his feelings.
From George R.R. Martin:
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
From Frankenstein (1994), spoken by the Creature:
I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, and rage the likes of which you would not believe.
From Edwin Chatwin, about those who study literature and history (my two majors!):
For what was literature after all but the study of idlers who read for amusement, and history but one great field of cram, of reliance on misery, and of dodging?
From Neil Gaiman, on librarians:
Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.
Do you have any favourite quotes? I’m always interested in finding more!
The easy answer to this challenge, is: most of my favourite YA novels. (At least the fantasy ones, the realistic YA I tend to read is generally pretty far from funny! :P)
Particularly, this applies to my Harry Potter books, and my Tortall novels. Both J.K. Rowling and Tamora Pierce know how to write a funny, fantasy-adventure story. And that is why I keep going back, reading them again and again.
And then I thought about it all a bit more… I never really like things to be all that easy. So, the roundabout (kinda cheating answer) is:
S.P.E.W. Does Not Approve by makani
I have read a lot of (almost exclusively Harry Potter) fan-fiction in my days… Ever since I was first introduced to it way back in 2004. Well, I say ‘read’. What I mean is that I’ve devoured it. In fact, I used to read so much fan-fiction that my dad actually firewalled fanfiction.net on our home network… What did I do? I downloaded stories while at school, copied them into Word documents, and read them on my laptop. I even got some stories professionally printed. I wrote fansfiction (we won’t go there!). Basically, for quite a few years, a lot of my reading was done online.
Why was I so insane about it? Basically, fan-fiction can be terrible, horrendous, bad on a level that is stomach-churning. But it can also be brilliantly written, thought-out and developed. I have read some fan-fiction stories that I could honestly say were just as good as the published works that inspired them. Some very, very talented authors have their beginnings in fan-fiction, I’m sure.
Also, though, fan-fiction can be damned funny! And this was the main reason I decided to go with fan-fiction to answer this question. Sure, Rowling and Pierce and many other published authors have made me laugh, some have even made me laugh out loud (I’m hard to please!), but the stories that have truly made me laugh out loud, made me guffaw and all the rest, have been fan-fiction.
To illustrate my point, follow on for some fanart!
Filed under 30 Day Book Challenge, Books, Funny, Of concern, Random
What I’m talking about are those moments in life when you actually say ‘Wow!’ out loud. And, because I’m me, I’m talking about the ones that specifically related to books.
I’ve had a number of them over the years. Like when I’d just finished reading the first four books in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series (in 2008), and realised that the first book was advertised at the back of one of my favourite books, one that I’d had for over five years. If only I’d paid more attention earlier!
I had another one just now, whilst looking for a book to fit into my 30 Day Book Challenge. Browsing through my reading log (the list I keep of every book I’ve read in the last 12 years), I discovered that the second book I ever listed, and the book I just finished reading on Saturday, were written by the same person, Suzanne Weyn. This is all the more surprising to me because the first book was Ballet Debut (one of Barbie’s adventures), and the latter The Crimson Thread, a part of the Once Upon a Time series I’ve been reading. These two books just seem so far apart, and separated by twelve years, it’s hard to get my head around them. But there they are!
Just a random Wow! moment, brought to you by me. 🙂
Filed under Amazed, Books, Entertained, Random, Reading
I thought that this was particularly appropriate given my last post… Just change ten to thirty. 😛
(Otherwise known as: All The Books I Have Bought in the Last Month – a.k.a. I Really Can’t Sleep/Reminding Myself Why I Am NOT Allowed to Browse BookDepository)
This really is just a random posting of all of the books I have bought recently. Mostly because I can’t sleep, but also because I just find it funny/entertaining/horrifying to look at. 😛
Side note: I’ve been going through a bit of a biography/YA phase. They don’t really fit together, but it’s certainly made life interesting!
Books with ** have been read. Books with * I am currently in the process of reading, sort of.
From February 20, 2012: aplaceformorethoughts
aplaceformybooks 
Dumb Ways to Die
In response to a recent increase in the number of train-related deaths, Metro trains (Melbourne, Australia) created this PSA to make people more aware of the dangers of behaving stupidly around trains. With a catchy tune and fun animations, this is a new and great way of increasing awareness of train safety! After all, being hit by a train is a ‘dumb way to die’.
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Filed under Of concern, Random, Social commentary
Tagged as Australia, Dumb Ways to Die, Melbourne, Metro trains, PSA, public safety announcement, train safety