And We're Back Before We Leave Again

After my last entry, Christmas arrived with all the eating, drinking, and general hanging wrapped up with the presents.  I work on new entries including some new Blog spotlights and more book talks.  I will make one announcement to the two known readers of my blog:

This blog is moving.

While Blogger touts its 'push button' aspect, I do want to grow this blog.  I have friends who knit and I can't knit, therefore I want to 'knit' this blog into something.  However two spam sites reek havoc with my stats.  According to my research, they are harmless if nobody touches the link.  (I don't have them linked anywhere anyway.) 

I decided on Wordpress for its look and the potential to grow my own site.  Ambitious I know.  Lately I felt a little rudderless after fulfilling my '5 year plan'.  It was simple:

• Go to school in two
• Pay in two
• Move out by five

How I wrote it was the way I planned it.  This simple plan remained in my head as I studied, cried, juggled jobs, and caught up on sleep.  By the way, I was 18 months ahead of schedule.  (If only other things proceeded that way.)  Now I need a new plan and this blog wants to figure into it.  That's the other thing about the last 5 year plan; The whole thing came together after years of hit and miss.  It was the 'misses' teaching me a lot about focus.  I fear for the generations coming up regarding risk.  Coming from a loving family, they wanted to minimize the obstacles.  That's great to count on support, however, I need a good dose of falling on my ass.  Call it  a 'miss', setback, or all-out failure it truly does teach a person something.  Trust me, term 3 in my Library Technician program provided that lesson again and again, and again ad infinitum.

Right now my lessons come during establishing a whole raft of things like a career and my own home.  So we start by moving the blog, including exporting my past entries, then take things from there.  Did I mention Wordpress has this Project 365 concept for 2012?  What topic can drive 365, or 366, now 360 days in 2012?  Not even writing about Nathan Fillion can fuel it and he tweets a mile a minute. 

Oh yes, the new address:

http://stacksandranges.wordpress.com/

I will keep this blog up until January 30 the delete it.  I do have an idea driving my Project 365--just write.

(E)Book Talk: Hunting season: a field guide to hunting and capturing the perfect man

When I bought my Kobo, I took a break from Jane Austen to read this book by the author known as 'Elle'.  (A dating book written under a pen name is not a good sign.)  I downloaded the book from the public library and demonstrated a prime advantage to ebook titles; Nobody on the bus has to know if one is reading something trashy, smutty, or deliciously forbidden .

In Hunting Season, Elle applies to pursuit of prey to the pursuit of men.  (Notice a guy did not write this regarding women.)  She advises setting up a 'deer stand' (hunting ground), not 'hunting' between September 1 and April 30 to allow the herd to refresh itself, and differenciates between different kinds of men (Stags, bucks, and trophy).  Elle mines her experience in the dating field to apply many of the principes outlined in the book.  Not surprisingly she also advised not to show this book to any guy.

Well d'uh!!

I read the book for the sheer comedy of its chapters not to get serious dating advice.  My first thought in seeing the book was I guess that makes me the Elmer Fudd of single women.  The book is well written in its conversational tone.  It felt like Elle and I sitting around over coffee while she outlines her technique.  A few times I swear the Hinterland Who's Who theme played in the background with some parts of the book.  I do like the idea of using September 1 to April 30 as a kind of recharge time even for the 'hunter'.  I met women always on the look out, always going on date after date, without taking a break of any kind.  If one doesn't like their own company then how is a guy supposed to like it?  I always thought patio season in Winnipeg  felt like I entered a hunting ground at my own risk.  Unlike actual hunting, nobody has vest on to prevent 'accidental shootings'. 

Would I recomment this book to my friends?  Absolutely, for the sheer purpose of getting women together over a glass of wine and making up as many dating, women, and Elmer Fudd jokes as possible.   

Blog Spotlight: Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi

While I read blogs to keep up with the world of libraries, I am a dye-in-the-wool geek.  I thought the best way to combine both is spotlight blogs people may want to add to their favourite RSS feed.  Therefore kicking off this new feature is a blog I discovered by accident and really enjoy for its well-written entries combined with cheeky humour.  (No surprise as the ladies responsible for Geeky Girls are in fields such a PR and journalism.)

In the blog spotlight:  Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi.

The blog covers anything and everything related to science fiction and fantasy from their home base in the UK.  Besides the usual Doctor Who entries, the blog also covers gift ideas and any tidbits gathered from the web. Sometimes they even score interviews like one entry interviewing the stars of Torchwood: Miracle Day. 

Keep in mind the 'Geeky Girls' are out of the UK and do write about shows like The Fades and Misfits, two series not shown in North America. I would add 'yet' to that last statement as both series may make their way to either Space or BBC Canada.  It's just good to say you knew about something out of the UK before anyone else gets to read about it in their local paper. The ladies behind Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi can keep you, reader, ahead of the game.

Sometimes entries stop for a few days, or a week, and sometimes they come in bunches.  On the day I decided to create the blog spotlight, I saw three new entries on my Google reader.  No surprise as Christmas usually means a new Doctor Who special.  Overall they are worth keeping on your RSS feed and you can also like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.  (I personally do the former.)

Keep checking back on Fridays for a new blog spotlight.

Blog Birth: Growing Pains

The blog gestated for months before I finally set it up.  I wrote two entries, then nothing happened for a long period of time.  Nobody noticed since I said nothing.  It's the usual worries about what to write about, should I do a blog on something specific, until I settled on Stack and Ranges with a subtitle capturing everything I wanted to write about in the blog.

Now people know it's out there and a few people even read it.  One person even put it on their Google reader.  It made me proud and nervous.  It means writing and that also means finding the time to write.  It's part of the reason I set aside days for a weekly 'Blog Spotlight' and 'Book Talk'.  I figure those two features will prevent me from getting stuck on a topic.  The information literacy entry allowed me to take a concept like 'information literacy' and apply it in a fun way.  I never intended it to answer the age-old question about evaluating information, just a demonstration of the concept.  Plus it's geeking out and one can never have too many 'geeking out' sorts of blog entries.

I took a creative writing class to fulfill a promise to myself during my library technician training.  I wanted to take one course for myself and that one course was a creative writing course.  I discovered the will to keep writing after the course finished.  The blog is a way to keep the will alive as I do other projects.  I don't knit and I need something to keep me sane.

Here's to 2011 as the year of this new blog and may I grow it in 2012.  Now if blogger could do something about the referrer spam reeking havoc on my stats, things can go a little more smoothly.

Book Talk: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I read to find out about other people.  I know I grew up in a middle class family, in a suburban area, and fortunately met people who redirected the trajectory of my life.  If I want to read about people similar to myself, I should just put down my book to remain in my own little cocoon.


The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, takes the raw materials of his own life to fashion a story of love, loss, high school, and basketball.  Arnold Spirit aka 'Junior' narrates the story telling the story of his birth with hydroceles (water on the brain), his decision to attend a white high school far from his reservation, and the impact the decision has on his relationships.  Cartoons also help tell the story as Arnold uses his drawings to show his emotions and support the humour used to combat bullying by both the white kids and even the reserve residents.

I read a few stories from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and seen Smoke Signals, the film based on one of the tales in the collection.  Alexie does not hold back on things like racism, sex, or poverty.  The novels honesty lead to challenges and outright bans in school around the US, and I wouldn't feel surprised if someone in Canada held the book and shook their head.  One of the memorable passages from the book concerns poverty as Junior bluntly outlines its destructive power:

It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to keel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly.  And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian.  And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor.  It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance.  No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor. (p. 13)

 The novel made me laugh, left me shocked, and taught me a lot about constructing voice in a novel.  Sherman Alexie mined quite a bit of the plot from his own life, which included his decision to attend a high school off his reserve.  His reaction to a library banning his book?  Sending a box of books to the same place.  People talk about young adult literature as too grim, too broody, while to him they are 'written in blood'.  YA literature needs novels like this one to show heroes don't always get it right, friendships will survive changes, and art leads the way out of tragedy.

An Every-Day Exercise in Information Literacy

 It began with an interesting tidbit from Google news regarding The Hobbit films.  Two sites-Superman Homepage and Comic Book Movie-claimed The Hobbit and Man of Steel will swap release dates.  Both pointed to another website called Think McFly Think claiming The Hobbit fell behind and Peter Jackson wants a new release date to insure the high quality of the films.  It must be true right?

If the story is true then Nathan Fillion plans to spend Christmas with me. I wrote it, published it on the Internet, therefore it must be true.

My BS detector went off the moment the two  aforementioned sites published the story.  I watched the The Hobbit Production videos, I knew the same team responsible for The Lord of the Rings came back for these two movies.  Plus Peter Jackson looks like the kind of guy who would keep fans posted and can meet a deadline.  On top of everything else both sites did not scream credible.  Why? Comic Book movie is mostly a fan site and it's a geek paradise publishing anything related to a superhero project.  Rather than talk about if it's true, or if the source is credible, the rumour goes online.  I admit hearing a site like Think McFly Think 'broke' the story dialed up the BS detector to one hundred.  The other source, Superman Home Page, didn't seem interested in questioning the story either.  It's a new Superman movie, directed by Zach Snyder (300) and produced by Christopher Nolan (Inception), which gives reason for people to start their nerdy salivating right now.

Not to say I didn't consider both films could switch and The Hobbit coul come out in 2013 instead of next year.  I knew the date of the last production video was quite a while ago, the film had a number of problems getting off the ground, and they even structured the filming around Sherlock to make sure Martin Freeman takes on the feet as Bilbo Baggins.  May be it's true, I thought, and I need to wait for some official word.  I had a number of possibilities I located, identified, and will use to effectively evaluate the information. (Those three terms come from an article cited below.) I waited for Peter Jackson himself to make some announcement either through FaceBook or The Hobbit official site.  I also waited for a credible entertainment news source and Entertainment Weekly is my 'go to' site.  I did have one fan site I trust in The Onering.net.  Why?  The Onering has a history, if you don't believe me believe Elijah Wood:

Notice the gears turning through out this entry. I may have read it on the Internet, but it doesn't mean it's true.  It turns out the two films will get released as planned.  The Onering.net reported it as did a website called Cinema Blend, both having some kind of relationship with people involved in the film, or can credibly write about it.  Eventually a rep from Warner Brothers did put out a final definitive word  and that word is nobody is swapping anything.  Building information literacy skills takes time and Google does not do it all despite what people may think.  Google cannot do your thinking for you. ( Seriously, it should be a chant like 'Om....Google cannot think for you...Ommmmmm")

Whether you looking to see if The Hobbit will release in December 2012, or researching the latest topic for a paper,  the questions remain the same: 

1. Can I trust the information?
2. Does it answer my question?
3. Who put this out?

Libraries provide the resources and instruction to search out the answers from books, to databases and beyond.  People believe Librarians and Library Techs know everything.  In reality we don't know everything, just how to seek the answers out.  Time to emerge from your own personal hobbit hole and take on the information literacy quest.



Works Cited

Koufogiannakis, D., & Wiebe, N. (2006). Effective Methods for Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Undergraduate Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Evidence Based Library And Information Practice, 1(3), 3-43. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/76

Zombies, Vampires, and Brits

There must be a secret commandment among American television producers specializing in geeky/SF/Supernatural shows.  It goes something like this:

1. Thou shalt have a (cute or smouldering) Brit playing the (American) lead.
2. It's advisable for a Brit to drop his voice an octave or two, maybe go with a southern accent.
3. It is equally advisable for a Brit on occasion drop his clothes for artistic purposes.
4. If there is no Brit for the lead, go with an Australian. 
5. If an Australian is not available, go with a New Zealander.
6. Thou shalt NOT confuse a New Zealander with an Australian.
7. Thou shalt NOT do the opposite of number 6.
8. If thou wants a suspension of disbelief about fighting zombies, fighting cylons, or falling for telepathic waitresses then cast a Brit.  They will make a viewer suspend disbelief and immerse themselves into another world.
9. The casting of a Brit usually happens after many, many, many actors are considered for the part.
10. The above commandments are about the male, but do not discount a Brit of the female persuasion.

 If I have to add an addendum then number 8 would have a clause reading If one is doing a medical drama then cast a Brit, or substitute red-headed Scotsman capable of an American Accent.  However, pretty much all the silly commandments have additions, exceptions, and clauses.  The geeking out would never end.  The whole exercise came out of my viewing habits and a recent episode of ABC's new hit drama Once Upon a Time. 

I started watching the show a couple of weeks ago and noticed the Prince Charmings on the show kept the American accents in their regal roles.  Twenty years ago it would never faze me, but after seeing Cinderella's Prince Charming it seemed...meh.  The thought entered my mind this goes way better with a British accent.  It's not just about the accent, it's about the way UK actors (Brits, Scots, and the occasional Welshman) carry themselves in a role. 

You can google a number of articles on British actors as leads in American shows.  (Heck, get a library card and you can get access to databases for the same search without wading through all the useless results online.)  One person on Entertainment Weekly's message board on Game of Thrones HATES the fact British actors are in a show like Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones is logical considering the whole novel models itself after Britain's War of the Roses.  Many people would say American parts should go to American Actors, while Canadians would quietly add and the odd Canadian.  Let's face it the British not only invaded television, they pretty much set up their own colony. When someone hears an actor, like The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln, speak with their natural accent, it usually gets a shocked reaction as if they were an alien.  (I would use Cylon, but I don't know how many people saw Battlestar Gallatica.)

Now, before heading straight to the comment boards this is not about who's actors are better.  In fact the whole thing better be a wake up call for anyone in North America considering a career in acting, especially television acting.  Why do these guys, and gals, score the parts?  So many reasons, but I can narrow it down to two guesses:

1. Most are Trained

Take a good look at some of the bios for British actors in particular.  They either trained at the London Academy of  Musical and Dramatic Art, or the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  Some actors may have trained at another place like Guildhall, but they took the time to learn their art.  It's not all about the Shakespeare, but the first thing student learn take a sledgehammer to their own regional accent.  They either make it generic, or dial it down, either way they already know what it takes to begin a character and it's all about the voice.  That's only one of a myriad of things learned in their study.

2. Their Look is Diverse

Diversity comes in all sorts of packages.  We have the obvious diversity of ethnicity.  I seem to see a lot of interracial couples on British TV.  It's nonchalant and the topic only gets broached if needed.  Overall I see men and women with extraordinary features and yet look relatable.  I first saw Terra Nova's Shelly Con in Strike Back.  She's a beautiful woman yet she doesn't look generic. The same goes for Lucy Griffith from Robin Hood as another actress without a generic beauty often seen from actresses.  (You know like the same cheekbones, the same implants, or whatever is the hot thing in the surgeon's office these days.)

Oh, but let me wax poetically about the men...

We have a diversity of hotness from the UK men.  Ever seen Idris Elba?  Check out The Wire and not only is man smokin' hot, he's also smokin' talented. Like red heads?  May I direct you to Damian Lewis and Kevin McKidd complete with convincing American Accents.  Need a southern hero?  Cast a bloke like Stephen Moyer or  Andrew Lincoln depending if you need someone undead or someone to dispatch them.  I know it's more silliness and people can supply more names, but again nothing generic in their look and it's all about relating to the character. Do they have have the same noses? Eyes? Hair?  (Read:  Did they see the same surgeon?)


It comes down to a simple question:  Can they play a character?  It's something showrunners look for more than name recognition.  They have a character and need someone to best embody the character.  Right now they are British, Australian, and yes sometimes a Canadian.