The Google Meme

• Lili needs pins and numbers.
  
• Lili looks like she's driving an invisible car.
• Lili says that he has robust eyebrows, just like her father's.
• Lili wants the banana cake.
• Lili does not drink, no longer smokes, would like to have children some day, and considers herself a non-radical feminist.
• Lili hates the dog that shakes its head. She has now ripped its head off.
• Lili asks Jack to teach her rabbit. [Legend reference ftw!]
• Lili likes to dig.
• Lili eats every two hours, we are sending you news of our tumultuous day yesterday.
• Lili wears her harness with pride and that "she thinks it's her swimsuit as she proudly wears it to the beach.
• Lili was arrested for practicing Falun Gong exercises with other.
• Lili loves the rain.
• 
  

(Here is John Green's original version and also Hank's video version. Facilitated by the Nerdfighters Meme Generator)

Happiness Engines

I'm in Sydney at the ALIA Info Online conference, listening to lots of papers about the role of libraries and technology and how those roles are changing.

On of the presenters, Liz Lawley, talked about libraries as Happiness Engines. Apparently there are four elements of happiness:

1. Satisfying work to do

2. The experience of being good at something

3. Time spent with people we like

4. The chance to be part of something bigger than yourself.

I really like that list. I like that it has nothing to do with money, or status, or owning things. And I like that I can tick every box.

The other thing I really liked about Liz's presentation was the idea of doing Wii bowling for seniors at public libraries. And organising live tournaments online between different libraries. Unreal.

Mondegreens

I love a good mondegreen.

For those who are not familiar with the term, it was invented by US writer Sylvia Wright, who had misheard a 17th century ballad. The final two lines of a verse were:

They hae slain the Earl Amurray,

And laid him on the green.

Sylvia thought it was

They hae slain the Earl Amurray,

And Lady Mondegreen.

Other famous mondegreens include Excuse me while I kiss this guy, and There's a bathroom on the right.

My first mondegreen:

Tis the season to be Charley [jolly].

You can blame my Disney Christmas tape for that.

My most recent mondegreen:

Lips parted like a fraggle unfurled [a flag all unfurled]

From The Decemberists' Summersong.

My favourite mondegreens:

Our land abounds in nature strips [nature's gifts]

-Australian National Anthem

Hold me closer Tony Danza [tiny dancer]

-Tiny Dancer, Elton John

You'd think that I could rustle up a little soft-shoe Dennis Quaid [gentle sway]

-I Don't Feel Like Dancing, Scissorsisters

What are yours?

Cybils!

The Cybils Finalists are out, and I am getting my read on. The YA finalists are:

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin

Thaw by Monica M. Roe

So far I've only read Frankie Landau-Banks and Jellicoe Road (known as On the Jellicoe Road here in Oz), and will blog about them presently...

My fellow YA judges are Jackie Parker, Sarah Stevenson, Little Willow and Casey Titschinger. The winners in all categories will be announced February 14th.

You can read about the Cybils, and see the finalists in all categories, here.

Happy New Year

I am returned from Phili Byland, where much food and drink was consumed, games were played, films were watched, books were read, and bracingly-cold swims were taken. Now I am all invigorated for 2009!

I'm looking forward to:

• the publication of Pink and Angelfish this year
  
• a UK trip which will include seeing Snazzy in Cardiff, going to a Diana Wynne Jones conference in Bristol, and the Edinburgh Book Festival
• Reading Matters 09 
• getting my quota of slashy lols in Merlin
• good books, good cheese, good wine, good TV, good friends.

I have no New Year's Resolutions, just Epic Plans.