Booyor's BLOGgh!

It looks like their movies won’t stink:

Lightning Thief

and

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid

Also, book three to the Hunger Games has a release date. August 24, 2010 (see? I told you it would be one a year).

Here are two posts from The Professional Site:

___
Choose Your Own Adventure books kept me coming back to the public library daily as a kid and I would be willing to bet partly influenced my decision to become a librarian.

A friend of mine sent me this link a while back and it’s taken me until now to sort through all of the analysis of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I hadn’t realized that as the series went on, there became less choices in the books. I have always wondered what it took to organize all of the pages to point to different places throughout the book. (I made a Choose Your Own Adventure radio show CD in high school, so I understand the effort on a smaller scale.) Check out this site for more of the math behind Choose Your Own Adventure books.

Also of note were the Lone Wolf books by Joe Dever. It makes sense that these types of books, ones where you jump around inside the framework of the book, came around during milestones in video game computing. (For my students that know how much I love video games, you should imagine what it would be like growing up on this game. Yeah, no 3D cards, just text.)

The Lone Wolf books were cool because they had a page at the end with random numbers scattered across them. This was to generate a score for your character’s skill checks and attacks. It was a book where you were the main character and it played out like a variation on a video game. You were supposed to close your eyes and point to one of the numbers, but my teacher would always get mad at me during silent reading time.

These books really grabbed my imagination because, no matter how hard I tried to predict where the story was going, it could always take a crazy turn. Some smart authors even put fake endings into the book to trap you if you were just flipping through the pages.

The worlds that these authors created I can still remember. That’s why the samizdat quote is so poignant:

It was the fact that after reading it you understood the logic of Gibson’s world. And that logic was portable to any new scenario you could dream up.

___

Justin Bieber got his start broadcasting videos of himself singing on YouTube, getting the attention of a record label. Now Web 2.0 stuff is creating some trouble for that record label. James Roppo of Island Def Jam Records is being charged with a couple of misdemeanors, such as endangering the welfare of children. A riot of fans broke out at a mall appearance on Friday; five people had to go to the hospital.
James Roppo is accused of not helping out the police in handling the angry crowd. Here’s what one officer had to say about it, from the Associated Press article:

“We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,” said Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. “By not cooperating with us, we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”

You want to do what you can to keep the fans safe. Those are the people that make a star famous. But I’ll admit it’s an interesting step in technology ethics by requiring someone to write a message on Twitter. Is that covered under the first amendment? Is this like yelling fire in a movie theater?

All day I’m being positive when students want to check out a book. If, for whatever reason, they’re interested in a book, then go for it.

But then I sit back and think about some of the concepts that made it to publishing. Here is a sampling of covers that I checked back in today.

Anyone who works with students aged 12-15 can probably identify the author, but I won’t mention his name. The whole set-up for this book is that Tod gets a new hockey stick that he thinks will make him a better player. He doesn’t feel worthy of the stick so he works really hard to deserve the stick until he finally realizes that the power was in him all along.

Really? The Mockingjay Rebellion is poised to tear apart the dystopian Panem so that no generation will suffer the Hunger Games…or Tod decides to use a different hockey stick.

Look who’s playing first base? That’s the whole intrigue? Let me take a guess…is it the kid on the cover? You know, the one who has the umpire with questionable motives staring at him.

This one has the whole “Mom is coaching my team” thing going on. (Didn’t Roseanne star in one of those movies?) The only reason this one stood out to me is that the mom looks like Andy Samberg. “I’m on a base.”

Today involved:

1. No belt. For the first two hours I had to teach while standing like this guy:
   
2. The revelation on Facebook that I am Batman – the belt and lunch are just one facet of the utility of it all
3. I borrowed some shoelace-ish material from the janitor’s closet and fashioned a rudimentary belt while hiding in the server room
4. A long-since vanquished evil has awoken from its eight-year slumber
5. My wife brought me lunch and book two to Skeleton Creek…Devin, one of the new students is hounding me for book two of Generation Dead. Thoughts?
6. Scott Westerfeld posted a link to audio from his new book, Leviathan. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but I’m in the works to get him to our school sometime in the spring
7. I got to hang out with my niece:
   
8. I’m anxiously awaiting this:
   

For those worn out by politics, you might want to check out the G.I. Joe videogame developer blog (yes, there will be Stormshadow. Yes, there will be the collectible file cards. Yes, there will be Public Service Announcements…wha?).

Once you’ve done that, listen to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book in its entirety. Newbery!

You may have seen that our politicians don’t always agree.

The legislature of Arizona approved a budget June 4. We can start planning for the school year, right? Not yet.

We have three branches of government (checks and balances still rock, even if we don’t wear powdered wigs anymore).

The legislature is holding onto the budget. It’s like a game of keep away, where they keep looking like they’re going to give the paper to her, and then they pull it back quickly.

It’s actually more like a game of chicken. We’re waiting to see who’s going to be responsible for shutting down parts of Arizona government. Who will flinch?

Who will have the stinky hot potato budget in their hands when the June 30 Catch Phrase buzzer goes off?

One branch of government is suing another branch of government and asking the remaining branch of government to mediate.

“I’m not speaking to you. Judicial Branch, will you tell Legislative Branch to give me the budget?”

“Judicial, you tell Executive that we can do what we want. I’m going to hold my breath until she says that she loves me.”

I think we may have a possible cause for low voter turn-out. There’s an attitude that politicians follow their own interests and not the interests of the people of the Republic – that the population doesn’t feel represented/that their vote affects policy. Intriguing…

And then we see goofy school districts doing stuff like this. I feel like mentioning that not all of us subscribe to the rubber room philosophy.

While I was looking up the details about the Arizona Supreme Court, seeing if I could find anything in the Supreme Court online records about the budget case…imagine my surprise at what I stumbled across.

The Public Access Case Lookup.

I searched myself and thankfully none of the atrocities committed under the Booyor banner were listed, but one guy who shares my first and last (but not middle) name should probably lay off the alcohol – forever.

Look up your name. Tons of fun for the whole family. Gotta love public access court documents provided by our government.

I know that we’ve been very focused on the Iranian elections (which I’m glad that crimes normally ignored are being brought to light) but I find it interesting that people haven’t been intrigued by what’s going on with North Korea, Myanmar, and China.

View Larger Map

A cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is heading to Yangon, Myanmar but may have to refuel at Shanghai.

Here are the complications: there’s a U.S. destroyer (the USS John McCain, ironically enough) following the ship to see if it has illegal cargo. After North Korea tested nuclear weapons and launched a missile in May, the UN has sanctioned North Korea from shipping nuclear weapons-type stuff. If they have that junk, the ship is to be redirected to a port of Pyongyang’s (North Korea version of Washington, D.C.) choosing to be searched.

North Korea has been saying that this would be an act of war.

We’ll see what happens with the port authority of Shanghai. I wonder if North Korea’s testing the sanctions like a one year-old tests if you’ll make them finish lunch (not like I have any experience, right?) or if they’re just waiting for the U.S. destroyer to slip up.

I should be careful with my comparisons to big news events with immature acts. I don’t want to pull a Hoekstra. He posted an exaggeration on Twitter:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

and an entire site was born:

Many updates today…

I put up a review of Catching Fire on the professional site.

One week until Conduit’s release. I am excited for a co-op game for my wife and I, though. The new Super Mario looks promising, and perhaps the next Ultimate Alliance could be good. I’m not current on my printed comics. Wasn’t Captain America dead? Now he’s back?

Japan is now going to have movie rentals on the Wii.

I guess I shouldn’t be blown away by the response to Mike’s Ghostbusters III group on Facebook. Since he ain’t afraid of no ghost, it’s the only logical progression. I do like Wil Wheaton’s thoughts on the busting of ghosts:

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, you should call the police, contrary to what the song suggests.

I also appreciate his thoughts on current events:

Pretty sure the City of Los Angeles can find a better way to spend a million dollars than on a parade. Teachers come to mind.

It’s not that I don’t like the Lakers (I always forget, from time to time, that there are professional sports ever since the NBA started playing on cable instead of free TV).

But I am a fan of irony, and I guess some other Twitterers agree with something interesting that I noticed this weekend:

Riots in the same weekend. What do you stand for, Lakers or fair elections? #iranElection

Catching Fire has reminded me of what large masses of angry people look like.

Thanks to everyone who re-tweeted that. It’s been crazy watching Twitter hold CNN accountable for going light on the coverage of world events. They focus on Iran if it relates to something gossipy, but now the public demands more info on a government that cracks down on free speech.

On the topic of free speech (literally free…no cost to you, right?):
Shi Weihan was arrested for printing Bibles for free, which I guess is illegal in China still. Argh.

I’m intrigued by Kiva. I’m not a big fan of throwing money at a problem, but I know what it’s like to have an expense come up.

I must also confess that I am entertained on Twitter with pictures of director Adam Shankman with his dog on the movie set watching 3D monitors for Step Up:

as well as finding it fun that Miley Cyrus watches Funniest Home Videos to cheer herself up.

Keep those last two secrets to yourself.

The rebellion begins today.

LEGO Indy 2 – Now with a brick-by-brick level editor?

We talk of getting an ARC for Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan (giving away galleys at BEA? Argh!). Can you imagine if I got an advanced copy of 1Q84?

What is the book about? No one knows, except that they need to buy it.

Perhaps it’s a puzzle, like this one:

Polimomce

Can you get the pictogram? It’s like one of those “head/heels” puzzles.

A hint? I’m fond of mine.

The Oviatt Library is featured as Starfleet Academy in the new movie. Also, what does everyone think about adding a “what type of reader would like this book” to book reviews? I think it’s redundant to the “Users Who Bought ___ also Bought ____”, except that the reviewer would have control instead of a shopping algorithm.

Leviathan will rock.