I swear, I DO NOT have a shoe fetish...

However, thanks to www.stumbleupon.com, I would spend the money on these shoes. All four colors.






Aren't they beautiful?!?!?! Sooo Alice in Wonderland-y, too. But, I'll never be able to afford them.

"Forget love....I'd rather fall in chocolate!"

So that's not actually true; I'm in love and quite happy to be there. :-)

However, I have chocolate on the brain today because of a book I began reading this morning and have nearly finished. Okay, I'm halfway through it. Chocolat, by Joanne Harris, is a delectable book! It is lovely because it is set in a sleepy French village called Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, and partly because the protagonist, Vianne Rocher, opens up a chocolate shop and the descriptions given of the treats she sells are mouth-watering. I can almost taste them as I read.

Joanne Harris had written other novels, apparently. Her writing style has intrigued me all day, and I will have to look into these others that she has published. I suppose I must allow for the fact that she is British (and part French, imagine that), since I have a tendency to enjoy writers from the UK more than from my home country of America. Not really sure why that is....

I spent a good part of the afternoon at the Borders Cafe in town, drinking a lovely coffee concoction that was called Cinnamon Swirl. No, it had no chocolate. I originally wanted something with chocolate in it, like a mocha, but for some reason the Cinnamon Swirl Brewed Coffee on the menu caught my eye. It certainly caught my taste buds!

My lovely drink and my book. Yes, I took a library book into Borders. But, it was only the cafe part AND I had it in my bag!

And now my coffee is gone and I decided to leave my book open for this picture. Note the epic Dragonology bookmark; I probably bought that at this Borders like, two years ago.

And then I came home, washed my car (it REALLY needed it), went swimming, ate dinner, and wrote this blog. Loveeeee life. :-)

Working at a public library has its perks. Really.

Mainly the perks are that I'm surrounded by books, and get to check out said books all the time. And being in the Children's Department is nice because it's always fun to talk to the kids. Today, I'm at the desk. Right now there aren't a lot of people, and not too many questions, either. There were a LOT of people here yesterday morning, because of the weather. It was pouring rain! And this morning it was nice and still is, as far as I can tell.

The reason I wanted to write this time, though, was not really to talk about my job. I know that probably gets boring after awhile anyway. What I wanted to say was that I discovered a new book series. Actually, a friend of mine mentioned that it was recommended to her, so I decided to look for it (while at work, of course, which is why I was talking about my job). The series is The Hungry City Chronicles, by Philip Reeve. He's a British author, which essentially meant I would like the books on some level. At any rate, I found the first book in the quartet, Mortal Engines, right away in the Teen Zone at our library. I then read that book in about a day! IT WAS SO GOOD. And actually, I felt like it should be turned into an anime series. Everything about the book was very anime-ish. I suppose that's probably because Reeve is writing about a rather post-apocalyptic and steampunk world.

I checked out the second book the other day, so I'll begin reading it soon. Also there is a short story by Philip Reeve that was written before this quartet and pretty much is where the Chronicles began.

Alice in Wonderland (1903)

There are so many film adaptations of Lewis Carroll's book out there that my head spins when I try to remember them all! I recently found, on www.youtube.com, a restored version of the first Alice film, made in 1903. It is just over eight minutes long, and for being made only eight years after the birth of cinema, it is remarkable! Enjoy!

How to Write Good

WARNING: ENGLISH MAJOR HUMOUR IN THIS POST! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

There are two sets of these hilarious lists for writing "good."

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/humor/writegood.cfm

1. Avoid Alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

1. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
2. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
3. Avoid archaeic spellings too.
4. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
5. Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.
6. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
7. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
8. Subject and verb always has to agree.
9. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
10. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
11. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
12. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
13. Don't never use no double negatives.
14. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
15. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

16. Eschew obfuscation.
17. No sentence fragments.
18. Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
19. A writer must not shift your point of view.
20. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
21. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
22. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
23. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
24. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
25. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
26. Always pick on the correct idiom.
27. The adverb always follows the verb.
28. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
29. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
30. And always be sure to finish what

"That's no moon...it's a space station!"

Or, as this article so candidly points out, "that's no moon...it's Pac-Man!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8594101.stm

Dante can go to Hell...oh wait, he already did!

Time for a personal post!

That's right, dear followers (of whom there aren't many...), I am updating. Mainly to avoid some of the mountain of homework that I really must complete sometime in the near future. The weather is absolutely beautiful outside, but I'm inside sitting at my desk. At least my window is open.

As for the title of this post, I want to explain that I have nothing against Dante Alighieri, nor against his Divine Comedy. It just seemed an appropriate title because I'm taking a class on the book; thus, a research paper is in the making (writing?), per the professor's requirements. Also, remembering the circles of Hell that Dante the Pilgrim sees in the Inferno is....hell.

Sorry, that's a rather hellish pun.

So was that.

And for proof that I truly am a literature nerd, this is what I'm currently reading as my not-schoolwork-book: The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl. Literary murder mystery, starring Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and other major figures of literary fame. Did you know Longfellow was the first American to translate The Divine Comedy? I want a copy of his translation now. It's probably epic.

Before picking up this glorious novel by Matthew Pearl, I did not know much of the poetry of James Russell Lowell. Actually, I only really knew the poetry and writings of Longfellow. So, I decided to look up some writings by the other guys. I shall leave you with this poem, even though it is not yet April:

MAY IS A PIOUS FRAUD

by: James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

AY is a pious fraud of the almanac.

A ghastly parody of real Spring

Shaped out of snow and breathed with eastern wind;

Or if, o'er-confident, she trust the date,

And, with her handful of anemones,

Herself as shivery, steal into the sun,

The season need but turn his hour-glass round,

And Winter suddenly, like crazy Lear,

Reels back, and brings the dead May in his arms,

Her budding breasts and wan dislustred front

With frosty streaks and drifts of his white beard

All overblown. Then, warmly walled with books,

While my wood-fire supplies the sun's defect,

Whispering old forest-sagas in its dreams,

I take my May down from the happy shelf

Where perch the world's rare song-birds in a row,

Waiting my choice to upen with full breast,

And beg an alms of springtime, ne'er denied

Indoors by vernal Chaucer, whose fresh woods

Throb thick with merle and mavis all the years.

"May is a Pious Fraud" is reprinted from Under the Willows and Other Poems. James Russell Lowell. Boston: Fields Osgood & Co., 1869.