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This is wonderful! Just this morning I was re-reading the section on Storytime recommendations in your Child.Lit.Gems books & bemoaning the fact that The Noisy Counting was not owned by QBPL & that I could not even see a preview on Google Books….. till…. I realized that it was indeed being reissued…. and now…. glory of all glories, a master children’s librarian herself has treated us to a performance & viewing.

As a somewhat new children’s librarian still trying on a view different voices, I’m thrilled to watch for more of these Storytime Suggestions videos, thanks B!

Well, I think it speaks volumes that I teacher older kids, have older children of my own, know absolutely no one to whom I might read this counting book, and yet still sat here and listened to you read the whole thing over my coffee. (and laughed at every single Ga-DUNK.) Thanks! This was a fine way to start the morning.

Thanks, guys! And like I say, feel free to make your own. I’ll have to figure out something for the older kids, Kate. Booktalk videos, perhaps.

Slam ga-DUNK!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this! I know I have a LOT to learn about storytelling before I get out there in the real world of children’s librarianship. I can only hang around library story times so often without starting to feel creepy– this will be an awesome (and creepless!) resource. Thank you thank you!

Hooray, hooray, hooray! I am indeed ancient of days and remember owning and loving The Noisy Counting Book during its first incarnation, and reading it aloud to my little one (who has now graduated from college! See? I told you I was ancient of days!) Your video rendition is FABULOUS! Thanks for making my morning!

I love this much mucher, muchest!

One question, is the book only being released as a board book? OK a second question, is the board book truncated from the original?

If I could stand to see myself on camera I would love to do this on my blog. I will give it some thought.

I love it! What a wonderful idea. Like a child, I like to be read to also.

Good idea, Fuse. Thanks for being willing to link to others’ video read-alouds as well. It is helpful to see a variety of styles and what works for others.

Emily, in my role as curmudgeon and librarian-storyteller and hoping to be helpful, I do have to point out that read-aloud is not considered the same as storytelling, which is oral tradition–no book in hand.

Ah, yes! It’s always a good idea to distinguish between storytimes and storytelling. I might do some storytelling posts at some point, but truth be told I really only comfortable with one story in particular (Margaret Read MacDonald’s “The Little Rooster and the Turkish Sultan”).

As for the release of The Noisy Counting Book, excellent question. I see that the record does say “Board” but that may refer to the fact that the covers don’t have jackets. They just have the cover image printed directly onto the board of the cover. I will need to get a new copy myself to make certain of this, though.

Oh! And Aunt Judy how INSANE is it that you not only know this book but read it to Jessie growing up! I had absolutely no idea we had a family connection to this title. I feel all the prouder.

haha! first to leave a comment…
Maybe this is just me, but I kinda like caps. I always get annoyed when my friends e-mail me and leave their ‘i’s lowercase.
By the way, this is my first time leaving a comment here!

Oh, Justine, Justine, Justine! I shall certainly miss the NO CAPS rule. But I truly love EXPRESSING! myself. So I THINK I just MIGHT ABUSE this priviledge for a couple of WEEKS before I get BORED with it. SOOOOOOOOOOO…when do we get to find out mor about the UFB?

I agree with Hillary! too!!! I love to express!!!!

But I also miss the no caps rule. It was fun!! I loved it!!! Like SOOOOOO much! (I wanted to play with the no caps thing)

Is there going to be another rule or anything like that again??

I absolutely love that you called it your archy and mehitabel policy.

I found a zombie food pyramid online. I would’ve posted it on the zombie page, but the comments seemed to be closed.

(zombie food pyramid)
http://perfidy.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/zombiefoodpyramid.jpg

OHMIGOD I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!! I can finally capitalize the letter ‘I’ ! Thankies!

new template! new template! new template!

to tell you the truth, i hadn’t even noticed… but i’m going to keep commenting in lowercase. it’s how i roll!

My caps!! They’re back!!! hehe

let’s all have a moment of silence for the no caps rule.

i got so used to the no caps thing that i automatically do it when i’m on a wordpress blog. which isn’t all that often. on livejournal and blogger, i’m all about proper caps.

Patrick: I LIKE this template. I hug it to my chest!

Finally. No Uppercase kind of irks me.

Hm…looks promising. On Word it just looks waaay too scary. Daunting.

Oh wow, that makes a big differance! I want one now!! Too bad I don’t have a mac. They orginize so well. *puffs with jealousy*

Looks very cool. As a PC person, may I recommend http://www.softwareforwriting.com/pagefour.html Page Four? It doesn’t have all the functionality that Scrivener seems to, but it’s a nice, light, many documents visible/workable at once alternative to Word.

I love Scrivener. I’ve been using it for about a year. I use the bits on the right (the inspector?) too. I keep notes there, even pictures, and I use the synopsis cards for keeping track things like what day it is, subplots, and things I need to keep track of for continuity.

Using scrivener makes it so much easier to bounce around inside my story without losing my place. It’s a totally groovy program.

i have never ever ever had good luck with a mac. one time one literally ate my disc. it went in like a normal disc and came out with scratches and gouges in it, plus no information on it. bye bye chemistry lab…….but i’m not bitter. *sigh*

it looks like a cool program, though. less stress is good.

raisin? raisin?  hee! :D

i’ze not fond of word. but it is all i can haz. when i gradjooate colleje, i’ze getting a mac. thenz i get scrivener and then i happydance. yayz!

I am so bitter it is only available for the mac. :’(

That actually looks like it would be really useful for my next term paper.

I’ve been using Scrivener for a little more than a year now, and I really love it. I’m glad to see so many people who love it, too. The fellow who wrote the program is a nice guy as well, and has always provided fast, personal, accurate support whenever I’ve needed it.

i wish i’d had this for my thesis, it looks very cool indeed. probably not worth doing another long document for, though!

i don’t really want scrivener, because i generallly don’t write long documents. what works really well if you are trying to make something pretty (like a brochure, a fancy report, or a flyer) is pages, the mac version of word (yes, another mac-only thing. sorry!) it has a lot of templates, much more than word. it has ones for 3 different types of posters, travel journals, photo journals, several fliers, invitations, 2 postcards, school reports, and a template for quizzes. pages is really bad for a lot of writing, if your not concerned how it looks like. so you wouldn’t want to use it for a rough draft. but if your making something that needs to look well laid out, it’s amazing.

Gina Black: I use the bits on the right (the inspector?) too.

Yup, that’s great too. And if you’re writing a multiple pov novel it’s wonderful being able to label each chapter (or scene) with the correct pov.

If I’d talked about all my fave things the post woulda been ten times as long.

Cat Sparks: I love it so much I sent a gushing fan letter to the dude who invented it. How embarassing.

That’s nothing! I posted my gushing fan letter publicly on the Scrivener forum.

Gwen: the fellow who wrote the program is a nice guy as well, and has always provided fast, personal, accurate support whenever I’ve needed it.

Yup, he’s amazing. I had a prob and he got back to me about it in half an hour.

I’m another huge fan of scrivener. I evangelize it to all of my writer friends. It works well for writing short stories, too. I love being able to track character bios, research notes, outlines and feedback all in one place.

That looks more like a basic text editor as opposed to a word processor. I’ve never had problems with word, though I haven’t tried to combine all the chapters of my WIP either.

As a computer geek, I am often working with GB sized log files and I use TextPad.exe. It can pretty much handle anything.

BTW - is that just Word for mac that is being complained about or is it PC word too? I’m still learning to be more mac savvy these days and haven’t used word on mac to see if/how different it is from the pc version.

Yummy, I’m glad I have a mac.

I like Scrivener, tho I have yet to use it to its full potential.

My favorite feature so far is the index card board, where I can write quick character sketches.

An update. I hadn’t used Scrivener for some time–when I opened it this morning, it asked me if I wanted to update to version 1.11 (I had version 1.03). I updated, at which point Scrivener asked me if I wanted to open the Tutorial because I apparently had never used Scrivener before. Except I had–the files were just made using the old version.

I went roundabout and opened the .scriv files via Document. Scrivener asked me if I wanted to update the files to the new version. I was then warned that I could not try to reopen the updated files with an older version in the future. If I did, Scrivener would update the files again, and likely corrupt them.

Anyway, I updated the files. So far, I can’t get my character sketches to display on Corkboard. The text is still saved, because it shows up when I mouse over the character names on the sidebar. But I can’t open the corkboard itself.

still working through it.

Patrick– The scrivener documentation actually says, i think, that it’s a text editor, not a word processor. But a text editor with special features designed to help out the authors of book-length works.

I have yet to find anything better than loose leaf. I write all my first drafts in pen, then grudgingly type them out.

I can see that might not work so well for novels though….

You said in part “For the Fairy novel I had notes from my editor and others, a list of kinds of fairies”. At first glance I thought you said “my editor and mother” and thought “WOW! Your mum helps you write!” I am not sure that I could let my mum do that, were she still around because of all the gratuitous sex and violence in my NaNo. I realized it was “others” instead and now I am speculating on who these “others” may be. Aliens? The Quokka Liberation Front? Werewolves? Inquiring minds want to know!

PS: I hate Word with the heat of a thousand burning suns, too, but I am not able to upgrade to happy Macland right now. Boo hisss!

this made my day. i downloaded a free trial of scrivener, and it is all things beautiful and wonderful. i can use it for drafting novels (joy) and for writing fancy term papers.

scrivener rocks. i have writ a novel and a half on it, and it makes the whole process so easy i feel like i’m cheating.

i use the inspector when i’m editing too, to put reminders about all the stuff that needs to be added/changed for that chapter, and then delete them as i go.

also, i have a scrivener file to store all my short stories (all=2.5), so when someone says ‘do you have a short story’ i know where to find them all.

AND finally, i love the ‘targets’ function, so I can say i am writing 2000 words today, and i’m not allowed to watch 30 rock until i do.

I use Open Office on my laptop cuz Word 2007 is currently out of my budget and i can’t find the word 2003 cd.

Open Office isn’t as pretty (or as advanced) as word 2007 but it does what i need it to do so i’m not complaining.

Scrivener sounds fantastic though.

Ooooh, it’s so streamlined. And pretty! And if it’s working for you, I just might try it. But how do you send it in to your editor? Does it convert to a word file? And, for those of us whose novels lean dangerously close to the novella, is there a way to see how many pages the document is?

Why is it available for macs only? *is very unhappy* WHY???

I use word, which works well enough. (especially after having written by hand for a couple of months - definitely enough to make one appreciate it). However, I do find it frustrating having to open several (some of them rather lengthy) documents and then constantly flip between them. I’ve often thought there must be a better way! And I only use page breaks to divide up my documents so I can find things (like particular chapters) in them; the rest of the time I use views where they are basically irrelevant.
Scrivener sounds fantastic. I’m terribly annoyed.

I use Word for Mac and I don’t have all those templates that Emily is talking about. Also, I’m in the midst of trying out Scrivener (for the second time — Gina tried to hook me on it a year ago and it didn’t stick) but so far, it’s not sticking for me this time either. I don’t usually keep a lot of files open as I write, but I LOVE having pages, and I don’t have pages here. I have no idea whether I’m looking at the beginning of a chapter or the end. It makes it very hard for me to “see” the pacing, if that makes sense.

My trial goes on for a few weeks more, but I’ll be out of town for most of them.

In all my years using Word for Mac, all my manuscripts, I’ve never had a problem keeping my entire manuscript in one file (knock wood). Splitting them up into chapter files also wouldn’t work for me.

Drat, and just when I thought I could live without a mac.

I found out about this program about a year ago when I first learned Holly liked it. I haven’t found a mac yet, and with such an in depth look at the program, you’re making me crave a mac again!

I dabbled with q10 during nano, and liked the mandatory full screen mode. It also made typewriter noises as you typed. I had two problems with it, I use italics for character thoughts, so when I switched over to word, I had to comb through the document to find all the ‘thought quotes.’ search didn’t help, because I found all of the normal apostrophes.

I used open office’s writer after that, because I couldn’t find a copy of word that would transfer to my archaic laptop. Off nano’s forums, I found out word has an outline feature, which makes it really convenient to separate chapters and scenes.

i tried ywriter too, but wasn’t impressed.

Lucky you with Scrivener! Oh well.

I’ll have to go pick up prom nights from hell. I got 21 proms, and didn’t realize there was a similar compilation out by the other half of my favorite authors.

The WordToolOfSatan sounds like an old time gospel or choir song with lots of handclapping and stomping.

Oh, the word tool of Satan, it’s a-
Comin’ for you, brother! It’s a-
Comin’ for you, sister!
Just! Say! No!

Word will actually do most of what you’re talking about here if you take the time to learn how to do it. Master document function will break a ms up into chapters for you and you can work on individual chapters or on the whole document at once. On the drop down menu under “View,” you’ll find a number of fun tools, like a Document Map that allows you to hop around in your document easily and a Full Screen function that does the same as the Scrivener full screen function. Not trying to convert you back to Word but offering for those who are coveting but can’t have Scrivener. If you are stuck with Word, it’s really worthwhile taking the time to play around with it and learn its many functions. You can do a lot with Reference, Frames and Track Changes tools to keep a project organized.

Effie: I have been using Word for close to twenty years. I have tried all the things you have suggested and they are all kind of broken. Word was never designed for Macs and have never worked for me on them. Well, not since Word 4 when it was simpler and leaner. I’m thrilled it works for you, but way more thrilled that I’ve found scrivener.

I am jealous. I hate microsoft.

I love Scrivener, but I must warn you. If you do not read the instructions, this author’s nightmare could happen to you . . .

http://lisayee.livejournal.com/60457.html

Sigh.

Lisa Yee: I does not wish to be unkind, but, um that kind of looks like a user error . . .

Well, I suppose it could be considered a user error. However, i think that scrivener should come with a pool boy who could prevent that sort of thing from happening.

I owe my novel draft to two things: Novel in 90 and Scrivener.

I just discovered this blog due to a link from Scalzi’s Whatever — great blog you have here.

And I cast another vote for Scrivener — I’ve been using it for several months and written about 25,000 words of a novel in it.

I have only one concern with it — I’m a little bit fanatical about standardizing formats for word-processing files. Some science-fiction writers will occasionally try to access a story they wrote twenty years ago in a word-processor that doesn’t exist anymore, and they find they can’t open the file. I’m worried about that happening with Scrivener. For that reason, I’m thinking of switching at some point to plain text files for drafts, then importing to Word for the final draft.

OTOH, Scrivener is just so damn good, I’m in no rush to make the change.

The New York Times reviewed Scrivener a day or two ago. Your review is better.

@Mitch Wagner: Scrivener doesn’t use a proprietary file format; the .scriv file is essentially just a folder containing all the project files, so even if the program is no longer installed, all the content is still accessible as text files. Admittedly, text files with fairly unhelpful file names.

that is so wonderful that you went on a real holiday. sometimes being “off the grid” can be a real relief!

my holiday…my little boy’s first christmas was wonderful…but the weekend before was not so wonderful. i needed emergency gall bladder surgery!! but now no more gall bladder attacks in the dead of night…

i’m rambling. just wanted to say happy holidays. and that i love the picture of you and scott on his blog!!

Hope you’re recovering well from the surgery. Yikes!

I am less enamoured of that photo on account of I had the flu and the glands around my neck are all swollen. Blerk.

I love Free Rice! Best way to spend time when you’re bored… haha.

free rice…a bit random?? Lol

ouch, swollen glands. those hurt super bad.

Kadie-Wa: Free rice is the game I linked to above. I’ll edit the post to make it clear.

And, yes, swollen glands are most horrible!

i’m recovering from the surgery more slowly than i’d like, but that’s life. every day is better, so i guess it’s going well.

and yes, free rice is way fun! addicting though..

I hate holidays. Mention holidays and the next thing you know, I’m on the other side of the world. I really can’t bear not being able to write. It sucks.

Something else that bugs me is that I can’t write in uppercase and that is really starting to get on my nerves.

EEek! I just realised I’m touch typing and I have never been able to do it before. It feels weirds but cool at the same time.

Congrats on going on a holiday! And a real holiday.

i love free rice! i’m addicted!

i love free rice! Its soo much fun

I have donated 100 grains of rice.

I am completely in love with Free Rice! I challenged my friends to donate 100,000 grains of rice in seven days as a group. Well, we didn’t reach our goal, but it was super fun and we still donated lots. And. Lots. Of. Rice.

It’s a really good idea. Everyone! Gather a group together, set a goal and a time limit and improve your vocabulary!!

justine, has anyone ever told you how awesome you are?

Free rice is so addictive; since you know you’re doing something vaguely good for the world and improving your vocabulary, it’s so easy to just keep on clicking! I’m annoyed by the mixture of words that I thought everyone knew already and words I’ve never heard of.

Did your holiday allow you to keep up with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy test?

And do you (or any australians you know) ever become fatigued of the baggy green’s greatness? just curious.

tim=And do you (or any australians you know) ever become fatigued of the baggy green’s greatness? just curious.

NOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOoo! But the sweetheart is from England and he has politely requested that I, ahem, tone down my enthusiam a bit. I am hoping when we are permanently on the same continent that this will not raise an issue, especially since it will be his continent.

its fawesome!

You did a marvelous job! I have a very good idea of how hard the work was, ahving just redone my own a few weeks ago. You have my full and whole-hearted admiration, approval, fondness, and jealousy!

Bless you both!

It looks just amazing — you did a marvelous job. As my company’s website maintainer, I know nothing is ever as easy as you think it’s going to be, so I congratulate you on not beating up anything or anyone in the process.

And I had to vote for MS word in the new poll, because I just got office 2007 and the “ribbon” thing that is supposed to be “intuitive” is so very not intuitive to me. It makes me want to smack whoever came up with that concept.

Looks incredible. Sleek, and super attractive.

heather, you’re describing me there. how do you feel about scott’s new look blog, though?

omg! i totally and completely love scott’s new blog. go you!

also, i admire you diligently working on your deadline, considering i have something due tomorrow and have not done it. oh god, i really should be working . . .

i had to vote for deadlines on the poll, because they kind of cover some of the other topics (i.e. word and templates only crash when you have a huge deadline).

ohh my goodness graciounesslessness. i just baked some pavlova today. for the first time ever. it was absolutely ahhmazzing. [even though i sort of messed it up a little..]

hmm..tsk tsk working on scotts site when you have a deadline to worry about. but it’s so happy-making, i forgive you. =]

Don’t you mean herding sheep? Or perhaps cattle? Cats aren’t herded.

i love the new look of scott’s blog. it’s even cooler than the last one (which was pretty awesome). cheers to you!

Diana: you are in such big trouble!

Whoa, you were doing this on top of a writing deadline?? i salute and congratulate you, it takes a very strong woman to make it through server-moving and re-templating. did you use many bad words?

oh, and it looks great!

Marrije: Procrastination comes in many flavours. Some of them taste really bad.

I kind of like being 100% of the votes… and I am not even from Australia. (:

You have skewed my poll! So were you answering it as if you were an Australian? Because I can’t imagine anyone from Seattle missing the weather . . .

Drat those pesky deadlines….

Poor old Justine. Hang in there!

If only there was a way to parcel up sunshine and mangosteens and red duck curry served in a coconut without seriously pissing off australia post . . .

Oh yes. I answered as if I were Australian. I would not want to intentionally… ruin the poll. I also would have asked my good Australian friend what he would miss, but he was not there to ask. So I just imagined his answer. Long story short, I’m sure if I were from Australia I would miss the weather most. It has got to be loads better than Seattle’s weather right now. Bleh.

Kaleb: Indeed.

Hereandnow: Stupid Australia Post!

Capt. Cockatiel: No worries. I was just amused at the idea of anyone in Seattle saying they missed the weather.

justine: If someone in Seattle missed the weather I would be extremely surprised. Anyone in their right mind should run far, far away from this weather. If I could, I would. ^_^

I miss it all, and I’ve never even been to Australia. But between you and my dear Australian pen-pal (hi, Aimee!), I’m quite sure it is a place well worth missing.

~Mary

If anyone understands about deadlines, I do. Good luck with the “death march”; I just got out of several back-to-back, and may be headed for another if I have too much fun instead of knuckling under.

As for ovens in New York apartments:

Most apartments have an oven of some sort. (Those that don’t often make do with a cheap, battered toaster oven for the odd bagel or two.

However, many ovens are effectively nonfunctional for one reason or another, such as being switched off for having a leaky pilot light, being so caked with grease that they set off the smoke detector every time you turn them up above “warm,” or being stuffed with dirty pots and pans, old manuscripts, books, drugs, etc. Never turn on a New York oven without looking inside it first. And then, when you do turn it on, prepare for the rush of suddenly dispossessed cockroaches–or worse.

All in all, going out for pizza is a much better idea.

i’ze not aussie so i can’t do the poll, but my aussie friend jess says “family and friends,” which i agree wholeheartedly with. that is what i would miss most if i were somewhere else. although, the weather might be nicer. i know i have no right to complain, seeing as south and central texas have quite mild winters compared to other places, but i’d still rather be wearing my shorts and t-shirts. except for scarves. i like scarves.
keep hacking away at that deadline!

i just remembered something totally random: did you ever get cowboy boots?

First of all, it was my receptionist who voted for the jerboa from her desk at my office. Once I told her the jerboa was in jeopardy, she logged right on.

Anyhow, multiple votes (if they had occurred) are nothing compared to some of the atrocities you committed during the poll.

so remember, whenever you point your finger at someone else, there are three more pointing back at yourself.

(or something like that)

i havent been on in a while…

wanted to tell you that you need to post more about your faerie book. hehe. i love that spelling. fairy seems…fairytaleish. but faerie seems all magestic and sly. different spellings are appropriate for different settings. which spelling do you use in your book?

-Lizzy-wa OUT!

good luck with the deadlines horror! will be thinking of you.

and don’t worry about the rewrite post, at least not on my account: i printed the first draft of my nano novel, and am currently unable to do more with it. since ohmygod the embarrassment of the thing, aaaargh.

*dies*
*and is dead*, as elizabeth bear might say

lizzy-wa: I’ll be posting heaps more about the Fairy book as soon as the cover is finalised. But in the meantime it’s definitely “fairy” not “faery” in my book. My fairies are invisible and are not even slightly majestic. They’re very silly.

Marrije, not to worry several others have been expressing their keen-ness to see the “How to rewrite” post. I’m pretty sure you’ve only mentioned it once.

Most people’s first drafts are shocking. Mine certainly are.

marrije, i so totally know what you mean. for the 2nd year in a row, i haven’t even bothered to print or read over my nano novel. it’s that bad. le sigh.

I don’t think you have been sufficiently praised for bringing Scott’s site back to life!

[…] I’m still dealing with you know what I thought I’d share a couple more flowers from my parent’s place. I don’t know […]

cutest little hoppity creature ever!!

and while i am from florida, i live in new york right now. so i understand your suffering (my fingers are close to frozen right now). while i’m not a big ourdoorsy person, i am very satisfied to know that when i’m home in florida there is SUN outside my window. it makes me exponentially happy to know that the sun is there ready to shine down on me. but i like the air conditioning more than most folks. i don’t actually like being hot…

but the storms are nice!

good luck revising!

Well I went for quokkas… but it was hard. The jerboas are really adorable too. But mice freak me out a bit. I like something a little bigger.

me don’t like capuchin monkeys because of the movie night at the musuem.

Puhhh-leeeze. Having a poll about quokkas on your blog is like having a poll in South Florida about whether or not you like the early-bird special. Not to mention that you put quokkas at the very top of your list and jerboas at the very bottom.

Proceed Justine, but know that it is under protest…

Not to mention the 8 1/2 x 11 photo of the quokka right next to the poll. Do I see equal time for the jerboa? nowhere!!! You are a scoundrel!

I love quokkas!! Jerboas are cute and funny and freaky, but quokkas win hands-down!

Eric: My blog, my rules! Run your own poll!

Though I’d like to point out this is how many polls are run. Why in Australia we had a whole referendum on getting rid of the monarchy that was much more rigged.

j.o.u.s.? jerboas of unusual size? I don’t think they really exist.

Oh, gosh it was close. I am near-obsessed with all things tiny, but quokkas are so furry and wallaby-ish! And they’re small, too, if not quite so small as jerboas.

~Mary

i would just like to note that I voted for the sloth, but only under sufferance. my smalldog is much cuter than *all* of those animals.

however sloths are pretty awesome. from the wikipedia entry:

Sloths’ claws serve as their only natural defense. A cornered sloth may swipe at its attackers in an effort to scare them away or wound them. Despite sloths’ apparent defenselessness, predators do not pose special problems: in the trees sloths have good camouflage and, moving only slowly, do not attract attention . . . They are particularly partial to nesting in the crowns of palm trees where they can camouflage as coconuts. They come to the ground to urinate and defecate only about once a week. Infant sloths normally cling to their mother’s fur, but occasionally fall off. Sloths are very sturdily built and rarely die from a fall . . . Females normally bear one baby every year, but sometimes sloths’ lack of movement actually keeps females from finding males for longer than one year.

That’s just cool.

. . . here ends ‘fun facts about sloths’.

i like cockapoos!!!!
aw…
and pikachu!!!

but uhm… sloths scare me… I have a sloth! My nina adopted one at a zoo under my name…

you should not be a rabbit farmer. you should be a quokka farmer.

there are no kittens or baby rats* on that poll so i do not know how to decide.

is it bad that i have to google two of those animals just to know what they are?

p.s. i think the comment preview whatsit has died.

——
* domesticated ones, mind you. i’m not too big on the wild rats, though they can be cute sometimes.

I voted for the jerboa. sorry. But then, me likey unicorns, so you know we have different taste.
but are we having lunch at some point?

E. I am a zombie guy all the way, but I’m glad we are in solidarity over the jerboa. And we do have the same initials, which maybe means something.

Rebecca: I upgraded the preview plug-in with the result that it stopped functioning. When deadline is met I will try to fix.

E. & Eric: Also you both share the distinction of both being banned from this blog! Jerboas, indeed.

Why aren’t red pandas in the list? I like red pandas. While quokkas are supercute, red pandas are cuter.

I thought a jerboa was a plant but on reflection I was probably thinking of a gerbera.

my resident cute animals guy just walked in when i was looking at the quokka (uh-oh!) and he says yes, definitely cute. i quickly had to show him oodles of cuteoverload-kitties & such so he won’t fall in love with the quokka and make us move to australia after all. so far so good. please don’t let on about it being summer in aus. at the moment.

you won’t really ban me
you adore me
besides, I am firmly opposed to stirrup pants and shrugs

I also have never worn stirrup pants…and I don’t even know what a shrug is.

where is this poll you speak of? *looks around site* i think it’s hiding from me.

Eww…armadillos? Have the people who voted for them *seen* armadillos? (armadilloes?)

Aww, that’s adorable!! ^^
Armadillo. armadillo. armadillo is a really cool name <3

for me, it was a tough call between quokkas and jerboas, but in the end, i went with jerboas. sorry justine. they have the cutest name!

also, i had to google jerboas and capuchin monkeys. is that bad?

[…] Justine has been posting about how cute quokkas are lately, so I thought this would be […]

You can’t see their nasty Freddy-Krueger like talons in that photo.

I’ve only encountered quokkas once - on Rottnest Island, where they waylay cyclists in order to get food.

One of them scratched my hand while grabbing some food, so paying heed to signposted warnings about salmonella in the local quokka population, I cycled around to the local nurse’s hut. I explained what had happened, and got this deadpan stare from her “oh poor diddums does we think we’re going to die?”

I mumbled a protest about the sign, and she just indicated the sink “oh go wash your hands”.

they might be one of the most adorable species i’ve ever seen.

i love their name. ah, native floridians. who have no cool native animals. okay, that’s not true. but none as cute and unscale-y as those little poofballs.

i want one…. do they hop?

i just have to say that it’s really cool to see your comments on scott’s blog. You are just so much more fiesty than he is. I like it… haha!

also, what’s it like being married to a fellow writer? (you must be asked this a lot). I’m a writer, and usually date musicians… it must be said, that they are moody and way too sensitive (as a writer, i think i MUST be very sarcastic) and even though they’re really cute, they always bug the hell out of me, and then never think that writers are artists… NOT COOL. I think I want to try out a painter next… drummers just always have the best hair! ahh

to the point… I like winter clothes, especially scarfs! (I was just knitting one, but i ran out of yarn -_-) but yes, the cold is not very fun.

-Liset (who is sorry for this VERY long comment)

Okay, the poll didn’t have an answer for me. I’m in Brisbane, and it’s summer now, but the worst thing about winter was that it was way too hot. The worst thing about summer is that it’s way too hot. Also, it is way too humid but at some point there will be a thunderstorm, so I guess it’s alright.
Also, quokkas kinda creep me out. Possums do too, actually.

Also, liset - I make it a rule never to date writers or songwriters anymore, because they are always cute, always say the perfect thing and i always end up kicking them in the shins.

oh, i can say “you’re insane” because i’m in california.

it was sunny an’ gorgeous today - a little cold, like 55 degrees f. - so i bundled up in scarf and coat - but still brilliantly blue, and perfect.

you sound like me! the cold is so miserable. Is there somewhere on this earth that isn’t scourged by it at some time of the year, or do we just have to keep hopping continents to run from it?

Yeah, I put that you’re insane, too, because it’s 80 in FL and my orange tree is giving me fresh homegrown oranges, which is comforting, because if it was giving me watermellons, I’d be a little concerned.

Better to envy this summer from a distance: it’s a stinker. More humid than any summer since 1984. I would hang my t-shirt out to dry with me still in it if I thought it would help. And I’m up in Canberra - I believe Sydney is worse. The storms are worse, too, in Sydney.

Did that cheer you up? Knowing that you could be here and complaining about the weather instead of there and complaining about the weather?

Gillian: You don’t understand! I love humidity! I love summer storms! Once the temperature gets above 20C I’m happy. Unbearably hot for me is over 45C.

I think I’m going to have to ban everyone who lives somewhere without actual winter: ie Brisbane, Sydney, California, Florida etc. Those places do not have winter. If it doesn’t hurt to breathe, if you don’t have to wear hat, gloves, scarf, and michelin man coat from head to toe to go outside for more than a few seconds you are not living in real winter.

I hereby bequeath you every future humid day for the next 20 years. (I’m a kind person )

I hate snowpants. I hate them I hate them I hate them. Actually, they are better than snowoveralls.

I think winter should only be cold on snow-days.

I’m in the loves winter category, real winter too, Minnesota/Wisconsin we’ve got two feet of snow and it was 0 degrees Fahrenheit here last night winter. Skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, hooray. BTW, we’ve met at WisCon. I mostly lurk but felt the need to defend true winter just this once.

I’m in Arizona and we are having a typical arizona winter here. It has been 60F and a little rainy. But this week is supposed to clear up and be in the mid 60’s (f). You’d like it here!

You should move to Georgia…our high today is supposed to be 76 and its been hot all weekend and the likelyhood of snow is slim and none for this winter…

I hate the getting dark so early, but I kind of like my winter clothes. I live in Dallas, TX, so it doesn’t get particularly cold here. I think last year it got down to 19 once, and that was about it. Right now I just wish it would pick one. It has been going:
Monday - 79
Tuesday - 80
Wednesday - 43
Thursday - 45
Friday - 81
Agg. 43 isn’t *that* cold, but it sure feels cold when it was 80 the day before!

the dark is getting me down a bit at the moment. I’ve started buying insane amounts of candles and even (gasp) a little wooden plate to put my candles on, to huge laughs from my boyfriend who accuses me of ‘decorating’.

Justine: “Sydney winters are lovely.”

But also: “I think I’m going to have to ban everyone who lives somewhere without actual winter: ie Brisbane, Sydney, California, Florida etc. Those places do not have winter.”

Hmmm…..

Growing up in Northern California has spoiled me for any other climate, I’m afraid. I don’t like cold weather, which means anything that makes my ears cold. I don’t like hot weather, especially when it’s humid, which means anything other than bone dry. If it rains for more than about two days in a row, I start to feel sulky.

winters are the times that let us know that living is not easy or a given. That’s the beauty of snow and ice, the beauty of life in all its hard won glory glistening right outside your window, your shelter, the original cave redecorated. real seasons remind us of the world turning and those times where the veil between worlds is it thinest.

Steve: real seasons remind us of the world turning and those times where the veil between worlds is it thinest.

So does sickness and death and I ain’t loving them either.

you are bad.

Wow, I am 100% of the votes!

nno your not!

I feel for you Justine! I’ve lived the last 6 years in SoCal, so when it hits 70 degrees I’m DYING of cold. And the rational part of my brain tells me my cousins in Illinois would think 70 is just heavenly. BUT IT IS NOT WHEN YOU ARE USED 100 DEGREES!

steve: philosofical answers are not happy. i don’t like having to justify my answers for why i hate winter.

also, justine, i am totally with you on the banning people who don’t have real winter on blogs about coldness. if i read one more comment on how it is gorgeous with sunny blue skies and 60s/70s/80s in places that i don’t live in i will scream. seriously. people who are experiencing good weather cannot comment on this post.

Hilary!: That’s right. It’s all relative. And relative to what I’m used the current temperatures in NYC are killing me!

Calliope: You tell them! Smug bastards. We don’t care that they’re warm, do we? I hope surf boards fall on every single one of them. Even if they live inland.

justine: “I think I’m going to have to ban everyone who lives somewhere without actual winter: ie Brisbane, Sydney, California, Florida etc. Those places do not have winter. If it doesn’t hurt to breathe, if you don’t have to wear hat, gloves, scarf, and michelin man coat from head to toe to go outside for more than a few seconds you are not living in real winter.”

even the ones who try to send you sunshine?

My sweetheart lives in England and he is all NOT enjoying winter either. I frequently tease him by telling him “oh yes, I played cricket on the beach today (true) in a purple bikini (not true, everyone knows the proper cricket bikini colour is white….)” but I would not do that to you justine! I just do it to him because he is a guy and it is fun to watch his eyes roll up in his head when his brain short circuits via webcam.

I remember when I was living in the US, in a southern place where snow was unusual. I had just gotten my driver’s licence and drove to work one night. It was bitterly cold, which was weird for that area. I came out of the hospital where I worked at 4 am to 6 inches of SNOW! I watched one of the residents come slip-sliding into the parking lot, went inside and called a cab! I picked up my car that afternoon when the snow had melted.

Sorry for the long-winded postage!

you’re right of course. it’s hard to stay unhappy when there’s a pool and sunshine outside the back door… even if sweat does drip off you just after you’ve got out of the shower.

i officially ban myself. i’ll be floating in the pool, sipping a mai tai while i wait for you all to finish.

oh, is that a quokka running by? No, just that damn possum that keeps me awake all night. grrr.

I probably can’t be one to complain compared to northern hemisphere weather, but Sydney’s summer weather has hardly been a treat so far.

There’s been six heavy storms in the space of a week — and I don’t mean nice summer storms either. Torrential downpours … inches of rain in 10 minutes, with multiple hail storms that have seriously damaged property and even lead to one death …

It still hasn’t been cold here in Sydney, but damn it’s miserable weather for summer — grey and dark for most of December.

Again, I know it’s still paradise compared to a northern winter, but it’s meant to be summer here!

Ah, well, does it feel better when you get well or skate by death (I’m one of those weird people that death doesn’t scare, not to be confused with idiots that casually tempt it)? calliope, sorry for the philosophical sounding answer.

Okay, so which is better, sweating on the bed for no good reason or snuggling in the warmth of blankets?

I did a stint of work in Dallas, one morning the temps were actually a comfortable 70, I was driving to work with the windows rolled down and my arm out the side. Everybody else had their heaters on.

we had a cold front recently and the low was 54. felt kinda chilly!!

I don’t think we have read winter here in WA (by, you know, snow standards), but my school is all outside. They lock all the rooms at lunch! We are forced to eat out in the cold and rain and slush! Or, you know, in the bathrooms. >.> OUR TOES FREEZE!

Actually, I just eat outside anyway because the rooms smell funny, but if they didn’t smell funny it would be even worse. But the smelly rooms are not the point here. The point is the frozen toes that then have to kick balls around for PE. And everyone who has ever kicked a ball with numb toes knows that it hurts. It’s all rather horrible, really.

quokkas can just wander freely?!? Cool.

You know justine, there are some sites that you can make polls like that and put it on your blog.

Wow, this is the first I have heard of this species, though in the back of my mind I knew that there are plenty of animals, and particularly marsupials, I am still unaware of.

As for winter: As you know, I live within a mile of you, and I think this weather sucks. I walk around wrapped in layer after layer of garments, and at home I huddle wrapped in blankets. Not wild about all the dark either. Spring can come anytime.

your quokkas are not nearly as cute as these little buggers, just discovered in Mongolia. They are called long-eared jerboas and they hop around like teeny tiny kangaroos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7130484.stm

You can keep your quokkas; I’m a jerboa man all the way!

Eric: You can keep ‘em. Jerboas ain’t marsupials. I don’t hold with anything but marsupials as pets.

justine i am with you all the way. dark, depressing ice storm freezing my cute bootie off is NOT my ideal way of life.

AND THEN DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT NASTY WEATHER DOES?

it makes you sick.
like a dog.
*sniffle*
*cough*
*gag*
*cries*

and i wanted all caps for that one line, why you eat my caps justine? it was just for emphasis! heehee

[…] Eric Luper had the temerity to suggest that quokkas are not the cutest animals on the planet I have devised a new poll. It goes up exactly a day after the last one which I successfully managed […]

Here is my tribute to the long-eared jerboa on my blog:

http://eluper.livejournal.com/53301.html

Of particular interest to children’s writers…

oh, justine, you have read my mind and articulated my thoughts even better than i had.

why, why, why must they send us junk mail? why, why, why must there be people out there — however small a percentage they may be — who buy from the ads and encourage these advertisers to keep sending the stuff?

i want to opt out! i want a say in how many trees get cut down because of me, and to what purpose! i think we deserve that right.

paper for books = immense goodness

paper for useless ads and mailbox clutter of all types = horrendous badness

and hey–do i have my time zones wrong, or are you really blogging at 2 in the morning?

~Mary

the company that does my water charges a $2.50 fee to pay the bill online but nothing for me to use up an envelope and a stamp and send it in. stupid stupid stupid.

in spite of how cool the kindle looks, i’m still an ebook skeptic. i heart my bookshelf. reading on a glowing screen is not for me. maybe i’ll eat my words someday (ha!) but right now i don’t want to read anything lengthy on a computer. i always print the long stuff.

I love the smell of books! E-mail is a lot easier for cards and I have three paper cuts on one hand. Also, today isn’t a snow day. : (

*sobs and realizes she has to do her english project superduper fast*

“Knee-high to a grasshopper” is one expression I haven’t heard before, I likeys.

Yes yes, trees are nice, but you will never ever convince me not to love mail. (Not junk mail, real mail.) email’s speedy and all, but I miss letters! And if you ask me, a good letter is just as snuggle-worthy as a book.

robin: by all means love snail mail. All I ask is that you not send me any.

Nothing is black and white, using renewable resources like forests which can be replanted endlessly seems a much preferable way then stripmining the earth for coal and powering the electricity for your email with massive polluting factories.

mark - logic is no fair, please stick to purely emotional pleas. I hope to receive holiday cards via owl.

That is completely true. No ebook will have that wonderful book smell. I have to admit, that’s one of the things I love about stepping into a bookstore. The book smell. As weird as that sounds, (or reads, actually) it’s totally true.

Mark: So you’re saying it’s more efficient to cultivate a tree, chop it down, process the paper, print the catalog, then transport the catalog by air and ground to my door, than to email and read the catalog onscreen?

Let’s fact check that, shall we? Computers that display emails have been produced that can be powered by a hand crank. Zero paper mills, printing presses, binding factories, or mail trucks exist that are equipped with a hand crank. That hand crank would be too large.

Some stuff is black and white. That’s why we have the words “black” and “white.”

i too hate junk mail, and have one of those handy stickers on my mail box that stops me getting any. but i curse the fact whenever i have a large group of people wanting to order pizza. is there no sticker that says ‘no junk mail except cheap pizza vouchers’? i think there is actually, but the junk mail person would take it as an open invitation to hide 50,000 catalogues inside. all that said, i do love my books in dead-tree format, but after meeting a woman who loves catalogues but does not read, well, she probably kills less trees than me. although she probably wouldn’t mind reading them electronically and printing out any vouchers. why do they persist with electronic book readers but not electronic catalogue readers?

I gotta say I am very skeptical about this e-book thingy. And I agree junk mail is stoopid and wasteful. And yes, jpgs are better, but postcards are good too when you are getting one of Maureen Johnson’s limited edition Suite Scarlet Holiday Greeting Cards. Only then are post-cards a fun idea.

Hilary!: You know what’s funny? This whole rant started because Maureen asked me for my address so she could send me a Christmas card. After several exchanges she said she would send me a paper-eating zombie instead. I’m still waiting for it to show up.

me likes getting mail as long as it is not junk mail, so pointless!

justine, do you want a e-card christmas greeting?

I love dead-tree books, but junk mail has got to go. Seeing as the future is in computers, why does everyone insist on sending ads? It’s truly a waste of trees and trees are awesome. We can replant the ones we chops down, but there’s some sort of mistique in an old tree. I will never give up paper books though.
Oh, and Patrick is right. Commenting should be restricted to emotions only. No logic! Logic is evil and burns my eyes when I read it.

Trees are not cut down just to make paper. Paper is made out of the stuff left over after they make everything else they want to make out trees. You know: furniture, houses, that kind of thing. Paper is made out of scrap.

And I’m sorry, but junk mail is like cockroaches. Stop them through snail mail and they come in electronically. I’m really sick of spam even more than I am of the credit card offers.

Justine, here is my christmas card to you. check out http://www.catalogchoice.org/#welcome and get your name off of all of those catalogs you don’t want to get.

Hey Justine

Just a little while ago, Julius Lester was talking on his blog about catalogue pollution. And he mentioned a group called catalogchoice.org where you can get yourself taken off catalogue mailing lists. “Once registered you go to their very extensive database of catalogs, find the catalog you no longer wish to receive, click on it, type in the customer number from the catalog, if there is one, and that’s it. The organization takes care of the rest. They say it can take up to ten weeks to be removed from a catalog’s data base, and if you aren’t, you let Catalog Choice know.” Maybe this would work for you.

BTW, I’m not a big fan of Christmas Cards either.

I want a mail truck powered by a hand crank.

I want an internet powered by hand crank. Not just powered by cranks with time on their hands. Oh my. How many fingers do I have pointing back at myself? Hmm.

justine, i got one of those annoying email forwards from my parents recently which was really useful and satisfying–all about what to do about junk mail. it’s kinda long so i’ll just link to where i posted it myself. the upshot is: send them their mail back … at their expense.

I’m writing a paper on health and environment (alot of it dealing with trees, and the timber wars) and i came across the lorax, by dr. seuss. And i just must say, “lorax, please come out of hidding. save the world from useless paper spam. it makes justine sad, which is just no good. but please, please, please, don’t take away my bookies…. i loves them….”

and yes, it’s 1 am.
and yes, i am very very very tired…

does anybody watch the preview while they type instead of the actual typing box, even though it’s way slower? i do….

^-^