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It's all about the link. Make sure your minilessons link to ongoing work. Link to making choices. Link to all the other minilessons. Link to the charts and resources in the room. Most of all link your minilesson always to problem solving and independence.

With the Forts series wrapped up, I've moved onto something else, and believe it or not that something else is getting released in March!


Goats Eat Cans is coming soon!

What the heck is Goats Eat Cans and why should you care about it?Trust me when I tell you that you're going to like this thing.

If you hated Forts and you hate me for writing Forts, you're still going to like this.

Goats Eat Cans isn't Forts. It's nothing like Forts.Nothing at all.

Click the picture below to head over the official Goats site.You won't regret it.


Maybe.

If you're one of the lazy schmoes out there that hasn't purchased the book yet, Jenn over at Booksessed is offering up a chance to win not only a copy of Fathers and Sons, but Liars and Thieves as well.

That's right. Two books for doing almost nothing at all.

It's that easy.

Oh, and there's also a free piece of original art thrown in there.

Giveaway ends on the 10th. click the linky-link below and get on it.

Phil McAndrew Lays It Down For Those Who Need It Layed:

In a new blog post Phil McAndrew reminds us illustrators what is important and how we can get to where we want to be. I for one needed the kick in the ass. Here is just one of his “tips” click through to read the whole thing. 

If you don’t enjoy drawing enough to want to do it every single day then you should probably find another line of work! I don’t know about other freelancers, but I work seven days a week.

Creativity is a muscle. If you want that muscle to stay strong you’ve got to use it every day. If you fall out of the habit of drawing every day it can be really tough to pick it up again. Muscles weaken much faster than they grow. So don’t stop drawing ever! Take a sketchbook with you everywhere. Keep a sketchbook next to your bed. Keep one in your backpack or hand bag. Delete Angry Birds from your phone and spend your time doodling while you’re waiting in line at the bank or riding the subway from 181st Street to Union Square. Drawing is your religion.

Congratulations to the first 2k11/Elevensie swag pack winner, Susan Berger from Pen and Ink!

Here's a post that ran Friday at Emily Freeman's Chatting at the Sky.
A must read for writers :: 14 Ways to Make Mediocre Art

Tribal Writer :: Why You Should -- Or Maybe Shouldn't -- Be Blogging
The Shrinking Violets :: An Agent's View: Talking with Jennifer Laughran
Genreality :: Promotional Cargo Cults
Kristen Lamb's Blog :: Maximize Your Social Media Impact -- Understanding Influence
The Class of 2k11: Interview with Kristen Cappy

If you're bored (which you no doubt are if you're bothering to read this blog) why not head over and have a look at the unofficial trailer for the new book.

Clicky, clicky the linky below(y).

*tumbleweed*

November 10th already, eh? Dang...I sort of don't even know where to begin to catch you all up. So, I'm not really going to try. Here are some highlights to tide you over!

Link

Travis became Link (from Legend of Zelda) for Halloween. It was pretty much fantastic.

We went around to a handful of houses and everyone thought he was Robin Hood. I had to carefully explain that he wasn't Robin Hood and that he was the hero of Hyrule, Link! I got weird looks from my neighbors.

"Oh, just give him his candy already."

One thing that was pretty interesting was the house I like to call the McCain house. We approached the place and they had a t-shirt with 'McCain' on it, all lit up like it was something scary. Which...really, kind of would have been, you know? But when we got to the house, the lady inside was decked out in a sweatshirt and when Travis approached she asked how old he was. She then rifled through her different bins (?) inside the house and gave us a bag, all tied up. When we got home, we opened it and found a green teddy bear wearing a t-shirt that said 'Gift From God.'

Huh. I didn't know God was down with green teddies.

But seriously...keep your politics and religion to yourself on Halloween, you know? Jeez, lady.

Movies

I've discovered the coolest thing ever last week and I'm so excited. I'm about to lose control. And you know what? I think I like it. I was once again commissioned to make a short film for work. My only problem was, I never really had anything in the way of editing software. I always had to turn to pros to work the buttons and stuff while I sort of bossed them around. My only real attempt was the pancake puff video I made and that was pretty stiff. Well, no more!!! I'm now able to completely change the way I blog/vlog/make short films. The thing is called Pinnacle Studio Move Box Ultimate...and it...is...awesome. For reals. I can pull clips from any sort of media you can think of. DVD? Check. VHS tapes from yesteryear? Chickety check. Stuff I recorded on DVR? Yes, Alice. I know I might be like 2 years behind everyone on this, but this bodes well.


Lego Indiana Jones = Crack

I've been like an addict lately with the ol' Wii. They had a deal where if you bought 2 Wii games at Target, you'd get one free. So, I bought a couple for me, one for my kid. (we got him Wii Music...shh...don't tell him). One of the games I got for myself was Lego Indiana Jones.


Friends...it's like heroin. Or a big ol' box of crack cocaine. I was sort of sick for the last week with the mother of all cold and ol' Indy took good care of me. I even stayed up until 2:30am playing the stupid game. Yeah. I know.

Bloggity Bloggity

You know...I've been sort of bored blogging lately. Sure, I like to blame GOODHALO 2, my lack of time, etc, etc...but truthfully, I'm just sort of feeling uninspired. You know? It's not like cool stuff isn't happening in life right now, but the sheer task of having to write it all down feels stale by the time I write about it. So...I'm looking to do things a little differently. I kind of want to change things up a bit. You know, maybe do more vlog-type stuff, maybe post old stories from the Golden Age of my writing life, and I don't know...have more fun with this dumb thing.

Delusions of grandeur? Probably. But really, there's so much to talk about most days I sort of get overwhelmed and end up not writing anything. I'd like to change that. We'll see how it goes.

All right...I can hear the pull of a certain John Williams score kicking in...until next time, yo.

It is my absolute favorite time of the year on the OUPBlog. Word of the Year time (or WOTY as we call it in the office). Every year the New Oxford American Dictionary prepares for the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year. The 2008 Word of the Year is (drum-roll please) hypermiling.

Do you keep the tires on your car properly inflated to maximize your gas mileage? Have you removed the roof rack from your vehicle to streamline the car and reduce drag? Do you turn your engine off rather than idle at long stoplights? If you said yes to any of these questions you just might be a “hypermiler.”

Some history:
“Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs this web site. “Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

Many of the methods followed by hypermilers are basic common sense—drive the speed limit, avoid hills and stop-and-go traffic, maintain proper tire pressure, don’t let your car idle, get rid of excess cargo—but others practiced by some devotees may seem slightly eccentric:
• driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals)
• parking so that you don’t have to back up to exit the space
• “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining

The hypermiling movement has been criticized for its alleged promotion of driving tactics that are considered dangerous or illegal, such as overinflating tires, rolling through stop signs, and following closely behind large vehicles to cut down on wind resistance. The American Automobile Association (AAA) has issued statements condemning hypermiling as unsafe, while hypermilers have countered that AAA’s characterization of hypermiling is a misrepresentation (see links below for more info).

Hypermiling has also gotten some positive attention in 2008, gaining mainstream traction as gas prices soared and the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, especially those from foreign sources, has become more apparent. A new initiative launched by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers and supported by such notables as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger advocates the practice, referring to it as EcoDriving.

President-elect Barack Obama observed during his campaign that Americans could save as much oil as would be produced by proposed off-shore drilling if only they kept their tire pressures at recommended levels and took their cars in for regular tune-ups. Republicans’ subsequent criticisms of Obama’s statement put these measures advocated by hypermilers in the center of the debate between conservation and drilling as solutions to Americans’ foreign oil dependence problem.

A growing number of Americans favor hypermiling as a sensible set of practices for all drivers who are concerned about their wallets, the environment, and fuel independence, not just for those on the fringe who are obsessed with increasing their MPG numbers.

Related Links…

AAA on hypermiling

Wayne Gerdes response to AAA

Links relating to “EcoDriving”:
NBC Chicago
Eco Driving USA

Word of the Year Finalists:

frugalista – person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.

moofer – a mobile out of office worker – ie. someone who works away from a fixed workplace, via Blackberry/laptop/wi-fi etc. (also verbal noun, moofing)

topless meeting – a meeting in which the participants are barred from using their laptops, Blackberries, cellphones, etc.

toxic debt – mainly sub-prime debts that are now proving so disastrous to banks. They were parceled up and sent around the global financial system like toxic waste, hence the allusion.

Word of the Year Shortlist:

CarrotMob, carrot mob – a flashmob type of gathering, in which people are invited via the Net to all support and reward a local small ethical business such as a shop or café by all patronizing it at the same time. Also as noun, carrotmobbing.

ecohacking (also known as geoengineering) – the use of science in very large-scale projects to change the environment for the better/stop global warming (e.g. by using mirrors in space to deflect sunlight away from Earth).

hockey mom – like a soccer mom, but one who is supportive of her ice-hockey playing kids, as popularized by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin

link bait – content on a website that encourages [baits] a user to place links to it from other websites

luchador – a wrestler, an exponent of lucha libre [Mexican Spanish, lit. = ‘free wrestling’, a form of professional wrestling originating in Mexico and popular in Latin America, with spectacular moves, showy costumes, etc.]

rewilding – the process of returning an area to its original wild state/flora/fauna etc.

staycation – vacation taken at or near one’s home, taking day trips, etc.

tweet – a short message sent via the Twitter service, using a cellphone or other mobile device.

wardrobe – has become a verb, as in: Ms. Mendes has a long-standing relationship with the house of Calvin Klein and has been wardrobed by Calvin Klein Collection.

Nadine of Kiddos and Books sent me a link to Adam Gopnik's article on Babar in The New Yorker. The problem with Babar, as Gopnik explains, is the following: "Babar, such interpreters have insisted, is an allegory of French colonization, as seen by the complacent colonizers: the naked African natives, represented by the “good” elephants, are brought to the imperial capital, acculturated, and then sent back to their homeland on a civilizing mission." Gopnik disagrees with this interpretation, finding instead that the Babar books are "are a fable of the difficulties of a bourgeois life."

Check out these five facts about Dr. Seuss at the Mental Floss blog. Did you know he worked for Big Oil? Me neither. But...I did score 100% on the Dr. Seuss quiz available at the end of the page. Why? Most of the characters come from Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book--"Big A little a, what begins with a?"

Here's my pieces for this year's I Am 8-Bit art show this Thursday!

Wooden Mario:
(Acrylic on wood)



Yes, I did all the cutting, carving, sanding and screwing together all of these pieces. It was super time consuming, but totally worth it.

Wooden Luigi:
(Acrylic on wood)




Oh, and they are kinda big.

Luigi is almost 4' tall.

Wooden Link:
4" x 6"
(Acrylic on wood)


The fun part of Link was carving out the shield and sword.


All of this woodworking actually reminded me of making Pinewood Derby Cars for Cub Scouts with my Dad. We would spend weeks in the soggy basement with a radial saw, jigsaw, a scale and sandpaper. That was fun and almost won best of show too!


Next up: TRIBUTE TO GYGAX show

Link Love comes to you once again from British shores this week. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. I certainly did, though I ate far, far too much chocolate. Anyway, without further ago, the links!

I loved this article in the New York Times, about the seven deadly words in book reviewing.

(more…)

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I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently meeting with my fellow press bloggers and talking about how exciting it is to be harnessing the internet to stimulate conversation about books.  But the OUPblog isn’t the only place to find interesting content.  I thought it would be nice to share some of the great blogging going up on other press sites. So please, take some time this Friday to explore the fascinating world of press blogs.

How does a writer make his own story into a screenplay?

Just how do culture and ethnic identity-making work in tandem? Ask Jonathan Freedman author of Klezmer America.

Are woman human? (more…)

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Kirsty expertly handled link love last week so some of these links are a week old- but I think they are still relevant. So get busy procrastinating!

Web 2.0 isn’t exactly democratic but does it matter if it works?

Jeff Jarvis’s tribute to twitter.

A visual tour through 79 years of Best Picture awards. My favorite poster is GiGi. (more…)

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Remember that song “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk: “fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n auf der Autobahn”? I’ve got no idea what it means, but it was running through my head today as the_webmeister and I tootled along the autobahn on our way to Berlin.

Perhaps tootled is the wrong word. Here’s a screen shot of the Webmeister’s US GPS which he was using to get an idea of his speed in mph as opposed to km/h.



Man. And I thought I was speeding the day before when it clocked me at 99.6 mph. Sheesh. Still, at least I managed to prove to the Webmeister that I do know how to drive a manual, to the point that he said he MIGHT someday let me drive his BMW M5. That’s when I realized it must be love. Ha!Ha!

Anyway, we made it to Berlin in one piece, checked into our hotel, which is a very cool Artotel on an Andy Warhol theme.

Then we trekked over to the Berlin Zoo to see the adorable, the one and only: KNUT!!!



To say this polar bear cub is adorable is an understatement. Maybe that’s why he has such a fan club:



Although this rather cheeky woman had quite a fan club herself:



(sounds of Sarah singing “Who wears short shorts?”)

I can’t blame her for wanting to be minimalist on the clothing front, although I think she took it a little too far for a child friendly environment. It’s 93 degrees in Berlin and there ain’t a whole lotta places with A/C. I almost cried with joy when I spotted a Dunkin’ Donuts and was able to get an ICED COFFEE!!!!



Funnily enough, that was a large. It’s the same size as a medium at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the States.

I felt really pathetically American for having to go into a US chain while in Germany. But hey – they had ice.