Good News!

Just saw this a few minutes ago. Can't say how happy I am for the Captain, his family, and crew!

Captain freed when snipers kill pirates.

I Could Break Out Into Song!

I just read this today, and I am so excited! Romola Garai will play Emma Woodhouse in a new BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. It's a 4 hour mini-series, and the wonderful Sandy Welch is writing the screenplay. Welch is the genius behind North & South and the most recent Jane Eyre adaptation. I love her! And best of all, no Andrew Davies in sight!!

Romola as Emma is a brilliant stroke of casting genius; Johnny Lee Miller is set to play Mr. Knightly, which I'm a little worried about, but still think it will be OK; and Michael Gambon is playing Mr. Woodhouse. Even though I can't stand him as Dumbledore (*shudder*) I've loved him in other roles, and look forward to him in this. I can't wait to see who they cast as Harriet--neither of the previous adaptations I've seen had the right Harriet, so fingers crossed they get it this time.

Filming starts this week in Kent and Surrey--where the novel actually takes place! Hurrah!

Just a Thought

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know I don't say it often enough, but I am. I don't talk about my feelings about the gospel very often for a couple of reasons. First, I'm embarrassed of my emotions in general and any display of emotion. For good or bad (probably bad) it's just the way I am, so I avoid emotional subjects. Second, my feelings and experiences in the gospel are so profoundly personal and treasured that it's hard for me to find the right words. Plus, it's hard to talk about something that means as much to me as the gospel does because there's the fear that people will treat it lightly, or misunderstand, or whatever.

But lately, I don't know, I've just felt that I need to say that I am grateful for the gospel, and it does mean the world to me--more than that in fact. It's true, and it brings me more joy than I can say. I listened to Conference this weekend and loved it! I am humbled when I think of how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life, and was reminded again how much it means to me. Just thought I'd share that thought.

I Know They're Here Somewhere ...

This article makes me feel so much better about our "mislaid" books at work :)

British Library Mislays 9,000 Books

Just some odds and ends

I was reading some random news articles and blog posts and found the following things, all of which I thought were interesting. First of all, a copy of the first comic book to feature Superman sold the other day for for $317,200. The owner selling the comic book bought it when he was 9 years old at a secondhand store for 35 cents. If only my 401(k) could get that kind of return.

Next up, an interesting article about libraries in difficult economic times. Apparently, libraries are in some kind of sad irony: the demand for their services is going up, but their budgets are going down, and so is their ability to meet those increased demands. I don't have much to say on this article. I just thought it worth a read.

And finally, the best part. Here's a fabulous blog post on the world's most beautiful libraries. I think I need to go see them all, but for now here's a few of my favorites.

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands

Sansovino Library, Rome, Italy

Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington, USA

And there's a whole bunch more that I love, but don't have time or space to post here. Just go check it out, it's incredible. But be prepared to scroll--a LOT.

Just for fun

I've seen these in a couple of different places and since I couldn't sleep (again!) I decided to try it out.
Here's how it works.

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. http://www.flickr.com/search/

2. Using only the first page, pick an image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php (choose four columns and three rows, also choose individual URL's)

Questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your nickname.

Unfortunately ...

So I saw this on another blog and thought it was pretty funny--especially when I tried it myself. Here's how it works. Type in a Google search: "unfortunately, _______" but put your first name in the blank. Also, make sure you put the whole thing in quotes. Then giggle over the silly things that come up. Here's my list:

--Unfortunately, Melissa has nothing else to say.

--Unfortunately, Melissa doesn't have time to look after her own pets because she is training every day.

--Unfortunately, Melissa's head would be the only thing I hit all day.

--Unfortunately, Melissa was blind-sided - but she’s better off not being with someone that doesn’t care for her the way she deserves.

--Unfortunately, Melissa did not have a matched relative, so she underwent a year of drug therapy in hopes it would cure her illness.

--Unfortunately, Melissa says her son’s attempts at crawling may just be to get away from his big brother!

--Unfortunately, Melissa was the one who suffered most in this process. I think one day Melissa will be very glad it didn't work out.

--Unfortunately, Melissa is frequently adulterated with other lemon-type aromas like Lemongrass, Lemon or Citronella.

--Unfortunately, Melissa's mom never heard from her again.

--Unfortunately, Melissa is spotted by the killers, who are hit man Bruno Decker and his employer Rudolph Hartman, who turns out to be Walter's client.

--Unfortunately, Melissa didn't grow up with a paintbrush in her hand.

--Unfortunately, Melissa's last words have been stuck in my brain for the past six hours of my life, like a sappy song you hear on the radio.

--Unfortunately, Melissa did not respect Dave.

--Unfortunately, Melissa couldn't keep all her food in her mouth and off her chin.

--Unfortunately, Melissa was busy on the JD loading feeds with Bingo as navigator and could not join us.

--Unfortunately, Melissa can’t sing and Chelsea can’t dance.

And my personal favorite ...

--Unfortunately, Melissa can't stop thinking of how bad Jerry looks naked, and the relationship is ruined.