Links & Drinks: literary stuff, word elongation, and a virtual coffee chat thing.

So, it is the end of another week and, boy, was this a long one. I mean, you’d think that any week with a holiday at its front would cause for the remaining days to steam along at a rapid pace, but such was not the case for the days following the day of all the Presidents that ever existed. I’m going to try something different today with Links & Drinks and split them up into two categories. I’m going to start with all the links I think you should check out and proceed to list a bunch of random things I would probably tell you over coffee out of just not having anything else to talk about. I know I’ve been playing around with the format for a while, but just bear with me. Eventually, I’ll find one that I like and stick with it. But, I mean, this formatting idea kind of makes more sense to me, so we’ll see how it goes.

Links

Have you seen this TED Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert? I really wish she’d come be my own personal life/creative/literature professor or something.

Also, I think John Green was saying that there actually is NO confirmation on a The Fault In Our Stars movie, but I really can’t be sure because he was talking so fast and my mind more or less peaced out at 7:00 when I got off work last night.

And did you know that Christopher Robin was apparently estranged from his father, A.A. Milne, when Milne died? I find that incredibly sad, but I can understand why Christopher felt so pressured to become “debonair,” as the author calls it, after the fame he attained from his father’s writings. Still, the thought that they weren’t on speaking terms at the time of the author’s death will probably make me sad every time I watch Winnie the Pooh now. I mean, not that I really watch it anymore…

Since I’m quite taken with the idea of letter-writing these days and have been wanting to read collections of letters written by famous authors, I think I must absolutely buy this book of letters written by John Steinbeck. This one to his fifteen year-old son on the topic of love is the most wisest thing I’ve read since the last time I read Harry Potter when Dumbledore was saying all these incredibly wise things. (Here’s the link to buy the book if you’re interested. The John Steinbeck one, that is. Not Harry Potter. I’m going to assume you already own a gleaming boxed set of those.)

I really hate it when people elongate words when they don’t need to be elongated. For instance, when someone tweets, “I fiiiiinalllllyyyyy got my paper back today. Yeeeeesssssss!” I mean, I don’t know, college students probably don’t really tweet about that, but firstly: you don’t need all those L’s . The Y’s, I can understand, but you can’t elongate a freaking L. You just can’t. Secondly: unless you mean to sound like a serpent, STOP ELONGATING YOUR S’S. I can understand the E’s, but I just can’t wrap my mind around the S’s unless you’re just parseltongue and I missed something.

And, lastly, if you find yourself struggling to come up with ideas to blog about, here are three types of posts that could maybe help you figure your crap out. Obviously, I hopped aboard the Trend Train and began my own series for interviewing people, and I must say it’s quite fun. I get to flex my journalism muscles a little and can use the interviews as an excuse to learn things about people I may never have known. I’m just saying, it’s like stalking but better.

Only joking.

Drinks

So, I’m quite taken with Blue Moon these days. Not the actual moon, but you know the beer? Anyway, I actually found myself serenading it last night with its musical counterpart. I was quite embarrassed for myself once I realized what I was doing and promptly ceased singing.

And I know I said this before, but I’m seriously thinking about rearranging my blogging schedule now that I’m back to it and all. I’m thinking this little feature will go on Saturday’s or Sunday’s that way I can move Creative Encounters to Friday’s, which will allow me to participate in that weekly Book Chat meme I did yesterday. That was rather fun, and I think I’d like to stick with it. Of course, book reviews will remain on Wednesday’s once I finally finish whatever book I happen to be reading at the time, and I think I still want to do Monday’s with Madeleine’s. I know they’re probably not very popular on the blog, but I don’t really care. I know that’s probably bad to say since a lot of blogging gurus argue that you should cater 100% to your readers, but if you have something against Madeleine you can just say it to my face, okay? (Only kidding, can’t touch this.)

Lately, I’ve had this odd fascination with F. Scott Fitzgerald. I don’t really know why, but I’ve been extremely eager to get his new collection of short stories in my personal library. I also went out and bought The Great Gatsby to read again and I’ve been eyeing This Side of Paradise in the bargain section of my local bookstore. I have no idea where this interest in him has come from, but there it is.

I’ve also been thinking about not shopping at chain bookstores anymore. Maybe I’ll give them up for Lent? I mean, I know I’d be a little late in the game, but still. My thing is that second-hand bookstores (there are no indies where I live, unfortunately) have this character that the chains lack. Plus, there’s something about a book that other people have read before that adds something to the book’s life. I know it’s completely unrelated to the plot of the book, but it’s just something I’m fascinated with nonetheless. I don’t know, maybe I’m just weird. Which I am, but whatever.