As you have probably seen on this blog before, I'm kind of obsessed with cute animals on the Internet. My old favorite site was the blog Cute Overload, which posts pics of adorable animals (yes, the site is a bit cheesy, but admit this is the cutest thing you've ever seen!).

Anyway, now I'm a bit more cutting edge. I've become obsessed with the site ICANHASCHEEZBURGER?, in which people submit photos of cute animals with stupid captions. I made one for my dog above. The general rules of captioning these kind of photos:

1. Caption as if you were the animal. For example, animals are cute, but they don't know how to spell, speak proper English, use a keyboard, etc. Thus, make sure you misspell words, misuse verbs, etc.

2. Overuse Internet abbreviations, like LOLs, BRBs, OMGs, and HI2Us.

3. Use the letter "z" to pluralize things. Trust me, it's funnier that way.

Want to try it? Send pics my way and I'll post them here!

We all know the standard teen magazines: Seventeen, YM, Teen Vogue, etc. But, back in the late 80's/early 90's, there was a groundbreaking magazine called Sassy. It was the first teen magazine that worked to empower girls' self image rather than simply tell them what lip gloss to buy. It was also the first teen magazine to hype alternative bands, such as R.E.M. and Nirvana (Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love even appeared on the cover once!). Oh, and indie actress Chloe Sevigny used to be a Sassy intern.

In the new book How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time authors Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer pay tribute to the magazine that had the guts to call Saved by the Bell actress Tiffany Amber Thiessen an airhead. The book talks about how Sassy was the first magazine aimed at the large demographic of teenage girls who have no desire to be head of the cheer leading squad and who would be more likely to write a book or start a band than to worry about getting a date with the school's football star.Sassy taught girls that it was good to be different and independent. If you were too young to read the magazine the first time around, be sure to check out this book!

I have just discovered the best website ever. SingShot is like MySpace meets American Idol. You can record yourself performing karaoke and can rate other people's performances. Although I haven't posted anything to the website yet, I am working on finally perfecting my performance of "Good Vibrations" by Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch. I'll be sure to let you know when you can witness me making a fool out of myself online.

Did you know that the Library is going to start showing new films in the McManus Room? If there's a movie that you missed in the theater, this is your chance to catch it for free! The upcoming schedule is as follows:

Showing on April 20, 2007 in the McManus Room at 2:00 p.m. - Water (PG-13) 117 minutes
Showing on May 12 in the McManus Room at 2:00 p.m. - Freedom Writers (PG-13) 122 minutes
Showing on May 26 in the McManus Room at 2:00 - Yellow Brick Road (ages 10 and up) 75 minutes

More information can be found here.

Kurt Vonnegut died today at the age of 84. I feel strange about this because just two days ago, I was recommending books to a patron who said that she had never read any Vonnegut. I handed her Breakfast of Champions (my personal favorite) and was so excited that she would have the pleasure of reading his work for the first time.

The controversial author was known for his dark humor and leftist politics. His Wikipedia entry can be found here.

Vonnegut's most famous novel was Slaughterhouse Five and is a great place to start. Of course, the library has many other titles as well, which I'm sure will have a resurgence in popularity. Put yourself on the hold list today!