Rereading the World War Z book before the movie comes out

Guest post written by Brent Holloway

I bought and read the World War Z so long ago when it first came out, but now that they're finally making a movie of it, I was thinking about rereading it again. So that's exactly what I'm doing. i had forgotten just how much of a quick read it was. It's funny how you can have read a book before and despite that, you can't put it down when you're reading it again.

That got me wondering more about how by the book the movie will be. I've been looking up info about the movie filming with my wireless internet. Some of the things that I've read said that they aren't really sticking to the book that much, but I think that it's like that for a lot of books they make into movies.

Who knows. I might even read the World War Z zombie book another time before I go and see the movie. It seems like it's going to be a while anyway until it comes out. I'm not sure how much longer I can wait!

Tiffany Trivia: Odd Hobby

There are most certainly some odd things about me.  I am clumsier than any one person should be.  I have no clue what my natural hair color is.  And yes, I dip my Wendy's french fries into a chocolate frosty.  But one of the oddest things about me is a hobby I had as a child.  I used to love to make confetti.

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As a kid I would sit for hours, yes, hours, cutting up confetti.  I had large garbage bags full of confetti stashed in my bedroom.  No paper object was safe.  Every Wish Book, grocery ad, wallpaper sample, and spare piece of construction paper would be sacrificed to my ever growing stash.  And while I admittedly did find cutting confetti rather soothing (though I did not enjoy the blisters the scissors caused on my thumb), I was doing this for a far more important reason.

It was going to make me rich.

You see, at our high school football games, every time we scored a touchdown, everyone threw confetti.  So, as a kid I came up with the million dollar idea that I would sell bags of confetti for a quarter at the football games and make a killing.

Except, I never followed through.  I just kept cutting and cutting to make more and more and more confetti, until eventually my mom threw it away.  I would say that all that time had been wasted, but at least it was a few hours that I was not getting hurt being clumsy.

So did you, or do you, have any hobbies that might be considered odd?

Do you remember .... class rings?

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Now that school is back in session, I find myself reminiscing about my high school days, particularly when talking to my mom and sister about my nephew.  He is a junior in high school, and I remember my junior year being my favorite year, it was the one that was the most fun, and the least stress.

My nephew starting dating a really nice girl, from a good family, recently.  After the kids meeting each other's families, they decided to make it official that they were "going steady".  I love that they are using this term, I find it sweet and old fashioned.  He even gave her his class ring.  But she gave it back because she was scared to wear it, since it was too big for her petite little fingers.  My sister helped her come up with a solution the next time the girl came to the house to visit my nephew.  She showed her how we used to deal with this issue- yarn.

When I was in high school, both the boys I dated (one my freshman year, one my junior year) gave me their class rings, and of course both of them were too big.  My mom and sister taught me how to wrap the ring with lengths of yarn until it made it a more secure fit.  I remember how I would get so excited to buy yarn in our school colors to wrap it for football season.  My mom said that she did the same thing in high school, and you made sure to wrap it in new yarn if you were going somewhere special like a party or a dance.  This is what ALL the girls my age did.  You look through our yearbooks and you see girls with these huge boys' rings on, with yarn all around the band.  It was the thing to do.

I wonder, do girls still do this?  Do they wear boys' high school rings still?  Or is this something that has fallen by the wayside?  Same with lettermen jackets, or football jerseys.  Do boys still let their girlfriends wear these?  I remember being so proud wearing my high school boyfriend's football jersey and class ring, letting everyone know I was his girl.  Do kids even rely on these social cues anymore?  Or is changing their facebook relationship status the new class ring?

Did you ever wear your boyfriend's ring in high school?  Or, if there are any male readers who want to share, did you wear your girl's ring on a chain around your neck?  Or was my high school more old fashioned than most?

Act Your Age? No Thanks!

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Act your age.  Probably something we have all been told at some point in our lives.  And at times, that command is completely appropriate.  It drives me nuts how so many people, mostly women, refuse to act like adults.  I see countless acts of bitter, immature women all the time.  Women act this way mostly toward other women, out of jealousy and a sense of competition.  I often want to tell these women to act their age.

But there are times when it is good to not act your age.

Today, I had an opportunity to spend some time with some "senior citizens".  It struck me how much people with the label of "senior citizen" decide to act, well, like old folks.  You know what I mean, they wear old people clothes, and engage in exclusively old folks activities.  I just don't get it.  Then I realized, I don't get it because none of the older role models I have in my family act this way.

I will start with my parents.  I often forget that because my parents are of retirement age, they are technically considered "seniors".  This label is a load of poppycock when it comes to Mom and Dad.  Not only do they both look incredibly young, they act it.  My mom always has her hair and nails looking nice, usually way nicer than mine, and she wears stylish clothes.  Same with my dad, even though his hair has been grey since he was in his 30s, he has never dressed like an old man.  And they do not act old either.  They are constantly busy with their grandkids, active in their church, and my dad even works 2 part time jobs.

The same can be said for my aunts and uncles.  None of them act old.  Even my grandmother, until the time she passed away in her 90s, never acted old.  She traveled, stayed busy, and lived in her home, no retirement center for her.  Heck, this is a woman who got a speeding ticket in her 80s!  Sure, she had broken a hip, but the first time she did it polka dancing with her great grandson.

I love that despite the fact that these people are my elders, they refuse to be elderly.  I hope that when I am old enough to retire, I am still as youthful and active as they all have been.

Thanks for the reminder that it's ok to not act my age once in a while!

Twitter Fights, aka Getting TweetSlapped

Cartoon by Hubby

I am a professed social media fan.  I may be a little slow to catch on the new forms of social media (hello G+) and some I stay away from due to their potential to be a total time suck (Pinterest anyone?), but one thing I have come to love, after years of professing to hate it, is Twitter.  I love that I can get info faster on my cell phone's twitter app than the media news outlets.  When an earthquake was recently felt in Pittsburgh, Hubby called me to check in, and when I told him I knew nothing about it, he simply said, check your Twitter.

Twitter is, for me, a great way to sound off when frustrated, to make connections with people worldwide, and to promote my blog posts.  All in 140 characters or less.  I adore it, which is why I am annoyed to see what may be the dumbest thing ever- Twitter Fights.

Last night, by feed got flooded by two Burgh Tweeps fighting.  Tweep A had tweeted something and a bit later Tweet B said something remarkable similar.  It was a Pittsburgh joke about Jeff Reed, one that I am sure at least 100 other Burgh based Tweeps probably tweeted about, as it was not exactly a sophisticated joke.  But Tweep A got bent out of shape, and ranted and name called.  And Tweep B totally fed into it, instigating more and more.  In the end, they both ended up looking like, pardon my language, douchebags.

To be clear, these people were not fighting over hate speech, political ideas, radical thoughts, and anything that was contributing to the betterment of mankind.  No, these guys were fighting over a joke.  A dumb joke about Jeff Reed assaulting a Sheetz towel dispenser that stopped being funny about 10 minutes after the incident happened in 2009.  This was the single dumbest waste of time ever.

Why do people feel the need to engage in this behavior?  What point does it serve?  Anyone can be brave when sitting behind their laptop or smartphone screen.  And really, who cares if someone allegedly stole your tweet.  It is TWITTER, these things are not gaining entry in the Library of Congress.  I guess this falls in the same category as trolling, acting out in ridiculous ways on Twitter.  And I see so much of it.  I see people blatantly attacking others on Twitter, completely unprovoked.  I just cannot fathom how much someone's life must suck if picking fights on Twitter is the only way they can feel good about their pitiful existence.

Women of Faith Weekend

Many of you readers know that I also have a book review blog.  When I started that blog out, it was mainly for myself, and the challenge of analyzing books I owned and loved.  Quickly, I became connected to several Christian publishers that allowed me to review their books, and began also submitting the reviews to the Christian Review of Books.  I review non-religious books most of the time, and now work with many talented independent authors and publishers, both Christian and secular.  

Recently, the very first publisher I signed up with, Thomas Nelson, presented book bloggers with the opportunity to attend a Women of Faith conference in their area, with the agreement that in exchange for the complimentary tickets, the bloggers would post blogs both before and after the conference, as well as add a button to the blog to help spread the word of the conference.  Knowing I would more than likely not get chosen, on a whim I decided to apply for one of the blogger positions.  Much to my surprise, I received word some time ago that I was chosen, and today, I received my tickets in the mail.  I am so excited to attend this conference!

There are day sessions on Friday, which I will miss, but I will be attending the Friday evening sessions, as well as the sessions on Saturday.  I am really looking forward to this little weekend event!  Keep your eyes open next month for the post conference recap!

Tiffany Trivia: What Creeps Me Out

Since it seems like not many people are reading my blog these days, I have decided to stray just slightly from my standard posts, and just post a little more about myself once in a while. This series is aptly called Tiffany Trivia.

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Most people have something, or things, that really creep them out. Mice, snakes, spiders, horses. Those are some of the standard ones. Whether a lifelong fear, or in Hubby's case with horses, due to some unfortunate event, everyone has something that just weirds them out.

I have several. And they are all odd.

For the longest time, it was that stuuuuuuuuupid dancing baby from Ally McBeal. And I think anyone who did not find that at least a little creepy is lying to themselves.

But the thing that creeps me out worst of all now are these 5 pointed metal stars that everyone and their brother have hanging on their homes.

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These things are all the rage in the country and primitive decorating set, but I just find the repugnant.  I have no reasoning for this, I generally like stars, but these are just, ick.  We even refer to them as "creepy stars".  I do not know why, and hope none of my readers (all 4 of you) who may have these will take offense.  They just give me the willies.

Another think I find creepy are these plantars made from kid's pants.  It looks like someone bisected a child and hot and threw geraniums on top of it.  Gross.

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Along the same lines, those creepy little corner kids dolls.  They used to be all the rage a few years ago.  For me, the source of unparalleled nightmares.

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Thank goodness this fad seems to have ended.

Oh goodness, imagine if a house had all three of these things.  It would be like a scarehouse for me.

And do not even get me started on those creeptastic Spitting Image puppets.

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The Genesis "Land of Confusion" video makes me shudder.

Is there anything weird like this that creeps any of you out?