Off The Shelf #2: The Collection of Past Posts

Like I promised in my first OTS, I am going to most of my footnotes from my old blog here. There will be a few that I will not be reposting, such as the ones about the progress of this blog.


A Little Crazy?

I just saw this and thought I'd share. I was looking at my Overview section on blogger for Information Forest and I realized that I had more site views on that blog than this one! I mean, seriously; is this blog that lame? Or is my other blog that helpful? I like to think of it as the latter.


Yeah. That's pretty much I have to say. I'm reading Darth Plagueis at the moment (yes, it IS a Star Wars book!), but I don't know how long it will take me to read it. Not long hopefully.

So, sorry for the very, very, VERY short blog post. Yeah. So. Bye.


Why People Hate Spring

Yeah, I know. I've posted three times today!

I was sitting around, doing whatever I felt like doing (which happened to be breathing, sitting, and staring at static on the TV) when I suddenly realized why people don't like spring!

And to think, in that other post about spring, I couldn't figure out why people didn't like it!!! Don't worry people-who-are-allergic-to-spring! I understand all of your problems now.

...but spring is still my favorite season.

OMG IT'S A HARRY POTTER OWL!!!

The Musical Saw

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting anything I've been really busy. I should be able to post a book blog some time this week.

Since it's the weekend, I've had a bit of free time on my hands, so I was surfing the internet (and reading my book like a madwoman at the same time) and saw this really funny picture.

Isn't that just weird? I thought it was fake, like a lot of amazing/cool/funny pictures on the internet. But just to make sure, I did a little search on the internet and clicked on the very first link I saw (ha ha, saw! Get it? ...yeah, me neither.)

So, apparently, you can actually play a saw. I mean, if wikiHow can tell you how to do it, it must be possible, right? Well, no. I STILL couldn't believe that a tool used to split things in half could make music other than an inconsistent warbling sound it makes when you wiggle it by the handle. But I scrolled down a little bit and found a video of someone actually PLAYING one with a bow.

NOW I believe that you can play a saw! I thought that was pretty amazing. i guess that goes to show that music can be made with anything, huh? Did anyone else know about this? I tend to live under a rock so it wouldn't surprise me if I was the last one to know.

Blogs and Stuff

I'm sick of reading for the week.

Don't look at me like that! I've finished four books this week, three of them in a row. And that's NOT including the manga. So it's a lot for me. 

See? Look what you've done; you made me get off topic. See, since I'm taking an hour break from reading (I can't resist the urge!) I decided to use my precious spare time to do something worth while. Something that will help other people and make an impact on the world.

I surfed the 'net. 

Don't worry; I didn't lie! I'm helping people by making observations of stuff I looked up and then spreading the word (like right now) of what I saw. That way, you don't have to search for it yourself (unless you don't trust me D: ). And I'm impact the world by...using valuable resources that could be used for more important things but instead was used for my brainless searches (I was too lazy to find a source or quote about how the Internet impacts the Earth)! 

Speaking of the Earth, I had been searching the Internet about, well, the Internet, and I found this:

It's a picture of the Internet! I thought it looked like Spin Art (you know, where you have a spinning platform and you squirt paint on it like a mad man. Oh, and don't forget to put paper or something on the platform  before you start), so I thought you guys would want to see it too. Isn't it pretty?

I completely lost my train of thought. I was going to talk about blogs. Do you see that little bar on the top of my blog? It has a search bar and some buttons for stuff. Well, I was clicking the next blog button and noticed a repeating pattern. They were all about babies. 

What's with all these people blogging about their children? Sure, one or two is acceptable, but ten in a row? That just not acceptable. Where are all the book bloggers? Video game bloggers? KITTEN BLOGGERS?! Don't get me wrong; babies are cute and all. But I like looking at kittens better. The only blog that piqued my interest was one that mentioned Goodreads. Obviously, she wasn't a book blogger, but at the end of the post, she mentioned that she was on Goodreads and that we should all check her out. I was going to, but I accidentally (O.o) closed the tab. Oh well.

I guess the moral of this story is, "Create a blog and send it to me so I don't have to look at babies all the time." Please and thank you. :)

Um, I don't usually do this, but I have the urge to sign my name at the bottom of this post. So:

Emma Reader

P.S. Ryan Higa hasn't come out with a new YouTube video yet :(

Manga, Graphic Novels, and Other Picture Books

I've become an otaku recently, within in last half a year. It started with an anime...

I mean, what's not to love of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!? For those of you who don't know, the picture is of Misaki and Takumi (they're in love!!! Not that you can tell by that picture or anything. And sorry if I just spoiled the story for any of you). After that, I found the manga (online, I could figure out where I could buy a copy in English). And then I branched off to other mangas. I read Soul Eater, Fairy Tail (one of my favorites!), Pandora Hearts (another fav), Black Butler, Special A...I won't list all of them. There should be a widget on the side >.> with a bung of the manga that I like list on it. It's not a complete list; I don't think I included some of the manga I read online for free, but you'll get to see some of the stuff I've read. 

I'm trying to branch out even more; so far, most of the manga I've read have English names (beside Kaichou wa). But I'm afraid to read it when I don't even know what the title means! I guess I'll have to conquer that fear sometime O.o Have you guys ever noticed that I haven't been doing book blogs on any of the manga I've read? There's reasoning behind that, y'know. Manga books are way too short and it's hard for me to pick out stuff that I DON'T like about it. Plus I'm not a good critic for pictures, which is why I tend to stay away from regular, non-manga books. That and the fact that they're meant for kindergarteners. 

What really bugs me are graphic novels that are written/drawn originally in an English-speaking country. Like, I haven't seen too many of those, but I know there's a graphic novel for Maximum Ride and Beautiful Creatures. But then they're listed as a manga (or at least in my local book store)which really, REALLY bugs me. You're suppose to call them graphic novels!!! A manga reads right to left, not this left to right nonsense. I guess some people who don't know the true art of manga would be drawn to it, though. Almost all my friends (or are they O.o)think it's WEIRD to read a book BACKWARDS. C'mon, people! It's completely normal to read boos backwards. Right?... Alright, maybe not normal there life. But it's normal in Japan, so deal with it people-who-think-manga-is-weird.

Well, I'm tired of mini ranting about how manga is t appreciated. I'm done. Bye, and don't hate manga!!!

Spring, Life, And Sleep


Hey everyone! I'd thought that I'd do another one of these footnote thing-ys since I haven't written one in a while. I just haven't had a lot of thoughts lately. Even right now, right at this moment, I really don't know what exactly I'm going to talk about. But whatever. I'll type up whatever comes to mind.

Spring is pretty awesome and is probably my favorite season of all time. It's warm, but cooler than the summer (unless you go up to the mountains or something. Then it's really, really cold and I hate it). And it's a lot prettier than the fall! Fall is kinda like the opposing season to spring. Instead of getting hotter, it gets colder. Instead of flowers blooming and trees become un-naked, the fall makes everything die and all the leaves clog up the sewers. Then you have to pull out your jackets and end up having to do more laundry and use more money to buy soap and things. But spring, on the other hand, is much better. Compared to the cold winter, the weather is considerably hotter (unless its raining or snowing, which is kind of a bummer. Why couldn't the sky finishing raining and snowing in the winter?) which means that you get to wear less clothes (a LOT less, for some people) and save a lot more money!!! But I guess that if you going spring shopping or whatever normal people do, you would actually be doing the exact opposite...but those people don't count. Summers alright except for the heat and the crazy little children that start running around without any clothes on. And in winter everyone smells like a wet dog. Yuck.

Life is alright. I had a friend hang around my house for a while and she kept waking me up WAY too early. But I ended up going to sleep earlier like a normal person (whaaaaaaaa?!) and I feel a lot better about myself now. I'm not as tired, I'm more relaxed. Truthfully, I feel great. Sure, I might not get three hours of work done now, but people can deal with themselves. Sleeping's a lot more fun.

Um, yeah. That's kind of all that I have to say right now. There wasn't anything else that's really on my mind other than sleeping and how hot it was today! That's one downer of spring; it can be really, really cold, wet, and windy one day, but cook-bacon-on-my-head hot the next day. Stupid weather.

Alright. Bye now. I've got twelve hours of work to catch up on.


Wattpad, Anyone?

I'm just wondering if any of you readers (which is probably none at the moment) have a Wattpad account. I have one, in case you don't know that already. I love reading. That's the simple truth and the reason why I joined Wattpad in the first place. I've also recently joined a site called Goodreads and have been absolutely obsessed with it.

For those of you who don't know what those two websites are, let me explain. Wattpad is a large community for readers and writers (or both, if you like to write and read) to come together. Writers can publish their books on the web and readers can read these books for free. Wattpad is a good site for writers who are looking for some direct feedback on their story. I enjoy the site, though it might not be for everyone. Users are suppose to be thirteen to join and for good reasons. Ninety percent of the books posted are romance and when there's romance...well, I think we all know what'll be inside. There are quiet a few people that try to use it as a social outlet. Sure, I'll go into the forums and talk to people, but I mainly use it for reading. Hopefully, I'll be able to publish a book on Wattpad to see if I'll have a chance at being a writer.

And then there's Goodreads. I knew of Goodreads way before I joined it. In fact, I still would not have been a member if a friend had not invited me to join. So now I am! I feel that Goodreads has a better connection to the real world. In Wattpad, teens (and adults, of course) can publish their books and become "popular". But these popular authors might be writing off of false feedback. Although there are some good critiques on the site, there are some that give out compliments without thinking about helping improve the author's book. And the truth is, they really aren't that popular, just in that one website.

Of course there are a few exceptions. But Goodreads deals with real, published, best-seller books. It helps you keep track of what books your reading and when you finished them. You can rate books, join book clubs, participate in different challenges, take quizzes, etc. It keeps me reading. I'm not saying that Wattpad isn't as good as Goodreads. They both serve different purposes (although Goodreads also let's you publish your own book on the site. However, this...attraction, for a lack of better words, isn't a popular as it is on Wattpad). But they do have something in common. They attract book lovers. And that's exactly what I need.

I don't understand how people can not like reading. Wait, no. I take that back. I actually do understand, or at least I did. There are so many other ways to spend the day; surfing the 'net, playing sports or video games. I used to spend the whole day watching TV. But then I found books. At first, I thought they were boring and pointless, but I later came to realize that it was like another form of TV.   It's telling a story except through words. And, before I knew it, I almost constantly had my nose in a book, hardly even sparing a glance at the television. One thing I noticed is that people seem to be more impressed with you. They look in your direction and make a comment to their spouse about how it's good to still see younger people reading. Of course, that was a while ago and it only happened once. And they were my grandparents.

...

Anyway. Back to what I originally wanted to talk about.

I had been on Wattpad recently and, as I do on occasion, I looked at my reading list. As of the present, I have five reading lists; Reading, Finished, Read Later, Roleplays and Watching. They're pretty self-explanatory, but I think I'll be removing my Roleplay Reading List. I, sadly, don't have a lot of time to role play, so I have abandoned the role plays that I had joined. Sad, right?

So, I'm not sure when, but I had been viewing my Reading Reading List (haha, it looks like a typo!) a while ago. And then I saw that one of the books I had been reading had been deleted. Now, when this fact finally sunk in, I was shocked. And mad. You have to understand that this book was a really popular book. It had over a million reads which, in Wattpad, means that the writer is practically equal to J.K. Rowling. Maybe a bit less. Or a lot less. But that's beside the point. What's important is that you know that the book's popular.

But the sad thing about writers that are popular is that, despite their enormous amount of fans that support them, they tend to become really lazy. At first, they might promise to update at least once a day. The promise might hold for a while until their reads start racking up. Then it becomes two weeks. And then a month. Now, I know that these writers are busy, like the rest of us. But their "busyness" tends to get out of hand. It had been almost half a year since one of the so-called famous writers updated their book.

You might think I'm crazy right now. That I'm just a selfish, whiney little reader. But my whole point is that writers shouldn't make promises that they won't be able to keep. And if they're going to delete their book for whatever reason, they could at least offer an explanation. As a reader, I'd appreciate it, even if it's hard to believe.

This author (who's name I won't mention) deleted her book without reason. And it made me really mad. Anyone else get really mad when author's do unjustified stuff? Or do you completely disagree with me? Let me know by leaving me a comment!