Oscars: This Week's League Assignment

Here is this week's assignment from The League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

The Oscars. ... interpret it as you will!

Well, since we can interpret as we will, here's how I chose to do that.  Rather than run down this years Oscar winners (I believe everyone knows the full list by now) or rant about who didn't get nominated or think that someone else should have won over those who did win, I tried hard to come up with something different.  Oscar the Grouch and Oscar Madison have already been written about by several other participating bloggers (including a mash-up of those two characters), as has a list of Oscar-winning movie songs. So what else is there? 

Well, in the days after the nominations for this years Oscars were announced, I began Googling "Oscars" and phrases like "Oscar snubs" and "Oscar mistakes" and as I typed in the word "Oscar" I was mentally spelling it and into my head popped a famous TV commercial jingle.  

I'm sure many of you remember the famous commercial for Oscar Mayer bologna with the little boy fishing.  In case you've forgotten, here is the commercial below:

It seems hard to hear the word "Oscar" spelled out without getting this jingle stuck in my head.  Same thing happens when I have to spell out a name ending in "-mayer" or "-meyer" without getting the M-A-Y-E-R part in my head.  This has become as inevitable as hearing or seeing the word "Kodachrome" without getting Paul Simon's famous song stuck in my head. I know I'm not alone on that one.  And just recently I was calling Fandango.com's 800 number to check a movie time.  I spelled out the name as I tried to find the corresponding numbers on my phone keys, and reciting the last there letters, N-G-O, made em think of the song about a dog called "Bingo" in which the name is spelled out.  

But back to Oscar.  I decided this would be my interpretation of Oscar since no one else came up with this one.

And I had a flashback to my high-school French class. We did a song in French about our school that was sung to the tune of the Oscar Mayer bologna jingle, which a classmate inevitably called "The Bologna Song." The song went:

Qui va ganer pour leur lycee? (Who is going to win for their high school?)
C'est B-A-L-E-R. (Our high school mascot is the Haybaler, called Baler for short)
Qui est doué? Qui sait jouer? (Who is gifted? Who knows how to play?)
C'est B-A-L-E-R.

Nos les aimons, les champions (We like them, the champions)
Finnisant toujuors roi de balon (Always finishing king of the ball)
Parce que vous savez (Because you know)
Il faut jouer (You have to play)
Avec E-S-P-R-I-T. (With spirit. Esprit is French for spirit).

(My apologies to those who don't know how to pronounce French.)

OK, someone else did mention Oscar Meyer hot dogs, which themselves had a memorable jingle, but it was the bologna jingle that came to my mind first.

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Along with the bloggers linked in the first and last paragraphs, here are this weeks other participants:
Top Hat Sasquatch
The Combat Workshop
That Figures
Branded in the 80s
Achievements in Gaming
Fortune and Glory Days
Henchgirl
Thirty-ish Year Old Boy
And Cool and Collected's own post

League Assignment: Birthday Celebration

Here is this week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers:

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers is celebrating its first birthday! Can you believe it’s been a year since this whole thing started? As a community, we have had a lot of fun and some amazing blog posts have been written in response to the weekly League topics. I’ve met some great people and really do think that we put our best efforts forward when we write a response to the weekly topic.

After 52 weeks, I’m running a little low on the “idea-meter” and I need your help. This week’s assignment is a two-parter…

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1. Write about your involvement in the League of Extraordinary Bloggers and recall some of your favorite posts — these could be your own and/or those written by others. 

2. Come up with a list of potential topics you would like to see as future weekly League challenges.

Part One: 

Where to start?   I think the League is quite a fun idea for those with a blog who need an idea for something to write and those who have a love for any and all sorts of pop culture.  I signed up for this early on, but kept forgetting until I made my first post in May of last year.  I've sat out a few times (sometimes my imagination is just a little low!), but still enjoy the site and reading other participants' entries, whether or not I made one myself.  Some of the topics I've enjoyed so far include:
Top 10 Movies
Who Cried When Old Yeller Got Shot?
Halloween Costume Ideas
This is Halloween 
Merry Geekmas
Spacemen
Shelf Expression
Back to School

And I have enjoyed linking other bloggers's responses to my own and getting comments.  It's amazing what people can come up with for these things.

Part Two:

Suggestions for possible League assignment topics for this year.  I was kind of glad to see this here, because there was something I though could be an interesting topic:
Book series you have read or are trying to finish reading.   I thought of this one because I have been doing just this recently.  With so many book series, it gets hard sometimes to find all the books, depending on how you obtain your reading materials.  I'd also like to see what others in the League like to read.  This could be fun.



Another idea I thought would be fun to see others write about:

A toy you remember and/or had that no one else (or barely anyone else) you know doesn't seem to remember.

I got this idea from a pin I made last year on Pinterest, of a toy I once had. I had one of those toys in particular and one girl I knew from school said (in a comment) she had all of them, where as another such person commented that she had never even heard of this toy.  Sorry, but I don't want to give any more info, just in case.



Others ideas that came to mind were:
Commercials you loved or hated the most
TV Shows you liked that very few (if any) other people remember (or possibly use this same idea for movies)


Only one other person has responded to this assignment as of yet (see below for link) and he had some ideas that I was also planning on saying!  One was more of the one-word topics that the league used at the beginning of this year. I only responded to the Spacemen one, but still think this is a good idea.  And he also suggested this idea: Favorite toy you never had.  Kind of goes with my earlier-mentioned idea about toys.

These are the only ides I've come up with.  I'm curious to see what others will come up with for this one., since I'm early this week (I've only ever been this early once before.)  Here's the only other link so far, as I mentioned earlier:
Fortune and Glory (Days)

The Snack Test Quiz

You Are Enthusiastic

You are a lively and energetic person. You feel psyched for so many things. You love novelty, and you're very adventurous. You have many passions. You get bored easily. Day to day routines feel mundane to you, and you like to shake things up. You love to treat yourself, and even the smallest thing can serve as a "pick me up"!

The Snack Test

The First Rule of Blogthings Is: You Don't Talk About Blogthings

Quiz: What is Your Valentine's Day Personality?

Your Valentine's Day Personality is Practical

As far as you're concerned, Valentine's Day is simply a commercial holiday. You don't place any real meaning on it. You don't think it deserves too much celebration. For you, Valentine's Day is just the day you avoid restaurants and candy stores. If you love someone, you already show it. You don't need to go all out for a silly holiday to prove your love.

What's Your Valentine's Day Personality?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Quiz: The Handbag Test

You Are Unpretentious and Honest

You're quite happy with who you are, and you never pretend to be someone you're not. You just act naturally. It's what works best for you, and you're comfortable with who you are. You like people when they're just being themselves. Nothing turns you off more quickly than a phony. You don't like it when other people want you to measure up to their standards. You should be enough as is.

The Handbag Test

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

Quiz: The Argyle Test

You Are Ingenious

You are a very resourceful person. You are quite clever, and you're always up to something. You definitely know how to think outside the box, and you're quite accomplished because of this talent. You are imaginative and bright. You believe if you can dream it, you can do it. You are always making your dreams come true. You are agile and sharp. You love to figure out how to do things, and you like to keep adding to your toolbox of skills.

The Argyle Test

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

2013 Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

Welcome to the 2013 Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge hosted by Darlene's Book Nook!

OK, So I'm doing another challenge. I chose this one since I am in the middle of this series, currently finishing the seventh book.  Below are the details copied from Darlene's blog. 

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Although I hosted this challenge for 2012, I did not make any headway in this series. So, I'm going to host it again for 2013! 

The books in the Sookie Stackhouse (aka Southern Vampires) series by Charlaine Harris are:

1. Dead Until Dark (Book #1)
2. Living Dead in Dallas (Book #2)
3. Club Dead (Book #3)
4. Dead to the World (Book #4)
5. Dead as a Doornail (Book #5)
6. Definitely Dead (Book #6)
7. All Together Dead (Book #7)
8. From Dead to Worse (Book #8)
9. Dead and Gone (Book #9)
10. Dead in the Family (Book #10)
11. Dead Reckoning (Book #11)
12. Deadlocked (Book #12) 
13. Dead Ever After (Book #13) - expected publication in 2013

Please read below for the challenge guidelines.

2013 Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

Here are the challenge details:
1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. Books must be read during this time-frame to count.
2. You can join the challenge at any time! All books read in 2013 count for the challenge, regardless of when you sign up.
3. This challenge can cross-over to your other reading challenges.
4. You do not need a blog to participate! If you are not a blogger, you can post your reviews at Goodreads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing and link them up here.
5. All formats of books are acceptable: Bound copies, e-books, and audiobooks (as long as they are unabridged).
6. There are four levels for the challenge:
     a. Level 1 "Just A Drop":Read 1-4 books in the series.
     b. Level 2 "A Small Bite":Read 5-8 books in the series.
     c. Level 3 "So Thirsty": Read 9-12 books in the series.
     d. Level 4 "Hungry For More": Read all 13 books in the series!
7. When you write your sign-up post, you must choose your level. You can go up but you cannot go down!
8. There will be a separate linky for your reviews, which will be posted on THIS page.
9. There will be a linky for your wrap-up post at the end of the year.
10. Create a sign-up post and link back to this post. Sign up with Mister Linky below! Be sure to use the direct url to your sign-up post and not the url to your blog.
11. Grab the challenge button and post it in your sidebar. Copy and paste [the] HTML code into an HTML gadget for your sidebar.

I'm choosing Level 3, in case my library doesn't get the last book when it comes out this year.  But if it does, I will go to Level 4. I'm also doing a complete the series challenge, so this will work for that, too.

To sign up, visit this link.