Gangster Shrinky Dinks

For an anime/manga club meeting I had the teens make "anime shrinky dinks." I ordered fifty sheets of the special shrinky dink paper and printed out as many well known anime characters as I could think of. The teens traced their favorite anime characters on the paper, popped them in the oven, watched them magically shrink, and made the coolest key chains out of them.

The activity was a big hit and it attracted teens from all around the library. My boss jokingly told me beforehand that some of our urban teens would want to make "gang sign" shrinky dinks. "Ha ha" I said "gang sign shrinky dinks? That's hilarious." Well soon enough we attracted the rough and tumble crowd of teens that are up and coming in gangs. I didn't expect to see them at an anime club activity but they thought the shrinky dinks were cool. And sure enough they created their own gang sign shrinky dinks, drawn with black sharpies.

So the 80s toy that was originally made for children was used today to make gang sign keychains. I'm just glad they're making gang sign shrinky dinks instead of spray painting their signs on buildings.

Forever Young

This week we had the teens make Christmas cards for the local senior center. Many of the teens were enthusiastic about making the cards, creating almost 40 cards for the seniors. However, one teen flatly refused to make a card for the seniors. He told me that he did not like seniors and thought they were creepy. I reminded him that one day he was going to be old and wrinkly and that probably one day some punk kid like himself was going to give him a hard time. This teen replied that he was never going to be old. Well, if you're not going to be old, then the alternative isn't that great.

Teens seem to think that they're going to stay young forever. The senior citizen years seem eons away. Yet constantly my fifty three year old mother tells me she remembers when she was my age "just like it was yesterday." So although those teens think that old age is forever away, the years will go quickly.

I have to add that my favorite card the teens made for the seniors was a happily decorated one that read: "Merry Christmas Elderly People." It was made in all seriousness but it gave me such a laugh.

Toilet Troubles

I've decided to put on my resume, right next to my masters degree, "professional toilet unclogger." The past two weeks I've unclogged our library's stupid toilet four times. Each and every time it's been disgusting. As I pumped the plunger through the putrid mess I couldn't help asking myself, "My God, what did you people EAT?" I can't understand how a single person can create so much crap at one time.

It turns out our toilet troubles are due to some dingbat flushing a sharpie down the flusher. We couldn't figure out why the toilet kept clogging. The Roto Rooter man came out and found nothing. It still kept clogging. Then after repeated e-mails and frustrated calls we had another investigation and found the offending marker. If I find whoever threw that marker down the toilet I'm going to lock them in the bathroom with a toothbrush and make them spit shine that toilet for all the grief I went through.