Odds and Ends

Given that I just finished up my last assignment for winter quarter on Sunday, now would be an appropriate time to reflect on how the quarter went. What I did right, what I did wrong, and what I plan to change. Lucky for all of you, though, I'm not one for long-winded reflection. :)

This quarter was not my best for several reasons. That's okay. Next quarter will be different. That's pretty much all I've got to say about it, soooo on to other things!

The admissions committee meeting went pretty well, but it was definitely different than what I'd expected. Going into it, I'd been prepared to fight tooth and nail for the people I'd ranked highly and against the people I didn't think would be good additions to the cohort, but the high and low rankings were fairly consistent between readers, so we spent very little time reflecting on the ends of the applicant spectrum. When it came to debating the middle ground though, voices got raised, people got frustrated, and tempers were lost at a couple points, but in the end I think we turned out a stellar group of future iSchoolers.

I feel like I should say a little something about my guest post on volunteering in the Hack Library School blog, but I think the comments that came out of it speak more eloquently than I can. Volunteering has had good and bad experiences, and I appreciated everyone's opinions as expressed in the comments. One point that came up in a comment was the possibility that by writing on a negative experience, I might be implicating someone that could potentially be a reference for me someday and thus shooting myself in the foot. Let me say this to that:

If refusing to censor my experiences in a library, be they good or bad, results in me inadvertently closing a door job-wise in the field, then so be it. I've had to tiptoe around the sensibilities of other people my entire working life, and I'm sick of playing the game. If it's in a field I couldn't care less about, fine. I'll keep my head down to keep my position. But if it's about something I care about, then I can deal with ruffling the feathers of a few librarians who might be less open to criticism. Sharing my experiences in an open, honest way is to me much more valuable and worthwhile to myself and others than sugar-coating them. LIS as a field needs this kind of honesty and openness, and I'm happy to contribute and respectfully hear the opinions of others, even if they differ from mine. If this is a naive or idealistic point of view, fine. I've already experienced plenty in the LIS job market to jade me appropriately, but I'm still optimistic, and I prefer to keep my outlook that way.

That being said...

Reading List for Break!

- Feersum Endjinn, by Iain M. Banks
- A Passage to India, by E.M. Forester
- A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr.
- The Long Ships, by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson
- World Without End, by Ken Follett

And IF the library gets them to me in time:

- Charles Jessold: Considered as a Murderer, by Wesley Stace
- Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, by Christopher Ryan
- Hating God: the Untold Story of Misotheism, by Bernard Schweizer

Not a bad list, in my opinion! I only hope I can get to them all - my break to-do list rivals the ones I wrote for myself during the quarter. I'm also re-watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, so that's going to suck up some time. I'd highly recommend this series to anyone who's interested in anime but perhaps a little intimidated by the vast spectrum to choose from. It's quite gory, but I completely love it - the storyline is extremely well-crafted, rarely has an animated series made me crack up so frequently, and it's easy to get really invested in the characters.

And with that, I'll close with my random overheard of the day:

"South Kirkland park and ride - the place where dreams come true."

Informal poll:

Now that my readership includes more than two people, I'm wondering: if I want this blog to potentially go somewhere professionally, should I keep the language to a minimum? I'm torn on this, since I like to write how I speak and hate having to censor myself. While I don't go around dropping the f-bomb every other word, it does pop up from time to time. What do you guys think?

I'm now apparently using sleep as a last-ditch effort to avoid homework. I don't feel like this is a productive strategy, but as it turns out, sleeping 3-4 hours a night for as many weeks at a time isn't very conducive to good health. Go figure.

Items of note! There are lots of them! So many exciting things have been happening lately it's really tough to keep track of them, so I'll start with today's events.

Event #1:

I've officially applied and put down a deposit for my very first solo apartment downtown! Living on my own in the city has been a goal of mine for a really long time, and I am so incredibly thrilled that (if the application goes through) it'll be happening! I've loved living with the roommates I've had, but living alone has had an irresistible allure to me.

I'd gone up on Capitol Hill yesterday to the Stockbridge Apts (on Boren & Union) to tour a different studio that I'd called them about last week, but it had been leased out from under my nose right before I got there. Undeterred, I made an appointment to come back today at lunch to look at a different studio, and I made sure I was first in line this time. Turned out to be a smart move, since the second I walked into the studio, I fell in love. I didn't get to toodle around as much as I would have liked since the previous tenant's still living there (made for a slightly awkward tour), but what I saw I really liked. It's got a pretty enormous kitchen, for a studio anyway, a massive walk-in closet, a nice full bathroom, and a good sized main room with a pull-down murphy bed. Not sure I'll take advantage of that, since I've got a bed already, but ah well.

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope I'm good enough rent-requirement-wise to avoid having to put down last month's rent in addition to a deposit and first month's. And start getting used to the idea that I'll soon be crossing the official poverty threshold. O_o Whatever. It'll be worth every penny.

Event #2:

Guess whose guest post about volunteering is getting posted on the Hack Library School blog tomorrow? *points to self and tries not to squee too loudly*

Event #3:

Save the UW iSchool. Seriously. The emails that have flooded my inbox over the past couple days are scaring the crap out of me regarding the future of not just my education, but the education of everyone that wants to be part of the iSchool in the future. Hack Library School put up an awesome blog post this morning that gives more detail on the problems we're facing, and there's a great facebook page that you can "like" to show your support. Better yet, write a letter to our legislators telling them not to be a bunch of idiots by cutting funding for higher education. Here's a form letter to get you started, courtesy of our lovely GPSS (look for the 2/28/11 Action Item if you're reading this a while after I've posted it).

Other exciting things are coming up, including the MLIS Admissions Committee decisions meeting next Friday and what promises to be the classiest party on record on Saturday, so I'll probably issue a debriefing once things cool down a bit. At times like these, I just tell myself that whatever happens, everything I'm stressing about now will be irrelevant in a month. Some small comfort, I know, but it helps a little!

What a weekend

Before I sink into an episode or two of Dr. Who, ladies and gentlemen, my weekend:

I started my weekend off with a late-night show at the Funhouse. One of my cohort members is in The Lights, a pretty rad Seattle band, and they were playing a "last show for a very long time" set Friday night. I've never been to the Funhouse before, so I recruited a couple friends to come with me and spent the night alternately rocking out to The Lights, making fun of their crazy opening act (PartMan PartHorse - just...you know what? Google them. The pictures will explain everything.), and trying to avoid creepy drunken men.

After a restful 4 hours of sleep, I headed to Lake WA Technical College for Day One of my motorcycle certification course. The riding was a lot of fun, but would probably have gone better had it not been snowing the entire time we were out there. Trying to do anything more complicated with my hands than opening them and closing them turned out to be pretty hard, and over 24 hours later I still haven't regained full sensation in a few of my fingertips. Hoping that goes away eventually...

The cold, my overall comfort level going into Day Two, and my now phlegmtastic head cold all contributed to my decision earlier this morning to head to the college but defer my test to another time. I was starting to really get the basic maneuvering towards the end of yesterday's riding session (and I aced the written test), but I didn't feel quite comfortable with my skills to dive into the more complicated maneuvers like swerving we would have done today, so I think I'll wait and practice on my own a bit more before heading into the test. Still planning on financing a bike or buying one outright on CL in the semi-near future though, so I'm not too disappointed. I just like learning at my own pace - especially when it comes to any sort of brain --> basic motor skills task. As my cohort members might say, I'm definitely not a bodily/kinesthetic learner. *rimshot*

Speaking of school, I'm actually starting to see a light at the end of the long, dark, scary tunnel that has been this quarter! My 520 group put together and turned in a kick-ass Top Ten Reference Sources for Independent Filmmakers list earlier today, and despite several technological snafus, I was able to record and post my Twittorial for 560! Here's a link to it if anyone's interested. I was really bummed about a couple glitches in my slides. In the 2nd slide, I'd successfully embedded a hyperlink, but forgot it probably wouldn't translate when using a screen capture recording program. I had also recorded a short video that was designed to play during one of my slides, but for whatever reason, it wasn't working when I tried to play the slide show. I managed to execute a last-minute solution, but I was still sad that I'd figured out something cool, but my system wouldn't allow it to happen.

Okay, time to go. Theraflu and Dr. Who are beckoning me towards a much needed break.

Why I Need a Time-Turner

Katie's Master List of Stuff Currently On Her Plate (and a de facto apology to everyone I've been or will be either avoiding or freaking out to):

• LIS 520
• Keeping up on a pile of readings/lectures
• Posting on the boards daily
• Finding useful sources for our Top Ten Ref Source group project
• Trying not to grind my teeth smooth whenever I get comments/grades back from search exercises and reference source reviews
• Consulting with my "client" for my class-sanctioned formal reference interview (good lord I'm glad I worked in ref at Linfield...this would be way harder to tackle if I hadn't)
• LIS 560
• Keeping up on another pile of readings/lectures
• Posting on the boards daily
• Figuring out a topic, writing, putting together a slide show, and recording my presentation to the class using the readings/lectures/discussions as my base
• Researching and writing my instructional program for dramaturgs
• Not dropping the ball with my small group for this last module
• Social Media
• Keeping up with: Twitter, Facebook, this blog, possible future blog posts for Hack Library School, Hack Library School's blog, other LIS blogs
• Social Stuff
• Big-time drama explosions in both the friends and family categories
• Other
• Getting to help a friend do some research for her final degree projects in linguistics. I'm SUPER excited about it, but oh lord help me.
• Volunteering at SPL, and possibly L-Net if I do decide I am, in fact, insane
• THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE DECISIONS MEETING IS IN LESS THAN A MONTH DASJ;LKDHFA;JKHWELJKFHASC;JKHFDA O______________o (i.e. Reading 30-40 grad student applications and help decide whether their futures lie at the UW or elsewhere)
• I'm moving out of my apartment at the end of March and I have no idea where I'm going to end up yet
• Spring Registration tomorrow

Ridiculously enough, the most peace I have during my day is when I'm at work. Go figure.

You know what, though? Bring it. Bring it ON.

Back in Black

Okay. Mild freak-out over. Life exploded a little bit on me over these past couple weeks, and school regrettably took a backseat while I sorted things out, but I'm starting to get back on track. I know this quarter won't be my best, which is okay, but I'm still going to do the best I can to finish out strong. :)

In other exciting news, I finally got my wing tattoo finished last night! It hurt WAY more during this sitting than my first, but I'm attributing that to a couple things that were different this time.

1) My first sitting was at the tattoo convention last August, so the adrenaline rush of having work done in front of hundreds of people definitely helped keep my pain level down. No such rush in studio this time. The endorphins kicked in for a while, but they only stuck around for about 20 minutes, so there was a lot more ouch this time around.

2) The amazing art and interesting people that surrounded me the whole time were great distractions. There's a lot of great art in the studio, but being face down on a table kind of prevents you from looking at it.

3) I wasn't expecting to have to get so much touch-up on the wing that was already colored, so that was a bit of a surprise. Kind of like going in for a cavity filling and being told you need a root canal.

EDIT: Here's a picture! Don't know why I forgot to upload one in the first place. *facepalm*

Pain (and subsequent soreness) aside though, I'm really happy to have them done. I'm not lop-sided anymore! And it'll all be healed up when sun dress time arrives in a couple months. Which I am starting to get really excited for, thanks to the sunshine I've been seeing the past few days. I might have even trained myself to like IPAs by then too (my current beer-related project)!

Alright, time to wrap up my volunteer shift and head out for some coffee/food and study time. I'd like to do some more application reviews, but I've been having issues logging into the Sharepoint. I think it might have something to do with an unsecured wireless connection vs a secured connection. *shrug* Ta ta for now!

Feeling a disconnect

I've been feeling a bit disconnected from school lately. Granted, there's been plenty going on in my personal life to keep me more than occupied in my spare time (some good, some not so good at all), but it still feels weird. It's like someone hit the rewind button and I'm back at the start of last quarter with all my frustrations and insecurities about constantly feeling behind.

I've done pretty well so far this quarter keeping up with assignments, despite the massively different structure of this quarter's classes. Lots of smaller assignments with something due every week, a small group for each class, and some overarching projects that are looming larger and larger on my horizon are all filling up my whiteboard calendar pretty effectively. (Sidenote: I am so so glad I bought that thing. I'm not big on paper planners since I tend to forget about them, and I'm not a huge fan of Google Calendar, so having something too big to ignore or forget about nailed to my wall is keeping me on track much better than storing everything in my head.)

The past couple days I've been trying to get back into the swing of things by starting to read the MLIS apps I'm responsible for. I've read through three of them thoroughly so far, and have glanced at quite a few more, and I've got to say it's just as intimidating to do so as I was expecting. I remember going through the application process myself, and how incredibly nerve-wracking it is to condense your entire life into a couple pages, a resume, and a transcript, and send it all off to a committee of people who only have that to use to try and understand you. I poured my heart into my personal statement, and sending it off to the UW (as well as Syracuse and the U of Maryland) and getting acceptance letters from all three in return felt so incredibly validating. And now I'm in a position to give someone else that same opportunity. Lots of someone elses, in fact.

I hope I'm going about this with the right attitude. It's incredibly humbling and a huge honor to even be on this committee - I'm only halfway through my 2nd quarter at the UW while everyone else (including the student reps) have all been there for much longer. I feel like my inexperience can actually be an enormous plus, since all the frustration I'm currently going through with my classes is exactly what all of these future iSchoolers will experience upon entering the program. ESPECIALLY if they're like me and had to abandon their plans of going full-time residential and try to rework their lives into the Online program. I ran across an applicant today that said she'd prefer residential, but would accept online, and I found myself really wanting to advocate that she join the Online cohort. I want to put her in the same place I was put almost a year ago and see how she reacts. And I have the sway to possibly make that happen. Augh.

Sometimes it feels like it's going to take a miracle (or long series of miracles) for me to get through this program. I'm definitely committed to this choice I've made for myself, and I really love my cohort and all the smart, fabulous people and their smart, fabulous ideas I get to read and talk about every day. It's just hard sometimes to maintain the connection I want to have with everyone, and with what we're learning.

Boo-urns. Bonus points if you get the reference.

Ready or not...

Sometimes I really miss the games I used to play when I was a kid. I grew up in a house with a huge front yard, complete with a perfectly manicured lawn lined by a rock wall, and a good sized patch of forest surrounding the house on three sides. I was lucky enough to live close by a couple families with kids roughly the same ages as me and my siblings, and since dial-up and DOS games just didn't cut it for entertainment most afternoons after school or during summer break, the neighbor kids would come over and we'd play outside.

As a kid I was shrimpy but fast, so I was definitely a fan of any game where speed over brawn was necessary to win. Tag, freeze tag, TV tag, toilet tag (don't judge...it was way fun), Fire in the Jungle...any game I could use to lord my superior running abilities over the rest of the people playing, I was in. Games of stealth and trickery were no different: hide 'n seek, sardines, kick the can, capture the flag, or even just a good squirt gun fight all topped my list too.

P.E. in elementary school and junior high was just as fun. Even though I couldn't throw a red rubber ball to save my life, I soon proved to be nearly impossible to hit, and I vividly remember games of Elimination where I'd be sprinting laps around the gym while balls and muffled curses thudded into the walls right behind me. At my elementary school, once a year, they'd set the gym up like an obstacle course, stick empty pop cans on all the obstacles, turn the lights off, and have you crawl around the course trying not to make any noise lest they nail you with the start-over spotlight. And don't even get me started on Field Day. Best damn day of the entire school year.

Why did we ever stop playing those games? All the games we grew into as adults are governed by so many rules. As kids, breaking the rules of the game or adapting them on the fly usually wound up being the fun part, but as adults, breaking the rules destroys the fun and starts the shouting matches. No one ever gets together just to play a game of freeze tag anymore, and the people that do see it as a novelty, not a normality.

Right now, I'm sitting at my desk finishing out my day at work before heading to a pub for some catch-up time with a friend followed by listening to some lectures for grad school and probably going to bed early. But sometimes, especially on days full of adult-ness like this one, I kinda wish I could be playing hide and seek instead.