Theraflu is a close second to Vick's for grossest medicine ever created.

Because I should probably stay as far as possible from the discussion boards while I'm in the state I'm in, and because the fuzziness in my head is refusing to let me focus on any one task for more than thirty seconds at a time, BLOG POST! Hopefully I won't regret this later when I regain consciousness!

School update time! Everything's been going pretty well, surprisingly enough. I'm sure I'll crack up reading that sentence in a couple weeks when everything starts coming due, but for now, I feel relatively on top of things. Well, at least not behind to the point of panic, anyway. I've got a lot to catch up on with the lit review for my Information Behaviors group presentation, but there's a good chance I'll actually have two interviews and a set or two of observations under my belt by the end of next week. I'm hoping to interview one of the librarians at the central branch of SPL about her experiences helping senior citizens in their info seeking needs, and if I can pin him down, my grandfather (who builds computers in his spare time). I think both of them would give some pretty awesome and unique perspectives on the info behaviors of senior citizens, and that combined with our lit review and observations should make for a pretty great presentation. I hope. O_o

Another looming project coming up is a paper that analyzes information behavior in a social setting. Sounds redundant when placed next to the IB project, non? The thing that distinguishes this paper from that project (and makes me pretty freaking stoked to write it, actually) is that this social setting can be real or imagined, meaning I can pick a favorite book or movie in lieu of a real life scenario if I so choose. I'm thinking of dibsing one of my absolute favorite films, based on one of my absolute favorite books: Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book itself is one big information seeking quest, but since the scope of the novel is much more grand than what's appropriate for a 7-10 page paper, I'm thinking focusing on the film will be more realistic given the time constraints.

Other than the IB project and the paper, 510's going pretty well! I'm actually enjoying posting in the discussion boards a lot, and it's been fun picking everyone's brains about the intricacies of information behaviors. I've probably said this in a blog post before, but it bears repeating that I feel we're finally being given the vocabulary to describe processes that we've all engaged in our entire lives. Learning in this way always makes me think of a phenomena that until recently I'd thought was just a me thing - whenever I learn something new, it feels like it's being learned for the first time. Period. Because it didn't exist to me before I learned it, it didn't exist period. Very Descartes of me, I know. :3 At least I think it was Descartes...I checked out of my freshman philosophy class about a week in, so I may be misquoting.

Life in general is also proceeding pretty well. My orientation meeting for the MLIS Admissions Committee is coming up next Monday morning, and I'm really REALLY excited for it. Work is shmurk. Hopefully soon, when I've recovered from this cold, I'll be able to rejoin the social world. But for now? More Dr. Who and *sigh* more Theraflu. Cheers!