In which I ramble about music and whatever else pops into my head

Today's been a busy day, mentally-speaking, and instead of following my usual pattern of either talking it out of my system with other people or ignoring it until the wheels in my head stop spinning, I figured I'd inflict another blog post on the world. :)

Have you ever noticed that when describing a new band to other people, most of the time, you default to describing them based on other groups that have a similar sound instead of describing the sound itself? I was thinking about that earlier today while listening to a new album that's currently rocking my socks off. I love to share music I think is amazing with other people, but when I was trying to figure out a good way to describe Elbow to people I think would like them, I found myself trying to figure out who they sounded like instead of trying to find the words to describe the music itself. It's so much easier to make comparisons than use your own words to describe something, which is a little sad to me.

It reminded me of one of the many random events that occurred while I was volunteering at the library a while ago. A blind woman came up to the welcome desk and asked for some assistance with a couple basic things, and at one point, she wanted to buy some thank-you cards from the library shop. She asked me to describe the cards to her one by one, and the knowledge that she'd choose based entirely on my description gave a sort of pressure to the situation that doesn't normally exist when picking out greeting cards. It was surprisingly difficult to describe the scenes on the cards to her, which really made me think about how much I take in sense-wise without it actually registering in my mind. Describing something visual was difficult enough, but describing a smell? Or a sound? No wonder people revert to comparisons when trying to describe music. That being said, bear with me while I mangle a quick outline of some current favorite tracks.

While I'm writing this sentence, I'm listening to Grounds for Divorce (Elbow), and I'm really digging it. It's one of the most interesting songs I've listened to in a while because it's insanely layered. Every time I listen to it, I notice something different - a new little gravelly spot in the vocals, a new piece of the bassline, etc. Gah, even now when I try to describe the scene it sets for me in my mind, it's really hard to think of the right words to put it in. It feels like a song that should be heard in a bar with a beer in one hand and the other pounding out the time on the table. There are so many moments in this song that are ripe for audience participation - repeated lines, post-chorus intensive percussion sections, vocal hooks, you name it.

Next up is The Bones of You, also by Elbow. This song stood out to me when I was thinking about buying the album, and the percussion hooked me right away. I'm a sucker for a good beat, and this one definitely has that. This song feels like a driving song to me. It feels like a song that should start a summer road trip mix. Car windows open, sunshine streaming in, driving down the Oregon highways that I miss so much sometimes I can hardly stand it (one of the very few things I miss about living in OR during undergrad). I used to go for long drives when I just needed to get off campus and not think about things for a while, and I really wish I'd had this album back then.

On a somewhat related note, Derezzed by Daft Punk from the Tron soundtrack is definitely near the top of my list of current favorites. I've been a fan of Daft Punk for quite a while now, and their soundtrack to the movie was absolutely fabulous. This particular track is a favorite because of the incredible moment about ten seconds into the song where the beat gives way to the heavy synth. While Elbow is great for a leisurely car ride, Daft Punk (this song in particular) makes me want to sign up for motorcycle certification and start saving up for a sport bike.

I really don't know how I've gotten so far in life without knowing about Rodrigo y Gabriela. I don't even remember why I happened to look them up on Youtube a week or so ago, but I'm glad I did. Watching them play Tamacun and Diablo Rojo makes me feel the kind of awe that I don't really feel very often when it comes to watching musicians perform. I've always loved Spanish-style guitar, and their music makes me want to take up some form of dancing that would allow me to not look like an idiot while dancing to the beat. I bought both of these songs on iTunes, and while they're great, it just isn't the same as actually watching the song being performed. When you just listen to it, you don't see the fingers flying all over the place, or them getting so wrapped up in the beat that they're practically dancing in their chairs. I think they swung through Seattle (or Marymoor, at least) earlier this year, and I can't imagine how amazing they'd be live.

And with that, it's time to pack it in for the night. I'm off on what I'm sure will be an epic cabin adventure with some friends tomorrow through Wednesday, and I still have to track down half my snow gear. I've located my coat, pants, and boots so far, so all that's left is to hope that my goggles and gloves aren't stashed in storage somewhere...

Happy Katie is happy

Just a quick post tonight - Steam is having a completely ridiculous sale, so I'm about 3 minutes away from some serious gaming bliss. Downloading Portal (finally), Trine, Braid, Super Meat Boy, and all three Winter Voices games. Yay.

I've got to say, now that grades are all in for all three classes, I am pretty damn pleased with how my first quarter of grad school has gone. As stressful and overwhelming everything was at times, coming out of it with much better grades than I was expecting gives me a lot more confidence going forward. Now that I've got a good baseline established for what's expected of me, I can finally start to up the ante and really push myself.

I'm pretty excited for next quarter to start up too. I'll be taking LIS 520 (Information Resources, Services and Collections) and LIS 560 (Instructional and Training Strategies for Info Professionals), and on top of that, I'll be reading and evaluating what will probably be a mountain of applications for admission to the MLIS program next year. I'm so ready for it all, though. I'll take the stress of school over the stress that comes with putting off Christmas shopping until the last second any day. Whoops. O_o

In between now and January 4th is going to be a ton of fun though, so while my brain's ready to get another pounding, I think my liver's first in line. Christmas weekend followed immediately by an epic cabin trip with some friends and a NYE bacchanalia to finish it all off? Yes. Please.

Hope all you MLIS folks are having a fantastic break thus far, and congrats to all of us on successfully navigating our first quarter of graduate school! In a lot of ways, this will probably go down as one of the most difficult quarters we'll face, and I really couldn't have asked for a better group of classmates and colleagues to tackle the rest of them with. :)

Oh Christ. No, seriously.

I subscribe to a couple listservs through the UW that target both student and professional positions, and one of the emails that made the rounds this morning advertised a Library Assistant position opening up in Cataloguing at Seattle Pacific University. In a frenzy of excitement, I clicked on the job description, decided to ignore the fact that I don't have any direct experience in cataloguing (yet), and got to work filling out a job profile during my morning break that I never ever take.

About two questions in, I noticed something odd about the tone of the application. I was asked to read the mission statement and statement of faith of the university and state whether or not I agreed and supported them. Normally, I'd have just not read them at all, clicked the Yes button, and gone on without a second thought like 98% of the other applicants will probably do. But I was curious, so I actually read them. And got extremely uncomfortable extremely fast. One of the options regarding your opinion of the mission and faith statements was a "Yes, with the following reservations:" button followed by a text box, and I wrote a basic "was raised Christian, now no longer follow the faith, still have the highest respect for people who choose to do so" blurb, and moved on.

The next two questions basically assumed I'd answered Yes in my support of the mission and faith statements. They asked me to explain in detail my assumed personal relationship with Jesus Christ and about my assumed involvement with a church or youth group, including any leadership roles I had taken. At this point, I clicked out of the application, and I'm still debating whether or not to continue it.

I feel like I'm an extremely accepting person when it comes to issues of faith. While my personal church-going experience has been mostly negative (leading to a current diagnosis of "I don't know what the hell I believe" and a definite aversion to most church-related activities), I have zero problems with other people's beliefs as long as they aren't getting shoved down my throat. To be confronted with these questions of faith in a job application really made me stop and think: should I go through with this application even though I can't justify being anything but totally honest about my lack of faith? And if I do decide to apply, would I be ruled out from the get go because I don't ascribe to their particular brand of belief? Is it more valuable in the long run to be honest on a job application than to just say what you think they want to hear?

Interesting thoughts, for sure. On a happier note, please read this. It totally made my afternoon.

I really didn't mean for this to dissolve into a rant, but what can you do. Once it starts, there's no stopping it.

When I re-downloaded WoW a few days ago, I was sort of afraid I'd fall back into the pattern I developed the first time I played the game: going to work, coming home, turning on the computer, falling into bed five or six hours later after a hefty bout of leveling. I'd never played competitively or even really collaboratively in the past, as by the time I got on board, most of the friends I knew who played had been doing so for years, while the most complicated video game I'd tackled prior to WoW was Ocarina of Time (fucking Water Temple forced me to pull out the FAQs every time). As a result, I'd maybe actually play with friends about 10% of the time, while the other 90% was spent running around blissfully killing everything I could see.

I was listening to a Stuff You Should Know podcast on the Vikings the other day, and their discussion of the Berserkers definitely rang a bell when it comes to my video game playing - I am an admitted button masher, and I am not ashamed to say so. This makes me little more than a huge nuisance when I play with other people, so I usually wind up soloing my characters, as doing anything more than moving the mouse WHILE hitting a key or two on the keyboard, like strategizing or attempting to chat during a battle, turns into me dying in a matter of seconds. So while WoW is probably going to be a lot of fun to mess around with during break, I somehow doubt I'll have that much of a problem putting it away once classes start back up again.

School has finally started to get back under control for me, which has been great. After a last-minute crunch to get my IB paper and presentation put together (the latter largely thanks to my incredibly on-the-ball teammates without whom I probably would have totally bombed the thing...or at least certain deadlines), as well as an incredibly frustrating afternoon putting together my final website design project for the quarter, I'm 10 presentation reviews in and looking good to finish out the quarter strong. I decided to only take two classes next quarter instead of trying to squeeze in an elective, since I'm guessing that admissions committee work is going to be pretty intense and time-consuming, and of course, probably going to amp up about two or three weeks before the end of the quarter.

A frustration has begun to surface as of late that I've hit in the past before, but had hoped not to encounter in my library science journey. I've been keeping an eye out for any library jobs in the greater Seattle area that would suit a 23 year old graduate student, and while a couple have popped up, despite a pretty significant amount of library experience and one hell of a resume, I still haven't gotten any bites whatsoever. I'd interviewed with one institution in particular quite some time ago when I'd just graduated from Linfield and was desperately searching for a job, any job, and while the evening shift library supervisor position I applied for would have been the perfect next step, I was passed over in favor of someone a couple decades older than me. Since then, despite frequent follow-up with the library positions I've applied for there during the past couple months, I've never even gotten an email back to thank me for my interest in the position. And sure enough, a couple weeks after the job closes, I see another 40-50 year old in the position.

I'm trying really hard not to draw the wrong conclusions about this cold-shouldering, but getting a foot in the door is turning out to be extremely difficult. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the job I currently have - I've taught myself quite a lot about the legal process, and met some very nice people. But one of the reasons I thought I was hired there would be to aid in legal research using the skills I acquired during 3 years as a student worker in reference, and to date, I haven't done one damn bit of research. My days are mostly spent doing copy jobs, data entry, and basic filing, which I probably could have accomplished just fine when I was 15 years old. Being 23 and trying to find a challenging, interesting job that pays enough to support you is starting to seem like a mythical state of being at this point.

While I know my eventual MLIS degree will probably help, I suppose I'm just afraid that after graduation, I'll run smack into the same wall I'm beating my head against right now - it'll just be a little further along the path. I don't expect to waltz my way to the top of the library world, but I'd like to be given the chance to accomplish the things I know I'm capable of doing, and want desperately to do. I miss working in a library. I miss interacting with patrons, and having every day hold something different. I miss the feeling of being excited to go to work. I suppose that's one big reason I volunteer at SPL, but even there, I get chewed out pretty frequently for stepping beyond the established boundaries for volunteer aid. About a month ago, for example, a patron came up to me who spoke only Korean, and he managed to convey he needed a translator. I asked the circ desk worker what the normal procedure would be for that, and she handed me a placard with the number of the free translation service used by the library. I called the service, explained the situation, and set up the call for the patron. After speaking with the translator, he handed the phone back to me, and the translator conveyed his request (he'd forgotten his library card at home and needed someone to look up his number for him) to me, which I passed along to the right person. Simple enough, right? You'd think I'd have run up to one of the stacks, doused it in whiskey, and lit the thing on fire based on the librarian-in-charge's reaction to my account of handling the situation myself.

I think half of what attracts me to library administration is the concept of self-management, and not being constantly bitched at by people higher up on the food chain than me. Realistically, you can learn all there is to know about an entry-level job (if you aren't a total idiot) in a month. Why 3-5 years of experience on average is required for most of these positions is totally beyond me.

Okay, enough ranting for now. Trust me, I could go on, but that isn't exactly productive. For now, I'm going to stick with networking as much as humanly possible, which doesn't really feel like work, actually. My interest in the field is absolutely genuine, so meeting and interacting with as many people as possible that are currently in it is extremely interesting, and I've really enjoyed talking with the folks I've met so far! I'm hoping to get a chance to speak with some of the reference librarians at SPL sometime soon about what exactly they do, and in an informal, conversational context. I'm interested in getting to know what people really think about their jobs as librarians - not just the rainbows and butterflies that's projected to everyone that doesn't know better.

Sorry about the enormous post - despite taking an HTML class, I'm still trying to figure out the easiest way to hide chunks of text behind links in a blog post. I was a champ at that during my Livejournal days, but since there isn't a handy little button anymore, I'm a little lost. Hokay, time to Worgen it up for a while before bed. Later!