A couple of days ago, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin posted an entry on his blog that discussed the future of the library, and in doing so, ruffled a massive amount of feathers across the librarian community. I saw a lot of derision towards his post, sparking statements like:
It’s always a little galling when a non-librarian tries to tell information professionals how to do their jobs. (from this post by Katy Stoddard)
or another zinger from Bobbi Newman:
But honestly I wish he’d just stop writing about libraries. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a great writer, I think I own all of his books, but I think he should stick with what he knows, and clearly that’s not libraries.
Each blogger goes on to argue against Godin's apparent misperceptions of the basic responsibility of libraries to provide equal access to all types of library materials (and yes, the rabid defense of the book comes up yet again here), and each make some decent points. I saw a similar reaction from many of the librarians and library blogs I follow, and while I do understand where these sentiments are coming from, it was absolutely staggering to me that so many people that reacted in outrage missed the point of his post entirely.
P.C. Sweeney's post on the issue comes the closest to summing up my own viewpoint on the controversy raised by Godin's writing. I too think Godin hit the nail right on the head with his article, and while I would support some of the opposition in its defense of physical artifacts as valuable (and remaining so), I felt myself thinking Yes! Finally! Someone that understands that libraries are in a critical position right now, especially in the public eye, and that there's so much to look forward to in their future if people are willing to shift their perceptions of the function and purpose of a library! And what lends extra weight to his arguments, in my opinion, is the fact that he isn't a librarian. Like Sweeney wrote:
Remember that this guy isn’t a librarian at all. He is library user and an advocate for libraries. He is exactly the kind of person who should be telling us what a library is.
Bingo.
Godin's vision of the future of libraries is immensely exciting to me, and very much in line for what I picture in my own future as a librarian and information professional. His prescription?
The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.
...
The next library is filled with so many web terminals there's always at least one empty. And the people who run this library don't view the combination of access to data and connections to peers as a sidelight--it's the entire point.
He paints a picture of libraries as the "local nerve center[s] for information," which is a picture I've held dear to my heart since I was a kid, and one that gets even more vibrant the more time I spend in libraries. I see them as not just an institution to preserve the collective human body of knowledge, but as the keystone of any community and as a societal institution in the best place possible to promote the evolution and exploration of new and innovative ways for us as humans to interact with each other. The vast majority of the articles and blog posts and uproar I've been seeing about the death of the public library in the modern age has been primarily fueled by nostalgia - people that remember how libraries changed them as a child and want to preserve the same feelings of excitement and discovery they felt for future generations. This is all well and good, and I share in that nostalgia myself. But what I'm afraid of is that people will be so tied to that idea as solid grounds for the defense of libraries that they'll fail to see what Godin presents in his article - a widely shared public perception of libraries and librarians in the modern age that doesn't give two shits about your sentimental arguments.
Upon acceptance to the UW, I took on the Librarianarchist persona as a bit of a joke - I wanted to be the most badass librarian on the block, and help destroy the stereotype of librarian as fuddy-duddy. But now that I'm starting to understand where society stands on the role of libraries and how divided we as librarians and info professionals are amongst ourselves on where our efforts should be directed in the face of dramatic social change, I'm thinking Librarianarchist is starting to feel like more than a tongue-in-cheek moniker. The way I see it, in branding myself this way, I'm branding myself as someone that does have a deep appreciation for where things have been, but who is primarily concerned with shaking up those old perceptions and expectations and looking forward to where we could go. And that is immensely exciting to me.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Move Accomplished!
It's finally over! The move I've been anticipating/dreading/stressing out about for months is finally over. I'm now the proud resident of a beautiful studio on the corner of Boren & Union in downtown Seattle, and I couldn't be more happy about it. I walked to the grocery store and back last night (something I'll probably repeat almost daily), I walked to and from the office yesterday, and I've been getting an extra hour of sleep per night, which has made an enormous difference in how I feel during the day. I think I could get used to this. :)
School, once again, took a backseat during this period of dramatic change in my personal life, so I know I've got some catching up to do. Thankfully the readings and lectures this module seem to be a little less intense - trying to wrap my mind around the intricacies of metadata structure and the history/future of copyright during the same week on top of couch-surfing and preparing to move was a little too much to handle. I also failed to turn in an assignment, which I've never done before. It was just a quick exercise that wasn't worth a lot of points, but I still feel pretty terrible about it.
Speaking of class stress, I made the decision this weekend to not register for summer courses. I'd been contemplating taking Archival & Manuscript Services and Government Publications, both of which were being offered online, but after a lot of consideration, I decided I need a break. I don't want to burn myself out, and I can always take these classes later when they're offered again. Plus, I've got a lot of little side projects I've been wanting to work on, but haven't had the time, and taking the summer off would give me the opportunity to focus on something fun and creative for a while!
Okay, off to work. I'll try to keep a diary going of all the craziness I'm sure I'll run into living downtown, so look forward to those posts. Oh! And I also wrote another post for Hack Library School that should be up on Wednesday, so look forward to that too! The topic of choice this time around was LIS Overload (appropriately enough), and while I didn't get as in-depth as I'd have liked with the post, I'm hoping it'll be a good conversation starter on the site. I'll probably expand on my thoughts later in this blog.
School, once again, took a backseat during this period of dramatic change in my personal life, so I know I've got some catching up to do. Thankfully the readings and lectures this module seem to be a little less intense - trying to wrap my mind around the intricacies of metadata structure and the history/future of copyright during the same week on top of couch-surfing and preparing to move was a little too much to handle. I also failed to turn in an assignment, which I've never done before. It was just a quick exercise that wasn't worth a lot of points, but I still feel pretty terrible about it.
Speaking of class stress, I made the decision this weekend to not register for summer courses. I'd been contemplating taking Archival & Manuscript Services and Government Publications, both of which were being offered online, but after a lot of consideration, I decided I need a break. I don't want to burn myself out, and I can always take these classes later when they're offered again. Plus, I've got a lot of little side projects I've been wanting to work on, but haven't had the time, and taking the summer off would give me the opportunity to focus on something fun and creative for a while!
Okay, off to work. I'll try to keep a diary going of all the craziness I'm sure I'll run into living downtown, so look forward to those posts. Oh! And I also wrote another post for Hack Library School that should be up on Wednesday, so look forward to that too! The topic of choice this time around was LIS Overload (appropriately enough), and while I didn't get as in-depth as I'd have liked with the post, I'm hoping it'll be a good conversation starter on the site. I'll probably expand on my thoughts later in this blog.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The switch finally flipped!
Learning about LIS has, in more ways than I realized until just now, been less like learning about a new subject and more like learning a new language through immersion.
For the first two quarters, I found myself really struggling not just to understand the concepts and ideas being presented to me, but to really understand the vocabulary used to illustrate them and to figure out how they all connect to each other under the big umbrella that is LIS. I managed to do relatively well in most of the classes I took, but it felt a lot like when I was back in high school taking chemistry or physics or calculus - I knew how to do use the tools I was given, but I didn't really understand how or why they worked.
Then, all of a sudden, I realized about a week ago while slogging through the readings for 550 that holy shit, I'm actually getting this. The last week of readings and listening to lectures has been so much better than anything I've done so far in the iSchool because for the first time, I really feel like I'm at almost 100% comprehension and retention. I understand what we're talking about, I understand the relationships between the ideas and concepts we've studied in the past and how they relate to what we're doing now, and most importantly, for the first time I really feel engaged in the material. It's becoming less of a chore and more exciting than I could have imagined!
The parallel to learning a new language is uncanny. I've never had to learn a language through immersion, but from everything I know about how it works, it usually takes around six months for everything to click, and once it does, learning becomes so much easier and more enjoyable. Took me slightly more than six months for my own switch to flip, but even a week of this increased comprehension and engagement has more than made up for the six months of struggling to understand.
I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be now, and that's an incredible feeling to have. ^_^
For the first two quarters, I found myself really struggling not just to understand the concepts and ideas being presented to me, but to really understand the vocabulary used to illustrate them and to figure out how they all connect to each other under the big umbrella that is LIS. I managed to do relatively well in most of the classes I took, but it felt a lot like when I was back in high school taking chemistry or physics or calculus - I knew how to do use the tools I was given, but I didn't really understand how or why they worked.
Then, all of a sudden, I realized about a week ago while slogging through the readings for 550 that holy shit, I'm actually getting this. The last week of readings and listening to lectures has been so much better than anything I've done so far in the iSchool because for the first time, I really feel like I'm at almost 100% comprehension and retention. I understand what we're talking about, I understand the relationships between the ideas and concepts we've studied in the past and how they relate to what we're doing now, and most importantly, for the first time I really feel engaged in the material. It's becoming less of a chore and more exciting than I could have imagined!
The parallel to learning a new language is uncanny. I've never had to learn a language through immersion, but from everything I know about how it works, it usually takes around six months for everything to click, and once it does, learning becomes so much easier and more enjoyable. Took me slightly more than six months for my own switch to flip, but even a week of this increased comprehension and engagement has more than made up for the six months of struggling to understand.
I really feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be now, and that's an incredible feeling to have. ^_^
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Wait, I have time to blog?
As of three days ago, I'm officially homeless! Well, technically it's only for two weeks until my new lease kicks in on April 16th, but I'll be couch-hopping for a week until my folks go out of town next Monday. Then I'll have a giant house all to myself for five glorious days. Cable TV, a fully stocked kitchen, four beds to choose from...bliss. ^_^
School's been going pretty well so far this quarter. I didn't feel ready to start back up at all, which made for a scary first couple of days. I'm determined to not fall so far behind this time. It definitely helps that I'm really starting to feel personally engaged in the material consistently instead of sporadically - something I really had issues with last quarter.
At the moment we're talking about the Semantic Web and ontologies in Organization of Information and Resources (basically Cataloging 101), and in Information in a Social Context we're starting up discussion on Sociotechnical Perspectives in the Information Society and starting to form up groups for our quarter-long project. The way this project works, we've been asked to research an information issue in a local institution and report our findings at the end of the quarter in both paper and presentation format. I decided I wanted to target DRM, since it's popped up so often recently (the Google Books settlement, Amazon and Lendle, etc.). Got a great lead on a possible topic within the UW itself, so I'm hoping I can get my group on board with that one! Many of the institutions directly involved in these debates are local, so hopefully I'll be able to have some direct contact with them over the course of the project. Getting information directly from an involved party will definitely give an oomph to our findings.
Other than moving and school, there isn't much going on. Sakuracon is coming up in a couple weeks, which is going to be a complete blast. I know quite a few more people who are going/volunteering this year, and somehow I think living a few blocks from the convention center (and nearby bars) will be nice. :3 Oh! And I'll also be writing another guest post for Hack Library School in early May! It's going to be on LIS overload, appropriately enough, so if any of you MLISers have something you'd like to contribute (or that you'd like me to address), just let me know!
School's been going pretty well so far this quarter. I didn't feel ready to start back up at all, which made for a scary first couple of days. I'm determined to not fall so far behind this time. It definitely helps that I'm really starting to feel personally engaged in the material consistently instead of sporadically - something I really had issues with last quarter.
At the moment we're talking about the Semantic Web and ontologies in Organization of Information and Resources (basically Cataloging 101), and in Information in a Social Context we're starting up discussion on Sociotechnical Perspectives in the Information Society and starting to form up groups for our quarter-long project. The way this project works, we've been asked to research an information issue in a local institution and report our findings at the end of the quarter in both paper and presentation format. I decided I wanted to target DRM, since it's popped up so often recently (the Google Books settlement, Amazon and Lendle, etc.). Got a great lead on a possible topic within the UW itself, so I'm hoping I can get my group on board with that one! Many of the institutions directly involved in these debates are local, so hopefully I'll be able to have some direct contact with them over the course of the project. Getting information directly from an involved party will definitely give an oomph to our findings.
Other than moving and school, there isn't much going on. Sakuracon is coming up in a couple weeks, which is going to be a complete blast. I know quite a few more people who are going/volunteering this year, and somehow I think living a few blocks from the convention center (and nearby bars) will be nice. :3 Oh! And I'll also be writing another guest post for Hack Library School in early May! It's going to be on LIS overload, appropriately enough, so if any of you MLISers have something you'd like to contribute (or that you'd like me to address), just let me know!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Je suis inquiet
As of 3:30pm today, my closet and dresser hold exactly half the clothes they used to, my massive stack of important papers has been sorted and stored, and a snowboard I didn't own yesterday is leaning against my wall. Not bad for one day. And my new camera battery finally came, so prepare for a ton of photo posts in the coming weeks. :3
I'm finding that the fewer things I own, the more comfortable I am. Sounds a little backwards, I know, but honestly one of the weirdest days of my life was when I realized I couldn't fit everything I owned into my car anymore. As nice as it is to have my own bed, dresser, desk, and other pieces of furniture, I'm finding that I don't particularly like owning them. And nothing, nothing feels better than tossing out old stuff in preparation for new and exciting people and places in the near future.
I'm not one to hang onto much from my past. Some people scrapbook, some people just shove everything into boxes and periodically go through them. I toss almost everything. I rarely go through the stuff from my past, and usually when I do, it turns out to be more emotionally stressful than pleasantly nostalgic. Not that I've had a bad life at all. I've had it pretty great so far! I just don't particularly enjoy reminiscing about the person I used to be. I tend to keep the really important memories and people from my past in my present (and hopefully in my future). I don't need or want to go through old diaries to dredge up things I left in the past - they were left behind for a reason.
I've been talking for a long time about leaving Seattle, and I think it might be time to finally do so. I'm about to sign a six month lease to live downtown, and while I'm definitely excited to spend the summer and early autumn living in one of my favorite places, it feels less like the fulfillment of a long-held goal and more like an appropriate farewell to a city that I love but need to leave as soon as possible.
There's a time for settling down and seeking out a comfortable constancy in life, but I'm too young for that shit.
I'm finding that the fewer things I own, the more comfortable I am. Sounds a little backwards, I know, but honestly one of the weirdest days of my life was when I realized I couldn't fit everything I owned into my car anymore. As nice as it is to have my own bed, dresser, desk, and other pieces of furniture, I'm finding that I don't particularly like owning them. And nothing, nothing feels better than tossing out old stuff in preparation for new and exciting people and places in the near future.
I'm not one to hang onto much from my past. Some people scrapbook, some people just shove everything into boxes and periodically go through them. I toss almost everything. I rarely go through the stuff from my past, and usually when I do, it turns out to be more emotionally stressful than pleasantly nostalgic. Not that I've had a bad life at all. I've had it pretty great so far! I just don't particularly enjoy reminiscing about the person I used to be. I tend to keep the really important memories and people from my past in my present (and hopefully in my future). I don't need or want to go through old diaries to dredge up things I left in the past - they were left behind for a reason.
I've been talking for a long time about leaving Seattle, and I think it might be time to finally do so. I'm about to sign a six month lease to live downtown, and while I'm definitely excited to spend the summer and early autumn living in one of my favorite places, it feels less like the fulfillment of a long-held goal and more like an appropriate farewell to a city that I love but need to leave as soon as possible.
There's a time for settling down and seeking out a comfortable constancy in life, but I'm too young for that shit.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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."
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."
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
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!
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!
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