GRR!

I just found out that we have to be in Pitt at 9am on Friday! That means an extra day off work and an extra night in the motel. At least there's a discount at the Residence ($109 for a studio.)

But I like the city, so I guess it's not that bad.

How's everyone getting there? I'm planning to drive. Probably through Harrisburg. My family's route of choice is the 81 to Carlisle, then the turnpike.

Resolutions

End of term resolutions carry about as much weight as New Year's Resolutions. I prmised myself that I would not procrastinate so much and that I would keep up with the readings.

That lasted all of half the first day of class.

Just submitted the first paper for Tomer. What's with IR theory, anyway? Seems like something computer geeks worry about. It's beyond my math skills.

But at least it's finished.

At some point, I will tell you all stories of my theatrical exploits. (Not that you really care.) But now is time for bed.

I'm not dead!

At the end of summer term, I promised to keep up with my blog. Well, here I am, back and typing. It's been a crazy few weeks. Despite the fact that school has started, I haven't really gotten into the swing of things. I think I need to steal a page from Megan's book and head out to coffee bars to work. Damn NEPA for having so few!

Even though I haven't commented, I have been keeping up with blogs. So I do know what's going on in your lives! Ha.

I'll spare you all the gory details of my break. The highlights are:

~ My boyfriend moved to Boston. (He's in the MFA program in poetry at Emerson.)
~ I've been working on The Crucible at my community theatre. Crazy hours!
~ My new MacBook has arrived, and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it! I'm good with PCs, but I feel like a novice user again.
~ As much as I love my Mac, I hate iChat. I can't get it to work properly.

Back to work. Yay.

Party alternative?

Since I had no one to take me for a drink when I concluded my coursework, I spent my time in a productive manner: surfing the web.

And what did I find? A study of the nature of bubbles in Guinness. No. This was not done by graduate students with too much time on their hands. These men are "professional scientists" with real degrees from real schools.

Why don't librarians spend more time studying alcohol?

Let's start a club!

It is finished!

I have finally finished all the assignments for my classes. Everything is posted, turned in, digitally dropped.

And no one's around to take me for a drink.

I've finally found the biggest flaw in online education. We can't have an end-of-semester party because we are so spread out.

Oh well.

Numbers

No. Not the CBS show with David Krumholtz. Sorry.

Has anyone counted how many entries we are supposed to have? I don't trust my math. I leave it to Charlie:

Tags

The Connotea assignment is too long. Who needs 100 links? And of course the bookmarking tool I don't prefer is the one requiring the most links. Why can't it be del.icio.us?

Grrr.

Writer's block?

I am an English major. I edited my college's literary journal. I love words and books.

I cannot get enough words for the paper on the making of the book that catalogs ALL the words in the English language.

Something must be wrong with me.

Oh well. Whoever reads my review will get finished early. That has to be worth a few extra points, right?

You like me!

Someone actually thinks my blog is interesting! I feel so loved.

I guess that means I'll have to keep some content flowing.

Thanks, Johnnie!

What book review?

I am such a procrastinator! I've read every discussion board comment. I've checked my e-mail a dozen times. I've done everything I can think of to avoid working on that last book review.

Maybe I just don't want it to end.

Yeah, right. If you believe that, I've a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Actual content.

Oh. No. Sorry. No real content here.

Got you!

In my mind, I am drafting a brilliant post about the oncampus experience.

I promise to post it.

Some day.

Really.

"Delayed -- see agent."

That is the phrase displayed on the computer screen showing details for my flight this morning.

Despite two cancellations, one delay, and one extra city, I have arrived for the oncampus experience.

I expected to be on campus by 9. I didn't get here until 4.

But I am here. Now I'm going to bed.

Speed reading should be a required course.

The amount of work we have to do in the next week is ridiculous! We have a paper due today and one due next Monday! We have to read three books/articles for the review. We also have to read a 500 page PDF book for discussion.

That's way too much!

It's completely unfair to have a paper due when we're spending the entire week oncampus. How are we supposed to get to know the city (as Sue suggested somewhere) when we're spending every free minute working?

We need an extension!

Success!

It's there. It's working. I don't want to change anything for fear I'll mess it up again.

I had to use IE to ftp the files rather than publish through NVU. Sometimes software is too helpful.

But at least it's done!

Check it out and comment!

Web Page

I just spent five hours playing with my web page. It looks better in FireFox than IE. I don't really know why.

And of course none of the java script ran. It's all missing. It previewed okay, but it's not showing up on the "real" internet.

I guess I have to tweak some more.

Stupid computers.

And I was actually pleased with it for a first web page.

Oh well.

Sleep? Who needs sleep?

Today I was supposed to work in the office from nine to five. Due to "massive communication errors" with the network, I didn't leave the office until 5:45 after spending the better part of the day on the phone with local techs and techs in California.

< tangent >
The computer issues are voluminous enough to merit their own post, but since this blog is for class and none of you care anyway (and really, why should you? It is of vital importance to my livelihood, and even I don't want to read a post about it) I will leave out those sordid details.
< /tangent >

Upon leaving the office, I proceeded directly to the nearest drive through window to obtain a softdrink of a size worthy of the heat.

Arriving at my 6:00 rehearsal at 6:07, I navigated the labyrinthian path to the light board and illuminated the stage. I am directing a fifteen minute play by a local playwright that is to be performed at an outdoor venue with set pieces I have not yet seen. In true community theatre fashion, we are opening the Friday I will be in Pittsburgh with you, dear Readers.

My activities after leaving rehearsal included traveling to the local Massive Bookstore cum Over Priced Coffee Shop(TM) to pick up a copy of Winchester's book for 2000. Of course, the copy which I had previously reserved online was not there for pick up. Instead, I purchased four books for pleasure reading. I haven't read anything since school started. I cannot fathom why I purchased four new books to add to the growing Read Me Next Stack (TM).

I then traveled to the Massive Pet Supply Store (TM) where I purchased (what else?) pet supplies. Grocery shopping and getting gas followed.

Ultimately, I arrived home after 9:00. I checked my e-mail, caught up on the discussion boards, had some semblance of dinner, posted on this blog about simple spelling, and prepared myself for the quiz.

At 11:45, I digitally dropped the quiz and shut down my laptop.

Faithful Readers who have made it this far, here is the crux of my post:
Despite the fullness of my day, upon completion of the quiz, I found myself with an abundance of energy.

What outlet did I discover for that energy? I cleaned the bathroom. That's right. Instead of well-earned sleep, I cleaned the bathroom -- the bane of every keeper of the house. This wasn't your ordinary, run of the mill cleaning either. I even scrubbed the mildew from the out-of-sight, out-of-mind bottom of the bath mat. My hands still smell like bleach.

It is now 1:30, and I am still composing this tome as an alternative to sleep.

I blame the entire thing on the quiz. I am sure that quiz is the entire reason I am still wide awake nearly three hours past my bedtime. Absolutely, positively, without a doubt certain.

At least that is what I am telling myself.

Horrifying!

This article is about the push for "simple spelling." Much of the article utilizes it to demonstrate the idea.

I find it simply horrifying! I don't claim to be a great speller. Sometimes, I'm downright terrible. But I cannot see how changing to simple spelling can improve anything. Not only is it confusing to people used to the current system, but it will also cause confusion with Canadians, Australians, and the British (yes, they spell things differently, but the differences are minimal). Furthermore, much of our current system is based on the old roots from which our language is derived. Meanings can be determined by the roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The nature of our spelling demonstrates the rich background of our language.

One of the arguments for the simpler system is that it's easier for children to learn to spell. Maybe the schools should resurrect phonics. I hated that class when I was in school, but it really is helpful.

This just seems like another example of the dumbing-down of America.

How unfortunate.

To sleep, perchance to dream

Last night after my treed bear post, I shut down my laptop and went to bed. Just as I was reaching that moment when consciousness slips away yielding to sleep, I had a brilliant idea for a post. For a brief moment, I considered getting up, putting on my glasses, walking to the table, booting up the computer, and typing my brilliance.

But I succumbed to the temptation to remain in bed and surrender myself to sleep.

When I awoke this morning, the brilliant idea was gone. Evaporated into the dawn with my dreams.

Now, I am getting ready for bed, but I am afraid to shut down the computer for fear that the brilliance will return.

It must be here somewhere. Will it ever return?

Does this count?

I just had to share this:

A cat treed a bear!

Check it out!

The photo is priceless!

Long time no post

Some of you may have seen the news about the flooding in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Thanks to that lovely event, I spent all day trying to catch up on reviews and all the discussion board posts.

My goodness, everyone is rather prolific!

I hope to put up a post with pictures and the whole story. We'll see how that goes.

In library school related news, I've discovered that I am living proof of some of the ideas in The Social Life of Information by Brown and Duguid.

One of their points is that the community atmosphere developed in an office provides support for users of technology. I can vouch for that!

I work as a paralegal and trustee assistant. For the past two weeks, I have been out of the office working at a record pressing facility supervising the release of certain materials. It's actually more fun than it sounds. One of my co-workers has basically the same job description I do. We work on the same files and use the same specialized software. Almost everyday, she would call me to ask a question about that software.

Most of the questions were silly. I'm not saying that to insult my co-worker. The questions she asked were ones that we would have discussed at our desks without ever noticing it. But because she had to call me on the phone, our network became obvious. We rely on each other to get our jobs done. Although both of us are capable of doing the job alone, we work better as a team.

It's nice to see some practical application of the books we are reading.