Stories I've told

It's been a tough week, especially school wise and that stress permeates into all the other aspects of my life. Running took a back seat. Ok, it got put in the trunk. But I plan on going tomorrow morning (although , is already pretty late tonight...)

Here are some stories I told this week:

Before my case study paper, this was the background on my computer:



Which I took when I was in Hawaii two years ago.

Around Monday (case study was due Wednesday), it changed to this:



which is self explanatory, and happens to be from visiting friends in Michigan.


Also,
Last night a coworker, let's call her Ruma, came in with her young children let's say, Ashima,7, and Sonia,5, she started talking to another co-worker, so I took upon myself to entertain the kids and took them into the stacks to find Halloween books. When we got back to the desk, the older one started this conversation:
Ashima: Do you have children?
Me: Oh, no, no I don't.
Ashima: Are you married?
Me: Nope. And I don't have a boyfriend, it's just me at my house.
Sonia: Do you have peace and quiet?
Me, laughing: Yes, I do have peace and quiet. Do you have a peace and quiet at you're house?
Sonia: Oh, no! We do not have peace and quiet and our house.
She and her sister then preceded to interrupt each other and get into a hitting fight.
It was kinda the cutest thing, and the whole interaction made my whole night.

Unfortunately, there is not peace and quiet here right now. My upstairs neighbor must be playing some kinda of musical instrument, or is seriously into guitar hero, or something, but it is really loud. It's been kinda loud most of the night, but I was watching a movie, so I blocked it out. Now, I'm trying to sleep, so that could be harder. I really need to get the courage up to go up there and tell them to shut the hell up please.

Oh the irony...

I have to write another 750 word Issue Response on either Digitization or Library As Place. At first glance, I could have told you Library As Place would be a better topic for me. Because the class we spent on digitization - couldn't even tell you what happened for those three hours, other than I left feeling really frustrated, because I was completely uninterested. Sure, I should be interested, seeing as it's probably the future of library science and all, and my professor kept saying " I swear it, in the next five years there will be a copyright lawsuit going to supreme court on this." Although again, I could not explain to you what she was talking about, because I just didn't get it. In one ear out the other.
So, the obvious choice is Library as Place. Except that there's this book that I should have gotten forever ago but didn't, and the Library as Place has a chapter in that book that supposed to be the main focus of the Issue Response. So I can't do Library As Place. Digitization, not surprisingly has all the resources available on-line. And, you know, since this is due on Monday, all the copies of the book that's needed are checked out of any library in a 20 miles radius. Plus, you know, it's 7:30 on a Saturday night, and like I said, this is due on Monday.
After reading half of the article on Digitization and going "Oh my god, I have no idea what I just read," and seriously doubting my bullshit capabilities for a 750 word article (I mean, I was an English major, so I'm good, but not that good) I decided to just wing it and type in the book I need to google and see what happened.

Low and behold, kid you not, the book is on books.google.com. Can't print it or copy it, but the whole book, chapter needed and all, right there for the reading. So, the book I need for Library As Place, available to me due to digitization - which I can't seem to understand or care about to save my life - but it's irony is not lost on me.

Now, to get my self excited about Library As Place, and start all over again, so very late in a deserted university library basement on a Saturday night....

Gushing

For reasons of anonymity I won't go into the who, the when, or the why of this, but...

Recently, I was standing next to this cute, smart, nice, talented guy who I respect, and he was saying these really nice things about me to someone else. "They loved her, you should have seen it...." Of course it was wonderful to be spoken of in such high praise. I found myself wanting to reach out and touch his arm, to just gesture to him in some way some kind of recognition and reciprocation of the affection. But stopped my self, just smiled and said something modest and self-deprecating like "Oh really, I don't know about all that..." And soon after left the conversation and scene altogether.
The whole thing left me feeling kinda sad to be honest. Like I said, it was wonderful to have such great things said about me, and to be there to appreciate them. But I was also reminded of how much I miss that. That being, a great guy to stand next to while he boasts about me - and to feel this mutual adoration, to want to boast about him in return. I just kinda miss that.

Running and Homework

Yesterday and today:
2.73 miles.

Homework due:
Issue response on Monday
Case Study on Wednesday
Lots and Lots of readings
On-going Group Project due in late November

Long Tail markets

It should be noted, that the elusive good article I thought I found yesterday - I did not find. It was too short and didn't have enough substance. But it did lead me directly to a pretty good article; it was about Long Tail markets, and I actually found it kinda interesting.

In other news: I have been running again. Started out pretty small, just running one song, walking one song. But today I did pretty good. 2.6 miles, and just walked one song after I rounded the middle.

The Ellusive Perfect Article

I've been here in the basement of the University Library for, oh, at least and hour and half. I came here after work (ok, with a quick stop at Target to procrastinate just a little) and am imposing a rule on myself that I cannot leave until I find an article for my Read and React assignment that's due on Wednesday.
I was hoping to do this yesterday, hell, I was hoping to write the damn thing yesterday, but I spent the entire day reading for and writing my Issue Response that's due tomorrow. It's frustrating that it takes a whole day to write a 750 word (that's like, a page and half) paper - but there's still all this reading and "critical thought" (i.e. - how the hell do I semi-eloquently say what I would otherwise just tell the Prof. in person) involved, it ends up taking way longer than I'd like.
So it would seem it is the same is true for these Read and Reacts. This is my second one, and I swear it takes longer to find a damn article to write about than to write the reaction itself, which is only a 100 word abstract and 500 word response.
There's a subtle science to finding the right article: You don't want it to be too long, because you are going to have to read the freaking thing. Can't be too short, cuz it has to have enough substance to actually review, and ya know, care about somewhat. That care about thing comes into play quite abit, cuz while you're reading you are also trying to figure out how you're going to write something about it - if you are uninterested, you will come up with nothing. It needs to be from a reputable source, and again, the page length comes into play, because I don't want to spend two dollars printing out/coping an article, or several that won't end up working. Some articles you start to reading thinking they'll work, that some how you'll be able to relate this to library science, only to discover that it's not, and has to be abandoned.
So, after an hour of searching, I kinda cheated.
Except I don't really think it's cheating, because this is a big part of being a good Librarian: finding reliable sources quickly.
What I'd done last time wasn't working (basically, browsing JSTOR with key words) so I thought, "well, what did my classmates do theirs on last time?" Of course there's a kid in class whose even more anal, I mean, "on-top-of-it," than I am - he's been the first to post his responses both times. I look at his response from the journal "Library Administration and Management." Well hell, that could practically be a subtitle to this class , which means there's gotta be something in there. I go the shelf, find the current issue, and low and behold - a perfect 4 page article.

And it's only 8:30 pm! (that exclamation point is sarcasm by the way). Time to go home and feel "done" for the day. Tomorrow I have off of work, but, as you can probably guess, there's still a whole lot of school work that lays ahead of me. Basement Library Desk: I'll see you in 12 hours.

Well that was almost a disaster

Just did a knitting program at the library where I used to work. And seriously, it was about "this" close to being a disaster. I did not, simply did not expect 20 people who were beginning knitters. We had capped the program at 20, and it filled up by last week. Someone at the library counted 27 a one point who attended. We'd left it very informal so that beginners and people who knew how to knit already could both come and just sit and chat and knit. But of course, almost everyone was new. I think, about 4 people already knew. Thank god my mom's friend also came to help us instruct. It was little by the seat of our pants, but I think we did a pretty good job and that people walked away with knowledge of how to knit. So, objective met.

It seems apparent from the demand for the program that there is a serious need asking to be met by knitters. Everyone left asking if we were going to be there next week (the answer is no - I had to take off work just to do this once). I'm sure part of it is because there's a lot of great things about knitting (i.e, making something by hand, a zen and calm that comes once you've gotten it down), but there's also this component of just getting together with other people in your community to sit and chat and knit. The make up for the women (and no, it doesn't escape my attention that it was all women, that no men had signed up) who came was also interesting - a make up maybe of 70% African American, 30% white, all ages, (next time, no one under the age of 18, they need a class all for themselves), and a transvestite. This is why I moved back to the city - for this community. I can knit anywhere, and I do, but who you knit with can make a world of difference. The compassion, patience, interest and diversity of the community is what made the program not a disaster, but a success.

Thoughts on Urban Living while Grocery Shopping

Until recently I've never been a huge fan of those Window-Gel-Things. You know those gel-ie, fun shaped things that stick to windows. Just not my thing.

But tonight while grocery shopping I went ahead and spend the 2 bucks on getting some Halloween ones.

And here's the overly thought out reason why I:

I'm finding it hard to express my holiday cheer. There's no nail on my door to hang something fun from, and I've thought about putting out a Halloween Welcome Mat, but to be honest the thought of spending $15 on something that might be stolen has impeded that purchase more than I'd like to admit.
It occurred to me that these gel-shapes are really just a way to express/decorate in an urban environment. I don't have a house to hang little Halloween lights from, or a lawn to put some inflatable monstrosity on, I'm not even sure what I'll do with my pumpkin once it's carved. But I do have windows. Being a corner studio - it's about the only thing I have "lots" of.
So I joined the masses (as I so often inevitably do) and bought some Halloween gel Bats and Ghosts.
From my window to the the world, in bright orange gel: Boo.