I Just Don't Get It.

And I KNOW these people exist, but do you ever really run across them in real life?

Let me explain. I'm taking a seminar in Electronic Communication - Web 2.0 stuff. Mostly, it's a critical overview of the tools out there and how (or if) they can be used by libraries to serve users.

No biggie, right? You'd figure everyone would be familiar with most of the technologies we're going to be looking at - even I haven't used all of them, although I have an understanding of how they work.

Yeah. In comes Mr. "I've Never Used IM". For reals. Now, I totally understood when he didn't know what l33tspeak was and I posted the Wikipedia entry to explain it. Not everyone in the program is familiar with all that stuff...no worries.

But never used IM? I can see if you've never used Flickr or blogged, but IM? Come on. Why are you taking this class?

Decisions, Decisions.

Sometimes the biggest decision I have to make is whether I want to go to the rodeo or the fair. Or *gasp* - BOTH! I'm such a hick.

This mostly hinges on how long we want to sit in the car. I love to drive, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous if you're not moving. And when Google Maps tells you it could take up to 2 hours and 20 minutes to get somewhere, it's not lying.

Of course, I also have hours of homework to do. But that is nowhere near as much fun.

Also:

Mark Summers likes to talk on his phone.

Constantly.

I had to link to the Wikipedia entry because what is purported to be his "official" website was done in Front Page and is from 1999.

Oh, alright. Bask in its retro glory.

Anyway - he was sitting across from me in the Las Vegas airport yesterday morning and must've made 10 phone calls. At 5:30 in the morning.

I was barely functioning, and he was all "blahblahblah" to every person on the East Coast he could find, I think. I mean, he wasn't being loud or showy about it, and I guess the show he'd just finished taping early that morning was great and he was really excited about it. But it was early.

I do have to give him props - I had no idea he had OCD and he hosted Double Dare for all those years.

He looks old in real life.

So Let's Recap...

Just for posterity's sake. And then I will never think of Interface Design again.

I got a B.

I am not okay with this, but it's a fine grade and I got my three credits. For receiving little to no instruction and little feedback, I can't really complain. I learned something, even though I paid $1100 to teach it to myself.

That's what burns me the most. I spend money for people to INSTRUCT me. This is why they are called INSTRUCTORS. They are not called facilitators, and if they were then I'd see how it might be more self-directed.

BAH.

Moving on, I got an A in Second Life.

I'm still pretty ambivalent about it. I've come around to seeing how it can be utilized in the academic arena, especially in terms of distance education. If a hybrid LMS system can be created that works well, it could be really useful in creating a more robust learning experience. I've now used Sloodle, a mash-up of Moodle and SL that we were the test subjects for, and it was not as hybrid as it could be - although I attribute that to the fact that it was only introduced in March of this year. I'll be interested to see what Blackboard can come up with...although I think they are already behind.

Outside of that? I'm having a hard time with virtual environments. I find it difficult to envision SL as an information portal, because I just don't see the users coming to us. It's not a "build it and they will come" environment (I just thought that up - pretty good, eh?) and I think that's where my doubts come in to play.

We'll see. For now it's over and I'll think about doing some volunteer work in Info Island.

Nine Months.

What...wait?

It's not what you think. Nine months from tomorrow I will receive a lemon yellow hood and I'll be able to add "MLIS" after my name. And you bet your ass I'm going to use those letters. I paid good money for them.

Somehow that seems like a really short time period. And maybe I'm already freaking out about it? Except - I don't know why. It's not like I'm going to be dumped out on the street with a piece of paper and no job. I guess it's the whole idea of starting over again in a new industry with little experience and not being 21 anymore when I could take a job that paid less just to gain that experience.

Yay adulthood!

I won't even BE in my 20s anymore. Not that I'm sad about that...everyone in my office looks at me in astonishment when I tell them how old I am. Either that or envy - it's hard to say. And if 30 means a Masters degree, then bring it on.

But I have decisions to make - decisions that hinge on what happens in this office over the next six months. I've finally gotten into a position where I can do the document control and records management and archiving work I've wanted to do - and it's only taken me five years to get there.

Five years. It was properly celebrated this week, and I was caked and flowered and raised accordingly. I feel like if I can continue on this path here, it's going to take something special to make me leave.

Something that allows me to work in my pajamas.

But for now, I'm going to focus on getting through my last two semesters and trying to learn something else useful - that has meant switching my fall schedule twice in the last week. This also means I most likely won't be taking Instructional Design, which is the one class I really wanted to get in before graduating, but not at the cost of suffering through another completely unorganized and vague learning experience. Thanks, had enough of those.

So, next up is Archives and a seminar in Electronic Communication. Because I? Am the next gen librarian who will be well-versed in Web 2.0 in the hopes it gets me a job where the dress code allows various sets of PJs. Because I loves me some PJs.

How I Spend My Days When I Don't Have Homework

I read comics.

And Another One Down.

Semester #5 is over. Two classes, 10 weeks - and more grey hairs than I care to think about. I'd also like to not think about all of the time I spent in front of this computer screen, because summer is almost over and I watched it all go by from my perch on the sofa in my living room. I'd like to think that someday I'll have a summer vacation.

My butt would not like to think about the summer either, as it had to go back to the gym for the first time in months this morning. I really hate exercise. But after three months of booze and ice cream, I'm not in beach shape by any stretch of the imagination.

And I'm going to Hawaii in eight weeks. Yes. I am going to roll out of bed and onto the beach for an entire week.

In the middle of the semester. Take that, grad school.

But for now I'll enjoy my two-week break and try to read more than one book so I can buy some more. Because really, what fun is being a librarian if you can't read books?

Thoughts on Second Life to come.

An Open Letter to My Insomnia

Hi - are you awake?

I understand your desire to wake me up in the wee hours of the morning and make me start thinking, but really. A girl needs her beauty sleep, and four hours a night is so not cutting it. 2am is a really boring time of night, and watching two hours of Discovery Times' crime shows before deciding that I might as well lie in the dark and think about school is really getting old.

Three nights is enough. Especially when I have just one more assignment to finish and I can't think straight enough to complete it.

So hey - let's call a truce until the end of the week, okay? Then you can keep me up for awhile. I'll read a book or three.

Kisses,
-C

I?

Need a fucking nap.

Any ideas on how Blackboard and Second Life can function together as a hybrid LMS system?

Yeah - me neither.

I didn't have any ideas when I woke up at 5:45am either.

HAHAHAHA!

So, I give my monologue about Las Vegas Wet and two days later the boss is meeting with some people who are working on the project.

We'll see what becomes of it.