Hal'Narn

Google is only your friend if you know how to manipulate it and evaluate the zillions of potentially useless, non-authoritative and false information you're going to come across.  Seeing a teacher tell someone to "just use Google, it's your friend" made me die a little inside.  Am I the only one who feels that Google should have some sort of disclaimer with it? Perhaps teachers in addition to librarians need to be explaining this.  I use Google everyday and depending on what I'm looking for probably not very effectively.  But I find the aforementioned statement to be terribly misleading and irresponsible.  Especially coming from an educator who expects their students (I'm assuming) to have effective research skills.

I know at least one of my LJ friends here is a teacher- but I'm sure you all have some sort of opinion? Let's here it.

Considering I kind of overlooked spring cleaning, I figured I'd give fall cleaning a go.

Here's a really great green-cleaning guide I found, very thorough.  I know I'm going to be much happier chemical free.

It's amazing how weddings get out of control so quickly...

We just looked at our guest list...222 people. So we're having to make decisions on who to invite and who not to invite. Family obviously, but not extended. And only really close friends.  So begins the cutting. Hopefully everyone will understand that we're paying for this ourselves with minimal outside assistance so we can't afford to invite everyone.

People will say, "Well, you should have waited til you were more financially stable before trying to pay for a wedding." In which case, my only reply is, "Even if we had waited, I still wouldn't be willing to pay more than I am now.  For just one day? Albeit one of the most important days of my life.  But, no. I have things I want to do that cost money and are somewhat more important than my family (most of whom I don't care for) and random people I have never even been introduced to." 

Seriously, there are people coming to my wedding that I have never even met before. Granted, they're Mike's parent's friends. I think I have the right to know everyone coming to my wedding though. Especially when I'm the one paying for it.

/rant

a student who realizes why you need an advanced degree to be a librarian. Poor kid though. She was massively confused. 

Professors really need to get their act together.  Granted, some of them are really great.  They communicate with the liaison librarians (more than just letting them know which materials they feel should be purchased for the collection).  Sometimes they bring their students in for a resources instruction class or even invite the librarians into their classroom for more personalized instruction.

Yet, there are the others who never even mention to their students how to find resources.   If you're not going to show them at least invite a librarian in to show them if you're too lazy or "busy" to take them to the library yourself.  They say "I want a ten page paper on yada yada yada....15 sources...yada yada yada...scholarly sources....blah blah blah".  And the students come to the library and they try to find 15 scholarly sources which match the criteria their professors have given them (though most of the time 15 scholarly sources is the only criteria they are given).  Come on dudes, tell your students what a scholarly source is if that's what you want them to give you.  It will take you about 5-10 minutes tops. And nobody gets hurt. Promise.

Generally I tend to lean toward the left, being a democrat and all, but really I'm not fond of either candidate for this upcoming election.

Obviously I am strongly against McCain, but I'm not really for Obama either. Somewhere between a rock and a hard place, I am.

Touché, pussycat.

I'm extremely satisfied with the classes I chose this semester- I feel like I'm going to learn a lot. I am, however, getting kind of frustrated with the LIS department, even though they are finally offering the social sciences class I've been wanting to take since I started the program. I've also noticed that while librarians are amazing (give or take) many library students just have a plethora of unattractive qualities- arrogance being one of them. I've noticed that arrogance is often times just an unfortunate case of excessive self- confidence. Self-confidence is a great quality, though only in moderation. Too much of a great thing really can make some people seem like insufferable know-it-alls.

But moving on, I ended up with an info literacy practicum at Canisius. I'll be teaching classes, creating online tutorials for the databases and catalog, doing collection development, virtual reference, and basically whatever else I want to do. I also just taught my first session yesterday morning- OVID Medline to 2nd year pharm students. Next Wednesday I'm shadowing a RST 101 (Religious Studies and Theology) user ed class at Canisius. This is one of four courses that all freshman at Canisius are required to take, though as Canisius is a catholic college I'm not terribly surprised. I was surprised though when the mentioned world religions aside from Judeo-Christian will be taught. That made me feel better.

In any case, today is the first day since Monday that I will not have spent between 10-13 hours on campus. Yay relaxation.

So yesterday I decided to stop eating meat. I had stopped eating meat for a good portion of high school and the first part of college for the most part until I moved to Buffalo. Now I want to go meatless again. I don't know if I have what it takes to become vegan (though I have certainly eaten delicious vegan dishes). I am going to try to switch from cow's milk to soy milk. We have both in the apartment because Mike drinks cow's milk. Cheese and eggs will likely be the hardest for me to stop eating. I love cheese. I have never tried soy cheese but we're trying to lower out grocery bill to 50 dollars a week (so far we've done it two weeks in a row) and I know that soy products and meatless meat are more on the expensive side. The plus side is that I would be the only one eating them so I would take longer to go through them.

So we just got our weekly farm share and I've devised some recipes for today and the first part of next week...

8/16 Whole wheat pizza with onions, squash, zucchini and broccoli (I've never tried putting squash or zucchini on pizza before, so this should be interesting)
8/17 Tuscan white bean soup with swiss chard and leeks
8/18 Meatless Shepherd's Pie
8/19 Whole wheat pasta with green pepper and onion ragu
8/20 Lentil Vegetable Stew

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are still up in the air. Any recommendations?

For health and financial reasons (meat is becoming kind of expensive on my grad school budget and it's not terribly healthy either) I'm looking to cook more vegetarian meals, think whole wheat pasta, grains, beans, and more vegetables (we get about five-six lbs of random, in season veggies a week through a farm share we're doing). I know some of you are vegetarians *and* cook, so if you could post some of your favorite vegetarian recipes or recommend some vegetarian cookbooks/websites that would be awesome :)

I'd have to say that my favorite fictional character is a toss up between Ivan from Enchantment (Orson Scott Card) and Henry from The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger). Ivan is a PhD student studying Russian myths and folklore and Henry is a librarian. They know things, impressive things. And aside from that, they treat their woman with respect, compassion and on occasion fear in Ivan's case.

Least liked character--- Dolores Umbridge. Censorship is wrong, even in the wizarding community. Not to mention the insane amount of pink and glass shattering voice.

For those of you who are stalking me and have been a little pissed that I haven't posted an actual non-meme post since May...

I received Neverwhere yesterday from the manbeast. Gaiman is amazing. I'm already on page 100 or so and I'm just so in love with his writing style. I've read Stardust, the first portion of American Gods (recieved this as a gift as well so now I'll get to finish it) and he is genius. Simply genius.

Hah, and it's finally beginning to look like finals time in my apartment. Library books strewn all over the place instead of just books I own strewn all over the place. I'm doing my final research paper for YA Sources and Services on sex education and YA librarianship. What role does the YA librarian play with regards to sex education. Additionally, what resources are available for them to provide to young adults.

I'm sending out my application for the Library Trainee position tomorrow morning. I just want an interview so badly. I know that if I am granted one I can woo them out of their argyle socks!

Five weeks left of first graduate semester *headdesk*

And I have all of this yet to complete...

-Write 10-15p paper for Young Adult Resources and Services about the sex education materials available to young adults in a public library or school library setting

-Write a 6p paper for Intro to library studies *after* I interview a librarian about the policies regarding immigrant and homeless communities at the BECPL

-Do book talk (March 31st) on Japan--- finish reading the books *first*

-Various assignments (I believe 3 are left) for Information tech...we have to create a database for next week, complete with queries and reports...still haven't gotten the grasp of *report*...check out MS Access for dummies at library

-Website for Info Tech...big, with powerpoint and presentation...aromatherapy is involved

-Oooh...the other 6-8p paper for YA Resources blah blah blah...don't even remember what it's about...except that it is due April 7th

-Quiz for Intro class

-Assortment of assignments for Reference course...and an exam somewhere

-...there has to be more, I'm just forgetting them

I'm beginning to realise that marrying into a catholic family (while my fiance is not a practicing catholic) is going to be somewhat of a pain in the ass. His parents have recently discovered that we're not being married in a catholic church, but they don't know we're having a civil ceremony yet. His parents have been donating money in his name at the church where he went as a child *just in case* we wanted to have our wedding there. They know I'm not catholic...why would they expect me to get married in the catholic church if I'm not catholic. *grumble mutter bat'leth mutter*

Aside from having overbearing catholic in-laws, I've been muddling through my first semester of graduate school.


Main Entry:
muddle through
Function:
intransitive verb
Date:
circa 1864

: to achieve a degree of success without much planning or effort

Perfect. Thus far I have earned no lower than a B+ on all assignments. Mostly all my grades have been an A-. I have 3 more paper, a website, various IT exercises, and a book talk (Japan) due before the end of the semester. Which is over April 28th. Trying to decide where to do my summer practicum. Central library? Perhaps.

I seriously do not want to be here (circulation desk) right now. I want to go home...and rethink my life. How odd, that statement finally came true after laughing about for so long. I started reading American Gods yesterday and have concluded that Neil Gaiman is himself a god. I don't know why- I suppose it's just the way he makes you feel like you really know the characters- or atleast understand them and just plain like them. That's why I enjoy JKR so much- she really creates likeable, understandable characters. Gaiman's have a bit more depth and a bit less teen wizarding angst (though teen wizarding angst is the best kind of angst in my opinion, well atleast the most tolerable). Like Shadow, the main character of American Gods- I have nothing in common with him on the surface but deep down we both long to go undetected and blend in without being noticed. I think that's why I don't like being here- people can see me and I can't hide or blend or do anything of the sort. I just have to sit here and wait for people to come. I like people granted- talking to them is quite intriguing and watching them also has amusing benefits, but today I want to go home and hide in my bed and not be bothered, while I read more American Gods, or perhaps y'know---do my homework. I have to email my one professor a revised copy of my article outline because I left out the mothering model in peruvian female shamanism; write the paper about Machi shamanism in southern Chile, due Thursday; do my nutrition lab which to my horror involves some very nasty looking mathematical equations. Also, we need to actually bring in the card catalog from the car tonight which I'm not looking forward to as it is solid wood and weighs around 130-140 lbs.

Woo! Not.

Time: 1:14 am.
What's on my mind: Every single possible thing known to man. Seriously, I can't stop thinking about the jobs I just applied for, and what I would do if I got one of them. I know what I will do if I don't; continue on with grad school. Growing up is such a bother sometimes. I have class in 8 hours and 43 minutes. If I don't go to sleep soon it's possible that when the alarm goes off I'll just shut it off and say to hell with it. Then I will have missed that class twice this week. I missed all of my classes Monday and Tuesday- all because I can't seem to fall asleep before 2 or 3 am. So I need to go back to bed and make myself go to sleep.

So I just applied for my first "big-girl" job
It's very unlikely that I would get it, and getting my MLS should be my first priority, but I saw "A minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree is required" and just couldn't pass it up. I just stayed up til 2 in the morning revamping my résumé and working on a cover letter for a job that I probably won't even get an interview for. And I have a 9:30 class. I'm impressively brilliant sometimes.