Halfway Point

Yesterday was my last day of classes for this summer semester. I am so glad that it is finally over-I never thought it would end! Even though the semester was only 12 weeks, it felt way longer than Spring semester, which was 4 weeks longer. Overall, the semester was a good one. I really loved Storytelling, and I highly reccomend the class! I was pleasantly surprised with this technology class. Even though there were moments when I despised this class, I am glad that we were forced to take it. I learned a little bit and broadened my knowledge a little bit, but like everything else, unless I use what I learned on a consistent basis, I'm sure I will forget much of what I did in this class. I do feel that rather than being a Level 1 Computer Nerd, I'm now maybe a level 3. I'll always aspire to be a level 50, but will be happy to get to a level 10.

I am really looking forward to next semester, which I think will be really great. I have Resources and Services for Adults, which I hear is a pretty fantastic class; Resources and Services for Children, which I'm sure will be pretty good as well; and Managment, which I'm not sure exactly what to expect but seeing as I've had Kip before for Organizing and Retrieving, I'm sure I won't be surprised.

So, now that this semester is, for me at least, officially over, it marks the halfway point of my grad school experience. This is both exciting and scary. I'm uncertain of what I really want to do when I grow up and not sure if this program will really prepare me for the library world. But, after the pannel discussion in Understanding yesterday, I'm a little more confident. Especially after talking with one of the pannelists who shares my name AND my haircut.

At this point I'm pretty much overdrawn at the memory bank, so I'm glad that "summer" is finally here! I hope everyone enjoys their break and for those who are graduating, congratulations and good luck!

Light Bulb Moments

I love when you start working on something and become so frustrated that you think you are going to give up, that it's not going to work out, there's just that mental block that won't seem to budge. And then. It happens. A light bulb turns on over your head, like in the cartoons. Suddenly, everything is clear and you know what to do! The answer couldn't be more simple! (Well, sometimes it could, but still).

This is what happened to me today while working on my web portfolio. I looked at a bunch of the links that Dr. Tomer had posted for us in the announcements part of Blackboard, but not much helped. Although, I have to say that this web site helped a lot! So if any of you are still struggling with your portfolio page, please check out the w3 school's page--you'll be glad you did : ) Because, as I was stuggling through trying to figure out what I was doing (I even emailed my brother and a couple of friends, but it's way too hard for me to talk to someone over the phone about these thing, I need someone in person to help me) I eventually got it on my own. Realization dawned on me like a light bulb over my head. I love those moments, I really do! I was able to figure out what I had to do to make my portfolio look like my own. Now, I have to say, it's not very pretty, and let's face it--it's extremely simply and I'm sure a 5 year old could have done a better job, but it's mine. I am pretty proud of myself. I never thought in a million years that I would be creating websites, however cheap looking!

I am feeling pretty good about this class. And, I hate to say it, I am actually enjoying it and possibly even really glad I had to take it. So thank you, Dr. Tomer, for making me want to throw my computer against the wall one minute, and want to hug it the next. Really, thank you.

(p.s. check out my site!)

One Week Left

There's one week left of classes until the summer semester is over. I was just thinking over the whole semester, thinking about my classes and how much I've learned (or haven't learned!) I remember the beginning of the semester and how overwhelmed I felt. I thought I would never get through the 12 weeks of this summer session--the amount of work packed into the semester seemed unbelievable, plus it's always an adjustment when you start something new.

Well, I have to say that this semester, although intense at times, was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Storytelling was by far my favorite class. I will be sad next week when it's over. Rebecca Morris is such a great teacher! I wish she could teach more classes, and teach them during the school year!! I love how she sets up her classes and you really feel like you connect to your classmates in her class. I've really gotten a lot out of that class--academically and personally.

Intro to Information Technologies, I thought, was going to be my least favorite class. But I was wrong...I actually liked it--a little bit : ) I do have to say that I learned more than I thought I would and that I'm glad to have had exposure to computer "stuff" that I never thought I would.

Understanding Information was by far the class I loathed the most. I am glad to have been informed of the issues which face librarians today, and I do feel like the information from that class will be relevant to me--someday. I am looking forward to next week when we will have a panel discussion in that class with professionals from different kinds of libraries. I just wish there was some way to make the class less overwhelming for some of us, espeically the new students! I know that if I would have taken this class my first semester, I would have wondered what I was getting myself into. I guess there's always going to be a class or two like that though : )

Overall, the semester has been pretty great, and I'm looking forward to having a little break before another semester begins!

Chugging Along....

It's almost the end of the semester! Let me say it again, it's almost the end of the semester! It seems like things have begun to wind down in all of my classes, which is great because my brain is pretty fried. I feel like I have accomplished a lot over the past week and a half. I actually figured out some of this website stuff, and I can see how people claim that making websites can be fun. I get it now, sort of. I think that if I could really wrap my brain around it, I would actually be able to enjoy it. I'm one of those people who doesn't understand math or other mathly things. Physics? Forget it. Chemistry...not really. The sad thing is, I wish my brain understood it, because I find all of that stuff so interesting. It's the same with computers though. I wouldn't mind understanding more, but it just isn't going to happen. After a while, it's like hitting a brick wall. Oh well.

I have one more big assignment for 2600, a few more discussion board posts for 2000, and a couple discussion board posts for Storytelling, and then it's all down hill from there. I have to keep working at the station during August, but I'm hoping to plan some "fun" time for myself too! I think one or two days are in order of doing absolutely nothing, but the rest of the time will be filled with helping out my parents, working on the apartment, and hopefully catching up with friends that I've been neglecting since January!

Good luck to all of my classmates during these next two weeks--may your workloads be light and your good times many!

Just Another Manic Sunday!

This weekend my family traveled to New Jersey to celebrate my grandfather's 90th birthday! We packed up the car on Friday with 4 of my siblings, 2 dogs, my parents and myself for the 5 hour journey across the state to meet up with some friends for dinner. They we trekked an hour back into PA to stay at a relative's summer house in the Poconos.

On Saturday, we drove another 2.5 hours to Carlstat, NJ to set up for the surprise party at Charlie Brown's. And boy, was my grandpa surprised! He thought we were celebrating my aunt and uncle's 34th wedding anniversary, and made a grand entrance into the banquet room, only to realize that all of his friends were there! He had such a great time visiting with old Navy buddies, the Scouts who he was a leader with for many years, people from church where he still volunteers his time and attends mass every Sunday at 7am, and with his family who came from all over the North East to celebrate his special day with him.

My grandpa is such an inspiration to me. He is quite an amazing person and you would never know he is 90! He doesn't let anything slow him down. A couple of weeks ago, he went on a 5 mile hike through the mountains. Tomorrow he is going deep sea fishing (again! he just went the other day!) He travels to Massachusetts once a year to help restore an old battleship from WWII that is docked up there, and he takes one of my brothers and one of our cousins with him each time. They are leaving on Tuesday to go up there.

Since my grandma died 5 years ago, he's had a tough time without her. He misses her so much and always says that he can't wait to be with her again. He has had leukemia for over 20 years now, but has been getting treatments and fighting it, staying strong. He has slowed down a little bit over the years and gets tired a little more easily than he used to, but he still stays up to watch his beloved Yankees and sometimes he'll stay up to watch Seinfeld too! He's always been a great artist and has taken up sketching again lately. He's drawn some pretty impressive things! He also recently wrote a book about his experience in WWII, and it is pretty incredible. I just heard that he's now working on a book about his life; I can't wait to read it.

For this party we had yesterday, my mom asked each of the grandchildren to write down one memory we had about our grandpa. It could be anything. I wrote about a time when he took me, my brother and my cousin hiking at the Delaware Water Gap. It was such a fun day! But when thinking about what I was going to write, I realized that I have so many great memories about him, and I want more! It's hard to not live so close to him and not get to see him very often. Last time I saw him was back in October. And I don't know when I'll see him next. I'm so lucky to have him in my life, and I can't wait to see him again!

We drove back to Greensburg today, and it felt like such a long ride. We don't make many stops, just one stop to get lunch this time, but it's still so tiring. I was pretty glad that we didn't have too much homework due this weekend for classes, and that for what I do have to do, I can pretty much do most of it tonight and tomorrow. I can't wait for the semester to be over and have a little bit of relaxation time (maybe) before the next semester begins!

I Heart Sloths

Since no one in our 2600 class *really* knows me that well, I'll let you in on a little secret: I love sloths. I really do! They are such wonderfully bizarre and fascinating creatures. They are so strange with their claw hands and slow ways. If this video doesn't captivate you and make you want to hug a sloth, then I don't know what will! In all seriousness, these animals are so unique, and I love the fact that there is a sloth orphanage, dedicated to raising sloths whose mothers have been killed.

Cat Twilight

I am not a Twilight fan...never read the books, never saw the movies, but I have to say, I came across this while working on my 2000 essay, and it was a fun little break from work : ) So for all of you Twilight fans out there, enjoy this little parody!

My Mind is in Fragments!

I (think) I just finished my fragment assignment for 2600. It took me almost 5 hours to get the whole thing done. Most of the time was just playing around with Kompozer and FileZilla in order to get something to appear on my personal website. Hopefully it's correct...I don't know if the margins are right, but I think it looks pretty dang good!

On the Fast Track

I had my one and only Fast Track class today: Storytelling, 8am. I've only been in school for 2 semesters, and last semester's Fast Track weekend wasn't so exciting. This one, however, was pretty cool. We each had to pick a story to tell from memory this weekend. The class was divided into 2 rooms and there were about 15 people in each room. I heard 14 different tales, and they were all unique and interesting. Most had some element of humor and it was a great stress reliever to laugh along with my classmates to some of the stories. It also made the nerves a little calmer when it was someone's turn to tell their story. One woman in our group told a heart-wrenching personal story about domestic abuse--many of us were practically in tears by the end of the story. It was so great though, to see how sharing a personal story such as the one this woman told, can aid in the healing process. So powerful!

After class, I went (along with many of my classmates) to the puppet show that was performed by 2 MLIS students in the SIS library. It was pretty good! The girls made some great voices for their characters, and the play (which they wrote themselves) was funny and well performed. I even got a free puppet kit, so now I can make my own puppet!

When the puppet show was over, a group of us--about 10 girls--went out to lunch. We ate a Lulu's Noodles, and it was so good. I love Thai food, and their Pad Thai isn't too bad. The girls I went to eat with are a pretty rowdy bunch, but it was amusing nonetheless. Then I had a hot hour ride home and more homework to look forward to.

I didn't sleep much last night either, so I am pretty beat. I couldn't fall asleep and then couldn't stay asleep, and all night I had dreams about storytelling! I wasn't too nervous to tell my story...I think I was more nervous that I wouldn't get the ending right...but I have been having trouble sleeping for some time now. I'm not sure if I'm just stressed out from school and work or if it's just that my sleep schedule has been really crazy the past few months. Whatever it is, I hope I get it figured out by August so I can rest up before another crazy semester starts!

And one last comment before I start working on some assignments...I went to the library in town today to find out if I could do a field placement in their children's library. I talked to this really nice old lady who works in the children's library, but she couldn't really tell me what I needed to know. She was so cute though, and talked to me for a long time about the library and was interested in the MLIS program at Pitt. I'm going to go back on Monday to talk with the library director. I hope they are able to give me a field placement! It would mean a couple less days traveling into Pittsburgh in the Spring, and would give me some public library experience before I (hopefully) get a job in the real world!

Straight from the Prince's Mouth

This blog post is fairly ridiculous.

Oh, Koha

Happy 4th of July everyone!!

I just finished my Koha assignment, and I have to say, (if I did the assignment correctly) it wasn't too bad! I ended up leaving and coming back to working on the assignment multiple times because of dinner, fireworks, Frisbee, etc. but in the end, it didn't take long and I actually had some fun looking for books to put into my list. My list was made up with books about the Yeti and his other mysterious cousins Bigfoot and Sasquatch. While I don't really believe in the Yeti, and this list is all in good fun, I am actually thinking about reading a few of the books on my list! During our month or so off in August, I am highly considering going to the library or perhaps (gasp!) purchasing some of the books on Amazon and filling my "lazy" summer days with some solid scholarly reading material!

(I'll edit this post later to include the titles which I plan on reading. I still need to peruse the reviews and summaries of the books a bit more.)

The Audacity!

In one of my other classes this semester, Storytelling to be exact, one of our assignments is to tell a 7-10 minute story to the class during Fast Track weekend. In order to prepare for the telling, one of our other assignments was to record ourselves (either using an audio program or a video program) and practice telling our story. Even though I have a web cam on my laptop, I have never used it and I'm still a bit technologically impaired (I'm hoping this improves greatly by the end of the semester!) so I decided to just do an audio recording for my "practice run" of telling my story. The program I used to record my story is called Audacity, and I used the newest version of the open source (I know what this means now!) software called Audacity 1.3.12 (Beta). It is a pretty neat program and for someone who is as "low tech" as I am, it was so easy to use! I am hoping that in the future I'll be able to play around with it a little bit and get to know it a little more. I could see myself using the program for some fun projects and maybe even for another class assignment, should the need arise. If anyone would like to check it out, click here.

Earliest Evidence of Gaming?

Being that I spent my undergraduate career studying archaeology and anthropology and also having tried my hand as an archaeologist, I found these articles quite interesting. I especially like the suggestion in the second article that cave paintings were an early form of video games. I can just see it now, cavemen calling our various instructions: "Make Thag ride giant sloth!", "Make Thag get shiny rock!" "Thag have much magic. Now Thag battle Cro!" And later, "Ugh, Thag feel he need close eyes for long time. Thag also have strange thing inside...feel like me want to talk loud at friends with good words!" Who knows...their storytelling skills and instructions were most likely much more sophisticated than I can imagine...but it is fun to think about!


You can check out the scientific article here. You can check out the Kotaku article here.

The Cloud

I found this article about cloud computing that I thought was pretty good. Take a look.

A Quick IT Joke

I work at WQED, and the IT department had this joke on their section of our website:

Information Technology joke:
Q: How does Bill Gates screw in a lightbulb?
A: He doesn't. He declares darkness the industry standard.

Kindle

Every now and then I think about buying a Kindle. Chances are, I won't because they are too expensive plus I prefer reading an actual book to reading an electronic device. But I found this article from PC Magazine that gives some suggestions to make the Kindle even more attractive to customers, especially with the iPad coming out (which I definitely won't buy!) http://www.pcworld.com/article/185528/how_the_amazon_kindle_may_evolve_in_2010.html

3DS

Video games and I have a torrid relationship, however about 2 years ago, my older brother bought me a DS Lite for my 26th birthday. I am not very good at video games, but there are a few I like to play--mostly puzzle games. My brothers and sister are really into video games though, and the other day, my older brother told me about the new DS that Nintendo is putting out. This article tells you all the neat features the 3DS will have and what features the writers think (more like hope) the 3DS will have. http://kotaku.com/5499784/what-we-know-and-think-we-know-about-the-nintendo-3ds. It's pretty cool! I know someone in my family will eventually buy one, so I'll get to test it out sometime in the near future!

Dream Weaver

Just thought I'd mention that I've been having some crazy dreams about databases lately. Hmmm, I wonder why?

Omeka

I'm in the middle of working on the Omeka assignment. It took me a while to get comfortable navigating Omeka, but now that I am, things are moving along. I do have to say, though, it's a pretty tedious process! I hope I can finish before midnight : )

How do I love thee, Linux? Let me count the ways...

I was thinking about Linux recently, especially after we talked about it in class a couple of weeks ago. It really is pretty neat that it is open source (which I never really realized) and that it's free. There's a lot of other stuff that's great about it too. You can read the top 10 reasons to use Linux go to http://www.tuxmagazine.com/node/1000117. TUX is an online magazine for Linux users.

I have used Red Hat before and really liked it. My old computer (when it was new) was giving me a hard time and eventually died. My dad and brothers brought it back to life but the only way it would run was on Linux, which was interesting. I ended up using Red Hat for a while until my dad figured out that Windows XP would run on my computer, but not Windows 2000. Recently, my family's computer died suddenly and again, the only way we could get it back was by using Ubuntu. Eventually, after taking everything off the old computer and backing it up, then wiping the hard drive, my dad reinstalled Windows XP, which has been working fine...for now!

When I eventually get a new desktop, probably sometime in the next few years, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be using either Red Hat or Ubuntu as my operating system. Plus, I remember that there were some great nerd games on Red Hat that I liked....

"Even Librarians Go GaGa!"

I just had to share this with my fellow MLIS colleagues!

http://perezhilton.com/2010-06-02-even-librarians-go-gaga

Easy Does It

I finished my Zotero/Jing assignment the other day, but I was thinking about it today. I don't know if any of you out there in LIS 2600 had trouble completing the assignment, but here are a few tips if you are still struggling: I know that I had to re-do my recording a few times. Either because my dogs started barking in the middle of it, or my internet connection was lost, or someone came in the room and started talking to me, or I just messed up. So, if that happens to you, just uninstall Zotero and start over. To uninstall Zotero, all you have to do is go up to Tools in your Firefox browser, click on Add-ons, scroll down until you see Zotero, and then click on Uninstall. Then you can go back and try again. Another hint...and this one is probably obvious, but when I was trying to figure out how much of my screen to capture in Jing, I kept making it way too small by dragging down to the lower right hand corner. You would think that I would notice that the numbers were getting smaller (of the size of the section of the screen I was capturing) but sometimes I'm a little slow to catch on...so just drag the capture cross hairs to the upper left hand corner and that will let you capture your whole screen. For me, those two things gave me the greatest trouble. Otherwise, this assignment was pretty simple, although I hate recording and then listening to my voice! Good luck classmates!

My Zotero/Jing Assignment

After a few false starts, here is my Zotero installation and configuration presentation:





To view a larger video of my assignment, follow this link: Zotero Assignment

High School Flash Back!

I have to say that last night's lab took me back to 1999--back to my high school computer class. Now, I will be the first to admit that I'm a total nerd and that I love school, but I hated this computer class. I am not a very tech savvy person, as I've said before, and I took that class with hopes of improving my computer skills. Needless to say, the teacher had no patience for students who were slow to pick up what she was layin' down, and even with extra "help" from her, I still did terrible and had that awful pit in my stomach every time I walked down the hall to that class. Looking at the lab worksheet last night took me right back to that insecure 11th grader sitting in the high school computer lab, in a cold sweat, trying to figure out this bizarre language that most of my classmates were very comfortable with.

Now, I know that if I just slow down and take my time, I will be able to decipher the language. I've learned a little bit in the past 11 years--I'm a little wiser. Feeling rushed was part of it last night--20 or 30 minutes for me was just not enough time to get the assignment finished. I would have stayed longer but my hour drive home is more like 1.5 hours this week because of construction so I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. I just wish that my brain wouldn't freak out when it sees computer stuff. It's like it can't get over 11th grade computer class. I'm hoping that after I make it through this class, I'll have conquered this fear of technology and move into the 21st century!

RefWorks Assignment

As I was reading the discussion board on BB, I saw that a lot of my classmates were having trouble with this RefWorks assignment. It seems really straightforward, but when you get into RefWorks, things get a little tricky. I had some trouble myself and I had to Google a lot of my problems before I could figure things out. Hopefully my assignment is correct! : ) I found this link: http://www.library.yale.edu/cite/refworks.html which might help some of you who are still struggling (it is really basic, but it gave me a few 'ah ha!' moments : ) Good luck!

Will there ever be enough time in a day?

I just realized that it's Saturday and I haven't even had a real chance to start any of my assignments that are due this week. Of course being a holiday weekend doesn't help! My brother is coming in from NJ in a few hours so my parents are going crazy getting ready for him (we haven't seen him in a while so it's exciting that he's coming!)

Hopefully between today and tomorrow I'll get everything finished that I need to get done. I just don't know where the time goes! And why can't there be more hours in a day? : )

Taking it back to 1985

This video is pretty entertaining, but at the same time it's neat to see some computer technology from 1985! Since this is on You Tube, there are some other, related videos you can watch which promise to be just as enriching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na4lbQF6ZRg

The Cosmos

There's just something about this video that I love. Some of you may have already seen it, but for those of you who haven't, it's really neat!


http://io9.com/5385961/beautiful-scientist-auto+tune-jam-will-make-you-smile-possibly-sing

Week 1 Reflections

Week 1 of summer classes is over, and I am glad. The first week is always overwhelming for me. It's exciting on one hand, but on the other hand it's pretty stressful being bombarded with information. I can't wait for the semester to be over--then I will officially be halfway through this program, and almost finished taking the core classes which means getting to take more classes that interest me.

I have to say that in some way I am glad that I am finally forced to take a computer class. I had to take one in high school (that was a miserable experience for too many reasons) but I avoided it in college so in fact, all the real technology knowledge that I have comes from figuring it out on my own, or asking one of my brothers or my dad "How do you do this?" At first I was totally overwhelmed with this class when I looked at the book and syllabus. But now that I've had a week to digest some of the material, and after the first two lectures, I can honestly say that I have vague notions of what is being discussed and it brings back (purposely) forgotten memories from when I had to do back end work on this website for an art museum where I worked, had no knowledge of how to do anything in a website, but somehow, by trial and error, I figured it out. I know that by the end of this class I will have a better handle on technologies that will be assets for my career, and I'm sure I'll have some extra info that I won't put to good use, maybe ever.

I am a pretty low-tech person: I never wanted a cell phone, but my parents "made" me get one when I was in college and working in NYC (more for safety than anything else). That first phone was just a phone. No texting, no calculator, not even any games. And, although I didn't really want a cell phone, I loved the fact that it was just a phone. Most of the rest of my phones have been hand-me-downs, the the one I am currently sporting which is a discarded one from a friend who moved to Europe and couldn't take it with him. I have an iPod but haven't used it really in the two years that I have had it. I am not a huge fan of Apple, one reason being that their products don't seem to be very compatible with other non Apple products . For my 26th birthday my older brother bought me a DS Lite, which I sometimes play, but the game has to be pretty simple. I've been playing the Professor Layton games (which are challenging and sometimes I have to ask my little brother or sister for help), and my brother just got me two new games: Hotel Dusk, which is pretty cool so far, and Little Red Ridding Hood Zombie BBQ, which is really hard but tons of fun! Seriously though, the DS is as technical as I've gotten so far. I'm very hopeful this class will make me a Level 10 Tech User instead of my lowly Level 1.