Day 66: Guess Who's Back, Back Again!

First day back! What a great break!

To summarize: I saw all my scouting friends and we went up to the cottage for an awesome New Years (though Jon had to work). I made double chocolate beer and mulled wine marshmallows and hung out with my family. I had an amazing Christmas and gave some pretty amazing gifts if I do say so myself (including the aforementioned beer and wine marshmallows). I received some amazing ones too (skates, Munchkins, and crockpots! Oh my!). I also spent so much time with my fiancé, even if we couldn't go to any parties together.

But now, time to roll up my sleeves and get back to learning!

So what did I learn today? Well, we've had a lot of "the history of books, libraries and archives" lectures, but today's had some new, interesting tidbits that I hadn't seen yet. Here are my favourites...

Lesson 62: The Printing Press not only increased literacy and the dissemination of ideas, but also allowed for the rise in use of local languages and drastically reduced the use of Latin as the written lingua franca to exchange ideas.

So in that way, my brain has decided, the Printing Press is basically the Tower of Babel.

Lesson 63: The Atwater Public Library was started by the Montreal Mechanics Institute in 1828 to "Make A Man A Better Mechanic, and The Mechanic A Better Man."

Hooray! New year, new lessons!

Now, this semester, I yet again have Tuesdays and Fridays off, so my posting will be sporadic on those days. I also had Thursday off, but decided I'd rather play it safe with the prof I know and give up my four day weekend, than take the risk with the poorly-reviewed unknown quantity and keep my four day weekend.

On the other hand, this means that you get more days of me posting consistently! So... Yay?

Day 65: Aaaaaand Scene!

Final exam: completed!

Today's was Information System Design's final exam. Honestly, I was really, really worried about this one. A lot of people took it earlier in the month because of a whole kerfluffle that happened, and they insisted that it was much easier than the last exam from this course, but still I was wary.

But it was so much easier than the last exam from this course!

It wasn't cumulative, as had been promised at the beginning of the term, and so it only covered google and dialog.

Dialog's a pain, but as long as you knew the commands it was all good.

And now my vacation begins! Tonight there's a big SIS party/potluck thing and tomorrow I bus home.

I hope this vacation is as amazing and restful as I dream it could be!

See you in January! (wow, 2012!)

Day 54: And so it begins again.

Let it be known: Today was the beginning of the end of the first half of my first year of library school.

My last cataloguing class.

Cue the over-dramatic sobs.

Seriously though, I liked cataloguing. And if I ever have a labelmaker and a bunch of free time, I'm totally going to Dewey-decimalize my entire non-fiction book collection. And if it's that much free time, I may just do the same to my fiction.

Because, yes: I am that much of a nerd.

Looking even further forward than the mere end of semester...

Work wanted to know my holiday plans to get December/January tentatively scheduled, so I had to actually check over my schedule for next semester.

Lesson 52: 3 weeks off for Christmas, and four-day weekends all semester.

I thought I only had 2 weeks off for Christmas, but I've actually got post-New Years recovery time!

I feel like I planned really well! Or... well, we'll see how I feel about that when next semester rolls around.

All my classes crammed into two days, with no breaks, makes me feel like every day of school next semester is going to be like my Wednesdays... Except even more condensed. Rather than class from 8:35-5:25 with leisurely lunch 'n library breaks, it'll be 8:35-2:25 with no breaks but the ones my profs give me.

Better start packing lunches more consistently!

Also, I guess the posting is going to become very sparse next month... The only days that will count as a day of library school will be my exam days. And I'll really just be a rain cloud those days.

Unless I can reign that in to provide an analysis of the difficulty of the exam in question and the apparent effectiveness of my studying... Hmmmm...

Day 29: Guess who's back!

Thanksgiving break was a great success! So much tastiness!

I guess it was a better success for others though... Despite how much I heard about "This break isn't to go off places, it's to study!", my course this morning was ridiculously under-attended. I suppose today's lesson must be that... 

Lesson 28: Some classes are just worth skipping if it reduces your travel costs.

Also...

Lesson 29: Some classes should just straight up be avoided. 

I had been planning on taking the multimedia course, but I heard today that it is beyond basic. And I don't mean that it goes beyond the basics. I mean beyond in the other direction. I have also been told that despite my desire to dabble in archival studies, I should not take Records Management. I should stick to Archival Principles and Practice, and Preservation Management, given my interest.

We'll see if my advisor agrees.

Day 28: Everybody's workin' for the weekend... BUT NOT ME!

I was stressing so much about the assignment that was due today (having been extended from Wednesday, thank goodness). I mean, this week has been so tumultuous and overwhelming, between getting ridiculously sick on Sunday, and getting engaged on Wednesday, having assignments and tests and blaaaaaaaargh.... Anyways, as a result all my plans to work on this paper have been intended and dashed so many times I was worried it would never get done. But...

Lesson 27: Don't worry! Be happy!

Once all that stress and uncertainty is forgotten in the urgency and crush to complete it... All of a sudden it's completely doable, and all of a sudden... it's just done. 

And so my break begins! 

Turkey Time! 

Day 5: Labour? I scoff in the face of labour!

Labour Day! I shall celebrate by doing no labour. Verily.
My iStudiez Pro (an iPad app) is telling me I have class. Liar. I'm taking the day off!
Class dismissed!