Day 69: Not Going To Say Anything... I Am Matuer.

Swave and deboner too!

.... Jokes that only really work when spoken. Ignore me.

Anyways... Today was my last first class of the semester. And because it's basically How To Be In Charge 101, we did an activity I've done quite a few times before, it's kind of a thing in Scouts.

It's a NASA activity in which you've crashed on the moon and your survival depends on reaching the mothership over 200 miles away. You have 15 items, and in order to succeed must rank them by importance.

Now it's an easy activity if you know Maslow's hierarchy of needs, or even if you just know what you need to survive. Priorities include not running out of air to breathe, having enough water to make sure you don't dehydrate before you get there and food to make sure you don't starve. 200 miles could take you 3 days if you go without stopping for sleep or anything, or over a week if you actually rest or are injured etc.

Lesson 65: Things are never as easy as you think they should be. Or alternatively: Being fully grown and well-educated does not mean you understand space.

Some people in my group had assumed that we weren't on the moon as it currently exists, but one on which we did not require breathing apparatuses (apparati?). They couldn't fathom that NASA would have given us things that wouldn't have been useful in this exact situation, therefore the fact we had matches proved that we could breathe on the moon. One guy wanted us to leave the oxygen behind entirely...

Matches, the raft, the compass, they were on the shuttle for if we crashed in the water... On Earth.

And yet, the whole group got derailed because of this.

Things are never as easy as you think they should be.

I'm Batman. And I can breathe in space.

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 21: I know it sounds sordid / But you'll be rewarded...

My broom bruise is coming in well, and I actually went to a 7am run with a few members of the Quidditch team. I don't think I'm the same person who has been at York for the past 4 years... I mean... Wow! But this is a library school blog! Not a Quidditch blog! Geez!

I really just had work today. Tuesday is a no class day! But that doesn't mean I didn't learn!

Lesson 21: Always carry your multi-tool. Yes, even in a library. I'm going to be bringing mine from now on. We needed to file down a key in order to open the cabinet that holds our loanable laptops, luckily, one of the liaison librarians carries their multi-tool because they bike to work. Problem solved!

The Scouting motto is basically my motto for life: Be Prepared.