Day 100: Officially Half A Librarian!

Happy Friday the 13th! And happy Day 100 and End of Year 1 as well! I'm half way there!

As a grand summary lesson for my 100th numbered day in Library School, let me share the most overarching lesson I've taken away from this year.

Lesson 100: You can do anything. Anything at all. You just have to ignore all doubts about whether you can, and just go go go.

This week has been quite the interesting experience, and very much proving the lesson, so let me spell it out.

Our final research proposal was due Tuesday. Luckily someone in my group was in Montreal and willing to hand it in because I was still in Ontario, just preparing to head back to Montreal. I was taking the midnight bus that night, so I did some shopping in Toronto (five-fingers shoes and fancy Sephora hair-ties) and met up with my friend Elissa for dinner (lobster grilled cheese and a raspberry mojito) before catching the bus.

After a fitful sleep full of interruptions, I was finally back in Montreal, and went home to catch some ZZZs before waking up (at 11) to go to work and complete the last of my final assignments.

On Thursday, our project management final and our collection development final were both due, four hours apart.

I did not sleep Wednesday night. A bottle of NOS kept me company while I stayed up to finish my collection development paper. Although at one point the bottle of NOS convinced me that rather than continue the futile quest to get WebCT to cooperate and allow me to download the PowerPoints I needed, what I really needed to do was read some fan fiction instead.

Despite the distractions borne of no sleep and too much caffeine, I finished the collection development paper and handed it in just under the wire thanks to Aimee being awesome and printing it off for me while I ran to SIS. Then we put the finishing touches on our project management paper, handed it in, and got some celebratory lunch as a group.

Then I had my first training shift in my new job at the Neuro-Patient Resource Centre... on ~6hrs sleep in the past 48-72hrs. Needless to say that afterwards I went straight home and got a proper night's sleep.

Today, I had another training shift at the Neuro followed immediately by a regular shift at the Life Sci. My new boss told me that she was very impressed with how high-functioning I was yesterday on less than no sleep. I still got it! ^.^

And to mark the official end of the semester, we had a party with wine and tasty food, mingling, and superlatives! There were many categories to be won; best dressed, info-retrieval wizard, most likely to be the first to become library director, most stereotypical, most likely to become a prof...

In a three-way tie, I won Most Stereotypical Librarian.

... Maybe I shouldn't buy those cateye frames I've been eyeing... It might cause a singularity of librarianship...

Librarian blackhole; Nothing can escape its gravity. Cats, knitting and baking supplies are pulled in with no chance of release. Knowledge is devoured and it is not known whether it escapes again in some form, but scientists presume that it must, due to the principle of the conservation of mass...

Full results of the vote as compiled by Alex Amar on the Library School facebook group are copypastad for your viewing pleasure here.

Day 90: Painfully Poorly Written Case-Studies

If you ever find yourself in a position where you are writing case studies for students to use, please for the love of whatever you hold dear, DO NOT give a ridiculous word-for-word account of every conversation of stilted dialogue that your two imaginary characters have ever had....

...And then top it off with ham-fisted attempts at purple prose. That prose is now purple only because you bludgeoned it into submission.

Highlights (paraphrased):
"She watched the janitor below and envied his uncomplicated life."
"[rambling paragraph of unrealistic internal monologue filled with overly specific references to obscure management techniques and theories] she meditated as she watched the sun dip below the horizon."

-_- Are you kidding me right now?

However, even the most hated things can hold a lesson! At one point in her over-theoretical ruminations, this particular character wonders if the employee giving her trouble has psychiatric issues, and wonders if she should recommend him to a psychiatrist, or if maybe bibliotherapy would help.

"Bibliotherapy? That sounds cool, is that actually a thing?" I mused thoughtfully. I could kind of guess at what it suggested, but I wanted to be sure. "To Wikipedia!" my internal monologue cried out as I grasped my iPad...

See what I did there? ...I think that case study melted my brain...

Lesson 89: The Ancient Greeks inscribed signs above their libraries, "stating them to be healing places for the soul"^[1].

How poetic! I think I'd like to make a sign like that for my future, and inevitable, home library. Maybe I'll learn to cross-stitch just to make a sampler that says that...

Bibliotherapy: definitely what I thought it was, and definitely cool. And definitely added to my topics to read about list.

In other news, yesterday's post has been delayed because I'm waiting till I can add a couple pictures, as I largely discuss my Toronto adventure. So it'll be worth the wait; a lovely illustrated post.

^[1]Sullivan, A. K., & Strang, H. R. (2003). Bibliotherapy in the classroom. Childhood Education, 79(2), 74-80. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/210384283?accountid=12339

Day 68: Reference Interviews 101

One single class today, and it didn't start at 8:35! That was nice... Less of a bleary rush to school...

Lesson 64: You're never too old for attendance.

This is a Masters program. Masters! And yet, at least 2 of my classes this term are actually taking attendance, and will be throughout the course as a metric to contribute to the final grade. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset because it's taking away my ability to miss class with relative impunity, I don't intend to be missing enough classes for it to matter. It just seems silly that we are all mature students, we are all ostensibly paying our own ways, but attendance is necessary.

I thought we passed that after first year of undergrad....

Day 52: Cream Soda and American Internet

I was going to write about how frustrated I am about how US-centric a ridiculous proportion of the internet is... but I feel like being frivolous today, so that's a lesson for another day.

Lesson 50: "Acquaintance softens prejudices." -Aesop's Fables

Since I've been living in Montreal, I've been disquieted by the fact that Crush cream soda is not pink here. Crush is pink back home, and I've never liked any clear cream sodas. Logically, I knew there probably wasn't any difference between the colours of Crush soda, but I still just didn't like it.

This weekend, Crush was on sale at Pharmaprix and we needed a bunch of it for our pre-Yule Ball Butterbeer tasting, which turned out absolutely delicious.

And now, I find I don't mind the clear Crush.

Now if anyone reading this will be in Montreal this Saturday, you should come to the Quidditch Team's Yule Ball! It's only 5$ and is going to be fantastic fun!

I have a bunch of tickets to sell, so if you want to come I can totally hook you up!

Day 49: WARNING! Cyborg puppies conspire to separate New Brunswick from Canada!

Today was our first lab about Dewey Decimal in my Cataloguing class. I've always loved Dewey. I worked in a library, and I know how to find everything I could possibly want in a Dewey system without a catalogue. But having never learned it formally, I learned a great many things today about this odd, rather outdated, system.

Lesson 47: Dewey Decimal Classification holds some very bizarre things to be true.

These things include, but are not limited to:

all domesticated animals being technology. Mechanical puppies? Check!

a New Brunswick free Canada.

conspiracy theories being affiliated with computers.

Actually, that last one's not really that odd, given the rise of conspiracy-culture fuelled by the internet.

But my favourite thing about Dewey? This rap:



Also, do you like the new picture of myself I've included along the right side? It's from our Quidditch Yule Ball Poster photo shoot last night, and I thought it'd be nice to actually have a good picture of myself on my blog... I'm normally the one behind the camera, so there are very few good pictures of me. And in this one I'm flying a broom! Huzzah!

I edited it, but the photo credit goes to Lindsey P. Cameron, aka Widget.

Day 46: Next time... I'll be deadly serious. Next time!

I didn't make it to class today, we weren't even back in town until 6, so at that point, it was really "how quickly can I get home? How long can I sleep?"

I mean, what an amazing, whirlwind weekend!

Honestly, I hardly feel like we were in NYC at all. I mean, it's New York City! Big, epic, distinctive! But I didn't see any of that. I didn't see any of the things I remember from my last trip; the churches, Lady Liberty, The Empire State Building, Times Square, Broadway.... I saw Randall's Island and the small strip of the city we cut through to get to it. So I don't feel like I was in New York City, but because I know I was, I'm starting to actually comprehend it as a place people live that isn't really that different from Toronto or Montreal, except in scale.

Maybe that's weird, or maybe I didn't phrase it well, but I hope you understand. New York City is finally becoming reality to me instead of myth.

But that's besides the point. The real story is the Cup! And honestly, the Quidditch World Cup could only have been better if a Canadian team had wound up winning it! It was fantastic!

At the North edge of the Athlete's Village, we created Canada Corner: U of Ottawa, Carleton, UVic and McGill all snuggled together. Though Ryerson didn't come join us, we had the bulk of the Canadian teams chillin' together. We even had a Canada v Canada scrimmage, followed by a massive Canada v USA dodgeball game. Canada lost. Mostly because people kept wandering onto the American side and joining in, whereas we started with pretty much all the possible Canadian players on the field from the start (and Vermont... the honorary Canadians?).

I reffed SO MANY games... it was really fun! I even reffed one that the Finnish team were playing, so while I didn't see them at all through the rest of the weekend, I did get to see them once.

Everyone loved my little suit, sweater vest and all! I was really surprised at how many comments I got about it. My clothes never get commented on, so it was rather shocking to me... Is that what normally happens to people when they put more thought into their clothes than "clean jeans, nifty t-shirt"? My monopod/walking stick even added an extra layer of awesome class to my getup. I managed to resist the urge to buy a wand, Ravenclaw tie and broom to complete the nerditude; but maybe I should have just caved... I did get myself Deathly Hallows earrings though. They're gorgeous!

As for game play, McGill lost the first game against South Florida (SFU), but won all the other games in their pool (SLU, America's Finest and The Silver Phoenixes [Texas A&M B-squad]). Oh America's Finest Quidditch Club... In their stars&stripes soccer socks and Uncle Sam jerseys, with all their smack talk about Canadian teams being maple-syrup guzzling mudbloods, and with their apparent attempt to accrue the largest possible number of yellow cards over the course of the weekend... well, watching McGill thrash them was particularly satisfying to see. SLU and The Silver Phoenixes were both solid competitors, and we had invigorating matches which we ultimately won. SFU was a really good competition, and a very disappointing loss for us. I hate overtime decisions in every sport, and particularly for it to be our first game of the tournament...

Coming out second in our pool (with AFQC being last), we went on to single elimination. We thought we were supposed to play Arizona State, but after a bracketing issue, our "match" became nothing but a big ol' hug fest in the centre of the field! Instead, we wound up playing Penn State, and winning. So we moved on to playing Florida. It was an intense, well matched game, but ultimately, they won by a snitch catch and moved onto the quarter finals.

After a "beach-weather in Canada" run sans-shirts by a few of the Canadian team members (mostly from McGill), all the Canadian teams went to the Stadium for the final games in a rousing procession with a snare drum in front and everyone holding their brooms like rifles. We were cheered by other teams the whole way, and finished our procession with O Canada as we got to the stadium where there was a crowd watching us arrive. We all sat together to watch the final games; first Alumni Allstars, then Minnesota v Florida (Florida won), then Middlebury v Texas A&M (Middlebury won), and finally Florida v reigning champions Middlebury. An impromptu painting of "MIDDLEBURY" across a few McGill chests and stomachs, many cheers of "Status Quo" and a few too many stretchers on the field for my tastes later, Middlebury emerged champions for the fifth year running.

Hopefully next year, McGill be the ones to end their streak.

Fingers crossed!

[Note: videos of all the games I have mentioned, except Alumni Allstars, will be available to watch on my youtube channel in the next week or so. Starting with McGill v AFQC. For now, you can watch the footage from the Canadian Cup which is now available to the public.]

Day 42: The Meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything

Unfortunately, absolutely nothing Douglas Adams related has happened to me today, despite it being my 42nd day at library school. Well... not counting most Fridays... to be honest, this count isn't as accurate as it could be, so 42 was probably a while ago. Given that I only have school Monday, Wednesday Thursday, but generally post Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Oh well, as with most categorization, I'm just going to have to accept that my numbering is essentially arbitrary and consistency is key. Which is basically the lesson that I'm finally starting to realize is behind every class I've had.

Lesson 42: Accuracy is irrelevant. Consistency is key.

I've always been a big stickler for accuracy. (Truth, beauty, freedom, love!) So this is a hard lesson for me to take to heart and really enact. But I've realized how much I've been doing it already without knowing, so maybe it won't be nearly as hard as I think it will.

Today, I go clothing shopping. I need to fill this craving for tweed and vests, and if I don't come out of this looking like a female version of Giles, I will have failed. Wish me luck, fashion idol!

"uh, yes. Well. Good luck!"

UPDATE:

Proud of me, Giles? I probably won't wear it with the tie often...

Day 30: I can stand on my own two feet! Or at least, one of them...

Today, as a usual Tuesday, I only had work. Homework too, but just work to actually go out to.

Working the loans desk, a book about Living Assessments and Self-Care Assessments passed through my hands. It was a very thin book, and as I know of relatives having these assessments done on them, I figured I'd see what they were all about.

And despite my mother's ridiculous and constant worrying and badgering, I learned valuable lesson...

Lesson 30: I meet all the standards for self-care! 

So you can all stop worrying.

Day 23: VINDICATION!

Lesson 23: Good things come to those who wait.

Oldy but a goody, as we say in my family. But when I got to class today, guess what we had! SWEET NASA CHAIRS!

All of a sudden, I'm so much more comfortable sitting in class. But unfortunately, ours are plain old grey, not lime green. I guess they didn't get the memo that MLIS students are a bizarre and wild bunch who should have chairs coloured to reflect that.

Still. Soooooo nice! I finally have space to put things in class! I feel like a winner! A very, very comfortable winner.

A+, McGill!

Day 22: Competition is Overrated

I'm not a very competitive person. I'm more of a supportive type. I learned a long time ago that if I use others to measure my success, I'm usually the one who comes out the loser, and that is more hurtful than helpful. So instead, I do what I want to do, even if I'm not good at it, just because I enjoy doing it. I still get down on myself sometimes because there are some people who are just better at everything I want to be good at than I am, like a certain best friend/musician/linguist extraordinaire that I could mention. But in general, I don't see someone doing something and feel that drive to just do it better, I get the urge to let them know how awesome they are, so that they suffer no doubts about their abilities.

Apparently, that is strange. Oh well.

I will say however, that I feel like I'm now in competition with the classroom next door. They just got these sweet lime-green NASA chairs to replace the tiny, side-desked chairs we all have whose desks don't even swing out of the way. Our's are stationary and lock together! Their's are awesome and swivel and have wheels, and a basket underneath to hold your bag, and a fully moveable desk that can go on either side, and are a sweet colour to boot! Yet again, I come out on the losing side of a comparison. (sarcasm) This is totally new... (/sarcasm)

Lesson 22: If the classroom's empty, feel free to lead an expedition to check out those sweet new chairs... they're niiiiice!