It's the last week of the semester, I have 10 items to catalog and a presentation to prepare, and what am I doing -- I'm blogging!! Actually, just wanted to get down a few thoughts. First, it's gorgeous outside today. This is one of the main things I came back for -- glorious sunshine and blue sky on Dec. 4. Never mind that I'll spend most of the day looking at a computer screen. Just being able to look out the window and see the sky makes me feel good. Also had a great view of the ocean and Catalina yesterday evening at sunset after getting off work and going to pick up LO.
Second, our inquisitive Little One has been at it again. The PU's left today for a cruise around Antarctica, and she learned that they would have a teacher on board. So, she gave them a list of questions to ask:
1. Do penguins bite?
2. Can you pick them up? (I assume the answer partially depends on the answer to 1)
3. How do they keep warm w/out wearing sweaters?
4. How do they protect their eggs from other birds?
5. How do they see at night w/out lights?
6. Where do they go when there's a storm?
I thought these were pretty good questions. And then there was the ? she asked me yesterday in the car while we were listening to NPR on the way to school: How come they only talk about bad things in the news?
Okay, back to studying. Going to be a long day, as I have to work 4 p.m. to midnight.
I remembered that today was World's AIDS day, which reminded me it's been 16 years since Freddie died. Of course, so have countless others in the interim. Yesterday, Smile and Paul Rogers (I shan't call them Queen, as that band passed away with Freddie. Smile works, since that was Brian and Roger's pre-Queen band with a forgettable singer) released a song to support Nelson Mandela's campaign against AIDS. I probably shouldn't dis it b/c it's for a good cause, but seriously, this is a lame power ballad that reminds me of the equally bad track Brian did with Meatloaf (!!) for the Special Olympics in 1987. Judge for yourself. Hope this isn't reflective of the album they are currently recording.
Little One started piano lessons this week. Should be interesting to see how she takes to it. I always regretted never having properly learned how to play an instrument. At various times I learned piano, oboe and guitar. I was encouraged to try stuff, but when I wanted to quit, I wasn't pushed to continue. I can understand why parents don't want to push their kids to learn music against their will, but, on the other hand, a bit more encouragement through the rough spots might be all it takes. Look at me, she's only just started, and I'm already trying to figure out how to convince her to keep at it!
Working on my final projects for school. This time next week, it'll be all over. But I've a long week ahead. The minutae of the cataloging assignment is driving me to distraction. As for reference, I have my guide basically finished; now I need to come up with a 20 min instruction session on how to search for stuff using Academic Search Premier (a popular database). I'll be working midnight shifts for most of the next two weeks starting tomorrow night, so that should give me time to pull it all together.
So I just set up a Facebook account using a new alias. What I didn't realize is that when the account searched my contacts list to see who I knew already had accounts, I would then be sending them an email to "friend" me (I still can't get used to using friend as a verb). So, if you get a request from the Knowledge Nomad, no worries, that'd be me. Don't know if I'll actually use the thing, but figured I'd at least check out what all the kids in the library are doing (since they sure aren't studying much).
Winding down what turned out to be a pretty nice holiday weekend. It felt nice just to be able to spend some extended time together. Had a good time hanging with the family at Middle Sis' house on Thanksgiving Day. Only bummer was I was so knackered that I crashed out for awhile after dinner.
On Friday we did a lot of housework, but somehow it didn't seem like too much of a drag. Helped that it was a sunny, warm day. In the late afternoon we went up to Friendship Park and caught some spectacular views of Catalina and the city. At night, BH and I watched a classic movie, "Some Like It Hot." Nothing special, but enjoyable.
Saturday Little One made some rounds selling her chocolate bars to some neighbors. On Wednesday, we picked up a box of 50 bars to sell as a fundraiser for the school, and by Saturday she was down to fewer than 10. Not bad. Of course, everyone helped out a lot at Thanksgiving. She has been very into the whole selling process, and especially kept pestering Uncle I, knowing his weakness for chocolates. The best part was when she would thank her customers by saying, "Thank you for helping to raise my school." [sic]
Other LO anecdote. I am very pleased that we have made a transition to some lengthier chapter books. On the recommendation of a co-worker, I picked up the first in the Magic Tree House series. At first she balked b/c of the relative lack of pictures, but once we started reading she was hooked. The books tell the story of a brother and sister who discover a tree house filled with books in the woods near home. The books than transport them to different times and places.
It's all a vehicle for teaching kids a bit of history, natural science and more. In the first installment, they went to a prehistoric age and learned about dinosaurs. The one we're reading now explores the Paris World's Fair of 1889. In one passage, they witness an exhibit of the telephone. I asked LO if she could imagine life before there were telephones. No, she replied. Then I asked her how she thought people communicated with each other across long distances before telephones. Well, she said, they used those really old telephones. I said no, even before that, before there were any telephones at all. She thought for a minute. Well, they could write letters to each other, she answered.
In the evening, BH and I went to a concert in Hollywood. It was billed as the record release party for Gram Rabbit, an interesting band we saw a little over a year ago at the Camper Van Bethoven Campout in Pioneertown out in the desert. They sort of mesmerized us with their trippy desert-influenced dance jams and psychedelic stage show.
The website said show was at 8, so we got there a little before even though I knew it was unlikely they'd go on that early. As it turns out, the first band was going on at 8, but GR wasn't expected to go on until 11:30!! Oh, okay. So, we head across the street and had a nice Thai dinner. Back at the club around 9:30 some teenage boys were on stage screaming some rather dire attempts a punk. Thankfully, the next band was much better, though still hardly worth the drive.
The next band, however, was a nice surprise. Called Bloodcat Love, their music was catchy, hard-driving rock (think the Strokes) with a frontman who appeared to be channeling Jim Morrison and Iggy Pop with all his shimmering, slithering and disrobing. It was quintessential LA, in an amusing way.
Finally, GR arrived and it was frankly sort of a let down. While this was a record release party, it felt more like the beginning of the end for the band. There was some visible tension between some of the band members and they did not really seem to be enjoying themselves at all. Also, the club setting just could not match the surrealism of the outdoor desert show with a huge moon as a backdrop. Still, we danced for throughout most of their set, and it was nice to just be able to get out for a night on the town.
FYI, I just uploaded a couple of other pics from our excursion to the El Dorado Nature parkt to the What a week entry.
Currently hanging out at the parental units' house while RJ looks at some problems I'm having with their car. I hate dealing with cars -- the technology is just too complicated, so you end up having to shell out lots of dough to have things repaired, but you never know if the mechanic is reliable.
But that's not what I wanted to write about. Thursday I did my usual volunteer time in the school. Just as the kids were lining up to go to recess and I was ready to leave, an announcement came over the PA: "Attention all staff, we are in lockdown. Please close and lock all doors." The teacher rolled her eyes as if to say, "What now?" She told me, if I wanted to get out of the school, I had better leave know because there was no way to know how long the lockdown would stay in effect.
So, I go out the door and she shuts and locks it behind me. I walk up the corridor to the main gate, seeing one of the secretaries from office on my way. She tells me I have to get inside. We also pass the principal on the way, who says, "Sorry, I can't let you out. You'll have to go inside." The front gate is chained shut, and as I look diagnolly across the blacktop, I see a police car at another entrance to the school. I go inside the main office and the various women working there are talking excitedly. Overhead we could hear a helicopter circling. I learn from their conversation that the police are trying to apprehend two armed robbery suspects, with a third one apparently already in their custody.
Had I known I couldn't leave the campus, I would, of course, rather have stayed in LO's classroom. But, not much I could do about it. There was one little boy in the office who's teacher sent him there for fighting. So, I started reading with him to pass the time. Teachers are calling in to the main office asking if it's a drill and complaining that they or their kids need to go to the bathroom. Nope, not a drill. Gotta go? Use a trash can in your room.
In the end, the lockdown lasted a little over an hour. After it was over, I went back to LO's class and gave her a hug before heading off to work. I asked LO's teacher the next day if such a thing has happened often. She said, no, it was the first time she could recall it happening at that school. Nothing bad happened, but it kind of shook me up to think that something could happen while she is at school. And then I thought about kids who go to school where this sort of thing happens quite regularly. It's very saddening to contemplate the threat of violence and the culture of fear that permeates our lives. I don't want to live that way, and I don't want to raise LO in such a society. But, what options do we have? Move to a smaller town, I suppose, which I suspect/hope we will do once I finish my degree. Even if we move on to someplace else, that does not improve the situation for those who don't have that opportunity.
I've been volunteering in Little One's class 1x a week to help out the teacher. Guess who's learning the most from the experience? Probably me. Today, after doing some photocopying on ca. 1968 machines, I took groups of four to color some Thanksgiving related pictures and talk a little about life during the Pilgrims era. The kids weren't interested in that; they just wanted to talk about whatever was on their minds. And some of them had some pretty heavy stuff on their minds, indeed.
One kid, who has some definite behavioral problems and a serious speech impediment (I struggle very hard to understand him), told me that he had two moms, but one died and he missed her a lot. In speaking with the teacher later about it, I learned that indeed his mom had died this past summer. Did she know how, I asked. She does not know for certain, but says she has heard it may have been an OD. Suddenly, a kid whose habit of picking on Little One and other kids I found really annoying is more completely fleshed out for me. Meanwhile, another kid starts relating to me a story about a big fight between his parents where "bad words" were used, mom cut dad above the eye, dad tried to pin mom, and big bro' held him back. I asked how that made him feel. Sad, he says. Me too, little guy, me too.
It's freaky, btw, to walk through an elementary school again. I'm struck by the ugliness of the environment -- architecture completely devoid of aesthetic qualities, concrete and blacktop everywhere, and the bizarre phenomenon of covered outdoor hallways. It does not bring back fond memories. Though watching the kids play at recess does.
Here's a little anecdote about Little One. Getting dressed this morning, she says to me she wants to wear a tie, as in a necktie. This is not the first time she's wanted to wear one -- I've been reluctant in the past since I don't have any "disposable" ties at the moment. But today I said, what they hey. Anyway, I asked her why she wanted to wear one. Her response: "I want to be a professional." Classic.
Was helping a student today find some info on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He was looking at something about the relationship between two of the characters and the how the homosexuality of one of the characters affected that relationship. So, I found him stuff, including something from a journal entitled something like Lesbian and Gay Literature. At which point, he apparently felt compelled to tell me that he was not gay. Then he went on to say that was a stupid thing to say. I tried to make him feel at ease and reminded him the article was relevant to his topic and that's what was important.
I also had a rather nerve wracking interaction today with a parent. Guy calls from London saying we had sent an overdue notice for his son to his address in London. He wants to know why he got the letter and what's up with the book. I explained that the reason he got the letter is b/c that is the address we have on file, but that I would be happy to discuss the issue with his son and update his record. The dad, however, did not want to give me contact info for his son. He says, my son says he turned in the book and there's no fine printed on this notice, so what's up. I tried to explain that our policy is to discuss issues related to overdues and fines and what have you with the patron. He got very irate with me saying I was wasting his time and he threatened to call the President of the College. Of course, he has a pretty valid point given that the overdue notice was sent to his address, so any pretense at confidentiality had already been breached. In the end, I looked up the record and saw that the kid owed $16.50 and I told the father if he wanted to send us a check in that amount as a donation, we would consider the matter settled. After the call, Iooked deeper into the system and discovered that the kid had returned the book yesterday, some 3 months overdue. Of course, we've all returned books late before or even lost a copy. What irks me is that this kid does not take responsibility for dealing with the consequences, but rather calls on daddy -- and daddy complies!
Emailed the prof about the case of a classmate plagiarizing my work on Sunday evening. So far no reply.
Been pretty busy lately, sadly with some unnecessary computer issues. I think I've solved the issue now. In a nutshell, I noticed that my CPU usage was running at 100% whenever I was online, so I was freaked out that maybe I had some virus or trojan horse. Decided to go the safe route, wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall XP. Much to my dismay, the problem was still there even after this drastic measure. So, I began to suspect the new WiFi adapter I got for the machine, and indeed when I used a cable to connect to the Internet, I had no probs with CPU usage. Turns out, the problem is with the software that the adapter installs to manage WiFi connections -- it's totally unnecessary since XP has the same abilities built in. Once I killed the software, my CPU usage looks fine. What a bloody waste of time!!!
Still with me? Good. On to more interesting topics. Discovered something disturbing yesterday regarding my class work. Basically, one of my classmates in my reference class has blatantly and extensively plagiarized my work. This is dealing with the project I have mentioned in an earlier post where my partner for the group was AWOL until just before the project was due, so I submitted it as a solo project with the instructor's permission. We were all to post the assignments to Blackboard, so that everyone could learn from each other, too. Well, while I posted on time, several people/groups posted after the already extended due date. I was curious what the guy I was to have worked with would come up with. He posted 10 days after it was due, and when I started looking through what he submitted I was aghast. It was my paper!! We're not talking borrowing a few ideas here or there; it's 90-95% my work, mostly not even paraphrased, but copied verbatim. Even more confusingly, at the end of "his" paper and within the same document comes my paper, including my title page indicating date of submission, etc. I don't get it.
Now I'm not quite sure how to handle the situation. I don't know what sort of agreement, if any, he came to with the instructor. My first inclination is to blow him out of the water and have him slammed for violation of academic integrity. On the other hand, I could be generous and send him an email saying I noticed that his paper was basically just a copy of mine, and I wondered what was going on (i.e. give him a chance to explain himself). It's all too weird. In any case, one thing I'm discovering through this coursework is that there are definitely some librarians-in-training who really don't cut the mustard.
Hope to post some pix tomorrow and anecdotes about Halloween. Watch this space!!
Missed the Neil Young concert this evening. I really wanted to go, as the reports from the tour and setlists I've seen sound fantastic. But I just couldn't see paying $60 for a nosebleed seat. It's just not right. Oh well, I've got the new album and there'll be other shows.
No, it's not an old crooner or even a modern rendition by Bryan Ferry that I'm referring to. This time it's the real thing. These fires are, well, wild. When growing up here, I can never recall having actually been able to smell, see, and feel the smoke from fires burning 30 miles away and more. If my eyes are burning here and I have a scratchy throat, I can only imagine what it must be like for people closer to the front lines. I noticed yesterday that Los Angeles Magazine had a rather prophetic cover story for their November issue entitled: Forget Earthquakes, What the City Should Fear is Fire. Folks over at LA Observed picked up on the same bit. In any case, we're just hoping folks we know who are in areas that are threatened are safe.
Better Half got her Iranian passport today. She's very excited, as this opens the door to being able to visit, something she has not done in the 21 years since she left. I'm excited too, but a little concerned as well. We all want to go together, but, you know, there are "issues" that weigh heavily on such a decision. Either government could do something that would jeopardize our safety. The danger is probably remote, but nonetheless there. But does that mean you have to deny yourself forever from being able to visit family?
Taught a class this evening on evaluating information on the Internet. Went over pretty well. First full-length library instruction class I've done. We covered pretty basic stuff about how Google works, what to look for when evaluating websites, alternative search engines and specialized directories. The "funnest" part was showing them a clip from the Colbert Report in which (the next President of the United States (and so can you, too!)) Stephen Colbert discusses his word for the day, Wikiality. Check it out (note: the clip is preceded by an ad). Anyway, the feedback from the students was good, and it seemed like they were getting it. Gotta work on pacing the material better, but of course it's too much for one session anyway.
