End of Semester Rejoicing

Oh, I miss you, Blog! I miss you, readers!

I miss lazy evenings of leisurely activities and reading for fun!

Happily, I get a couple weeks off until my next two classes begin the second week of January. I'm hoping to get ahead on blog post writing so I will be able to post more consistently in the new year.

My classes this semester really flew by; I kept feeling like I had just started! I learned a lot, however and am happy I made the decision to start.

Even the information technologies class wasn't too bad. Although I did have hours of work each night that would have me tearing my hair out. But what a feeling of satisfaction when I finally figured something out! Finally finishing a difficult assignment would have me heartily congratulating myself aloud. This would also make up for all the yelling I had done at myself previously. Well, yelling at myself and my computer.

A n y w a y... I thought I should share some books I read this semester with you all. I did a LOT of reading, not only books but ebooks and journal articles galore. I will definitely miss all the online resources I have access to now when I graduate. It's amazing to attend a school that has so much money to put into their library.

I read books on copyright, on Google, on computers, on digitization...these below are the two I most enjoyed and am most likely to read again.

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick: Whew, talk about information overload! This is a history of information, including the written word, computers, and everything in between. I love history, so this was fascinating.

Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room by David Weinberger: Cool book! All about how information has changed since the internet. Gave me lots of food for thought and new ways to think about online information.

Done with school! ...until January 7th.

How Lovely Are Your Branches

Real or Fake?

I'm speaking, of course, of trees.

Do you go out in the frosty air and browse among hundreds of green giants, to choose the most majestic fir? Is it simply not Christmas if you cannot bury your face in pine branches in your living room?

Or do you bring your tree down from a box in the attic? Do you assemble three parts and arrange pliable branches? Do you settle for a pine fresh candle instead?

My family has done both.

Obviously, I love the fresh, Christmasy tree. I love picking one out; I love the smell.

But an artificial tree is nothing to be ashamed of. There are some beautiful ones to be had out there. Ones that you have to get pretty close to in order to tell if they're real or not.

And as for the smell, I recently discovered Scentsicles. Ah, how delicious! Hang them in your tree for a sniff of the real thing.

Pass This On and Save a Life! Or Not.

Come on, people.

You're smart! You're adults. With jobs. And common sense.

Seriously, it really bugs me when people post things on Facebook or forward an email without confirming their validity.

Sure, it's a heartwarming story, but is it true? Yes, it's a crazy controversial statement sure to stir up discussion, but was it actually said?

Often it's not.

You can usually tell at the end when it implores you to pass it along.

YOU TOO CAN BE SAVED!

My go-to site is www.snopes.com. Or I'll just google the story. Often Snopes will be the first site to come up. This tackles urban myths and legends head-on!

So don't just mindlessly pass something along. Chances are, that person didn't actually say that. That didn't actually happen. Or the real story is something much simpler that has been twisted beyond recognition.

Really, are you going to believe everything you read on the internet?

If so, I have a Nigerian prince who would like your contact info.

A Slice of Thanksgiving

I was asked to give my testimony in front of my class this past Sunday.

*gulp*

After a brief internal struggle-
(No. Absolutely not.
Don't be a chicken!
Come on, it will be encouraging.
But I HATE public speaking!
It's not about you, dummy!)

I agreed. And I'm glad I did. Preparing to share a bit of what God has done and is doing in my life brought me so much encouragement. I sat down and wrote a list of how my relationship with Him has developed over my life.

I am so blessed because He is so faithful!

I stood up in front of my class, notes in front of me, and kind of fell apart a tiny bit.

People's faces blurred, my hands started shaking, I forgot what I was going to say...typical stuff.

I squeaked out some key thoughts, though, and managed to avoid looking terrified (I think).

Public speaking is by far not my favorite thing to do, but that's not the point. The point is that I am saved by the grace of God and in a personal relationship with Him, just as I am. 

I absolutely cannot get this song out of my head. All week it's been playing like an internal soundtrack. And what a great song to have in my head!



Happy Thanksgiving to you all, awesome readers. What do you have to be thankful for?

The Secret Board Is...

Ta-da! Thank you, Pinterest!

If you don't keep up with the latest Pinterest news (um, I can't help it I get emails from them), guess WHAT? Pinterest has secret boards!

Shhhh.

If you're on Pinterest, you can create boards where you pin images. Like big bulletin boards, but virtual.

So now, if you don't want everyone and their mother to view a particular board you have, you can keep it secret.

Presumably, you can use it to pin baby stuff if you haven't told people you're expecting or pin surprise gift ideas for your loved ones.

As soon as I saw the email from Pinterest, entitled "I'm excited to announce Secret Boards," I thought of one thing and one thing only:

Finally, all those single girls can hide their wedding ideas.

If you see a board called "For the Future" or "One Day..." you may have stumbled upon one of these. Girls with no husband, no fiance, and yes even no boyfriend have pinned the equivalent of an entire ceremony, reception, and honeymoon.

Party favors, aisle decorations, flower arrangements, bridesmaid dresses. You've stumbled upon a single girl's wedding scrapbook!

Slow down there, girl. Do you really need people to be thinking, I thought she was my perpetually single friend, why has she picked out cake toppers?

No. No, I say.

Now you can hide your dirty little secrets! Gather them all into a secret board, in the hope of being able to reveal them to the public if you ever get engaged.

Thank you, Pinterest.

Up Early for Worm-Catching Purposes...Or Not.

So last year my chosen gym time was typically evenings. Mostly because I wasn't too busy outside of work. So I felt like I had more of a life, going to hang out with my gym friends (in other words, the regulars I would occasionally nod to on the ellipticals).

But things have changed. Evenings are now mostly consumed with schoolwork. And mulling over big library issues. And coming up with snappy retorts to people who think being a librarian isn't a legitimate profession. And such.

I found myself with no other choice. I had to become an early bird!

I set my alarm. I laid out my clothes. I packed my bag.

And in the wee hours of the morning, when all was dark and still, I crept out to my car and drove to the gym. As I drove, I wondered at all of the people on the road. Apparently things happen before 7am! Who knew?

After a few weeks of misery, I started getting used to popping out of bed at 5:30 or 6. Or, at least, getting up without getting angry.

And now it's kind of fun. It's super nice to work out first thing. I'm energized and feel good. And I don't have to go out later at 8pm after working all day and trying to stuff in some schoolwork.

I see the same people at the gym, dedicated people who are there every day without fail. I even pass people leaving the gym at 6am! The crazies!

I may not catch any worms up that early, but I have proved to myself that I can work hard and be consistent.

I'm Super Workout Librarian!

Take Refuge at Your Local Library

Well, I didn't lose power.

The library did, though, so two days off!

I was one of the lucky ones. People all over my area are still without electricity. The library opened again yesterday, and it was crazy. Here's how the day went.

9:00am...the library opens. I tweet out that our power is back on and we're open. Dead silence. We had a bunch of staff members there and no patrons.

10:00am...the library begins to fill up. Several people come in freezing cold from houses with no heat, and our director decides to put coffee out (oohh! coffee in the library!).

10:30am...bins from other libraries in the county arrive. A lot of bins. We start going through them and discharging material, but are constantly interrupted by more people. The circulation desk gets hidden by piles and piles of books, DVDs, and CDs.

11:00am...constant stream of people into the library. Coffee and cookies out. People exchanging stories of the storm - felled trees, roads closed, and of course no electricity.

12:00pm...I have fielded approximately 843 phone calls. "Hello, library, yes we're open...and we have coffee/heat/water/wi-fi!"

1:00pm...lunchtime! I'm exhausted, as people have been returning things all morning and everyone has questions. Busy, busy.

2:00pm...still chaos! I'm trying to run around and pull items off the shelves to send to other libraries for holds, and I'm climbing over people crouched next to every outlet. Cords are stretched across aisles, and everyone is charging phones and checking email.

2:30pm...should not have worn these boots today. Feet hurt! Saw some Halloween costumes, best one being a girl inside an American Girl doll box.

3:00pm...power goes out. Comes back on two seconds later. Computers never recover.

3:30pm...computer system still down. Apparently there was a surge when some other business in the area powered back up. Or a transformer down? Or something. Desperate calls to IT result in us climbing around in closets looking for black boxes to reset.

3:45pm...I create sloppy handwritten signs to fling all over the library to inform people that they are severely limited in what they can do today as our computer system is down. And guess what? It's not coming back up anytime soon.

4:00pm...patron informs me that the copier is out of toner. Which is impossible because we changed it that morning! I go back there and shake it all about to no avail. Fling out-of-order sign on top of it and charge back to the desk where people are lining up.

4:45pm...get excited because I get to leave in fifteen minutes!

5:00pm...still at work, trying to help with a few more things.

5:15pm...during a lull, I seize my chance and make a run for it!

Whew! What a day. I was very proud of my coworkers; we always work so well together and these rough days bring out the best in us. The children's librarian put together Halloween books and crafts for kids to occupy them while their parents were online. Our patrons were so appreciative of the warmth and coffee. And even when the computers went down, people were very understanding and we helped them as best we could.

It's always cool to see the sense of community when disaster strikes. How neat to see so many people coming to the library for help. Nice to feel like I was making a difference.

Crazy day, but I don't mind a little craziness once in a while.