If a tree falls...

Blogging is hard. I don't like not getting feedback. When I make an interesting discovery or witty comment, I want someone to notice. I was never much of a diarist, perhaps because nobody could read what I wrote, there was no interaction. I guess if I became a well-known blogger, or just a well-known person who blogs, then maybe people would read and respond. But now, I get the idea that nobody's reading. Not even my husband.

Am I making any noise?

Ahh, home....

Today I took my older daughter to her first day camp. She's six, just finished kindergarten and she is taking a week-long afternoon class at the Carnegie Museum of Art. I didn't relish the idea of driving 40 minutes to get there, then 40 minutes back home in order to be there for about an hour, and then turn around and reverse the process. So I decided that my younger daughter and I would kick around Oakland for the afternoon. I figured even if I had to shell out for some ice cream, I would save money in the long run by not having to pay for the gas!

We enjoyed the carousel in the new Schenley Plaza area (where I used to park, by the way!), which was free until they get the wi-fi up and running! We popped into Hillman for a bit, since I had brought my laptop - counting on that outdoor wi-fi! - had to check my e-mail. Then I took Aly to my favorite children's library room.

It was like coming home, like comfort food. It felt great. I probably took out my first book at this library. It has changed, evolved, since I was there last. It is a really nice, welcoming, exciting space. And it was such a joy to see that Aly was right at home too. Aly jumped right in, grabbed "Goodnight Moon" from the top of the shelf and made herself comfortable. She began reciting it, finding the mouse. Then we explored some more, found new books to look at, new nooks to look in. The librarian started a program about singing rounds, but Aly was not to be distracted from the books.

Neither of us wanted to leave. I know what we'll do tomorrow afternoon...

Wikimania

I've known about Wikipedia for a while now. I use it a lot and offer ther articles to others as resources all the time. But wow! I have no idea that the wiki family was so big! I can't wait to explore them more. I can imagine scores of excellent uses for them in lots of settings. I am officially a wiki-convert!

Evolution

Just thought I'd pat myself on the back! I'm sure you've noticed that I figured out how to add images to my blog. My first attempt didn't go so well, and now I think I understand why. It was an image that I was trying to get from another website. Was I trying to steal bandwidth? That's what I thought, after I considered it for a while. But hopefully I have it figured out now :o)

Oh, by the way, google Venkman and Zuul - you'll get the lowdown on how they relate to programming, and thus AJAX. (I think my husband thought I was making things up when I told him the Ghostbusters references from last night!)

Who ya gonna call?

I try to be a diligent student. I read my assignments with a google page open, and now also with a wikipedia page open. I listened to this week's AJAX podcast, and the first thing I did was wikipedia AJAX. The term Ajax is used in many arenas, and unfortunately for my life in LIS 2600, I recognized its use in about 75% of the arenas, NOT including programming. So wikipedia gave me a fair idea of what Ajax means, but the IT conversations podcast might as well have been in Latin! Actually, I might have done better if it were in Latin :o} I think I got the main gist of the conversation, but what will really stick with me are the Ghostbusters references! Both Venkman and Zuul came up in that conversation, and not meaning Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. Some wonky technarati must be a Ghostbusters fan. However, I'm not sure this will help me so much on my exam!

Aside: I spellchecked this using Blogger's tool before posting. As usual, it picked up a few words it didn't recognize, but that I hadn't really misspelled. This time, it didn't like "technarati." Now, I'm not actually sure I spelled it correctly, but what is amusing here is that the first suggested replacement spelling is "degenerate." Hmm...

Fast Track to where?

Fast Track MLIS. That's what I'm doing. Two years, 6 semesters, voila. But not really. My brain is working over time! I guess that's what it's all about. Graduate school. Master's degree. Doesn't that imply that I've mastered the subject? I think that's the idea. But there's so much, and it isn't "gelling" for me yet. Soon, I hope. The technical stuff is still pretty mysterious, but it will be my focus this coming week. I'm not used to not getting it :o(

Nicholson Baker

I'm not sure I'm going to be a very good librarian. I am reviewing Nicholson Baker's Doublefold, in which he revealed that libraries are, in some cases, throwing away their collections of newspapers. This is shocking to him, and I gather to many when they read first his articles and the his book. I'm not a born "keeper." My husband and I are constantly struggling about saving things. I dislike clutter, and without order, most of stuff is clutter. I guess that's the difference between my garage and a library: order. But truthfully, even with order, I think I'd have a hard time keeping books on theshelves that just aren't being used. In my daughter's school library, I know they are constantly struggling for space. Especially at the end of the year, when everyone returns all the volumes all at once! How do you keep adding new titles, which the patrons demand, without taking something off the shelves? And once you remove less-used titles, where do you put them? There certainly isn't much useful storage in our school district!

Granted I'm not talking about Last Known Copies or anything, but then again, how do you really know? Baker is a passionate extremist, but he does have a point worth considering.

Whine

Things are not going well. I'm behind on my reading. I can't get digital drop box to work for me. I haven't blogged. I'm generally feeling overwholemed and undersupported. And now, school's over. Usually a pleasant occurance in my life. This year, another drain on my most precious resource: time.