Well I can feel a little...different, yeah we'll go with different, now when I say "Hello readership!" because as it turns out, there are really some readers out there! Finally! Granted, this one reader who did take the time to leave a comment was anonymous and accused me of calling vegans unhealthy (which, to be clear, that is not what I said! As with anything in life, I just believe people need to make educated and informed decisions), but hey, a reader is a reader and the more, the merrier! Though for the future, I guess I wonder if I'm allowed to be a little picky and request that you at least leave a name (even if it's not your real one) - anonymous comments still feel so distant. Anyway, so that happened today!
In other news, LIS502 will finally be over after tomorrow's lecture in the morning and final exam in the afternoon. The words "totally psyched" come to mind - not that I haven't enjoyed the experience, because I really have and look forward to the things to com, but it will be nice to be back in my own house and let my brain decompress a little from this information surge that has been underway. Intense, but in a good way. Tomorrow I really would be okay with getting a B! haha
Well back to the grindstone, I suppose. Keep those comments coming!
Showing posts with label boot camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boot camp. Show all posts
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Day #7996 - New Recruits
I really need to remember to post here in 4 days when I will now be over 8000 days old! wooot!
In other news, I will be very happy when this class is over with in a few days. Everyone who is here for the first section is completely wiped, and it was just funny today when we left lecture this morning and saw all the people who are here for the second session. I feel like a high school sophomore - we just want to warn the newbies and tell them "Start studying for the final now! Memorize the readings as soon as you can! You're not going to sleep for the next week and a half!" But then I see that they're so smiley and excited and I just don't want to be the one to ruin that haha.
Focusing has been a bit of an issue lately, and it's only becoming a greater challenge as the desire to sleep is growing. We had lecture this morning, we're about to have a discussion section now, a break before another lecture around dinner time, and then a short break before having to give group presentations tonight until 8pm. Then we have a paper due tomorrow morning at 8am, lecture, study study study, another lecture Saturday morning and then my final that afternoon. And THEN I'm done!
Keep it classy, readers!
***5:42 Edit***
Just got my paper back that I turned in two days ago. I got a B, which maybe I'd be more okay with if I wasn't such a perfectionist. Feeling good about the presentation tonight, it'll be hard to mess up the paper due tomorrow, and scared to death about the Final Exam on Saturday. Can't wait to be DONE!
In other news, I will be very happy when this class is over with in a few days. Everyone who is here for the first section is completely wiped, and it was just funny today when we left lecture this morning and saw all the people who are here for the second session. I feel like a high school sophomore - we just want to warn the newbies and tell them "Start studying for the final now! Memorize the readings as soon as you can! You're not going to sleep for the next week and a half!" But then I see that they're so smiley and excited and I just don't want to be the one to ruin that haha.
Focusing has been a bit of an issue lately, and it's only becoming a greater challenge as the desire to sleep is growing. We had lecture this morning, we're about to have a discussion section now, a break before another lecture around dinner time, and then a short break before having to give group presentations tonight until 8pm. Then we have a paper due tomorrow morning at 8am, lecture, study study study, another lecture Saturday morning and then my final that afternoon. And THEN I'm done!
Keep it classy, readers!
***5:42 Edit***
Just got my paper back that I turned in two days ago. I got a B, which maybe I'd be more okay with if I wasn't such a perfectionist. Feeling good about the presentation tonight, it'll be hard to mess up the paper due tomorrow, and scared to death about the Final Exam on Saturday. Can't wait to be DONE!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Day #7993 - Intellectual Property
Good afternoon, my few but faithful readers! Hopefully the number of people actually reading this will someday increase, but for now, it's just a small group discussion. Works for me. Keeping it cozy.
I'm currently camped out in the GSLIS building (that's the Graduate School of Library and Information Science) here in Champaign and after this afternoon's lecture and tonight's discussion group, I will officially be halfway through this class (in terms of time, not necessarily in terms of work)! woot! I really am enjoying getting to know the other people here and have officially decided that right now, I'm a fan of this whole "being a grad student" thing. The 60 of us are bonding everyday over living in the dorm, needing to jump up onto the lofted beds, and the general information overload that's freaking everyone out. It's hard to put off thinking about the final exam because there's so much other stuff to get done first, but when it's less than a week away, in a normal semester I would have started studying for that already.
Anywho, it's our lunch break now until 4pm and I'm working on my paper regarding "the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples" and basically what are museums supposed to do if, in this case, Native Americans walk in and ask for their stuff back. This paper is all I have really been able to think about for the last four days and it's already due tomorrow. Now the English major in me hates this - normally when I get a paper assignment, I like to mull it over in my head and think things out for a couple days before jumping into writing. No such luxury this week, though. I got a B+ on my first paper which I know isn't bad, but still. This is me we're talking about. I think though, with this paper due tomorrow and the time constraints on top of the 80 other things we LEEP students have going on right now, what I have written for this assignment is honestly the best I can do given everything else. So hopefully that'll be enough.
That's it for now. Not terribly exciting, believe me I know. I'll get my swing and sarcasm back soon, I promise!
I'm currently camped out in the GSLIS building (that's the Graduate School of Library and Information Science) here in Champaign and after this afternoon's lecture and tonight's discussion group, I will officially be halfway through this class (in terms of time, not necessarily in terms of work)! woot! I really am enjoying getting to know the other people here and have officially decided that right now, I'm a fan of this whole "being a grad student" thing. The 60 of us are bonding everyday over living in the dorm, needing to jump up onto the lofted beds, and the general information overload that's freaking everyone out. It's hard to put off thinking about the final exam because there's so much other stuff to get done first, but when it's less than a week away, in a normal semester I would have started studying for that already.
Anywho, it's our lunch break now until 4pm and I'm working on my paper regarding "the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples" and basically what are museums supposed to do if, in this case, Native Americans walk in and ask for their stuff back. This paper is all I have really been able to think about for the last four days and it's already due tomorrow. Now the English major in me hates this - normally when I get a paper assignment, I like to mull it over in my head and think things out for a couple days before jumping into writing. No such luxury this week, though. I got a B+ on my first paper which I know isn't bad, but still. This is me we're talking about. I think though, with this paper due tomorrow and the time constraints on top of the 80 other things we LEEP students have going on right now, what I have written for this assignment is honestly the best I can do given everything else. So hopefully that'll be enough.
That's it for now. Not terribly exciting, believe me I know. I'll get my swing and sarcasm back soon, I promise!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Day #7991 - The Long and not-so-Winding Stacks
Every year in the back of the iBook (the assignment book that U of I sells that's all school themed) there is a list of things students should do before they graduate. And let me tell you, when I was a freshman I thought this was the coolest list ever. Like an undergraduate Bucket List. Some of the things were more common ("Play frisbee on the Quad", "Attend a barndance") while others were a little more out there ("Attend a lecture that isn't one of your own").
(On a sad note, "Ring the bells at Altgeld" isn't on this year's list, which is a bummer because that was seriously one of the coolest things I have done on this campus. Also gone is "Get free condoms from McKinley." - what is this public school coming to??)
Another item that was cut from this year's list that I had always wanted to do in the past was "visit the main stacks in the library," but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. But today, that changed. As further part of our orientation (and we didn't even really start the class part of our class until 3:30 this afternoon), we got to take a tour of the Main Library building including going into the stacks. Awesome? I think YES!
(On a sad note, "Ring the bells at Altgeld" isn't on this year's list, which is a bummer because that was seriously one of the coolest things I have done on this campus. Also gone is "Get free condoms from McKinley." - what is this public school coming to??)
Another item that was cut from this year's list that I had always wanted to do in the past was "visit the main stacks in the library," but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. But today, that changed. As further part of our orientation (and we didn't even really start the class part of our class until 3:30 this afternoon), we got to take a tour of the Main Library building including going into the stacks. Awesome? I think YES!
Day #7990 - Bootcamp
Since my second day of LIS502 aka "bootcamp" doesn't technically start for another seven minutes, I figure I can squeeze out a quick burst into the blogosphere! The drive down to Champaign was fine on Wednesday and I had all of the typical "day before the first day of school" jitters. In some ways, yesterday went a lot better than I thought it would, but in others it was really overwhelming and I wasn't able to really calm down until after I talked to Mom and Dad. "Information overload" puts it kindly, but I think that after I'm able to get the stupid printing all set up here and talk to some people about what classes I should take and what I'm doing with my life, I'll feel better. In the mean time, I'll just keep reminding myself to work hard here because at least after this is vacation in August!
Not that interesting, I know. I'll try to come up with something a bit more human-interesting as the day goes on. Hopefully this class will spark the imagination.
Not that interesting, I know. I'll try to come up with something a bit more human-interesting as the day goes on. Hopefully this class will spark the imagination.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Day #7977 - A Few Random Firsts
Why hello there, my few (but hopefully faithful) readers! I know it's been a few days, but lately I have actually been busy! It's crazy, I know, but it happened. Not really doing much out of the ordinary, though there are a few milestones that I have hit that have kept me away from writing here.
First off, I finally finished all of the required reading for my first grad school class! Now you're probably sitting there thinking 'so what? You were an English major - reading is what you do.' Well please let me elaborate. The course that I'm taking right now asks us to do all of the reading before we have to go to Champaign for what the school calls our 10-day "bootcamp" of a class that ends with a final exam. Rather than reading all of these articles on my computer screen, I had them printed and they now fill two 2" binders that are sitting on my dresser. It took me a few weeks, but I finally finished reading them all yesterday, and I'm feeling pretty good as a result. I still have a 500 word paper due before bootcamp in July which will require me to go back and re-read two articles, but I've left myself a comfortable cushion to get that done.
Another thing that I finally completed yesterday, for the first time ever in my life, was a journal. I've tried keeping a journal at multiple times, mostly during junior high, high school, and college, but I would usually only stick with it for a few weeks or months, then get bored or come up with excuses about why I was too busy to write and eventually just stop. Then when I would rediscover the notebook several weeks or months later, I'd usually rip out the pages I had written before (deeming their contents ridiculous and making me cringe) and then start the process all over again. But this journal was different, at least in the fact that I did not keep ripping pages out. I started writing in it on January 1, 2008 so it only took me two and a half years to fill the whole thing, but I think better late than never. It's a little terrifying to look over at my bookshelf and see this hard cover notebook and know that it is filled cover to cover with my thoughts. So even though I finished writing in it, I don't think I'll go back and read it anytime soon for fear of some major cringing and an over-use of the Awkward Starfish.
Other than that, it's business as usual. I went out to St. Charles to visit my friend Katie which was so much fun. She made dinner and we proceeded to watch an MTV documentary about Courtney Love (she has had quite a life) and then switching channels between Will & Grace and The Golden Girls. It was so great to hang out with her, and I'm not just saying that because of my current state of hermit-dom. It also felt great to just get out and drive - nothing quite like wide open spaces getting away from the more crowded suburbs with the sunroof open and the sounds of James Taylor and Carole King streaming out of my stereo - it was a great summer moment.
Keep reading! Sorry for the ramblings, but I really didn't know what to talk about this time. Maybe it'll be better tomorrow, but you'll have to come back to find out :o)
First off, I finally finished all of the required reading for my first grad school class! Now you're probably sitting there thinking 'so what? You were an English major - reading is what you do.' Well please let me elaborate. The course that I'm taking right now asks us to do all of the reading before we have to go to Champaign for what the school calls our 10-day "bootcamp" of a class that ends with a final exam. Rather than reading all of these articles on my computer screen, I had them printed and they now fill two 2" binders that are sitting on my dresser. It took me a few weeks, but I finally finished reading them all yesterday, and I'm feeling pretty good as a result. I still have a 500 word paper due before bootcamp in July which will require me to go back and re-read two articles, but I've left myself a comfortable cushion to get that done.
Another thing that I finally completed yesterday, for the first time ever in my life, was a journal. I've tried keeping a journal at multiple times, mostly during junior high, high school, and college, but I would usually only stick with it for a few weeks or months, then get bored or come up with excuses about why I was too busy to write and eventually just stop. Then when I would rediscover the notebook several weeks or months later, I'd usually rip out the pages I had written before (deeming their contents ridiculous and making me cringe) and then start the process all over again. But this journal was different, at least in the fact that I did not keep ripping pages out. I started writing in it on January 1, 2008 so it only took me two and a half years to fill the whole thing, but I think better late than never. It's a little terrifying to look over at my bookshelf and see this hard cover notebook and know that it is filled cover to cover with my thoughts. So even though I finished writing in it, I don't think I'll go back and read it anytime soon for fear of some major cringing and an over-use of the Awkward Starfish.
Other than that, it's business as usual. I went out to St. Charles to visit my friend Katie which was so much fun. She made dinner and we proceeded to watch an MTV documentary about Courtney Love (she has had quite a life) and then switching channels between Will & Grace and The Golden Girls. It was so great to hang out with her, and I'm not just saying that because of my current state of hermit-dom. It also felt great to just get out and drive - nothing quite like wide open spaces getting away from the more crowded suburbs with the sunroof open and the sounds of James Taylor and Carole King streaming out of my stereo - it was a great summer moment.
Keep reading! Sorry for the ramblings, but I really didn't know what to talk about this time. Maybe it'll be better tomorrow, but you'll have to come back to find out :o)
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