On the Verge

In the last few weeks of 2010, I had a really good feeling about 2011. Ya know, that it was going to be my year. Well my school is trying to kill me, and all my warm fuzzy feelings towards the new decade (do we start with 1 and end with 10 or do we start with 0 and end with 9?) have evanesced. Also, they just changed the Zodiac on us, and now I'm supposed to be a Cancer. What?!? I was a Leo (born in the year of the Tiger) and I felt very feline. Now, apparently, I am a crustacean. That's a big change to spring on a guy on a Thursday.

Remember how I thought that last quarter was going to be my hardest quarter it was all going to get easier from then on out? Well, I do. But my new quarter is a beast--it makes last quarter look like...I don't know, something really easy--and there is going to be a lot of bitching. Here, on Facebook, to my roommate, and even to my apartment when nobody's there.

Three of my classes are online which doesn't help since that makes me responsible for setting aside time for lectures and readings and online posts. It's much better for me to have a set class time when I just have to be there. Highly functional and motivated people will just say that I should set aside certain hours on certain days for homework, but that's just not the way it works. Sorry.

I am taking Cataloging, which is actually an elective and not a required class. Can you believe it? Professors and alums--who are NOT catalogers--continually say that it is hard and not fun but that one must absolutely take it. I think librarians are sadists. I, apparently, am a masochist.

I am also taking Portfolio which is my culminating experience like writing a thesis or doing a capstone, but it's actually not like doing those things because it is a portfolio. I haven't even started this class, but the first module is due on Sunday--the same day as the Golden Globes! Hosted by Ricky Gervais! My cataloging labs are also due on Sunday. Do they not know?! Do they not care!? WTF, iSchool? There are important things like library students learning cataloging and preparing portfolios so they can get jobs, and then there are really important things like award shows where celebrities get drunk.

I am also taking a government documents class which is my only in-class class, and is kind of my filler class (because there are practically no electives offered this quarter!) that I don't really care about. Honestly, I don't care about any of my classes. The instructor is really nice, but there's a lot of work slogging through gov pubs, so it's not a very easy filler class.

Finally, I'm taking a one-credit pass/fail database class using Access. I figure it's a good idea to have a tiny bit of knowledge about databases and Access. The first module was pretty easy, so currently it's my favorite course.

I want to say my next and last quarter will be easy peasy. I will be done with all my core classes, cataloging, and my culminating experience. It could just be Nancy Pearl, XML intro, directed fieldwork, and yoga. Isn't it pretty to think so? But if my last five quarters as a library student have taught me anything, it's that each quarter is worse and harder than one before. Somebody kill me now.

On a side note: go see Black Swan. It's so intense! You definitely need to see it theaters because it is partly spectacle. However, it's pretty visceral, so if you're squeamish, you may want to avoid it.