I have neglected my poor blog, and the less I write the less it is read. (I have also been reading others' blogs less.) I am unsure if I will keep blogging in the future. I suppose I will see what happens this summer.*
I am nearly done with graduate school. On Friday I had my last lecture in 508--The History of Recorded Information. There are still two more weeks of classes, but those will be taken up by student presentations. And yesterday, I had my last class with Nancy Pearl in Readers Advisory. I am nearing the end--and I do mean The End. All I see is a great abyss in front of me. (The world may have survived yesterday, but we still have 2012 to get through.) Anyway, aside from my presentation, I also have a 20 page paper to write for 508. My topic is on Charles Dickens as the professional author and serial publication in the Victorian Age as manifested primarily by David Copperfield (and The Pickwick Papers). I have been able to handle the original monthly issues of David Copperfield which are held by UW's Special Collections. I need to finish my research this week, and then pound out a 20 page paper the week after. I hope I can still do it; I haven't had to write a paper that long since 2007 during my final undergraduate semesters at SUU.
I have been very disheartened by my experience with the iSchool and the UW and academia at large, but I really haven't been able to express my dissatisfaction. On Friday's class though, I had an epiphany as represented by Walt Whitman and Melvil Dewey. My personal experience with my high school and undergraduate education was Whitmanesque: expansive, embracing, affirming.** However, my experience with the Information School has been Deweyan, which is to say monomaniacal. It is a trend I fear is taking place in education at all levels--learning is a business with a focus on test scores and analytical intelligence. Where is the critical thinking? Where are the arts? Where is the humanism? In the end I have been buried in debt, and I wonder "Have I grown intellectually? Have I been prepared [for the MLIS is a professional degree] to be a librarian?" I really don't know.
*Speaking of the summer, I will be moving back in with my parents in June (education and the economy are in fantastic shape!). I am, however, excited to be back in Utah, for a while anyway. (And, also, I might just miss Seattle, but just barely.) I keep forgetting that it will not be summer vacation--a stasis in my personal and academic-now-professional life spent drinking iced coffees and reading books by the pool--it will be consumed by job hunting (my least favorite thing in the world), and hopefully before the summer's over I will have a real-life, professional, adult job--somewhere--and be moving again (my second least favorite thing in the world).
**I just wanted to quote the first and last stanzas of Leaves of Grass (the 1855 edition):
I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease . . . observing a spear of summer grass.
. . .
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Monday, April 27, 2009
Bulgur. and other stuff
I love the song "The Origin of Love" from the Hedwig and the Angry Inch soundtrack. Check it!
Yesterday, I learned that Syracuse has not offered me any financial aid. Even though I filed my taxes this year (and the FAFSA) as an independent, Syracuse expects my family contribution to be $38 grand plus which is equal to the total tuition and estimated living expenses and all that jazz. Nice. I just don't understand why UW expects me to only pay over one thousand dollars and has therefore offered me over $40 grand in various loans while Syracuse offered me zip. I sent their financial aid department a little email posing this question, but I'm not sure when I'll receive a response. I was leaning towards Syracuse, but as of now it looks like I will be attending the University of Washington. It's a little disappointing because Syracuse has guaranteed all of their incoming library master's students a $10/hr 10hr/ week job working with the faculty. They also have a program that pays for half of one's tuition by writing blogs and creating videos and whatnot for the MLIS program. I didn't turn in my application in time for that this year, but there was always next year. And besides being a little bit cheaper in terms of tuition and living expenses, I've always wanted to live on the East Coast and this was a golden chance. So, it looks like Seattle instead, and I'm trying to get myself pumped for that. I have to accept by Thursday. Anyway, I'm putting my faith in these lyrics:
and i never cared too much for the money
but i know right now
that it's in god's hands
but i don't know who the father is
Yesterday, I was listening to the Splendid Table on NPR and they were talking about bulgur. Janet Fletcher who wrote this article for the San Francisco Chronicle came on the program, and told us that bulgur is a type of prepared whole grain wheat that is popular from Greece and Turkey and the Levant region. Bulgur came about because it was a way to preserve wheat which can quickly go rancid once harvested. Traditionally whole grains are boiled until soft and then laid out on flat roofs to sun dry. Today, much of that process takes place in factories. Bulgur is used in everything from stew to dumplings to salads to lamb tartare to pilaf. Anyway, I was in the grocery store buying chocolate to make brownies (they just came out of the oven and smell delicious), and I decided to buy some bulgur too. Anyway, the aforementioned article includes several Turkish recipes that utilize bulgur which I am eager to try out.
Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV proclaimed April 3rd (clearly I am behind on my podcasts) to be Good People Day or something like that and encouraged people to give shout-outs (e.g. blog posts) about important people in their lives. While there are many people near and dear to me who have profoundly influenced my life, I wanted to give a special shout-out to my good friend and former roommate Melissa. I would be lost without her. I cannot tell you how many times she helped me out with my dearly departed Buick (I miss you!) when it broke down--which was a regular occurrence. Or how often she helped me clean my college apartments as I was moving out. She is fiercely loyal to her friends and a great empathizer. She has the largest heart of anyone I know, and I enjoy being around her. I consider myself lucky and blessed to know such a friend, and I just wanted to say, "Melissa, I love you."
This past weekend I went to Lagoon with Melissa and Ellen and her husband Justin. We decided to splurge and buy season passports which I have never had before, and I figured this might be the last summer I live in Utah (or not; we'll see). Anyway, we got there around six thirty and didn't know that the park was scheduled to close at seven--it is still April after all. However, it ended up being perfect. We didn't have to pay for parking as it was so late in the day, and we managed to get in four rides before the park closed which made for a perfect little outing. We started with the Tidal Wave and then moved onto the Turn of the Century, or swings, which is one of my favorites as it features art of women in Victorian costume. Plus, who doesn't love a good swings ride? We then rode on the original "White" Roller Coaster which just gets ricketier and ricketier every year, and is no longer even close to white in color any longer. We ended the evening on the Carousel which still features hand carved figures. There was a scene in Adventureland which takes place on a warm, summer's night and the park is all lit up and it really made me want to go to Lagoon. Anyway, I look forward to many more lovely adventures there this summer. Also, I just saw Lagoon's new commercial on TV and it was actually quite nice and not obnoxious at all as many of their commercials have been in years past.
As I've mentioned before, I'm currently reading Little, Big by John Crowley for book club. While it is wonderful and superb, I am unconvinced it was the right choice for our group. It is a wondrous fantasy of epic dimensions, but I already have the acute sensation that this book is not meant to be read only once--it needs multiple readings, and it's quite a long book at that too. The writing is fantastic but also dense and frequently abstruse. There are five generations of interrelated characters and the novel switches from different generations with seeming abandon. The plot is a bit difficult to describe as I'm not sure there really is one (yet)--certainly not in the traditional terms of conflict and rising action. I just read this sentence from the novel which perfectly describes how I feel about it: "The long, long ambiguity of Edgewood, the stifling sense of mysteries continually propounded, never solved, the endless waiting for purposes to be made clear and directions pointed out--all over." Except, in the case of the reader it is far from over, and I am still waiting for the denouement where everything will be made clear--and I expect it to be amazing. Currently, it's still all a-muddle. And so I fear whether or not our group will valiantly persevere through. It's been awhile since we've read/finished a good book and had a rousing discussion.
On a final note, these few quotes have been running through my mind lately, and I leave them to you to do with as you will.
"I think . . . that I would rather recollect a life mis-spent on fragile things than spent avoiding moral debt."
--Neil Gaiman Fragile Things
"You said that humanity was a flawed creation, and that people still kill one another for petty jealousy and greed. You said that humanity never asked itself why it deserved to survive. Maybe you don't."
--Sharon Agathon "Resurrection Ship, Part II" Battlestar Galactica
"The things that make us happy make us wise."
--John Crowley Little, Big
Yesterday, I learned that Syracuse has not offered me any financial aid. Even though I filed my taxes this year (and the FAFSA) as an independent, Syracuse expects my family contribution to be $38 grand plus which is equal to the total tuition and estimated living expenses and all that jazz. Nice. I just don't understand why UW expects me to only pay over one thousand dollars and has therefore offered me over $40 grand in various loans while Syracuse offered me zip. I sent their financial aid department a little email posing this question, but I'm not sure when I'll receive a response. I was leaning towards Syracuse, but as of now it looks like I will be attending the University of Washington. It's a little disappointing because Syracuse has guaranteed all of their incoming library master's students a $10/hr 10hr/ week job working with the faculty. They also have a program that pays for half of one's tuition by writing blogs and creating videos and whatnot for the MLIS program. I didn't turn in my application in time for that this year, but there was always next year. And besides being a little bit cheaper in terms of tuition and living expenses, I've always wanted to live on the East Coast and this was a golden chance. So, it looks like Seattle instead, and I'm trying to get myself pumped for that. I have to accept by Thursday. Anyway, I'm putting my faith in these lyrics:
and i never cared too much for the money
but i know right now
that it's in god's hands
but i don't know who the father is
Yesterday, I was listening to the Splendid Table on NPR and they were talking about bulgur. Janet Fletcher who wrote this article for the San Francisco Chronicle came on the program, and told us that bulgur is a type of prepared whole grain wheat that is popular from Greece and Turkey and the Levant region. Bulgur came about because it was a way to preserve wheat which can quickly go rancid once harvested. Traditionally whole grains are boiled until soft and then laid out on flat roofs to sun dry. Today, much of that process takes place in factories. Bulgur is used in everything from stew to dumplings to salads to lamb tartare to pilaf. Anyway, I was in the grocery store buying chocolate to make brownies (they just came out of the oven and smell delicious), and I decided to buy some bulgur too. Anyway, the aforementioned article includes several Turkish recipes that utilize bulgur which I am eager to try out.
Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV proclaimed April 3rd (clearly I am behind on my podcasts) to be Good People Day or something like that and encouraged people to give shout-outs (e.g. blog posts) about important people in their lives. While there are many people near and dear to me who have profoundly influenced my life, I wanted to give a special shout-out to my good friend and former roommate Melissa. I would be lost without her. I cannot tell you how many times she helped me out with my dearly departed Buick (I miss you!) when it broke down--which was a regular occurrence. Or how often she helped me clean my college apartments as I was moving out. She is fiercely loyal to her friends and a great empathizer. She has the largest heart of anyone I know, and I enjoy being around her. I consider myself lucky and blessed to know such a friend, and I just wanted to say, "Melissa, I love you."
This past weekend I went to Lagoon with Melissa and Ellen and her husband Justin. We decided to splurge and buy season passports which I have never had before, and I figured this might be the last summer I live in Utah (or not; we'll see). Anyway, we got there around six thirty and didn't know that the park was scheduled to close at seven--it is still April after all. However, it ended up being perfect. We didn't have to pay for parking as it was so late in the day, and we managed to get in four rides before the park closed which made for a perfect little outing. We started with the Tidal Wave and then moved onto the Turn of the Century, or swings, which is one of my favorites as it features art of women in Victorian costume. Plus, who doesn't love a good swings ride? We then rode on the original "White" Roller Coaster which just gets ricketier and ricketier every year, and is no longer even close to white in color any longer. We ended the evening on the Carousel which still features hand carved figures. There was a scene in Adventureland which takes place on a warm, summer's night and the park is all lit up and it really made me want to go to Lagoon. Anyway, I look forward to many more lovely adventures there this summer. Also, I just saw Lagoon's new commercial on TV and it was actually quite nice and not obnoxious at all as many of their commercials have been in years past.
As I've mentioned before, I'm currently reading Little, Big by John Crowley for book club. While it is wonderful and superb, I am unconvinced it was the right choice for our group. It is a wondrous fantasy of epic dimensions, but I already have the acute sensation that this book is not meant to be read only once--it needs multiple readings, and it's quite a long book at that too. The writing is fantastic but also dense and frequently abstruse. There are five generations of interrelated characters and the novel switches from different generations with seeming abandon. The plot is a bit difficult to describe as I'm not sure there really is one (yet)--certainly not in the traditional terms of conflict and rising action. I just read this sentence from the novel which perfectly describes how I feel about it: "The long, long ambiguity of Edgewood, the stifling sense of mysteries continually propounded, never solved, the endless waiting for purposes to be made clear and directions pointed out--all over." Except, in the case of the reader it is far from over, and I am still waiting for the denouement where everything will be made clear--and I expect it to be amazing. Currently, it's still all a-muddle. And so I fear whether or not our group will valiantly persevere through. It's been awhile since we've read/finished a good book and had a rousing discussion.
On a final note, these few quotes have been running through my mind lately, and I leave them to you to do with as you will.
"I think . . . that I would rather recollect a life mis-spent on fragile things than spent avoiding moral debt."
--Neil Gaiman Fragile Things
"You said that humanity was a flawed creation, and that people still kill one another for petty jealousy and greed. You said that humanity never asked itself why it deserved to survive. Maybe you don't."
--Sharon Agathon "Resurrection Ship, Part II" Battlestar Galactica
"The things that make us happy make us wise."
--John Crowley Little, Big
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Moving Forward
So today I received an email from Syracuse University informing me that I had been among the elite to be selected for their graduate program. After submitting my applications, I had not been super worried or anxious that I would not be accepted, but I did wonder in the back of my mind what exactly I would do if I was not accepted by any school. I was waiting for a big white envelope which would at that point make me very worried before I opened it, but I didn't know what the email was, so I just opened it ain't no thang and boom! there it was--I was accepted. It's so nice to be accepted. So I'm jazzed but at the same time I'm not exactly elated. I believe this is because I wasn't worried or concerned--so it's nice to be in, but I had basically anticipated it (which makes me sound like a doucher). Of course now they would like me to fill out another application for some position which would pay for half of my tuition. So of course I must do that though in all likelihood I won't get the position. But that's okay. I filled out the FAFSA and now that I can file as an in dependent, I hope to get lots of Pell Grants and whatnot. I also need to fill out a similar TA position application for UW by tomorrow. Ugh. Applications. But I need to try to get money.
Something else that is nice is that I had my sixth month performance review at my U library job. I can't believe it's already been six months--and I still enjoy my job. Anyway, my supervisor told me that I'm basically the best of the part-time workers in the department which made me feel awesome, and then I got an 80 cents raise. That's sweet! This is now the highest paying job I've had though that isn't saying much. But 80 cents more per hour is kick-ass! It also confirms to me that I am on the right path in my life. The other thing is that I've made more money working for universities and now The City Library than I have working for private corporations. Which is nice because I hate corporate anything. They say there isn't money in education or government but I think there is. Of course if one is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company one is making so much more money than say a university president or library director--though I think they're still sitting pretty. But at the entry-level, bottom rung positions of the corporate ladder, workers get shafted. Well, that's my opinion anyway.
I'm still figuring out how to work at The City Library. My paperwork is completed (I think). I need to get an appointment with a person to get my electronic account set up and everything, but so far she has dodged my calls. And then I just need to wait for emails/calls for shifts to come my way. Of course once I show up, I will have no clue what exactly I'm doing. Such an adventure. I still have training sessions in the future which I hope will demystify everything a little bit. But what I really did to do right now is get my account set up. And wait for UW's letter to arrive. I feel like I've done a lot of waiting lately, but I think the waiting is largely over and I'm moving forward once more, and it's lovely.
And now I think I'm going to go to a screening of the Oscar nominated animated shorts. A review to follow! And I'm still deciding whether or not to go to a Best Picture showcase on Saturday. It would be super fun, but also long and exhausting and I could do other things with my Saturday. So I'm still on the fence. Anyway. . . Ciao!
Something else that is nice is that I had my sixth month performance review at my U library job. I can't believe it's already been six months--and I still enjoy my job. Anyway, my supervisor told me that I'm basically the best of the part-time workers in the department which made me feel awesome, and then I got an 80 cents raise. That's sweet! This is now the highest paying job I've had though that isn't saying much. But 80 cents more per hour is kick-ass! It also confirms to me that I am on the right path in my life. The other thing is that I've made more money working for universities and now The City Library than I have working for private corporations. Which is nice because I hate corporate anything. They say there isn't money in education or government but I think there is. Of course if one is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company one is making so much more money than say a university president or library director--though I think they're still sitting pretty. But at the entry-level, bottom rung positions of the corporate ladder, workers get shafted. Well, that's my opinion anyway.
I'm still figuring out how to work at The City Library. My paperwork is completed (I think). I need to get an appointment with a person to get my electronic account set up and everything, but so far she has dodged my calls. And then I just need to wait for emails/calls for shifts to come my way. Of course once I show up, I will have no clue what exactly I'm doing. Such an adventure. I still have training sessions in the future which I hope will demystify everything a little bit. But what I really did to do right now is get my account set up. And wait for UW's letter to arrive. I feel like I've done a lot of waiting lately, but I think the waiting is largely over and I'm moving forward once more, and it's lovely.
And now I think I'm going to go to a screening of the Oscar nominated animated shorts. A review to follow! And I'm still deciding whether or not to go to a Best Picture showcase on Saturday. It would be super fun, but also long and exhausting and I could do other things with my Saturday. So I'm still on the fence. Anyway. . . Ciao!
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