My Library Qualifications

Last we spoke, I was probably still at uni. I now hold a Master of Library and Information Management.

I even work in a school library now.

But the most essential requirement for me to be able to call myself a real library person came after a solid week of headaches and one "I'm sure this isn't the reason, but I might as well get checked out" trip to the optometrist.

Considering that absolutely everyone in my family wears glasses - and my brother had to get them in primary school - I think I did pretty well to go nearly 28 years without needing them. They're only for reading right now, but I am pretty sure it is a slippery slope to full-time looking like a dork. Luckily, it's kind of expected if I want to work in a library.

So much to tell you

Hello imaginary internet friends. I feel like I have so much to tell you. Yes, well, that's what happens when you tell NOTHING for half a year or so. Today I will just tell you about work (fascinating, no?) and then maybe soon I will tell you all kinds of other stories.

I have a new job! And not just any job. A Full Time job. And it's also an Office Job. And an Into The City, On The Train job. It's only until next January, but hopefully it will look so awesome on my resume that many other people will want to also give me Full Time Jobs. The first couple of weeks I felt like my brain was going to explode, what with all the learning of new things, but it seems to be better now.

At the moment, I am training for it three days a week, but at the end of the month I will be training full time, and then soon I'll be on my own!

The other two days a week I am doing a placement for uni at a small digital library (also in the city), which has been fun and also good-on-a-resume-ish and also good to just talk to people who were/are on kinda the same path.

In addition, I am doing half a day of cataloging at a public library each week, for another uni class, which means on the weekend, since you went and got yourself a weekday job, didn't think that one through, did ya. Actually I did think it through, and it's all working out how I planned, as everyone has been extremely accomodating of the days I allocated to them, which is nice.

And it's all been so educational and everyone's been so helpful, I'm just really enjoying all this practical stuff after learning it all in lectures last year.

And then those last two will end soon, and I will just have my regular 9-5 job, five days a week. You know, as you do.

This week is Remember How You Have A Blog? Week

Every "summer" I get excited for Camp Stimey, which may seem odd, since I am not a little kid nor do I own any. But I still love the idea, and I love parents who put in effort. Plus I am still holding out hope that ultimate frisbee will make an appearance in a Sports Week.

Since I am at uni now, and therefore have some holidays that coincide with Camp Stimey, I have decided to hold my own right here.

***Brief interlude while I talk about uni: I had an interesting semester. I was working too much and playing too much frisbee (it was Nationals! What was I supposed to do?!) during the first half of semester, but I settled down in the later weeks, and managed to get erratically consistent results. By which I mean in one class I consistently got Passes, one I consistently got Credits, one Distinctions, and one Ds/HDs. Until I absolutely ruined it, by getting a HIGH DISTINCTION for my major assignment in my P class. I had one exam which I think I did ok in; I expect a Credit if the pattern holds.***

Anyway, on to my plan! The first week (last week), was Catch-Up Week. My exam was on Monday and I didn't get a sleep-in til Friday, as I'd packed all the other days with catch-ups of the old work friends, sibling, and boyfriend varieties.

This week was Organising Week. I moved my room entirely around. I found approximately ten bajillion bobby pins, broke a vacuum, and did something not good to my back. I wish I had photos, because I loved the before: it included a sleeping alcove and a couch! The after includes two whole new bookcases which are already not enough space for my books. I also packed up all this semester's uni stuff, organised my hard drive, made myself a new car-driving CD, and may even do my taxes.

I have decided that next week will be Books And Movies Week, as I have a massive pile of library books all ready to go. It may also be Knitting Week, as I had planned to double my scarf-knitting from last year and knit TWO scarves this year and am yet to start even one.

(Just realised I'm not actually sure how many weeks I have. Ah well.)

The week after that will be Gym Week, as it will be (less than, since I wanted to read books and watch tv and movies) three months until Mixed Nationals, and that should be just the right amount of time to develop a six pack get me into shape. During Gym Week I will go to the gym every day! I will be so enthused! I will able to train hardcore for seven days straight, despite having not done any strenuous exercise for quite some time!

Pretty sure the week after that will be Whinging About Going Back To Uni So Soon (And Why Is My Body Acting Like It Hates Me?) Week.

Also, I know I have been an irregular poster here, but you should check out our Book Challenge Blog, where we are FORCED to read books not of our choosing and then write about them!

Bits and Pieces

Some cool stuff happened on blogs recently:

My pretty sparkly wedding shoes were featured on Shoe Friday. They are sparkly!

I won a hockey tournament! Pretty sure that's what happened anyway. (That's not what happened, but other truly amazing things did.)

***

Some stuff happened in real life, too:

My dad came to visit me and we had lots of fun times. Including my baby brother's 18th. 18!

Six months ago I started dating some guy. And now six months later, we've been going out for six months! (And as a reward, I get to go see Disney On Ice later this year.)

***

Some sport was in there as well:

Safire came 7th at Nationals (which is brilliant!) and won the Your New Uniforms Are Awesome competition.

I went to a doctor about my heel that I injured in January. He was like ... so, you were busy for four months? Um, yes. Yes I was. (No diagnosis yet, scans this week.)

***

And uni happens even when I try to ignore it:

So far, I have been given a Pass, Credit, and Distinction. All I need now is a High Distinction and we've covered all the grades!

I have learned that people are annoying and make me feel the need to use CAPS at them, I need three or four days to write an essay, and I much prefer analysing books than business models.

***

All of these could have had their own posts, but I do not think that was likely to happen, and waiting for time to write one post would have just given more things time to be added to the list. Now I can tick ALL these things off the list!

I have some issues...

My main issue at this moment is my insane lack of unallocated time. Uni, work, frisbee - there is no free time in the world. Bitching time, however, oh there's plenty of that:

There's always one. I know this. There's always that one annoying person in your class, and you can't do anything about it, and you just have to suck it up. But seriously, this is ridiculous. The sheer irrelevance of everything she has to say is astounding. But what gets me is the arrogance of "helpfully" "clarifying" something the lecturer has said THAT WAS PERFECTLY CLEAR TO THE REST OF US ANYWAY OMG SHUT UP. Grr. Ok. I'll be over here, trying not to roll my eyes tooo hard.

Who decided that -785937537 degrees was a temperature at all conducive to study? Show me your research. I can disprove whatever you've got.

Slides. Something no lecturer is without. But can we just revisit the point of slides? If all you are going to do is read something that I have (printed and on a screen) right in front of me, I might as well have stayed home. Slides are for notes, lectures are for lecturing. I will of course complain about how much writing I have to do, but I would much rather be actively note-taking than having a nap. (Wait, that doesn't sound right...)

What happened to mandatory ten-minute breaks every hour?

And for that matter, although this is no-one's fault really, what's with finishing class on the hour? Flinders started on the hour and finished at ten to. Now UniSA starts at ten past and finishes on the hour. This is not a major problem, except for when I am sitting in class counting down the seconds, and the clock finally ticks over to ten to ... and I still have ten minutes to go. The longest ten minutes IN THE WHOLE WORLD EVER, let me assure you.

Uni is quite vexing, as it turns out.

All I Needed Was Some Uni Work To Put Off

I am back at uni, a different uni this time, one not built on a hill. Not that that means less stairs, because every single one of my classes is on the third floor or above. I am doing a Masters course with a very long name, but if people ask what I'm studying I just say Library Management.

I'm taking four classes (which is standard, is it standard elsewhere?) and I managed to fit all of them onto one day. Which: yay for working the other full days, but also: 9am til 7pm with a one hour break. Yeah. The names of those four classes are pretty much just different variations in the order of the words 'management,' 'information,' and 'project.' Those words are also the basis for the drinking game I plan to play as I do my readings.

And jeez there are a lot of readings. I should be doing them in all the spare time that uni students have, but did I mention the working full time thing? That will start to slow down soon, and Nationals is only weeks away, so soon I will have a life. Right? Please?

I am enjoying uni, even if most of my classes fall under the "boring businessy stuff" category and not "exciting new library career path" one. All my essays are short, I only have one exam (worth 50%!) ("Shut up," says a certain little brother now at uni, but I can't hear him over the sound of his four 70% exams), and I get to design a mobile phone app. Learning - it's what all the cool kids are doing.