April 22, 2015

 I'm tired. Physically, emotionally, psychologically, and in all the other ways I can't think of. All the stress from my failed group project keeps hitting me in waves. Currently the wave is pinning me to the ocean floor. I just want to make it through this weekend and then hopefully I won't have to see my partner for a really long time.

After this weekend I'll also be able to devote more of my attention to my research paper. I've collected some sources for the paper, so I'm feeling good about that. I haven't actually read through them but I have them, and that's how it starts. The professor got back to me today and suggested rather than writing about the use of linked data in libraries, or even a specific type of library, I should look at the pros and cons of its use in libraries in general. That sounds a lot more interesting. I'm still not looking forward to actually reading all the articles and writing the paper, but at least it should be interesting. Hopefully.

Today there was more testing. More uneventful testing. Two tests this morning and one this afternoon. There were two tests scheduled for this afternoon but we moved the second one because the teacher wasn't going to be there and she didn't want to leave the substitute with that responsibility. Because the time was already blocked off the class did come to the lab a little later on but they just played on the computers instead of taking a test.

In between tests I took pictures of three more kids for the yearbook and I think I've got all of them now. At least all the ones that I could think of or that the teachers mentioned. Which is good because we have to be done by Friday. By the end of the day I was able to get the first three kids I took pictures of added to the yearbook and tomorrow my goal is to get the other three added.

After school I went to Chipotle and then came home. My burrito was alright. I just got rice, beans, and corn salsa, no cheese or sour cream. That made it less interesting on my palate but it was better than last week when there was so much cheese that at points that's all I was eating. I kind of think a little bit of cheese or sour cream may be necessary just to hold everything together though. Or it could have just been a somewhat failed attempt at wrapping my burrito. The kid struggled and didn't really succeed.

Tonight I read most of a chapter on resource descriptions. Never has a more thrilling topic been written on the pages of a textbook. I started by reading it in my head but I kept nodding off so I switched to reading it out loud. And now my throat is kind of sore. The chapter seemed like it was all kind of a build up to talking about XML and similar kinds of methods for structuring resource descriptions. I should probably try and finish the chapter tonight because I also need to read a couple PDFs before the weekend but I'm going to push that burden off until tomorrow.

My partner got back to me on the tweaks she had in mind for my presentation and she pretty much back pedaled out of all of them. The only one she mentioned was that the font I used was all-caps and she didn't know if the professor would appreciate that for the formatting of the references. Thanks for the insight partner. I had a similar thought when I was putting it together but only one of the references has any real need for formatting, and that was an italicized title, which I was able to do. I would hope that I wouldn't get docked points for my font choice, when it is kind of necessary for the comic book theme. My partner also signed us up for a time and it looks like we will be presenting last on Saturday, unless there is a group that hasn't signed up yet. Best for last, maybe? Probably not, but probably the best solo effort. My hope is that the bar will be set so high by the other groups that we can just walk under it safely and not worry about hitting our heads. We will probably be running long and everyone will want to leave so I doubt they'll be paying much attention at that point. As long as someone acknowledges how cool my presentation looks, I'll be happy.