April 28, 2016

I currently feel like an idiot, but we'll get to that soon enough.

Today I had one class in the computer lab and that wasn't until the very end of the day. Normally I think there is only one class scheduled on Thursday morning but they were on a field trip today. I was productive with my time, however, and started my morning by setting up nineteen iPads for MAP testing. It would have been twenty but the twentieth one wouldn't connect to the Wi-Fi. If you've never carried twenty iPads up a flight of stairs, let me tell you, it's a workout. I'm not in great shape to begin with but I think even if I was I would have felt the burn. It's really a whole body exercise.

When that was done I laminated all of the note cards I made for the library clerk the other day. I don't think I've laminated anything this year so that was long overdue. As a thank you for making the cards in the first place and then laminating them, the library clerk brought me several cookies that she made. I would really like to eat healthier but when people keep making me delicious treats they must be eaten.

Beginning in the morning and then throughout most of the afternoon I worked on the end of the year slideshow because I've been neglecting that recently. I finally go the large student portraits for the yearbooks so I was able to edit those to add into the slideshow. I also edited a couple other pictures and put several slides together. I've got twelve kids and six group slides done, which is decent. Despite being completely burnt out by the video tutorial assignment, I am looking forward to editing the slideshow. There are way less restrictions and I am interested to see how it turns out.

The morning was quiet because there weren't any students in the lab. This afternoon it was quiet because there were several students in the lab taking the ACT Aspire test. Thankfully it worked this time so we won't have to worry about rescheduling it. For as bad as the state assessments have been, the testing system used for this test sounds pretty awful. It only works through Firefox, which has to be completely updated, Java also has to be completely updated, and I think the computers have to be authenticated. That would be an incredible hassle if I had to go through that for the whole school. I mentioned how awful it would be to deal with for the state assessments and the lady running the test told me that some states had actually adopted it as the state assessment, and that one state was actually suing the company because of how bad it was. I'm not surprised.

I got an email from the PR lady at the public library today telling me that I needed to start polishing my resume because a position was opening up in the next couple of weeks at the library. I told her that I was actually going to a resume and interview workshop this weekend and her response was a picture of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons with the word “Excellent” on it. It was pretty great.

As for the job, I'm torn. I don't think I want to work in a public library. I'm pretty sure I want to work in an academic library but I won't really know until I get into the practicum this summer and get some experience. That being said, I don't have any experience in a public library either, and maybe I'll love it. I also don't know that I'm really a “shoe-in” for the job at the public library. I know that the PR lady has been dropping my name into conversations with the administration and other librarians whenever possible, but there are definitely more qualified people out there. And what happens if I get the job and then find out an amazing job opens up at the academic library and they want me for it after I finish my practicum? And how stressful would it be juggling the practicum and a brand new full-time job? These are things I need to set aside in my mind for bit so I can finish this semester.

Speaking of which, I spent all night writing a lengthy discussion post. It was a blind discussion, so we could only see the question we were supposed to answer and not anyone else's responses until we posted our own. So I wrote up my long post, posted it, and after glancing at a couple other posts, realized I had done it completely wrong. I based my response on what I thought was the model laid out in out in the textbook chapter we read this week. I was a little confused at first because it didn't specifically say it was a model for assessing the value of electronic resources, but it was about evaluating electronic resources. Turns out there was an article in the weekly overview that I completely missed, and in the title of the article it said it was a model for assessing the value of electronic resources. I feel like such a complete idiot. And as punishment for my stupidity I probably won't get full points for this week's discussion because I will only be able to post three days out of the week instead of four like I usually do. Hopefully I don't get additional points off for posting and revealing my classmates responses. To be fair, I didn't actually read any of their responses. I scanned just enough to get the full-body shiver/sweats thing when you realize a terrible mistake has been made. I saw one reference to an article by the professor I hadn't read and when I looked back at the weekly overview, there it was. Such an idiot. I'll have to read the article tomorrow and write another response. And respond to someone's just to try and keep my potential point loss at a minimum.

Going back to the morning, the professor posted the sign-up for when we want to give our presentation. This led to several emails back and forth between three out of the four in our group. We have yet to hear back from the girl in the group but it turns out the other two guys work at night so they were both wanting to present in the morning. How I ended up in a group with people who don't work normal day jobs I don't know. One guy even wanted to request a time late next Friday or even on Saturday but I kind of vetoed that. She gave us pretty much the full day, Monday through Thursday to pick from, 9:00AM to 6:45PM, and until 2:15PM on Friday. That felt generous enough. And inconveniencing the person responsible for giving you a grade didn't seem like the best idea. I immediately got stressed out, assuming I will now have to take off work to give this stupid presentation. A presentation that no one is really sure about, including myself, and that we probably won't have time to practice. It's also worth 40 points, which is a lot. There is a reason group projects are assigned on the first weekend and presentations are given on the second weekend. The stress of coming up with the presentation is compounded by having to get everyone online at the same time and having to figure out the technology of presenting online. If I wasn't already losing my hair this would definitely make it start.

On top of all that, all of this presentation discussion happened in the same email thread that we were discussing the project itself, so now the initial information is buried and new information is being tacked on to the presentation discussion which hasn't been resolved yet. We have our own workspace online but people have opted to just have a single email thread. More stress.

This semester has been super easy and relatively low stress up to this point, the last week and a half of class. But like all semesters, now the stress level is through the roof. I would really like to just curl up in a bawl. I can feel that I'm trying to keep track of too many things at once and it feels like I'm on the verge of collapse. I just need to make it to the Monday after next, without crashing and burning in spectacular fashion.

The only bright spot of my evening was finally writing with my fountain pens. I was considering buying another one because it was on sale but wanting to actually try writing with one before I bought another one. I started with the Platinum Preppy which has an extra fine nib. It has some ink flow issues and isn't the smoothest writer (probably due mostly to the extra fine nib) but I liked the thin line. After that I tried the Pilot Metropolitan with a fine nib. That pen is so smooth to write with. Like ridiculously smooth. It took me a little bit to figure out how to hold it so the ink flowed best and to realize that I didn't really need to apply any pressure to get it to write. You don't really realize how much effort it takes to write with a ballpoint pen until you've written with a fountain pen.

Now it's almost 12:30AM and tomorrow is going to be a long day. As is Saturday. And Sunday. Ugh.