Head Tale

I mentioned I'm
incredibly busy with an assignment due every day this week (little ones
all but they can be time-consuming.  I found myself calling
Mississippi this morning to verify a fact for an assignment – no joke!)
so I probably won't be posting every day like I planned to, at least
for the time being. 

I've been doing fairly well with the daily posts even though the
calendar on the left side of this page doesn't show it.  This is
because some days have two entries or I'll do one after midnight that
counts as Monday to me but registers as Tuesday on the date
stamp. 

Classmate of the Day: not
directly a classmate but I bumped into David Jackson and Sabina
Iseli-Otto at the Grad Club before class (I wasn't going there to
drink, honest!  Just trying to reserve a table for St Paddy's –
unsuccessfuly as it turns out.) 

Sabina is my student mentor and things couldn't have worked out better
if I'd been writing the script myself.  She's from the West as am
I, she's interested in public libraries as am I, she's an activist as
am I (well, I'm more of an “inactive activist” but why split
hairs?) 

We met for breakfast the first weekend I was here and she brought along
David (who's her boyfriend) and Ella (who's her roommate), both of whom
are also MLIS students.  So it was like getting three mentors for
the price of one ('Mentos' as the plural of mentors is my stupid joke I
can't stop saying.) 

Since then, Sabina and David (and Ella to a lesser degree) have
provided much guidance and advice on all manner of topics –
school-related and otherwise. 

Our “Break the Fast” club has become a regular Sunday event at the
greasy spoon that is the hugely popular Westside Diner.  A group
of 6-10 of us MLIS students roll in every week at 11am just as the
churchies are leaving after their 10am meal.  Perfect. 

So what was my point?  At the Grad Club, they invited me to attend
a lecture by our 501 prof, Sam Trosow, at the Law Faculty (they're both
taking a doctoral course with him) so I got permission to miss the
first hour of my 503 course to attend.  (Don't get me started on
some of the ways that this program can make you feel like you're in
high school rather than a professional graduate-level program.) 

It was a great experience and Sam Trosow is one of the best profs I
have.  I'm not sure about my classmates but for me, Professor
Trosow, along with Elisabeth Davies who I have for two other classes,
do an amazing job of making me excited about choosing this career
path.  I would've been excited at any library school in the
country but it's nice to have profs who keep that excitement
going. 

Oh hell, since I'm kissing ass, I'll mention my 505 Computer prof,
Isola Ajiferuke, who's possibly the only prof that will read this after
checking out my web assignment since the blog is linked from my online
resume.  He's got an infectious enthusiam as well.  I'm
probably one of the more advanced students in 505 but am glad I didn't
ask for an exemption as he's taught me a few things I didn't know
(being completely self-taught at Access and web design and so on, I
realise I've picked up some bad habits.)  I'm looking forward to
the last half of our class which will focus on using computers and
information technology in library settings, something I know less
about. 

My other prof is Jennifer Peckoskie.  It's hard to compare her to
my other professors as she's a first-time teacher and still perfecting
her technique.  Still, she does a few little things that the other
profs don't that I really appreciate For instance, she always makes
sure to tell us our class average when we get assignments back. 
That's handy when you think you've done a great job and you get a 71%
but then realise the class average was 72% so you're right in line with
things. 

There, how's that for a long post?  Time to go do something productive that might actually have an impact on my future.