4February
2010
maura @ 9:11 pm
So we got this new sofa, and it came in a big box. After Jonathan put the sofa together I just didn’t feel right about throwing the box away. I mean, when I was little it was the hugest deal to have a big giant box to play in. And indeed, Gus sat in the box for about an hour last weekend talking to himself and playing, which pretty much never happens. Plus the cats LOVE it (obvious, I know).
The problem is where to keep it? I don’t want an enormous box in the living room. It’s in Gus’s room right now, but it kind of blocks the door to have it sitting in the middle of the rug, so at bedtimes we’ve been tipping it up into a corner near his desk. Which is kind of a pain, and then he complained that it scared him the other night (though he hasn’t repeated it).
Wish I had a shrinkray so I could keep that box small til we need it. Wonder how long til it drives me so batty I have to haul it down to the recycling?
Also, here’s some Twitter. I keep forgetting to do this on Tuesdays, so maybe it’ll be sort of an occasional thing from now on. Keeping ’em guessing, that’s the mauraweb! way.
RT @tweetMETRO Do your part to protect NY libraries http://bit.ly/aLhv14
about 7 hours ago from TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others
.@kgs @thesheck does experience writing grant applications “count” re: budgets?
about 21 hours ago from Echofon in reply to kgs
@aegisnyc oooh, I probably don’t even know those friends, but I’m dying to know their secrets!
about 21 hours ago from Echofon in reply to aegisnyc
Great discussion in class today, yay!
2:35 PM Feb 2nd from web
So nice to get complements on my syllabus today!
4:19 PM Feb 1st from web
A bummer, tho not unexpected: jr faculty tend towards traditional scholarly publication over new ways of dissemination: http://bit.ly/b23JNJ
9:20 AM Feb 1st from web
I suspect that time actually speeds up in the hour between 11pm and midnight.
11:30 PM Jan 31st from Echofon
Michael Jackson skate in Prospect Park! Mamasemamasamamacusa (plus churros)
3:41 PM Jan 31st from Echofon
Already missing #Dollhouse :(
11:58 PM Jan 30th from Echofon
.@alevtina there is no limit to the spatial range of cat hair. I have a black sweater that I’m about to just give to them & admit defeat.
12:41 PM Jan 30th from Echofon in reply to alevtina
It is totally disconcerting that the renovated Duane Reade across from the GC sells sushi. Drugstore sushi! Weird.
8:14 PM Jan 29th from web
CFPs for this (totally relevant to my research!) conference keep popping up: http://www.um.es/isic2010/ Spain, why do you taunt me? Swoon.
9:24 PM Jan 28th from web
Coffee consumed, time for my first ref desk shift of the semester, w00t!
2:12 PM Jan 28th from web
@jrrnyc thanks! hope my 5 (!) students don’t fear the snow + ditch the class.
9:37 AM Jan 28th from web in reply to jrrnyc
Unrelated: the cats are Just Not Sure about the new sofa, and are eyeing it suspiciously.
11:16 PM Jan 27th from web
Syllabus: check. Course blog: check (http://lib1201.wordpress.com/). Students? Come about 10am tomorrow, we shall see.
11:15 PM Jan 27th from web
31January
2010
maura @ 7:01 pm
The semester started last Thursday, and our library’s course started too! I’ve had a busy month prepping for the course and worrying whether it would run, so it was great to finally get to the first class. All the nervousness that I thought I’d have suddenly vanished the morning of, too, which was a bit of a surprise to me. Ultimately I’m really looking forward to having an entire semester to work on big meaty information literacy* topics with the students, so I think that excitement drove the butterflies right out of my stomach.
* Shhh, we’re not calling it IL to the students, though — too jargony. The official course name is Research & Documentation for the Information Age.
I know what you’re thinking: what about the work? Isn’t it an enormous amount of work to teach a 3-credit course? Well, yes and no. It’s true that course prep expands to fill the time available, and when I was finalizing the syllabus this month I probably let it take more time than it should. But now that the semester’s begun I’m going to have to find ways to be more efficient with course prep, and I think that the syllabus and course outline is detailed enough that I should be able to prepare without deep-ending.** I’ll be responsible for fewer other instruction sessions and reference shifts than last semester, too.
** Overpreparation is an issue for me in lots of workstuff, so I should really use the course to help me practice figuring out when to stop.
It’s also true that I had a few moments this month when I desperately wished for one big giant textbook for the course. I’m using one text (Research Strategies, by William Badke) — it’s got a good overview of the research skills I want to cover, is written in an approachable style, and is under $20. But I also want to talk about things like privacy and access and evaluation and preservation and ethics and copyright and fair use and open access and documentation and non-text media and practical applications of all of this, which is bigger than this book, nice as it is. I’m still as anti-textbook and pro-open access as ever, but I do appreciate how much more time it takes to plan a class without one.
All in all, I’m totally stoked*** to teach this class.
*** A couple of weeks ago a CUNY colleague asked if I was from the West Coast, and referred to me as “mellow but organized.” Which cracked me right up.
26January
2010
maura @ 9:34 pm
The library’s new 3-credit course (which I’m teaching) starts on Thursday. This has been a busy month. Time for TV for me, Twitter for you. Enjoy!
Twitter, I <3 you best when I have 100 pages (double-sided) of photocopying to do.
about 11 hours ago from Echofon
@untold The white coat! It identifies you as a daring, stains-be-damned kind of person.
about 11 hours ago from Echofon in reply to untold
Can I defend our home against intruders with my mad Wii archery skillz? I say yes!
about 24 hours ago from web
Dear alterna-me: pls finish the syllabus & grant app today while I go to the Met w/Gus & pals. Thx!
9:25 AM Jan 23rd from Echofon
i’m syllabus wranglin’ and coffee drinkin’. yee ha!
2:13 PM Jan 21st from web
@edrabinski gack, you are too mean! so many are in spain, swoon. (but thx, this is an awesome list, will share w/my cuny jr fac peeps.)
1:20 PM Jan 21st from web in reply to edrabinski
@edrabinski If you come up w/a stop throwing balls in the air strategy, I’m all ears. I can’t resist CFPs lately, it’s kind of comical.
11:02 PM Jan 20th from Echofon in reply to edrabinski
@alevtina Yum! Have fun. Wish I could be there, but my spouse has a mtg so I’m on kid duty.
8:29 PM Jan 19th from Echofon in reply to alevtina
19January
2010
maura @ 9:13 pm
Except that’s a total lie, because I can’t seem to not want more time. Time time time. Too many interesting things to read + write + research + make + watch these days, harrumph.
Off to do some of that, at least. Here’s some Twitter for your Tuesday.
Spicy tofu soup, yum. http://twitpic.com/yke04
6:02 PM Jan 17th from Echofon
Everyone in my house is at a playdate or a meeting except me. Now there’s no excuse for me to avoid those article revisions.
2:03 PM Jan 17th from web
@boonebgorges Salo writes good stuff: blogs at http://bit.ly/8EZbw and tweets @TheRepoRat (librarians ftw!)
11:43 AM Jan 16th from Echofon in reply to boonebgorges
Just caught up on 24 hrs of Twitter. Where the heck was I yesterday?
9:25 AM Jan 16th from Echofon
Dear Fringe, that was lame what you did with that old Charlie episode this week. LAME.
7:53 PM Jan 14th from Echofon
spending far too much time updating the readings for my course. maybe a teeny bit of wishing there was an appropriate textbook. just a bit.
11:46 AM Jan 14th from web
RT @amandafrench Wow, this season of Firefly is the best ever! That Wash. So funny. #alternateuniversetv
7:19 PM Jan 13th from Seesmic Retweeted by you and 2 others
RT @divanoir Annoying offhand remark of the day goes to the American Morning @cnn anchor who said women don’t like videogames as much as men. ::eyeroll::
10:31 AM Jan 13th from Echofon Retweeted by you
@untold coffee encourages pushing, actually
1:14 PM Jan 13th from web in reply to untold
having a really hard time singletasking today. there are 3 fun projects i want to work on. need time travel and/or clones, stat!
1:14 PM Jan 13th from web
16January
2010
maura @ 9:36 pm
1. Yesterday I spent an oddly large amount of time talking about cats. Not just any old cats, but mine and the cats owned by the other people I was with. First the subject came up at a meeting I was in, though I can’t quite remember how. Then cats came up again last night, when Jonathan and I were hanging out with some pals from my old job. Both conversations were pretty much the usual cat suspects: complaining about all the annoying stuff they do, wondering whether we’re giving them too much/too little/wet/dry food, interactions in multi-cat households, etc. I do love our cats, but still I was happy to hear that many folks had similar complaints to us about the weird stuff cats do. In the past sometimes I’ve gone looking on the internets for answers to cat questions, and you KNOW that is just a mistake.
As a cat-related aside, here is Gus + my most favorite kitten video on YouTube: kittens on a roomba! Guaranteed to cheer you up whenever you’re crabby.
2. Only 2 episodes of Dollhouse left until the bitter end, and it’s making me sad. (We haven’t watched last night’s ep yet, will tonight.) It’s intense and even kind of exhausting to watch a show that’s been canceled. There’s no filler at all, just episode after episode featuring hard-charging mythology plots.
(Not that the occasional monster of the week episode is at all bad; one of the best Buffy episodes ever was a one-off [The Body, when her mom died — so amazing]).
I’m still pretty bummed out that Dollhouse was canceled. The episodes since the cancellation have been a little whiplashy as they try and get things wrapped up before the end of the series. But they’ve also been great, relying much more on the ensemble cast than just Echo, and bringing back teh awesome guest stars (Amy Acker! Summer Glau!).
Sigh.
12January
2010
maura @ 9:34 pm
quittin’ time. changing my shoes like Fred Rogers, yo.
about 3 hours ago from web
Gus has (finally!) asked to read Harry Potter. Listening to Jonathan reading it now.
about 23 hours ago from web
seeking any/all recs for a short story similar to rainbow’s end by vernor vinge for my research/documentation students to read. thx!
4:45 PM Jan 10th from web
Mulchfest! http://twitpic.com/xjm92
1:08 PM Jan 10th from Echofon
.@kfitz that open access and peer review are not mutually exclusive (or: yes, Virginia, there are OA peer reviewed journals)
10:37 AM Jan 10th from Echofon in reply to kfitz
Growing more annoyed by the day that the usps continues to hold my new DS hostage. Those puzzles aren’t going to solve themselves!
9:52 PM Jan 8th from Echofon
Collection development is much more difficult than I thought it would be when I was in library school.
1:09 PM Jan 7th from web
I keep forgetting about friendfeed. How can I make myself remember friendfeed?
7:53 PM Jan 5th from web
LOL: RT @ChrysalisArch: How many ways are there to describe nothing archaeologically?
1:36 PM Jan 5th from Echofon
Spent so much time catching up on other stuff today that I totally ignored twitter. Sorry, twitter!
9:51 PM Jan 4th from web
Oh cold & early mornings, I did not miss you.
7:21 AM Jan 4th from Echofon
wow, i read 11 (fiction) books in 2009. way more than i’d have guessed, esp. since one of them was 900 pages long. go me!
5:04 PM Jan 3rd from web
Say no to drugs but yes to rugs. Ah, we’re back in Brooklyn.
3:49 PM Jan 2nd from Echofon
Wish I could spend as much leisure time playing games as I have this week and still sleep/read/write/watch tv as much as I want/need to.
11:26 PM Jan 1st from Echofon
@aegisnyc It’s surreal regardless. Or maybe it’s all of the sugar-induced yelling. Hope yr ok!
8:06 PM Jan 1st from Echofon in reply to aegisnyc
Are the kids old enough for me to leave them at the princess & the frog and hop over to the Sherlock holmes theater down the way? Prob not.
1:08 PM Jan 1st from Echofon
8January
2010
maura @ 8:50 am
This morning my left arm feels like someone punched me. Not because someone punched me, but because yesterday I got an H1N1 shot AND a seasonal flu shot. And I would like to use this space to make a public service announcement (similar to one in the NY Times this AM: everyone, get yr flu shots! Both are recommended, but especially the H1N1 shot.
Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m not in a high-risk group, and no one in my household is either.” Or “my kid got one, why do I need one too?” Or even “I got a seasonal flu shot one year and got the flu anyway, which sucked.” I thought all of those things, and the last one happened to me a few years ago. But then I talked to my dad (who’s a doctor) last month and he reminded me that vaccinations only work if people get them, even the ones for supposedly mild illnesses. (Have you seen the stats for people who die of seasonal flu each year?)* And also that even though H1N1 has been light this year there could be a resurgence in a couple of months (also noted in the Times article).
* For the record, I found that article link on Wikipedia, after floundering around the flu section of the CDC website for a few minutes. You’d think this info would be oft-requested and linked prominently on the CDC site.
If you’re a reader from the fine borough of Brooklyn, I highly recommend the NYC Department of Health’s Fort Greene Health Center. I walk by their building at 295 Flatbush Ave Ext every day on my way to work, and it is grim + dreary on the outside (drag the little yellow man onto the map to see the entrance using google street view). But I was pleasantly surprised when I went in there yesterday. The staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and patient, and the building is neat + clean (w/no yucky hospital smell). There was practically no wait when I went over there at about 11:15am, too, though the waiting room did fill up as lunchtime grew nearer.
And that’s my PSA for this week. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mauraweb!
(Oh, and apparently I keep spacing out on Twitter Tuesdays, sorry! I’ve been quiet on Twitter this week anyway so I’ll catch up w/a double dose next week.)
3January
2010
maura @ 4:59 pm
It’s Sunday night, the last day of the holiday break, and once again I am sort of grumpy. Though once again I have no real reason for the grumpiness: the break was good, I’m looking forward to getting back to work this week, and tomorrow’s an RT day so I don’t even have to leave the house.
Our break was kind of busy but also kind of not. We all stayed up much later than we should have most nights, but we still caught up on sleep (though tomorrow morning will probably be tough). Family visited us + we visited family. Jonathan cooked a ton of delicious food, and we all ate many more sweet things than is entirely healthy. We got (and, I hope, gave) lovely gifts: not too few, not too many. It rained and all of the snow melted, then it was warm and we went to the High Line. Then it got cold again and we went to the movies. While The Princess and The Frog wasn’t as bad as it could have been, I still wish the kids were old enough that we could have left them in the theater alone and gone to see Sherlock Holmes in the theater next door.
Seems like I can’t ever leave a span of time without some small amount of regret that I didn’t DO enough, so that’s probably the cause of today’s grumps. But I did get a lot done in addition to all of the holiday stuff. I cleared out my feedreader and kept my work inbox below 20 (as a friend said, sometimes a 1 day work week is better than a no-day work week). I almost got through my New Yorker backlog (only 2 to go!). I’m 80% done with sewing my new iphone cozy. We caught up on TV and even watched a movie last night (District 9, which was good, if disturbing). I finished the videogame that I got for xmas, though there are still puzzles that I haven’t completed so it’s not totally useless yet. Good thing, too, because my very own DS will arrive sometime in the middle of this week.
The video gaming was the most surprising thing to me about this break, actually. It’s been a while since a game has grabbed onto my brain so tightly. In many ways Professor Layton is the perfect game for me: an interesting storyline/plot that’s moved forward by solving puzzles. Of course lots of other games are like that (the Zelda series, e.g.), but the puzzles are much more overt in this game. I love puzzles but a game of just puzzles is kind of boring, you know? This is actually the second Professor Layton game so I’ll probably try to pick up the first one used on ebay.
These days many newfangled videogames keep track of the amount of time you play, which is an interesting (if sometimes alarming) feature. So it was also surprising to me that I could spend as much time playing a videogame as I did: 20 hrs over the course of one week! Now, I was only at work for 1 day during that time, and with all of the family around my childcare responsibilities were pretty light. And we finished TV right before xmas (and didn’t get a new movie until after New Year’s) so televised entertainment was low. And see above about staying up too late. But it still shocks me a bit to fire up the game and see that 20 hr figure. I always tell myself that I don’t have enough time to play games these days but of course, as with any leisure activity, it’s a matter of choosing to do that over doing something else.
What I definitely did NOT do this break is write. 2 personal journal entries, 1 twitter blog entry, and that’s about it. Which should be obvious given the state of this post, sort of scattered and not very well composed. I kept thinking of stuff to write over the break, but it’s hard to find the time for sustained writing in the vacationspace. I don’t really have any official resolutions this year (trying not to make resolutions I can’t keep was one of last year’s resolutions and I was not entirely successful, unfortunately), but I do plan to get back on track with writing. Starting today, I guess, since I’ve managed to squeeze a post out of the grumpiness. Go me!
1January
2010
maura @ 12:09 pm
Woah, looks like I forgot to do Twitter Tuesdays this past week. Blame the holidays: there was the frantically trying to get everything ready beforetime, which segued into the playing with new toys catching up on sleep and reading hanging with family aftertime (which we are still in right now, getting ready to head out with the kids to see the latest Disney offering [which I’m not super happy about, but what can you do]). So the interwebs have sort of fallen by the wayside. As has writing. But I’m chewing over a couple of posts and getting ready to get back on that writing horse. Here’s some Twitter to tide you over.
(P.S. Happy New Year!)
Cousin craziness, courtesy of cookies & Super Mario Bros Wii. Also Hungry Hungry Hippos, the frenzied chomping game!
about 20 hours ago from Echofon
Really need to stop staying up so late. Damn you, Prof Layton, and your puzzly goodness!
10:42 AM Dec 30th, 2009 from Echofon
@boonebgorges No char (Amorina doesn’t have a wood/coal oven), true, but the honest yeasty risen crust was pretty tasty (bad lighting, too).
5:24 PM Dec 29th, 2009 from web in reply to boonebgorges
@boonebgorges Fennel+oranges+olives=wacky but tasty. And of course normal pies too. @notjonathan says: “no dough conditioners!” #cunypie
9:19 PM Dec 28th, 2009 from web in reply to boonebgorges
The Siciliana at Amorina in Brooklyn. Suitable for a #cunypie outing? http://twitpic.com/vnmin
7:33 PM Dec 28th, 2009 from Echofon
last weekend, sledding. this weekend, the high line. http://twitpic.com/vhc34
2:28 PM Dec 27th, 2009 from Echofon
@mkgold ooh, sounds like a great session (eval digital work for t&p), would love to hear a recap. Have fun!
1:50 PM Dec 27th, 2009 from Echofon in reply to mkgold
Up too late last night playing Prof Layton, which rocks. Gus wants 2 play Mario Party, took his DS back. Guess I got to buy my own.
8:56 AM Dec 26th, 2009 from Echofon
Sticky toffee pudding, yum. http://twitpic.com/v8zzq
8:57 PM Dec 25th, 2009 from Echofon
Campari & soda, aww yeah. Trying to convince Gus to let me play Professor Layton (my xmas present) on his DS. Unsuccessfully.
7:10 PM Dec 25th, 2009 from web
We ate all the old cookies. Guess we’ll have to make new ones or else Santa won’t stop by. Unless he’d like some leftover tacos instead?
8:50 AM Dec 24th, 2009 from Echofon
OH in my house: the new baking begins tomorrow.
9:50 PM Dec 23rd, 2009 from web
@mikhailg we <3 Mario kart & super Mario galaxy. Hearing good things abt super Mario bros, which Gus will get from my mom next week.
7:04 PM Dec 23rd, 2009 from Echofon in reply to mikhailg
so quiet at work today. crossing lots off my to-do list, listening to the cocteau twins. think i’m finally starting to feel xmasy.
2:17 PM Dec 23rd, 2009 from web
proofreading the galleys of my article. so exciting to see it formatted all pretty like!
10:03 AM Dec 23rd, 2009 from web
22December
2009
maura @ 9:41 pm
@mikhailg get the wii! you won’t be sorry — you can sleep in on the weekends, srsly, it’s a digital babysitter.
7 minutes ago from web in reply to mikhailg
@blizf ITA the early eps were disturbing, but by ep 6 it got so much better, i promise! and now it’s in the sad but awesome end stage, sniff
about 13 hours ago from web in reply to blizf
Catching up on TV. Every #Dollhouse I watch makes me a bit more melancholy.
about 23 hours ago from Echofon
I get way too excited when I’ve collected enough coffee bean stamps to get a free coffee at the bookstore. Clearly I need to get out more.
1:14 PM Dec 21st from web
Wish it snowed every day. So nice to have an excuse to tromp around outside, eat hearty & take a nap.
1:56 PM Dec 20th from Echofon
Finally made it to Prospect Park. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen so many people sledding at the same time.
12:19 PM Dec 20th from Echofon
Should be taking advantage of Gus’s karate class to write, but feeling a little burnt out this AM. Maybe later, probably after more coffee.
11:31 AM Dec 19th from Echofon
RT cunygsjresearch #followfriday #followalibrarian Here’s a list of all the CUNY libraries that are tweeting: http://bit.ly/60nZwq #fb
10:37 AM Dec 18th from web
P.S. final tally was a tie (if you include my vote): 4 to 4
8:23 AM Dec 18th from web
I think my vote’s going to be for office w/door over cube w/window (tho probably won’t happen right away). Thanks for playing!
8:22 AM Dec 18th from web
@ms_tinamarie I think that’s it — thanks! Seems weird that there’s only 4 of us. We rock!
10:07 PM Dec 17th from web in reply to ms_tinamarie
office poll update: cubicle w/window is beating office w/door, 3 to 1. cast your vote now!
10:04 PM Dec 17th from Echofon
@divanoir Good. In general w/our space it’s hard to find a balance between background noise and isolation, which is kind of a drag.
3:13 PM Dec 17th from web in reply to divanoir
which would you choose: office w/a door or cubicle w/a window?
2:11 PM Dec 17th from web
@ms_tinamarie A list is a great idea! Thanks!
10:59 PM Dec 16th from Echofon in reply to ms_tinamarie
between the new library course and the student survey for my research project, i have two many opportunities for obsessive number tracking.
9:36 AM Dec 16th from web
|
