the future and the south pacific

maura @ 7:35 pm

This has been a weird day. I woke up with a sore throat and a headache and the sinking feeling that I may be getting sick at what’s really not the best time of the semester for it. (Though is there ever really a good time to be sick?) So instead of using this partly sunny + fairly warm day to go for a bike ride with Gus in the morning and maybe schlep us all to the Bronx Zoo in the afternoon, I sat on the sofa and read 400 pages of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and drank herbal tea.

I always feel kind of guilty when we spend the whole day inside if it’s nice out, even when there’s a good excuse. Gus played video games and read nearly a whole book (The Great Cheese Conspiracy, a refugee from my ’70s childhood) and played D+D with Jonathan. Over dinner Gus asserted that he didn’t want to go for a bike ride today anyway. But it still seems somehow wrong to spend the whole day inside. Maybe I am also feeling a bit guilty that I just read today rather than tackling all of the other stuff on my list, much of which can be accomplished perfectly well from the sofa with my laptop.

We did get out yesterday, and in far more inclement weather. We went to Manhattan to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (surprisingly only playing in 2 theaters), which was a good time for the adults + the kid. Gus <3s Roald Dahl, and for the adults the movie was pretty much standard Wes Anderson fare with puppet animals instead of people.

Cloud Atlas is really good. I’m still in the middle of the other Cloud Atlas, which is a bit surreal. And the Mitchell book has a sticker in the back with the correct author information that’s covering a sticker that mislabels the book as the Callanan book. Woah, meta.

I could get to those other tasks now (Gus + Jonathan are playing a little Super Mario Galaxy before bed), but there’s only about 50 pages left in my book and I’m dying to know how it ends. Later, gators.

because it’s the weekend…

maura @ 12:45 pm

I finally had time to finish an ACRLog post that I’ve been chewing on for more than a week and drafting for a few days. It’s 724 words, so that counts for today, right?

(Warning: not interesting unless you’re a librarian, and probably only if you’re an instruction librarian.)

c is for cookie

maura @ 9:28 pm

Last week, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, Google had a different Sesame-themed logo each day. I happened to be teaching many of those days and it kept cracking me up every time we used Google for searching in class. Cookie Monster was the funniest — his eyeballs were the “oo” in Google

This week I had many meetings with pastries, which kind of takes the edge off having many meetings. After today’s meeting (2 cookies: oatmeal raisin and chocolate w/white chocolate chips) I was thinking about different kinds of desserts. And I kept on thinking after dinner, too (raspberry meringue sandwich cookie).

So here’s Maura’s Hierarchy of Desserts (in order of preference):

1. Cookies: More often than not if there’s a dessert choice I will pick something in the baked goods category. Cookies are usually the winner, beating out cake ever so slightly (see below). I mostly don’t want a huge pile of dessert, so cookies are a good choice. And I often like to have a couple of different flavor options, which is also possible with cookies. These days we’ve got our xmas cookie baking down to a science and most of my favorites are in there: a delicious iced molasses-spice cookie, good old reliable peanut butter cookies, butter cookie sandwiches with raspberry and apricot jam, and your basic chocolate chip cookie (though oatmeal chocolate chip is another tasty option).

2. Cakes: To be fair, I do like cakes, too. I include brownies in the cakes category, though if they’re too chocolatey I will often pass. For the longest time when I was growing up my birthday cakes were always chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Jonathan makes a mean chocolate cupcake, so these days we usually have that for my birthday, too. But I also like the traditional old yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And red velvet cake and applesauce cake and gingerbread and pound cake and …

One thing I am very particular about is the ratio of cake to frosting. I can’t really deal with tons of frosting, esp. if it’s that fakey sugary supermarket frosting. I’d much rather have a smaller amt of buttercream or even a nice glaze. I don’t like puddings/custard/flan/etc. at all so I’m sure the frosting thing is of the same ilk.

3. Chocolate: Of course I like chocolate, who doesn’t? It’s clearly the most superior of all candies. I used to love dark chocolate best, but now I can groove on milk chocolate, too. I wish we had better chocolate in this country (= less sugary); whenever we travel we always come back loaded down with better chocolate bars from other places. A well-timed piece of chocolate can really brighten your day.

4. Other candy: Other, non-chocolate kinds of candy can be nice, too, mainly of the sour fruit or cinnamon variety. Like Lemonheads and Red Hots, yum. Also Dum-Dums — my dad’s parents used to keep a bag of these in a drawer in their kitchen when I was little.

5. Ice cream: I do like ice cream, despite what some people keep saying, really I do. But I will admit that it’s not my favorite kind of dessert. Mostly I like vanilla with chunks of stuff in it (chocolate, caramel, etc.). And the grownup flavors like maple walnut, cinnamon, sweet cream, and coffee. I’m happy to occasionally head to the schmantzy ice cream place around the corner from us and have a cup or cone, but it doesn’t haunt my dreams.

tv rant, part the second

maura @ 10:14 pm

Well, now Dollhouse is canceled, so I guess I won’t get to complain about it anymore. Stupid Fox, have they done anything right since the X-Files?

Last night I forgot to complain about House. Strong start this season with House in the institution (yay for creepy gothic buildings) and we loved his awesome spazzy rapping bipolar roommate. Who apparently rapped the life story of Alexander Hamilton at a White House shindig recently (see video at Tenured Radical, one of my favorite faculty blogs).

But then, just like everything, apparently, the season’s gone downhill. Why were 13 and Taub taken off, exactly? And the whole Chase/Cameron tension is Not Very Tense At All, since we all know that Jennifer Morrison’s leaving the show. Meh. There have been some good scenes with Wilson this season, so that’s a plus. Maybe I am still mad at them for not taking the fullest advantage of Kal Penn leaving last year. The suicide was a great plot point, but they totally dropped the ball afterwards.

Is there anything good on TV these days? 30 Rock is still awesome, thankfully. Get Tina Fey on the horn — maybe it should be on every night.

in which i rant about telemavision

maura @ 8:32 pm

I’m really disappointed with TV this fall. We don’t even watch that many shows these days (since BSG ended, and I’ve lost all patience with Lost [though Jonathan still sometimes watches it]), and it’s a total drag when they’re not so good. Esp. on long teaching days when all I really want to do at night is watch TV and drink a beer.

So, what do we watch? You may remember that over the summer we watched all of last season (the first) of Fringe, that JJ Abrams X-Files kind of show. It ended up being pretty good, and I was really excited for the new season.

This season has been really eh. Too many monster-of-the-week eps, not enough story arc. And what happened to Dunham’s sister (played by the drunk friend from Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist)? Just whisked right off the show without so much as a how do you do. But what really got to me was when they killed off Charlie, the average-guy FBI partner. I don’t know, I really liked him — he was a nice balance to all the pretty folk on the show. And it was totally implausible the way they made him get taken over by that weird future guy and his partner didn’t even notice (?!). Lame.

Next up: Dollhouse. Okay, I had a bit of doubt when we watched last season over the summer, but I persevered and it got much, much better. So much better, in fact, that this season has paled in comparison. Part of it is over-reliance on Echo, I think. Some actors are strong enough to be a show’s lead and some aren’t. This show would really benefit from becoming more of an ensemble piece, like the last ep with Sierra’s breakdown.

The other issue is that the show kind of wrapped itself up last season, at least if you watched the extra, unaired episode “Epitaph One” (which we had to watch because Felicia Day is in it and we <3 her). I mean, okay, it’s set in the future, but it pretty much ties all of the loose ends of the plot up in a neat little bow. And even though I try to convince myself that there’s more good stuff in between the time of this season and Epitaph One, I’m having trouble believing it.

I will give it this: great guest stars this season from the Buffyverse and BSG. But I miss Amy Acker.

I could say more about TV but now it’s time to watch House from the other night, so you’ll have to wait til tomorrow.

tuesday, tuesday, tuesday!

maura @ 9:17 pm

This past week’s Twitter stream, just for you!

Tomorrow I have 2 afternoon meetings with cookies. Wish I could put some of those cookies in a time machine and send them to my desk now.
about 5 hours ago from web

unexpectedly, I only have 1 meeting today. One! Hip hip, hooray for a catchup day!
about 11 hours ago from web

@Annefesto w00t multiplex! what’dya see?
about 22 hours ago from Echofon in reply to Annefesto

RT @LNBel: RT @SeedLibrary If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. -Cicero
12:36 PM Nov 9th from Echofon

if you haven’t blogged today, you haven’t blogged today.
8:34 PM Nov 8th from web

wish the kid were asleep, tho i am enjoying listening to the kid + the dad reading shel silverstein poems. they’re cracking up.
9:16 PM Nov 7th from web

howdy tweeps, ping me w/yr contact info so i can add you to my wave, dudes. (thx to @notjonathan, who is rad.)
5:20 PM Nov 7th from web

Metrotech, Brooklyn, November 7. Isn’t it a little early for this? http://twitpic.com/omdji
11:01 AM Nov 7th from Echofon

getting ready to teach. only 1 Saturday class for me this semester, which isn’t so bad.
8:55 AM Nov 7th from Echofon

RT @jimgroom: New blog post: Create your own LibGuides with WordPress http://bit.ly/2cb4Di
10:05 PM Nov 6th from Echofon

settlers of catan is much more complicated than I remembered. or maybe it’s just that I’m 10 yrs older.
6:26 PM Nov 6th from Echofon

had pastries at *2* events at work today, yum.
9:53 PM Nov 5th from Echofon

RT @zephoria: I love librarians. They always make me feel like the world’s gonna be AOK.
9:51 PM Nov 5th from Echofon

i miss tv. could really do with an episode of fringe and a beer right now.
9:11 PM Nov 4th from web

my library’s hiring! http://bit.ly/Y80tP and search for job 1796. ping me with ?s.
8:42 PM Nov 4th from web

blurgh. that is all.
10:12 AM Nov 4th from web

we don’t need any kind of big parade

maura @ 10:45 pm

Yeah, I’m phoning it in tonight. I had 2 classes this evening and, while you’ll be happy to hear that they went well, I am wicked tired. 12+ hrs at work is a long time.

So here are some photos!

This is from the art windows that I pass on the way to work. It’s a mandala made of lots of little things on the floor inside this storefront.

It seems to change every few days. Perhaps this is why:

Yay for public art!

turn around, back again

maura @ 10:05 pm

For various reasons tonight I’ve got nothing much to say.

This weekend was busy.

Yesterday:
I taught a class. Jonathan took Gus to karate. I got tired of waiting for the house to clean itself so we cleaned it. Jonathan worked on his iPhone app. Gus played Pokemon Sapphire and shared many thrilling facts with us about various Pokemon. I wrote a long blog post about teaching that is boring to all but librarians. Gus finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and told us all about the parts that are different from the movie. I did some laundry. J made fried chicken for dinner (yum). J + I watched Fringe. I’m disappointed w/TV this fall, but that’s another post.

Today:
I took one of the cats to the vet to get the irritation on his neck checked again. The vet told me that the cat might have food allergies and we should switch him to a single-protein food like duck with peas. Since the humans in our house don’t eat duck with peas every night, I’m not sure why we should spend $38 a bag for the cats to. We’ll be finishing up the medication and seeing how it goes after that. Honestly, other than some scratching, the cat doesn’t seem all that bothered by the neck thing.

Then Gus and I went to the park so he could climb trees + run around a bit before a sedentary afternoon video game playdate. Jonathan and I finished cleaning the house and had some tea, then he helped me make a flyer to advertise the library’s course that I’m teaching next semester. We had yummy takeout empanadas and cupcakes at a neighbors house for her kid’s birthday. Gus played Scribblenauts with a pal there and they erupted into peals of laughter over the bazooka and earthquake they used to complete the level. I did more laundry.

And now it is time to sleep.

put the music on

maura @ 6:36 pm

You may remember my musing/grumping about classes I taught earlier in the week. I had a class this morning (my lone weekend class this semester), and I’m happy to report that it was an entirely different — and pleasant! — experience.

I’ve been trying to deconstruct it all day. The course instructor was there, though she had to miss the first half of the session; since the library doesn’t open that early she had to wait by the door for latecomers. The students were averagely engaged, some more than others, and there was a bit of chatting. I worked to ask more questions of them which I think helped, especially asking questions of the chatty ones. It was the first class of the day so the room wasn’t too hot yet.* I tried to pace + talk with my hands less (because I think that tires me out), though I’m not exceptionally well-rested today. And a big plus is that the students are working on a research assignment right now. I always ask students to suggest topics to search during library sessions, but today we actually found a couple of relevant books, articles, and websites for a few lucky ones.

* This is a serious bummer. Because the classroom was carved out of a windowless space not originally intended for 30 computers, it gets incredibly hot. We have a couple of fans and run them between classes, but we can’t run them too high during class or we’d have to yell over them. I sympathize with the students, really, I do. Even the most fascinating discussion is difficult to concentrate on when you’re in a hot room, and for most students even debating the pros + cons of Wikipedia (usually the high point of student interest in the session) doesn’t really qualify as fascinating.

So, what can I take away from this?

1. I need to try harder to schedule these sessions at students’ point of need: when they are beginning research for an assignment.

Scheduling is a huge bear for us. This semester we have 126 sections of English Comp I. We always have 4 instruction librarians and 1 classroom. Recently we’ve been trying to squeeze most classes in right after midterms, figuring that students won’t really be thinking about their final papers until then. But some sections don’t do a research paper and some faculty would prefer sessions earlier or later (we do accommodate those faculty who ask). Maybe next semester we will try asking for a few date suggestions from each prof and schedule them first come, first served. A colleague also suggested sticking with the same librarian/instructor pair from semester to semester, which could help us keep all of these diverse assignments in mind.

I also need to gently remind faculty that the sessions work best if students have an assignment. Since this is the only required library session in our students’ academic careers at the college, there’s a tendency to make it more orientation than instruction. I’d really like to move my classes more firmly into the instruction zone. Probably it’s time to revisit our learning objectives to make sure they don’t focus too much on orientation-type info. It’s also really hard to resist the temptation in these sessions to try and cover everything, because we’re only guaranteed to get them in the library this one time. But I know I should probably resist.

2. More thinking about a session that’s entirely made up of questions I ask of the students.

I already structure the first part of the class like this, in which I discuss searching the internet and how library and internet resources are different. We have classroom control software, so I could ask students to search and then display their results on the screen for all to see, which might be more efficient (and less scary) than asking students to come to the podium to demonstrate. I’m still not sure this will work with all classes — in my experience the students’ prior library knowledge is all over the place. But it will definitely be more interactive and (I hope) engaging for the students. I’ll need to really tightly tie the questions to our learning objectives to be sure that we have time to cover everything we need to in the session, and practice keeping a closer eye on the clock.

Closer, closer still! This is getting closer to a plan.

P.S. Sorry for so much library stuff here lately. I guess I can’t figure out where to put these less-formal blatherings. But I clearly want to write about these issues (I sat down to try to write an ACRL blog post but this is what I got instead), so I guess it’ll be here for now.

just like falling off a log

maura @ 9:51 pm

This afternoon I went to a meeting of the CUNY Games Network. Let’s get this right out of the way: yes, it’s true, we do play games at these meetings. And sometimes I feel a little bit guilty about it, because it doesn’t seem as worky as some of the other parts of my job do. I also waver a bit before these meetings because I have so much else going on in my research life right now, including my main project (probably a multi-year commitment) and an article I’m coauthoring with a colleague.

But I always end up being glad that I’ve made time for the meeting (and not just because we play a game). It’s such an interesting group: faculty from all over the university who are interested in using games for teaching and learning. All kinds of games, too, from board to digital to roleplaying to simulations. It’s really right at the intersection of many of my personal and professional interests, which is why I haven’t successfully convinced myself that I’m too busy for it.

Today (among other things) we played Settlers of Catan. It’s a great game, though it was a little weird to play again after so many years. We had a pretty regular Settlers game night with friends maybe 10 (!) yrs ago, but haven’t played much since. After a couple of rounds of play the group stopped to discuss the aspects of the game that might be used in teaching (a regular feature of these meetings).

Catan is pretty complex, which I’d kind of forgotten, so it was great to have the chance to break it down and see whether the underlying mechanics can be adapted to a classroom setting. Often we discuss games on the micro level, seeing which parts of the game can be pulled out for teaching. But today I was struck by the macro level. Resource management games like Catan are (in part) about using your resources to accomplish small tasks in the pursuit of a bigger goal (winning the game). Which is kind of like scaffolding student work on a research paper/project/assignment. To use the term paper analogy, first students need to pick an appropriate (in subject + scope) topic, then find resources on the topic, then maybe create an annotated bibliography, then write the paper, and finally add their references.

It’s not a perfect fit: part of the gameplay in resource management games is that you don’t always have the resources you need to win, and you need to strategize to get as many resources as you can. In a way what I’ve described is really any game that it’s possible to win. And certainly in a class there shouldn’t be one student who will “win” above all others — everyone can be a winner (in theory, at least). But it was good to be able to map something gamey (har) onto a traditional library/research task. I mean, I always think of research as a kind of game — hunting + gathering for the best info hits many of the same notes for me that playing a good puzzley adventure game does. Transferring that enjoyment of the research process to students, that’s the challenge.