You know we live in sad times when the governor starts taunting the president all Daily Show-like.

I think gas prices are terrible, and they’re only going to get worse, and I don’t think our government cares — although it is nice to see all the initiatives Rod came up with. Can he follow through, and will it help, in time?

And, while I’m complaining, why is my talk always almost empty when gas prices lurch? Gas at 2.59… na, I won’t fill up, I’ve still got an eighth of a tank. And then, whammo, it’s 30 cents more that afternoon. Lame.

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  I can’t figure out if this is a good thing or not….
• Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Library Web Page
  this isn’t your parents library
• librarian.net : emergencies, public information, and libraries

These links will show up later tonight from del.icio.us, but I found two links today that press the question, “What is a library?” I think the majority of people haven’t been in a library since their high school days, and think of them as some smelly, dank building filled with ancient books and card catalogs.

It’s just not true. Not anymore. If you haven’t been to your local library, go there and check it out. Ask the person behind the desk for a tour. My personal view is that it’s the job of the libraries to match their users up with the information they’re seeking. These days that means books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, Internet terminals, community groups, community resources, self-help… You name it. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky dreams. These are things happening in Everycommunity, USA, today.

After school programs that teach D&D games? Or, web resources, to help with breaking news when a natural disaster comes through?

You can see why, with this philosophy, I don’t see myself going to be a traditional old-school librarian… Instead, I see everything we enteract with on a daily basis coming into the library, and the library being a focal point for providing information back to the user. Think of it as a physical search engine … Google is nothing more than a virtual library on the web. The challenges for your local library are the same as Google’s… What information do people want? How can we provide it? What will bring them back and make this an even better resource? Where’s the next round of money going to come from?

That, other than the money thing, is what interests me the most.

Okay, last blog entry for the night, because I’m sure everyone is tired of reading (although if you read this direct from the webpage, it will show up first as you read them reverse-chronologically.) I wanted to talk a bit about my impressions of GSLIS and my first week as a student.

The orientation was pretty good, although I was a little conscious going into it of it being 6 hours long. What could take that long?? It only really went from 9-12, and then had a social hour. The orientation was an introduction to the program, the staff, the school, the university. The “tech staff” came and showed us the intra-net tools available used for classes. (Tech people being swarmy at 9 in the morning? I was impressed. It was funny — they all had their insulated mugs of coffee with them. I understand!)

After the break, the Dean talked and introduced a faculty member, which in turn each introduced the next one. It was neat to hear about their research, and see their personalities as they introduced someone else (neater than them talking about themselves.) Then the RSOs had representatives that talked, and then we broke for pizza and socializing, mostly to meet the RSOs — like a mini-quad day. My impressions?

I was glad that my knowledge of the CU area and bathrooms in the Union could be of service to people new to the area. It’s important to know the Ruebens has moved.

Librarians have a stranger terminology and love for acronyms than computer scientists do (and that’s saying something.) Confused and want to look up a library term? Look no further than the ODLIS.

There’s a lot more handholding in LIS than engineering. So many people care and want to see you succeed; they talk slow and don’t try to overwhelm you with material. I’m sure at some point I will be overwhelmed, but for now I’m really impressed with how personable everyone is (if anything, I wish they’d speed it up, but I understand they’re meeting a common denominator, which right now doesn’t include me.) It doesn’t matter if they’re explaining a course, or research, or how to check the web boards, or anything… This is a really nice group of people, besides doing a bunch of things I don’t fully understand but want to.

I went to training this week for their computer lab, which classifies me as “labstaff” and gives me 24×7 access to the LIS building and LRL lab. Boo for using their own Windows domain instead of using the campus AD, but yay for having a license for FinePrint on each machine and a printer with pre-three-hole-punched paper and a big printing quota. I took a tour of the LIS library in the main library, and even went down into the stacks for the first time!

I didn’t realize that academic librarians are faculty AP positions. I figured librarians fit somewhere in the civil service ranks. No, they can get tenure and have to write grants/bring in money like the rest of the faculty.

After the orientation, training, tour, and interacting with a few of the staff, I am really confident I’m in a good program, and in something that will be interesting and entertaining to me and that I can provide some good back into that community. That’s a pretty rare, special thing to say, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Class? Class this week was weak, as it was mainly reciting the website and making people know about the resources available. This is going to be one of those “read these 8 papers for next week, and we’ll talk about them” classes, so without the pre-reading (which you wouldn’t have known about, unless you knew where to look online for the syllabus,) there wasn’t much “new” to talk about. I should have known better than to get a big mug of hot coffee, then walk across campus in pants/briefcase in the heat and humidity while sipping hot coffee, and then sitting down in a warmer-than-it-probably-should-have-been lecture hall. I was a little uncomfortable, and the chugging coffee on an empty stomach was making my heat race (the coffee shop in Siebel Center has some good stuff.) The final piece was a hot laptop in my lap, which I opted out of on the first lecture because there wasn’t really teaching. I _was_ very annoyed that I didn’t bring any good pens to my first class. That’s when I vowed to do everything on the tablet anyway, and for good measure, I stuck three pens in the briefcase just in case.

After class, or rather between them since the lecture was short, I walked down to the Center for Children’s Books in the basement of the LIS building. I hope that I can take the storytelling classes, or at least sit in on some of their guild meetings.

Skimming the LIS website writing this post, I ran across the student demographics. I thought the ratio of females:males was better than 1.5:1, but that’s the full program not just the first year people (which looked closer to 6:1 by my guesstimate.) The LIS website is pretty good – I’d recommend checking it out if you have time.

I did 1/3rd of my weekly reading this afternoon, and I have a 500ish word paper to write in response to all of the reading before Friday. This first unit in the class is history of librarianship and understanding information and relationships between it. My lab section was taught by one of the professors, and she seems pretty good. The room in LIS was pretty terrible, but I understand we won’t be using that one anymore.

Next week, I prove my prowess at being a crafty student by attending as many RSO events as possible for the free food. And the interest in the organization and profession, of course. I have to be careful not to overcommit myself, but I figure I can go to informational meetings. (I’m not going to limit myself just to the LIS groups. I’m considering the CS related groups too.)

Just before last weekend, I watched a movie from Netflix and mailed it back, as I’ve done hundreds of times. It wasn’t received, or I didn’t get the email it was received until Monday. Netflix sends you an email each time a movie arrives or departs from their shipping centers. I usually get the check-in emails in the morning, and an hour or two later, the notice my next movie is on the way, and when I can expect it.

What got my attention last Monday was that the subject on the email said, “For Tues: Rosencrantz and Guil…” Ros and Guil Are Dead is a great play and movie, and I highly recommend it, but that’s not why I’m posting. I got the email Monday afternoon, and it said “for Tuesday.”

I love my Netflix, and I really think for movie-rental fans, it’s as good as sliced bread. My only continual bitch is that it takes too long for movies sent from St. Louis (the closest distribution center,) to Champaign. My shortest time having a movie, according to Netflix, was 7 days from checkout to checkin, even if I watched it the day I got it and put it in the mailbox the next day.

So I was a little surprised the email sent at 4pm on Monday said I would get the movie on Tuesday. I was more surprised the next day when there was a Netflix envelope in my mailbox, and even more surprised when I opened it and found the return address was to a distribution center in Springfield, IL (splitting the distance between Champaign and St. Louis.)

As an experiment, I quickly watched R&GAD (what you’ve been is not on boats.) I also watched another movie I had whose return envelope was to St. Louis and dropped them both in the mail the next day (Wednesday.) I’m a gambling man… I wonder which will win and get checked in first?

I was midly annoyed, but not surprised, when I got both emails for the checked in movies at the same time on Friday morning. Now, Wednesday – Friday is pretty good, considering most of the first day they sat in my mailbox waiting for the letter carrier (Note to self: ask postal employee best place/time to drop off out of town mail for quickest CU-area departure.) And hour later, two “For Sat:” emails from Netflix. They arrived the next afternoon.

I’m really pleased Netflix opened a closer distribution center, and I look forward to milking it up as much as I can. I’m curious if it’s a full center, or if it just ‘caches’ the next movie in my queue so it’s quick-to-mail-close when I’m ready for it. And why did my STL and Spfld destined checkins take the same amount of time to arrive? Where is the bottleneck?

And in the shoe’s-on-the-other-foot department, I know that Blockbuster is testing using local stores as distribution centers, and the store 1/2 mile from my house is one for the Champaign area. Same $18/mo for three movies, and I think you get two in-store coupons for rentals. Reviewing my queue, nothing is that odd or esoteric that BB wouldn’t have it when Netflix does — and the ability to drop off or pick up my movies on the plan is damn appealing.

But, I _LIKE_ Netflix. I don’t want to leave it, especially if I see them trying to do better. If I had the time and money, I would subscribe to both and try it out, but I don’t have the time for that many movies and the extra $20 is not a good idea right now.

So, Netflix, keep impressing me. Blockbuster, keep impressing me. I will award the best with my money – although it might take me until next summer to have the time to evaluate what “the best” means.

PS. Yes, both of the Saturday movies are going in the mail tomorrow morning.

A few months ago, after being accepted to grad school, I started looking for blogs and websites about students and technology/educational technology. I know a lot has changed with online resources for students since I was an undergrad. I was curious if the way students learned/did homework/took notes/etc had changed as much in parallel.

That search kept leading me across two major devices. Completely disjoint websites that I found through different avenues would advertise one or the other, and sometimes both.

So, being ready for change (knowing that a lot of it was about to happen in my life,) and having a few weeks before classes started, I found ways to implement them.

The first isn’t really a technology, it’s a methodology. It’s a personal productivity/organizational method called “Gettings Things Done” by David Allen.

Some of you reading are fresh out of college, and some are fresh into new areas of your life… One of the most important things my boss Chuck imparted to me when I started my first non-student job is that you need to learn an organizational system. The first time you work outside of someone else’s schedule (like a class schedule, etc.) you usually bottom out because you’re not used to that much personal responsibility.

I started at work with the Eagle planner, and took some seminars on that and the Steven-Covey planner/Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, so I’ve been trained in a few systems, and use pieces from them in my life. However, I knew my system wasn’t complete and I was missing things. Plus, very soon I would have to balance class and work, as well as home/personal stuff — and do that on a tight budget, meaning more planning for shopping and meals. I needed something better, and everyone was raving about how great the GTD system is. So, I grabbed the book from the library and started reading.

You know I already make lists, and am very action oriented. Sure, a “plan” is good, but things I can do and check off are great. The GTD system gives you a system to write things down/store them and organize them in a way that they’re easily available and yet not taking up space in your noggin. GTD says get everything out of your head, and then organize it. Use an inbox. Process. File. Review.

It’s amazingly effective. It gives you that peace of mind you have when you leave work right before you go on vacation, when you know everything is managed and taken care of — combined with the age old trick of putting something next to your keys when you have to remember it the next morning. It’s out of your head, so you can focus on what’s next at hand without having to struggle to remember what you’re forgetting, combined with a trusted system you can easily access and get that information back when you’re ready to use it.

Sound simple? It is. This isn’t rocket science, and we’re all probably doing some of it. GTD just gives a framework to be more effective. (Beth is probably rolling her eyes at this point in the post, because she’s heard about this system a ton. Sorry, Beth.)

Since I started a few weeks ago, I have all my filing in order. I have set action lists and project lists for home, school and work. I have physical inboxes at home and work that I work in and out of. I have a ‘tickler’ file to store things I’ll need in the future. I have a label printer. I have one email in my inbox, which I should really file but I want to watch a lecture it’s reminding me about first.

The cool thing about GTD is that it’s technology agnostic. Like paper and manilla folders? Use them, one idea per page. Have a new Palm or Visor/Treo? Store them all there. Live and breathe in Outlook? Use those categories/sections. Use a combination of all of it (like I do.) In a future post, if people are interested, I’ll talk about what I’ve come up to implement GTD.

The book tells you to take 3-4 days and sort your entire life — I just don’t have the time to do that a week before the semester started. So, I’m going for incremental improvement. Each day, I file a little more, implement a new part/section of the plan into my life. I’m satisfied. Tonight, after I’m done blogging, I’m going to do the “weekly review.”

If you’re interested in finding a new workflow management plan for yourself, pick up the book or buy me a beer. I’d be happy to sell you on it. I’ve already hooked two people, and, hey, I was right about the TiVo, wasn’t I?

The second technology that the hip students are using these days is TabletPCs, but this post is long enough. I’ll talk about my new toy under a different heading.

I’ve been catching up on The Daily Show, and they’ve really been going at Pat Robertson for his comments and prayers that the American government should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I understand Robertson’s arguments, and I think I understand killing in the name of religion or sacrificing one to save many.

What I don’t understand is how a religious man turns to organized, premeditated murder instead of praying for reform, or enlightenment, or some other resolution short of breaking, oh, say, one of the ten commandments? What’s next, coveting his late wife’s ass?

Or, maybe it’s just a side, sneer comment made by a stupid man and blown way out of proportion by the liberal media and the media that likes making fun of the liberal media? I know I’ve made comments about killing people, and didn’t really mean them. Of course, I don’t own a cable network and have a show where I preach and instruct to the world.

Also, today, I learned from Animal Planet that wolverines are cute like sea otters. Thank you TV.

I drove home from work one evening this week and saw a truck on my street that made me do a double-take. I actually drove around the block again so I read it to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

A magnetic sign on the side of the pickup with the trailer full of yard gear was “Merrill Lawn and Computer Services” I could only imagine what that sales conversation/cold-call sounded like:

Hi, would you be interested in our rake and RAM special? We’ll airate and overclock. We degrub and defrag. We’ll mow, trim, edge and antivirus. Get rid of crabgrass and spam! Trim your hedges and secure your wireless!

See, it’s funny, because my family used to run a lawn service. I really didn’t like mowing other people’s lawns (or even my own back then.) Mom always joked I did the computer side of the business because when they went to mow, I went to the PC.

I chuckled. Maybe we’re not the only family like that.

I’ve been envious of Tony, who’s spent the week journaling his thoughts and processes through the start of his school year. This week has been probably the most unique of mine in recent years. So many thoughts have gone through my head, so many times I’ve wanted to post them … I’m still not sure how to glue them together. I will do a recap this weekend, when hopefully I find some time to decompress and empty the mental inbox.

In a two minute recap, I had my grad student orientation at the start of the week, and I just finished my first week of class (okay, only two classes, and both this morning.) I’ve taken tours, introduced myself to people, and am trying to use all the helpful resources made available to me to make every minute of grad school count.

I’m also living alone, for the second time in my life, but under extremely different, and yet strikingly similar situations. That’s been an interesting mind wrap too.

And work, good ol’ work, is still omnipresent, and still busy.

So, there it is. It’s hard not to recount and feel like I really am “the master of my own destiny.” (I tried for a bit to find a reference for that, but failed.) The actions I do, the way I let myself feel, how I react to my environment, is all a conscious decision made by me. (Well, this week it’s been conscious, but there have been so many changes. I think in a steady-state, those choices are autonomous. Maybe we even feel ensnared by them – trapped in our own habits, and lives we’ve defined for us.) Now, I’m more consciously aware of all of this, and it’s changing me (or maybe I’m changing me.)

I guess I’ll find out, and of course, I’ll share that with you. But for now, it’s lunch time.

• SHAKSPER 1993: “The Three-Minute HAMLET”