Despite all my preventative Vitamin C taking and profuse hand washing, I have been enveloped by a nasty cold. I blame the sudden onset of Fall, and the gross bacteria-infested subway system (why couldn’t they implement the new Rocket trains with their fancy antibacterial handlebars on my subways line?!). Yes, school with a cold is no fun at all, especially library school. Have you ever wondered why that really sick kid insists on coming to class although she is clearly not very receptive to all the information being thrown at her since she is being too distracted by her congestion, perpetually runny nose, and frequent coughing attacks? It really benefits no one for someone that sick to go to class. I would know. I did so yesterday and I can’t really say I learnt much of anything other than I should have just stayed at home and knocked out on codeine. Last week when I was paying my 10k tuition, I never thought I would be skipping class a week right after. Yes, skipping class, and it’s only week two… I’m such a misfit. A misfit who immediately e-mailed the prof and apologised profusely for consciously choosing to sit out an intimate group discussion about I dunno the history of information or some shit.
I’m currently breathing out my mouth like Darth Vader wondering whether it’s really worth it to attempt to push forward with my readings with my sinuses all stuffed up and my eyes all bloodshot. Maybe I’ll be a bit better in the morning… maybe I’m just making up excuses. I was going to video blog just to fully portray the extent of crap I feel but alas I’m camera shy and I’m sure no one wants to actually see me look like crap.
I’ve learnt a method I’d like to call “selective reading” which has really helped in lessening my stress about this program. Most students I’ve come across do around 60-70% of their readings. My sick ass was trying to get 100% done and failed miserably, finishing off at about 70%. For what they assign, it’s really impossible (unless you devote your life) to read that much and be able to articulate what we read about fully. So for next week I’m going to take a more laid back approach to the readings (of course I’ll still do ‘em) and see how things turn out. With this cold I can’t even start wrapping my head around all the assignments I have coming up in October, but I have to start them very very soon.
For now the only thing I can take seriously is my codeine and hope that my attention span for reading fares better in the morning.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Week One
The only font I can look at and take seriously is Times New Roman. It’s been a very jarring experience encountering profs who, not only know how to do more than write and send an e-mail, but are actually capable of creating and posting lecture videos online the day of the lecture. It shouldn’t have been too much of a shocker since I am at THE Ischool. I can’t wait for people to stop putting an “I” in front of things to make it sound all exclusive and orgasmically techy.
I’ve got one more tutorial tomorrow and then I’m officially done the first week of my graduate degree (just 64 more to go! Is it lame that I totally just had to calculate that, and I bet it’s wrong?). My first high school’s motto was “Not for ourselves only but for others” and this is exactly what this blog is about. Maybe someone will actually come across it one day and find it useful because I sure as heck would have appreciated something like this when I was blindly applying to graduate programs, but mainly this is for me to just get my school blues out of my head and on to something remotely productive (and slightly related to my field. Hey, you can’t even imagine the number of librarians who have blogs out there). Judging by my first week, this is going to be a long tedious semester, and I’m sure my boyfriend, friends, family & cat would be relieved that I’m not flapping my lips about school stress 24/7.
I didn’t really know what I expected from Library school when I applied around January. Little did I know that back then I was experiencing some idealistic academic living; 11hrs of class and mandatory-ish readings involving epic poems, classical mythology, and popular culture (sign me up! Again!!). Of course it was always an awkward situation when anyone asked why I had chosen to apply to exclusively Masters of Information post-grad programs. And yeah… I wasn’t sure either, and honestly, I’m still not really sure, but you bet your ass that I’m here and by the end of this I will definitely MASTER INFORMATION!
My thoughts are wildly scattered this week. Not only am I getting used to the program, but also to life in the city. Come on, I lived in London Ontario for the past four years. While it’s not exactly bumb-fuck nowhere, when you look at it from certain angles, it might as well be. In Toronto, I noticed that on days when it’s super sunny and pretty damn nice outside, it’s fucking gross and nasty in the subway, and vice versa. I’ve learnt that pretty much everything you need is around the corner, but don’t expect a lot of variety. My aunt picked up one of those old Asian lady carts for me to take to the grocery down the street since groceries are heavy, and our street is epically long for no reason.
I’m going to set my alarm for 7:30am again and brace for another morning of zombie-ing around campus in sweatpants and a gross hoodie. If you ever consider doing the MI program here, I really hope they sort out the course reading issues they got all of us throwing tantrums over. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically I’ve got the race to the library tomorrow in order to take out a tonne of books and then photocopy the 500 pages of readings my profs have assigned for next week, all within the 2-hour limit I have until someone else snatches the shit from me to do the same. You’d think that a school this supposedly “high tech” would make everything available for printing online. I miss textbooks !
Despite hating on the lengths at which I have to go to just access the readings for next week I like that the program is already whipping my lazy English major ass into some sort of “you better manage your time wisely and get organized or you will die” mode, and it’s kinda entertaining encountering classmates in random places flipping the shit over the prof’s incompetence at posting the right reading that she herself assigned.
Although I currently don’t know what the fuck is going on in class I am keen on knowing what the fuck is going on in class in the near future. Maybe if I ever get to access the readings I’ll have a fighting chance.
I’ve got one more tutorial tomorrow and then I’m officially done the first week of my graduate degree (just 64 more to go! Is it lame that I totally just had to calculate that, and I bet it’s wrong?). My first high school’s motto was “Not for ourselves only but for others” and this is exactly what this blog is about. Maybe someone will actually come across it one day and find it useful because I sure as heck would have appreciated something like this when I was blindly applying to graduate programs, but mainly this is for me to just get my school blues out of my head and on to something remotely productive (and slightly related to my field. Hey, you can’t even imagine the number of librarians who have blogs out there). Judging by my first week, this is going to be a long tedious semester, and I’m sure my boyfriend, friends, family & cat would be relieved that I’m not flapping my lips about school stress 24/7.
I didn’t really know what I expected from Library school when I applied around January. Little did I know that back then I was experiencing some idealistic academic living; 11hrs of class and mandatory-ish readings involving epic poems, classical mythology, and popular culture (sign me up! Again!!). Of course it was always an awkward situation when anyone asked why I had chosen to apply to exclusively Masters of Information post-grad programs. And yeah… I wasn’t sure either, and honestly, I’m still not really sure, but you bet your ass that I’m here and by the end of this I will definitely MASTER INFORMATION!
My thoughts are wildly scattered this week. Not only am I getting used to the program, but also to life in the city. Come on, I lived in London Ontario for the past four years. While it’s not exactly bumb-fuck nowhere, when you look at it from certain angles, it might as well be. In Toronto, I noticed that on days when it’s super sunny and pretty damn nice outside, it’s fucking gross and nasty in the subway, and vice versa. I’ve learnt that pretty much everything you need is around the corner, but don’t expect a lot of variety. My aunt picked up one of those old Asian lady carts for me to take to the grocery down the street since groceries are heavy, and our street is epically long for no reason.
I’m going to set my alarm for 7:30am again and brace for another morning of zombie-ing around campus in sweatpants and a gross hoodie. If you ever consider doing the MI program here, I really hope they sort out the course reading issues they got all of us throwing tantrums over. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically I’ve got the race to the library tomorrow in order to take out a tonne of books and then photocopy the 500 pages of readings my profs have assigned for next week, all within the 2-hour limit I have until someone else snatches the shit from me to do the same. You’d think that a school this supposedly “high tech” would make everything available for printing online. I miss textbooks !
Despite hating on the lengths at which I have to go to just access the readings for next week I like that the program is already whipping my lazy English major ass into some sort of “you better manage your time wisely and get organized or you will die” mode, and it’s kinda entertaining encountering classmates in random places flipping the shit over the prof’s incompetence at posting the right reading that she herself assigned.
Although I currently don’t know what the fuck is going on in class I am keen on knowing what the fuck is going on in class in the near future. Maybe if I ever get to access the readings I’ll have a fighting chance.
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