Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

In a blog the Effing Librarian wrote the other day he spoke of not trusting anyone under 30. I thought about the things he had to say and I agree...I hate that people in my age group are part of this digital machine; seemingly not able to eat, sleep, or poop without having to text (or Heaven forbid) send someone a picture about it. However, as I posted in Effing's comments section, I consider myself to be more akin to those of an older generation, partly because I was raised (until Grad school, really) as a technological retard, and also because I grew up in a family that demanded communication. Unlike many people today, our communication came in the form of "pass the taters please" (" What's taters, Precious? "), as opposed to "BFF pass t spuds...WTF...LOL..."or whatever people text each other (I hate those new damn commercials!) Then, thinking about what might separate some of us generationally, I found this super website, where you put in your ...

This bridge will only take you halfway there To those mysterious lands you long to see: Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fairs And moonlit woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and share The twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge will only take you halfway there- The last few steps you'll have to take alone. ~Shel Silverstein Stumbled across this Shel Silverstein poem this morning while avoiding writing the paper that is due tonight. I have to critique a children's book, and have chosen Stellaluna ; a tre sweet book which I love! I just can't get focused...Argh! Reading the poem made me want to crawl back into bed...and...um...read the Three Billy Goats Gruff .

**"well the world don't move to the beat of just one drum..."** Hobo Teacher , a blog I just discovered, is a hilarious take on teaching. Reading it only further proved that the college students I work with here, are just barely not in high school. And then thinking that made me think about this weekend and my time spent with some college friends. Self deemed the Ladies of 7N, the five of us met in the fall of 2000 while getting our Undergrads at OU , and have stayed friends as we continue life after college; a rag tag group that has produced a nurse, two teachers, an office manager, and me. Anyway, I made the realization a long time ago that people change, as Steven King once wrote, "Friends come in and out in your life like waiters in a restaurant." But, I was still a little surprised with the change in the group; our banter of old replaced by discussions that included: 401K programs, state budget cuts, teacher position downsizing, and hospital safety drills...

*borrowed the title of this entry from one of my favorites* Stevie Wonder opened his show talking about how his mother passed away last year, and it was hard because his mother was always a constant force in his life, pushing him to feel “normal.” He told us that when he was young his mother used to say to him that his blindness did not mean that he couldn’t go out and live life like everyone else. That was the perspective that I needed after my last few frustrating couple of days. Stevie Wonder’s music was like a lighthouse sending light out, guiding me home. My weary spirit felt the surge of music; vibrancy pumped into me with each note sung; effervescence unleashed. I am always so amazed when I see a really and truly good musician, especially since I can’t play a kazoo without something sounding wrong. Oh, man, Stevie Wonder! His music is pure gold. Growing up in Michigan, raised by parents both of whom were from Detroit, and who lived through the Motown explosion, and were themse...

My friend asked how things were going today. This was my response. “I have to do some reading for my Thursday night class, and start working on coming up with a topic for my research paper which is due in December. I have to post 3 short essays, finish a book and make the index card record for that book, and then post some essays for the rest of my group to read by this weekend. Then, for my other class I have to pick out a few books to share with my class for next week, and also write a brief paper for Monday. I am so busy this week, with the concert (going to see Stevie Wonder tomorrow at Meadowbrook ), and working nights, and the library being busy and working both Saturday and Sunday this coming weekend, and the OU girls night planned for Saturday. I am going to freak out soon...I feel sometimes like I can't breathe right...I can only guess that this is what panic attacks must feel like. I have never been one to have them, but I am getting freaked out since there is so much wo...

Myspace is terrible because it allows me to find people that I hated in high school and see that even though they were terrible people back then, they have married, and posted really cute-sie pics of their attractive significant others. And I want to be happy for them, but part of me really wants to see them turn out to be unsuccessful slobs, still living at home, and posting instead of pics of attractive significant others, pics of themselves with beer guts, eating KFC straight out of the bucket. In my mind they should have become like Joe Dirt. Going back to school makes me reminisce about those days when I was awkward and irreverent and sarcastic, and then I realize that I haven't changed much in the years since I left high school. The first week back has been wrought with a mix of emotions from horror at seeing the amount of work and reading I have to do in my online class alone; panic at the thought that my final paper topic (paper due in December) in my research class is du...

To quote B1 , who when once we were in a bad situation said, "I'm freaking out, this is me freaking out!" Yep, that sums up yesterday. Got online finally and read my syllabus for my Young Adult Lit class . Holy shit. I have so much homework, so quickly that I was freaking out at my desk, just reading the syllabus! I had to deep breathe and think of sunshine and sparkles to keep myself from an aneurism. Think happy thoughts for me. My first assignment is to check out 5 web pages that have aids to help me in my search to find appropriate reading material for Adolescents, (they actually are helpful), read The Chocolate War , by Robert Cormier, and begin to work on making a note card sheet with info about the book, prepare a graphic organizer for the book (still trying to figure out what that is), and work on a group panel discussion that we will conduct via Blackboard (our online server). Things will look better tomorrow morning when I get to sleep in a little, read over the...

This is the honest to God, word for word question that someone emailed in to us today at the library: "I'm 54 years old and found a bug on a tree outside my house that I have never seen the likes of. I have it, it was dead but clinging to the tree. Would like to know what kind it is. Some kind of beige beetle and the back of it is open as though something came out of it. yuck, but could you help? I have a pine bush nearby that is dying and am wondering if this beetle had anything to do with it. It is full of webs, which makes me think they are not connected. Could you refer me to an entomologist----if that is what they are called? Thank You." This is for my friends who have asked what I do all day. Ok, no, my job is not quite this exciting, I wind up helping students answer questions and do research, but there are the occasional questions like this that surface. We are the super heroes of the research world. "Doing it since Alexandrian days!"

Fall semester 2007 I am taking my final three classes of my Masters' Program! LIS 6510 - Current Literature, PreSchool -3rd Grade LIS 6530 - Young Adult Literature LIS 7996 - Research in Libreary & Information Science My 6530 class is online, my first online class ever, so it may prove more of a challenge. Then again, it may be sinfully easy...who knows? My first 6510 assignment is to bring in my favorite picture book from childhood and be prepared to talk about why it was my favorite. Sounds easy, right...but, oh, such an agonizing decision for me...like Sophie's choice. I previously wrote about this dilemma at the start of the summer, but since the class was cancelled I didn't have to think about my decision all summer. I gave it much thought again yesterday and decided to go with Where the Wild Things Are , by author and illustrator, Maurice Sendak . If you read my original posting on the topic you can see what other books this was up against, and why it is one of ...

Not much in the way of excitement to say about my trip to Chula Vista, California. I took a week long respite from the Internet, which I have not done in a long time, so that was interesting, and at times challenging. My fingers itched for their normal daily cramps, my eyes screamed for strain! Couldn’t find a ride to the airport Wednesday morning, when I was leaving Michigan, so I had my brother A3 drop me off at Detroit Metro at 1am for my 7am flight. I settled in and tore through my summer reading list, finishing Middlesex and nearly finishing Little Men . The flight out was uneventful. I read, I slept, I wrote poetry on napkins; a romantic thing that I do when I travel (and don’t feel like digging my journal out of my bag). Cruising at 30,000 feet always makes me nostalgic, and in love with mountains and the checkerboard that the land below has become; it’s miniscule ant cars and amoeba people trailing over the board in a seemingly lazy fashion, when in actuality they have begun b...