katakat.com bytes from a participant observer

Yes, it did happen, and I passed the exam. Also, an update on the pigs flying: [sorry the web page I linked this to went away. It was cute, though.]

Mid-January to mid-February was the time for my comprehensive (comps) exam. I had 28 days to complete three questions selected by my comps mentor. It was supposed to test your competency for the field, however, the field being EDUCATION in all its hugeness, the questions covered topics I knew almost nothing about. So I spent most of the time researching. Good to have faculty status at my home institution so I could take the books home from local university libraries!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here. Lately I've been really into Facebook, so if you want to check on my almost daily activities, feel free to look there. Most of my family is on there too, which is why I got into it. It's like going from zero to TMI in just a few minutes. Otherwise, I just finished my last class for the doctorate on December 14th. Next is the comprehensive exam, which entails 3 questions, 50 pages of writing, and a lot of time. I'll be taking a month off starting in mid-January to to that.

There's nothing like being a tourist in your own town. Especially when that town happens to be San Diego. There are lots of places to see, and now that it's fall, the main tourist season is over and we locals can get out there and see what all the fuss is about. So the bf and I have been checking out areas of town like Shelter Island, Harbor Island, and Harbor Drive (the piers, Embarcadero, Seaport Village, etc). This past Sunday we did the Midway aircraft carrier, just in time for Veterans Day. The museum was really cool, and so was the weather-- very windy, in fact.

I had to do some research on Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) for my latest class, so I took a closer look at Second Life. I tried it last year on my old iMac, and it was underwhelming; my avatar was just two black pom-pons. Now that I've got a newer iMac, the interface is fantastic, and I found out that those black things were actually my avatar's pigtails. Moving around the environment is pretty cool-- you can fly and crash land, walk off six-story buildings, bonk your head, and sometimes get stuck in exhibits. Ok, so I haven't quite mastered the fine art of movement.

What? Summer's over already? Wait-- I didn't get a vacation. *Heavy sigh* School started up again, and it's been nuts. The projects I was supposed to be working on the past three months were pushed back until late July for reasons beyond my control, but somehow (with a lot of help) I got these about 98% done by Monday 8/25. More tweaking was needed the past few days. So, here's what I learned this summer:

• A video collection requires a lot of time and effort to reclassify and relabel, even with two librarians working on it. This took weeks.

Getting to play with this stuff is the coolest part of my job. Lately the 10+ hour days are getting to me. It's crunch time before school starts up again, leaving about 8 working days to finish all major summer projects.

Click here: LRC Virtual Tour

The American Library Association's annual conference was held in Anaheim the last weekend in June. I was looking forward to the conference, but not the transportation aspect of it; I waited too long to book a hotel and figured I'd just commute. I mentioned this to my aunts, who were coming from the East coast to visit my folks out here, and before I knew it, we had a road trip planned to LA. With free accommodations, thanks to one of my aunt's co-workers, who was also attending the conference and had a time share in Anaheim. Yes!

Note to self: do not jump into the pool when you're not sure how shallow the water is. I did this today at Joy & Mike's place, and landed on the tip of my left foot, gashing my big toe and ripping off 1/3 of its nail, as well as scraping the top of the foot. I was so shocked that all I could say, to the benefit of the young children present, was "I have an owie." Then there was blood. Ewwww. "Doc" H taped it up, as he has done with his own self-induced foot injuries. Now I'm sporting a small toe-turban, and will likely have to wear flip-flops for the rest of the week.

Ok, so I'm supposed to be writing a paper now, but I'm procrastinating. Blogging about smaller accomplishments is so much more interesting. I decided to take up swimming this summer. It has become my goal to actually do laps in the condo complex pool that I've been paying for the past four years and rarely ever used. Considering that I haven't taken lessons in decades, this was not an easy decision, and I've been putting it off for years. Looking for an exercise that was lower-impact than karate, I figured it was time to try floating again.