At the last minute, MB decided to go to this conference in Chicago. He was hesitant at first because of finances, but then he got paid for this consulting gig, and I encouraged him to go. I knew I’d miss him like crazy, but he hasn’t been to a conference in so long. Plus it’s a good opportunity for networking.
I didn’t have a lot of plans, just a photography outing with YP on Saturday. The theme this month was “self-portraits,” one of my bright ideas, which was hard to do, especially for someone with short arms. Neither of us were too enthusiastic, and ended up taking just a few pictures. Last month’s theme of “food” was better.
Aside from that I ran a bunch of errands: Whole Foods, the drugstore, the Container Store, the Asian grocery store. Dropped off laundry, cleaned the fridge, cleaned the stove. Got rid of my old shredder finally. MB has a smaller one so we definitely don’t need two.
Did some reorganizing using my purchases, folding mesh cubes, from the Container Store. I love them because they’re flexible so you can squeeze lots of oddly shaped things in them (like shoes), and if you’re not using them, you can just fold them up and hide then away. But I always forget how to refold them. It’s like origami.
Worked on homework a bunch. For Collection Development we have this annoying subject analysis assignment. For the library of our choice, we have to map out all the subject headings, including Library of Congress of Dewey Decimal classification, and then rate then according to the ALA codes in terms of depth and intensity.
I’m just going to wing it in terms of the ratings – I mean, who’ll know if they’re correct or not? – but I’m being a stickler about the LC headings. Do I dare say that I’m kind of enjoying looking up all the headings and subheadings and assigning neat little numbers? I guess that’s why I signed up for this gig in the first place.
My Thursday class, People Centered Methods and Design, is cancelled this week since we had an extra class earlier in the semester. Last week’s class was good. At first I dreaded it because I thought we’d have to present our projects again, but the professor just gave us feedback on the reports we had handed in earlier in the week.
Early on I was really doubtful about my project. Everyone else’s was so artsy – a dream archive with dreams depicted in sketches, creating an interface for a repository of digital photos, some type of exhibit in which the person would be attached to various strings and people could pull on those strings, which I guess demonstrates phenomenology, which I’ve only recently begun to understand as having to do with not just thinking or existing in a vaccum (“I think therefore I am”) but existing in the context of a “universe,” reacting to and acting in that universe, and in relation to other people (I know: hunh?).
In comparison mine was so pragmatic: creating a resource, like a wikipedia, to help people to learn corp speak and corporate language, skills that one must have to succeed in the corporate world but which are never acknowledged (only “good communication skills” in a general way).
But I think the professor actually likes my project. He gets exicted when we talk about it while with the others he either sort of rolls his eyes, or presses people to be more specific and concrete. In the beginning he was like, “Go with it!” to the people with artsier projects, but I guess since they are still so abstract, he feels they haven’t progressed as much.
This weekend I also did some reading at the NYPL. It’s out of the way from my place, but I love the quiet of the reading rooms, unlike cafes where people are yakking and there’s coffee spillage and crumbs. Nearby is the International Center of Photography. One of the exhibits there now is Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now, which was, needless to say, very weird but also fascinating. It’s funny how you can see those photos in a magazine and think, Whatevs, but seeing them displayed together was really interesting.
MB is back tomorrow. Yay!