Cohort 6 Deja Vu

Here's something that I have left over from my trip to Pittsburgh to meet Cohort 6. When I first met Laura Fonash, she reminded me so much of my best friend from grade school, Shannon. No big deal, right? (But she really is just like her!)

Then I met Beth K., and she reminded me so much of one of my favorite friends, Sheila. She looks like her and has a similar personality. And Stephanie D. ... she is my friend from college, Amy. Then Michele reminded me of someone that I still can't place. Then, while sitting in the Cathedral's cafeteria, the nagging feeling that Andrew reminded me of someone was reconciled when I figured out that he looks and sounds like my younger brother, Sean. There's more, but I just realized that all of this information is useless since no one else knows any of these people but me.

This deja vu phenomenon continued throughout my days in Pittsburgh, until I finally realized that I must have been there before and had already met Cohort 6 in a past life. Maybe I failed the courses and this is my chance to redeem myself, who knows ...

Hopefully the redemption will occur, if only we ever get a grade for this class! It's even starting to get to me now!

Why I did this

Last night, my son woke up in the middle of the night crying. I laid in bed with him to calm him down, and as his eyes fluttered shut and he drifted off to sleep, I thought to myself: I have never seen anything more beautiful in all my life. And I remembered: He is a big reason why I am doing this.

Thanks to him, I did not give up or quit when I saw the syllabi for our classes this semester. (You all know you thought about it, too! Right?!? Maybe it was just me.)

Now that the semester is over, I can say more than ever how glad I am that I did not quit. I also have confirmed just how much I want to be a librarian. I just thought I'd take the time to put things into perspective today. Thanks, baby, for looking out for your mama!

To blog or . . .

OK, I'll skip the cheesy cliche. But the question is worth putting out there: Are we abandoning our blogs when the semester is over? If I have a hard time letting mine go, will anyone still be willing to read it?

I know some people dread the blog entries, writing such meaningful prose as "here's a post" and "too busy today to write anything." Then there are others who make entries every day, putting a great amount of thought into each and every word, coming up with clever topics (or at least weird or semi-interesting ones) day in and day out. I think I know which of these two groups will abandon the blog with glee.

My question is, what will the other group do?

Cool Web stuff

So, I am still nowhere near done with my final paper (haven't started yet), but in my avoidance of the dreaded review, I have come across some really cool things on the Web. For our last portal assignment, I did the NetVibes thing, but just wasn't thrilled with the result. So, with procrastination in mind, I went ahead and created my own portal in Nvu and found some neat stuff.

First, Ning. Although I am not exactly sure what a "social app" is, I found out I can make my own and share them! Being a booknerd, I, of course, created my own Bookshelf. I can add books to my "shelf," review them, tag them, rate them, whatever. And see what else others have on their shelves, and share my shelf with anyone. But Ning offers hundreds of other social apps that allow you to create your own site for specific things. It's not just about books. You should try it out. Here's my bookshelf: http://carawoodsbookshelf.ning.com/

I am happy to be done with my final portal assignment. I was even able to add some feeds at the bottom of the page, although it makes it load kind of slow. And I am no longer happy with the color scheme, but if I even go there it will be taking procrastination of the final review to new heights. Make me stop tweaking my site and get to the stinkin' books!

Here it is: http://www.pitt.edu/~ccw8/portal.htm

Oh, that reminds me, also check out RedLightGreen ... a great resource for librarians!

Links to nothing

Since returning from our on-campus experience, I have had trouble concentrating on my assignments, particularly the next review on Linked, The Meaning of Everything, et al. The momentum I had before our trip has diminished, and after three weeks I still have yet to finish reading Linked. Doubt I will at this point.

I guess I don't see the connection between the two books, or a huge significance for that matter. We are all linked together, yada yada yada. We like to work on something, and spend our own time toward a larger goal where we will get minimal credit, but which satisfies a need to belong and to contribute to society. OK. There's my paper. All in much less than 1500 words!

Oh, and by the way, I don't believe in Six Degrees of Separation. There is no way I am linked to President Bush in any less than ten links, thankfully.

I wish I was back in Pittsburgh

Of course, I had a ball in Pittsburgh, even though it was a lot of work, too. But the sentiment that led to this posting really has more to do with what is going on right now at home.

Power outage! Not due to return until this weekend! No a/c, no food, no shower!

Tuesday, I played hookie from work and stayed home to hang out with my son. I also restocked our fridge - an act I felt was quite heroic considering the heat with an ornery three-year-old. Now I am wishing that I was less than heroic yesterday since all of that food is currently rotting in my fridge. (What's with me and rotting food anyway?) I also wish I would have gone to work since I had to stay home again today - the number of e-mails waiting for me is growing by the minute. And I am sure my boss is less than pleased at my lengthening absence.

I am staying at my brother's place right now and the a/c is on the fritz - less than happy am I!

But, like I said earlier, I had a great time meeting everyone in Pittsburgh. Everyone was very nice and I can't wait to go back next time. I hope I wasn't too much of a big-mouth and people don't think I talk too much :) I tend to do that when I am nervous. Who am I kidding, I tend to do that when I feel comfortable! Thanks everyone (or anyone who is reading) for making me feel comfortable enough to make a fool of myself.

Home (Sour) Home

Well, I am home from our Cohort 6 trip to Pittsburgh. It was great to get home to see my son and husband, but I do have one question: Why do guys have a problem smelling rotten food?

Yesterday I came home to a basket with rotten peaches in it on the kitchen counter. How the smell of rotting peach flesh escaped him, I have no idea. They were gray and liquifying. Enough said.

Today I ventured over to the kitchen sink. Scary. There was a kid's cup full of an unidentifiable liquid that had seperated and had a floating iceberg-looking thing in it. But it wasn't ice! I threw the entire cup out without further investigation. There was another cup with chocolate milk in it from last week that smelled real nice, too.

Ahhhhh......good to be home.