Saturday, September 04, 2004

First Assignment: Procrastinate!

I have a paper to read, so I thought I would check in with the Nunnery first.

For the first time since.. well, early high school, I have a usable workspace in my room. This is partially due to the fact I cleaned a bit, but mostly because I have transformed some of the architecture. Take the storage space for example. I have a new cd tower, so no more cds lying everywhere, and no more giant black ugly turntable filling up precious surface area. I also bought a cd binder to house my countless anime cds for easy access in times of stress (yay!). The big book case that rested on top of my desk has been removed, and my lovely G4 with flat monitor is resting on it. So much open space! I took the liberty of picking up new gel rest pads for the keyboard and the mouse, so I will be able to deal with long hours of typing and fussing. In a few days I will buy DreamWeaver (at a Uni student discount!) so that I can work on web design in the comfort of my own home, instead of being stuck in the school lab 'till all hours.

I love living at home. All I need is a mini-fridge in here and I am SET.

Friday, September 03, 2004

Orientation Over

On the last day of Orientation (yesterday), about seventy out of the hundred or so new students showed up for the morning Scavenger Hunt. Billed as an excercise in team building, we were split into groups of four or five and sent out to various parts to campus to gather tedius information like, "how much does printing posters cost in the basement of the architecture library?". At 10:30 am sharp we were to convene at any computer lab available, get online and take a survey. While searching for the answers to our questions, we were to keep in mind what our place was in our team, and how we dealt with "tension" in the group.

Tension? On a scavenger hunt?! I thought that part was pretty ludicrous. Incidentally, the team I was in got sent to North Campus, so we had to drive up there with the help of a student guide, and spent a good chunk of time in traffic. Despite this fact, we finished our "work" in good time, asking for the answers at various info desks and picking up flyers from the places that were closed, and after taking our survey, (which we discussed while we put in our answers because we were feeling pretty team-like by the end of it) we went and got coffee.

Returning to the central campus auditorium, we were surprised to find ourselves subject to a long and convoluted powerpoint presentation on team building skills, which really seemed silly. When asked what we had learned from the our hunting trips, people talked about discovering interesting study areas, new computer labs, or good rates at banks. I decided to act before the place became a real bore, and told the new students about the wonders of the sliding sip hole openings on the north campus coffee cups. I mean, please. Class is next week, lets keep it light.

The best part was when the speaker whipped out the results of the survey, complete with discussions of "tension" and how it was dealt with. In fact, some groups were to bent on the task of hunting they never bothered to get to know each other. I wondered how people could take this kind of activity seriously. Thankfully, many of the comments listed under tension sounded like students who were equally confused by the question. #17, was classic, discussing how tension occurred when it turned out "some of the people we had to deal with were real dicks, so we ran out of time". Classic.

In the afternoon I found out I had to pay fees, even though I have free tuition this year, so I have to pay careful attention to my online bill info. And I found out that everyone wants a Caution: Rowdy Librarian t-shirt like mine.

Yay.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Orientation continues.. Today I registered for classes, and skipped (boring) lectures in the morning and got straight to the info sessions and registration advising. In the morning I began putting together my first felt board story, which I have decided to make from scratch. I am basing the story on "Five Minutes' Peace," by Jill Murphy. It is a very cute picture book about a momma elephant that really needs some peace and quiet away from her kids. Her three little 'phants have other ideas however. So far I have made Momma in her bathrobe and yellow nightgown. I think I will make her shower cap next, and of course the bath tub. I just love this stuff!

Tomorrow I will engage in more orientation activities, enjoying my time on campus before the actual work begins.

This evening I listened to the Wife of Bath's introduction, enjoying her stories of sex and marriage. The woman doing the voice work is just perfect, and after listening to it, I have a better understanding of the lady's views. Of course, I use the term 'lady' very loosely in the this context. ;)

Monday, August 30, 2004

Orientation Begins!



I had a great day. First I went to a boring computer sessions where I figured out exactly how ignorant I was: I've had school email all summer, but I didn't know; I could have gotten my ID card earlier, but I didn't know; I had the right passwords to access everything, but I didn't know. Oops. After feeling slightly embarrassed, I regained my bearings and soon discovered other women who hadn't gotten their IDs, and were trying to figure out where the Student Activities Building was. I told them where it was and we all ended up having lunch together at a little Sushi place called Totoro.

I love Totoro, because its a long and narrow restaurant with very simple detailing and nothing flashy to draw your mind away from your food. The menu is streamlined , and there's a lunch special that changes, depending on the day of the week. I had a huge bowl of Soba, a set of California rolls, shrimp tempura rolls and a salad to start off. The soup had both noodles and delicious breaded and fried vegetables sticking out. Soooo yummy, but I couldn't finish everything so I took a bit to work with me and stuck it in the fridge.

In the afternoon, after a dramatically shortened work day, I went back to the computer lab and learned how to use DreamWeaver, which is very simple and easy to use, but rather expensive, so I thiink I will be stuck doing my website construction on campus (its a school of information, we all have to make websites).