Let's Go Pens!

I'm really enjoying this beautiful day and looking forward to the Penguins game tonight!

Pittsburgh is an interesting sports town. The fans either fully support the teams when they are winning (Penguins, Steelers) or abandon them when they are not (Pirates). I think this is because we have such a long tradition of winning. All I knew about professional sports when I was growing up here was winning -- super bowl parties, the song "we are family," etc. The bad side of this (I think) is that the fans can be so negative when the teams are not winning. In the 2 years I've been back in this area, I've seen Steelers fans boo their own team when they aren't doing well during a game!

I moved to Baltimore in 1996 shortly after the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens. That's where I met my husband, Dave. The city hadn't had a football team in like 20 years and fans (including Dave, whose beloved Baltimore Colts left in the middle of the night for Indianapolis when he was a kid) were so excited to finally get a football team. Baltimore fans were also very supportive of their baseball them, the Orioles, even when they were not doing well (which was a lot). I have to say that I admired their loyalty.

Even so, it is fun to be living again in Pittsburgh and being here for all the fun sporting events. I enjoy hockey except for the fighting. My husband is now a big Pens fan too (Baltimore has no hockey team). We named our cat after Geno!

Career as a Librarian?

One of our discussion questions was how technology has begun to change the role of librarians, and it brought up some thoughtful questions as to the future of the profession. Before I decided to enroll in this program, my research pretty much said the same thing: that the number of jobs would remain about the same in the near future because many librarians will be retiring. I don't remember if technology was a consideration in the outlooks, however.

Holiday Weekend?

Well I spent most of the weekend doing schoolwork. I need to work on my time management skills so that I am not trying to do everything in 2 days.

Crunch Time: Too Soon

I've spent so much time getting everything together and organized for graduate school that I am falling behind already. A lot of it, however, is because of technical issues that others are also having. We have not been able to get access to articles we need to read. Our week 2 assignments are due Sunday evening, so I will need to split my time between picnics and school work over the weekend. Monday I can relax, and then get to work on week 3!

New Computer

My laptop computer died just before the beginning of classes. It was outdated and no longer under warranty, so I took advantage of the educational discount and my student loan to upgrade to a new computer - a 13" MacBook, which I love. As part of a special, I received an iPod touch for free. It is very cool, but I don't have a lot of time to use it yet as I'm already behind on my reading and assignments.

Back to School...Again

My courses have begun. There's so much information; I'm a little overwhelmed, yet excited at the same time. There are 11 books for the 2 online courses I am taking (Understanding Information and Introduction to Technology). During the next 11 weeks, I will be busy reading, writing, participating in discussions and group projects, and working on a variety of computer projects -- along with my fellow students in cohort 9.