Books!

Jan. 9th, 2012 09:12 pm
bookaddict88: (Bookstore)
What are the books in libraries and bookstores doing when you turn out the lights? Why, this, of course!



In other book-related news, I started my first class for my Masters of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University! I'll actually be taking three this semester, but the first is just a one credit course called Online Social Networking that you can start before the official start of the semester. I've actually started another blog as part of that class, Adventures in Library Science, in which I hope to record different thoughts related to my coursework and libraries as a whole. Of course, given my track record with blogs, we'll see if this one actually lasts!
bookaddict88: (History)
Tomorrow is my second first day of school as a teacher. At the beginning of summer, I dreaded this day, as last year was hard.  But after an amazingly relaxing summer (I'll have to put up pictures of my China trip eventually!), I'm much more ready to take on this new year.


I was reading last year's post from right before the first day of school, and it's odd how a lot of it could have been written this year.  I'm still probably going to be up late tonight, getting last minute preparations ready.  And once again, I'm both excited and nervous for the upcoming year. And yet, in many ways, this year will be quite a bit different this year.  We'll be in a new building (which has caused a ton of hassle and work, but also means I get a much bigger classroom, which will be nice.)  And almost half the staff is new, including my fellow fifth grade teacher.  This is actually a good thing, because while I'll really miss some of the teachers who are gone, I can already tell that this will be a fresh start in a good way.  Also, I'll be departmentalized (teaching language arts and social studies instead of everything), and will have class sizes about twice as large as the ones I had last year.  I still feel like I have no clue what I'm doing, in both classroom management and language arts and social studies (I feel like math was the only subject I started to get a grasp on last year), but at least I have a better idea of what I'm getting into, which helps a lot. 



And I could go on, but I doubt anyone cares about the details of this year, and I probably should go back to planning instead of writing on LJ.  So I'll leave it there for now, and hopefully I'll be posting more than once every couple of months this year!
bookaddict88: (Results Beyond Hope)
Time again for one of my round-ups! This is a pretty full one. I had more time to read last semester than I've had in a LONG time. And of course, I did lots of other cool things as well!

Books I've read:
  • The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander (reread)
  • Fire by Kristin Cashore
  • Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
  • Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold (reread)
  • Dresden Files Books 1-12 by Jim Butcher
  • Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
  • Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
  • The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
  • Lady Susan by Jane Austen
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman
  • Queen of Attolia, King of Attolia, and Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (re-read on the first two; also, got halfway through The Thief)
  • The Sally Lockhart Mysteries (Books 1-4) by Phillip Pullman

Places Visited:
  • Colorado, USA
  • Maastricht and Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • London, UK
  • Brussels, Brugge, and Ghent, Belgium
  • Monschau, Berlin, and Munich, Germany
  • Athens, Thessaloniki, and Poros, Greece
  • Prague, Czech Republic
  • Bern and Interlaken, Switzerland
  • Salzburg and Vienna, Austria
  • Venice, Milan, Siena, Lake Como, and Florence, Italy
  • Madrid and Sevilla, Spain
  • Paris and the Loire Valley (inc. Bloise and Tours), France
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Edinburgh, London, and Stratford-upon-Avon, U.K.

Productions Seen:
  • Les Miserables (two different productions, in London and Edinburgh)
  • Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (the ballet) at the State Opera House in Vienna
  • Oliver! in London
  • Legally Blonde the Musical in London
  • Macbeth at the Globe in London
  • King Lear (Royal Shakespeare Company Public Understudy Performance) in Stratford-on-Avon

Other random things I've done:
  • Volunteered at Junior Winter Camp at Forest Home
  • Taken and passed the PRAXIS II
  • Got my B.A. from Baylor University!
It was quite a semester!

Next Year

Apr. 19th, 2009 08:30 pm
bookaddict88: (Default)
Well, I'm all registered for next semester's classes now!  Things can still change, but for now, I'm pretty content with what I've got. I'm taking the following 7 classes*:
  • Computers in Society
  • Introduction to Computer Systems
  • BIC Capstone: The Once and Future King: David, Jesus, and King Arthur
  • World Cultures V: Islamic Culture in the Middle East**
  • The Early Republic, 1789-1860 (American History)**
  • Introduction to Language and Linguistics
  • Ballet I
The BIC*** capstone classes are usually only offered in the spring, but for some reason, they're offering one section of it in the fall. As the topic is the one I've been wanting to take, I went ahead and signed up for it. However, with that out of the way, I only needed one hour of computer science and I'd be done with all my major and minor requirements after next semester.  And then I got to thinking, Why don't I study abroad in the spring?  Originally, I'd been opposed to studying abroad my final semester, but the idea suddenly started to get attractive.  My mom was very supportive of the idea, and so I started to look at the various programs that my school approves.

Read more... )
bookaddict88: (Happily Ever After)
I'm a Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Finalist! Basically, what that means is that I get a week-long, all-expenses-paid trip to New York City in June, where I'll get to study about this year's theme (i.e. Abraham Lincoln) through lectures by eminent historians and visits to historical sites, museums, and archives. The actual Scholars (rather than the Finalists like me) get to go for five weeks during the summer, but I never even considered that I could be chosen for that.  I did, however, think that maybe, possibly, there was a chance I could be selected as a finalist, and I've been on pins and needles this last week waiting for the letter that would tell me the results.  I found out late this afternoon that I was chosen as a finalist, and I've been SOOO excited ever since! I mean, New York City is such an interesting place, and to get to spend a week there studying history?  Awesome!

Now, though, I need to figure out what I'm doing the rest of the summer...

bookaddict88: (Default)
Well, it’s been almost two months since my last real update. But then, I’ve never claimed to be good at updating on a regular basis. Busyness combined with laziness just get in the way. So, here’s the first part of a rather condensed version of what I’ve been doing lately. I actually typed it up before I went to Rome this past weekend (which was amazing!), but I didn’t have a chance to put it up. Hopefully, the next couple of parts of the update will go up within the next week or so!


Flowers I found in Barcelona

Cut for length and pictures... )
bookaddict88: (Home Again)
Well, after a week and a half, my family vacation is finally over.  On Friday the 15th, we flew to New York. We spent a couple of days there, then drove a rental car up to Boston, Montreal, and then finally back to New York. We then flew back home to California on Sunday the 24th, and celebrated my upcoming birthday that night with my aunts. Finally, we went to Disneyland today, since a couple of my mom's patients work there and gave us complimentary tickets. Then we went out to dinner with my dad (who couldn't go to Disneyland b/c of work), and sort of celebrated my birthday tonight, since I won't be home on my actual birthday.


And now, in just a few hours, I'm headed off to Spain for a semester abroad. I can't believe it's time to leave already! I'm a bit nervous. I've never traveled to a foreign country alone before, and despite 4 and a half years of Spanish classes, my Spanish is still not very good. Plus, it's been a year since I've really used it.  Also, I'm still far from being packed, and I leave in less than five hours! Thankfully, I'll be able to sleep on the plane, since I'll be up all night.  But even though I'm a little nervous and a bit stressed (though not too stressed to write this, apparently...), I'm still WAY excited to be going to Spain!

Darkside

Apr. 25th, 2008 04:42 pm
bookaddict88: (Books)
On Shakespeare's birthday, [personal profile] sartorias posted a list of links of various projects that aren't easily defined or aren't boosted by the "big guns" in publishing.

One of the links she posted was to a book you can read online entitled Darkside.  Anyway, since she recommended it, and described it as "smart" and "funny", I gave it a try, though I don't usually read urban fantasy.  It was a lot of fun!  I read it all the way through, and didn't get much studying done that night...

Speaking of studying, next week is the last full week of classes. I have a test to take and two papers to write that week.  One of the papers is giving SO much trouble (the other isn't easy, but at least it's fairly short).  The test is not going to be hard as well. And then when that week is over, finals start the next Thursday.  My finals this semester are all packed together, which is going to kill me!   I'm still not looking forward to summer itself that much, since for most of the summer I won't be doing anything all that fun, but I REALLY can't wait to be done with my classes!

So yeah, it's not going to be a fun weekend, for the most part. At least I had a TON of fun last night, with Chicago and with celebrating a friend's birthday. Oh, and Sunday we're going to be celebrating my roommate Elise's birthday. We were supposed to celebrate it last Sunday, but we had to cancel it at the last minute. It was going to be a surprise, and since Elise didn't know about it, she ended up missing it as she was working out at the gym with her phone in a locker.  She knows about it this time (though she doesn't know all of what we have planned), so hopefully it'll work out!
bookaddict88: (Default)
You know that Comp. Sci. program I talked about Friday or Saturday? I FINALLY got it to work. The last problem with my code was a stupid mistake that for some reason didn't always mess up my output. I'm SO glad I'm finally done with it, but I'm annoyed that it's three school days late and I think the highest grade I can get on it is a 70%, since my professor takes off 10% each day.

Boy, this class is hard. It's doable, but it takes a lot of time. And needless to say, I've not been giving it the time it requires, due to my extreme laziness/procrastination, lack of keeping track of dates, sleeping in, and my overall busyness. I've got a C in the class now, and I REALLY want to bring it up. I don't think it's possible for me to get an A anymore, but I'd like to at least get a B+. I've never gotten below a B+ in a class before, and I'd rather not start now. So I REALLY need to start working hard.

My midterm for the class is tomorrow, and I'm definitely not ready. So I'm not getting much sleep tonight. I didn't get much sleep the last two nights, and probably won't get much sleep tomorrow night or the next either, since I have two more midterms this week. But at least Spring Break starts after that!
bookaddict88: (Default)
Went to Hillary Clinton's early vote rally today (well, yesterday technically). It was at a bigger place, and so even though I got there a little after 2pm (when it was supposed to start), there was still tons of room. I think there were about 1000 people there, but I'm horrible at estimation, so take that as you will. Anyway, she was half an hour late, but I did get to see her. She spoke for about an hour, emphasizing the war, security, and benefits/services for veterans, soldiers, and families of soldiers, since she was with veterans and flag officers. I admit my mind wandered a couple of times during the hour, as the subject matter is not one of the ones that interest me most. I didn't agree with everything she said (and I admit I do have some distrust of politicians), but it was very interesting to be there to see and listen to her and just to experience a political rally first hand. She stayed awhile afterwards, and I got her autograph, so that was neat, and definitely made up for the day before.

McCain comes to town for a town hall meeting on Monday evening. I'd like to attend, but next week is going to be insane. So we'll see...

Unsuccess (cut so you don't have to read my whining unless you want to) )

Today...

Feb. 28th, 2008 11:24 pm
bookaddict88: (Default)
...was a beautiful day, albeit a bit windy.

...I actually got up before 10:40am (my first class on T/Th is at 11:00) in time to go meet with a professor to have him help me with a homework problem.

...my Intermediate Jazz dance teacher was in a MUCH better mood than last class, which made it so much more enjoyable.

...Mike Huckabee (with Chuck Norris) was in town. He came around 3:30pm, but I had class until 3:10. I'm not a supporter (don't know quite who I support at this time), but I decided to go because I thought it would be interesting. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, they were out of room and so I was stuck in a hallway listening to his speech (well, half of it, since I got there a bit late and then people were too loud to hear it until some told them to shut up). So it was kind of a waste of time, since I can listen to a speech on TV or online.  Tomorrow, Hillary Clinton comes to town. I'm even less of a supporter of her, but I would still LOVE to go.  It's history in the making here, even if she doesn't win the presidency. And while I don't support her campaign, I do think its WAY past time we had a president who wasn't a white male. Unfortunately, I have class until 1:50pm (and really can't miss it), and she comes at 2:00. I'll probably head over anyway, but I'm pretty sure I'll run into the same problem.

...I personally had a pretty good performance for Sing! We weren't judged tonight, but we still had an audience, so it feels good to do well. And I think our group as a whole did well, too, though it's hard to say since I can't watch it while I'm performing.  Because it was not a judging night, we got to sit up in the upper balcony for free, as long as we were in costume. So I got to see the first (of three) acts before call time.  I could have watched the three acts after us, but I really didn't have time.

...I really shouldn't be posting on LJ (or be spending time online at all), since I have a ton of homework and I've already slept through my 9:00am class too many times and missed it twice when I was out of town.
bookaddict88: (Default)
Well, I finally changed majors.  I was an Applied Math major.  I actually applied to my school as an Engineering major, but changed it to Applied Mathematics before I registered for my first semester's classes.  However, I wasn't ever too confident about my major. I chose math because I'm good at math, and the applied part was because I'd want to put my math knowledge to practical use.  But I didn't know what I would do with that major, and wasn't even sure I'd like it.  People would ask me my major, and I'd always tell them the answer, and then tell them I was thinking of changing it.

Last semester, I added History and Computer Science minors.  History has been something I've really enjoyed for awhile, and I discovered I liked Computer Science my first semester when taking an intro course required for my math minor.  So those were possible majors, especially the history. Computer Science, not so much, because it just takes so many units and I want to be able to take random electives. The problem with switching to a history major is that my practical side had too many reservations about the idea (what would I do with such a major?).  And of course, I'm just generally indecisive and like to keep my options over.  I have few career plans in mind at the moment (though as of now, being a librarian or a teacher sounds appealing), so I didn't have those to go off of.

So earlier this week I finally made a decision. I switched degrees (I was going for a Bachelor of Science, now I'm going for a Bachelor of Arts), and changed my major from Applied Mathematics to a double major in History and Computer Science.  I'm keeping math as a minor, as I only need one more class. Plus, the type of Computer Science major I have requires a minor, since you have to take "only" 36 hours of Comp Sci. classes.  Anyway, this is a compromise between my practical side and the side of me that just wants to do what I like.  I really like both Computer Science and History, and while I like History better, Comp. Sci. gives me more options career-wise if I don't decide to be a librarian or a teacher. 

Things still aren't completely certain. I have to meet with my advisers to make sure I've planned everything correctly. I also need to petition a couple of my classes so they count towards my new requirements with my new degree program.  And finally, this new plan puts me on a pretty tight schedule. I won't be able to take a whole lot of extra electives.  So I may end up dropping Computer Science back down to a minor. But I figure it's easier to start with it as a major and demote it rather than deciding later I want it as a major and having to graduate late because I didn't get all my requirements done on time.

One of the main reasons my class schedule will be tight is that I want to study abroad in Madrid, Spain next semester. I've been talking about it for a bit now, and last week I finally turned in my application. I still have some other paperwork to fill out for my own school, but that's not due for awhile.  At any rate, unless something major comes up, it looks like I'll be studying in Europe this fall!
bookaddict88: (Default)
Now I gotta go pack, since my flight home leaves at 4pm.

HOORAY!!!

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January 2012

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