SUNDAY
8 AM: I'd set my alarm for 8:30. (That is, about 7.5 hours of sleep with the time adjustment for DST.) It went off as my wife stepped in the front door. I was NOT ready to wake up. I mumbled fuzzily at her, felt guilty for sleeping while she was working, and tumbled -- hard -- back into Dreamland.
11 AM: Oh. It's actually 10:03, 'cause the clocks switched forward. Still. I suppose my body needed that. The cats were pleased.
Checked email, Facebook, Reader. Interesting finds: Being White in Philly, Apartments So Small They Can Only Be Photographed from Above, Makers: Women Who Make America. Baby pictures.
 |
| This sprouting strawberry. |
12 PM: Checked on class discussion forums. A couple of group members had commented on my abstracts; they liked them, overall, but seem confused as to how those articles will be used for my research question. Short answer: they won't. But I expected that someone in the group would find them good source material, because they are on topic for the group. I have 4-6 more of these to do today, maybe tomorrow. I also have a report to finish and the challenge cards project to complete by tomorrow morning.
Warmed up leftover stew and new bread for lunch. Fed the wife and gave her half an hour's nap.
1 PM: Marie is harsh. Back to work. The library is open until 5, so I should leave here around 2. In the meantime: more research articles. (Though the task now feels thankless.)
2 new abstracts -- this time on articles I will be using in my own lit review, as that seems to be the gist of the assignment. (Why couldn't I have done that on my own? What is the benefit of sharing with this group?) They came easier, of course, because I'm more familiar with the subject.
Second helping of stew.
2 PM: I'm pissed off about the research group assignment, actually. I re-read the instructions for it, and I still don't find the process helpful for refining and focusing my research question. I just don't think out loud like that. I'll come back to it later.
Got dressed and went to the library. Less cute today. But the librarian bun isn't so bad. Read Anne's House of Dreams along the way.
3 PM: Browsed the Juvenile shelves for chapter books to use in the challenge cards. Very busy Sunday in the children's department! I was able to sit down with books and laptop at a small table in the corner, adding potential titles to my stack. After a while, I decided to take a different tack and looked up the YALSA booklist for the past couple of years. It seemed likely that CPL would have those award-winners in their collection, and I got at least a sentence of summary that might help me devise an activity. That's the thing with this project: Instead of just finding interesting books (and a few of those titles went on my personal library list), I'm looking for ones that have something to do with a STEM or maker's activity. Measure something, try an experiment, etc. And I realized that my skills are firmly rooted in the humanities. I want to talk about problem solving between characters, history, social context, alternate endings... and so do these chapter books!
Note: the children's room is very comfortable for a lone adult actually using the children's collection. Until you need to use the restroom, which means packing up all books, laptop, and other belongings, and walking two floors up to the restroom that allows adults in. (It was slightly tidier than Friday.)
4 PM: It was better pickings among the Easy Reader books; I skimmed the shelves and found a few familiar series/authors. The titles are also more descriptive -- Mr. Putter and Tabby See the Stars, for example, prompted a challenge on stargazing and imagination. (Too bad CPL only has one copy!) Checked all of my initial picks against the CPL catalog, discarded a few, checked out the rest. And the library closed as I updated this post.
5 PM: Back home, the light is beautiful and it is neither too warm nor too cool. Poured myself a big glass of chilled water and added some cran-lemonade powder, because that's what we have. (I love cranberry juice, but prefer it diluted quite a bit. We don't often have it in the house.) Small slice of homemade bread. It's meant to be sourdough, but as the person we got the starter from says, it doesn't have much bite. Reminds me of a soft pretzel inside, actually... only lacking the salt.
Petted the needy kitty (just one today; the other's ignoring me), found a Netflix movie to play in the background. Read new discussion posts. Settled in to finish up the challenge cards (actually writing out each activity).
6 PM: 2 books in, the interruptions start. The cat knocks something over. The people moving in (or out?) upstairs are loud over my head and in the hallway. I develop a sudden stabbing headache and craving for potatoes. Small serving of stew, because it will be dinnertime soon -- and while I'm dishing it up, my wife calls to say she's on her way home and ask whether I need anything from the store.
Me: No, I don't think so. I want potatoes. Can we have oven fries with the fish?
Her: Sure... can you cut them up for me and start the oven?
Me: Not by the time you get home! I'm trying to do HOMEWORK. [rant building]
Her: Well, how about I pick some up from the store?
Me: *blinkblink* Oh. You can do that, huh? We're living in the future. Crinkle-cut or wedge, please.
Back to challenge cards.
7 PM: All of the titles are entered, and about half of the challenges. I'm so used to working with no tools, just class discussion... having to encourage use of crafting materials is a different approach. I'm not sure these challenges represent my best work.
Pan-fried fish! And crinkle-cut oven fries. Very yummy.
Kittencam break! They got squeaky.
8 PM: Challenge cards.
9 PM: Listened to the audio CDs for two of the books I'd chosen for this project. Challenge cards finished just before 10. Break for tea. Hmm -- the light is out in both the microwave and the freezer. Good thing I knew where the Thin Mints were.
10 PM: No, I was wrong. I needed more chapter books, and a different format (no more spreadsheet). Surprised at how long it took! All the Thin Mints are gone.
11 PM: Submitted challenge cards to my internship supervisor. Switched to finishing the Tumblr report. Glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow. And that PBS made 3 parts of this documentary.
12 AM: Tumblr formatting and a few more references. Tumble tumble tumble...
1 AM: Finished at 1:30 and submitted via email. It's not the best writing I've ever done, but it's clean copy and will serve its purpose. I like the slide deck better anyway. Logged my hours. (17 this week.)
Thought about writing more abstracts, but I can do those tomorrow. Time for bed!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please be civil to other commenters.