Although still chilly, yesterday had all of the hallmarks of spring. It is amazing what a return of bright sunny days can do for the spirit. The workload has not changed, I still have all of the pressures of the courses, but I feel fantastic! So fantastic that I took last night off from studying/writing papers/doing readings to go to see Sherlock Holmes at the student run cinema. Aside from the fact that it only cost $4.20 (which in itself is a celebration) I loved the film. It was everything it should have been, fast-paced, engaging, gritty (it made London so dark and foreboding) and entertaining. Here's hoping that I can continue to take some time to enjoy, I was able to come back home (well, London, Ontario home) and get more work done in a very productive manner. I think I had forgotten about balance entirely.

Lest some of you think I have given up on my adventure into the MLIS world, take heart, I just took a break from blogging about it. The first week break was due to Research Week, where I was researching what feeling well rested was like. It was blissful. The next break was because of trying to finish up some papers so that I could enjoy Super Conference (I paid for the blissful feeling from Research Week). I truy enjoyed Super Conference!

Tonight was a mixer for the FIMS department (Faculty of Information and Media Studies). I forced myself to go, I was already at home and it was snowing etc. I am glad that I did. It was a needed break from studies, papers due (unfortunately, they are still due) and being down in my basement room all alone. I am a very social being, and I have become less so over the course of this degree (all 6 weeks of it so far). It is good to be forced out into the world again. The only down side of a mixer with students and profs is that you do tend to talk about what you are doing all day long. So, no escape from information science, but at least I was among a group of people with drinks in their hands and smiles on their faces.

For those of you who are counting, you now know that I can't. I am not sure why I have three notes labeled 11, but if you do count up, then yesterday was note 13, which is fitting considering the type of day I had.

I just finished a paper for my most difficult class. Difficult in that it is challenging, the prof is exacting, and it has been a long time since I engaged in purely academic talk on a theoretical level. That said, I am satisfied with my paper, and so, even if the prof is less than impressed, I am at peace. Sometimes it is wonderful being a mature student and having all of that angst wash over you. I have enough to worry about.

My day of shame:

To begin with you must understand the high regard I place on books, conditions of books, care of books, returning of books. I mind, like Epaminondous (a character in a picture book of my youth), very much about books, well he was minding how he stepped in the pies, but that is another story. That is what makes the following confession so difficult for me.

On Friday the staff at the GRC (Graduate Resource Centre aka library) allowed me to take the four volume set of the Dewey Decimal Classification 22 home for the weekend in order to complete an assignment. It was very generous of them, as these do not generally circulate. I was grateful, and promised to return them on Monday, as soon as I got back.

It is very late (early-in the morning actually) and I cannot sleep, for all of the ideas, assignments, deadlines swirling around in my head (it does not help that my pump up bed has developed a lop-sided aspect - but that is another story).

It is curious to me that the pace of change at the instruction level in universities is so slow. Technology and its impact have revolutionized so much. Connectivity and access to information has turned learning upside down. We are all on a journey, all learners, all of the time. Yet, the very way that the buildings and rooms are configured negates much of that connectivity for instructional purposes. The way that most courses are delivered has not changed significantly over time.  That is why the work of Michael Wesch is so exciting. He is using the new web 2.0 communication tools in university education to great excitement, understanding and, well, learning. He is developing it with the students. He is demonstrating his own learning journey.

Today was both a good karma day for the bus (I arrived at the stop to go to school and only waited 2 minutes, ditto for the afternoon). But it was also a bad karma day in another way. The morning bus driver considered stop signs to be a suggestion only, which was thrilling for some, I am sure, and either I pulled the stop requested wire too late for his taste, or misjudged, but I didn't get to get off where I usually do. I only had to walk back one stop, so it wasn't too bad, and I had plenty of time to spare this morning for class, but it was a cold, chilly walk all the same.

It seems to be the law of nature as applies to me, but which ever way I am walking it is always into the wind. This is significant in London, where the wind is brisk and the temperature is low. Today I took a bus that goes wildly out of the way of where I live (getting there eventually in 25 minutes what the direct bus does in 7) just for the warmth of the bus. Tomorrow it starts at -18 with the wind chill and goes to -21 by midday. I am hauling out the parka tomorrow. It amazes me to see these young undergrads clad only in a fleecy and a headband. I guess that is another "you know you are a mature student when" moment. But really, can they possibly not feel the cold?

To think when I started to contemplate coming here for my MLIS, I was planning on commuting on a daily basis. I find Mondays to be very long. Up at 5 am this morning, on the road by 7:30 (after ironing first, and packing up my week's worth of food). Today I dropped off my daughter in Guelph before continuing on to London. This commute was the first time the weather was not in my favour. It was fog with either sleet or rain the entire way. It is moments like this when I treasure my basement room, cold and poorly lit though it is, rather than the thought of driving nearly 2 hours each way on a daily basis.

I have just finished my first paper (sing the Halleluyah chorus)  One down and just 22 to go by April 16th. January and February have some things due, but come March I have on average 3 papers due weekly (and two weeks have 4 assignments due). Hunker down, be focused, and forget about recreational reading for the immediate future, or recreation period! I am thinking like the little engine that could...I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.