Continual State of Becoming

So I just looked up Common Practice Period in wikipedia, and it turns out that my definition of it was pretty much right on. And you know if it's in wikipedia it must be true. There I go again, showing my mad scholarly skills... citing wikipedia. I'm awesome.

The other day matt and I were talking, and somehow I was mentioning that I probably wouldn't do very well at studying music theory at graduate school level. I decided this because once you get past what I think is known as the "Common Practice Period" theory (basically up until post-romantic styles... either that or it's just Baroque music... but I'm going to use the term as if it means up until post-romantic music), everything goes crazy because CPP rules no longer apply to that kind of music. So while we have a set of tools for examining, understanding, and comparing music from pre-Baroque through Romantic music, there really isn't anything that is all-encompassing beyond that. Basically this has resulted in the creation of LOTS of tools, that may apply only to a specific genre, composer, or even song. And in all honesty, I just find that quite pointless. I mean the nice thing about CPP theory is that you can use things like roman numeral analysis, form...

Today I registered for classes at the University of Maryland for the last time. Or at least what I hope to be the last time. If this isn't already widely known, it should be... CLIS (College of Library and Information Science... which is the name of the college/program I'm in) is TERRIBLE at registration. Completely unorganized, unaware of how the technology works (you'd think they were the first ones to have ever used online registration), and totally unhelpful if you ask them any questions. Which is pretty much the EXACT OPPOSITE of what being a librarian is ALL about. Way to represent! Anyway, I managed to get through this registration without any major problems (other than one of the online courses being "full" before registration even started... uhh... what's up with that????) So here's what's in store for me for the remainder of my MLS program. Summer 1: Literature for Young Adults. Okay a little bit of a deviation from the whole glamoro...

Things done so far this week: Work: Assisted two professional researchers in finding a resource (each) they couldn't locate on their own. Found a new metro route home which cuts about 10 minutes off my commute time. Figured out that I added twice as many new items to the vertical files collection during March than we usually do in a month. Found lots of interesting art-related websites and such, but haven't sent myself the info in an email yet... once I do, I'm sure I'll post them here. School: Started a paper that's due tomorrow. Umm... except that I didn't really start writing it until today, so I'm gonna be up for a while. Interviewed someone for my music research paper. Finally found resources that address my topic specifically (instead of in a round about way). Finished cataloging assignment in about half the time I expected it to take... maybe it's easier than I thought. Registered for Summer and Fall classes... my last time registering. ...

If you aren't watching the Colbert Report , you should be. Seriously. Program your tivo now.

So tomorrow is my last day of spring break. Did I get everything done that needed to get done? Hardly. grrr... When is the semester over? I did finish my research proposal. It ended up being 10 pages, not 5 (apparently I can write a lot about what I'm going to write about) and I even turned it in a whole HOUR before the deadline. My teacher wrote back yesterday and said it was great and he's looking forward to my paper. And now comes the real work... I worked at the gallery 3 days during the week. I realized that this is probably too much if I even stand a chance of finishing all my school work this semester (that's a big if...). So for a little while at least, I'm cutting my hours down to 2 days a week. I already feel more confident about the time I have to study. I spent about 3 hours straight on Friday just filing this little postcard things... my neck is killing me from it now. I guess I should stretch or something before hand. I spent the rest of Sprin...

Ugh. I am currently writing a research proposal for my music research class. Which means that at the moment I am writing a paper discussing the fact that I want to write a paper. And it has to be a minimum of 5 pages. 5 pages of "I will write about this in my paper" and "I will write about that in my paper." I can think of about 30 other more productive ways to spend my time, but instead I'm writing a paper about a paper I'm going to be writing. And it's due at 3:00 tomorrow... which, by the way is my first official day of spring break. Fabulous.

ps- Since I just copied and pasted the emails in the post below, I just double checked the dates I gave for Bach's birth and death so that I wouldnt have incorrect ones (and make myself look like an idiot). And it turns out that I was right, I knew them off the top of my head. Go me!

If I'm not on my laptop, but I come across something interesting or something I want to remember, I'll usually email it to myself. Here are some of my recent emails: March 14 (Pi Day): Can you believe there is no book titled Nothing and Everything ? I am very surprised by this. very (there are, however, lots of books titled Everything and Nothing ) March 14: www.grahamcaldwell.com glass sculpture, local artist March 13: “Focusing on exemplary buildings of the period, among them, Building 1, Building 2 and Building 3, I will examine how they embodied converging, but also competing conceptions of materials and craftsmanship.” March 13 (same email as above): Hymning is apparently a word. v. tr. To praise, glorify, or worship in or as if in a hymn. March 13: Bio art article from msncb March 13 (same email as above): The fact that some days I really hate the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t structure their information so it is library-ready. It would...

Spring break is next week. I only have Monday and Thursday off though. I have to work the other days. I have all these plans of things I'll be able to get done during spring break, but I'm not sure there will be enough time, either that or I'll just have to be up really late every night working on various research projects. What a fun way to spend spring break. I didnt go to class today. I haven't been feeling well lately, actually that also true for Matt as well (he was sent home from work today). I didnt do much today, finished up some homework and emailed it to my professor, and then some little things around the house. So needless to say, not a whole lot of interesting things to blog about. I think that will be true between now and May... since I really need to start working on my school work more. Oh well, at least I have a few weeks off between the spring and summer semesters, maybe I can have a life then.

This is cool: Guinness Hands

Ugh, I think the metro germs are getting to me. This was a crazy week. In addition to attending my sisters fashion show (which I think was the first time I'd been inside my high school since I graduated), I had my first real graduate level paper due on Thursday, and then last night matt and I went and saw our friend's in Suessical the musical. So today I'm a little worn out, and I'm definitely come down with some kind of cold. But life must go on. Going to the fashion show was crazy, aside from the fact that there were hundreds of screaming high schools and a DJ from 99.5 playing insanely loud music (most of which I'd never heard, but everyone else there seemed able to sing along... I think i'm getting old). I dont really have many fond memories from Herndon High School. And most of the ones that were good, ended up being less than good after I left (due to things that happened post-high school). So it was weird being back, especially at the fashion show, ...