never go home » school

I’ve got a master’s degree…in science!

dnw — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:05:10 +0000

I went and got graduated yesterday! After getting my official document (“your degree will be mailed to you”), I did some posing with Stella in front of Manning.

I also posed with my great advisors.

Later that night we ended up a party that involved a dead pig, a shotski, and ladies with big belt buckles.

What we’ve been doing

dnw — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:49:50 +0000

E & I have been busy with the end of the semester. She’s making students sweat and I am doing some sweating. Right now I have one 4-6 page paper to go and E has one exam to give.

Last weekend we spent an unusual amount of time in Durham. We really procrastinated on buying tickets to the Found vs PostSecret event at Manbites Dog Theater and they ended up being sold out by the time we got around to getting on the website…but luckily my big sister knows somebody who hooked us up! We actually got to, um, perform in front of the crowd a couple of times (hint: don’t pick us for any charity basketball throwing). The Found crew and the PostSecret guys were great. They’d picked up an eighteen year old sword swallower on their tour stop in West Virginia and he warmed the crowd up with his feats of grossness…

On the opposite(?) end of the cultural events, we went also to see Handel’s Messiah performed at the chapel at Duke. 3 hours is a little long to sit in a church pew (man those things are hard) but the chapel is gorgeous and the music was great. The mezzo-soprano part was sung by a countertenor which, I guess, isn’t that unusual but it mainly reminded me of Monty Python when he sang.

Today, E & I made it to a bluegrass brunch with some school folks and we’re heading back to Durham tonight for the Regulator Bookshop anniversary party! Oh, and one HUGE piece of news to report…Trader Joe’s is open in the C’hill Which is why I’ve made myself sick on chocolate covered raisins, dried mangoes, and tamari almonds.

By the way, I am so happy that Z’s youtube fame didn’t come from a music video like this one.

Things bugging me…

dnw — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:39:32 +0000

Some interesting caterpillars have made their home in our garden. Do you know what they are?

E and I have had a somewhat lazy day with a trip to the farmer’s market & WSM and then back home for some school work. I briefly freaked out because I realized I didn’t get a form into school on Thursday but I think all will be okay. Classes for next semester are online, registration begins in in a week or so, and I am very confused about what I want to be when I grow up…or at least what I want to be in two years.

lack of attention

dnw — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:08:51 +0000

I am trying to be good and read my readings before tomorrow night…but I forgot how dense academic writing can be. I need some strategies to get through, understand, and react to this writing. Any suggestions? I think I may move my study place from WSM to the library for starters. I’ve always studied well at the library. I’ve also slept well there too.

First day of class

dnw — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:34:53 +0000

I made it through my first day of class! So far, I like my teacher and my classmates and it looks to be pretty promising. I left class excited to read the next batch of readings. However, I think the most interesting thing today was that my class was held in New West, where my in-laws took their Computer Science classes in the 70s!

By the way, I am not struggling as much with the bus and I was excited to see that the real-time bus system has upgraded some of their mapping to Google Maps. I still see lots of potential for improvement…and a possible bus blog down the road.

How to (not) take the bus

dnw — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:42:19 +0000

I got my first brief taste of being on campus as a student yesterday. Angela (SILS ’06) gave me a personal tour and showed me where all of the necessities of grad student’s life are on campus at UNC. Surprisingly, everything I need is within a relatively small area– food (including local Middle Eastern & Indian food), books (store & four different libraries), and classrooms. I will try out my sense of direction on campus again tomorrow for the grad school orientation.

I have mostly everything worked out for me except for the bus system. When I left campus, I got on a bus and ended up only halfway home when the bus came to the end of its route. Someday, when I have the full knowledge of my IS degree behind me, I would like to sort out the Chapel Hill bus system’s resources. As far as I can tell, there are at least three different sources of information including:

the Town’s site with basic schedules and maps
a general triangle area bus planner site where you can put in two addresses and it routes you along the fastest route
NextBus where you can track the locations of all the buses in real time.

However, all of these potentially useful tools are on totally different web pages. There must be a way to display all of this data on a single page with a clickable map that is linked to real time bus information and future schedules. The other issues with the bus is that most of the bus stops have very little information about what bus will arrive when. They have all of this real-time bus data but there is only one bus stop that displays when buses are arriving. They should at least have a phone based bus info system where you text message a bus stop number and a bus name and get the next arrival or something…perhaps this is a project for the future?

my parents think i am in grad school

dnw — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:06:12 +0000

It’s been a little while since I registered for classes and I had to revisit my schedule recently to remind myself what I am gong to be taking. So what does an “Information Scientist” study? Here is my first semester:

Human Information Interactions The behavioral and cognitive activities of those who interact with information, with emphasis on the role of information mediators. How information needs are recognized and resolved; use and dissemination of information.

Information Retrieval Study of information retrieval and question answering techniques, including document classification, retrieval and evaluation techniques, handling of large data collections, and the use of feedback.

Organization of Information Introduction to the problems and methods of organizing information, including information structures, knowledge schemas, data structures, terminological control, index language functions, and implications for searching.

Management for Information Professionals An introduction to general management principles and practices intended for information professionals working in all types of organizations. Topics include planning, budgeting, organizational theory, staffing, leadership, organizational change, and decision making.

So, basically, information and its management, interactions, retrieval, and organization. I will need to remember to say “information” rather than my preferred terms like “stuff” or “crap” (which I mean in the best possible way).

My iPhones

dnw — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:26:25 +0000

I just got my first bill for grad school yesterday. Instead of grad school, I could buy FIVE iPhones (the more expensive 8gb variety) for what I am paying for 15 weeks of schooling (or 10 for a year, 20 for two years). I am actually getting a bargain deal on school but it would be fun to say, paraphrasing L, “oh those? those are just my iphones…want one?”

ALA

dnw — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:44:57 +0000

We are back home and back to a normal routine more or less. The ALA conference was fun and overwhelming. Luckily, I had a native guide (thanks Stef!) and I wasn’t expecting too much. I enjoyed the massive exhibit hall (although I never managed to walk all of the aisles). I did learn from the talks…especially about some things I need to learn more about (Dublin Core, SPARC, and other foreign names). I also got to see David Isay and Nick Hornby talk about their new books (both are due out in October but I will bring them to New Jersey if anyone wants to read the uncorrected advance proofs)! I think I need some schooling now to set it all in context but I think I have a couple of ideas about what areas I may want to focus on for my master’s degree. Before all of that, I still need to figure out some way to produce a little income to pay the mortgage since my deal with E is that if I can cover shelter, she’ll cover food and other necessities.