This Side of Lost

Okay, so I'm no Jean Reno. But I feel kind of professional today. This is my 7 hour day at the Chemistry Library, so I was able to tell someone (looking for help following up my bibliographic instruction last week) "Yeah, I'll be here all day..." and I looked all know-it-all for a dude looking for a journal article. "Looks like our subscription for that only goes through 1994... would you like to order it through ILL?" "Why... yes. Yes I would." Boo-yah.

For those of you who care, I have dropped the History of Science course and added the Database Design course. I think this is for the better -- having some experience with databases fills in another hole in my repertoire of computer skills. Even though it condemns me to staring at a computer screen for three out of my four classes this semester. Alas.

So I have that class (hereafter referred to as Databases) on Wednesday mornings. My prof is a big friendly-looking dude named Andy, who is apparently a Ph.D. student in SLIS. I've started a little of the reading, and it's pretty dense... but I'm actually kind of looking forward to sinking my teeth into a more serious computer class. I know I'm good at this stuff, so it'll be an opportunity to see how far I can take it.

My last class, finally, is Info Retrieval. Both this class and Databases didn't meet the first week, due to their professors being out of town. The prof for this one is another Ph.D. student, this time an older woman named Yung Rang Cheng (someone out there help me with the pronunciation -- she said that those who can't pronounce her Chinese name can call her Laura, and I don't want to be that guy!) who seems to be a little cranky. Yikes. I think I'm glad I didn't take Cataloguing from her as well. This class sounds like a lot of work.

So yeah. If last semester was Reference and Management semester, this is Information Retrieval and Organization semester. Good luck to me. In other news:

• Samantha and I hosted some friends for dinner last week. I think it was the first time both of us had ever done so. We were impressed, at least. Since Samantha doesn't have a dining room table, we bought a blanket and some throw pillows and prepared an excellent space for a carpet picnic.
• For the past two weeks, I have exercised at least two days out of the week. This also may not sound impressive, but for a guy who has always been purportedly "too busy to exercise," I'm pretty damn pleased. I've been trying to hit the indoor track twice a week, and also try and frequent a 30-minute group exercise session called Core that works your abs, back and torso kind of similar to Pilates.
• The weather here has been pretty seriously wintery recently. I've been regretting my complaints about the tepid temperatures earlier on. But I'll still take this over rainy any day. Leave the rain until March, please!
• I have some hilarious friends. I thought I was funny in doing one of my assignments for 401 last semester (the result is the StEaDI An link under Storyhill below), but I've got nothing on Davin.
• Quote of the Week 12: No funny this time. Just a particularly poignant verse to a song off of my new Alison Krauss album that's been floating around my head for the past three weeks. It's hard to leave, but it's harder to come back.

"And the people who love me still ask me
When are you coming back to town?
And I answer, quite frankly,
'When they stop building roads
And all God needs is gravity to hold me down.' "

Another Monday morning down. Guess I'd better actually do some work here. Peace, friends.