Fall 2011 Grades

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The Dirty Life

The very first friend in which I made after moving to the sticks just six years ago is Andrea. She highly recommended the book: The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball and said that I would likely relate to it.

Taking three classes, two of which were literature-based, I didn't have much time for pleasure reading this past term so it was tabled until at least mid-December. A family member was between books so I lent The Dirty Life to them and soon learned that they were moved by the piece and admitted to devouring it in just a few sessions.

Since I am officially on winter break, I have carte blanche to stay up late and read whatever my heart desires. Last night, I finished the book and all I can say is: holy cats! What a terrific read. And yes, I certainly related to the book.

One of the gorgeous and highly annoying things about Mark's personality is that, once he bites into an idea, he'll worry it to death, exploring every possibility, expanding it to the point of absurdity and then shrinking it back down, molding it around different premises, and bending logic, when necessary, to cram it into a given situation. No matter what he is doing or saying or thinking, the idea is perking away in the background of his formidable brain, details accruing. Bits of it will surface, iceberglike, in a burst of chatter, but the bulk of it remains hidden until whole thing appears at once, fully formed and fiercely defended (p. 57 - 58).

My dirty life: plowing with a 1937 JD this
past August

Kimball apparently described me to a T.  (insert sheepish grin)

Publishers Weekly said the following about The Dirty Life: 

Kimball chucked life as a Manhattan journalist to start a cooperative farm in upstate New York with a self-taught New Paltz farmer she had interviewed for a story and later married. The Harvard-educated author, in her 30s, and Mark, also college educated and resolved to "live outside of the river of consumption," eventually found an arable 500-acre farm on Lake Champlain, first to lease then to buy. In this poignant, candid chronicle by season, Kimball writes how she and Mark infused new life into Essex Farm, and lost their hearts to it. By dint of hard work and smart planning--using draft horses rather than tractors to plow the five acres of vegetables, and raising dairy cows, and cattle, pigs, and hens for slaughter--they eventually produced a cooperative on the CSA model, in which members were able to buy a fully rounded diet. To create a self-sustaining farm was enormously ambitious, and neighbors, while well-meaning, expected them to fail. However, the couple, relying on Mark's belief in a "magic circle" of good luck, exhausted their savings and set to work. Once June hit, there was the 100-day growing season and an overabundance of vegetables to eat, and no end to the dirty, hard, fiercely satisfying tasks, winningly depicted by Kimball.  

I loved the write-up by NPR: 'The Dirty Life': From City Girl to Hog Butcher

My dirty life: picking rocks this past summer

My Thoughts:
If non-fiction is your cup of tea and you enjoy reading memoirs, I highly suggest this book -- particularly if you are interested in the "country life." Even if non-fiction isn't your ideal read, I found this book to be very entertaining. It made me laugh, sigh, and even get misty-eyed.

Want the book?
ISBN: 9781416551607; OCLC: 555638400; WorldCat: The Dirty Life; MeL: The Dirty Life

(Thank you for recommending such an enjoyable read, Andrea!)

Semester Wrap-Up

This morning, I am getting ready to head back to northern Oakland County to visit Oxford Public Library -- the library that truly started it all for me. It will be a nice break from working on final projects. 

With that said, I am about 90% done with my portion of the website project for LIS 7420. I still need to make some final tweaking on a few of my pages, validate the HTML, and validate for accessibility. If all goes well, I should have it wrapped up by this evening; however, I still won't be done for the semester as I need to buckle down and wrap up my project for LIS 6510 (which is due on Sunday). Thankfully, I am done with LIS 7560. The project: our class actually wrote a book. It took all semester and some groups are actually meeting next semester, too. 

My goal: to be completely done by Friday and resume writing posts for the 30Y.30L Campaign this weekend.

Technology Tool Chest

Since starting library school in spring of 2010, I been able to experiment and play with different sources of technology. Among my favorites:

Jing: First introduced to me this semester in LIS 7420: Client-Based Website Development. Jing is a free software that can capture images and video on your computer. For a project, I used this software to create an instructional video on how to use MeLCat to interloan a book.

Googledocs: This was first introduced to me in my third semester via LIS 7040: Library Administration and Management. Google hosts online applications that can create word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, drawings and tables. Since winter term 2010, I have used this application every semester for group collaboration (LIS 7340, LIS 6510, and LIS 7560).

Google Wave: This application was first introduced to me during my first semester of library school in LIS 6010: Introduction to the Information Profession. My group used this application to collaborate ideas and content for a ethical scenario. Later, I introduced this application professionally when working on a federal grant with a consultant whom was based out of Okemos.

Dropbox: Like Google Wave, this online data storage was first introduced to me during my first semester of library school in LIS 6010. My group used this application to store our individual segments of a movie we created.

Blabberize: Also introduced to me during my first semester of library school, my group used this fun application to add voice-over to images of various animals for an ethical scenario skit. I also used this application to create an introductory video for LIS 6080.

Filezilla: This free FTP program was first introduced to me in LIS 6080, but I didn't actually use it until LIS 7420 for uploading html and css files to the server.


An oldie, but a goodie from fall of 2010...
Instead of a traditional, "Hi, my name is JC" video, I created monster using Blabberize and an application by AMC MadmenYourself.

Fall 2011 Term

My classes for Fall 2011 term...

LIS 6510: Survey and Analysis of Literature for Younger Children with Suzanne Todd
Description (from the SLIS website):

This course explores the quality and quantity of literature published for children. By applying critical standards to examples in each genre, students will assess the strengths and weaknesses of narrative, art, and information for children from infancy to nine years of age.

Content: Beginning Readers, Magazines, Wordless books, Recorded Media, Formats, Alphabet/Counting, Visual Media, Forms, Toy/Board Books, Songs, Fantasy, Information, Picture Books, Realistic Picture Books, Poetry, Traditional Literature, Concept Books, Informational Books, Mother Goose

LIS 7420: Client-Based Website Development with
Paul Gallagher
Description (from the SLIS website):

Students will be employed by organizations competing in the Information Age characterized by rapid change, voluminous data, and complex dynamics. Student will create and manage websites and utilize application tools to accomplish this as well as to improve the efficiency of the organization’s operations. This course advances the web design and development skills of the library and information science student.

LIS 7420 requires the graduate student to use web design and development tools for websites creation and maintenance. The course focuses on using JavaScript, XAML, DHTML, XML, XSL, and Cascading Style Sheets.

LIS 7560: Seminar in Literature -- Vampires, Wizards, and Superheroes with Professor Diane Walster