Hal'Narn

Oh...my dream job.  It could be anything, or nothing. I know that I definitely do not want to be a plumber. I know that I definitely want to farm at least part time and try to be as sustainable as possible. I want to have children...and while I don't know if that's my dream job exactly, I think it could be really really exciting.

So, on to my dream job.  I would be employed as a full time teacher at an independent, non-traditional school for all age groups, but I would specialize in late childhood and adolescence.  I would teach subjects in the social sciences, take a very active role in the school garden (because we would obviously have one, and a huge one at that), and act as a mentor and advisor.  I would also play a large role in the overall sustainability of the school building and promote taking care of ourselves, our community and our planet.  Someday I will achieve this.

Now that we're moving to an apartment in a house with a backyard and gigantic garage (in addition to my attempts to make whatever I can instead of buying it) I've developed a really unruly list of projects, which I will now list in order of the month I *hope* to complete them.

June - build compost bin, clothes line, and solar oven
July - plant my garden, build the portable kitchen counter/shelf/pot hanging device, re-tile the kitchen counters, sew skirts and shirts (seeing as I made the patterns 2 months ago), make strawberry fruit preserves
August - build bookshelves, build our platform bed
September - begin winter quilt, take one section of the couch home to be reupholstered
October - Sew heavy curtains to keep in heat in winter

I know there are more things I had planned on doing...thankfully those are the ones I can remember, meaning they're probably the most important. Maybe.  I think make herbal salves was another one, probably something I should do in the summer so I can infuse the herbs/oil in the sun. And make sun tea. And tie dye. And... I'm done. For now.

Indigo Sudbury Campus, an independent school in Alberta which follows democratic principles in education stated this on their website:

"Unhealthy structure, in our opinion, includes: age segregation, pre-determined, externally chosen subjects of study that neither take into consideration children’s interests nor their developmental readiness, the use of fear, competition and punishment to ensure compliance and evaluations that encourage a sense of superiority or inferiority. Unhealthy structure often results in children who have lost the ability to be internally guided and make responsible choices for themselves."

100% in agreement with this sentiment.

8 days left of the semester, for me at least. So much still left to do...

Do the video guides for Project Muse and Literature Resource Center
Finish the case study so I can write my User ed paper (7 pages minimum)
Write my cataloging paper (12-15 pages)
Finish my collection development policy wiki

It's amusing, because as opposed to last semester I actually started assignments a lot earlier this time around. And I still have so much crap to do. Heh.

I went to 4-H and played soccer with a girl who was home schooled. She and her 4 siblings were all home schooled. As a middle/high schooler, I thought this was quite tragic. What a terribly uneventful life she must have (which was so very far from the truth- from what I recall she played violin, soccer, did 4-H and whatever else she desire I imagine). In high school my mother's cousin and his wife decided to home school their daughter. I remember thinking that they were probably the worst parents ever. Their daughter would obviously grow up unsocialized and lacking any sense of normalcy.

This is amusing to me when I reflect on my own supposed socialization and normalcy. I suppose to many people I appeared "properly socialized". Mostly though, public school destroyed me emotionally, with support from my family of course. I was teased relentlessly for any number of things- being the chubby kid, the poor kid, the smart kid. When Mike and I decided (more or less) that we'd do some sort of child rearing in the far off distant future I began thinking about their education.

Here's a great statement from a blog I found earlier that is almost verbatim how I feel about public and even private education in the US:
"Schools tell kids what to learn, when, in what order, and probably the worst thing for my kids, schools told them when they had learned enough. My children learned to become passive learners, taking in only what they were given, no longer questioning what else there might be to know."

I've expressed in previous posts my complete dissatisfaction with the current educational system, both at the K-12 and Higher ed level. I think that many teachers share the same dislike of standardized testing and teaching to the test. I have no suggestions on how to improve this situation.

Therefore, my child(ren) will be unschooled at home. I will practice child-led learning because children, as human beings are just as entitled to have personal interests and pursue knowledge they crave rather than becoming inactive knowledge targets.

with a great, yet somewhat dark imagination.


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

to do:

Write User Ed paper (Intro done)
Do research and write Cataloging paper
Finish assignment 5 for cataloging
Write the collection development policy for anthropology
Write the presentation proposal
Finish the wiki
Finish the ENG 102 lesson plans and teach the classes


Gah.

Tonight was nice.  Mike made us dinner.  Roasted asparagus, red potatoes and red peppers tossed with olive oil and parmesan cheese and Quorn garlic and herb chik'n cutlets.   Transitioning to a meat free diet has been kind of difficult.  I guess it's hard to break the meat and potatoes theme I was raised with.  I no longer eat beef or pork.  I have had chicken a couple of times since I decided to stop eating meat and I still eat fish.  It's a gradual process.  

Seven weeks left of the semester.  Assignments are starting to accumulate and I'm teaching more classes at Canisius.  Teaching is really rewarding.  Especially at this level.  When students begin to understand that research isn't just finding resources but analyzing and interpreting them I feel like I've actually accomplished something.  It's a really great feeling.  

A teaching librarian certainly isn't what I had in mind when I used to think I'd enjoy teaching, but I'll take it. 

After having concluded from the EBM (Evidence based medicine) and the Systematic reviews, that medically speaking there is not enough evidence to circumcise male infants, I've become an Intactivist. 

While researching I found a randomized control trial which was attempting to determine pain management drugs/techniques for infants undergoing painful hospital operations.  This article was from 1991 so it's definitely considered outdated in the medical field. However, it wasn't so much the findings that concerned me but more so part of the procedure. Bascially, they were trying to determine if sucrose helped manage pain in infants during painful hospital procedures (blood collection via heel lance and circumcision).  One group was given a 12% sucrose solution (which they believed would help control pain) while the control group received 2 mL of sterile water.  This seems massively unethical to me.  Not only are they going to cut bits off of their genitalia, but they're not going to give them any pain medication for it. 

Why would anyone want to cut bits off their infants? Especially when one of the main reasons for performing this surgery (even into the 70's and 80's) was to prevent masturbation.  My fiancé was circumsized, as are most American males his age I imagine.  I'm looking for more scholarly information to present to him because I really don't think he understands my feelings on this. From his point of view he was circumsized, has a healthy sex life, no genital disorders or anything - nothing out of the ordinary and everything's great down there.  I just want to show him that while it may not have negatively impacted him, it isn't a necessary procedure.

Google is only your friend if you know how to manipulate it and evaluate the zillions of potentially useless, non-authoritative and false information you're going to come across.  Seeing a teacher tell someone to "just use Google, it's your friend" made me die a little inside.  Am I the only one who feels that Google should have some sort of disclaimer with it? Perhaps teachers in addition to librarians need to be explaining this.  I use Google everyday and depending on what I'm looking for probably not very effectively.  But I find the aforementioned statement to be terribly misleading and irresponsible.  Especially coming from an educator who expects their students (I'm assuming) to have effective research skills.

I know at least one of my LJ friends here is a teacher- but I'm sure you all have some sort of opinion? Let's here it.

Considering I kind of overlooked spring cleaning, I figured I'd give fall cleaning a go.

Here's a really great green-cleaning guide I found, very thorough.  I know I'm going to be much happier chemical free.

It's amazing how weddings get out of control so quickly...

We just looked at our guest list...222 people. So we're having to make decisions on who to invite and who not to invite. Family obviously, but not extended. And only really close friends.  So begins the cutting. Hopefully everyone will understand that we're paying for this ourselves with minimal outside assistance so we can't afford to invite everyone.

People will say, "Well, you should have waited til you were more financially stable before trying to pay for a wedding." In which case, my only reply is, "Even if we had waited, I still wouldn't be willing to pay more than I am now.  For just one day? Albeit one of the most important days of my life.  But, no. I have things I want to do that cost money and are somewhat more important than my family (most of whom I don't care for) and random people I have never even been introduced to." 

Seriously, there are people coming to my wedding that I have never even met before. Granted, they're Mike's parent's friends. I think I have the right to know everyone coming to my wedding though. Especially when I'm the one paying for it.

/rant

a student who realizes why you need an advanced degree to be a librarian. Poor kid though. She was massively confused. 

Professors really need to get their act together.  Granted, some of them are really great.  They communicate with the liaison librarians (more than just letting them know which materials they feel should be purchased for the collection).  Sometimes they bring their students in for a resources instruction class or even invite the librarians into their classroom for more personalized instruction.

Yet, there are the others who never even mention to their students how to find resources.   If you're not going to show them at least invite a librarian in to show them if you're too lazy or "busy" to take them to the library yourself.  They say "I want a ten page paper on yada yada yada....15 sources...yada yada yada...scholarly sources....blah blah blah".  And the students come to the library and they try to find 15 scholarly sources which match the criteria their professors have given them (though most of the time 15 scholarly sources is the only criteria they are given).  Come on dudes, tell your students what a scholarly source is if that's what you want them to give you.  It will take you about 5-10 minutes tops. And nobody gets hurt. Promise.

Generally I tend to lean toward the left, being a democrat and all, but really I'm not fond of either candidate for this upcoming election.

Obviously I am strongly against McCain, but I'm not really for Obama either. Somewhere between a rock and a hard place, I am.

Touché, pussycat.

I'm extremely satisfied with the classes I chose this semester- I feel like I'm going to learn a lot. I am, however, getting kind of frustrated with the LIS department, even though they are finally offering the social sciences class I've been wanting to take since I started the program. I've also noticed that while librarians are amazing (give or take) many library students just have a plethora of unattractive qualities- arrogance being one of them. I've noticed that arrogance is often times just an unfortunate case of excessive self- confidence. Self-confidence is a great quality, though only in moderation. Too much of a great thing really can make some people seem like insufferable know-it-alls.

But moving on, I ended up with an info literacy practicum at Canisius. I'll be teaching classes, creating online tutorials for the databases and catalog, doing collection development, virtual reference, and basically whatever else I want to do. I also just taught my first session yesterday morning- OVID Medline to 2nd year pharm students. Next Wednesday I'm shadowing a RST 101 (Religious Studies and Theology) user ed class at Canisius. This is one of four courses that all freshman at Canisius are required to take, though as Canisius is a catholic college I'm not terribly surprised. I was surprised though when the mentioned world religions aside from Judeo-Christian will be taught. That made me feel better.

In any case, today is the first day since Monday that I will not have spent between 10-13 hours on campus. Yay relaxation.

So yesterday I decided to stop eating meat. I had stopped eating meat for a good portion of high school and the first part of college for the most part until I moved to Buffalo. Now I want to go meatless again. I don't know if I have what it takes to become vegan (though I have certainly eaten delicious vegan dishes). I am going to try to switch from cow's milk to soy milk. We have both in the apartment because Mike drinks cow's milk. Cheese and eggs will likely be the hardest for me to stop eating. I love cheese. I have never tried soy cheese but we're trying to lower out grocery bill to 50 dollars a week (so far we've done it two weeks in a row) and I know that soy products and meatless meat are more on the expensive side. The plus side is that I would be the only one eating them so I would take longer to go through them.

So we just got our weekly farm share and I've devised some recipes for today and the first part of next week...

8/16 Whole wheat pizza with onions, squash, zucchini and broccoli (I've never tried putting squash or zucchini on pizza before, so this should be interesting)
8/17 Tuscan white bean soup with swiss chard and leeks
8/18 Meatless Shepherd's Pie
8/19 Whole wheat pasta with green pepper and onion ragu
8/20 Lentil Vegetable Stew

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are still up in the air. Any recommendations?

For health and financial reasons (meat is becoming kind of expensive on my grad school budget and it's not terribly healthy either) I'm looking to cook more vegetarian meals, think whole wheat pasta, grains, beans, and more vegetables (we get about five-six lbs of random, in season veggies a week through a farm share we're doing). I know some of you are vegetarians *and* cook, so if you could post some of your favorite vegetarian recipes or recommend some vegetarian cookbooks/websites that would be awesome :)