Comps Countdown - Day 37

• Finished the second perusal of Library and Information Center Management.
• Conducted a five-minute brainstorm/outline session on all old comps questions that focused solely on management (3).
• Determined the results were reasonably satisfactory (still had lots to say after the sand finished falling).
• Wondered that I was actually beginning to enjoy conducting these test runs.
• Speculated whether this positive energy would continue come CE Day.

Quote of note:

“Listen 80 percent of the time, and talk 20 percent.” ~ Stueart & Moran

Library Video - Multnomah County Library

*To learn more about the origins of this video, go here and/or here.

Comps Countdown - Day 38

Found the list of old comps questions while clearing the clutter of my desk.
Decided to conduct a five-minute trial outline.
Chose a question dealing directly with my most recent topic of study.
Approached the topic from one direction for one minute.
Felt my interest wane.
Reread the question.
Used the remaining time to address the topic from a different approach.
Satisfied with the results - mostly.
Concluded that a five-minute brainstorm prior to answering each comps question will be most useful in determining approach come comps day.

Comps Countdown - Days 40 & 39

Day 40:

Thought I’d read through the 5023 textbook one more time (in the hopes that content about planning, organizing, leading, etc., would be subsumed into my sieve-like memory): laundry, lawn, bit of daydreaming. . . made it to page 210/473.

Day 39:

Morning found me determined to complete the second rereading. Afternoon found me in the midst of a busy workday. Evening found me listening to an unusual amount of family unit discourse and watching the season finale of House (notice the political plug in the stall scene?).

Somewhere along the way, I traveled to the ALA website and found that several public libraries are in the midst of attempting to find solutions for severe funding shortages.

“Solutions” I read about:

• budget committee overriding legislator’s proposal
• cut hours
• cut staff
• close the facility
• sign a petition
• cancel summer jobs for college students
• privatize

Disappointedly, all of these solutions are reactive - though I find one of them empowering.

Conundrum: how to refocus intellectual energies towards proaction and advocacy in order to prevent the need for more of these ”solutions” in the future (notice the political plug in the stall scene?).

 

Bizarro Stress Relief

©2008 Dan Piraro

[Click on the comic for a larger image]

The Metamorphosis of a Weed

Before:

After:

Wild Strawberry

Yet more incentive not to mow (not to mention that the tractor has given up the ghost after fifteen years of over hill and dale):

Mystery Flower (Weed?)

Found this flower (weed?) amongst the tall grass of my overgrown yard. I’m guessing it’s a gift from one of the many winged creatures that frequent my yard. No idea what it’s called, but I’m happy to share my humus with it nonetheless.

Forty Feet Up

Evidence that even those trees heavily damaged by December’s ice storm are determined to regenerate:

Library Comic - Speed Bump

Zooming in:

[For a full-size - and much sharper - image of the original comic, click on the thumbnail]