Books of the Year 2012

A list of the books I read in 2012. It is considerably less mighty than those of previous years, for which I blame grad school. I did tons of reading this year, but not all of it was in book form.

1. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi 1/27
2. The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious Searcher by Randolph Hock 1/30
3. The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan 2/24
4. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston 2/28
5. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan 3/2
6. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan 3/8
7. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan 3/13
8. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 4/4
9. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin 4/29
10. The Oxford Guide to Library Research by Thomas Mann 4/29
11. Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin 5/29
12. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin 6/16
13. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin 6/26
14. Out of Oz: The final volume in the Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire 7/12
15. The Craft of Research, 3^rd Edition by Booth, Colomb, and Williams 7/22
16. Bringing It All Together: Language and Literacy in the Multilingual Classroom by Marcia Brechtel 8/30
17. Endymion by Dan Simmons 9/19
18. Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabel Beck, et al. 9/26
19. The Pearl by John Steinbeck 10/30
20. Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons 11/11
21. My Brother Sam is Dead by Collier and Collier 11/ 19
22. The Magician King by Lev Grossman 11/27

Some trends:

• I read books that I assigned to my students
• I read books about teaching
• I read/finished a few series: A Song of Ice and Fire, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Hyperion Cantos, etc. 

Goals for 2012:

• Read at least 52 books (grad school will soon be done, so not unreasonable).
• Ride my bike 1000+ miles.

My Simulated Life

Note: Like my last post, this was also written for my web design class. For an extra credit assignment, I joined a game and attended a story telling event and wrote about my experience. 

I've known about virtual worlds games, such as Second Life, for some time. Although I am an avid video game player, I had eschewed these sorts of first-person avatar-based games. I knew I didn't really like the Sims, for example, and I didn't really see the point of these games either. What did people do there, anyway? Well, for this assignment, I took a look at InWorldz, a second-life style game, firsthand.

So, this is me in InWorldz. Wearing a suit and tie of course because I can be all the more dapper than I am irl (or in real life, for you newbies). Below is my avatar.

I got dressed up and headed over to the Public Library at Delphi (yes, InWorldz has public libraries), which was holding its first live story telling event. I was honestly not sure what to expect. I suppose I thought that the storyteller would read the story over the mic, or something like that.

When I arrived (by teleporting, the only way to travel), the presenter had laid out cushions for everyone to sit on. So I right clicked, selected "sit here," and made myself comfortable. I sat in the back, which is my natural propensity in real life, but which turned out to be a bad plan in game, since my avatar is shorter than almost everyone and because everyone in front of me had little floating labels with their names on them. Unfortunately, but the time I realized my mistake, it seemed rude to get up. Lesson learned.

Most of the attendees seemed to be library board members and executives, as well as some of my classmates whom I had met the day before. I think that, despite the awesomeness of the library, a lot of people on InWorldz still don't know about it. I talked to a few people who told me they'd never heard of it before. I dutifully passed these people a landmark and told them to check it out.

The story telling itself was lead by a ferret (I think he was a ferret?) in a fancy hat. He told a story about a man and a cherry tree that blossoms one day, once a year. The speaker asked everyone to set their environmental settings to "midnight" before the story began, so that we could all experience the mood of the story. The tale was told via the chat box and a number of "slides" that the presenter put up. I'm actually not sure how that effect was created in game, but I think it is really cool how much you can manipulate the environment. The story ended with the entire visible sky being transformed into bursts of cherry blossoms, which was an amazing aesthetic effect.


I think virtual worlds story telling is a really interesting medium. Obviously, something like filling the sky with an image is something that would only be possible in a very high-tech venue, but in InWorldz, it's just another day. I am definitely interested in attending similar events in the future because I think digital art is fascinating. Art is only limited by the environment, and when that environment has no limits, well, then artists rule.

Means of social discourse: GIF stories

Note: I wrote this post for my webdesign class, but I think GIF stories are an interesting trend. While it doesn't really fall under the purview of language learning, it does have to do with discourse analysis, so I think it's fair game for this blog.

GIFs have been enjoying quite the renaissance on today's web. I've started noticing a trend in telling stories with GIFs interspersed with text. Before I get to far into this concept, I want to share this interesting video in the history of animated GIFs that was released this month by PBS.



This video is so great in describing a brief history of the format and their current usage. I especially like the concept of a "post-modern GIF."

That said, I want to discuss what I'm terming as GIF stories. These are a variant in digital storytelling in which the storyteller uses GIFs to express an emotion or idea that is either not clearly expressed in text, or is expressed better through visual media. I think these stem from this idea that the GIF is relating a feeling in a way that the author cannot convey except in the most florid of prose. Most people on the web, frankly, do not have the writing prowess to commit their thoughts and emotions to the "page" quite so expertly. Thus, by my estimation, are GIF stories born.

GIF stories range from simple explanations of annoyances like getting called in to work on one's day off to a full on explication of one's efforts to reconnect with an ex--and the subsequent renunciation of said ex [NSFW language]. What ultimately drew me to acknowledge the awesome potential of this trend was this GIF story posted in honor of International Women's Day [also NSFW language]. This story leverages a number of pop-culture references as well as pointed text to explain what's wrong with the current political situation in the U.S. regarding women. What is so great about this GIF story is that the GIFs use really do transcend what the author might have expressed in writing and allow the reader to experience different facets of this issue. Yes, absolutely, some of the GIFs are just silly, but several of the GIFs make an excellent visual point that corroborates what the text describes. I think it's a very effective piece and an exemplar of this trend.

Books of the Year: 2011

This is the 4th consecutive year that I've kept track of what books I read. Unfortunately, this is the only year where the number of books decreased from the previous year (last year I read 51 books). I attribute this to grad school and being a new teacher. Despite reading less books in their entirety, I know I spent tons of time reading this year. Last semester, it seems like all I did was read. So, even though I apparently read less, I probably read at least the same amount, or possibly more.

Anyway, the books. It goes Title author, date I finished reading it

1. Children of God, Mary Doria Russel 1/2 (don't worry, this is a sci-fi novel)
2. The Rise and Fall of Languages, RMW Dixon 1/5
3. The Forever Machine, Mark Clifton 1/11
4. The Art of Teaching Spanish: Second Language Acquisition from Research to Praxis, Salaberry & Lafford 1/14
5. Double Star, Robert Heinlein 1/16
6. What to Eat, Marion Nestle 1/26
7. The Big Time, Fritz Leiber 1/28
8. Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov 2/17
9. Seedfolks, Paul Fleischman 2/23
10. The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi 2/28
11. Starship Troopers, Robery Heinlein 3/13
12. Foundation, Isaac Asimov 3/21
13. Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov 3/22
14. Second Foundation, Isaac Asimov 3/24
15. Foundation's Edge, Isaac Asimov 4/2
16. If I'm so Successful, Why do I Feel like a Fake? Harvey Katz 4/11
17. Foundation and Earth, Isaac Asimov 4/21
18. The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, Tony Attwood 4/25
19. Aspergirls, Rudy Simone 4/26
20. Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson 4/30
21. Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov 5/18
22. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins 5/21
23. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins 5/23
24. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins 5/26
25. Asperger's Syndrome and Anxiety: A Guide to Successful Stress Management, Nick Dubin 5/31
26. Omnilingual, H. Beam Piper 5/31
27. Containment, Christian Cantrell 6/3
28. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, H.R. Ellis Davidson 6/15
29. Forward the Foundation, Isaac Asimov 6/17
30. The Passage, Justin Cronin 6/26
31. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, Marilyn Johnson 7/1
32. The Wild Things, Dave Eggers 7/2
33. Glut: Mastering Information through the Ages, Alex Wright 7/14
34. Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, David Weinberger 7/19
35. Hyperion, Dan Simmons 7/28
36. Ambient Findability, Peter Morville 8/9
37. Crash Course in Public Library Administration, Wayne Disher 8/15
38. The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War, Michael Shaara 9/17
39. The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons 11/5
40. A Fire upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge 11/24
41. The Lightening Thief, Rick Riordan 11/25
42. California: A History, Kevin Starr 12/28

Trends:

• I didn't manage to get through any books in languages other than English this year. Sort of horrifying, but I think this is indicative of how all-consuming it was to finish my credential/get a job/maintain my job/start my masters
• I started reading through Hugo Award winners, of which I read 8 this year.
• 30 of the books I read were Kindle books, which means I'm reading a lot more digitally. 
• 15 were non-fiction. My non-fiction doesn't seem to follow much of a trend. Once again, I seem interested in everything.

Goals for 2012?

I can't really bring myself to set any goals because I know this year is going to be crazy between work, my MLIS and getting my clear credential. Other things being equal, I hope to read at least 50 books, some of those should be in languages other than English (notably Spanish and Arabic). I want to keep reading through Hugo winners because that has been interesting so far.

My non-reading goal is to write and blog more. We'll see how that goes, too.

It begins

It should be noted by readers of this blog that I'm starting my first year of teaching on Monday. I'm a bit anxious about it but also a bit excited. We've had a lot of teacher in-service and time to prep so, in theory, I'm completely ready. In practice, well, we'll see.

So, school hasn't started but I've already received my first parent complaint. Apparently, I'm not being a "good role model" by not sitting in a chair properly during the parent orientation. I'm the first to admit that I could be unprofessional, but then again, I challenge anyone to find a comfortable position in those little, hard-backed chairs. My principal called me in to discuss it. He said, what I will generously paraphrase as, "haters gonna hate." And on the one hand, I do think it's silly to complain about a teacher in the back of the room not sitting still, it is a good reminder that teachers are constantly being scrutinized. So, fair warning. The game is afoot.

On teams, appropriateness of online learning

One of the main reasons that I wanted to do the MLIS program at San Jose State is because their program is 100% online. The thing that I've always hated most about school is always the actual, physical necessity of being in class. I felt like it would be more effective for me to just stay home and read the book. Unfortunately, many a "participation" grade prevented that. I just get really bored in an actual class, as my teaching cohort, in particular, can attest. I think that I absorb information faster than most people, so classes feel slow for me. I'm always in the back, reading a book or something in a class.

The SJSU School of Library Science has this checklist to help determine if online school is "right for you." I laughed when I read it because I am like a check + for all of those. As readers of this blog doubtless know, I'm always taking up languages and learning them on my own time. I'm (usually, barring everything in my life happening at once) really good about keeping up on them. Readers may also recall that I have tested out of language classes more than once through a self-directed summer of studying. Take that, elementary Persian.

My introductory SLIS class has a segment that is meant to prepare everyone for working in teams. Apparently, I'm not the first person to dislike teamwork. Probably the best advice from the slew of information about how not to completely fail at teams is that the group has to set up clear rules and goals at the very beginning. This is to prevent one person from doing all the work while the rest do only some work. I'm still a little skeptical about that, being someone who always does the work. I am, however, willing to give it a go. And hopefully, people at the graduate level are the sort who really have their shit together and take care of business in a team situation. We shall see.

And now for something slightly different

As usual, I have overestimated the amount of things I can do at one time. Now that I'm starting my teaching job and my MLIS (masters in library and information science for those who haven't been paying attention), I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time for language learning, and hence, blogging about language learning. However, I will definitely blog about that when I do it. For the moment, let's talk about information science.

Being the--I hesitate to say over-achiever so,--early-achiever that I am, I've already read 4 of my textbooks for this semester. I hope they aren't representative of the whole thing because, while they were interesting, I found the information fairly repetitive. The possibility exists that I am, actually, over-achieving and don't have to read the entirety of all these books. In which case, I guess it's my own fault for reading repetitive things. So far, I've read This Book is Overdue, Glut, Everything is Miscellaneous, and I'm about halfway through Ambient Findability (thank you, Kindle editions!). The first three (and to a small extent, the fourth), dealt a lot with the history of information and information management, which was interesting the first time, but less so the second and third. They all seem to use the same anecdotes as well. There's one about Borges making up a ridiculous system of categories for a Chinese emperor, which, I suppose, is used to illustrate the point that categories are only useful to us if things that make sense are grouped together and if the categories are functional. This feels self evident to me. In fact, a lot of it felt self evident to me. I guess it's because I've grown up as a "technological native," but long discussions of  the usefulness of tagging or that information is no longer limited by physical space just make me say, "duh."

I am, however, hopeful that the MLIS program will be interesting. I really like information and I am looking forward to learning how to manage it. I just hope that things get more challenging soon!