I'm In Total Control

I am pretty excited about staying home for Thanksgiving this year, especially because it is our first, both in the new house, and with each other.

I normally get together with my extended family. Maybe it's because we're related that we always did it potluck style. I thought that was how it was done.

J. strongly disagrees with me on this one, believing that when you have people over, they shouldn't have to bring anything.

Making the whole dinner is going to be a lot more work and cost a lot more money. I think it has some perks, though, like designing the whole dinner to your own tastes.

I like most food, even brussel sprouts, but traditional Thanksgiving dinners feature a couple of things I am not crazy about...things that aren't awful, but I would be perfectly happy to never eat again: sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

Maybe I haven't had them prepared the right way. I know for a fact I've had a limited experience with pumpkin pie. Several years ago, my Grandmother made a little spiral bound cookbook entitled "Grandma's Favorite Recipes" that she gave to everyone for Christmas. It includes a recipe for Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie that she took right off of a can of packed pumpkin. I do have to say her pie crusts are exceptional, though I prefer a different filling.

Sweet potatoes just don't have any personality, and I hate the Thanksgiving version with melted marshmallows on top.

Needless to say, I won't be including pumpkin pie or sweet potatoes at my dinner. I hope people aren't as attached to them as I am to mashed potatoes. The first Thanksgiving I spent away from home my freshman year of college was with a family who didn't include them as part of their Thanksgiving dinner, and I called my mom in tears.

Our guests are a lot older than I was then. I don't think sweet potatoes or pumpkin pie will be missed because I'm making a couple of great extra things to make our vegetarian friends happy. And how could a pumpkin pie possibly trump a cranberry mousse?

Another Confession

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but despite being a librarian, I am not a fan of library culture.

I think this started way back in library school, which I hated. I don't know if I could ever like someone who liked it.

I judged my classmates (several of whom later became my friends) as geeks. I am a lot of things, and I am not proud of some of them, but I am not a geek. This was confirmed when I took an online test that classified people into geeks, dorks and nerds. I came up nerd, which I was proud of given the options. I still don't think I am that nerdy other than my addiction to being online.

I maybe shouldn't have said so many shitty things about library school and it's ridiculous information transfer cycles and focus on learning styles. I think I developed bad karma.

I am getting my payback now that J. is in library school. I never wanted to talk about all those theories and models again. Actually, I never wanted to in the first place.
I can't believe I am becoming reacquainted with Bates, Belkin, Dervin Hensley, Kulhthau, berrypicking, the ASK theory, and sensemaking. At least J. hates library school as much as I did and we make fun of these people and concepts.

We read an article the other night about cross-cultural communication proposing if an information professional speaks the same language as the person with information need, the user is more likely to get his/her needs met.

How about: if you have a mouth, you are more likely to speak. If you have ears through which you can hear, you are more likely to listen.