Exam season

Jess on October 29, 2009

I just finished taking the Qualifying Competency Exams that are the second of four tiers to completion of my masters program.  The other three are coursework, proposal/defense of thesis, comprehensive essay examinations.  In our program, quals are fifty true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and short answer questions.  All questions are submitted by the 6 professors who teach our 8 core courses: Collections Management, Data Management, Preventive Conservation, Museum Education, Interpretation and Communication, Museum Administration, Museum Law, Ethics and Standards, and Museology.  Each professor submits around 30 questions to a database and then a computer randomly chooses 50 of those questions with at least several from each topic area and creates a test.  A passing grade on the test is an 85% which means each student must correctly answer 42.5 questions.

I still don’t know the outcome of the exam, but I feel pretty confident about it.  When I reviewed my answers, there were maybe 6 or 7 about which I didn’t feel completely confident, but upon further review (googling), I know that I got at least two of those correct.  I also know that I missed two for sure, but one of the questions isn’t even in my notes at all.  Hopefully for the others, anything that doesn’t fall in my favor I will appropriately defend in my defense of the test with our museum director and program chair when my grade is available.  Honestly, I just hope I pass and I’m pretty confident that I will.  My grades for the program look like A, A, A+, A+, A+, and I’m sitting with As in every other class so far.  I feel like that alone should give me some confidence.

Anyway, the whole process of qualifying exams has kept me so busy the last few weeks.  For future students who may pick up on this post, I don’t recommend always starting with collections management studying.  Once you’ve studied collections management, everything you read seems like an extension of collections management.  Mostly because that professor is so thorough and also because collections are at the heart of what any collecting museum does, but still.  If you start with education or museology or something else, you don’t burn out on a study session as quickly.

The last few days, I’ve tried to stay pretty relaxed and low key.  Soon though, the semester will start making demands of me again and I will have to get back in gear.  To say the least, I’m enjoying the chance to think about things without considering how they might condense down to a standardized test question.

Out of town guests and new sights in an old town

Jess on June 3, 2009

ReAnne is visiting from Topeka this weekend and I’m very excited to explore things about Lubbock that I haven’t visited even though I’ve lived here for over 9 months. She gets in Thursday night at about 9:30 so we’ll probably wait until my class gets out at noon on Friday to have any adventures.

I’m thinking shopping Friday and then going to the First Friday Art Trail, an event that I’ve only been present for and missed twice in the 9 that I’ve been available to attend. I missed it last month because Kristen and Stephen scheduled their barbeque for that evening and once when we decided to see Watchmen instead of going. I think it’s the best start to any month in Lubbock and I’m glad that ReAnne will be here for it. After FFAT, I think we’ll go to La Diosa Cellars and enjoy the ambience. Kyle and I first visited it last week to see one of the communication studies professors boyfriend’s band. Their Bella Riojo wine is about the only wine I’ve ever wanted to try twice, but they had me at “blueberry” and “strawberry” flavors in the description. Mm. Maybe we’ll also go to Melt. If Friday night had a theme it would be “Classy on the Caprock.”

Saturday, we’re barbecuing and then going to karaoke or maybe the dance club we like. Maybe during the day we’ll just relax, go grocery shopping and hit up the National Ranching Heritage Center and the Museum of Texas Tech University. There are two exhibits up—”Spectacular Spectacles” and “A Double-Edged Weapon”—that I have been waiting for her visit to go see. Plus, people like to see where I work when they visit, I’ve found. Possibly, it’s because I work at a museum. An office would be far less exciting, I imagine.

I am leaving the rest of the weekend to fate, letting whatever happens happen. Maybe we’ll go to the wineries around Lubbock. Maybe we’ll try to find some prairie dogs. Either way, I’m excited for her to visit and to see some new things that I have yet to visit here.

The king has returned

Jess on January 16, 2009

Kyle and I got back to Lubbock with Logan in tow on Monday. I’ve been in a frenzy because I’m so behind on school already for a variety of reasons. I missed the first session of each of my classes on account of deciding to stay in Topeka to judge the debate tournament. That decision was the most logical and economically advantageous, but it was still a stress on the start of my semester.

All laid out, my semester is going to be lots of work. I’m reading about 10-15 articles a week, plus a book a week until spring break. I think spring break is really going to be the downward slope, but I’m not quite sure. There is so much to read and respond to and turn in, but I think this semester will be far more intellectually stimulating than the last. Hooray for that!

I also have my first freelance invitation work, I think. I’m going to start doing a draft for that soon. I’m so excited to be designing again and to work out that part of my brain too. I would really like to start doing more work in the same vein if possible.

Kyle is at Denver’s debate tournament this weekend. I miss him terribly. Sometimes, it’s strange, how much I miss him when he’s away like this. We’ve been together for a long time and virtually inseparable since winter break started but I really don’t appreciate the break from him at all. I just keep thinking about how much I miss him, and how delicious the dinner I made myself was, and I wish he was here to share it with me because I think he would really like it. He calls me and sends me texts more when he’s away too, and he called me last night after I fell asleep and then texted me to say how much he missed me. I’ll be so happy when he’s back.

Finished, a semester and a book.

Jess on December 6, 2008

I finished class for a month.  So far I have one grade in for Preventive Conservation and it is an A+.  I am excited for the others to come in.  Overall, I feel confident.  I should have at least an A if not an A+ in collections management and I am expecting an A or an A- in Data Management but it’s hard to say as I have no way to figure out how Mei grades exactly.  It seems, to me… and the rest of us, that she grades based somewhat on how she feels the rest of the class did but I have yet to grasp what exactly she expects out of our writing.  I think she just likes everything to be articulated very clearly which is an important skill in data management and so I think that she’ll give us a good grade because our manual is very detailed.  Also, i was able to figure some things out about Filemaker Pro that can be implemented in the ethnology database and I think she’ll look fondly upon that.  It’s somewhat hard to say though.  I have As on all the other assignments but this is a huge part of our grade.

I’m also satisfied with our collections management plan for collections management.  I think our recommendations were apt and well-explained.  The test we had on Tuesday in that class was totally random as there was not a whole lot of material to test us on.  Usually, we have four sections, Multiple Choice/True False/Fill-in-the-Blank, Short Answer, Lists, and Essay.  This time, we had every section except short answer was somewhat in the first section and somewhat in the lists section.  There was less extra-credit available because there were less sections.  Generally, we answer 20 of 25 in the first section with the extra five worth 1 point each, 3 of 6 in the second with two points available for the each of the other three, 3 of 5 in the third section for two points and then the essay.  Instead, we answered 25 of 32 in the first section, 3 of 5 in the second section and the essay.  It should be fine, though.  I feel like I did well even though a lot of the true/false were crazy specific and not anything we had covered in class or the lab, or much in the readings for that matter.

I also finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova today.  My review from Goodreads.com:

Overall I thought the book was a little too campy. It was about what I was expecting and I was looking for a bit of a break from graduate school and it was enjoyable and a quick read, even at 642 pages. I’m willing to be a little lenient on it because I don’t think I was quite the target demographic and i wasn’t looking for something incredibly heavy or incredibly well-written. I wanted a book that was captivating and The Historian was certainly that.

Still, I find myself unable to get over certain aspects of the story. For one, I think the author fails to create a standalone voice for each story-teller in the book. I can attribute some of this to the preface which explains the narration is not meant to be from more than one perspective but the narrator is citing or quoting from four sources other than her own recall—her father’s stories and writing, Professor Rossi’s writing, and the Chronicle of Zacharias and accompanying explanation. Her father’s story is likely to fall into the voice of the narrator upon recall but the other sources should largely establish their own voice which does not even seem to be attempted. Stylistically, the author could have just not cited them as independent texts as she does, going so far as to dedicate an independent chapter to both the Chronicle and the letters from Professor Rossi. The failure to clearly define a voice for each independent narrator decreased the dynamism of each character.

Pseudo-spoiler begins here: Also, I thought the actual appearance of the character of Dracula diverged from the historical accounts of the man and merged with common folklore. I understand the importance of folklore in the construction of Dracula but felt Kostova had appropriately taken the character in the direction of the historical accounts of Vlad the Impaler. Her effort was largely undone by the appearance of Dracula in the end of the text, no longer the cruel military and political strategist who died in 1477 but instead a kind of protected academic serene and satisfied with his library and secret order of the dragon.

Today we are watching football and enjoying a little bit of being married without the pressure of grad school looming over us.  Mostly, though, we are watching football.

Devon has also been in town this week.  It’s been pretty awesome.  I miss having my brother around and I’m happy that he gets a chance to relax and enjoy Lubbock.  It’s funny how little he stresses us out, being here.  It’s mostly just great to have him around and get to spend some time with him.  I’m really glad my parents ultimately let him come back with us after Thanksgiving.

Test, complete.

Jess on November 13, 2008

I finished my third test in Collections Management.  I feel somewhere between confidence levels of the first and the last, which means that I should get an A.  I also need to remember that most of that which frustrated me were extra credit questions anyway.  So hopefully all will go well.  

Tonight we’re celebrating by going out, possibly to Fox and Hound and possibly to somewhere else.  I’ve been on a crazy Fat Tire kick lately so that’s probably my preference.  But I need not be out too late because I have to work tomorrow at 9 a.m. and I have so much writing and such to get done this weekend.  Oh well.  At least the school week is over in a matter of hours and then I have days to relax and work on writing things as needed.

Can I get a little R&R?

Jess on November 6, 2008

I added a new blog to my RSS feed which is pretty significant for several reasons. For one, it was recommended to me by Joe who is in law school and I have a theory that the reason he largely recommends boring things to me is because much of his life is spent reading things unimaginably boring so he can trudge through things i won’t touch. For two, I very rarely add foreign blogs to my rss feeds. My feed list, as you know, is all culture/art/exhibit things and the blogs of my friends. Therefore, it is quite significant to add something new written by someone I don’t know that was recommended to me by a law student. Without further ado, I’ll recommend it to everyone else too.

Conversion Diary

It’s good, it’s Catholic. It’s written by a former atheist and it is not boring.

In other news, I am in significant need of the break I am taking tonight. I feel like every night this week I’ve been running-running-running and that I haven’t had much time to just relax. Kyle is gone this weekend with debate (in California!) and I am here. But Sunday we had people over for our HBO true blood/entourage rotation and some dinner. And then Monday we went out after his class and that was somewhat of a disaster as I didn’t really want to go but sucked it up in an attempt to be life-giving and he drank too much and didn’t pay attention to my needs to go home and get a good night of sleep before going to class at 8:15 and then Tuesday was the election and Mary’s election party so we were out late. Last night we spent watching West Wing after going to dinner but around dinner we had to deal with his cell phone being broken which took far longer than it should have and then dinner made me sorta sick to my stomach so it was not as relaxing as it should have been.

The date was really nice though. We’ve been pretty nitpicky lately. Partially from spending most of our time together and I think we’re just pretty stressed about things. I’m not sure that our primary mode of relaxation is terribly compatible either. He’s more of a go-out-have-fun relaxer and I’m more of a stay-in-and-relax kind of girl. But that’s okay. I think that we’ll reach a good middle point, and I think I’ll reach a good point in which I’m fine letting him be out when I’m in. We just enjoy each other’s company so much right now that I want to spend all of my time with him. I’m sure this weekend will be good at reminding each other of that.

And I should be plenty busy too. I have thank you after thank you to finish and I have three group assignments to do some writing about. I’ll be happy when the semester is over. I’ve realized that when I sit down to blog about it, I’m a lot harder on the program than I should be. Really, I like it. Most of my professors are great and next semester we get into much more interesting topics, a lot of things that are more interpretive and less collections-oriented. I’ll feel better when that happens.

I’ve also thought about doing one of those stupid grad-student cliché blogs where i extrapolate on the questions which arise in my head during graduate classes in blog form. I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to be that girl yet. I would like to start doing a more topical approach to blogging and not always have it be just a steady journal. A little politics. Some religion. Some museums. Just a bit more activity on my part. We’ll see though.

Every one loves an upset.

Jess on November 2, 2008

I apparently am going to have to blog more regularly as this layout seems to only show my posts written from within the last two weeks. I looked at the PHP and tried to change it but I can’t figure out where the setting is that is set that way. The PHP appears to just call all of the posts in the loop and the settings on my actual wordpress are set to show my most recent 10 posts. Hrm. Oh well, I’ll keep investigating it.

I really have a lot of updates anyway. I had a great time at the MPMA conference in Kansas City. It was totally bad ass getting to be back home. I went out for drinks on Monday with the Cap-J sports department and had the most fun I think I’ve ever had going out with them. I don’t know if it was because we were drinking for longer or because they didn’t have to be more guarded around me since I don’t work there anymore. I also got to see a bunch of people when I was back. I spent Monday and Friday night with my parents and got to eat Mezcal! Woo! I spent Wednesday night with Emily and Jeanine in Blue Springs and Thursday with Joe (somehow, I cannot manage to avoid them even though we both now live in cities that are not Kansas City), Tom, and Roger and then ReAnne, Brandon, Jenny and later Stephanie joined us at the Foundry. Delicious! I had a Dynamite Roll. Probably bound to be a future staple of my visiting Kansas City diet.

The conference was also pretty great. I sat on three or so sessions that I felt were particularly beneficial. One was about how to advocate for your museum politically and another was about blockbuster exhibits. I also went to a how-to on resumes and cover letters in the museum business that will probably help me out a lot in the future. The conference was good and theoretical which I appreciate as I feel that sometimes Tech’s program is lacking in that level. I came back pretty excited about continuing with museums but also unsure of how good a superficial study of current museum practices and procedures is. I just think the program and students would benefit from a theoretical exploration of the things that happen in museums so that if policies and procedures begin to change we’ll understand the reason for those changes when they happen and be able to argue at a theoretical level that goes beyond “this is what we have done since period x.” I’m very excited to get going on correlative courses next semester to say the least. I did get a 102 out of 100 on my last collections management exam which really balances out that 84 I had on the first one. Woot.

Things with Kyle have been very good. We celebrated our two-month anniversary Thursday by getting too drunk at Double Dave’s on 95 cent pints. Friday we really celebrated by going to Dinner at Abuelos as I have been looking for higher quality Mexican here. And then we went and saw the Mountain Goats. Oh em gosh. First, Kaki King opened and she is totally hot and talented like whoa at guitar-playing. You should probably check her out. Second, the Mountain Goats are awesome live. Really, they’re one of those bands like The Decemberists who totally transform their studio set when they play live. They amped it to a whole different level and there was slam dancing and jumping all around. I’ll definitely look forward to the next time they come through West Texas.

Yesterday, we had people over for a barbeque and I made pasta salad and potato casserole and we got a keg and watched Texas Tech beat Texas. It was the most fun I’ve had in quite a while. Probably since our wedding. It was totally brilliant. And Tech won which was even more awesome. We had quite the group. Tuesday, we’re doing it all again at Mary’s for election night coverage. My goal is to take a shot of beer for every state that comes in. But we’ll see. Maybe that’s not my greatest idea.

Next weekend is First Fridays. Woo. And then we might go to the Revival Tour.

What matters is the trip

Jess on October 19, 2008

So I don’t know that I mentioned it, but the university radio station is fantastic.  In addition to having an NPR affiliate that plays All Things Considered later than KPR, they also have a really rad indie station.  Yesterday, i was driving around and this song came on.

By Balloon or Sinking Ship by Jordan O’Jordan

I think it’s great! And it makes me excited to road trip back to Kansas City tomorrow, not that I’m not super excited about that already.  I also have been thinking about doing more interesting things with my blog than I’ve done in the past.  Maybe some music recommendations, some sweet photos I’ve been taking or finding on the internet.  I’m not sure.  I read some more interesting blogs now so maybe I’ll start by recommending those things listed in my blogroll.  I have been especially enjoying The Boat Lullabies at Square America.  It’s great.  Though today’s post is pretty sad.

Let’s see what is going on in my life, shall we?  I got that haircut.  That was pretty swell.  Thursday, I had a huge test in collections management and I think it went really, really well.  I’m trying not to be overconfident about it because I would hate to be devastated by my actual grade when I receive that, but for the time being it’s nice to not be constantly second-guessing myself and my answers like I think I did on the last test.  It’s always a nice feeling to get out of a test and feel good about it… and I’d sort of forgotten what that felt like as my last major testing experiences were in Art History and Collections Management.  Too much memorization!  Thursday was a very, very long day though.  I had the test from 8-9:15, then the professor lectured until 10:15, then Data Management from 10:30-noon and an MHSA meeting after that followed by class from 1:15-5ish.  Gracious.  When that was over I went home and laid down for a few minutes then picked up Kyle and we headed to Triple J.  I was pretty well obliterated and passed out by 10.  Which was a nice end to a long, but mostly okay day.

Friday, we went to the communications colloquium and I watched Katie and Amy present a really interesting paper about manifesting whiteness through tradition and public memory at Texas A&M.  Afterward we went out to dinner at Chili’s with some of the grad students and professors.  I really enjoyed chatting with them and it was nice to have some mental exercise.  Makes me really want to get back into history when I’m done with museum science, I think.  At the very least to use in museums.  I’d just like to teach.  I’m jealous of all the comm. friends who get to.  We also saw W.  which made me disappointed/angry/tired.  After waking up a bit after the movie and having a night to sleep on it, I decided that I didn’t like it because I felt that the characters could have been much more dynamic than they were.  Bush, W and HW, were both dynamic but I felt like most of the cabinet was very two-dimensional and that isn’t very cool.  I just felt like it should have been a lot more than it was.  I’m also not quite sure that i agree with the fundamental premise of the movie.  Mostly, I don’t think the war in Iraq stems as much from W’s daddy issues as Mr. Stone apparently seems to think.  And given his track record with history, I’m not about to take him at his word.

Yesterday, we went to the book sale at the Mahon Library and oh em gosh.  It was incredible.  We spent about 30 dollars and got about 50 books.  I got a bunch of books I’ve really been meaning to buy and read… and I think The Historian is at the top of my list—after all, it’s close to Halloween and I am going through a vampire phase.  Last night we watched the mizzou disaster with Kevin and Jess and Kyle and then went to David Trout’s karaoke again.  I think he is near the top of the list of things I love most about Lubbock.  I even did karaoke this time!  I sang “Wrong Way” with Jess and then Kyle roped me into “it’s your love” which was a huge disaster.  Turns out I am not Faith Hill nor am I familiar enough with the song to actually know when it is my turn to sing.  Ah, well.  Heather came out too as we were celebrating her surviving her twenty-second birthday.

Today has been nursing my knee which I think I sprained when I fell down the stairs yesterday.  Heels + Slick painted concrete staircase + drunk = bad times.  Ugh.  There are skid marks on the stairs from where my heels slid out from under me as I slipped.  Poor thing.  It’s really starting to feel better though.  I can limp around and things just certain positions for sitting don’t feel too comfortable.

Tomorrow, I’m spending the day heading to Kansas City for a conference! I’m so excited to get to be home for a few days!  And the conference should be fun too… especially because I get a bit of a break from my regular lecture schedule which I think is much needed at this point.

I wish I said which less.

Let your hair down

Jess on October 14, 2008

I cut my hair tonight, for the first time, basically, since Kyle and I started dating. It’s right at shoulder length when it’s wet which means it’s about an inch above my shoulder when it’s dry. I’m excited to use my regular gel routine and see how it looks tomorrow. She kind of missed the front when she styled it after my cut today so I have deemed myself unable to take a proper photograph of it for public scrutiny. Judging from how it looked wet, Kyle’s reaction, and my early impressions of it dry… I like it a whole lot. If nothing else, it’s nice to have far less hair to have to deal with. I think I’d gotten tired of it.

Studying is going well although I still need to catch up on that reading. Urrgh. I think the next few days I’ll just have to hole myself up in the library. At least I leave Monday to go back to Kansas City so I have a nice little break from classes and having to worry about tests and things. Just one test and one paper between me and the MPMA conference. Woo. I’m so excited to get to see everyone.

I joined hype machine today. It’s pretty cool, so far. It also syncs with last.fm and twitter which makes it uber-fashionable. Oh yeah.

I hope to start going to the gym soon. Maybe we’ll go tomorrow before dinner.