Pottermore Wand

On Pottermore, I received a Cherry and Phoenix Feather wand, 10" long, and quite bendy.

According to Rowling, the interpretation is:

WOOD: Cherry - This very rare wand wood creates a wand of strange power, most highly prized by the wizarding students of the school of Mahoutokoro in Japan, where those who own cherry wands have special prestige. The Western wand-purchaser should dispel from their minds any notion that the pink blossom of the living tree makes for a frivolous or merely ornamental wand, for cherry wood often makes a wand that possesses truly lethal power, whatever the core, but if teamed with dragon heartstring, the wand ought never to be teamed with a wizard without exceptional self-control and strength of mind.

CORE: Phoenix Feather - This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike. Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalize, and their allegiance is usually hard won.

LENGTH: 10" is within the average range, and length doesn't have significant impact within that range.

FLEXIBILITY: "Quite bendy" represents an adaptability and willingness to change.

But the second time I took the quiz, it gave me:

SYCAMORE WITH UNICORN CORE, TEN AND A QUARTER INCHES, UNBENDING

WOOD: The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. As may be deduced, the sycamore’s ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous, and when paired with such an owner, it demonstrates a capacity to learn and adapt that earns it a rightful place among the world's most highly-prized wand woods.


CORE: Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard.

Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may 'die' and need replacing.

FLEXIBILITY: "Unbending" represents a refusal to change.

Family Photos Classification

I just have to get this out there: I LOVE classification systems. I’ve always loved organization, and good classification systems are like the epitome of perfected organization.

When posed with the scanning and organization of a large photo collection, I was determined to come up with a numerical classification scheme, somehow based on the family tree. Friends who I told who didn’t have any background in library/information science were totally dumbfounded that I intended to give each photo a unique number that would MAKE SENSE. Friends who were information scientists were also amazed that I would take on such a task, with such high expectations of myself.

It took a couple weeks to develop, but it finally came to me, suddenly.

I figured out how to organize them based on who is in the picture. Since pictures with members of the same nuclear family are most common, I set the nuclear family as the primary arrangement. I created a family tree, and gave each nuclear family a 3-digit number (starting with 001 and increasing semi-arbitrarily). Within each family, I lettered the family members, starting with the father and mother. Thus, every person has a 4-character number. You may realize that as people get married/re-married, etc, they would have more than one individual number. I created the standard that each individual goes by the default of their first (child) number, but the other numbers are indexed, so they can be retrieved according to any of their numbers. That is the numerical scheme for photos of an individual. If there is more than one person from the same nuclear family in the photo, I replaced the letters (a/b/c/d..) with the letters W (parents), X (parents and kids), Y (kids), or Z (parents/kids/grandkids/great grandkids). Thus, each photo is labeled 001d, 060W, etc. Then, once the photos are sorted, I weeded out duplicates, keeping the best copy of each image. Then, as I scanned, I added a 3-digit number to the end, so they each were uniquely matched with their digital counterpart. Final numbers were: 001d_013, 060W_046, etc.

For photos that did not nicely match the nuclear family scheme, I created “families” (999, 998, etc) that described more obscure relationships, or non-family members. All of the photos are scanned as high-resolution TIFFs, with thumbnail JPG versions, and are fully indexed and described in an Excel spreadsheet, so with full text-searching capabilities, everything is retrievable digitally, as well as physically. The photos are saved digitally on my internal hard drive, and backed up on my external hard drive. Once photos are scanned, they are stored in archival storage boxes (naturally in the same order as the numerical scheme). The format (small print/large print/slide/negative) is specified in the description in Picasa so that physical retrievability is possible.

Photo albums were also scanned as a part of the project. I used the basic numerical structure, with an additional field inserted that identified the album. For example, 001e_1950a_p001 would be 001e's first scrapbook from 1950, page 1.

SLIS Assignment

The online environment has been evolving rapidly ever since it came into existence. I was first introduced to Google Calendar in 2007, and was hesitant - I used Yahoo email and a paper calendar, and was content with that. But then I discovered the world of Google collaboration, and the world seemed to open. Google Docs has been an invaluable tool in educational, professional and social collaboration for the past three years of my life. Google Calendar and sharing settings help enable live collaboration. Skype, Elluninate, Wikis, and countless other internet services are amazing tools in collaboration, especially in an online-only environment.


The personal skills needed to succeed as an online student are really quite similar as those needed to succeed as a self-motivated student in a traditional school setting. Since eighth grade, I've done a number of academic independent studies, and found it crucial to set personal deadlines that aligned with the professor's assignment deadlines. If working in a group, deadlines should be clear to all participants for each phase of the project, so everything gets completed on time and nothing is left out.


One of the reasons I was particularly attracted to the idea of an online MLIS is that I am a visual learner. I have often found myself in the position where I was the only one in the class that read the assigned textbook reading, and found the lecture to be a complete regurgitation of the text material. An online program, being primarily textual/visual, is very appealing. I can also hold a job in my area of interest, while doing my coursework after dinner.


I see myself as generally good at time management, organization, self-motivation, working independently, and I love working with technology, and am always up for a challenge. Let the semester begin!

RCHS Store

I just finished re-vamping the Rice County Historical Society Gift Shop! We now have all of our merchandise clearly displayed and marked with reasonable prices. We also have a clearance section, which includes VHS and cassette tapes, framed works, and decorative dolls, among other items.

In addition to the clearance rack, the front display also includes our toys. We have toys for all ages, including bow-and-arrow sets, dolls, puzzles and pencil sharpeners!

We then move over to our adult merchandise section. We have sweatshirts and t-shirts in a variety of colors, as well as gifts for everyone on your list.

Jewelry, dried flower arrangements, thimbles and the like are arranged together on a bed of lace, for your shopping pleasure.

Our pins and magnets are newly displayed together above the counter.

We have a variety of items on display, including glassware, postcards and girls' necklaces.

We also now have two stands for our childrens' books, one rack containing coloring books, the other containing children's books.

And finally, our books are now organized by subject, for your browsing pleasure.

We hope you come visit the Rice County Historical Society Gift Shop soon!

Retail

What is the appeal of retail? Though I didn't particularly enjoy my short stint as a Walgreens Service Clerk, I loved working at The Museum of Flight Store, and I continue to enjoy volunteering at the Northfield Historical Society store. I love organizing stock, and keeping numbers, obviously, but somehow there seems to be something more. How is it that I love folding T-Shirts for display, but not so much at home? Why do I like putting things away on the shelves, like it's a race (while still looking friendly to customers, of course)?

I was excited when I was first given responsibility of improving the Rice County Historical Society's gift shop. I've been working on improving the stock selection and display for the past few weeks, and will continue until I am satisfied with it. We've added some new items to the inventory, but we'll also need to continue to reorganize the displays and update prices to market to our customers.

How does a store sell its merchandise? It's selective marketing; similar to commercials. Children's items must be in low visual range, and have bright colors. For non-fragile items, children should also be able to pick up the toys and play with them; not have them hidden away behind glass or out of reach. Books should be organized by target audience, and by subject. Have you ever noticed that bookstores are organized nothing like most libraries?

• If you go to a bookstore to find a book about apartments and dwellings [613.53], you would probably be surprised to find yourself next to sex books [613.9]
• Bookstores also usually don't have their fiction simply sorted alphabetically by author. Booksellers know that people interested in murder mysteries are probably not the same people who are interested in manga or romance novels.

The books should be clearly divided by subject, and labeled. Customers don't want to have to use a code to find what they're looking for. Don't even make them use the alphabet! Have clear signage, and let intuition guide your organization. Display the top sellers or new items in an easily visible location. Let these top displays vary in price. Not everyone will want to buy the new leather-bound $50 collectors edition. Also proudly display your $1 bookmarks or booklets.

Happy selling!

Northfield Townie

This evening, I had a discussion about when you are considered a Townie. Clearly if you are born in Northfield, you are automatically a Townie. But if you move there later, when is the line? Dan had told me that he drew the line at 15 years (at least I think that's what he said...something like that). Though he came up with the number randomly, he's stuck with it ever since. I also had thought about that you're a Townie when you begin to almost take offense at when Northfield is called a “small town,” since compared to the surrounding population, Northfield is a very large town.

Sue believed that being a Townie is made up of mindset and connectedness, much more than time. She moved to Northfield in 1993, but 18 years later, still doesn't consider herself a Townie. Her social life is not in Northfield, and never really has been. She kind of agreed about the idea of taking offense at “small town.” She did NOT take offense when I said it; she rather considers Northfield a small-town herself. Slowly, I began to realize that even though she knows more names and people than I do, and has been in Northfield almost the whole time I've been alive, she's still less of a Townie than I am. But she doesn't really desire to be one either. She is tightly connected to the cities, and likes it so. She also pointed out that she didn't go to either St. Olaf or Carleton, and thereby lacks a major connection to Northfield. By no means are all Townies Carls or Oles, or are all Carls or Oles Townies, being one or the other still does represent a tie to the town, via one of the schools.

I told her that I had often considered the epitome of a Townie to be someone deeply involved with DJJD. She definitely agreed with that point. I told her that I had always considered DJJD to be an exclusive group that had almost a life-long wait-list. To me, it is the only social group in Northfield worth waiting to enter. I told her that the reenactors were the center of the DJJD group in my mind, and it absolutely amazed me when Chip opened the possibility of being a townie in the reenactment for me last week. Sue finally said, “I think that's it. The fact that you were invited shows that you're a townie.” I'm a townie?! Already??

In my interview, when asked “What are you most proud of?” I answered with: “Major accomplishments. Not so much the checking off of things on a list, but the knowledge that I accomplished something.” Though this is very different, it still gives me a similar feeling. I am proud of belonging. I was proud to audition into the St. Olaf Band, but I was also proud to call myself a member and feel the camaraderie of the group. Likewise, I was excited to begin volunteering at NHS in 2008, but now I am proud to have even just one person consider me a part of the group; a Northfield Townie.

Other Northfield Townies – What are your thoughts? What does it take to become a Townie? What does it mean to be a Townie?

Thai Food

After work today, Sue and I went to a Thai restaurant in Faribault. After looking through the menu for a minute, the waiter asked what we were thinking about ordering. I said I was thinking about the pineapple fried rice. He said, “Might I recommend the Phad Thai?” “When I go to Thai restaurants, I sometimes try not to order Phad Thai, because it's what everyone gets.” “Well, our chef makes an excellent sauce, whereas fried rice, you can get at any Chinese buffet.” “Uhh, right. I'll think about that.”

What do you say to that? Asian restaurants in non-Asian areas are so different from Asian restaurants in areas with a high Asian population. “They assume you know nothing,” as Sue put it. I ended up ordering another dish; not fried rice or Phad Thai. It was good. But really, I wonder what the chef would have thought about his waiter comparing his fried rice to Joe Schmoe's Chinese Buffet fried rice. I really think the fried rice would have been better than that; I would give the food pretty good marks overall. Also, after I went through the usual “Yes, I really want TEN out of FIVE stars” routine, and he brought the food, he reminded me that if it wasn't hot enough, I could use “that.” He pointed at the condiment display on the table. I said “Yes, I know Siracha.” He said, “No, I meant that.” “This?” I said as I pointed to the jar of chili oil. “That's chili oil. That has fat. Siracha doesn't.” He didn't know what to say. I don't think he knew what either one was, though he seemed vaguely aware that chili oil was hotter (at least per ounce) than Siracha.