July 19
We had an early (9:30am) meeting with the Recorded Sound division and I was the only Recorded Sound Fellow who made it to the meeting. The other two barely get to work by that time, whereas I'm usually there at about 8:15ish or so, depending on traffic and well, how many times I hit snooze. Regardless, I'm always at work by 9. We have a pretty flexible schedule, but we have to arrive sometime between 6:30am and 9:30am and although we are welcome to work more than 8 hours a day and earn credit time to use later, we have to be out of the building by 6:00pm. Anyway, turns out Thom never came in all day and Ali rolled in around 11:30. Umm, yeah, I didn't even ask.
Anyway, our CD-processing efforts were lauded at the meeting. We apparently are really helping out, which is good because I guess they get more and more CDs from the Copyright office each day and have only 5 people in SpecMat (the cataloging division) to process them. Gene, my boss, talked to me AGAIN about what else we are going to work on but he has no answers. We were told yesterday at the party that we will have the big press conference on August 4th and each department is supposed to present the top ten "treasures" that were discovered so the folks at MBRS (Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound) are starting to worry what the interns there will present… none of us are finding “treasures.” Between the Motion Picture and the Recorded Sound units, there are 9 Fellows… which means approximately half of the Fellows in the whole entire program (there are 21 total) will not be able to contribute anything at the press conference. Gene mentioned that there is a box of CDs that we might be able to go through and listen to and determine what kind of music is there and maybe make some findings. He said there are 2000 items in the box and that it’s a lot to go through in so short a time. I didn’t mention to Gene that soon there will be only Thom & I to go through all of it, too. Whatever they decide, I just wish they would make a decision already and give us another project!
Anyway, the day wasn’t all meetings. During the rest of the morning, I processed CDs per usual. I listened to some band called Off by One as well as The Notorious Cherry Bombs and the Irish Tenors. Tran, my trainer, came back from vacation, even though she told me she wasn’t due back until the 25th. I didn’t ask what happened… now I’m in a dilemma, though – Who do I give my work to when I finish it? Tran or Gina? I’ve almost finished another box of brief records and will have to have someone look them over. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the afternoon, I researched In the Red Records, which isn’t complying with Copyright depositing. Fun stuff.
We got an announcement that our presence is desired for a seminar on “How Congress works” (or doesn’t work, heh heh) next week so I am eager to go. I mean, I know the whole ‘how a bill becomes a law’ process but I don’t mind hearing it again from the Library’s point of view. Plus, who knows? Maybe actual Congresspeople will be there to explain it!
You know, I’m basically ruined for CD listening now. I noticed after work that as I put my own David Bowie CD into my CD player, I caught myself looking at the label and noticing the CD number and the label name. I would never have done that two months ago!! I guess it’s no different than remembering the numbers that we used to identify the videos at our video store for YEARS afterward. I still can recite the numbers tied to some videos (320: Return of the Jedi). Also, after I started indexing, I couldn’t read ANYTHING without automatically trying to add indexes to it. I’ve pretty much lost that habit.
Other than that, my watch apparently died, which sucks since I rely on it a lot now that I’m working full-time. I took it to get a new battery but I guess there is something wrong beyond that and a new battery won’t help get it running. Damn! I guess I’ll have to just go back to using my cell phone as a timepiece. Anyway, if anyone comes to D.C. and wonders where to go to avoid the crowds, I now have the answer: Landmark Mall. It’s not that far from my house and it was deserted. I couldn’t believe it. Some Greek guy decided to hit on me and gave me his card and everything, but I guess there were pretty slim pickings for him, what with the mall being so dead!
Anyway, our CD-processing efforts were lauded at the meeting. We apparently are really helping out, which is good because I guess they get more and more CDs from the Copyright office each day and have only 5 people in SpecMat (the cataloging division) to process them. Gene, my boss, talked to me AGAIN about what else we are going to work on but he has no answers. We were told yesterday at the party that we will have the big press conference on August 4th and each department is supposed to present the top ten "treasures" that were discovered so the folks at MBRS (Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound) are starting to worry what the interns there will present… none of us are finding “treasures.” Between the Motion Picture and the Recorded Sound units, there are 9 Fellows… which means approximately half of the Fellows in the whole entire program (there are 21 total) will not be able to contribute anything at the press conference. Gene mentioned that there is a box of CDs that we might be able to go through and listen to and determine what kind of music is there and maybe make some findings. He said there are 2000 items in the box and that it’s a lot to go through in so short a time. I didn’t mention to Gene that soon there will be only Thom & I to go through all of it, too. Whatever they decide, I just wish they would make a decision already and give us another project!
Anyway, the day wasn’t all meetings. During the rest of the morning, I processed CDs per usual. I listened to some band called Off by One as well as The Notorious Cherry Bombs and the Irish Tenors. Tran, my trainer, came back from vacation, even though she told me she wasn’t due back until the 25th. I didn’t ask what happened… now I’m in a dilemma, though – Who do I give my work to when I finish it? Tran or Gina? I’ve almost finished another box of brief records and will have to have someone look them over. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the afternoon, I researched In the Red Records, which isn’t complying with Copyright depositing. Fun stuff.
We got an announcement that our presence is desired for a seminar on “How Congress works” (or doesn’t work, heh heh) next week so I am eager to go. I mean, I know the whole ‘how a bill becomes a law’ process but I don’t mind hearing it again from the Library’s point of view. Plus, who knows? Maybe actual Congresspeople will be there to explain it!
You know, I’m basically ruined for CD listening now. I noticed after work that as I put my own David Bowie CD into my CD player, I caught myself looking at the label and noticing the CD number and the label name. I would never have done that two months ago!! I guess it’s no different than remembering the numbers that we used to identify the videos at our video store for YEARS afterward. I still can recite the numbers tied to some videos (320: Return of the Jedi). Also, after I started indexing, I couldn’t read ANYTHING without automatically trying to add indexes to it. I’ve pretty much lost that habit.
Other than that, my watch apparently died, which sucks since I rely on it a lot now that I’m working full-time. I took it to get a new battery but I guess there is something wrong beyond that and a new battery won’t help get it running. Damn! I guess I’ll have to just go back to using my cell phone as a timepiece. Anyway, if anyone comes to D.C. and wonders where to go to avoid the crowds, I now have the answer: Landmark Mall. It’s not that far from my house and it was deserted. I couldn’t believe it. Some Greek guy decided to hit on me and gave me his card and everything, but I guess there were pretty slim pickings for him, what with the mall being so dead!
posted by Cheri W. | 11:15 PM
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