July 22

Pretty much today was the same as yesterday in that we (Thom & I) just went through a bunch of the CD-Rs to try to find some treasures. I found some Bruce Springsteen song that had apparently only been available on the Internet. Also, I found this neat recording from a science teacher who uses popular songs and changes the lyrics to teach about science. For instance, he uses the melody from YMCA to teach about S-K-I-N. It was cute. And, apparently it works, so says his Web site. There's a bunch of post-9/11 patriotic recordings that I listened to also. There's a LOT of crap too. I mean, it's like any loser out there who wants to make a CD does so and then sends it to the Copyright office. Talent not required. I will admit that I heard some okay bands, too, though. I mean, that Bruce Springsteen has some talent.

Anyway, I guess that is going to be our afternoon project from now on (all 15 more days!) but I plan on going back to cataloging Monday morning. I'm not sure about Thom, though. I heard him tell someone that he was going to be doing this for a week and a half. Oy. While doing nothing but listening to music may sound like a fun job, it gets boring fast. I mean, don't forget that most of this music SUCKS.

So, I spent some of the day slacking off with Ali (and without Ali) since it is her last day today. She promised me a tour and maybe a place to stay in Providence if I find myself there this fall (so if anyone's up for a road trip...)!! It's good that she is leaving because I went out to lunch with her a couple times this week and spent a fortune. Money isn't really an issue with her. The food was good, at least. We went to Tortilla Coast and Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar. Because of Ali's leaving I did get an early glimpse of the nonsense that is required when we leave this place. Lots of running around to get signatures. We aren't allowed to keep our stacks pass OR our ID, which bums me out. I mean, they both expire on August 12th so I don't see what the big deal would be if we wanted to keep them as souvenirs.

That's about all. My parents are due in this evening so I'll be hanging out with them all weekend. That saves me from having to come up with things to do just to get away from the apartment where I'm staying, which is basically what I do every weekend: try to spend as little time there as I can.

July 21

Okay this is going to be a long entry. It was kind of a busy day.

Well, I'd been moaning and groaning about getting a new project for weeks now and today was the day. Thom & I arrived at work at the same time and while we were standing in line to get our bags scanned and metal detected, he starts asking me if I heard what we are doing today, if I know where we are supposed to be. Umm, since I don’t call the bosses up in the morning before I get to work, I thought this was perhaps a trick question… Anyway, Thom had heard last night (after I left) that we were going to have a 2-day project ahead of us. We would be working downstairs in the MBRS reference room all day and not going up to cataloging at all. Which was fine with me… except it was the ONE day I had left stuff at my desk up there, including my leftover lunch, a book I was reading, snacks, a sweater (the building is SO cold, yes, I always have a sweater) and whatever else. I was kind of annoyed, just at the last-minuteness.

So, there is this stack of like 2000+ CD-Rs that Thom & I are going to be “treasure” hunting through. Apparently, we need to present a list of ten treasures that we’ve found during our time here to show to Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, and to prepare for our big press conference on August 4th. Treasure hunting from Copyright deposited-material was supposed to be the main focus of our fellowships. The main problem with coming up with a list is that we haven’t really been treasure hunting. Hence, this sudden introduction of a new project that fits better with the guidelines of our fellowships. Ali was not really asked to participate in this new project, even though it’s only a 2-day one because she is leaving for good tomorrow. Which translates to: Cheri & Thom are working together on a project. Big fun, as you can imagine. I know I was thrilled.

The first step, in Thom’s eyes, was to sort all the CDs by genre. I wasn’t really clear on why this needed to be done, other than because Thom wanted to show off how much he knows about music. I guess the idea is to take a bunch of CDs from the genre that interests you so that you are better equipped to pull out “treasures.” All well and good, unless you barely can put music into different genres like me. I probably couldn’t recognize blues from jazz from folk to save my life. Plus, being CD-Rs, most don’t come with fancy inserts or anything and simply have an artist and song title written on them. Most music experts (like Thom) can’t even categorize something based solely on the name and title. Although Thom liked to think that it was no obstacle for him.

So, Thom decided we should sort so we sorted. Once we got some sorted, we took piles to our respective workstations and tried to listen to them and pick out “treasures.” I don’t know what constitutes good music… I mean, my favorite performer is Madonna and that’s more for the performer in her than her musical talent. So I was a little overwhelmed. Luckily, I soon realized that the music actually isn’t necessarily what makes something a “treasure” but it’s more its historical perspective or its uniqueness or what it says about society. That was sort of what I suspected and that was why I didn’t understand the sorting into piles. Gene backed me up on that. Thom wanted to listen for unique musical arrangements or something which is fine, I guess, but that is not the only thing that makes something a treasure. What I ended up doing was spending some time listening to the CDs but more time just looking these people up on the Web and trying to see if they have any unique stories or anything. I have a couple ideas from what I’ve found but hopefully I’ll find more tomorrow.

So we spent all day doing that, minus a break for a seminar entitled “How to Apply for a Federal Job.” It talked all about “structured interviewing” and how that is unique to government employment. Basically, a structured interview is one where the questions to be asked are prepared in advance and focus solely on job-related issues. One’s answers need to prove their experience. Specifically, an interviewee should use the “STAR” approach in which they should think of a Situation or Task where a problem was faced, then think of the Action took and then describe the Result of that action. I don’t know – I thought this was a pretty common way to present oneself in an interview and was not government job-specific. .

One of the favorite comments around here is “Only in the government…” as if things that occur here would never happen in the private sector. It irks me to no end, primarily because most of the people who make these statements have only worked in the government and so really have no clue as to how private businesses operate. As if HR staff in the private sector company prefer vague answers during interviews and are constantly asking interview questions that don’t relate to the job.

Also, it is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to not have any money to spend on projects. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to have to use your vacation days or lose them. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to have to work within a budget. It is not an ‘only in the government’ situation to hear one thing promised by management and then find that those promises aren’t kept. These are some of the annoying comments I've heard in the 7 weeks I've been here. Sure, there might be some extra paperwork and red tape but ultimately, government and non-government enterprises are really not all that different. Yeah, that's my rant.

Anyway, that was a nearly 2-hour presentation and about the most interesting thing I gleaned from it was the definition of a “slug line” which is a way to increase the number of people in your car so that you can use the HOV lanes on the freeway. However, I’m not a 20-year-old who has never held a job before and from what I heard, some of the Fellows who are in that boat found the talk pretty enlightening.

Next week, we have a talk on How Congress Works. Also, we were asked for our zip codes so that our Congresspeople can be invited to the big press conference on August 4th. I’d really like to meet mine from Ohio (Dennis Kucinich) so that’s the zip code I gave them. I hope he comes!! Our Senators were apparently invited also but I’m more meh about them. Voinovich is okay.

July 20

Another day of CD processing in the morning and record label researching in the afternoon. I worked primarily on making brief records because I don’t like doing them and I’ve put them off for a few days. So, yeah, they had piled up and I spent pretty much the whole morning doing them. I listened to such varied things as Neil Young, Silbermond, My Chemical Romance (although I borrowed that from Ali and not from the Library) and the Fahrenheit 9/11 Soundtrack. I tried to get most of my record label data finished because well, I’m sick of doing it and I keep thinking that one day soon we’ll just move on to a new project without notice and I won’t have things completed.

Anyway, I decided to leave a half hour early, too, to go to the National Zoo. I’ve been wanting to try to go and see the panda bears since I got here but the zoo was a huge bust. The female panda just had a baby and she and the baby are off view now anyway – this I knew. Apparently, the male is only viewable from 8am to 5pm, though – this I did not know until I got there after 5. Who knew the panda worked a set schedule? He must have negotiated a good contract when he arrived. Also, though, there was a sign that said he wasn’t outside today because of the heat. Well, if that’s the case, then I don’t imagine he comes out at all in the summer; it’s hot here every single day!! Despite not being able to see the panda, I still planned on checking out the rest of the zoo, but quite honestly, it’s like the worst zoo I’ve ever been to. I was really disappointed. They hardly have any animals and most of those that they do have are just your basic lions, tigers, kangaroos, wolves and orangutans. I mean, if I can identify the animal without having to read the sign, then you know it’s nothing special because I know nothing about animals. Plus, they have more signs pointing out trees (bamboo) and plants (poison ivy) than they have pointing out animals. If I wanted to see those sorts of things, I would go to the Botanical Garden. Also, they have a sign pointing out free roaming squirrels – as if they brought squirrels to the zoo! Squirrels are EVERYWHERE! In fact, I had one harassing me at lunch the other day right by the Library.

Regardless of its lameness and my disappointment, here are some photos of the highlights. There is a sloth bear, a giraffe and a tiger. Scary! Heh.

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!

July 18 pictures

I know no one cares or doubted me but here I present pictorial proof of the copyright PARTY. See the cake (yummy) and the cake being cut (that's the Librarian of Congress himself, Dr. Billington, on the right) and there is me Vanna White-ing the anniversary banner. Yes, that is me actually in one of the rooms of the Library of Congress (wearing my ID badge, of course), although I know it's hard to tell what with Ali's blurry photo-taking.

July 18

Nothing too exciting for a Monday morning. CD processing and, while I’m working, CD listening. I listened to a variety of stuff today: The White Stripes, Heather Headley, Willie Nelson & friends, The Happytones, Paul Wright (again – I’ve listened to him a few times now) and Destiny’s Child. I didn’t really notice while I was listening but apparently Paul Wright is a Christian singer. Way to ruin my enjoyment, Google.

At 2pm, We had our big PARTY for the 135th anniversary of Copyright moving to the Library, which meant a cake and some punch. The cake was okay – the punch was better. Mainly it was an opportunity for us Jr. Fellows to get our pictures taken over and over and over and over again. Great fun. We also got to chit-chat with the students in the other divisions, which was interesting and which made me really sad, actually. I mean, their jobs seem so much more interesting than mine. Even listening to music gets boring when all you basically have to choose from is Christian rock and Spanish music. Sure, I know, I mention all kinds of other stuff I listen to but the vast majority of the stuff fits into those two other categories.

On a totally different topic, you guys might have noticed I finally learned how to post pictures and so some have been added to my blog. It’s not like it took all that much learning but it was more a matter of only having dial-up at my house and not having 3 hours to kill just to upload one picture. It finally occurred to me to just burn them to a CD and do it at work. (During my many allotted breaks, of course.) So far I have posted some of the trip to Baltimore on July 3rd and the fireworks on July 4th, as well as this weekend's trip to the Air & Space Museum. More to come.

July 16 & 17

Another weekend passed - only three more! My parents now claim they will be here next weekend. I'll be back in Cleveland the following weekend and then I'll be back in DC for one final weekend! Time flies.

I had a pretty tame weekend trying to knock a couple items off my 'To Do' list. I visited Eastern Market, which is like a flea market, farmer's market, arts & crafts fair thing. It was okay. I was primarily looking for jewelry and they had some really beautiful stuff. It was SO hot, though. Unbearably hot and humid. It ended up storming most of the afternoon after I left there. I spent a lot of time at the National Air & Space Museum, which I enjoyed. Other than that, I stayed at home and just vegged out, watching movies. I don't have to be on the go sight-seeing all the time, do I?

Here are some pictures of my trip to the Air & Space Museum. I enjoyed the 'space' part of it a lot more than the 'air' of it (although, yes, you must get in the air to get into space, I do know that much about aviation). The first is the Hubble telescope that was used for testing here on land... the second is an actual lunar module designed for the Apollo missions to the moon and the third is the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Charles Lindbergh used to fly across the Atlantic.