The Gift of the Gab

On Thursday I visited Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone!! There is an old legand that says anyone who kisses the Blarney Stone will be given eloquence, or "the gift of the gab". I had so much fun visitin Blarney. The Castle grounds alone were so beautiful and kissing the stone was quite an experience as well. I can't believe that my time in Cork is almost over. I am not ready to leave but I know that I will come back to the Rebel County (hopefully sometime soon!)

All the Best,
Chelsea

p.s.

Pictures are coming soon! My internet connection is really slow in my room and wont let me upload them right now but I'll be sure to get more up ASAP!

Irish Dancing and "Craic"

Last night I met up with Staci, a girl from North Carolina who is also doing an internship in Cork. We went to the lake where they were playing live Irish music and teaching tourists different Irish dances. Staci and I joined in on a few and it was a lot of fun. I must admit that I looked pretty foolish standing next to the 7 year old girls who knew all the right steps but I had a blast! The older gentleman who was instructing that dances was absolutely precious but he was admit that you stay behind the yellow line! Haha I had a great time. Today I worked more on the Frank O'Connor cards; they are really coming along. I can't believe that I only have about a week and a half left in Cork! It is going to be a bittersweet goodbye. I really love it here. It is such a wonderful place to live and the people are wonderful as well. I can't wait to spend next week traveling and sightseeing. I've got a full itinerary planned: Blarney Castles, Dublin, and a tour of the Cliffs of Moher! I'm so excited and I should have some great pictures to put up.

Until next time...

P.S. "Craic" is an Irish term that can be used interchangeably to mean different things but it is sometimes used to mean fun! It has quickly become one of my favorite Irish terms :)

1300 and Counting

Card # 1300!!! That is the number that I reached today. When I began working on the Frank O'Connor project with Professor Murphy I started with card # 1030. I now it doesn't sound like I have done much but I'm rather proud of completing this many cards. Here is what one reference card may look like (in fact, this is information from a card that I worked on today):

Card # 1278
"The Piper's Band"
"The Cornet Player who Betrayed Ireland" (also, "Solo on Gabriel's Trumpet"-- quod vide)
1) Harper's Bazaar, November 1947
2) Irish Writing, April 1948 No. 4, 11-19.
 HB November, 1947 No. 2831, p. 188, 280-2, 290. United States.
<note> GL, HB beg. 1954
 RL
<note> Michael Frank collection
<note> Have a xerox copy.

To most readers the above information has no significance. However, this is the information that I have been working on since I have started my internship. Each card contains reference information to one of Frank O'Connor's stories (or other works) and the publishing information related to that story.

 I am beginning to think that Frank O'Connor was some sort of Superman-writer because he has done so much. He is best known for his short stories but these notecards also document radio interviews, works he has editied, works that he has written introductions for, reveiws and much more. It is shocking to think that one man could accomplish so much in his lifetime.

Ok, back to the information on this particular card (card 1278). The first line indicates the Title, while the second line is an alternative title for the same story; this is why the line is followed by the phrase "quod vide" meaning cross reference. It was very common for Frank O'Connor to use the same story with a different title depending on where and who it was published by. The publishers are included on the following lines that are labled with a number. Next you will see several initials, these are abbreviations made by Ruth, the woman who spent over 20 years compling these references;  however, now Ruth is gone and it is up to Dr. Murphy, Dr. Lennon and myself to decipher the meaning of these abbreviations. It takes some investigative digging but Dr. Lennon specailizes in Frank O'Connor work and is very helpful in this area. Finally, there are lines labeled <note> which are side notes that Ruth left for herself and we have decided to include them in the referece. Some of these notes may include breif summaries of the plot. So, there you have it, that is what one card may contain. Now try to imagine all of that information on a notecard in barely legable handwriting; its no wonder why I am so excited to be on card # 1300.

Frank O'Connor's work is very interesting and I have learned a lot about him. I am interested to know more about his writing and influences. I hope to learn more about him as I continue this project.

I am enjoying my time here in Cork and I am gaining a lot from this experience.

Until Next Time...

(p.s. this post is dedicated to Charissa who personally requested that I update my blog...hope you liked it Charissa!)

Rain Rain Go Away...

Today was a very rainy day in Cork. Thankfully I was inside most of the day working on the Frank O'Connor project. I continue to make progress! I  am also becoming quite an expert on reading the handwriting on the cards but there are still a few that stump me now and again. I hope that the weather clears up later in the week so Orla and I can go to Blarney Castle. We were supposed to go today but our plans got rained out. I am still having a wonderful time here in Ireland and all is well. I am hopeful that this week Orla and I will begin working on encoding the text for the website which will an interesting experience. Tomorrow evening I am taking a webinar class; it is a seminar that you attend from your computer and it teaches you how to use different websites such as, blackboard and moodle in the classroom! I think that this is going to be very beneficial in my future classroom. I will have to report on that tomorrow.

Until then I wish you all well.

Making Progress

Today was another productive work day. I am going through the reference note cards at a pretty good pace. I am finding that deciphering the content on these cards is much like detective work. I have to determine what is written on each card (and the handwriting is not always easy to make out), I also have to decode the different abbreviations that are used to represent places, people, publishing companies and more! I am very lucky to have Dr. Murphy and Dr. Lennon helping me determine the correct information. Today Dr. Murphy showed me the program that we are going to use to put this text online. The program is called Oxygen and basically what it does is sets up an XML format for your text. We are often familiar with HTML formats; XML is very similar but just a different way to encode text. In a way it is like the back side of the virtual paper that we see online. The codes that are entered in XML tell the computer what each word is (i.e. name, date, place, language etc). As we continue to go through the note cards I will also begin working on the XML and encoding the text. I'm very excited to begin this work because it is a brand new skill that I will be learning. If any of you are interested in looking at XML information or text encoding to see exactly what I'll be working on visit this website: http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/SG.html

Until Next Time...

Greetings from Across the Pond

Wow, I haven't blogged in a few days and so much has happened! First, on Friday evening I went with my suite mate, Jane, and a few of her friends to see a musical that was put on by a local theatre. The show was, "I Love You. You're Perfect... Now Change", it was absolutely hilarious! I had such a good time and I was glad to go out with other people. I have a lot of time to myself here and (as you are well aware) I am a people person so being alone has been one of my greatest challenges. However, things are getting a lot easier and I can't wait to have a full week of work with Dr. Murphy this week. The next adventure that I had was on Saturday. I took a day tour of the Ring of Kerry. The natural landscape was so beautiful. Ireland is very mountainous and the sights we saw looked like something out of a tour book...it was typical Ireland landscape. So breathtaking. I don't remember how many times I said "Wow" when we stopped to take pictures and walk around. I was definitely in awe. We were able to see several different towns and natural sights such as, Killarney, Dingle Bay, Kenmore Bay and Ladies View. It was a very nice but very long day. After returning home I was ready to crash. Today I am working on reading the Frank O'Connor Biography in hopes that I will learn more about him and his work. Tomorrow marks the second week of work with Dr. Murphy and I'm looking forward to seeing her and getting more of this project completed. I will keep you all posted on how it coming along.

Best Wishes,
Chels

Work Day #2

Today was my second day of work and let me tell you there is so much to do! There are over 3,000 digital note cards that hold records of works that Frank O'Connor has published, reviewed, interviewed etc. My job is to go through these note cards one by one and decipher the handwriting on each card. Next I have to enter the card number and the publication information into the computer. Eventually this information will be put onto the Internet under Frank O'Connor's bibliography. There are so many steps to this process and it is going to take a lot of time, patience and effort. I am very grateful to Dr. Murphy assisting me and guiding the process. I am also receiving a Frank O'Connor biography to look over while I work on this project so I can become more familiar with his writing...by the time I leave Cork I will be a Frank O'Connor expert! Well, at least I hope so. My work went well today and tomorrow I am meeting with Dr. Murphy's partner on the project, Dr. Lennon. We are going to go over more details about Frank O'Connor and continue to go through the digital note cards. All is well in Cork and I am having a wonderful time.

Peace and Blessings