mizarchivist

... Huh. I didn't expect this list to go so long. Ah well.  Have a glorified bullet list.
- Transitions to night work is hard, even when you're not the one working nights.
- Extra free floating hormone-induced anxiety is obnoxious.
+ I took Friday morning off to see Maleficent. QE came with! A nice mini-date.
+ Successful trip to Eddie Bauer and now I have ....(dun dun dunnn!) Adventure Pants! Their travel-friendly fabric is really great and it's nice to have adult-looking clothing that looks good and looks good on me.
+  quiet_elegance was able to teach with his friend Rick on Saturday and post-mortem feedback indicates more gigs to follow!
+++++ Tom and Carol came to dinner Sunday/Father's Day and QE made brisket, aka: Meat candy
- Broke a casserole dish that evening and had to pitch the mac & cheese I made, which was kind of perfect. But ceramic shards in noodles is not good eats. Just ask Alton Brown. (It turns out, I'm allowed to make more mac & cheese later)
+ lifecollage joined the kid and me for a Sunday morning adventure: picnic breakfast at the Yurt's courtyard, then a trip to Cambridge Commons playground. Overall A+ adventure that ended with a long nap that didn't start til we got home.
? I think I may be overly attached to bubble tea right now. Turns out boiling the tapioca pearls right is harder and time-intensive than you'd think, but I'm learning. Favorite flavor combo at home: cow milk, coconut milk, black tea, and limeade with the tapioca pearls. Go-to restaurant flavor is coconut.
- Failed to go to Pride.
+ used that time instead to prep for the big Sunday dinner; half of that time Crime Fighter hung out at Estradell. Then I got to go over, too.
+ Going out this Thursday with book club to see The Fault In Our Stars (FINALLY!), and we're seeing it at the Capitol, so I can walk to/from, *and* lifecollage is backup adult* so I can enjoy dinner out, and-and-and I have a free pass for the movie.
+ I have backup adult coverage for book club-proper next week.
+ I'm taking tomorrow off! For fun! red_canna and I have crafting notions.
+ The kid is transitioning out of toddler/preschool into the preschool class at the end of the month! The median age for his class right now has decreased a lot in the last few months, as is the way of things. A bored Crime Fighter is a dangerous Crime Fighter.
+ My parents and the pup will be here for a week following 4th of July and we're hanging out in Rockport in a rental house. It's going to be grand fun and full of adventures.
+ The to-do check list at work has contributed a great deal to me feeling productive.
- But not enough to keep me from goofing off a bit more than I'd like.

*backup adult: With QE out in the evenings, going out and doing stuff can be complicated if anything starts before... oh, 8:30. The kid seems to sense when I have plans and will go on sleep strike. It's good to have someone else around just in case so fubar isn't left fubar-ed.

I left work after lunch on Friday with our entire system down, so that was a thing. Hopefully it's fixed now.

The trip was pretty uneventful for the travel bits. The Ramada hotel- skanktastic. I can't recommend it for anything beyond a supposedly solid roof, heat and.... uh, anyway. I was glad to have dinner with inkedandkinked  at a Hibachi house that had quite good sushi.

Saturday- up early despite neighbors fighting at 2:30 in the morning, lackluster breakfast, and off to talk tech to church folk, then records management stuff. I've only given a keynote one other time, and it was about a million years ago. This one was peppered with useful queries from the curious and assists from the other tech-savvy folk. There's something about being On, though. I use up all my Mana and then some, so having a useful conversation with all the interested and chatty people who have just one more question or comment was the most taxing part of the gig. But I kept my smile on and did my best to answer them all. Surprise literal bonus was given to me by the organizers, so I will not have to deal with reimbursement silliness, which is nice.

The return trip was mostly uneventful, although I did almost miss my flight 1. because the gate was on a lower level and I didn't realize, then thanks to the noise, I didn't hear them call boarding, but all was well. It meant I didn't have to wait for anyone to get outta my way to sit down! heh. oops. It really is a very short hop from Newark to Boston. I did get to finish Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. I very much recommend it. I even went out to a party last night and had a good time, but wow, the tired hit pretty hard when it came.  And I'm very glad I get tomorrow off as a comp day.

I feel like I'm slowly slipping into other avenues- maybe not so slowly slipping? Good alliteration, though.
This past week, I realized that I could follow twitter feeds with RSS. This means I can stalk some of my preferred geeky celebs without actually participating in Twitter directly. It's very much a slippery slope, as cool people follow other cool people and the list gets longer. I find I'm reading more blog posts of those I'm staking because other folks refer to them and I say "oh, was that good? I just skimmed that before..." Anyway- it steals away more of my time. And for some reason I haven't been in a posty-mood of late, so then I come back after a week gone and want to sum up a whole bunch of stuff, which possibly isn't very interesting to read, but here we go again.

Movies- Wolverine: entertaining but not memorable. Star Trek: like almost the rest of the universe, I thought it was great. Wil Wheaton (Whenever I say that I say it like Stewie Griffin does) just wrote a great review via Suicide Girls' site. Wil particularly talks about the difference between Lucas doing new things with Star Wars and Abrams doing this new Star Trek and I absolutely agree: Lucas shits on his previous work and disparages us for loving said early work. Abrams, on the other hand, is extremely respectful and chose a path that allows the old to stay as it is but still tell new stories. Hugs n' kisses for J.J.

Teaching- I had a successful time teaching off site at my boss's church last Thursday. I left really early in my rented Prius (for a car that runs on smug, it is actually fun to drive although I wish it could simulate more engine noise at higher MPH. "what... I'm going 75 already?!") -I normally have the venue deal with food, but this time seemed easier to do myself, and I think in this case more cost-effective. The actual teaching isn't very surprising anymore- the syllabus hasn't changed drastically for over a year.

Garden- The morning glories are popping up all over in the rose bed. I transplanted a huge number into other parts of the yard and into pots that I'll put next to the ugly chain link fence. I cleared the bed entirely, but now more babies are coming up. Do not doubt that these are invasive. I think purple_terror  referred to them as Darth Glories, but I forget why now. I promise you it was funny, though. I've been remiss in taking any picuteres - Is the second season of gardening like having a second child? Inevitably fewer pictures although you're still enjoying the process? That was rhetorical

Mom! She will be visiting at the end of July. I plan on having a rollerskating event for her- more details later once I get RollerWorld booked.

Superficial silly stuff: I'm really pleased with how much my hair's grown in the past few months. I've also been successful in continuing to go to the gym 3x/week. Good thing, too, since the busy thing and the rain has kept me from being on the bike path as much as I'd like.

I feel like I've been really busy but I don't have a whole lot of stuff on my calendar to show for it- not really. Little things add up, as usual. I am looking forward to a birthday party tonight and a house rewarming tomorrow. Also there's this theory that I'll go see shut_it_already  play football tomorrow as well.  -- OK. I think that's enough for now. :)

Late last week, I had a small flurry of folks sending me the link to the Wired article about Jay Walker's library. Everyone's first reaction is to say "ooooooh." After the oooh wears off, some folks started to notice that the picture on page 5 was somehow reversed and was showing the mirror image. Not me. Nope. I was losing my mind over the Post-It notes on the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle. My compulsion after regaining a semblance of cool was to find Mr. Walker so I could tell him. He had to know.

Emails to the article's author and to the info addy for Walker Digital are sent with the request to talk to Mr. Walker in reference to the article. When a reply comes back from the president of WD, I am pleasantly surprised. My email will be passed up. I leave for the weekend trying not to plot too much about how to wrangle a visit to see the library.

My Monday, as previously noted was busy. I finally checked my email about three hours after I get in and holy smokes, The Man Himself has written to me saying "reach me here." The entire afternoon is lost to a carefully crafted reply.

What I said---
( my letter )
And his reply from earlier today--
( his letter )
My final word was in essence- thanks- feel free to stop by if you're in Boston.  As Robin said when I related this to her: "saving the books, one at a time."

I'm still thinking about the sociological aspect of this. Here's a guy who is a big deal in his field- he made it big, has done innovative things and reaped the rewards. This is not someone I'd ever have a chance or reason to connect with, and yet! He crossed into my world a bit with that library and the dreaded Post-Its. His authority doesn't negate my authority in my own field, so... suddenly it seems perfectly appropriate and even encouraged. This doesn't mean it reduces the weird/woah of it all. I also wonder if there'll be other book guardians who follow my path and try to contact him once they see it, too.

I managed to teach on the topic of primary sources yesterday. Of the nine, seven were very happy with what they were told. Two misunderstood the direction I'd be taking and so were a bit bored. For once I wasn't remotely bothered by this. Yay! My attitude was I never want to teach this again before I even started. Well, maybe I could be convinced. I have the parameters now and that's always the hardest part. One participant asked if I'd do a follow up class. Uh, maybe? If you tell me what you want. I was flailing around so much to prep for this that a more intermediate level on this topic would require a lot of input from those who'd take the class.

The evening was dedicated to food- I'd planned my Love+Butter event for some time in honor of my natal day. Thanks to buxom_bey and woodwardiocom for hosting. Thanks to all for coming- it was tons of fun. And surprisingly not that hung over- yay! I am not good at writing food pr0n so I shan't attempt it. I am happy that it yielded a neat new icon, though.

I survived my round of teaching. Thursday was quite good. The end of the online class was a non-event. Saturday was only 2 students, but we managed. I had not planned for such a small group and we went through the material much faster than we would have otherwise, but I also had leeway to show them some extra videos and featuers (Pandora). They both left reasonably satisfied with the material I shared. The greatest complaint was about the room itself, which I didn't pick.

Online class feedback--- less awesome for our fearless heroine. Given the many factors in play (new material/never used by me, online format, month long- also both never attempted)... I find that when you subtract my in-person energy from the mix, I'm at a serious disadvantage. shrug. Good to know. I can't depend on my charm to get me through a month long online class. With any kind of luck, the online community I built last week (We're past 70 members!) will negate a real need for anything beyond a half day in house tutorial. Still, I survived. I get paid at the end of the month for both classes.

My steampunk/pirate wardrobe is coming along. I've gotten confirmation that as soon as I send money and measurements to the woman who makes these, she will have it back to me within the week. Mine will likely be the green on the bottom and pinstripe on the top. She just sold this one since yesterday.
I also got an answer to the frustration "Why a bloody 26-28" waist?!" It's because that's how big most mannequins are and they photograph well. That's it. Oh. Ok. I can't take that personally. Neurotic moment over. I 'd sent her a pic of me in my wedding dress from the fall and my ego was placated beyond all doubt. I'm a silly bear sometimes, I know.

So, it's the middle of my 3rd week of teaching an online class.
I do not LOVE it. The formatting is what gets me. Without the live face time, I'm constantly in a state of self-doubt as to if my material is reaching them. After 20 days, I'm settling into not ever really knowing most of the time, but that doesn't mean I prefer this mode.
Theoretically, I teach a half day live workshop on the 1st. I only have one signed up- I need to get to 5. It's on a topic I did in the fall, so it's reasonably low stress for what it is. But if there's not enough people, I don't get paid. I like the getting paid part.

One of the off-shoots of my current class is that I've put out feelers to members of the archive community to find other solo professionals (alone in the stacks entirely or alone in the department). The isolation of solo work really does wear on you and having some option of discussion day-to-day stuff/big stuff/share observations- It's a good thing. So, some discussion group. It needs to be free and easy to use for multiple participants adding content.

My options
So- yeah. That's what I have so far. Obviously I'm interested in putting a bit of thought and logic into the structure I wish to see built. I welcome observations.

It's been about a week since I have done anything I'd consider content about me.
Most of my time seems to get eaten up by prepping for this online class of mine. It's the 4th offical day and I think it's going reasonably well. I sent out a little how-you-doin' to those who've been extra quiet, and thus far I've gotten decent feed back about how much I'm offering up. I had been worried about that. Very worried- imagining them saying to themselves why did they bother wasting all this money on lame-ass stuff.

The live chat session I tried yesterday afternoon fell pretty much flat. My method of broadcasting this session wasn't so great. At least one student has lost her password, so can't log in to see anything within the school's system. I also acquired one late comer yesterday who hasn't been set up yet, so maybe Sunday evening will be better.

I also started a wiki specifically for this class, which has been gratifying. The WikiSpaces interface is simplistic in comparison to PB, but I like being able to be familiar with multiple systems. For a beginner set up, I think simple is preferred.

In the meantime, Dad's in town until Monday morning. We'll be doing random stuff. I am taking tomorrow off. We already went to the MFA to look at the visiting exhibits. Tomorrow we'll go down to Hahvahd Squayah for our traditional hangout (started when we visited when I was little and living in Ohio).  Other than that, we're chillin'. Feel free to let me know if anything is happening that he'd be welcome to. (Options, good. We might even take one or two up. Or we might hang out and watch movies)

John Bridger: How are you?
Charlie Croker: [shrugging] I'm fine.
John Bridger: Fine? You know what "fine" stands for, don't you?
Charlie Croker: Unfortnately, yeah.
John Bridger: Freaked out...
Charlie Croker: Insecure...
John Bridger: Neurotic...
Charlie Croker: And Emotional.
John Bridger: You see those pillars over there?
Charlie Croker: [looks behind him and sees the pillars] What about them?
John Bridger: That's where they used to string up thieves who felt fine.
Charlie Croker: After you.

... but I'm not planning on robbing anyone. Just teach.

Both came back after a prolonged absence yesterday. I was starting to wonder if I'd be reunited before I am slated to teach my online class in... 2 weeks. Between then and now I have a 4 day weekend and possibly one in-house workshop that will distract me (workshop may be covered by boss and coworker). About 20 min. before I left work yesterday, I discovered there's an orientation on elearning at my institution. Oh... An all day orientation? Um... will this be covering what I learned over the summer? I dunno. No answer on phone or email, so I may lose another day of prep. Maybe. But! I have my mojo back.