More Online Humiliation

In a further effort to make my entire life public to the world, particularly any embaressing instances, here's a link to all my yearbook photos from HSU, which my lovely employer the UNT Libraries have just digitized.

Ah, more fodder for being teased at work--just what everyone needs, eh?

FYI: ALA in Anaheim

I'll be in Anaheim, CA at the American Library Association's Annual Conference starting tomorrow (June 26th) through Monday evening (June 30th). I may or may not find the time and divine combination of free time + laptop + outlet + internet connection + near beach (ha!) to post more updates, so I thought I'd let you guys know what I'm up to.

I will, however, be spending at least some of that possible free time posting on my professional blog. So if you're curious as to what lofty academic pursuits I'm up to (ha!), feel free to check there.

Solo Weekend

So, Alex is now in St. Petersburg; he informs me that as he is nine hours ahead of us, he'll shortly look up the winning lotto numbers and give them to me. Heh.

In any case, I'm off to ALA in Anaheim early Thursday am, and he's back in Texas the day afterward... I'll be back late the following Monday. We do get around these days.

Yesterday, my department enjoyed a lovely party at Clarice's house. Four of us ladies actually stayed in the pool until 10pm. 'Twas quite nice; I haven't been night-swimming in quite a while, and I've sorely missed Clarice since her retirement a few weeks ago. I stayed to chat with the last stragglers until 11pm, and was back in McKinney at midnight, then groggily woken up at 6:30 by Alex's call to say he was at his layover in London. Then it was off to church with pals Amy and Jaime, who also treated me to a scrumptious lunch of breakfast tacos, and rushed home for my first IM-session with Alex, once he finally got to his St. Petersburg hotel. We talked about Russian traffic and vessel sinks, primarily. (Ah, the joys of house-building.)

I believe the only things on my weekend list that actually got accomplished were purchasing a vanity for the new house's downstairs guest bath, and looking at a lot of vessel sinks and faucets. Here it is nearly 10pm and I haven't ripped a single CD, or cleaned my desk, or packed for California, or written any in my novel. Ah, well.

I have discovered this, however: Vader and stormtroopers dancing to Thriller. Which pretty much glows with Pure Awesome, considering it combines two of my greatest delights. Actually, make that three--I was going to say Star Wars and Thriller, but also the concept of a Dance-Off itself. Yep, Pretty Stinkin' Awesome.

Spring Has Been Broken

er... I mean, how was your Spring Break?

We don't really get Spring Break anymore at UNT as employees, due to a long story that most of us can only tell with a lot of grumbling and an exasperated expression, so I'll spare you. I took three of my vacation days, though, because I had so much homework slip by the wayside during the month and a half we've been working our tails off trying to get the house on the market.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. Actual Spring Break went like this:

• spent Wednesday morning with an upset stomach, but managed to finish New Moon
  
• spent Wednesday/Thursday on still more house-readying tasks (while grumbling)
• spent Friday, Saturday, and a bit of Easter Sunday on homework
• painted toenails two shades of orange (as per my Spring Break tradition)
• took some photos
• got house on the market Saturday morning
• read over script for a comedic video I acted in Monday
  

...And believe it or not, in the only four days we've been on the market, we've had several showings and already have one offer! Talk about blessed. I have no idea if this offer will pan out or not, but man it's nice to get some feedback after all those weeks of work.

Now, I just need about four clones to help me with homework, work-work, keeping the house clean, and planning my 30th birthday party this summer... sigh.

Part of Why I Love my Job

I gave a thesis student maps, data, and web resources for climatilogical and vegetative information about Presidio, Texas and Mexico... and he said, "You're the most helpful person I've ever met."

Dude. It's not just that that's a really nice compliment, it's that I got to use maps and statistics and a student was amazed and happy with the information my department provides. Yay!!

My Fortune

Wow, this is hilarious. I found the link from my pal riofriotex, and the fortune it produced is eerily fitting for me:

My Fortune Cookie told me: Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Heh, heh.


In other news, I'm working remotely--er, I mean I have the day off--at my in-law's house. I'm "babysitting" the sheetrock crew, which is putting finishing touches on the addition that we'll be living in for awhile, while building the new place. Assuming, that is, that 1) we can ever get our place on the market, and 2) that it sells. This, in the midst of 3) all that +40 hours Alex and I spend at work on a weekly basis, 4) that fun 2 hours of commuting a day (how I'm going to miss my satellite radio next month!) and 5) those 9 hours of PhD classes. Sigh.

Yeah, I'm sure it's driving everyone nuts that I have to call them "PhD classes" instead of grad work... but dude, I'm trying to encourage myself as much as I can. It's a lot of work, dangit, and I need to remember I'm working toward that "Dr." label. Otherwise, it's just like, "Wait a sec--I'm still in school? Haven't I been doing this for over a decade... in college alone?" And then I try not to think about student loans.

On the up side, I've been able to get a lot of my professional development work done today. Yeah, that whole "day off" thing doesn't work too well when I feel behind in everything--but it's nice to have time devoted to prodev, instead of answering emails, reference questions, and the normal things I do in my work day. Er, I mean, I actually have still been answering email... right. I guess I saved myself the two hours' commute?

On the up side, when you're a librarian, this isn't called "workacholism." It's pretty par for the course. (Or wait, is that the down side...?) Hey, in the end, it's all because I love what I do.

Okay, back to that prodev. And maybe I can figure out why, when I'm wearing two sweatshirts, jeans, three pairs of socks, and a blanket, my toes are still freezing! Dang that bad circulation.

Tablet-y Goodness

Yay, I finally broke out my Wacom tablet! (It's at work, not at home, but ah well. At least I'm finally using it.)

I hope your Tuesday was both Super and Fat. Mine was very, very long... but it ended in being migrated to Outlook (a big "Huzzah!" all around, now) and learning that 4 hours of no access to email leads to a very sparkling clean office. A silver lining to every cloud, eh?

Published

Well, I'm going to be, anyway: check it out!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

My apologies to those who read both of my blogs. Just in general, really--but also because this is re-posted from the Geeky Artist Librarian.

So, this is another illustration that you should befriend your IT people. Besides the obvious necessity for keeping those that run all our technology happy, and thus getting some bang-up fast/awesome service, there are things like this.

One of our IT guys, who is an English grad student with a penchant for comics (thus our friendship--he loaned me the rest of Planetary over the summer) just dropped this by my office:



He made them for friends around campus to wear today. How cool is that? (And if you're totally wondering what this is about--it's Guy Fawkes Day. Go read/watch V for Vendetta, and you'll get it.) Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

A case of Mountain Dew and some friendly words go a long, long way, people.

Vacation Means Not Thinking of Titles

So, the San Antonio trip/presentations is done, the DC trip and presentation is done, we picked up Bryce, and now we're in Abilene. It's been a packed two weeks! And for once, I've been mostly off-grid--which is both disturbing, and nice. I've been rediscovering the use of the phone for things like checking museum hours, and enjoying the silence of a hotel room with nothing but a comic book in hand (the internet connection having gone bad, and me having not the energy to complain). But a break from email, even for just three days, was a great way to relieve some stress (momentarily, however, as there will be four times as much to deal with when I log in tomorrow).

The DC trip was fantastic--I had a great three days of vacation with Alex and all four of our parents, seeing many thing I didn't have time to see before. And then the FDLP conference was really great--it's nice knowing so many people now. Plus, my presentation went so well and was so packed (upwards of 100 people!) that I was asked to give it again in KC in the spring--w00t! And since Alex's parents stayed while I was in conference, Alex had people to go out and have fun with, which left me feeling at ease about attending meetings I needed to. And even gave me a few hours after my presentation to decompress with that comic book mentioned (Jack of Fables vol. 1, which was as great as I expected). Then I watched part of two of my favorite movies, Star Trek: First Contact, and Stargate (not as great as the series, IMHO, but still awesome, particularly the beginning).

Bryce was waiting at the airport when we got there last night, which was awesome, if surreal, and we spent this morning laundry-ing, re-packing, and catching up on Stargate Atlantis episodes. I think the series will truly be great, now that Sam's on it and they've got the potential for a nice Locutus-esque storyline with Dr. Weir. Oh, and I also re-read Y: The Last Man vol. 1 so that I could then read vol. 2--and man, that series is not overrated. I can't really place my finger on what I like about it so much (unlike Fables), but it's just a heck-ton of fun and fast-paced beyond belief.

Now we're all at the Grand Admiral's place (i.e. Jared) in Abilene, playing Wii and doing a large amount of giggling. I had to take a break to do some work and re-connect to the internet, but I think next I'll read some of my "for-fun" blogs and then sign off. I'd like to take that "vacation = relax" philosophy seriously for another day, considering that tomorrow I need to do some serious homework catchup, type up my conference notes, etc. Sigh.

Promoting Silliness

Today, UNT's Women's Studies Program held a ceremony to honor all female faculty promoted at UNT this year. I took photos, because, well, I'm a big camera dork, five of our librarians were promoted, and also because I was one of them: promoted to Librarian II (a year early--woohoo!!). Our president, Dr. Gretchen Bataille, and our new Provost, Dr. Wendy Wilkins, also came and spoke at the ceremony--it was quite nice.

And then, big dork that I am, I came back to my office and took photos of myself being thoroughly silly. (Yeah, that's a Minx poster in the background for you comics nerds.) Very professional of me, don't you think?

Jayne Would be Proud

You know you want to go read this entire week's arc in Unshelved. Just go. Now.



Unless, of course, the strip above made no sense at all. In which case, I pity you. Greatly. Here's some help.

Punk Librarian

• Reading audiobooks is not cheating. Read more here. (I know Auntie K's going to back me up on this one.)
  
• We all knew that Joss Whedon is genius. Yet here he goes, proving it again, and this time in a freely-available-online comic!! Robots! Aliens! Snappy dialogue! Chick bands!!! The glory of it!
• Wait a minute.... scientists can be wrong? Gasp!
• Airplane rides... purple lighting... USB charging stations... mp3 playlists that stick with your travel account--nope, there's nothing I don't like the sound of on Virgin America's new airline.
• I know you all read this already--most of you sent it to me. But just in case you don't read Penny Arcade, here it is ("guybrarian" episode). (And for once, I actually don't have to put a profane warning on this comic.)
• I know you don't really care, but my left wrist hurts. Not five days after I told my dad that my chronic wrist problem from 1998 - 2004 had finally left after surgery. Dangit.

Oh right, the title of this post. The reason for it is that today, I am wearing (from head to toe):

• my usual spiky-hair edgy haircut
• my cool librarian glasses
• funky triangle/circle earrings
• lavendar button-down 3/4 sleeve shirt
• black "Book Club" t-shirt over that
• Vertigo and Batman logo buttons
• banned books bracelet
  
• "librarian" skirt (funk-i-fied by myself with librarian-themed appliques and some lace)
• awesome tall tall boots (similar to these, without the funky stitching)

The reason why I am wearing all this is three-fold (warning! another needless bulleted list ahead):

1. We're in another round of Gilmore-Girls-obsession, which always makes me want to dress like Lane (post-Mrs.-Kim) and listen to the Ramones.
   
2. I have been listening to too much 1980's punk on my sirius radio subscription in My New Awesome Ride (aka the Dreamsicle).
3. We're really, really low on work clothes at the moment. Our dryer is, well, not. (Drying, that is.)

I may post some punk-ish librarian photos, at that undefined future moment in time when I spend a full 24 hours uploading images from My Awesome Camera. Sigh.

Still Tired, But Excited

...And in about a week, I'll tell you why.

In the meantime, I have to move my office in preparation for my new boss (hooray!) arriving soon, migrate content onto our new library website, finish up everything that has been sitting around since before ALA last month, and get my feet wet as ALA GODORT's Web Administrator.

Whew.

In those moments I can steal to read comics, I'm on Vol. 2 of Planetary--which is only less-than-excellent because each story ends right at the point where I'm wanting more (which I suppose is the point)--and I finished Vol. 6 of Sandman and Vol. 1 of Astro City. Oh, and I started reading Marvel 1602 Monday, but haven't been able to come back to it.

This weekend is my birthday celebration with the Hoffmans (we'll call it my the-last-year-of-your-twenties-is-the-best birthday), and the weekend after that, we hit Abilene for the Board of Young Associates meeting. This time around, Alex and I are each chairs of committees--eek!

And, um, I need to return to my lunch. And my coffee. C ya!

Update: I fixed the previously-non-accessible library website link. Oh, and just to clarify, what I'm hinting at in the first sentence is *so* not about me being pregnant or anything. Just in case you were wondering. (The "tired" and "excited" have nothing to do with each other.)

Yes, I'm On YouTube Now

And I've even got four videos posted. Three of them are from the 2005 Star Wars Line-Up, and one is from the ALA Book Cart Drill Team competition last Sunday. (I've discovered that my point-and-shoot Kodak is perhaps better at taking short videos than it is taking stills.)

Also, we've got a nice little video camera, so we're going to attempt to record the awesomeness of our fireworks show... this is, of course presuming that it doesn't rain more/still. I heard this morning that Lake Lewisville is at 90% capacity, and the Corps of Engineers plans to drain it soon into the Trinity River (which, being at 39 feet deep and apparently not reaching a problem point for flooding until 62 feet, has plenty of room for the extra H20).

DC Day Three

ALA is intense. Or perhaps it's just all that walking, combined with the 15 lbs of laptop/backpack I'm lugging around that makes it seem that way. Every time I get back to the Tabard Inn, I just crash with exhaustion.

I'm not going to be at the Facebook party that starts in fifteen minutes--even if I wasn't dead-tired, I have a GODORT thing to interview for at 8:15am tomorrow. Isn't that a spectacularly cruel time to schedule an interview?

So, this morning, I awoke with great hopes of trying a different breakfast at the Tabard--maybe bagels this time, or granola with homemade yogurt. Only--they serve breakfast at 7am on weekdays... and 8am on weekends. I only had time to frown with sadness, then rushed off to my first session, ERT's Digital Natives. The presentation wasn't really anything I hadn't heard already, but there was an interesting, lively discussion afterward, and the room was jam-packed with people. (The link above also provides some notes taken on the discussion, if you're interested.)

Dreanna Belden from UNT went with me to that, so we then got some much-needed coffee and a delish cranberry-orange muffin from the obligatory 'Bucks kiosk, and sat down for some good chat about life, the universe, and everything.

Then I had to run off to the GODORT Update at the Renaissance Washington, where I pulled up a chair and my laptop to Julie Linden's corner (near an outlet, thank goodness). I briefly got to chat with Kris Kasianovitz, who I met in Oakland through NDIIPP, and then met Amy Stewart-Mailhiot F2F for the first time--she's been generously donating some govdocs for some digitization projects of ours.

I met Dreanna in the hotel lobby, and we wandered off to Chinatown, eventually settling on the "Wok and Roll" where Dreanna had some gorgeous-looking sushi, and I settled for an uncharacteristically less-adventurous beef lo mein. I took some fun, colorful photos as we left Chinatown, and we got the giggles as we passed a tableaux at Hooter's. Four orange-clad buxom gals were outside, taunting a slightly-inebriated male librarian with, "Well, we never went to library school." He was amazed that they knew he was a librarian--until they pointed out that he was still wearing his enormous ALA badge. Sigh.

I went back to the Renaissance for GODORT Leg. II. It's not that I'm a glutton for attending meetings for committees I'm not on, but they were discussing a response to the recent CRS report legislation being considered, and of course that's particularly relevant to my work archiving those reports. It was an interesting meeting, and I learned that editing resolutions isn't nearly as boring as it sounds--or else that's the old English major in me, but I found it fascinating.

And afterward, I wandered in the general direction of the LITA Meet n' Greet, but along the way... I met Meredith Farkas in-person! (And sorry, but you'll have to read that link for the story.)

The LITA Meet n' Greet was... well, not as lively as I was hoping. I was mildly interested in the interest groups on Digital Library Technologies and Distance Learning... but if I become more involved in GODORT like I hope to and only increase my courseload in the future... I don't need one more committment. Unless I find a compelling reason, I probably won't renew my LITA membership next year--I can read their articles, blog, and attend their sessions without being a member, after all.

Coming out of the hotel, I ran into Valerie, Kevin, and Brooke--whom I met for the first time, having of course heard glowing things from Val. Which all turned out to be completely true, as Val went back to her hotel to write a CRS letter for Leg., and Brooke and I whisked through the Exhibits Hall for an hour. During which, I witnessed an amazing performance of female flirting that on her the coveted, swag-filled and quality-stitched Oxford UP tote bag. Clever girl, that.

We parted at 7th and L, and I headed once again toward the Metro and the Tabard. I lugged my technological burden upstairs, changed out of professional and sweaty clothing, and briefly hopped out again to traipse up and down the block with the Digi-Lab camera, capturing the gorgeous architecture.

I came back to have some more of the Tabard's lite fare--this time a mozarella-and-roast-pepper salad that really was lite, but had enough protein to keep me going. I dragged myself back upstairs at the ridiculous-for-one-under-30 hour of 6:45, and promptly spent a few hours in blissfully decadent, useless novel-reading and a half hour nap (finished Deboarh Crombie's Dreaming of the Bones). Suzanne Sears called and we arranged to share a cab tomorrow to Cathy's party, and then we sent awhile chatting and giggling.

I called Alex, but he and Jared were watching "Invincible," so I started being productive, and then chatted with him when he called back awhile later. He and Jared watched the last SG-1 today--completely with my full knowledge and permission before-hand--and said there's a possible second spin-off series in the works, as well as some TV movies. Well, there's hope, then! And, of course, I only let Alex watch the episodes without me under the strict understanding that he has to watch them with me Tuesday night, as well.

And now I'm here, having fully intended to go to bed an hour ago, but being sucked into that novel and my blog/wiki/flickr/Facebook ate up several hours of my life. Ah, well. Thus is the life of a digital semi-native.

Now, I think I'll spend a little more time ignoring my headache, uploading some photos, and looking at the GODORT website in preparation for tomorrow morning. And then to bed, to bed.

DC: Day Two

I might be more exhausted than last night, but it's hard to tell. Oh, how I love, love, love this city.

I had planned to get up early and take the Metro in and just wander about a bit taking photos... but instead, I stayed at the Tabard until past 11am. I slept much later than my original plans--6am on a non-morning session day? What was I thinking?!--and then headed down to some of the Tabard Inn's delicious complimentary breakfast. Homemade cranberry scones with some delicious jewel of a jelly--some dark berry with orange that was delightful--and enormous slabs of honeydew melon that I sadly could not finish. The two cups of coffee was probably more than I needed, but was so nice. I wandered about the Tabard a little taking photos, then headed back upstairs to become engrossed in the wifi and photo editing.

I finally realized it was past time to meet Val, so I hopped out into the sunshine. I took the Metro to the WCC and met Val outside, then we walked to the Austin Grill. We had a great time chatting, and I enjoyed a wonderful chile-rubbed tuna sandwich--the tuna steak was an inch and a half thick and covered in avacado slices.... sooooo good.

After our lunch and gossip, Val and I ran into Cathy Hartman, Larry Romans, and Amy West at the ALA registration area, and they all went on to GODORT-y sessions, while I headed back to the Metro for GODORT's tour of the Senate Library.

I was happy to have the opportunity to pass through Union Station again, and snapped photos as I went down Delaware to the Russell Senate Building. I didn't realize the Senate Library was right next to CRS--tempts a nerdy girl to run in there and make off with a bunch of reports. The tour was fantastic--lots of gorgeous, interesting documents and a pristine Serial Set--I know, this stuff should be on my professional blog, but I'll just link it here. I love that the clocks in the entire Senate building, including the restaurants, have lights and buzzers that are all code for different things--five minutes to a vote, a quorum call, etc. So anyone in the Senate buildings always know what's going on, no matter where they are. And for any librarians needing hard-to-locate government information, the Senate Library not only has a fantastic collection, but they're happy to provide reference assistance to librarians (they don't have a public mission, so they don't serve patrons directly). And they have quite a few CRS reports from the 1970's through the 1990's... hmmm.

I ran into Julie Linden on the second tour, then left the Senate building and walked back to Union in that gorgeous sun--although it was a bit warmer than I was expecting, Texas having been so rainy and cool for the past... how long has it been raining constantly? Since February?

When I got back to the WCC, I got all my ALA gear and officially donned my conference badge--not wanting to look like a likely target, I wasn't wearing it outside the WCC. Then it was time for GODORT Legislation I, so I went up to 209 and turned on my laptop--it was worth all the pain of lugging it around all day just to have it there for instant notes on my wiki, let me tell you. I also met Jennie Burroughs, who's a Facebook friend of mine, and Kristin Clark, who apparently reads my (other) blog--I just love the internet! Cathy was in the session, as was Jesse Silva, who after the meeting showed me the awesome things they're doing at Berkeley with their wiki. He's mashing up pmwiki, Camtasia, and the LexisNexis interface so that the wiki plays the tutorial (in flash), then at certain parts the patron scrolls down to Lexis and actually acts out the tutorial--genius! They've also got related RSS feeds in the right-hand column.

Leg. I was pretty interesting--Jesse's set up a wiki for them, and there was some discussion about having some members participate only online, and what roles they might take. Then I took a few minutes to check email and IM, and then joined the GODORT Happy Hour at the Embassy Suites bar. I met quite a few more people and got the GODORT ribbon for my badge, then left with Cathy and her posse to go find dinner.

We walked down 10th--there was a gorgeous crushed glass mosiac walkway that I photographed--and went to a funky little French bistro across the street from the Ford Theater. Yes, that Ford Theater, girls and boys, the one where Lincoln was shot, and the house where he died was right next to the restaurant. But the real treat was the food--I had some kind of salad I don't think I can even pronounce--Chevre Chaud?--with huge slabs of warm goat cheese that was to die for, and afterward a crepe suzette that was about the best thing involving an orange that I've ever tasted. They finally kicked us out after 9:30--we were the last ones there--and we had a gloriously fun, chatty walk back to the Metro, exited at Dupont Circle, and I wearily pulled myself into the room a bit after 10pm.

I've just got off the phone with Alex, who is waiting for Jared to come over and they'll be make firework preparations this weekend. Now I should be consulting my schedule for tomorrow and sleeping--as I have a tremendous headache and am exhausted--but I'd rather read my frivolous novel, edit and upload photos to flickr, and generally glutton myself with technology instead of being responsible. Sigh.

Today was much less lonely than yesterday, and it was just amazingly fun to be out and about in DC. I am always a grumpy, shy wreck the first day of any trip, and the farther away the place is, the worse I get. The first day in Italy in 1997, I hardly spoke to anyone--even my American travel-mates--but the day afterward I was up for wild adventures like I never am at home. Travel does odd things to people.

I succeeded, I think, in creating a great travelouge of my day in photos, but I wonder how long it will take me to get them up. I think I may forget editing them for now, and just upload as-is, willy-nilly, so that anyone who's interested can follow along my trip.

Oh, and that laptop--it's so worth it, but I think I need to hire a... oh I'm too tired to think of the name. The guys who carry your luggage up the mountain. Yeah. That's world-class blogging right there folks: "It was the thing, with that stuff, remember?" Yeah... Ah, well.

Ta-Daaa!

Check out my new, improved, no-longer-just-my-Portfolio website, aka your Portal to all things Geeky Artist Librarian.

And, um, yeah I still need to add in my previous positions under Experience, etc etc, but I'm just happy that I finally made the portal page I'd dreamed of for the past year.

Now, if I can only get my snazzydecor.com domain to point to it...

Fiiiinally

...I'm perhaps half done migrating and updating my ePortfolio, as my web server's been down for several months and shows no sign of resurfacing. Stay posted for completion.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

• He's 57 today. Forgetful gal that I am, I fully appreciate the fact that since my father was born in 1950, this makes his current age extremely easy to calculate. Which is the sole reason that Alex and I chose to get married before 2000 ended; it makes remembering how long we've been married a breeze. (Not really the sole reason, I guess, but it was a darned practical one.)
• Go, Spurs, Go!
  
• I got up at 6:10 and ran around the block today. Er, that is, I jogged, then rapidly degenerated into a brisk walk and then a wheezing crawl, during which I felt all of my nearly-29-years. But I managed to finish the mile in twenty minutes, and I've got a new schedule to "run" on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
• The plus is that I was completely woken up by the time I got back to the house, and had a ton of energy by the time I got to work (I would have appreciated that energy during my run, but oh well). And I made it up the three flights of stairs at work without being completely winded, somehow.
• UNT's Faculty/Staff picnic for lunch today; ate with the Digital Projects crew.