LE@D Video Shoot (aka Goofy Librarian Skilz)

I used to work for the Center for Distributed Learning at UNT, back before I thought it was a grand idea to both attend school full-time and work full-time. In any case, they were a grand crew of people who had the amusing pleasure of finding out lots of my previously-hidden geeky secrets. Thus, I soon gave up my pretense of being a dignified young professional and acted more like my goofy self in their company.

Thus, when their LE@D (Lifelong Education at Desktop) program needed to shoot a video starring a goofy librarian... I was the first person they thought of.



So yesterday, I spent the morning over-acting my goofy heart out, while being followed around the third floor of the library by a mass of professional-looking camera equipment. The video's scenario is that I'm a librarian trying to take an online LE@D course, but I can't find the time to take it--I'm being interrupted at the reference desk, circulation, public computers, the breakroom, and finally make my escape to a stall in the women's restroom to finish. (I'll post a link here when the video's done on April 1st--both because you all deserve a good laugh and because I'm making a habit of humiliating myself online as much as possible.)

I'll say one thing--I now understand why, in addition to needing a script and camera, it's so important to have a director. You can read, "Starr looks up at patron and seems mildly frustrated by the interruption," and it seems simple, but when it comes to actual expression, body language, etc.... it's surprisingly complex.

So, er, I won't be running off to La-La Land anytime soon to pursue an acting career. But it was certainly an enjoyable experience, and Dr. Arlita Harris, the visionary behind the whole project, not only made it fun but graciously sent me flowers afterward. A big thanks to the CDL folks for thinking of me!

Where Do the Days Go?

Goodness, I don't usually leave you hanging for a month. Suffice to say, between my personal life (putting house on market, 9 hours of doctoral classes, building addition) and my professional one (meetings, email, website admin-ing, two chapters to write), I'm a tad... stretched... at the moment.

As Bilbo said, I feel "like butter scraped over too much bread."

I'll return. Promise.

Unexpected

Okay, I really didn't expect to spend 10 1/2 hours at work Saturday. Sure, I was working the weekend reference shift, but that's only 11 to 4. I came in at 9:30 to get some more work done... but I had no idea that I'd be spending an extra four hours on a single reference question.

Which kind of blew my good intentions, as far as homework, out of the water. By the time I got home after 9pm, I was too brain-dead to accomplish any of it. Sunday, I got a bit of it done, but we also had some construction we had to get done... so my regular reading got done, but I haven't been able to do any decent amount of work on my two research projects.

Sigh. So much for good intentions.

Technology, Facilitating Organization

I finally finished uploading my notes from ALA Midwinter, which can now be found on my wiki. Now, as for the photos from that (as well as from our Las Vegas vacation the week before), I have no idea when those will hit Flickr. My guess is either spring break or this summer.

I have to say that our Outlook email migration went better than I expected. The extensive ability to customize color codes and define rules is incredibly helpful, and with the combination of tasks and appointments, I'm beginning to wean myself off of my paper-based agenda, which I typically carry everywhere. My husband's mentioned the possibility of getting me a smartphone, in which case I'd be able to access my Outlook there and completely eliminate the paper agenda.

I tried this once before, I think around 2002 when I had a Dell Axim 5 PPC (pocket PC). The problem with that one, though, was that I didn't use Outlook for my email, thus it was mainly a place to store contacts. After I finished my thesis (which I wrote primarily on the PPC, instead of buying a laptop), I gradually got to the point where I no longer used the PPC. At that point, it became a small word processor and glorified e-book reader, both functions that it's really good for, but it wasn't as compelling to use. Now that smartphones come with waaay more memory, and data plans are less expensive, having the added capabilities of email, web access, calendar-ing, and listening to mp3s would be quite welcome.

It's funny, because I've been one of the biggest nay-sayers to smartphones. I think they're great in theory, but the main thing is that I take my phone everywhere, and I have small pockets that smartphones typically don't fit into. However, now that I struggle to lug my paper agenda everywhere, and considering all the features built into smartphones, I think it might be worth it. Maybe I can get one that comes with a lanyard ring, or a pocket clip, or something.

The other huge reason I'd love a smartphone is that my husband's company produces an suite of mobile phone office software, called QuickOffice, that interfaces with MS Office on your PC. You can open and edit every type of MS Office document on your phone, including--my favorite--giving PowerPoint presentations directly from your phone. No laptop needed. Granted, I have a nice, small-ish laptop that travels pretty well, but sometimes you just don't want to lug it everywhere. With QuickOffice, I could forgo the laptop on short trips or within the library, and could still type notes in my wiki or give presentations--all from my phone! Egads!!!

My theory is that Alex's company should want to pay for a smartphone and data plan for me, since I'd be using it at conferences all the time and talking up how awesome their software is. I somehow doubt they'll see it as quite the incredible marketing opportunity, but you never know. Worth a try, right?

Welcome, Wacom Tablet!

Better late than never.


It's been almost 18 months since my husband gave me a Wacom Graphire CTE440S tablet to use for drawing/graphics on my computer... but at that exact time, I became so overwhelmed with professional development activities at work, that I gave up my previous hope of starting a new hobby with an online comic.

However, I've been doing so much graphic design work in the past year at work that I finally broke down and brought it to the office. Hooked it up this morning, and am hoping to break into Photoshop with it this afternoon (I have some calendar pages and posters to get done by the end of the week, anyway).

So far, it's an odd substitute for my old mouse, particularly since I have two monitors side-by-side, which isn't exactly how the tablet's set up to operate. But I'm willing to feel clumsy for a few days, until I adjust. It's a small price to pay to finally feel like I have some dexterity in Photoshop and Illustrator.

To-Be-Published... Again!

Swift on the heels of December's announcement that Suzanne, Annie, and I will be publishing a chapter in a book about academic library outreach, I got the new this morning that my abstract has been accepted for the upcoming book, 9/11 in Popular Culture. My essay will be titled, "Drawing on Tragedy: 9/11 in Comics and Graphic Novels." I’m looking at an issue of Spiderman, the comic version of the 9/11 Commission Report (so it’s kind-of a government document), and a compilation of artist responses to 9/11.

I figure the really interesting bit will be that this essay/chapter will tie together my backgrounds in literature, art history, and govdocs all in one.

And, um, since I just posted a lot, that’s it for now.

The Doctoral Experience Thus Far

After two weeks of classes having begun, I finally attended my first F2F (face-to-face) class session for the Higher Education PhD program. I'm currently enrolled in EPSY 6020: Research Methods in Education (which is a fancy name for "basic quantitative/qualitative statistical research;" this couse is online), EDHE 6510: History of Higher Education (online with 4 F2F meetings), and EDHE 6780: Educational Resources (meets Monday evenings). Last night, I went to 6780 and enjoyed a lively discussion about endowments, grants, and the ethics of fund-raising. We had some particularly interesting discussion regarding the place of athletics and alumni in university fundraising--I can tell I'm really going to enjoy this class.

I've been enjoying the reading for 6510, but to be honest there hasn't been much yet. It looks like the readings and the assignments get heavier at the end of the year, which to be honest is fine with me. I'm trying to get our house on the market by mid-March, so I'm occupied with cleaning, boxing things for storage, and painting. I anticipate that around the end of February, I'm going to hit a huge clash between fulltime librarian-ing, fulltime doctoral student-ing, and readying our house to look its best. Not to mention that whole husband/family/friends side of life... yeah. Good thing I'm enjoying my classes so much at the moment!

I keep desperately seeking new ways to carve out blocks of time for myself. To be honest, my two-hour total commute each day is a kind of welcome break from all these tasks, but at the same time, I keep furiously thinking that I'd rather be spending the time working on homework or something else useful. If only I could get someone, for free, to record themselves reading my textbooks, and then I could play that in the car during my commute... Any other suggestions? I used to think I ought to borrow language-learning CDs from the public library, but that ends up being an additional source of information, without actually helping my work/school/home-responsibilities bind. At least music relaxes me, and NPR feeds me the news.

I certainly welcome any further ideas on better uses for my commute. :)