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List of things
List of things to do: Create content for at least three workshops. This includes teaching outline, learning activities, handouts and/or worksheets. Contact several instructors about teaching dates for the spring. There are at least five. Contact other instructors about embedding literacy content into their courses, co-teaching opportunities Outline idea for conference poster and/or discussion table Figure out how I am going to take those ideas and develop them into research projects. Prepare website content for one of my colleges. Develop curriculum for research module and decide when that course will take place. General work for committees. Get some background reading done. Formulate concept for collaborative guide for one of our…
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New Year Coming
It seems hard to believe, but the new year is almost upon us once again. This is not something unusual. Most of us think similar thoughts at this time of year. I always consider each year coming as a surprise. Whe I was a child I counted forward the years and discovered that the turn of the millenium would come in my lifetime. With a little more math, I realized that I would be twenty-seven. That little knowledge tidbit set me on my course and I don’t think that I ever recalculated. Year 2000 came and went. None of the appliances I had suffered any programming problems, and life went…
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Donald Bagger 2014
Tuesday morning, my sister called me to tell me that my uncle had died. I am sitting here at the end of Wednesday knowing that I need to write to get this processed in some way, but not knowing what to say exactly. This was my mother’s brother, the only sibling that she had. He wasn’t a content in my life. He’s been estranged from various parts of the family off and on, usually of his own choosing. At the time of his death (which at this point, we think was two weeks ago) he was living in Green Bay. It all makes for a very disjointed story. I found…
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Nanowrimo wrap up
It is past the end of November, and if I had done my WordPress updates, my original post might not have gotten eaten two days ago. But such is life. And this life is trying to figure out what to do now. This was the easiest NNWM that I have ever participated in, for two reasons, I think. First, I decided to not try to create an original work, but to spend the month as a rebel and write thirty days worth of essays on thirty-ish different topics. It was definitely easier to take it in bite size pieces that had a defined edge than to dredge something out of…
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One thing
There is a host of things going on in my mind. I have a lot of work to do in a short week. I am hosting a cookie baking and exchange tomorrow and there may be freezing rain. I have all of my weekend work, normally done over two days, crammed into Sunday. I am participating in National Novel Writing Month and while currently on track, will have to make up time next week. We are hosting Thanksgiving and that prep work needs to get done, including the final email that tells people when to actually show up. I need to get back to the gym because I haven’t been…
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Health and wellness
I turned forty one a few weeks ago. I marked the occasion by going to a conference in Milwaukee and pretty much telling no one it was my birthday. I celebrated with family, of course, but that was it. Today I was discussing work and life with a colleague. I had been complaining that my headache made me completely unproductive today and I was frustrated about it. The past few weeks, and if I’m honest –few months, have been a challenge. I have had severe headaches and my right shoulder has become chronically sore. I’m not used to chronic anything. I get sick (if I do) and then get well.…
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Unexpected progress
I rarely get to say this, but I had a very productive meeting. It was with a department head, introducing myself and offering an opportunity to get to know me and my work, and a chance to get to know that department. A number of topics came up that I expected later on in a more developed relationship. One was the opportunity to teach a one credit course, developed around information searching and data management on a lab level. The department head brought up that subject and was totally supportive and offered to back me on getting a more robust module into the curriculum. I’ll be formally meeting the faculty…
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Media companies and reference service
I seem to be developing a reputation for getting the most random questions through all of our sundry reference avenues. If there was a contest, today would have crushed it. I was sitting at the reference desk fielding the usual when an L.A. call came through. It was someone associated with a media company looking to use our library as a filming location for a tv show. I looked them up. It’s legit. So to that, I ended up calling a number of administrators and gathering a list of contact names to pass along to this guy. I learned a bit more about our institution. And it sure beats the…
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Decision fatigue
I just read an article on Slate on a few tips to combat decision fatigue. I am notoriously bad at making decisions promptly. I’m almost always comfortable to happy with the decision that I’ve made. But the article was particularly timely. I, of course, already knew about this phenomenon; but I feel that this perfectly described my distrupted life and current work habits. Without realizing it, I have mitigated some of this. I cook on weekends so I don’t have to think about breakfast or lunch. I have a wardrobe that I bought all in one season, so it coordinates and I don’t have to spend a lot of time…
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Email and One Note
Today I accomplished two things that have been a nusiance: cleaning up my email and getting One Note to sync. These tasks fall under the “not real work” category for me. I generally consider them time sucks, that are necessary only in that they are tools that have to be used because of the systems that we have created around ourselves. Email has been a particular challenge. Pervious jobs have not been so communicaton heavy. Even when it has brief moments of activity, I can usually defer some of it by simply walking down the hall and asking in person. That can’t be accomplished easily here. Not only that, but…