Called up GM (General Motors) yesterday to ask them a question of curiosity. I wanted to know how much gas is left in my 2001 Pontiac Sunfire when the low fuel warning light comes on. It turns out this information is in the car manual but I didn't look in there... I like to make them work for their money. Anyway, I called them up and followed the automated operator thingy to "Product Information" which was probably in the Sales department from the sound of the lady I talked to. So, I asked her my question, to see if she knew or if she knew who would know. She took all my information (and I mean ALL my information: phone number, name, "is this your only vehicle?", asked for my address -- that's where I stopped giving out info -- my they're nosy!) and said that she would have the answer in a couple of days. Now I was making this call from work (I'm a librarian, it was information gathering, it's work related... get off my back!) but she calls my home about 10 minutes later with the answer and apparently sounds all surprised that I'm not home! Anyway, the answer is 1.5 gallons or 5.7 liters, so based on the mileage (between 21 and 23 mpg) I can go about 32 miles or 51 kilometers just "on fumes". That's good to know.
Where to begin...
Oh yeah! I went to my conference on Tuesday (the 21st). It was a bit of an adventure getting there. There was an accident on the 401 just east of Kingston, really big, several spots where vehicles were damaged, some just a little, but there were tons of people stuck. It was in the west-bound lanes and I was going east but people have to slow down and take a look, don't they? So that slowed us up a bit, but then, immediately after getting out of that we got stuck behind three snowplows, plowing the entire width of the highway. Really they weren't clearing the road (that was quite clear from what we could see past them) but rather getting the snow from beside the median! That took about a half an hour of creeping along. After that, I thought I was going to make it in time, flying along the rest of the way to Ottawa but then, when we got in the city, we got stuck behind a convoy of tractors! Honest to god, farmers on tractors! Protesting something. They had signs that read "farms feed cities" on the side of their tractors. (I thought to myself: "Obviously not right now, they don't... they seem to have an awful lot of time on their hands right now!"). We survived that ordeal and got to the Carleton University campus and they were doing constuction and so we got delayed a little bit more by some cement trucks! Ok. By this time is was funny. I had called ahead (I had to do my presentation right then at 11:00 am... Wanna check it out? You can download here.) and they had someone by the street waiting to guide me and tell me stuff. Of course the old man who asked my guide for directions from my guide had NO idea how much I wanted to sock him in the eye for being my fifth annoying delay of the morning... *laugh* I finally got there and unfortunately some of the people who had been waiting to see my presentation had left thinking it was cancelled (I was only 5 or 10 minutes late but it was only a 20 minute presentation!) But I delivered it to three people. Not bad. It was my first conference presentation so it was ok that there were not too many people. Still...
What else? Oh yeah, I finished the second Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan book and am now well over half way through number three: "The Dragon Reborn". I think I like number 2 a little better but this one's good too. The last thing I read, everybody was well on their way to Tear. Fortunately it's been a while since I read all of this before so I can't remember what happens there exactly. All sorts of talk about Callandor, Black Ajah, Aeil, Perrin meeting the "falcon", Mat's luck... yeah, it's all pretty cool.
We did some work at home over the weekend. Mostly cleaning up (we've still got boxes of stuff left over from moving) but we did some minor renovating lately: put a mirror up in my daughter's room (I hope it doesn't fall down!), put some hooks and pictures up, turned a useless curtain rod/pulley thing into a shelf over my son's window to put some toys solely for display purposes... I MADE a night table the other day. That's pretty cool. The older man who used to live in the house we just bought left all sorts of wood and hardware and stuff so I've been pretending to be a real man and have been tinkering around with it. Neato! *laugh*
Damn! It's cold out! I usually bring a hat with me but I put my hand into the pocket it's usually in and found nothing! I had to run from my car to work before my ears froze off! But hopefully it should warm up soon. I'm getting a little sick of winter. Not totally, mind you. I still like it but there's things I want to do and sometimes this weather just gets in the way.
Well, it's been an exciting day already!
My daughter's still sick (we took her to see someone the other day but they said she only had a cold despite the long-lasting fever she's had). Her temperature's gone down quite a bit now but now she seems to have an ear infection! I guess we'll have to take her back.
Soon after I got to work, the scaffolding on the hospital next door fell down with a loud crash! No one was hurt and nothing was damaged as far as I could see. They knew it would probably happen -- they had people blocking off the streets and the police were hanging around -- and it was very VERY windy. Not a surprise.
Then, while we were all rushing over to see what the loud crash was and to see the crumpled scaffolding, I noticed there was a bullet hole in the glass of one of the study rooms! Well, maybe not a bullet hole... It was probably just a small rock from a tire of a car driving by (we're next to a small but rather busy road). But the expert opinion (one of the maintenance guys come to look at it) said it could be a pellet gun shot. But it looks like it's been there for a while.
So it's been a fascinating day so far... I hoping it will get much more boring and therefore much more productive as the day progresses.
I wasn't going to post today just because I'm so busy and so tired/stressed but I figured that is the best time to write something down about your life, right?
Well, I've been really busy doing a lot of things here and there, for work and not. Most importantly, I've been working on my IM presentation for EOSET 2006 (I love making PowerPoint presentations!), preparing my application for that position (which my calendar just now reminded to get back to!), trying to get through this book I'm trying to write a review about ("World Libraries and the Information Superhighway" or something), and managing all the IM reference training/info/advice/writing things I've fallen into (which I love but am trying to wade through among all my other things). It's good to be busy. As long as it doesn't kill you.
I just came back from a session on "Clinical Teaching" which although doesn't (and won't) apply to be directly, was certainly helpful in terms of any teaching situation, and getting to know the people, procedures, and concepts involved (which helps me in my job as a health sciences librarian helping just those people involved in those procedures find information pertaining to those concepts). It's great and I know I'm welcome and do get something out of it, but sometimes it's difficult being in that situation, being the only one not directly involved with what everyone else is involved with, being the only librarian (an occupation misunderstood by many), being new to this side of the academic world. I know I belong but it's still difficult.
Whew! I updated Bracken's home page yesterday morning and we had reached out max disk quota. It wouldn't let me upload it back or change anything! So everything on the site worked except the home page (which gives access to everything unless you're pretty web savvy) all day yesterday. Finally, the IT people fixed the problem this morning and I got it back up... Whew.
And I just got back from a workshop on "Universal Instructional Design", making education resources and activities and venues more accessible to everyone. Cool. Everytime I come back from one of these things I want to improve something and make something new based on what I've learned. I have too much on my plate! I've got to stop learning new things! *laugh*
[ Listening to: Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and Coldplay's "Talk" ]
Another busy weekend... Among other things I had to go out and buy Valentine's Day stuff. Blech! Ew, yuck, girls! *laugh* Actually, I just got a few little things for my family. And of course, I had to get stuff for my daughter's friend's birthday, the third party she's been invited to in a month! My daughter is the "student council president" of her senior kindergarten class! (By that I mean she's popular... pluh.)
I'm avidly reading Jordan's "The Great Hunt". It's much better that the first book. Much more discovery of powers and importance than the first book, which is all secrets and suspense. I HATE suspense. Well, not "hate". But I'm rereading this series because I enjoyed reading it before and want to "get back to that place" with all the characters. They are so long and yet so interesting that there are large parts I don't remember. Honestly, I might not have even read them in my rush to see what was happening next! I'm reading slower now, getting everything, but it really kills me when they are just building to things. I want ACTION! I want monsters attacking and wizards a'wizardin' and fighter's fightin'! It's coming. A dozen or so books from now, but it's coming. *laugh*
Started reading Robert Jordan's "Great Hunt". "Eye of the World" really ended well with most of the basic info of who's who and what's what revealed. Now with this second book, he's got to flesh out what these changes mean and what can potentially happen. (Yes, I have read much of this series before.) I just wish I could read faster to get to the really good stuff: when the characters start realizing how important and we get to know their different "powers". Pretty cool.
It's finally settled down at work with all the students library assignments completed and handed in. Of course now I've got marking to look forward to! But right now I'm working on my presentation on IM for EOSET 2006, my review of "World Libraries on the Information Superhighway", my application for Web Development Librarian here at Queen's, plus all my regular duties. I'm a busy boy.
Read this. It's good to know that solar power is really coming into its own. Remember when everyone was saying solar power was going to be the energy source of the future, and then everyone was saying you'd could cover the surface of the Earth with solar panels and it wouldn't even come close to the energy we need? It's good to see both that the technology has improved and that people are going for it anyway. Aren't solar panels cool?
Read this. Trust me. I'm a health librarian.
Oh, and I finished "Eye of the World". Whew. That's a big book. Now I'll be starting the next one in the series...
This is a taste of what librarians have to put up with: (hint: it's funny)
Alright!!! I exercised this morning!!! Woo hoo! Actually, I think it's doing me some good (other than making big muscles *laugh*). I feel a little more awake afterward. Of course it all balances out: I feel like a big slug dragging myself out of bed at 6:30 am (well, actually, 6:45 today). A big slug with those cartoon anvils tied to my feet. And a sweater around my head. Yeah, I'm not really a morning person. *laugh*
Gotta get working on those presentations and articles and review I'm writing. And applying to that new job I want. It feels really good when things are all coming together. We've been keep everything clean and tidy at home (I'm making lists like crazy) and we got Quicken Cash Manager to keep money matters on track (I'm in my element, recording and entering and classifying all our transactions)... Yeah, life is sweet. I don't ask for much. *laugh*
And finally, I've been reading things I don't like: "Condemning Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Is Cheap And Easy", an article saying they're being grownups in owning up to their mischevious attacks on Chinese censorship (it's good to be honest but isn't that why we don't want censorship?), and Caufield J, "Viewpoint. Tricky devil: a humorous training technique for the chat reference environment." Electronic Library. 2005; 23(4): 377-82, a paper on the downsides of chat reference service and a funny way to help librarians learn it better (which doesn't make mention of IM which happens to overcome some of the issues, and I will therefore use in MY article)... It's all good.
[Listening to: Coldplay's "Talk", Moxy Fruvous' "Istanbul (remix)", Depeche Mode's "It's No Good (Ultra Remix)" and William Orbit's "Ogives Number 1".]
Damn! Didn't exercise this morning. OR yesterday morning. I'm really slacking! I gotta get back to it. Tomorrow... I promise.
Worked on my annual report for work today. I really find it difficult to brag about myself sometimes (no, really, it's true!) and so writing something like a report on how I'm kicking ass in my job is not the easiest thing to write. But boy, it feels good when you've finally got it down and it fills up page after page. You don't really realize how much you've really done until it's written down and described in brutal detail. Makes you feel like maybe you're useful after all. At least for a little while.
Also, the library system has posted an advertisement for the position of "Web Development Librarian"... I'm going to apply for it. I know I'm qualified and it would really be a fun job. As you've probably guessed I like doing web stuff, designing and learning new technologies. It should be more money but more importantly it would be a more permanent job in the areas (geographical and professional) I want to be in. Now if I could only get the opportunity to boss some people around like in my last job it would be perfect! *laugh* But really, I like helping people on the reference desk but working on web resources more would really help more people on a wider scale. And be fun too!
Went grocery shopping last night! Woo hoo! Finally we can eat! *laugh* (We were a little short of money so we had to wait until I got paid. I've ordered Quicken Cash Manager so THAT doesn't happen again. *laugh*)
And when it rains it pours. I've wanted to get published academically for so long but never had the time nor the (workplace) opportunity to do so. Now, like, a million things keep falling into my lap: now, the Technology Column for the Journal of Hospital Librarianship sent out a call for articles and I'm going to do one on our new IM reference service. I'm going to conferences, writing reviews, wheeling and dealing... I'm mister big-time librarian now! *laugh*
