year in review 2008

As is tradition, my year in review. Delayed this year. Been busy. Hang tight, this'll get long.

January

Weird mid-60s weather in the beginning of January. Then wind advisories. Cool but strange.

Stressed to hell and gone at work, added to by the course I was taking one night a week (which turned into a few nights a week due to group work): Usability Engineering. On the up side, the course was totally worth it.

Hauled out to Palmyra, near Hershey, mid-month to help Shellie renovate the salon for the January BPAL East Coast Will Call. I painted the ceiling. See also: ow. That uses muscles that most people just don't. use. ever. A week and a half later or so, attended the event we were prepping for.

Big changes at the club job: a renovation and new name, which included renovations to my equipment. Serious upgrades and video capabilities. Very cool, though required learning the new system. After being one of the only people that could handle the old system, this was both good and bad.

Placed a third shot in Schmap, an online travel guide (first two were Seattle, this one from New Orleans). Discovered I'd taken over 50 gigs of photos in the year before.

Finally went to an allergist to see what the heck was up. They did the tests: I'm officially allergic to cats. Which is, of course, the first pet I'd consider owning. Then they sent me for a CAT scan. Verdict: long-running sinus infection.

February

Took a last-minute trip to Pittsburgh to see the Chihuly exhibition at the Conservatory, which was very neat. I haven't touched most of the photographs I took there, but I really, truly should. There's some stellar material in there.

On the way there, made an Amazon order in the car on my iPhone. Got en email later that day saying it had shipped. We truly live in the future.

Re-discovered live Rickrolling and song charting and was generally amused.

Cut six inches off my hair.

Again swore that on my next move, I'd move somewhere more moderate in temperature extremes. You see how that went.

Meanwhile, back in class, I was the only female other than the two TAs. Weird.

Went to BPAL East Coast Will Call, as per normal.

Late in the month, my maternal uncle passed away. I dropped everything and went to Minnesota. It was strange, as most funerals are. Not a joyous occasion, but still good to see relatives I hadn't for years.

Came back and was totally slammed at work.

Sinus infection continued unabated, despite antibiotics. Allergist started talking surgery if we couldn't whip it with two other courses of antibiotics.

March

Started prepping early for the move in May by selling some media and scents/b&b stuff I could shed on Amazon Marketplace and through BPAL venues. Oh, and by packing books.

The new antibiotics made me feel atrocious off and on. No fun. Voice started cutting out on me.

Gary Gygax passed away. Sad day. Excellent NY Times obituary here, with a fantastic chart describing virtually anyone exposed to D&D during their lifetime.

Started to get back to reading. Definitely a good thing. Though leads to oddness at the club job: "Reading Canticle for Liebowitz at the club job is surreal: 'We bury you. We are the centuries.' Then shiny happy gay boys make requests." Another choice quote: "Me, I've been lucky enough to be quicksilver; I spatter, but I run back together somehow." - Canticle, p. 233.

New guy at the club job. A CD-based DJ, which struck me as retro. Hilarity.

First draft of the user interface I'd created for our group project went over swimmingly with our main tester. It's nice getting good feedback. Which, I might add, was backed by the professor: was selected to be the only one demo'ed to the class at that stage.

Attended BPAL East Coast Will Call (hereafter referred to as ECWC) as usual.

A pseudo-work-related event happened here (TLT Symposium) and was awesome. Found new and reconnected with old colleagues, some of whom have become friends. Still chat with many of them even though I'm no longer with Penn State. Great keynote, too, by Lawrence Lessig. The hilarity? Lessig as keynote (creator of Creative Commons, which introduced new forms of copyright), yet my photos from last year's Symposium were used in the Symposium program without attribution, which was required by the Creative Commons copyright on my photos. There's irony in there somewhere.

Obama visited Penn State later this month. I only got to see the aftermath.

April

More with the Usability Engineering and some necessary pixel-pushing for our prototype. "Lesson learned from iterative prototyping: do it right the first time, or it's going to drive you crazy for the rest of the project."

ECWC, as per usual.

Tried to charge through my pasta so as not to have to pack it when moving. Got really sick of pasta.

Also, sick again. Sinus infection still/again? Allergist waffled on it. "Me: I'm getting sick a lot this year. What's going on? Doc: Lots of things make you sick. How's your stress level? Me: You're funny, doc." And later: "Antibiotics, round three. Go!" (this was my last chance before talking surgery again)

Finished the virtual tour project at work. "My kingdom for a day without meetings."

With the class group-work: a pivotal member of our group late-dropped due to a medical emergency--and took all his prototypes with him. Nuclear strike. Half our project gone. Yeah.

Walking tour podcast project got approved.

May

Showcased our prototype for IBM. Seemed to go well.

Headed back to Wisconsin in early May to see the first outing of the boats my dad captains. On the way: "Going thru Chicago @ 5:30 on a Fri w/no I-Pass may go on my life list of least brilliant moves." Took some pictures.

Also nailed down a new place about a month early, which made moving way less stressful.

Penn State professionals Tweet Meet occurred. Good stuff. Also started attending the BS breakfasts more regularly: definitely enjoyed that.

Went to an in-house but off-campus conference (for Penn State staff, but between other campuses). Presented between 3 to 5 times, depending on how you count it.

First book finished at the new place ("The Gold"): Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Also: "People in this neighborhood say hi, exchange pleasantries, and are genuinely friendly, as far as I can tell. It's so bizarre."

"What self-respecting mall closes at 6 during Memorial Day weekend? Wait, I think I answered my own question." Spent Memorial Day bouncing between events.

Started taking photowalks around my neighborhood.

Launched IntelliResponse on the site at work. Huge project over, thankfully.

June

The cicadas at the new place were super-loud, even louder than on campus. Started being annoyed by the lack of drawers in the new kitchen (had exactly one).

Penn State Web Conference happened in here. Had some interesting chats with the central Director of Web Services from a university in Buffalo.

Hit up ECWC, as usual.

Dax's birthday happened in here. Good times.

Yet another conference later in the month: PACAC. Had my first piece of shoofly pie, despite living in Pennsylvania for years and years. "Won a copy of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want at the TargetX session." Hung out with colleagues and boss after sessions.

Irritation with new RAM install going sour on my desktop.

July

4th of July fun and games.

Solved the RAM issue with a new batch. "I've cracked my case open and removed drives so often it's almost second nature now. Sad."

Got our work presence in Teen Second Life up and running and linked from the homepage. Whee. Seriously, though, it was fun, mostly. People are just astonished by it, especially older staffers.

Increasing stress at work.

Arts Fest happened mid-July, over a timespan that included my birthday, as it usually does, yearly. Also hit up People's Choice.

July's ECWC.

A few more TweetMeets happened in here somewhere. I also virtually attended EduWeb, via people who were livestreaming sessions and liveblogging. Next best thing to being there. Seriously.

Started MCing a lot more at the club job. Found that I liked it and was good at it. Oh, and the new new guy was much better than the old new guy (the one that used CDs. yeah).

Cut my hair to chin-length, donated my hair. Work colleagues loved the new hairstyle.

Wandered through Jazz Fest in Bellefonte.

Spend a Summer Day open houses started at work. They're bloody exhausting. Plus the "new" application for admission went up midnight of July 31st. Stayed in late testing. "Had door closed, music on, staff assistant running interference ('She'll get back to you!'), & I still got interrupted a zillion times."

August

As if to forcibly greet me with fine August weather, the sunroof of my car got stuck open on the 1st. Pulled into Saturn right before they closed for them to at least get it shut. Which they did. And it was still under warranty, so I got whatever $1,000 thing that needed to be replaced covered.

Another amusing in-house conference-style event.

At the club job, had intermittent irritation with stupid requests. "Realizing that people making requests may object to my academic tone: 'Could you play something awesome?' 'Can you define that, please?'"

Got a new next-door neighbor who became a good friend.

ECWC.

Threat level at work continues to rise. "Everything's an emergency around here. I wish I could say 'today,' but it's been like this since Spend a Summer Day." And later this month: "Manager of our web programmers to me just now: 'I'm getting the hell out of here before anything else happens.' Yep, been that sorta week."

Trip to HersheyPark with Dax and S. Desperately needed fun.

Club job: "All-staff mtg @ club. Owner of half downtown S.C. picked me out of crowd to shake my hand & ask my name after. I was smiling during speech." Which was accurate. He quoted an author I really liked.

Anticipated Hurricane Gustav by keeping tabs on Rev, a friend in New Orleans. Less serious than anticipated.

September

L announced a big move in terms of job and geography. I was happy for him but sad for me.

Started doing some Wikipedia editing on small towns in Denmark that I knew well when I lived there.

A Victorian stone mansion burns down two blocks away: I sleep through it. Colleagues were concerned about me. I totally missed out on the whole thing.

Another ECWC. More TweetMeets.

Work-related Tweets:

• Running comedy of the day when testing a marketing email that looks different on-screen than printed. Quote: 'But who prints their email?'


• Just got funding to do usability testing on the application for admission to Penn State in Philly as well as UP. Now to schedule.


• Alpha-testing our new app for displaying admissions decisions online via MyPennState. How many test cases can we come up with? Ha.


• Had to repeat a sentence I've heard out of my mouth too much this week: "Let me run the numbers and get back to you."


• I ask for a list of 25 email addresses, & get them old-school. Hard copy. Hand written. Wow.


• So nice to be able to close a ticket with "finished that the day before it was announced."


• Sometimes I <3 my boss. "Tell them to go jump in a lake" re: people pestering me about a problem he wanted to handle.


• VP's son says he only got 1 brochure from PSU, but that's okay because we've "got a great website." #EMA08

Near the end of the month, had another in-house conference, this time on our campus (which is what that last one's from). Presented a lot again, though some were just demos of new tools we'd created.

October

Hosted another, bit more famous DJ at the club job.

Finished one conference, on to another. HighEdWeb, this year in Missouri. This year was . . . notable. Twitter was invaluable here for meetups and coordinating the all-important socializing.

Got back okay, but my luggage had been lost between my three flights.

And then headed to Philly for the usability testing. Hit up Penn State Abington (home of a dear colleague, who invited me to dinner with his family when I arrived in town, which was lovely) in the process.

Stayed an extra day or so, and totally enjoyed myself by exploring Philly and getting into Eastern State Penitentiary, which is an awesome, awesome place to shoot pictures. Listened to the City of Industry soundtrack virtually the whole time. "Shot more than 6 gigs of photos in the last 3 days, between 2 cameras & 3 cards. And I'm shooting .jpg, not .raw (which I should)."

"Getting really tired of '______ never happens' happening. It breaks our (new!) systems. A lot."

ECWC was fun as usual.

Halloween was an amusement at the club job, as always. Pictures from Halloween, and pictures from the costumes from my night.

Did definitely miss Dax's usual costume antics, though.

November

Voted. "My 'Peppermints we can believe in: Mints for Obama' tin is getting comments at every meeting I bring it to."

Got another sinus infection. Whee.

Yet another ECWC.

Applied for a job in Chicago that I had no connection to, but was a perfect fit in terms of qualifications for (though not sure if this was October or November). And, after a phone interview in mid-November, they brought me in for the in-person. And by the end of the month, got the job.

While in the area for the interview, stopped in on my dad. Good visit. Also stopped in at the Shedd Aquarium for the heck of it on my way out.

Started doing more photoshoots for my DJing manager and other DJs from our company. "My place is a sty that hasn't been cleaned since the first of my fall trips; just booked a shoot this weekend and one more in December. . ."

Made gløgg for Thanksgiving hosted by a couple Penn State tweetpeeps. "Also: that orange has been officially zested. TO DEATH. Or at least until it was white with rind. Then I ate it." Yes, real gløgg does require orange zest, in my humble opinion.

Everything with the job and a new place and the whole bit just fell into place, as if by magic, though some of it somewhat last-minute.

December

Announced I was leaving at work, prompting these sorts of conversations:

T: "How could you?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
T: "You're really good!"
Me: "I think you may have just answered your own question."
(this said jokingly, of course.)

When I announced it on Twitter, I was completely overwhelmed with messages of congratulations and we'll miss you-type things. Supremely flattering.

Eventually, similarly: "Wow. Just got a round of applause from the huge Admissions college & campus reps meeting when it was announced that I'm leaving. . . . Good applause! The 'you've done a lot for the office, sorry to see you go' type."

Pulled a 12-hour Saturday in order to finish the usability report. Then shared the results of testing, which was way more info than they probably thought they'd get. I hope they use it.

"Usability: 4,000+ words, 11 solid pages. 15 when formatted for each case to begin on a new page. I'm exhausted. And I'm going home. /grump"

The aforementioned "new new DJ" quit the week after I left. Left me with the "hmm"s.

Got to attend the company's holiday party, though, which is always a good time, surprisingly enough. Which again, surprisingly, led to some actually decent shots of me by the bar's manager. They're on Facebook if you're over there.

"This week is an oncoming train, and I seem to be tied to the tracks."

"Never a good sign when you have to decide between finishing work or documenting it for your successor. Only a few days left here."

Got sick, with stupendous timing. Another sinus infection. Fun times.

Last steady ECWC. Sad to be missing them now. No one else is taking photos as exhaustively or as well as I did. ;)

And notes from the very end: "There are so many times when I really want to interrupt people saying they're amazed at my work with: 'but it's what I do.'"

Stupidly lucky to find a subletter for my apartment: first guy I showed it to. Also stupidly lucky that my neighbor-friend decided to come with me for Christmas to see Chicago, hang out at my family Christmas celebration, and to help me move.

The Facebook Class of 2013 debacle occurred. I was finished working by that point, so had a bit of a unique view on the whole thing. Got pinged by a journalist from Inside Higher Ed, and thereafter quoted. Terribly.

Though I was later quoted well about something else: Penn State's use of Twitter, in University Business. Made me feel a bit better.

Packing, packing. Packing burnout. Running out of boxes. Taking down my curtains, which was what was making my place so toasty. Froze without them.

Underestimated my belongings: truck was too small. Ended up making two runs: one with a truck, one with a van. Which was fine, since I needed to bring my neighbor back and wrap some things up anyway. Had help hauling stuff in from an old college friend and his girlfriend, which was immensely helpful.

There was a Christmas. I was mostly distracted with the moving. And then, in the payback for my neighbor-friend's help, played tour guide as much as possible. We hit the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Woodstock (where Groundhog Day was filmed), the Sears Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade, Chinatown (where he was an immense help since he knew some Mandarin), various other street/Loop photo ops, and a lot of restaurants. "I'm resigning myself to feeling like a tourist for the first year or so I live here."

Setting up utilities was a kick. "Unbelievable. Got an automated informational call from my new gas company at 8:08 Christmas morning. Guess computers don't observe holidays."

Comcast technician: "'Are you a designer?' looking at my desktop. 'What's it mean?' indicating the picture of the Experience Music Project in Seattle." It's abstract, I understand. But man.

Landlord so far has been stellar: offered to, and then did, leave a matching couch (fold-out, even) for me to use. And some decor, and a rug, which was appreciated. Perfect in terms of timing, and immensely flexible, even when it came to rent. "I now have an actual couch. It is comfortable. Let's see if I can pry myself out of it."

My uncle got a new TV and passed me his old one. Got that into my place as well as the stuff from the van (at different times) with the help of H.

Last van stuff was brought in on New Year's Day. And that concludes 2008's year in review.

in transit

Glaedig jul, all. It's Christmas morning, and I'm up way too early, woken by my new gas company with an automated message welcoming me as a customer. Sure, great message, but 8:08 a.m. on Christmas? Sounds like somebody didn't think things through.

Back up. A lot's happened since my last official update. A lot of that material I had to keep under my hat until it was all said and done, but most of that necessity's past now as well. And then I started lacking time. But now, with a few hours on my hands until the household rouses: well, update time it is. Helps that Dad reminded me to update last night, of course.

So! Since last we heard from our insipid adventurer . . . ahem. I mean.

Start over. I obviously need some tea or coffee or something. But I'm also not going to risk waking Dad or our guest further than I've risked it already. So this may be rambly. Fair warning.

In any case. I got a new job and am in the process of relocating to Chicago. Right now I'm between the two jobs, but the timing's right. The break between semesters always gives people a fresh start and is an ideal time to start (it's when I started with Penn State Admissions as well, I might mention). Great opportunity, great staff to be working with: I feel like I'll mesh there well. Plus the upgrade in terms of title and pay, of course. Never hurt anyone, and is especially welcome given the current state of the economy.

And it's all been remarkably smooth. The biggest hiccup has been underestimating how much stuff I've got to move. But even that isn't a huge deal. Everything else has been going remarkably well: found someone to take over my old place almost immediately, found a great new place with the help of a very old friend and his partner in crime, got moved despite extreme temperatures and getting the truck stuck in the snow on my old street (virtually inevitable, I might add, due to snow conditions and the way my old street's not level and the street parking is never plowed), had some lovely long-haul help and company from my neighbor-turned-friend, ran out of a bunch of things at exactly the right time, was immensely surprised and thankful that all my close old local friends showed up and pitched in to get me out of my old place (some I knew I could count on--thank you, other J--but others I simply didn't expect to see) and then had a great traditional meal and hang-out at old haunts with them, wrapped the photoshoots I intended to before leaving the area of a few DJs from my old company (though I still have to edit and post more shots from both shoots), wrapped up work best I could in the time I had; just generally, all's working out well.

I'm too Danish (read: cynical/pragmatic, depending on who you ask) to say everything's coming up roses, but for the upheaval I'm undertaking currently, the smoothness is astonishing. And I also have to thank family and friends for bearing with me during this time: people have been thankfully understanding when it comes to me being out of contact and/or rushed, etc.

Though I will admit that some of the time-out just now is half-obligation, half-vacation/break. G.S., the aforementioned neighbor-turned-friend, is with me on this move/holiday trip from Pennsylvania, and some time is being spent exploring my neighborhood, local cuisine, plus Chicago tourist attractions for his sake. Not that I don't enjoy them too. We hit the Shedd Aquarium for a quick stop, but still need to get to the Sears Tower and Art Institute, if nothing else. Oh! and Chinatown.

Christmas Eve went pretty swimmingly, and today should be an adventure. Guests in the holiday family craziness is always a bit of a wild card scenario, but all involved are easygoing enough that everything should be fine.

Looking ahead, the new job starts January 5th, and I have plenty to keep me occupied until then. The touristy stuff, setting up the new apartment, getting G.S. back to Pennsylvania and picking up the rest of my belongings, wrapping up accounts and such in PA, cleaning up the old apartment and handing over my lease, etc.

I hear people up and about, and I think that covers the state of things, so it looks like it's time to sign off and get moving. I would also note that I suspect my usual year-in-review will be significantly delayed due to all this. So: best wishes for the new year, kids.

this night.

I live in a ghost town. This is temporary. It's the night tonight: Bellefonte will resurrect itself by morning.

It's a charmed night, in a not-so-charming way.

Let me preface this. This story needs a context.

Let me also state for the record that it's been a weird, weird, weird, weird night. The style of this post will probably reflect that.

I started out today unable to turn over and go back to sleep, despite having granted myself permission to sleep in. Eight hours after I went to sleep, almost on the dot. It's been this way for awhile. Can't get more than eight. Often get less, but that's due to my weekday alarm.

So today, unlike most, I was horribly unable to focus. I had a to-do list as long as my leg, but managed to get all of one thing on it done, and that not even properly so.

As interruptus, in the present there's something in here with me that's whistling, and I don't know what it is. I'm strangely not unnerved by this. The rest of the night has reassured me that nothing else out of the ordinary can happen.

And this won't be all of it. As another interruptus, something in the sink shifted: knife sliding off a plate and clinking against the aluminum sink wall, I imagine, but again, strangely not startling to me.

If this shifting of scene seems like a dream, you're with me. Yes. Stay with me.

I have the day off tomorrow, giving me leeway to get this all down. Thankfully. I'd hate to lose it. Despite being weird, weird, weird, this ending is strange and beautiful. I love it. I want to go outside and drink it. And bottle some to save for later.

Back to this afternoon. No focus, constant interruptions (don't apologize, dear other J--I was thankful for yours, short as they were), frustration of each and every thing I started or wished to have started. I got some photos uploaded and laundry started. That's about the limit of my productivity.

Wait. Untrue. I did take care of L's kitties, last-minute. And a guest cat, who was a real handful. But! that was my limit.

And it was this way--knowing I was wasting time, but unable to do anything about it--until I had to leave for the club job.

Or thought I did. I ended up on the road early and got there a good twenty minutes before I needed to be. And realized this nearing town, but it wasn't worth the time to turn back.

I knew this. I knew this, I knew this. And this entire night, almost everything was full of this crystal awareness of the situation, but complete giving-over of myself to it, unable to struggle against its tides. And it was frustrating to watch, but impossible to fight.

So I got into town. My usual lot was full. I moved to the next-handiest street and parked comfortably. I got out to greet the night air, oppressive with humidity and frustrated potential. I shook my head even then, with the premonition of the weird wyrd ahead. (That may sound redundant, but it's not. Trust.)

I spent the twenty or so picking up some coffee for my late evening, sitting down with it on a big leather couch there, taking the time to squeeze in some reading. Reading was a perfect task for today, but I hadn't managed to tear myself away from trying to get things done, despite the futility.

And the realization of the futility. That's what kills me. The awareness tonight. I knew it all. I just couldn't do anything about it.

[For those who understand the reference, this night is so House of Leaves, minus the terror. There's no fear here, only mazes and knowing and realizations.]

{And maybe I should blame my perfume. Wearing Lune Noire on a full moon, the brightest I've seen in months, perhaps was not the best of plans. But it did start before that, this day.}

So it was that I was ducking in and out between the humidity of outside to air conditioning in my car to humid to coffee shop AC to outside oppression to coolness of the club when empty. And my allergies had been set off by L's cats.

And as soon as I arrived, total tragedy. We couldn't get the Steelers game on any of the monitors, no matter how many of us tried. Manager of the club? No luck. And this was tragic to the folks who needed (needed!) to see it (mostly staff).

The club opened with the majority of the monitors black, and us still struggling to fix the issue. Nothing I did had any effect. I tried every trick I had. All had turned against me.

Eventually, my manager (of our company, not the club's staff) managed to get it worked out, by manually switching every monitor in the place, almost. And this a temporary fix.

Tonight was the first night I'd worked after the recent change-over to being smoke-free. And I was asked to remind folks, and I did. And next had an assistant manager of the club rush over to add an addendum: folks could only smoke out the front of the club, not the back. They'd be locked out. Again, announced.

From the previous week, we'd had some issues with two of the speakers on the dancefloor, so we had turned down the highs in such a fashion that we were having trouble hearing the microphone inside the booth, so I stepped outside it to make the announcement. My co-pilot stayed in the booth.

Later, he stepped out for a cigarette. It was only after he'd made it out of eyeshot (and let's not even talk about earshot) that I realized he'd headed to the back, not having heard my announcement (though I had mentioned the fact to him).

I ran out to prop the door for him. He rushed to join me at the door, thinking something was wrong. I kicked the prop down and he misunderstood me. And then couldn't hear me due to the exhaust fans. And so forth.

The whole night, I'd been feeling strange. Off. I kept stretching, trying to work out odd sensations in my limbs and joints. Wondering if my co-pilot would take the movements amiss. Never occurred to me to address them with him.

We've had an odd relationship, he and I. On-again, off-again friendship-slash-something-else. Undefined, of course. But there's static there somewhere. Nothing enough to put a finger on, mind. We discussed it once, both at the time not entirely ourselves, and managed to leave the conversation entirely in the same place we'd started it, other than the fact that it occurred, and fallen back to amicability as a default, no deeper on any level. Which is fine, and may not change. Also fine. Though change would likely also be fine. I'm too flexible for my own good sometimes.

I've been having several online conversations in the past few days. One handles on masculinity and what it means, calling to mind my old Men's Studies class and conversations for that class with my father. The other about images of me online and my resistance to them, calling to mind my divorce and the aftermath of that initial split, as well as a ton of self-esteem garbage. Both had turned terribly unpleasant for me, and distasteful, though only in the very last exchange before I'd gone to work.

While at the club, I received the most recent responses from both. One was entirely more open than I'd expected of a response, which made me smile as I was perusing it on my iPhone during the breakdown of a song. And the other--the other was magic. The person I'm chatting with about it is a terrible, wonderful person for sending me the exact right response to my concerns. Exact. I love her and hate her for it, because she's going to get exactly what she wanted, and I know I'm being manipulated, but damn is she good at it. And I can't not respect that. And I almost resent it. But it is beautiful in its execution.

beautiful.

And I know me. And I know I wasn't shuttering my face, my response. I had no reason to, there. And I know he probably saw me bite my lip, smile in that bemused half-way that I have when I'm being viciously charmed, turn my head to consider, and put down my phone. And stare at it. And pick it up. And read her message again. And smile and bite my lip again. And put the phone down. And look at it. And try to open my book. And shut it. And distract myself with the music change and changing the video and lights. And stare unseeing at the dancefloor. And look at the phone again.

Or he may have missed it. Also fine.

But I wonder what he thought if he caught it. Though not enough to ask.

So stretching. Simple standing yoga poses. And then he complained of a headache. And joint pain. Which, along with the minor power flickers (and worry about more major outages, of course) and reminder of the arms of Ike passing through with wind and stormage and pressure changes, finally brought me to what today's whole problem may have been.

Major storm front. Full moon. Winds. Celestials whirling.

I had my answer. My two and two finally didn't add up to 3.78 billion. They became four and an eighth, roundabout. Not too badly off.

And because I have tomorrow off, and the buses don't run on Sundays and he didn't have his usual ride and doesn't drive himself, I drove him home. With a pause outside my car so he could have a cigarette.

And we talked about the moon. His experience seeing it rise brilliant over the ocean in the northeast, my experience seeing it rise huge over the desert in the southwest. Lying under it, thinking it was pre-dawn and wondering why my camp-mates weren't stirring. Watching it rise, taking up a good eighth of the horizon, every pockmark on its surface etched as if in crystal. Like the bowl on the dining room table at home that my grandmother had brought over from Denmark. The bowl round, its surface grooved.

I didn't draw that comparison then. I'm glad I didn't: he might've thought me entirely moon-mad.

And maybe I am. It'll be short-lived. It's just the night tonight.

So I drove him home, and we made plans that I half-expect to fall through just like so many other times we've tried to make plans. Something comes up, and it ends up just as well for both of us in the end. No skin off anyone's nose. And really, I'm pretty ligeglad (literally "like glad" in Danish--ambivalence in the way people abuse it in English, basically) about it each time. Which may say something. May not.

And then I drove home, leaving him to corral the trash that had been blown halfway down their yard.

I'd seen debris on the road as we drove, mostly branches and bunches of leaves. Saw more as I headed to the bypass towards Bellefonte. But upon arriving in Bellefonte, I saw things were much worse there.

Two intersections with lights out and police actually directing traffic with lights like those landing guys at airports. A truck in the middle of the second intersection, headlights beaming into my eyes, as they tried to fix things. Propped-up stop signs by other lights-out intersections. A bewildering sense of things-not-right-here. But also an innate reassurance that all will be right by morning.

My car, gliding through downtown Bellefonte like the only thing alive, like some dark ghost, saw no other movement than those men. Even the trees were silent. No waving in the breeze. Just their detritus on the ground. Unanswering.

What happened here? I wondered, but knew the answer. Darkened windows yawned at me from every building surrounding me, and I was reminded of my visit to New Orleans after Katrina. The ghost-town suburbs we slid through to catch my early-morning flight home. Desolate due to low population, doubly so due to the hour, and then the mist rising from the low-lying areas. Which was everywhere, there.

The space was potential, but also ghostly. I waited for the rise of the supernatural.

And so it was on my way home tonight. But I turned onto my street and found, to my surprise, that my side of the street had power. The other side had none.

I parked, got out, gathered my things, locked my doors. Turned to face the lit side of the street. And turned my back to it to face the unlit houses, to drink in the moonlight for a moment. The oppressive humidity had broken, granting us the clear night sky, the crickets and night-insects of a dying summer. I listened, and felt the night connect to me. Then I trudged inside to survey the damage.

I found my usually-touchy stove clock un-reset, not flashing, and had a hope for my computer, which I'd foolishly left on. I found that it, though, had restarted. And worse, my keyboard was disabled. I restarted properly, super-sensitive for any bad signs, and checked and re-checked that it was on a surge protector. Yes. No problem. Should be unharmed, right?

And interruptus: my computer, as I'm typing this into my blog platform, informs me I have an IP conflict with another computer. There should be nothing else on this network: I'm password-protected and don't broadcast my network name, at the very least. But there it is. Might be my iPhone. I'll investigate later: it seems to not be doing me harm.

So I restarted, and was concerned by my boot time, and I started to remember all I'd done, created, saved but not backed up since my last big back-up project. Half of my Hawaii photo originals could go poof, I realized. But I was being over-sensitive. It was fine, and all was in order when it restarted.

And that leads us to--well, right about now.

And a way-fuller understanding of this evening of mine than you probably wanted. And it's tl;dr to most of you, I'm sure.

Mercury retro? Full moon antics? Storm blowing through, causing associated discomfort? A combination? That's where I've settled. I'm going to sleep now, and I'll drift off half-wishing the universe into righting itself by the time I wake, and half-hoping some of the disjointed madness can stay with me, so I can keep this out-of-time-and-reality pseudo-madness in a back pocket, to pull out when my life gets too normal.

And leave you wishing you'd had a taste of your own tonight. Perhaps.

supervision

Let me just say that after the past few days I've had, I'm thanking every little star in my sky that I have a supervisor who isn't afraid to help me prioritize.

These days, I've got a ton of conflicting priorities and people on all sides are demanding my time and attention. Some are sending multiple emails (though understandably, since I'm about to declare email bankruptcy), as well as copying in my old supervisor, weirdly enough. But when I'm entirely overloaded, it's an immense relief to be able to say "no" and refer them to someone farther up the chain than I am. Especially when that someone else can easily say that I've got more important tasks than theirs.

Being able to work down my list with someone who can make the call and take the heat that might follow is exactly what I need when I'm overwhelmed. I'd say it about halves my stress level, though that might be an exaggeration.

At the very least, it takes me out of the "I'll never get this all done" mindset. Instead, it provides a path to how it might all get done.

I once had a supervisor who refused to prioritize my duties, tasks and projects. Even when I asked, the supervisor in question refused. And nothing drove me battier.

And I was less productive for it. I ended up switching between things, trying to do them all semi-evenly until one of them or another became an emergency. And that was no help at all. My stress level was immense.

Having learned from that, I try to make priorities quite clear to the folks who report to me. I realize not everyone works in the same fashion, nor does prioritization lower everyone else's stress level the way it does mine, but it's been my best tool to make things clear.

And it works on my end, at least. I get things when I need them, and no one in my charge complains they don't know what to work on next.  I just hope it helps them with their stress level as well.

Dreaming work

I woke this morning after dreaming about how to implement a really useful, effective way to use Twitter for the Admissions Office. Thankfully, I didn't lose all the details upon waking, which sometimes happens to me with dreams interrupted by an alarm.

But I did think, upon waking, that the dream was a really bad sign. A really good sign too, but also a really bad sign.

It told me I don't have enough waking time to process this sort of thing.

I suspect either tomorrow or the next day I'm going to have to tell my boss that I've reached critical mass. That I have too many tasks and need help. It's swallow my pride time and I hate that.

He's just back from vacation and the approximately minute-and-a-half I had with him today was not the time to address this, but it does need to happen soon.

The firefighting I've been doing has shoved the less pressing things to a back shelf, and if we want to keep them alive, I've got to lean on others.

I hate that. I've always been a bit of an overachiever, and not always good at delegation: I've always subscribed to the "to get things done right, do it yourself" school of thought. But I'm learning. Sometimes the hard way.

In the process, though, I'm learning that people like to be challenged. When I hand over non-drudge work, work that requires critical thought and judgment, they appreciate it. Most of them realize that means I trust them.

And that trust is, sometimes, hard to come by. Hate to admit it, but it's true. But I've got to learn better.  Hopefully other folks will help me out by doing well with the projects I hand over.

Cross-platform documentation

Fair warning: there may be no blog post tomorrow. I'll be at Hersheypark and I suspect we'll be there late. I'll try to make it up over the weekend.

We have a new writer/editor on board as of yesterday. Desperately needed, I might add. I've already passed her two tasks that I really needed an editor's eye on, and she already caught a typo I missed (I did write it and hadn't proofed it yet--nor had I put it up yet, but that's beside the point).

I'd love to tell the story and link it, but it's not ready for public viewing just yet. I'll give some background instead.

In a cost-saving/environmentalist attempt to be more efficient, our office is going to stop sending a letter reminding students who apply that we're missing information from them like standardized test scores and their high school transcript. Instead, we'll be directing them to their online account with us, where they can view their regularly-updated status and see exactly what we're missing at the time.

In the past, this letter and the transcript or scores often crossed in the mail, prompting anxious calls. At the same time, I expect we'll get "I didn't know I had to check that" calls from now on, even though we've made every effort to point them to the resource, and we know that most students are using it. Obsessively, even.

So there's rewriting of current material to be done. We have to catch everywhere we might mention that letter.

Even though the process of halting this letter started almost last year at this time, it was only today that we made the decision to stop the letter entirely. Starting tomorrow.

So there was, of course, a bit of a scramble to make sure we'd killed it everywhere we needed to. Most of it was double-checking on things I'd changed six months ago and forgotten about for certain, but it was a scramble nonetheless. I checked the last place I needed to at about 5:10 this afternoon.

In the process, a few things were proven to me.

I had considered asking the new writer/editor to help me locate the letter references, but quickly dismissed that as folly. She would have no idea where to start other than a search engine. 

If I hadn't been in the office today, this might have been a problem. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I really do think that I'm the only one in the office that knows all the content on our site backwards and forwards. And given that memory isn't always my strong suit (I digitize most of it to give me more processing room), that resource needs to reside somewhere else too.

Basically, I'd argue that for a large site containing lots of procedures, you need documentation for where things that may need to be changed reside. And it has to cross platforms.

We've yanked a lot of references in my time with Admissions:

• SAT I became just SAT.
  
• We used to recommend against the rush option for their scores--strangely enough, there was a time this came to us via paper, whereas the normal scores came electronically and were loaded faster. 
  
• We used to take scores as official if they were printed on a high school transcript. No longer.

And that's just standardized test scores.

Now that I've been there long enough and I know all of our materials, I can name most of the spots all the above used to appear: which brochures (viewbook, fact brochure), presentations (prospect, out-of-state, SASD), letters (AU001--the missing information letter; a host of others not worth mentioning), pages on our site (news/html/newsat.htm, from our old site--and I'm sure you can recognize the archaic structure there), the application for admission, and a ton of standard email we send out as reminders.

It's the pieces I don't touch regularly that have gotten missed. I found an email from what used to be a separate team in the office that still has both the rush score and transcript mention that was sent out as recently as last January.  And, I suspect, more recently than that still, but have yet to have proof.

Our office is, unfortunately, a bit of a Kraken: multi-armed and sprawling. Such is the nature of a large office with independent functions, much less a large university or a multi-campus institution like ours. We can occasionally collect all our arms, but most of the time a tentacle does get loose. They're squirmy little buggers.

And no, I'm not going to make the Cthulhu comparison some of you might be expecting.

But back to my point.

Not everyone in the organization is going to be an expert. You'll always have new staff. Help with managing sites, processes, etc is always welcome. Documentation may be key to keep all your miscellaneous bits in line.

Everything is Miscellaneous, and it doesn't always flock as neatly as Weinberger demonstrates. Learn to manage your organization's information, both for the benefit of your own memory and sanity, and to help the new folks on your team.

Information online

At a recent meeting, I and a bunch of our decision-makers were trying to make changes to how we use some of our brochures. Costs are rising, both in terms of printing a piece and the cost of postage to distribute them, and budgets are being cut back, so it was time to take that hard look.

And I finally heard one of the sentences I've been waiting for out of our Executive Director's mouth:

"People are looking for this information online."

. . .

Thank you. And darn right they are.

Even putting aside the fact that we created this piece because the colleges stopped printing their own pieces with similar information, there's the doubles and triples that students get of the same brochure, not knowing it's in their folder already or that there's one in the mail to them, etc.

And besides which, they're getting the information the way they want to already. The related pages in question on our site are our most popular pages. We know people are accessing this information there. Even our Knowledge Base entries show it's the most popular question people have in mind when they get to our site.

So I presented a mock-up of a new landing page for the subject in question. I poured all the information we had about the subject onto a page and then faithfully trimmed it by half.  I did not go the half again that Steve Krug recommends because--frankly--this was just a mock-up. I didn't have the go-ahead to spend more time on it, really.

And the first response? "Awfully cluttered," and "wordy," to quote the two folks in question. Absolutely right, and I'll admit it. I could certainly spend more time and cut it back more.

And thank you for recognizing what people want on the web: clarity and simplicity.

Be succinct. That's my best web writing tip.

This is, however, super difficult to do when you're dealing with a multi-campus system that's truly (more or less) integrated in terms of curriculum and admissions. With 12 academic colleges at this campus and another 6 throughout the rest of the other 19 campuses scattered across the commonwealth. And especially when multiple campuses offer majors that have the same name, but are different programs with different curricula and options.

Not an easy task. But one I have to tackle.

But tomorrow. I almost missed today's post-per-day due to midnight hitting, and that just won't do, now will it?

Fires vs. meetings

My day in brief:

• Meetings 8:00 to 12:30, some of which were interrupted by three different people looking for me, all leaving tasks for me behind them.
• Brief hour at my desk for email/IM and lunch.
• Interview for a programmer position open from 1:30 to 2:30,
• half-hour of post-interview review, then
• a good hour of fire-putting-out on our online application for admission--with no resolution.
• Back to email/tasks left behind.

No way I can answer all the email I got today, nor catch up on what I got previously and haven't gotten to/resolved yet.

While today was mostly an exception, this sort of thing happens all the time, to one extent or another. And it's frustrating.

And I know it's not just me. Other people have similar workloads.

At some point, I'm going to have to call an embargo on meetings, or
declare email bankruptcy, or not be on IM, or close and lock my door. Or all of the above. Something. Because otherwise, I can't actually put into action the things I'm in those meetings for.

We're down two content people in my office now, so that could be aggravating the problem. But man. Rough Friday.

The web obviously needs some man-hours, and not just in my office. If there are any web folks out there at Penn State twiddling their thumbs (not that I think there are), drop me a line. I sure could use the help.

Exercising your knowledge base

Prompted by an excellent post by Shelby Thayer, as well as a meeting today with IntelliResponse, our knowledge base provider, I'd like to dig into what you can find out from and how you can fine-tune a knowledge base.

I personally find it fun and entertaining to track our top ten over time and see how things shift. Yes, I'm a strange bird. I know this and embrace it. But watching "how do I apply" crawl up over inquiries for our academic calendar shows the shift in the year again: that shift in what students and parents are thinking about. Likewise, inquiries for campus tours.

And I was thrilled to see "is Penn State a multicampus system" actually gain enough traction to make it to one of our top tens (the one that people actually type in, rather than browsing the provided questions). Thrilled. Essentially, that means that the message that Penn State is not one place has gotten out there.

But I found, when I looked farther, that "2+2" goes unanswered if someone enters it. Likewise, "campus offer." And these oversights (my own fault, mostly) are pretty egregious.

Now, those not familiar with the Penn State system might say "huh?" But both those questions should likely point to the "is Penn State a multicampus system" answer, or one like it.  (2+2 is what we call our system of two years at a smaller campus, followed by two years at a larger one to finish an undergraduate degree; campus offer is an offer of admission to one of our campuses.)

As much help as we've gotten from IntelliReponse (and we've gotten a ton: they've been great), you really need someone who knows the institution and office in question pretty much inside and out to evaluate your answers on a regular basis. I've found miscategorized questions, questions that don't get answered, and quite a few that are really just garbage--often someone with a juvenile sense of humor trying to see what they can get the system to answer to pretty ridiculous questions.

The miscategorized and unanswered worry me the most. That said, we're almost at a 90% response rate, and haven't been up and running too terribly long, so I'm not losing sleep over it. Yet.

I've seen as many misspellings as I think might exist for "Schreyer" (referring to our Honors College), including "shriars,"  "shryer," and "scyers" (virtually never capitalized, I might add), as well as referral to the aforementioned as "honros colelge."  I also know the Penn State system is confusing, but I really wish we could get enough info out there that people wouldn't be so bewildered as to ask "what college is the university campus on?"

I'm also sincerely hoping that "convicted of a felony" does not become a common question to turn up.

Examples aside, paying attention to these and getting them categorized appropriately not only helps your numbers, it helps your community, and that has real results when it comes to customer service. I've found that it's not just prospective students and parents using our knowledge base: it's also Penn State staff and faculty, some of them internal to admissions.

And people are using it all hours of the day, from all around the world. So rather than staying up until it's business hours on our side of the world, a student from Thailand or China can get the answer they need right then. Likewise those that are in our time zone and don't want to pick up the phone or write an email. Not to mention those right at any one of our Penn State campuses.

So in the end, to serve your customer, you have to find out what they want or need and try to deliver it to them in the way that's easiest for them to use, not the easiest for you to manage, although the two often intersect. Keep in touch with your community and serve them well, and you'll find the benefit is enormous.

Committees, usefulness thereof

This post started after reading this blurb questioning the need for committees. And I have to say I agree.

My office excels at bringing together committees, or working groups, or what-have-you. In practice, though, the most effective use of everyone's time that I've seen has been in bringing together the two or three people who will actually do the work for the project and having them keep up with each other.

In a lot of cases, this could be done online. Twitter could be used for up-to-the-minute updates. Or, of course, you could use a more normal project management package. A few of us used Backpack pretty extensively for awhile. The subject experts should only be pulled in as consultants to make a good project run.

But the point of committees in our office (often), unfortunately, and I see the need for it, is generally for buy-in. To keep people aware of how the project is coming.

And I really feel it's a waste sometimes. But there's a huge culture change that would need to take place to make it all work without them.

Has anyone else actually been in a place that has managed that change? Any tips you can share?

Usability in admissions

So as of yesterday, I've been approved to move forward with some usability testing on our online application for admission. As an excellent bonus, I'll be allowed to waive the application fee of the students who help us by letting them observe them.

Our Directors Planning Team, which collectively makes most of the important decisions in the office (which I'm a member of), was somewhat characteristically interested in the details. Who are we testing? Just students who visit? Out-of-state students? Students in the different regions of Pennsylvania? Those who visit our Community Recruitment Centers? I took it a step farther to make it clear that breadth isn't necessarily our aim considering our resources for the project--as of yet, I have no further funding approved--by suggesting transfers and international students. Further than that, we should look at adult students. But if I intend to test 5 - 10 students, there's no way we'll hit all these populations. How do we balance my funding, resources, support, and time? Not to mention equipment and travel, possibly?

The easy answer is: we don't. Keeping it simple and keeping it close to home (so to speak) keeps it feasible. And we'll get plenty of useful feedback just with that, potentially more than we can change in the time we have. If I get the funding and time I need, though, the equation changes completely.

This morning (during the Spend a Summer Day admissions presentation, I'll admit, with the caveat that I've seen it five times now) I started mulling over my own questions about the project, which in some ways I find more important. What should we ask on a pre- or post-survey? Do we really strip this down to make it fast and easy and not have either? Do I want to publish/speak on this topic and thus slow us down with the IRB process? (No, probably not. What we do now falls under process-improvement and hasn't required one thus far.)

Should I contact my Usability Engineering instructor from last semester and see if he knows a student who might be interested in helping with this very important research? Do we want to try to include someone with accessibility issues to make the point that we need to work on that end of things? (One rule of usability testing is not to go in with an agenda, so I probably shouldn't pursue this.)

The questions go on and on.

In the end, we'll probably end up on the end of a stripped-down version, because doing that way gets it done. Getting ambitious may mean it doesn't happen, and I'd hate for that to occur. We need to know what real students do rather than continuing to make suppositions.

Facebook and recruiting, initial thoughts

Wish I had more time to address this today, but this one will have to be quick. Keep in mind most of this is supposition.

Sometime during their search, I bet students looking at colleges and universities are likely to tap into Facebook. While this is still theory, it's supported by others such as James Howell, in his entry a few days ago.

Unfortunately, right now I don't expect that Penn State Admissions will be headed in that direction just yet, despite the presentation I made this past spring at our Penn State Admissions conference. The basic gist of that presentation was a suggestion to use Facebook Pages rather than Groups or Profiles for an "official" presence there. The "fan of" dynamic is just easier to deal with. That aside.

So for those students who choose to take a quick peek via Facebook into the ins and outs of a university, they'll probably breeze through the groups, maybe take a look at some interesting people.

If I were to give some advice to that student, it would be: don't judge us by a quick run-through, by our more popular groups, or even by our more active students on Facebook, necessarily. Take a moment to search for faculty. Look through staff like advisers, if you can find them. Look through the clubs and organizations with an official presence there. And better yet, contact people. Ask the question you've been wanting to of that student leader, that professor whose department you're interested in, especially if they've been active recently.

The head of the Undergraduate Writing Center, Jon Olson, resisted getting onto Facebook for years. The peer tutors he works with created a "Get Jon Olson on Facebook" (or some such title) group. He finally relented recently and has been posting enthusiastically since: status, photos, even video.

It's a hurdle for faculty sometimes, but I think most of them find that it's super easy (and maybe even fun). But it does present some interesting quandaries: do I provide advising for the student that contacts me on Facebook, or do I refer her/him to email? That sort of thing. And while they all make their own decisions on that end, I would hope they would at least answer you. So reach out.

Social networks are for interacting, after all.

Geology and tech: the end is the beginning is the end

I think I prefaced over this last weekend that I wasn't going to have a theme with this entry in mind.

I started college as a geology major. Somewhat obviously, I didn't stick with it, but it's still a great interest of mine.

Some of you know and some of you don't that I have an MFA in Creative Writing. So a lot of my so-called "personal" reading is actually keeping up on that end of things for me.

And to combine both interests, I recently read Threshold, by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It's very much in a genre I used to write--a pseudo-magical realism, if magical realism in literature could be divorced from its Latin American roots (which it can't be, really). It starts out gritty, modern, and then wanders gently into science, myth, urban legend, and a particular superstitious nature you find in the south.

But my main point in addressing the experience of reading this book was the following passage, voiced by our narrator, Chance, who was in college as a geology major at the time:

"Can you think of anything else I could do with my life that could ever possibly be half this splendid, half this important? I'm learning to read, Deke, and not just the handful of things men have been around long enough to write down. The history of the whole damned planet is written in rocks, just lying there waiting for us to learn how to read the words." - p. 177

It's this urge that drives me, strangely enough, in my current work as well.

I'm learning to read in a larger sense than I've ever read so far. And to some extent this was an evolution: I did, after all, start on email quite awhile ago, then moved to forums, then Livejournal, then Blogger, then Facebook/MySpace, then Twitter, and Google Reader and the big feeds (Slashdot, BoingBoing, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, etc) got stuck in there somewhere too (and I may be skipping steps, of course: on the multimedia end, Flickr and YouTube are two examples, but I'm talking about text here, in the main).

But in terms of an educated and informed community that I can have face-to-face contact with and shares my academic/work interests, this is a first (which might be, I might add, because my college/grad work had little to do with technology). Not just casual friends giving updates on their lives, but I get a touch of friendliness and personality alongside the theory.

So I get these fantastic ideas as well as the context surrounding them: the problems that were faced to prompt them to come up with these ideas. It's good stuff.

But larger than that, and for a longer period of time, I've been learning to read people and their interaction with technology; learning to read the evolution of society due to technology's influence; learning to read how technology is changing our minds and changing our spaces.

I'm reading the future. I've already learned to read the past.

So between geology and tech, I feel like I've got the span of things.1 And while this current tech iteration is more minute than an atom in a drop in a bucket in terms of geologic time, it's monumental for us living in it.

And I get to read it. And better yet, write some of it.

[1]Oroboros.

Spend a Summer Day notes

Writing my first post-a-day blog post in August on my iPhone during gaps in a Spend a Summer Day.

SASD, as we know it and love it for short, is a day-long open house event held at all Penn State campuses. At Penn State University Park, due simply to demand, it's held on six days: every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday spanning two weeks, usually bridging July and August.

August 1st, incidentally, is also the day our new application for admission goes live. Given that and the fact that EVERYONE in the office helps during SASD (our Executive Director was running between the HUB and Schwab Auditorium on Monday trying to fix a problem), to say this time of year is stressful is an understatment.

I've been staffing our table at the information fair during the event pretty regularly so far, and I've noted a difference in style between me and some of my colleagues. Some colleagues push our brochures, despite all the information in a few of them being available online.

If I can make a generalization, these tend to be the older admissions folks who are more used to using the brochures. Others offer options: you could grab this AP brochure to see what credit you'd get for what score on which test, or you can look it up on our website. (for my own commentary, why waste the paper and cost us the money for four scores they could easily look up?)

I've also found that when I offer my AIM handle to students I'm talking to, they get super-enthusiastic. And even their parents start telling me I'm the last word in customer service: above and beyond and all that.

So while this doesn't affect the larger conversation of the newest modes of electronic communication, it does tell me that some folks are picking them up no problem (students, to generalize), some folks are slowly picking them up or recognizing their value (parents), and some folks will print out webpages if the brochure is discontinued (the non-technologically-savvy).

But the thing is, we have to serve them all. Penn State is committed to serving the Commonwealth, and any one of the above could either become a student here or at least interface with the University in some way.

So how do we serve all, even those not comfortable with technology?

I think the idea of engaging the early adopters is a good one (apologies that I don't remember who suggested it right now), and certainly paves the way to spreading the word in a grassroots fashion.

Something else I'd like to explore further, perhaps in a later post, is how technology can help us realize cost savings and green initiatives without leaving anyone behind, especially considering the widespread nature of Penn State's mission.

Meta on the level.

You may have cycled back here to find a flood of new posts. More than usual, anyway.

Most of it is explained here, but the gist of it is that a colleague put us up to the challenge of writing a post per weekday in August and I'm giving it a whirl.

I set up Ubiquitous Connectivity to be the primary place those posts will go, but I also decided to copy/paste them over here.

So yes, these are very much theory/work-related, but I figured the folks over here would appreciate them, so I'll save you the trouble of checking both blogs.

August challenge

Taking up Cole's challenge of a post a day for August, according to the rules outlined there. Me and Daniel and Shannon so far, as far as I've seen.

Love to say more on the matter, but I've got a meeting in a second here. One thing to share before I go: I'm reading Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations and also was fed a video of Shirky talking about his book by someone in my network (the section about flash mobs is especially engaging: "nothing says dictatorship like arresting people eating ice cream," for example).

And the commentary I'd like to add is that this is, to some extent, what we're doing. Someone has an idea, puts the call out there to see if anyone's interested, and people throw their hats into the ring, cooperatively arranging taxonomies (er, folksonomies, really) to tag and aggregate content, resulting in a pool of information and new ideas being created.

It's what I've seen in action growing slowly over a year, accelerated by the TLT Symposium and Twitter, sparked further by TweetMeets and BS Breakfasts and Bookclub, and burst into full flame (as far as I can tell) in Learning Design Summer Camp here at Penn State. And I'm convinced that this is the way to do it.

But it's happening this way (or similarly, at least) elsewhere: EduWeb happened recently, and people were Tweeting and videostreaming (alternate) and liveblogging sessions, and it was almost as good as being there, minus a significant amount of in-person networking and fun. But it can be done. I've been caught up in this plus Jeffrey Veen's idea of an audience ombudsman for conferences and trying to figure out how this works in purely-online communities.

And it really goes back to the idea of an alpha user, I think. But the thing is that we've got a bunch of them here at Penn State.

More to develop on this idea. But it will have to hold: I've got a meeting for our campus tour podcast project coming up.

update for the update-impaired

Here's a bit more complete an update:

Health-wise, my allergist has figured out that I have what basically amounts to a chronic sinus infection. Three rounds of seriously stupid antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and expectorants and nasal sprays planned: if these don't work, they're talking surgery. In a lot of ways I don't expect them to, since the first one did not (though did improve matters for a time) and this round seems to be making things worse, not better. Tea with honey is my friend currently.

Work-wise, my patience is running on the thin side. Stress-wise, I'm rather through the roof, since I'm also taking a class this semester and it's consuming a large portion of the time I'd otherwise get to unwind during.

Personally, despite all this, I'm doing okay. I'm starting to make plans to move at the end of May, though whether that's local or away from the area is still up in the air. It's about time I had my own space. Part of what makes J such a great roommate is that we stay out of each other's way well, generally, but that has started to degrade over time and is no longer fully the case, enough so that I'm ready to be done. We're still good friends, nothing's changed on that end--it's just time.

To that end, I'm eyeing all my belongings, readying for a purge. Though there's a lot I don't want to lose, just put away so I don't have to move it two or three times, potentially (one or two local moves, then a longer one).

A lot of things are coming to a head in the next three months or less. I'm just hoping against hope that the timing all works out well.

year in review 2007

As is tradition, my year in review. Hang tight, this'll get long. I'm also doing this really quickly, so it's not terribly edited, just to warn you.

January

Started off with a bang since I worked New Year's Eve at the club job. Fell on a Sunday, after all. Took a few photos.

Pink had crept back into my wardrobe by this point. That's notable for some reason, trust me.

At work, we started planning and eventually got permission to do the site redesign, which was desperately needed. Despite that project, I still had days entirely booked with meetings.

It was a month of busy, as per normal, and enjoying squash, and appreciating that I knew how to drive in snow. Also started yoga twice a week rather than once during this semester. Oh, and there was a birthday and associated celebration.

February

Thankful for my warm down coat. Got a ton of songs (that I seriously dislike) from the club job stuck in my head throughout the month. I eventually made a mix CD of those I could tolerate and those I couldn't, hoping to rid them all from my brain-pan. It worked, eventually.

This month at work we got the weirdest inquiry letter I've ever seen, which became a short running joke: short because the source was so bloody uncomfortable. Obviously a mentally disturbed individual reaching out, but it was so uncomfortable you couldn't help but laugh about it. My grandboss brought it to me while I was in the office of another colleague who has since left the office.

Some choice lines we would spout at each other as we passed in the hallways:
"Conditions are not good."
"I will need fed because I eat and am active."
"I have a felony but it should be removed."
"I do not like female/male integration."
Or our summary, which boiled down to: "I need food."

We also had a call asking if the football coach had any sway in admissions decisions, who was very insistent and kept calling back to try different angles. It seemed to be the month for weird at work.

Developments in yoga: starting to love inverted poses, appreciating Pigeon pose.

March

Grandboss left the office. Sad, sad day. This caused a ton of upset at work, and with me in general. He was absolutely the person I most looked forward to seeing every day.

As a horrible up side, I got a promotion possibly/probably in part due to his leaving. His brother (who also works in the office), also a bit of a cut-up, asked if he needed to address me as Assistant Director all the time now. I told him nothing had changed except actually getting recognition of the things I was doing already. :P

Before my grandboss actually left the office but after the position was posted (because I went for a position, it wasn't just an automatic promotion-type-thing), I went into his office and asked him "do you think I'm qualified for this?" and he laughed at me. Made me feel oddly better.

Found one of the houses I lived in when I lived in Denmark via the satellite view of Google Maps. Also found the church Dad was baptized in. Signed up for Twitter. Ha.

April

80 degrees to snow. Inches of it on Easter, which I took pictures of coming down. Weird weather this month.

Moved offices and had incredible trouble with the new office's desk (which was eventually replaced, thankfully). Had to trot out suits even more often due to even more important meetings: scored a subtle coral-pinstriped one that looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Meetings and more meetings and training.

Experimented with beet casseroles. Played with a new hairdo: a French twist kind of thing.

Got the scanned version of my aunt's album from L (thank you!) and uploaded it to flickr.

Attended the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium, which was generally excellent.

Events at Virginia Tech caused a bunch of conversation at work.

Kept having to take days off at work or lose them, having bumped into the limit of stored vacation days.

My cell phone battery life continued to die, which caused some problems (though much of that was in February).

May

I think this month could best be summed up as OMG WTF BBQ WORK. The last cram of work on the redesign was just overwhelming. I had a ton of codewrangling this month for the redesign and launch of one of our mini-sites: the one for Spend a Summer Day (SASD, as I more commonly refer to it).

The Big Ten Admissions Conference that we hosted happened this month. A few photos here. Quickly thereafter, our Penn State Admissions conference: a few photos of that here.

Listened to a lot of jazz this month as we wrapped up the launch of the redesign, which happened the morning of the second day of the latter conference.

Got new glasses: from pretty severe black secretary glasses to a pair that are a bit more cat eye-shaped, with filigree-type stuff on the edges. I've gotten a ton of compliments on them. :)

Still doing decant circles for the scent community I'm part of this month: I do quit that somewhere along the way, though, and regain the time I dedicated to it, thankfully.

Stormed a lot at the end of this month and the beginning of the next.

June

Penn State Web Conference was excellent this month: some pictures.

There were also a ton of caterpillars out, which of course I took pictures of. Oh, and there was a birthday party in here somewhere.

Started reading a bit more, which was a nice return. Experimented with cooking wilted greens, which ended up really well.

The big event was the visit to Seattle. The conference was incredible there: easily the best I've attended. I'll be looking for it again this coming year, though I don't think it will be in Seattle again (nor could I attend it there again, I don't think, just given how tight budgets are becoming).

Once that was over, hit vacation, staying with college friends in Seattle. Very easy to slip back into old rhythms, though of course things were different: a pair of them had a little girl, for one thing. Played tourist throughout Seattle both alone and with said friends, though easily started eyeing it from the point of view of moving there someday. Both the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods started looking extremely appealing, though it's far more likely I'd be in the suburbs somewhere, depending on where I got a job, of course. If I eventually moved there, which is still obviously extremely theoretical.

The other big event was the first Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab East Coast Will-Call (this is the scent/perfume community I may have mentioned once or twice) in Hershey. I had also met up with a couple of folks from that community (I say community in the broadest sense of the word, really) in Seattle, who were awesome. But the ECWC at the end of this month was a fantastic event, with people dressing up in the theme and all. These started monthly after this point and I've only missed one so far.

July

Got some awesome shots of the 4th of the July fireworks.

Took a couple days off in July for my birthday and Arts Fest/People's Choice. Good times, though mildly sunburnt. Got a new lens for my DSLR, which I'm still adoring (and using more frequently than the kit lens, I might add).

Got contacted about a company that wanted to use a picture of mine in a documentary.

I think this is the month the replacement for me (writer/editor position) started, and she came on board really quickly. Not a whole lot of training time needed there: she picked things up quickly, and blew through projects quickly, which was awesome and very much needed. The balance of having to manage two people started becoming a bit precarious in here somewhere, though, given that I had my own projects as well.

Concluded the month with another BPAL ECWC, where again, I took some pictures. Oh, and Spend a Summer Day (SASD) started, which were just exhausting.

August

SASD continued. Just no time to do anything in here: too wiped out. Also did a bunch of web application revisions for the College of Arts and Architecture.

Stardust came out, and I went to see it far too many times, which still wasn't enough.

Went to Hersheypark mid-month with a couple friends: definitely an enjoyable time.

Finished the month with yet another awesome ECWC.

September

Kicked off with a great Labor Day eve Sunday night crowd. Got totally backlogged on photo-taking--not all I took that night are up since I've just had more important photos (to me) to crunch and upload than that.

Fall Conference for us, Student Aid, and the Registrar. I took some pictures, but haven't messed with them yet. Had to do double work somewhere in here when revising visit emails. Irritating, but welcome to work. Then again, made headway on various very cool projects as well, so I shouldn't complain.

"Talk Like a Pirate Day" passed again with little fanfare, unfortunately. Though the Libraries did a pirate-themed open house, which was cool.

Finally gave in to the iPhone temptation after the price dropped and my old phone just wouldn't hold a charge.

Ended the month, once again, with a great ECWC, one during which I dragged along S to get our nails done beforehand.

October

Started with Cirque du Soleil with L, which was an excellent performance/experience.

Had a touch of asthma problems this month: a rarity. Resolved in the next month somewhere.

Finally figured out that the noise made during rainstorms right near my head was because the roof hadn't been entirely sealed. They got it fixed, finally.

The HighEdWebDev conference happened this month. Good sessions, good people.

One more very cool ECWC: pirate-themed this time. Dax and S both came with, which was very neat.

Wrapped up with Halloween at the club job, which I only have one shot up of as of yet. Started getting stressed about finishing things before the Hawaii trip in November.

November

Cut my hair back by about seven inches in preparation for being in the water a lot in Hawaii (which didn't really happen, but that's beside the point).

Completely undid a corner of my room so they could fix the water damage while I was away. And by fix, I mean paint over, but whatever.

The Hawaii trip was a mixed bag: mom is doing far worse than I'd thought, but then again, I was in Hawaii. What right did I have to complain? And it was a great experience: I learned to surf, went on a bus tour on one island and a helicopter tour on the other, etc, etc. But seeing mom liked that made me keenly aware of my own health and future. And, of course, concern for her, some of which I'm working on, but we'll see how that plays out.

Still working on the photos from that trip. I'm only about halfway through, but had enough to take with me to show people during the holidays.

When I got back, had to re-do that corner of my room, including taking my bed out of the bathroom, where I'd wedged it for the interim. Changed my comforter cover in the process, from a green to a deep red. I like it; might be changing the sheets and pillow cover to match in the near future.

The rest of November was a scramble to catch up again, pretty much. My maternal uncle was put in the hospital near the end of it, which was another big concern for awhile. Thankfully, all turned out all right. Oh, and yet another ECWC, as per normal.

December

Ended the CSA experience, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out how to replace it.

Divided up my Twitter presences into personal and professional: a necessity after awhile, really. I kind of regret leaving some personal stuff on the supposedly professional version, but not much to be done about it.

Underwent a few all-day meetings of one stripe or another. Again. Major work drama happened this month, drama that I'd rather forget about, frankly. One outcome, though, is the new great staff member leaving--not because of drama. Drama just ensued. There may be major changes on the horizon, and I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing for me. But it should be an improvement for the office as a whole, and I did volunteer it. We'll see.

Started trying to figure out how to afford a class next semester. Still in that process, to some extent, though I'm signed up and ready to go.

Got a couple pictures from Seattle published in a travel guide. Got a Wii. Left for Wisconsin.

Long visit in the Midwest: saw Dad, B, my paternal uncle (not the one who was in the hospital), and a few friends: H and H, actually. One from my sorority and one from college (yes, those are different. it's complicated). Missed C, though, which I was sad about.

Dad and I sat down and went through my aunt's album to fill in the details, inasmuch as he could remember.

Had a great French-themed Christmas dinner with B's family, as well as our usual Danish-tinged Christmas Eve dinner. I still love fliskesteg. I should really learn how to do it myself.

Did some tech help with Dad's new laptop and GPS unit. Hopefully, got him set up for the marine maps he wanted. (Let me know if you have problems, okay Dad?)

Got some fantastic presents, including new shoes and suits, many of which were very much needed. I felt very much spoiled once I got home and started unloading the car, which was pretty well packed. True, some of it was my own purchases since they've got better shopping out there, but still.

And now, back and trying to catch up again, as well as trying to integrate everything. Space is very much at a premium and I need to get things out of the hallway. To do that, though, I need to make some space. It's a Tetris challenge: I used to be very good at this, back when I worked for the Symphony, but I haven't needed to do so for a decently long time. I'll make it work, though, somehow.

My only regret for December is missing this month's ECWC, but it just couldn't be managed. Can't be two places at once yet, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll invent that soon. Ha.

yoga, summers, water, mountains, Seattle, work. in (not-so) brief.

I headed out of yoga last night, chatting with S. all the way, after she kindly waited while I talked to our teacher for a bit. She's refreshing: we should talk more, hang out more, but neither of us seem to be able to find the time.

The first bits of a thunderstorm were letting loose: I offered to drive her over to her car, parked about a block away, but she declined since she likes having the walk after yoga. Wish I could think like that, but for me, it's all I can do to get there on time. Stupid work getting in the way of my yoga. ;)

While driving home, I watched the rain evaporate off the blacktop as mist from the heat of the day, and when safely ensconced at home, enjoyed the thunder accompaniment. I love summer thunderstorms. It's foggy this morning, and cool, following the storm. I'm enjoying it very much.

There's a summer dish I've been craving since Monday that Dad used to make every once in awhile: a (from memory) really simple cucumber-and-vinegar dish. I meant to call and ask him about it on Monday, but got sidetracked with mom and planning for a trip we've just scheduled for November. Very exciting stuff, but I'm not going to trust that it's real until I'm on the plane. It's that surreal.

The Google (ha) isn't helping me with the recipe either: all of them have either mayo and sour cream, and I don't remember that at all. Dad, check me on this: it's just thinly sliced cucumber in white vinegar with sugar stirred in, right? And then chilled? Is it that simple, or is my memory just failing me?

Summers are always more than a bit nuts for me: you'd think it would be our down time here in Admissions, but it's not. It's cleanup time for some things, plus Spend a Summer Day prep and the six days themselves, plus the new web app going up each year.

That said, I wish I could get some time away to go see the boats my Dad's captaining these days. Take the new Black Point tour, perhaps. That's one thing this area is lacking: I love the mountains, but the lack of large bodies of water is something I miss pretty regularly. We've got streams, occasional rivers, but no convenient ponds or lakes. But maybe I just got spoiled with that big pond at the last place mom and I lived in Woodstock, then the Mississippi in St. Paul, then of course Lake Geneva.

Water's calming, stilling. The soft grandeur of the mountains here have a similar effect, but it's entirely different in feel. Seattle's were much more imposing, but distant. But their water was much more immediate. The Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake: I saw almost every one of these regularly while I was there, most of them daily. They're spoiled with water and mountains.

I really need to make a fuller entry and notes about my visit there: I've just been so pushed for time lately, and I keep pushing off commitments, which is a problem. I'm not even finished with crunching the photos from the trip. But I took 3,700 shots, so that's kind of understandable. What I've put up so far you can see here. Oh, and Dad? Check out the Ballard and Nordic Heritage Museum sets. Ballard was originally settled by Scandinavian immigrants, so they have events like "Tivoli Viking Days" (I'm not making this up), and they have an actual, honest-to-goodness and still owned by the family Danish bakery and a bunch of Scandinavian foodstuff grocers, plus a bunch of retirement homes that are named for the groups they were either founded by, or primarily serve--all Scandinavian-based names. And you'll see some familiar items in the museum set. ;)

It's really as if Seattle was making a serious play for my attention: the seafood was exquisite, the sushi was the best I've ever had in my life, plus all this Danish heritage stuff? Sold. Y'know? That's another thing I've missed here: there's a lot of Dutch, a lot of German, a lot of miscellaneous Eastern European, in terms of original settlers, but not much Scandinavian stuff at all. Minor complaints, it might sound, but for someone who wants to keep connected to that community, keep the language I learned in good speaking shape, that's a powerful lack. And a powerful selling point for a place that has it.

Now, I'm not going anywhere for a year at least (I'm in a lease, if nothing else), but I have given it some thought, though not anywhere approaching serious, "how would I do this"-type thought. I've got time enough for that. But even aside from all the college friends who moved out there, I also know a couple that recently moved out there from Madison, so I should have all the practical advice on how to do it right and well if I should need it.

And I have friends there. Not only the college clan, but folks I'd known before only online, who I met when I went and spent two pretty full days with and became almost immediate fast friends. They're some of the most immediately awesome people I've ever met. You know how you start liking people more the more you get to know them? Not these folks. Right off the bat, they were far too cool to be true. But enough raving about them. The point is that making new friends is one of the most scary parts about moving. With Seattle, at least, it wouldn't be as much of a concern for me.

Done raving about Seattle. Dax and L. keep teasing me that everything's better in Seattle, since I keep naming things that are. I've had to chastise them that no, not everything is (I can name a couple things off the top of my head that are distinctly better here: traffic being a big one), it's just that the things I remember best and thus talk about are.

Back to the here and now. I smell like peaches this morning, due to my peachy BPAL Chaos Theory I got last year at this time. I'm really glad I put it on this morning. I tossed on my off-white cardigan, and the danger of leaving cardigans in my office for when I need them is that they start to smell like my office. But that's been the case with every office building I've ever known: they have a building smell, and after all day in it, that building smell will cling. But maybe I just have a sensitive nose.

Yesterday was a day-long meeting about this year's budget proposal. Let me repeat: Day. Long. Meeting. Wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, though. Though I drank far more coffee than I usually do (the usual amount being zero).

I was also by far the youngest one there. I noted it and thought it was weird, but I don't think anyone else noticed. Except for at lunch, where I had mentioned yoga, and then everyone at my table leapt in to describe their various back problems, sciatica, neck injuries, etc. One guy's back had seized and he had collapsed while walking up his block, just laying there until some stranger helped him. Carried him to his truck, drove him to his house, deposited him in his bed. When he still couldn't move, he eventually called 911. Bizarre. Makes me none too keen to get older. ;) But I guess that's a good reason to be starting yoga before I need it for physical therapy or some such.

I'm debating going to classes three times a week rather than my current two. I love it, it makes me feel awesome and I can tell I'm making progress. I'm still amazed at a few things I can do that I certainly wouldn't have been able to before starting (or when I was in that down time before I picked it back up again). It's just a time issue. As is everything, it seems.

Speaking of which, I should really get to it.