I did it...

I did a google search to find out who dies in HP5 and found a message board. Aren't I bad? And I'm not even going to read the thing until I can buy the UK paper edition. BAD!!!!

Dude, it's a presentation....

Back from Portland and my one-day NASIG crash visit. Pretty good stuff--a nice environment and I even learned things about serials operations. Mostly concerns about e-journals, tracking, licensing, etc. During one panel session, however, someone committed the fatal error of not tailoring the PowerPoint for an oral presentation. Dude, what's up with that? I must remember to never cram the slide full of text. The information was very good, but the technology in this case totally interfered with the reception of the message. I find that I'm also annoyed when folks read from the Power Point. If your speech duplicates some of the text on the slides, fine, but it shouldn't be a total overlap. Otherwise, why are you there? I reminded myself that I want to start a collection of funny library-related images to include in PP presentations as needed.

Another interesting bit: I took the hand breast-pump because I didn't want to lug around the breast-pump case. But, when I went into a bathroom stall in the ladies' restroom to pump during a lunch break, I discovered that the hand pump wasn't working out. So, I got to manually express into the toilet. I'm sure some of the women were saying "now that's a different tinkling sound--what's going on over there?" A little relief, but I was still very excited when David and Michael picked me up after the conference day was over. The moral? Test out your gear beforehand....

Oh yeah, it seems Holly is doing some technical jivey with her jive, so no linkage from spagblog. Whazzup?

Portland, and NASIG

I'm off to Portland with husband and baby to spend one day at the NASIG conference (National Serials Interest Group). I'm not in serials, so this is just an educational journey. It should be interesting to see how the other half of the mono/serials divide does things.

Ah Friday! plus Mommy Guilt

Friday, you say? But it's Thursday! Such is the weekly rhythm of the mommy working flextime. There are challenges and rewards to the 4-10 workweek. How can you work 10-hour days, people ask? (Usually people who haven't endured some of the long work cycles of production at, say, Microsoft, or other corporate venues.) Well, the way I see it, I'm in early enough where not too many people will see me dragging, and by the end of my day everyone else is tired too, so it's really the peak middle hours I'm worried about.

That's the flip answer, the "stealing the money" answer. The somewhat more honest and circumspect answer is that this is the best weekly schedule for my family, and any work-related benefits are secondary. This keeps Michael in daycare a minimum of days (he's in 3 days per week, with Dad off on Wednesdays, which will be ending soon--that's another post topic), which is good for the boy and the pocketbook (another post). There's guilt all-around with this setup though. The "I'm not with my baby" guilt is there, of course. But there's also the guilt of "I know I could be a better employee, but this is what you get right now". Even though you might be dedicated to both sides of the coin, you can't help feel like you're shaving off a bit from either one.

I managed to find a little relief in one of my current readings: M. Scott Peck's Gifts for the Journey (1985 repub in 1995 under this title). He talks about how within the Christian context our sins are completely forgiven, and to persist in guilt over them is a version of pride. Some of you might think, "Great, now I can feel guilty about feeling guilty!" But to actually follow through with this is pretty liberating. It calls to mind that familiar AA adage "One day at a time!" I know a lot of working moms who operate under that, so let's accept the forgiveness and do the best we can. Time to start earning my money now....

Geekdom Returns!

Ah, to feel the rumblings of the inner geek again! To be distracted by the lure of the technoquest! I felt this a little bit after MAS was born and I was creating his website with all the pics for the grandparents. But that was partially sleep deprivation and knowing that I'd be up at 3am anyway. With the launching of the blogs it's a different matter. The drive to be up until 3am tinkering with code, making things just so. I haven't really felt that fire since graduate school. Those who have felt it know, and you can't really explain it to those who haven't experienced it. Anyone who has been in the zone, that space where you forget what time it is, knows what I'm talking about. I'll respond differently to it this time though. I will get enough sleep to be human and I won't steal the money during my work hours. I swear. And, it's not even 10pm yet anyway.

I can't believe I tried to get Vern to tell me who dies at the end of the new HP. The shame!

HELLO WORLD!/STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Everybody's doing it! Steph, Holly, Jim Gomez. What about spagblog? Even my 10-month old son has his own mediated blog (recently resurrected from the pit of hell that is the frustrating bonk of the tired but usually technologically competent parent). One of the biggest questions about these things is, "what do I really have to say to people out there?" It shouldn't be an online self-flagellation, but something useful, even if only to provide evidence to those surfing that there really are folks like you out there.

So, what do I have to say? I'm a relatively new librarian in a large academic setting, having received my MLIS in 2001 from the University of Washington Information School. I'd like to say that a portion of this will be about my work life, or thoughts on information provision, access, issues, etc. We'll see.

But, more of it is likely to be about mixing that professional aspect with being a new mother. What does that mean when you also care about your professional life? What if you don't really know? I'm lucky to have a really supportive co-parent (David), but sometimes there are still the frustrating moments. And, I always have my heart tugged when I leave Michael at daycare. There are some great work/life balance resources out there, some of which I've read, but there could always be more. I find that the most helpful resources are testaments of what others have done.

And then there's this Jesus thing. In the past few months or so, a new shift has come about in my spiritual life, pulling me closer to traditional Christianity. I see this as a more daily practice, including listening, reading, doing, as well as belonging to some regular group of fellowship. How to mix the worldly challenges of all of the above with renewing your faith? How to pursue this without becoming the very things you hate about organized religion?

So, if you know me, I hope this provides an opportunity for you to see a side of me that you may not always see (or maybe we just don't have time to talk about it). Perhaps it will spark a future conversation. Or, if you're surfing/searching and don't yet know me, maybe it will offer something of value.

On with the spagblog!