Life in Denim and Flip Flops

Wow. Those last few days of March just flew by. I've been a little crazy trying to get this whole B3DA thing rolling on top of my normally crazy week. But that's when I realized I was made for this challenge. The organizing and brainstorming ideas collaboratively as well as encouraging (or...coercing) people into doing crazy things are totally skills I've learned as a librarian. I can list, throw ideas around, and sweet talk people with the best of them. All while attempting to make things accessible and teach people how to do something (i.e. start a blog or make a blogroll). Love it. And the seemingly ridiculous idea of doing anything (much less blogging) every day for an entire month, totally speaks to my experience on the block plan at Cornell. After getting an entire college education one class a month for 4 years. Nothing seems too daunting for a month. As I used to say you can do anything for 18 days (the number of days in our blocks). So bring it on B3DA I'...

It's almost that time again! BEDA (Blog Every Day in April) is just around the corner. A few of us from last year's group are back and ready to roll for BEDA 3.0 (BEDA Part 3? BEDA the Third?). Are you?? Autumn and Christina and I are game and we're waiting for confirmation from our Glaswegian Nicola . EDIT: Confirm received!! She's in! Don't know what BEDA is? It's a little thing lauded YA author (and TIME magazine twitter of note ) Maureen Johnson started 2 years ago on a whim. And by whim, I mean...she made a comment on Twitter and someone said "hey me too!" and the next thing you know there are 400 of us crazies following her lead and blogging every day for an entire month.Half way through the month she offered to pair us up with other people for motivation. And that's where the original foursome came from. We were chosen by Maureen. She did a pretty good job pairing us up, and we've become friends and stayed in contact ever since. ...

Reading or writing by candlelight is not romantic. It's difficult and kind of awful. I can see where a different kind of candle might have been useful, but a girl has got ot work with what she's got. Now you may be wondering why I'm whining about writing in the dark when clearly I'm blogging. You're wrong dear reader. I'm not. (Also clearly I have been reading way to o many books that refer to the reader in second person.) I wrote this by candlelight during my earth hour observance and will dutifully transcribe it later. Last year I spent earth hour on the phone. In the dark, but on the phone. It felt a little like cheating so this year I thought I'd go a bit further and cut myself from technology too. I thought writing by candlelight would be fun. Well more fun than the alternative of just sitting in the dark. Now it is, but not by much. It's not a project I'll be repeating soon. :) But it's a good reminder and reality check. It is possibl...

I've seen my fair share of live theatre productions. Not a huge amount. I've seen local and college shows. I've seen regional things. I saw the Chicago production of Wicked. Last year Autumn and I saw the touring company of RENT with Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal. (Squee!) I've never seen anything on Broadway. I know the music from a broad range of musicals. I'm hesitant to say a lot because...well I know Autumn and Emily. And compared to them I am strictly an amateur. Maybe that's why this last weekend hit me like it did. I know to some of you this might be blasphemous, but seeing Next to Normal last weekend was like five times more amazing than seeing Adam and Anthony in Rent last year. Partially it's the show. The story of a woman who is bipolar and her (and her family's) dealing with that. And about living life. And finding love. And finding a way to back to something next to normal. But it's also the music. So singable. A bit rock, a bit jazzy,...

I've decided not to do a hugely indepth post about each conference, instead giving you the bulleted point list of things I've learned instead. (in no particular order...of course) Not all Twin Cities driving is awful--but it's not particularly fun on icy mornings. I survived. So did Cara; 'nough said. Android phone as GPS works surprisingly well, but sadly no Daria voice like Autumn's real GPS It's super windy in Pella. There's a sign on the hotel door asking you to hold on to the door. It's that bad "It's a great place to work. You should apply there." is Vicki's mantra right now. (Love you Vicki!) Poster sessions are way faster when everyone puts a QR code of their content on the corner of your poster. (Well faster for me anyway!) "Wow, that's so cool, but we can't afford it" is everyone's favorite and sadly truthful line. Even the technology conference isn't immune to tech problems. Librarians find ...

I should never be let in a bookstore with Autumn. Much less 3 of them in one day. I totally splurged. She managed to get out looking pretty good with just the top three of that pile. The rest are mine. Oops. Now that I've given up tv and my conference presentations are done...I'll have a lot of time on my hands :) and now I've got some books to fill them with. Yay. P.S. I'm still on a high from the show. There are not words right now. Pics of goofy smiling Autumn and Becky to come soon. Now off to go find the supermoon! (And Maureen!) Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Wow! I knew this week was going to be crazy, but I don't think I quite imagined it like this. My 2 days at the Library Technology Conference were amazing. I met some really great new people (Rachel, Vicki, Alan, Chanitra), saw and heard about some great new tech ideas, and had a great session presenting. I had a fabulous audience for my prezi session, really engaged. I think I scared them a bit with my energy and volume, but once I got going with the prezi they seemed a little less skittish. I've got some work to do when I get back to convert their brainstorming into prezis. The conference gave me a lot to think about. (And a new autographed book to read--The Googlization of Everything) Today was ILA-ACRL. A much smaller, but more intimate conference. It doesn't hurt that I went to college in the same state so I know some academic librarians from then too. It's always great to catch up with the Cornell people. Plus this year it was good to see my own library peeps w...