August 2014

There were 2 posts published in August 2014.

Virgo Month of Leisure starts tomorrow

This week has been a pisser of triage work because of a broken thing at Open Library and me still getting back on track after returning from an awesome trip to London to a few days of jetlagged muzzy brain. Here are 100 photos from that trip. As of right this minute I am caught up on work things including

– Open Library inbox at zero (thank you Michelle)
– Computers in Libraries article (on Wikimania) submitted
– Full-time work looked for as per Vermont’s Department of Labor mandates
– Chandler Film Society posters and flyers designed, printed and distributed (thank you Jeff and Ed)
– Bills paid
– Booklist fixed (thank you Scott)
– Laundry done
– Fridge full of food

For the first time in a while I feel like I can work on some back burner projects like figuring out how to get wifi into the back bedrooms (I am in Westport) and thinking about starting up classes in the fall. I am also excited about a number of things I saw at Wikimania which I wrote about a bit on the Open Library blog. We don’t update much but when we do it’s usually something I’ve written, or a maintenance announcement.

I’ve also been keeping the Open Library twitter feed alive with one interesting fact each day with an Open Library citation or supporting documentation. It’s the library work I was born to do, really. Next step over the next few months is to try to merge the work I was born to do with the work I can get paid to do. Open Library is terrific but it’s super part time. That may be flexible and it may not be. Anyone with suggestions, feel free to ping me. I promised I wasn’t going to start looking in earnest until the school year started but once the Virgo Month of Leisure kicks in, I may have a mandate to try to be more relaxed. We all know how well that tends to go.

leaving the continent

I haven’t left the continent in quite a while now and I have the fidgets. One of the great side effects of not having a regular sort-of-full-time job is that I can say yes to some opportunities that I’d been missing out on. Backstory: I am on the Advisory Board to the Wikimedia Foundation. Just one of the service-type things that I do. Mostly we just answer questions if asked, it’s not a high commitment thing, but I enjoy being involved because I believe in the Wikimedia/Wikipedia vision, imperfect as it may be. So one of the things available to the Advisory Board members is travel to the annual Wikimania Conference. This year it is in London. I have always wanted to go to London. It’s a little weird to me that for all my international travel I’ve never been to any of Western Europe. So I’m leaving tomorrow and today is getting all my ducks in a row, including writing some stuff in this slightly slow-motion blog.

An odd side effect of not having an internet job (mostly, the Open Library gig is super part time) is that emails languish in my inbox and my blogs are a little unattended. So I’ve been spending a lot of time since mid-June down in Westport (with a trip back up for July 4th and now again) and doing a variety of things. A partial list. Links usually go to photos or talks.

So, now that you are caught up, I am leaving to go to London for Wikimania where I will be volunteering in the Press Office and trying to go see a bunch of talks and get my phone working correctly. Don’t call me. I won’t answer. I have some library tours and maybe a Meetup scheduled. I’m trying to play the rest of it by ear other than making sure I have enough reading material to last me through a six hour plane ride there and back (seriously, this and sleeping are my largest travel concerns) and the right clothes to wear.

Despite this list, I feel like I’ve been able to have a lot of lazy downtime, more than usual. This may be because I’m just calmer inside than I’ve been for the past few years, or it may be that for the first time in a really long time, I’m doing summer right (for me).