Articulate

Technology is always on the brain, and it seems that it is often a subject here, so if I can't think of anything else to mull over, I just don't post for fear of being redundant.  Well, screw it.  I'll take the chance.

I am really getting into productivity software, and it's about time.  I'm finally exploring all of the cool things in the Microsoft Office Suite 2007, like Access (and the confusing codes needed to develop the exact query I have in mind) and InfoPath.  My appreciation for technology grows by leaps and bounds.

I've even started softening towards E-readers, more so recently as I'm having a hard time getting my hands on a copy of The Help for book club and am really reluctant to go out and buy it.  From what I understand, electronic copies of books are a little less expensive than the traditional print copies, and as I'm trying really hard to curb my spending (please note that I am totally aware of the fact that investing now in an E-reader to get a cheaper version of one book really, totally defeats the purpose of tightening my budget), I thought that it was a decent consideration.  It was actually kind of liberating to be open to the possibility when previously I just wanted to slam the door in the faces of Kindle, Nook, and the like.

My negative reaction to E-readers stems from the "print is dead" argument.  Those that support the abolishing of print books can point to E-readers as cause for such action.  While intellectually I know that traditional books are far from disappearing, I've met many people who assert that they will never need a book shelf again, it feels like a plague is among us.

Sure, that sounds obscure and doesn't really make a good argument against the "print is dead" assertion, but that's because sometimes I can't articulate gut feelings.  Luckily, there are others who can.  This post came to me through my RSS feed this evening and I knew I had to re-post it right away.  The writer illustrates her point poignantly and succinctly, and I couldn't agree with her more.

Oh, and when I'm ready for an E-reader, because it does seem inevitable, no matter how enamored I am with   my new toy, I'll not only be grateful that I can afford it, I'll still keep my book shelves.

Month-In-Review: August

Another fascinating month is at an end.  We are also closing in on the end of summer.  Fall will officially be here this month, September.  I have to say that I am much looking forward to it.  I'm a middle ground kind of girl: Fall and Spring are my favorites.  And why shouldn't they be?

So what did I accomplish the past, uh, august weeks? (Har-har.)  Let's see:

• I bumped up my job application totals from July, but only by half.  I made it to 6.  Is it the summer mind-set or what?  Now that the kiddies are back in school, will I be getting to work, too?
• I had a promising start to the weight loss this month, with a couple of pounds, but this last week put me to back to where I started August 1.  Still, maintenance is better than gain.
• I got a summer cold from which I am suffering a lingering cough that keeps me up at night and bothers anyone lucky enough to spend time with me.  
• I bought a new (-ish) car.  My 2002 Spectra was fine, with the exception of a slightly noisy engine, a slow leak in the rear passenger tire, the dash coming apart at the seams, and no more letters on the back indicating what make or model she was.  Okay, fine, she wasn't fine.  Still, it stung to put her out to pasture.  Almost 9 years, you get attached to these things.  I am warming up quickly, though, to the 2008 Nissan Sentra that replaced her.  And yes, I will likely name her.  I am such a girl.

So that ends August.  If I've forgotten anything, it might be that I've rekindled my love of reading after nearly six weeks of barely picking up a book.  I returned from the library one day with three books and voila, I am a happier person again.

Books are remarkable, aren't they?  Or, should I say, the human imagination is...

"...one must describe the weather."

I don't know that one must, but Virginia Woolf certainly does, to a great extent, in her diaries.  However, as I'm only three years in, I can't say with any certainty that the trend will continue, but she does love to lament the wind and rain and honor the clear, sunny days. 

I came by VW my senior year in high school when I read A Room of One's Own for a class project.  To the best of my recollection, it was a compilation of feminist essays based on lectures she had given at two universities in England.  I do remember that I promptly bought up a few of her novels shortly thereafter and made it a mission to read her diaries. 

The closest I got was in college when I read a few pages from A Writer's Diary, which were selections from her full diary by her husband, Leonard, after her death.  Things got in the way of me ever finishing that book and graduating to the complete five volumes, despite the refrain of that Indigo Girls song in my head.

So more than ten years later I've decided to just do it and crack open those volumes.  At more than 300 pages each, it won't be a quick process, but I hope it will be an enjoyable one.  So far, it has.

The weather aside, VW is quite adept at characterizing the people in her life.  She draws caricatures of these writers, artists, and politicians that are quite entertaining.  I have also noticed a tendency to compare people to dogs.  She loves to gossip, and there is some question as to her honesty, according to Anne Olivier Bell, who edited the diaries. 

The diary has also illustrated life in London during the first World War, albeit rather casually.  The way she talks about raids and bunking down in the kitchen until the all-clear sounded is presented in almost the same tone as the weather.  I sense her get more fired up about the cost of goods and their availability during this time more than anything.  When the first volume begins, her first novel, The Voyage Out, gets published and yet she mentions it but once.  She appears to have more interest in her husband's successes, which was kind of sweet to behold.  In these early years, she has no doubt of Leonard's talents.

I've only just begun.  I'm currently in 1918 and the diaries end in 1941, just days before her suicide.  I've a lot of life left to go.  But, even in these first years, I am taken aback by her insights into human nature.  No wonder I feel so comfortable around her, even though we are lifetimes apart.

Summer Conditions...

...are that traffic will be a nightmare everyday of August.  I live outside a moderate sized city.  Traffic is generally tolerable with very few snarls.  Gridlock is not really an issue.  Back ups do happen, but rarely.  Well, at least, I had thought so.

I don't know if it's a result of so-called progress, with construction springing up new highways and what-not, or just dumb people, or a combination of both (dangerous indeed), but since August 1, I have seen a trend that is very disturbing.

That first sunny day I ran into a backup off my home road due to lane closures and on my detour, passed one three car accident and one single car accident within less than a block of each other.  Tragedy hit a few days later when three people were killed in a highway accident that was the result of an accident just moments before.  Another couple of days and another three car accident on the bridge I cross everyday on the way home, detouring me thirty minutes out of my way.  An accident two days ago on the highway rerouted everyone to my normal path home, slowing everything down. 

I'm whining.  And, I'm whining about something that's probably not even very interesting.  What it is, is just the way it is.  But the number of car accidents I've heard about, passed, avoided, just seem higher than normal.  Are we too distracted?  Impatient?  Frankly, I'm a little nervous. 

Month-In-Review: July

If  I can claim to have gone on vacation in both mind and body this summer, I will for the the month of July.  While progress on the database I'm creating for work kicked into high gear, everything else kind of came to a screeching a halt...

• I applied to 3, count 'em, 3 jobs this month, and they were all before July 15th.
• I mindlessly watched episodes of Wings and Roseanne on Netflix nonstop on my evenings and weekends.
• I, apparently, have no life.
• I went to NC for a long weekend to see my best friend and had a fabulous time, including a lovely snooze on the beach by the Atlantic.  Woke up with a decent sunburn, but...
• I am suffering now from a worse sunburn after hours at a waterpark in Michigan yesterday.  I'm also streaky from an inconsistent application of sunscreen.  Really, I'm adorable.  Red, flaky, and just precious.

So, that's all that I can say about July.  Not bad, all in all.  Weight pretty much stayed the same, calorie output was still in the 10,000 range, and I never missed a workout, even while in North Carolina, but that's easy for me.  Working out is a natural part of my lifestyle; it's the eating well that, well, you know how it is...

Will I get back on track for August?  Well, I didn't want to post tonight, but I did, no matter how sore and tired I am.  That might be a good indication.  Of what, I just don't know...

It's All Coming Back To Me Now...

Knowledge.  If you don't use it, you lose it, right?  That's why the long division I became handy at in middle school I can barely make work on a calculator today.  There is just not a lot of call for complex equations in my life right now. 

But is it really gone forever, that stuff you learned once upon a time?  Or, is it just laying dormant, waiting for a little nudge of the toe?  What's in your head are just memories, really.  Memories pop up out of nowhere all of the time.  The senses are notorious for bringing stuff back from the ether of your past.  Fresh cut grass takes me back to summers as a kid.  I hear the Quantum Leap theme song and I'm back  in front of the TV, up way past my bedtime, hoping that Dr. Sam Beckett finally leaps home.

So, wouldn't it be the same for lessons learned in school?  Sure it would.  I read a poem by William Blake, and it's Senior English all over again. 

It has been nearly two years since I finished graduate school.  I've taken some continuing education in the meantime in the forms of conferences, but I haven't used that knowledge and it's showing.  Those theories and case studies are fading little by little.  It's worrisome.

Well, it was.  Then an institution to which I applied a couple of weeks ago did me a favor.  No, they haven't hired me.  They asked for more information about my education and experience.  This is a second step in the job hunt I haven't before taken, so that's awesome, but that isn't what makes their request so meaningful.  Because of that request, I had to look back at my reasons for choosing the archival field and the skills I developed in school.  I combed through pages of assignments and notes as I prepared my responses and you know what?  I remember!  I remember archival processing, cataloging, HTML coding, EAD, creating finding aids, reference, disaster planning, stuff.  Cooler, still?  The drive is still there.

Nice.

Month-In-Review: June

June.  Well.  What can I say?  There are 30 days in the month.  Summer officially started on the 21st.  It was hot.  It was, hmm...

• I lost 2 more pounds.  Since May 1st, that is 6 pounds for any one keeping track.  
• I have really been working on cardio endurance, and in June I burned 10,900 calories (because I like to know these things).
• I only applied to 8 jobs and not the usual 10.  I probably could have gotten in 10 apps, but I was feeling rebellious.  Probably why I haven't put more effort in to changing my approach, either.
• I can't stop watching Netflix Instant.  It's a disease.
• I finally cleaned out my sun room for the first time in ages and arranged my fitness equipment just so, lining up my dumbbells in a pretty row.  It tickles me.  
• God, I'm weird.

So, those are the mundane details of last month.  Word.