25 Random Things About Me Meme

I was tagged with the Meme on Facebook, but I may as well share it here, too!

That 25 Thingie Thingie Share

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. (Unless you don't really want to.)

1. Just to get it out of the way, I'm a Google Apps whore. Obviously not in the literal sense of the word; at least I don't think that I've compromised any of my principles to use Google... Or, have I?

2. Until I got my iPod for Christmas, I never really understood the whole iPod silhouette dancing commercial.

3. Even though I haven't had an iPod before, I have not bought a physical CD in the last 5 years. iTunes works just as well on a computer, and the ability to purchase one song at a time instead of a whole album is incredible. I'm also slowly turning all of my old music into digital format.

4. I am a Bookworm. Always have been, always will be.

5. I love living in a small town. I walk to work, the grocery store, the barber, the post office. If I have to get in a car for anything, I get mildly disgruntled.

6. My family has earned "The Best Family in the World" award. A more loving group of people I could never hope to encounter in my wildest dreams. And hey, all people are dysfunctional, so get over it already.

7. I believe that eating organic and living healthily should be a right, not a privilege.

8. Probably the only thing I miss about not living close to a city are the CONCERTS. I've been going to huge venues to see bands since elementary school. I've seen Madonna three times; slept in line overnight to get a friend Def Leppard tickets (no, not for myself!), traveled around the midwest for as many Grateful Dead shows as I could (I even got 2nd row once, and have the pictures to prove it!), rocked to Jimmy in the VIP section, got into a 5 car pile up on the way to Lollapalooza, and still managed to make it in time for Pearl Jam, danced to Squirrel Nut Zippers in Denver on the night my husband and I got together, got backstage passes to see Widespread Panic in Berkeley, and even got to meet Chris Isaak after a show in Boulder. Currently unsurpassed concert highlight: jumping up and down for two hours straight at an Ozzy Osbourne show (best concert ever!).

9. I have the two greatest kids in the universe. No. Really. And I'm enjoying every moment of it. Learning to take several deep breaths in a day can be a good thing.

10. My favorite Star Trek captain is Jean Luc-Picard.

11. I don't like to follow rules; however, I don't especially like to break the law.

12. My two favorite punctuation symbols are the comma, and the semi-colon; I admire the writing style of Jane Austen for exactly that reason, as she could write entire paragraphs, indeed, entire series of paragraphs without using a period, except where grammatically correct.

13. I love to dye swaths of my hair blue or pink. Purple is a color I've been considering recently, although I have heard that it fades to an icky sorta silver color. Hmmm, that could be fun.

14. My totally anal, "line-everything-up-in-perfect-order and don't let anyone touch it" side constantly wars with my "oh my god, I totally hate cleaning, and what's a few dust bunnies anyway?" side. It. is. a. constant. battle.

15. During 4th grade, I completely and absolutely missed the point of career week. On a recently rediscovered school paper, when answering the question of, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" - I wrote down "a vegetarian".

16. I mark time as B.W.2. and G.T.T.E. (Before Web2.0 and Getting to Total Efficiency).

17. Growing up with the Jetsons and Star Trek definitely left its mark. Sometimes, when I hear of a new invention, or advance in science, I think, "Hey, didn't we already have that?".

18. I have a passion for leisurely eating, cooking, and wine. Nothing too complicated, because my kitchen motto is: "I love to cook with wine; sometimes I even put it in the food". Was so happy to finally find this on a magnet, and I still believe that it was custom made for me without my knowledge.

19. I, Avatar: a true believer in the personalization of the avatar, I am an advocate for learning, enjoyment, and socialization in virtual worlds of any kind.

20. Two books have recently helped to change my life for the better: Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston and Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. Karen has taught me the value of unobstructed spaces and how clutter can affect your everyday life. As recommended in the book, I have now given away 80% of my clothes. Remaining clutter zones: basement and garage. Tom points out a very simple truth: Why struggle so hard to improve the things we may have no talent for? By working on our strengths, and partnering with others that have the strengths of our weaknesses, we can go much further.

21. I have voted in every single presidential election since I was 18. Before Obama, I have never felt such a strong connection to a candidate. Yes, We Can! However, I also realize that the president can only do so much - the country is run by Congress, too. Please keep the spirit alive by keeping up on the issues and writing to your Senator or Congressperson. Once again, Yes, We Can!!

22. This has always been my favorite number. Also, 2, 4, and 11. Sensing a theme here?

23. Four years ago I stumbled into the perfect career. Like many 'librarians', I never thought of working in a library before. I also have the position best suited to my strengths and tastes. As Technology Manager, I am able to combine my love for books, learning, and technology of all kinds. It gives me chills to think of the library, and how I narrowly almost missed my calling. Once my children are in school, I will be going back to school for my Masters in Library and Information Science.

24. A long-term goal of mine is to get to a financial position where I can travel more with my family. I was lucky enough to have parents that placed an emphasis on travel and broadening horizons by experiencing different cultures. I want my kids to have the same, while also being lucky enough to reside in a small town.

25. I can play Fur Elise (by memory) on the piano, and the first two pages of Moonlight Sonata (with music). Wow, Beethoven had a wide reach. I love how he wrote tiny notes in the sidebars for lesser pianists than himself. Wish I had the drive to practice more, and maybe someday I will. The piano is a very personal thing for me, so don't ask me to play for you. It. won't. happen.

26. I just can't stop at 25 things. Please refer to #11.

27. I hate shopping, specifically clothes shopping. I spend way to much time picking and choosing; by the time I get to the dressing room I usually talk myself out of buying anything.

28. I've had way too much coffee this morning. Time to stop and get ready for a beautiful day. I love life!!

Creating Balance

I've taken a bit of a hiatus - a withdrawal into my homelife, if you will. My kids are growing up too fast already, and it is a bit scary that almost everything seems to be moving faster on a daily basis. Learning to take a deep breath and put things in perspective is a good thing.

Once I gain passion for something, I am all over it. My two biggest passions are my family, and my work; creating a balance for both without feeling guilty is one of my aims for '09. Another goal is me. Sounds a bit strange, but I truly forget to take some "alone" time - I've realized that the only time when I am alone is on the walk to work. And I only live two blocks from the library.

While at work, I'll be striving to be more effective, and while at home, I've created a schedule to work less. I'll let you know how my "me" time all shakes out. Suggestions welcome.

Off 'da Shelves @ MPL

Taking an idea from Tony Tallent at the Boulder Public Library, MPL has started selling our VHS videotapes right off the shelf!

We've advertised in our local Mancos Times, as well as posting flyers in the library. Already we've sold quite a few, and are so happy to be selling 'off 'da shelves' - much less work for us, and I think it's giving our customers a 'thrill' to be grabbing all these items...

CAL SLIG Now on Colorado Association of Libraries Website!

I cannot believe that I haven't posted anything yet on the new Colorado Association of Libraries Second Life Interest Group (CAL SLIG). I guess when you're busy in the middle of something, it can still slip under the radar.

My co-presenter at CAL '08, and friend, Eileen Dumas, and I have been working on forming a new Second Life library; in addition to creating a new library beneficial to Second Life residents, we wanted this library to be a way for Colorado librarians to become more involved in Second Life.

The first step was to formulate a library concept. With so many Colorado libraries (including my library, the Mancos Public Library) building green buildings, and no libraries in Second Life currently of this type, 'green' was a natural fit. Eileen and I worked on a mission statement for the library, and the Sustainable Living Library was born.

We then needed to explore a way to excite interest in the project amongst Colorado librarians. After speaking with a few librarians, we were pointed to Martin Garnar, then the President of CAL. I had recently met Martin at a Town Hall meeting, so I felt comfortable 'cold calling' him. He was wonderful, and enthusiastic about the project. He recommended coming to the November Board meeting and presenting a proposal to start an Interest Group.

To start an interest group, a statement of purpose needs to be drafted, explaining what the benefit is of forming the group. Also, a petition with 8 signatures of CAL members needs to be attached. Being scattered all over the state, getting the signatures posed a problem at first, but we finally ended up with 15!

At the board meeting, our proposal was greeted by much excitement. Some people even wanted us to further our scope into other virtual worlds! It was discussed that if this initial project is sucessful, a Virtual Worlds Division of CAL would be considered.

Voting was conducted, and the board returned an unanimous vote in favor of forming the Second Life Interest Group. I just found out today that SLIG now has it's own page on the CAL website. We're official!

CAL Leadership Institute

I'd like to share a bit with you about the new Colorado Association of Libraries Leadership Institute. In it's inaugural year, 25 Colorado librarians were chosen to participate in this year long program. A co-worker of mine from the Mancos Public Library and I were lucky to have been chosen for this Institute. Over the course of the next year, we'll be making 4 trips to Denver, and participating in virtual sessions in between. We will be learning about Colorado librarianship, and how to take part as a leader.

Our first session coincided with the CAL Annual Conference. Pat Wagner, of Pattern Research, led the first session, and was amazing. While I've met Pat before, I have never attended any of her talks or workshops. She created three group activities, the first of which began the 'bonding' process with all of the members. Her energy, examples, and stories made the workshop content easy to understand and fun! This was a great way to start the Institute, and the group activities were a fun and informal way to meet and learn about the other members.

Our member group has a wide range of experience, education, come from all types of libraries and have many different job descriptions. What's better, everyone is excited to learn and get the most out of the Institute. I've already had several conversations with some of the other members, and we've all found common ground. The networking opportunities alone make this Institute worth it.

And our Leadership Institute Task Force members - not only are they a great bunch of smart and fun people, they are all library leaders themselves! We will have a lot to learn from them in the next year.

Something I love about the Institute is our online group Ning. It is a wonderful way to communicate with the other institute members. Most of the members are many hours away by car, so in the times in between face-to-face workshops, I can still chat with them about Leadership topics and other things.

Another thing that I love, is that I'm in this with a co-worker, Charlene Swansen. Being from such a remote area of Colorado, we have someone readily available to discuss the Institute; we can really talk in-depth easily, and quickly bounce ideas and thoughts off each other.

Here is a picture of our Leadership members, taken on the day of our first session:

Jessamyn "Librarian.Net" Blogger at CAL Annual Conference

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing librarian, blogger, and techie Jessamyn West speak at the CAL annual Conference. She spoke about open libraries; how through using Web2.0 tools, libraries are creating a culture of transparency and what this means to us and our patrons.

She was a very entertaining speaker, and got some non-tech people revved up about what 2.0 tools they could implement at their libraries.

And, I even got to meet her afterwards! :-)

She has posted the notes and slides from the keynote on her blog, Librarian.Net.

Jessamyn, thanks for coming to CAL!

Cell Phone Fail

Well, for the first time today I attempted to transfer pictures taken on my phone, to my computer. I've never had a phone that takes pictures (Remember: Rural), so I've never had the joy of transferring pics.

Joy?!? Total FAIL.

Here's Why:

• No USB - What?!?


• Phone does Not Automatically Save to Micro Disk - I went through the process of taking out my micro SD card, putting it in the larger SD adapter, finally found the removeable memory... No pictures! Duh.


• No Mass Move - There is no option on my phone to move pictures to the micro disk all at once. You. must. move. each picture. individually. Ouch.


• 4 Pics to a Screen - I have 157 pictures on my camera (Yes, I have been procrastinating, my bad.). To remove the pictures, one by one, I must scroll through Multiple screens of 4 pictures each. Double Ouch!


• TIME! - It took me about 1/2 hour to transfer 23 pictures. Wah.


• Attention Drain - I'm used to multitasking. I Deal. But with the image to card transfer so labor intensive, I'm working with just one hand. I get distracted. This is not a good thing.


• No Dating of Images - Again, what?!?

Enough of the rant. Now that I have gotten this far with the pictures, I have to put them to some use. *Sigh* ;-P

Photo: Thanks, CNET!