As the leaves change, so does my life

For once we get to see the leaves change color here in Nebraska, instead of having them just fall off because of early snow or ice. Like the leaves changing, my life changed color over this past month, redefining my roles in my professional life. One change was quite unexpected as well.

As I mentioned back in June, I'm finishing up an 8 year run as the webmaster for the Nebraska Library Association. I took the position as I was still getting my Masters of Library Science, and before I got my first librarian's job. I "grew up" being the NLA's "web guy". Through that time I did three site-wide redesigns, switched webhosts once, and helped set up membership services through another vendor. I've been given the chance to present at conferences and do classes and such. I've also been able to travel the state and not just talk to people, but to talk with people about technology and libraries. I've worked with many people who are passionate about what they do and the communities they serve. Earlier this week, I met with the new webmaster and started the transition process. I'm not going very far, as I've been elected Vice-President / President-elect of the Association. New challenges ahead in this arena!

I also am passing on the web duties of the Ms. Wheelchair Nebraska program to someone else. I still need to give her the passwords, but first I need to find them. That's the problem with telling Dreamweaver to remember the passwords, I guess. I got involved in the MWNE program by being their webmaster. I'm now president of the board for a second year. I never thought I would be in this position when I started working with them a few years ago.

Another big change just happened this last week and was something I did not see coming. I'm changing jobs - sort of. I was hired as "Assistant Systems Librarian" and did mostly training and some troubleshooting. Recently I added "Digital Media team leader" to my duties; basically working with services surrounding a/v things like circulating cameras and video recorders, and supplying video & audio editing software for patrons to use in the Libraries. I'm now off the team and have new job duties. I am now the "Emerging Technologies Librarian" and will be responsible for finding out ways to use some of the new tech out there to provide services to our clientele. Blogs, wikis, & RSS feeds are (of course) a few of the things I'll be looking at, but I also want to spend a lot of time looking at other data mashup tools to make research easier, especially for the undergraduate population here. I'm still doing training and some tech support, so there's still a good chunk of my job that remains the same. I am a little sad about leaving the digital media team, as I feel like we were just beginning to click as a real team and not just a group of people thrown together.

All in all, a very eventful October. Some of the changes are bittersweet. I am a tad reluctant to let go of the past experiences and feel like there is much more I can still do in those areas, but I am also eager for some of these new challenges and opportunities to present themselves.

These things will certainly change the color of my life dramatically, as these roles played a large part in identifing my place in my workplace, my career, my field, and my community. Of course, we can not stop personal change, like we can not stop the leaves from falling from the trees, can we?

The changes are beginning

I can now let this cat out of the bag, officially:

As some of you may already know, Scott Childers will be leaving the position of Internet Services Coordinator at the end of the year. Scott has been, and continues to be, a great asset to NLA.
I know we appreciate all he has done for both our organization and our members throughout his years of service.

This is a part-time position, but integral to the association. We hope to have the position filled by November, as Scott has volunteered to help with training the new ISC.

Below is the link which will take you directly to the job description on NLA’s website. If you are interested, please take a look. If you know of someone else who might be interested, please pass this information on to them. Thanks!

http://www.nebraskalibraries.org/isc.htm

One of the reasons I haven't posted here lately is that I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends before I leave the position of Nebraska Library Association's Internet Site Coordinator. I have been serving since 1999, before I even got my first professional librarian position. I've always been one to have many projects going at once, but I don't feel right handing over a bunch of partially finished things to the next person.

It is a bittersweet time for me. I'm looking forward to new challenges within the NLA and other organizations, but I see so many things I could be doing to make the NLA web presence a stronger one, a more collaborative one, even just a "better" one. I've had the chance to work with so many great people across the state as part of this experience, and it certainly opened the doors for me to become a voice for technological progress in libraries in this state.

I don't plan on sitting around. I'm running for NLA's Vice President/President Elect this year, so I hope I'm still serving the NLA - just in a different capacity. I had actually made the decision and let the NLA board know back in January and have told quite a few people, but I didn't feel right posting about it until the "job ad" had been posted.

News about my Knee

I just got back from the doctor's office and found out that I will need some surgery on my knee. I'll go in Wednesday morning.

What's going wrong is that some of the extra bone that was created when I had that Osgood -Schlatters has chipped off and is now embedded in the the tendon. When I use my knee, that bone is rubbing against the tibia and causes pain. So to fix it, they've got to go in and get rid of that extra bone material. What fun, right?!?

I'll be on crutches for about a month and probably won't be fully healed for another 6 months. I had actually scheduled a bunch of vacation time for the first part of June, so I'll just add in about 3 more days of absenteeism and should be back to work for the last part of June.

I'm not very concerned about it, the procedure is outpatient so I should be home that afternoon. Nothing very major (at least as surgery goes).

That's the news as I have it. I could say it is all the news you kneed, but that would be silly.

My digital life

Recently I've been trying all sorts of new things online, and I wanted to throw them all together.

My Myspace site
My Flickr page
My LinkedIn page
My Google Reader Shared Items page
My del.icio.us page
My UNL Digital Commons page
My Vox page

I'm still tinkering with all of them, so don't be surprised that there isn't a lot of content in them yet. I'm also in Facebook and Second Life. Is there anything else out there that I need to look at?

Hitch in my giddy-up

For the past month, at least starting around Easter, I've had pain in my right knee. Not much, but enough for me to hate taking stairs and to cause me to limp a bit. If I do a lot of walking at once it flares up a bit as well. I just figured it was temporary and it would go away. It wasn't, so after about a month I finally went into the doctor the other day to get it looked at.

They took some X-rays and they came back "interesting". That's not a good word you want a doctor to use describe your x-ray! Apparently there's some problem at the top part of my tibia, right near the knee cap. The x-ray sort of looked like some bone was splitting off or something. It wasn't that clear to my untrained eyes. Anyway, I'm going to a orthopedic doctor on the 24th to get a more complete examination of what's going on.

Now, I have no idea what's going on so I won't even begin to try and guess. All I know is there will be a "hitch in my giddy-up" for a while longer. I'm sure it isn't anything major.

My birthday present to myself

A while ago I made a goal of being under 200 pounds by my birthday. Well, I weighed in today at 200.5 pounds. Close enough! I was thinking I wasn't going to make it because I got sick earlier in April and ate a lot of comfort food. I also had hurt my knee, so an aggressive exercise program was out as well.

You may be thinking "200, so what?" The "so what" is that I'm short, so that is still technically "obese". According to some charts, I should probably be sitting in the 150 range or so, as I am not a bodybuilder, professional athlete, or other muscle-bound type of person.

My next goal - I think 180 by the end of the summer is doable. I may have to rethink that around the end of June though.

Anniversary Goodness

Last night Julie & I went out to celebrate our 6th Anniversary. We ate out at a restaurant the we wanted to try for a long time, Beacon Hills. The food was fine, but the service was what made the night. First they sat us in a place away from the large group coming in, because they knew it was a special night. Then they also gave both of us a free glass of champagne. Maybe we thought it was really nice because they got us a little buzzed. {grin} Anyway, I was impressed that they made it a very special night for us.

Slip-sliding away

Getting to the bus stop was a fun experience today. It was just the right mix of temperature and moisture from melting snow last night to make almost all the sidewalks in the neighborhood slicker than axle grease. I didn't walk to the 5 blocks, I skated. I was even wearing hiking boots! I'm looking forward to spring a lot more after today.

The hermit returns

A lot of things have happened in the month since my last entry. The house now has new siding, 2 new doors with a third on the way, and all new windows. I've done some major work for the NLA website that nobody will see because it is all behind the scenes type of stuff. I was sick for about a week with a bronchial infection. The Ms. Wheelchair Nebraska elections that I was coordinating were held. Snow has fallen. I took Julie to the hospital earlier this week for chest pains (she's fine - don't worry). Julie & I celebrated Valentine's Day at an upscale restaurant. I finally posted an entry on the blog.

There, I think that covers it.

Why didn't I blog during the time it happened? I don't know. I guessed I was focused on what was going on at the time more than thinking about how to document it.

Thankful

The current temperature is about 8 degrees Fahrenheit. That's without the wind chill factor. It makes me really thankful for two things. One, that they have finished work on the new windows on the house. It is so nice not having a collection of ice on the inside on days like today. Secondly, and more importantly, is the fact my folks are now back home and have power again. A day like today really makes a person thankful that they have a place that shelters them from the elements. I know I am.

Ice isn't nice

If you haven't heard, there was a huge ice storm in the Midwest. My parents live in that area hit and saw a bunch of the storm. They are fine, but they are without power and may not get it until the end of the month. If you want to see why, there are some striking pictures of south-central Nebraska available here that show the damage. They are currently living in a hotel room about an hour away from their home as that was the closest they could find that actually has electricity.

They had power temporarily around Christmas, when we were all visiting. I guess it could be one of those "Power of Christmas" specials on cable TV, except for the fact that the days without power afterward would probably damper those feel-good moments.

The Requisite New Year's Post

Happy New Year eveyone! Today is the day when many people are acting on their best behavior. They have started their diets, gave up drinking and/or smoking, treating people better and otherwise being their "best selves".

I'm no different. I've got a few goals for myself this year; including lose some inches off my waist, read more books, and the like. My big resolution is to make my life less stressful. For years I've had a sort of pride about how stressful my life was. It was my red badge of courage, I guess. Now, I need to get rid of it.

How do I do that? Heck if I know for sure, but I think I need to start saying "No" more often. I do know how to say it, but I tend to keep that gun holstered. My problem is that I tend to find new challenges and opportunities as very good and exciting things. I tend to add new things to my plate before I'm finished with the old obligations. Stopping that pattern; that's my first step on this trek toward a less-stress lifestyle.

Of course, like most New Year's Resolutions, I give this one a couple months before I give up on it. {grin}