#blogjune Day 30 - 'Last day Capricorn 23'

June 2011 - A wonderful Sharing Month.






A'giggle' of Librarians at the tweetup (with a-ma-zing hot chocolate)

Last day of June 2011.
Sunset today at 5:15 pm - Corner of Brookman and Lane Streets - Kalgoorlie Western Australia

It has been a long month professionally with a lot happening in the schools on the campus, and at MPOW, still nothing resolved fully about changes so 'heidy ho'...

It is semester break for the University students, however the Highschool have one more week and TAFE finished officially today. We are quiet and getting the jobs done that we can only achieve in the 'quiet' times. We also had two staff off this week at a Senior first aid course, (so I am feeling safer already)one on long service and two casuals away for semester break.

For a sense of personal achievement, I published my first LibGuide today, I felt I had learnt enough, through all the hints and tips in the emails from Perth colleagues and my own reading, to work out how to put it together. Ongoing learning curve there.

I love being a Librarian, and even though it can be very stressful and isolated at times, it is a wonderful thing to help someone find what they want, even if it is only the 'stapler'. (4x today :-)

Another huge plus was I enjoyed my first 'tweetup' on the weekend and my only regret was not enough time to talk MORE with all the Librarians who came along. Thanks to @lutie for arranging such a wonderful treat (and her a-ma-zing texta pen). Everyone was waving ipads and ebook readers and nametags and hot chocolate and talking and talking and laughing and sharing. so good! Wonderful to meet face to face.

I hope your month was enjoyable and you read and laughed and shared as we did.
Next...
July 2011

@kalgrl
#blogjune

ps* sorry about the 'Logans Run' joke in the title, but sometimes phrases remind me of movie lines and this old scifi was full of 'last days'. *grin*

#blogjune day29 'keeping score for June 2011'

I have been a bit busy, buzzing around and doing. It is nearly the end of June and I feel the need to count up the successes and failures of the month, to see the score...
(things in no particular order... )

1. Began #blogjune with a passion and managed to blog 17 days straight (win)
2. Covering for staff on long service at work and spread myself a bit too thin... Feeling the pinch of tasks not complete and rushed for time constraints - poor time management (fail)
3. Went to my first 'tweetup' with a beautiful group of, sharing, giving, chatty, calorie loving :), wonderful Librarians. Just soaking up the enthusiasm was brilliant! (win)
4. Not enough time spent with @sputty11 and @flexnib - need to rectify that... (fail)
5. Joined 'Bennett nerds ahoy' at Supernova... With all the trimmings of fanboi fun... I love inventive, creative and slightly cracked people, and this venue rocked with that! (win)
6. Geek Souvenirs acquired - tardis cookie jar with noise and light, 'don't blink' and 'I kissed a timelord and liked it' t shirts, 'trueblood' - bar and grill' 1/2 apron, 2 new covers for my iPhone. (win)
7. Funeral of a friend (sad fail)
8. Spent time with my family, doing things we like to do (win)
9. Didn't blog everyday in June (fail)
10. Haven't 'yet' read all the wonderful blog entries that friends are contributing to #blogjune (fail)
11. Started reading fiction again (win)
12. Extended family stuff - Got the date wrong for friends daughters birthday again, sent hoody too small to nephew for his birthday and lost receipt. Horrid, short, tired phone call with brother. Dad not well, Mum coping. Aunty not well. (cluster fail)
13. Was late for work on my early start - twice (fail)
14. E- books and e-book readers - time to assess and evaluate - time management (fail)
15. Hugged Ms 14, Mr 19 and JB more and tried to be as supportive as I could with all their projects. (win)
16. Planted start of new garden at front of house. (win)
17. Began writing and editing book (win)
18. Joined committe for important anniversary of theatre group - organizers 'r' us (win)
19. Was joyful for friend who achieved success and new position at work and Europe trip (win, win)
20. Taken time to breath, a couple of times. (win)
21. Clear wardrobe - domestic task for June . (fail)

Time to stop and count coup:
Win = 12
Fail = 9

Well I do believe I have achieved my eagle feather for June.

Dear family, friends and 'tweeps', I hope you all can count June 2011 as a win.

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune day26 &17 Barry

Last Friday I went to a Funeral of a friend. I seemed to lose my 'blog mojo' and become more introspective  and wasn't ready to blog then. So here is last Fridays blog. 

Barry was one of nature's gentlemen.
He was a lovely man who was generous with both his personal time and expertise in mechanical areas. He would spend time helping people, patch that bike tyre, get that missing part or stopping to chat.

He also treated people well and always had a kind word for all. I probably don't know all there is to know about Barry, I am sure he had his very human moments, like the rest of us. 

I got to know Barry when he was 'going steady' (can't say dating as the word doesn't seem to fit the man, brylcreme and  Slim Dusty were more his style:)with a close friend. She was recovering from a bitter divorce and had over some years a few difficult relationships.

Barry treated her well, flowers and laughter were in her life. He was nice and courteous and treated the members of her extended family well.

Unfortunately Barry smoked, heavily as did other members of his family. His sister was suffering with cancer and dying. My friend asked him, if they were to continue their relationship would he give up smoking? He would not. Her decision then, to protect herself from further hurt was to end the relationship. Barry stayed a friend to her and her family and helped them in many ways.

The irony is, that friend died of cancer in 2004. Barry was working and right up until the day he died a couple of weeks ago.

I was a friend of Barry and he taught me the value of enjoying what you do, valuing those closest to you and what a true generous soul is like.

I hugged my family more this week.

RIP Barry.

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 16 - reading tonight

Been out to a meeting -time poor today. Hope you all had a good day. Just a quote to finish the busy day.

'The best of a book is not the Thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not it the tones but the echoes of our hearts'
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Goodnight -read well.

@kalgrl
#miniblogjune

#blogjune Day 15 - alas poor Kobo..

The day I talk about my Kobo, and my sadness at annoying things

I have a kobo ebook and I like it. It can be a bit clunky when compared with even the flashy new versions of itself, no wifi etc. But it is a good practical easy to use e- reader, were it not for the vendor of my choice.

I chose to buy this from Borders in Australia. I had few problems and managed to follow the reasonably convoluted trail when I had  a difficulty, which mostly was a time thing,  "just wait, the problem will right itself" and usually it did.

I started to encounter other annoying difficulties with upgrades and compatability about the time Borders went into receivership, so help was necessary. I worked the problem until I had a query in with the helpdesk, and waited. The answer that came back, didn't make a lot of sense in the scheme of my concern, basically they suggested I download software I already had in the Kobo. 

About the time this became frustrating, I got my iPhone and I have been exploring that as a tool for everything, including e-books.
Consequently my Kobo has been neglected and lies dormant on the bedside table. (still at the top of the pile.)

I am now a bit further down the track recovering slightly from i-madness and feel the need to get back to the e- book, and I have to my mind a couple of choices.
1. Buy a new ebook ... Easiest thing to do, but $$
2. Use the Kobo with a new vendor.
3. Sit down and actually get my head around the stuff from borders, if I can, and if it is actually worth doing.
4. Purchase i-pad.

Problem with all of this is, time, skill, upgrade necessary, $$$ and what I actually want. Which is a light portable book.

I have been looking at the new e-books that take notes and do all sorts of 'new fangled' things, and I do 'lust' after a new one. However, I do like my Kobo and would hate to  just chuck it when it has a lot of life in it yet. (evil thought no. 1 - I could give it to Ms 14... Then I would need a new one :)

I am sad that I was so annoyed with the bookshops closing and that has affected my joy of the first e-book I have owned, and I didn't keep up. 
Also the iPhone is so easy to use, it makes everything else seem harder.
I also am a very visual learner and convoluted upgrades do my head in.

(evil thought no. 2  - I am leaning towards combining 2 of the choices above.)

Anyway, time for a ponder and a sleep, however Tony Delroy's issue of the day is the decline of the book shop, so I may have to listen.

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 14 - 5 book meme

What am I reading now?
Twitter links mainly, to blogs for June!

The last book I finished?
The City Who Fought - Stirling & McCaffrey

What do I want to read next?
The Mary Smokes Boys (started, not yet finished)

The last book I bought?
Agatha Christie "murder at the vicarage' (paper)
The second ship -book one of the Rho Agenda (e-book)

The last book i was given?
50th anniversary copy of
'To Kill a Mocking Bird'
present from my Mum as she knows I love the book.

The quiz needs a lighter vein so, Musicals!
Song & musical please...

'What they want is what you see,
Keep the best of you,
Do the rest of you...'

Goodnight
@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 13 ...don't look now...nothing is going on...

I was thinking only a month ago that I had nothing to do.
The play had finished, work has slowed a bit as classes had finished and it was mid term and after Easter and I had submitted the paper I had written for NLS5. (Which by the way I havn't heard anything about as yet...)

Then,

- work took off and I have so much to do I am slightly dazed at the end of each day.

- I have committed to helping organize a celebration weekend for the Theatre Group I belong to, 80th anniversary in October. + helping with the history.

- I have been on a committee to, which if I am honest, I haven't be able to add much value, until recently and I have two urgent jobs to complete for that group. Both of which will take time.

- I was sick with the flu, which has taken 2 full weeks to shake and I am still tired.

- I am planting a front garden. To try to become water wise, we killed off all the grass over a couple of months and now we are planting natives and weed mat and mulch. We are making it up as we go along. ( we tried sugar cane mulch and that stuff looks like straw, got rid of it and put down good dark organic mulch, which looks a lot better and probably won't catch alight if some passer by throws a cigarette on it. Might put in a vege garden later and the sugar cane mulch might be good for that.)

- I started to get interested in baking again, it is winter. Made "Cappucino Cupcakes" this weekend.

- for some reason after not watching the last series at all, I am now addicted to Master Chef.

- Reading is on the eyephone and a lot of interesting links on twitter... forget fiction at the moment.

- #Blog every day for June started....

I could add more to the list, however the point is not to whinge but say I am grateful that I have so much in my life and am now just a little bit wistful for one month ago. :-)

The quiz -
Play and character please.

"Well we can't all come and go by bubble!!"

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 12 - lists

Some people I know are great at lists.
I am a bit quixotic with them.

Sometimes I forget, i am working with a list or to actually read it.

Any way, a list of tasks for the weekend stars are complete...

Sleep in (didn't happen - tried)
*Go shopping for specific items for ms 14 and JB
Go shopping for socks for me (bought the incorrect size - have to go back, sigh :-(
*Go shopping for Snuggys for 3 x Ms 14
*Cook cupcakes for sleepover (took 3 visits to the shop for forgotten ingrediants)
*Arrange some cleaning prior to sleepover (I was not popular)
*Get some mulch and spread it (yay! JB did this)
write some of current writing project
*take images of Piccadilly Locality parks (long story)
*go to movies with friend
tidy up wardrobe
complete washing and folding
Write blog post for Day 12

didn't get to the writing, washing or folding and brought the wrong socks as picked up the incorrect size.
I am setting myself a task of shorter lists and more productivity, as this weeks skill test. My challenge is to complete the list this week.

1. Need to finish LibGuide
2. Place new PC in training room
3. Complete de-selection of 610's.

"Tally Ho...

Ok back to the quiz, another easy one today...
John Nebauer (Adelaide)won the first which was "Romeo and Juliet" - Shakespeare Yay!

Character and name of play please

"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 11 - Hogwarts 'alert

Currently sitting in the front room as there are 3 x 14 year old girls having a "Hogwarts" movie marathon in the main room, wands are being wafted, sorting hats abound and they just ate the biggest 'feast' of nachos, with 'ginger' butter beer and lollies that make you roar like a lion. I believe they are onto the 3rd movie at this stage.

Dobby has 'helped Harry', Snape has swished along the corridors in his black cape and the girls all have a snuggy blanket which can double as a school robe or make you a Dementor. It is a lot of fun, for them. (we hope they are quiet by 12:00)

In one of the 7 things meme that @jobeaz wished that the world of Harry Potter was real, well she needs to get together with these girls, they know the spells, they know the characters, they know the story, put themselves in a Hogwarts House and they love it all. I have noticed that their tastes have changed over the years, once they all wanted to be Griffindor, now the dark side is a bit more attractive it seems with two wanting to be in Slytherin. (Vampire emo's unite!) Its all a load of fun and they are having a ball.

It is suiting us (the parents) as we are in the other room watching the recorded shows we missed this week and finishing a movie 'Limitless', which we started last weekend.

Real worlds are colliding with imagination here this weekend and the imagination is winning. Thats not a bad thing. We all need some time out, I hope you are all having time out over the week end.

Time for the quiz, trivia abounds... A bit more obscure this time.
Play and character please :)

"You can be young without money, but you can't be old without it."

Play nice.

@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 10 "To meme or not to meme..."

Just to finish the meme...

Seven things I can do well

1.Bake - I can bake
2.stage manage a play
3.keyboarding - (not typing - I haven't used one of those in years)
4.read
5.quick study on new shiney things
6.listen
7.tea, I can make a good cup of tea

Seven things I can’t do but wish that I could

1.Build a garden (attempting this right now)
2.patchwork quilting
3.haiku
4.write
5.remember names of people I have just met (it is a disease, what can I say)
6.sing well ('well' being the 'key' word here - i sing badly all the time)
7.cook (not the same thing as baking quite different)

Seven phrases I’m known to use

1.Holy crap!
2.bollocks
3.can I help you?
4.shitake mushrooms
5.murphy is alive and well
6.good decision
7.how's that going for you?


Ok now I'm going to start a small quiz to copy shamelessly the Bun-toting Librarian's quiz idea and start one of my own.

a quote...(easy one to start)
and I would like - characters name and play

"but soft, what light through yonder window breaks"?

Goodnight
@kalgrl

#blogjune Day 9. -meming continued...

Seven random facts about me

1. I used to shoot air pistol at targets.
2. I ran a coffee shop, with my parents.
3. My favourite style of firing clay pots is pit firing. Had some beautiful results in black firing.
4. Big geek - read , watch and enjoy sci fi.
5. I have very few housekeeping skills.
6. Lived in Manapouri for two years as a child. Near Milford Sound in NZ.
7. Performed 'Everyman' at the Dolphin Theatre at a UWA summer school, taught by a colourful character called -Maggie Wild West.

Seven things I want to do before I die

1. Paris
2. Make a heritage quilt (can't sew much)
3. Go to the space station
4. Write an interesting sci fi short story
5. Go to 'interesting theatre' at the west end London
6. Sleep a night through ( I live with a snorer)
7. Ensure my children have the best start we can give them.

That's all with meming... Goodnight
@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 8 'meaning to meme'

I ran out of time today, so a quick meme to keep up with blog a day for June.

Seven things that scare me

1.running spiders (huntsman)
2.suspenseful shock movies
3.falling
4.really loud storms
5.large angry dogs
6.illness in family members
7.nightmares

Seven things I like

1.jb
2.mr 19
3.ms 14
4.fabric
5.music
6.ebooks
7.My iphone

Thats all folks.
@kalgrl
#blogjune

#blogjune Day 7 - Sparkling with Confidence

I had the opportunity to go to a "Sparkling with Confidence" workshop this evening organised by Pippa Baxter and other Teaching Staff at the Eastern Goldfields College. Thanks to them they decided to share their good fortune of a presentation from this noted speaker with the community.


The presenter was Rachel Green (pictured taking a photo of the attendees with her camera).

I hadn't had and opportunity to hear Rachel Green speak before and this seemed an excellent opportunity to participate in a workshop and garner some of her insights into gaining more confidence.

She was an engaging speaker and can make a room laugh, as she will tell you herself, when explaining the difference between boasting and talking about strengths.
You don't need 100% confidence, which is very hard to achieve, as long as you have enough confidence to be doing what you need to be doing.

Using an example of learning how to drive an automatic car (a new area for her) she explains that you need to break what you need to do into smaller steps, and just do what you need to do to move forward one step at a time.
(reminds me of the question - "how do you eat an elephant?" and the answer "one bite at a time".)

After a very humerous story involving a parrot and a silence retreat, she really started me thinking about choosing to practice being confident.

Also giving up the "stinking thinking" and not thinking "what if?, the bad thing might happen and thinking the opposite and choosing to be happy and confident and dealing with things only if/when they occur.

Know your strenghts and realise it is not boasting to talk about your strengths to others and think positively!

A really good tool is to visualise a really happy moment and use that to calm yourself if you are having a crisis of confidence. Replay that memory as you need.

Came away after talking to some new fantastic women, sharing our strengths and with a renewed energy to practice feeling more confident and taking one step at a time.

So go eat your elephant, i've already started on mine:D

@kalgrl
#blogjune

Day 6 #blogjune - End of Semester One 2011

6 sure signs its the end of first semester and start of exam period,








1. Its very cold (and surprisingly, wet...)
2. The clients all look very tired
3. Long overdue items are returned and excuses made (some work, some don't)
4. Staff have the look that says - shorter hours are soon :D
5. Lots of coffee/hot drinks are being consumed by everyone
6. Some clients we have never seen before, turn up for "the notes"....

Best of luck to all our clients in the next two weeks... enjoy the semester break.
@kalgrl
#blogjune

Day 5 -#blogjune

Day of rest.
And
'the only water in the forest is the River".

Big geek me:)

@kalgrl
#blogjune

Is my world smaller, or just compact?

I have been, since October last year, exploring using my iPhone for most of my web interaction. This has pushed me to discover if things can be done on the phone, and if not direct, then is there an app or other tool to use.

This morning I am in bed - still with the flu lingering and as I had time (something unusual in my world) I wondered, after reading some #blogjune entries on my rss feeds (which I am currently trying to work out how to add more via teh phone) if I could write an entry on the blog via the phone. This is that entry. Day 4. ( yes I know you probably all do this already, however it is new for me :)

Apart from the length of the sentence seeming to be going on forever, I thought I needed to adjust this manually as I go, as with a text editor, however.. It seems I just needed to change the view. Lol (pribably too much twitter). I am not sure how the published version will look.

I tried to add a photo, however it wanted a URL or pc to get the pic from, didn't seem to want to choose from the many photos on my phone camera. Don't think this is the phone or the blog, just me not prepared. ( tried to add an image from flickr, but it wouldn't take, even though it said it did upload? )

This is a link Ruminations to Con's blog. That seemed to work ok. :D

Thats all for now, (headache is back) enjoy your Saturdays.
@kalgrl
#blogjune
( I hope - pushing publish now....)

Bouquets and perspective…

Thinking... come home with bad headache, however can’t ‘turn the brain off’, it seems so I started to think about our service we provide at our branch library.

I received the university magazine in the mail yesterday and instead of thinking, 'I know most if this from emails, work blogs and other internal communications', I read it. (Home unwell and wanting distraction.)

It was full of good things, like the new Engineering Pavilion opened by PM Gillard and new ways to treat stuttering. (My father-in-law stuttered, so personally interesting to me.)

On the last page of the magazine is a section called 'in_perspective' and this issue it is a contribution from the Director of our School of Mines, talking about the school, the two campuses and the makeup of the student body for the school. Also included are his efforts on the world stage to encourage international staff and students to join the school.
The school started in 1902 in Coolgardie and was moved into Kalgoorlie soon after.
It is a 'leading mining education school' and 'operates in the same place as the mining industry' (Hall, S. 2011 p.20 ‘Cite’)

This story made me pause, and I started to examine our branch library's contribution to this arena on this campus. How we do things, and who we connect with.

We open daily to help our students with their information needs. Classes are held in information seeking skills and other tools. Also daily, we give a multitude of answers to questions ranging from, 'can you help me find this 1959 book on metallurgy, I can't remember the author' to 'can you help me with printing on plastic overhead projector sheets (remember those??) to overlay some test results, and then scan to print?' (Staff then needed to give a quick class in scanning and text editing skills at the same time.)

More and more our services are moving online, and our local library staff are coping quite well with learning new skills and the rapid change, in our academic environment. We recently moved into a new managed operating environment, (MOE) with the staff and student PC’s and they are all coping well, despite losing all their ‘favourites’.

Our atmosphere we try to keep as a friendly one and I like that we give a human face to our service. This can include joking with the student that returns his reserve item in his pyjamas (student accommodation is next door) to avoid a fine, to allowing an ‘out of town’ (from Kambalda, Coolgardie or various mine sites) client extra minutes to complete the essential photocopying after closing time. To actually being able to read old ‘floppy disks’ with a ‘flash drive’ adapted reader, for that geologist with the important information he had forgotten to migrate to CD.

We also make welcome our international students and endeavour to help them with some of their language concerns. Our English language skills resources are very well used. During a late shift, I have weekly lively discussions with our casual staff member, who is completing his PHD in metallurgy and is originally from mainland China. We chat about Australian idioms and slang he has heard and he usually wants to explore the varied meanings of words. I still remember our discussion about 'biscuits' what they were in different countries, and what was a 'scone'?

I realise that our staff, albeit small in number, endeavour on a daily basis to
make a good contribution towards our student's information seeking needs. I realise that as ‘the librarian’ while I have learnt a lot, I am still on a steep learning curve. I have also realised over the past three and a half years that a great library staff, make a difference.

I believe we should be proud of our efforts, in bringing a great information and library service to this ‘leading mining education school’ (2011). I do, even more now I have stopped and given the idea some thought and brought it ‘into perspective’.

Bouquets to the Curtin Library-Kalgoorlie Campus Staff, you rock!

@kalgrl
#blogjune

..on the second day of blogging

On the second day of blogging.. the family let me sleep.
Thank you all for your thought and comments.
And I hope those who are also unwell are on the mend (CW)(and other tweeps)

Most interesting thing today was discovering Blueberries in the freezer and instant porridge in the cupboard. I hope this means I am on the mend as feeling slightly hungry. Max (our wonderful red kelpie) is still my companion and is giving me mournful looks as I won't let him on the bed.
that is all ..head about to explode again.
Blergh...

@kalgrl
#blogjune

on the first day of blogging...

Max my companion


On the first day of blogging my true love said to me,

Stay in bed you are not well,
I'll ring your work and them I will tell,
I'll get you some soothers and friends of the fish,
Take some time and this tea and give the day the miss...


a post, and it has a dog picture (bonus)...back to bed for me..
@kalgrl
#blogjune