Five things I can say I am about happy about right now, or at least excited about...in a generally good way...

BLOT: (24 Sep 2012 - 12:43:07 PM)

Five things I can say I am about happy about right now, or at least excited about...in a generally good way...

On Saturday I had an idea for a post: list off the five things that I am most excited and/or happy about. Yes, in relation to the Vonnegut quote about how you need to stop and look around and go "If this isn't happiness..." sometimes. The idea occurred to me right after I made this tweet:

And for real I had five things (maybe even six things!) and I was going to make the post, but I put it off and now looking back I am really unsure exactly what the post was supposed to be. I mean, I can remember a couple of things. I think I can even remember four of them, though one of them has changed and another I can't recall exactly where I was going with it, so, I figure that I'll list the ones I remember, and then maybe make up a couple more, and stick to my idea, which is a good one and I recommend we all do it, from time to time.

Thing the First, getting ready for some small changes in career. I wrote about a month ago about a need for a bit of personal upheaval and I finally am getting around to sort of engaging that need. I was asked by my boss if I could do some hours on the User Services (i.e. circulation) Desk and I said yes. Which is a bit weird, since as far as I know very few "circ librarians" or "ref librarians" cross spheres in Academic libraries. In fact, there was a mild uproar of confusion when I agreed, because several involved thought it was an all or nothing change. It is not, and this week I'll enter into training (relatively briefly) and then next week, or so, I should be adding Friday Nights and Saturdays back to my work shift. I'm a bit nervous, but looking forward to it, since it will bring back some bookstore memories (circ desks are much closer to bookstores than ref desks, it might not surprise you to find) and it will be a little bit more pay throughout the week.

Thing the Second, getting read for big changes in career. Which brings us to the second half of that coin, where I am about to start putting some applications and resumes and feelers. I've been out of grad school for about a year now and it is time for me to testing my edges [as it were] and/or be looking into that second degree, or both. I figure I'll hit up a half dozen jobs postings that seem likely to fit me, to start, and I'll get an updated resume to my current place, and I'll see what's out there. I have been a library "temp" longer than some of the permanent workers have been at my current workplace, and it works out ok for me, but it is time for me to start getting a 401K and staff discounts and all the things that makes the rocking world go round. Etc. This job has been awesome and invaluable hands on training during my grad school days and probably the most positive work experience I have ever had, but there are other opportunities and I need to explore them. I'm excited. And a bit panicked. I figure if I don't end up in a corner hyperventilating, I'll be doing ok. I like the concept of life upheavals, but let's just say that despite all my skills, my very rapid ability to adapt to situations and learn new tasks, and my fair ability to make friends and explore an area...I am pretty stereotypical librarian in my nervous demeanor.

Thing the Third, trying out recipes that simply do not work for me. I was very excited about this apple, blue cheese, brussel sprouts, and pasta recipe. Then I made it and I can't help but think that maybe blue cheese isn't quite for me (and I think I had too much moisture which robbed the apples of a bit of their presence). Still, it's kind of exciting to try things that seem so different than the comfort zone and I'm glad that Sarah is not only supportive about, but delighted with, such things. I'm going to remake that recipe with some yogurt and parmesan, I think, and maybe add the apples after the pasta/brussel bake aspects. I'll let you know how that version goes.

Thing the Fourth, Amy and Rory are leaving Doctor Who. Don't get me wrong, I really love the Ponds—I am especially a Rory Williams fan—but Doctor Who works really well as a mercurial show with different flavors and I am excited to see how the new companion fits into the flow. I have also been fascinated with some of the interplay about the end-of-companion elements in the past couple of episodes. The fact that the Ponds have been traveling with the Doctor for a decade (only a couple of years or so "real world" time, though Rory is 2000 years older than he appears, I guess so for him the time on adventure has greatly eclipsed the time off), and that he has traveled without them for at least 90 years in between, and that even when they are with him, he is going off when they sleep to have whole other adventures with River, it ends up making the timey-wimey nature of the show more bound into its lifeblood than probably any previous point in the history. And since the upcoming companion has already crossed the time stream and all that, well, it should make for interesting television (even if Big Finish has alreay had some fingers in that style pie for years).

Thing the Fifth... um... damn... um... how about breaking my wife's computer? On Saturday, Sarah and I were playing Minecraft together when I got an email from her, that was pretty obvious malicious SPAM and so I ran in there and told her and she had to go off and change her settings and all that, but in the midst we realized that her computer was potentially open to some attack. We had attempted an upgrae a year or so ago that refused to take fully, so a lot of the programs were in sort of a half state. Because of that we had some weird things like network managers that weren't working but were working, background programs broadcasting to the network, and a number of things that could have hidden more malicious activity. I tried updating it, again, to fix most of that, and it broke broke an wasn't able to even boot any more. And while I am confident I could have fixed it piece by piece, we decided that it was time to restart it completely and got up her to Ubuntu 12.04 (we weren't going for Ubuntu originally, but right after breaking it, we realized that her CD/DVD drive was busted and we couldn't launch from anything but, luckily, an Ubuntu thumbdrive I had). Anyhow, kind of wrecked Saturday night and made Sunday morning more stressful than it should have been, but it ended up for the best, I think. And if anyone had compromised her computer, well, that's done and over with.

And there we go, five things. Not the only five things. Maybe not even the best five things. But five things. And, seriously, if those are not happiness, I do not know what is...

Me in 2012

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: September 2012