Actually officially announcing on here that I sold my house just north of Pittsburgh, bought a 120-year-old house in Maine, and started a fully-remote library job (truly, a unicorn of a thing in this field) over the course of just a little over two months at the beginning of this year. TLDR: It’s going well.
How my household is doing Perhaps the best place to start writing about what I’ve been up to is to be really clear: I’m OK, and, at least for now, so are my loved ones. My spouse and I are both incredibly lucky to have jobs that can be done…
We’re rapidly approaching the time for the traditional year-end post, which I’ve been known to skip in recent years—I had a run of several really rough years, there. While 2019 wasn’t without personal challenges and setbacks (and a whole lot of frightening developments in the US and abroad), it brought…
Right now I should be grading or preparing for classes, but honestly I’m three blog posts behind where I wanted to be by now (I haven’t forgotten my WisCon promise to make a post about tabletop roleplaying games) and fighting a pretty nasty headache. So what if I take a…
TLDR: I took two classes this semester, and I’m going to teach at least one, probably 1.5, classes next semester. I’m super psyched about it. I’ll still work for the library where I’m an adjunct, too, but fewer hours per week. I’m still available for full-time hire, if you have data for me to work with.
Over the past few years, I’ve come to dread the “what do you do?†question, because what people generally mean is “where do you work?†And it’s awkward when you can’t have that conversation the way they expect.
I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, for five years, which taught me some things about winter. I don’t claim to be an expert or the most awesome at winter—I mean, I did leave, right?—but I listened when long-time Alaskans talked, and I observed which advice helped the most. For your use and mine, here is the advice I’ve gathered from friends, coworkers, strangers, and the internet, about how to thrive when the days are short and cold.
When we came up to Alaska, Dale and I kept a shared blog. It was a fun way to chronicle a weird journey, both the drive itself and the transition to living in Alaska, which is a pretty unique place. It’s been useful to several people through the years, because…
I’m pulling together my thoughts for a panel on social media* aimed mostly at small libraries with small staffs. If we’re Twitter friends, you’ve seen me asking for libraries on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr who are doing a good job. (OK, I also asked for YouTube, but nobody had…
A surprising* number** of people*** are upset by the idea of a Code of Conduct/Statement of Appropriate Conduct/Anti-Harassment Policy (which I’ll refer to as “a CoC” or “CoCs” for the rest of the post). And, although I am unequivocally in favor of CoCs and generally frustrated when they are received…
