Long time no see

I know, it's been forever and ever since I last posted here.  Blogging seems to be falling out of fashion, what with everyone on Twitter and Facebook these days, plus I don't really do anything exciting enough to blog about lately.  I got the black tie and the costume parties out of my system early on, so now it's just work work work.

I am aiming to submit this thing by August at the latest.  That would put me at November/December for a viva (defense), I think.  Fairly soon, I hope to get the "I *need* to get this done" mentality in my head, which allows me to spend late nights grinding out those chapters.

I've been in school for far too long.  I'm ready for a job.  I read once that the best way to find a house/apartment was to tell everyone that you're looking for a house/apartment, because you never know if someone's brother's co-worker's neighbor might have something available.  I'm hoping this technique also works for jobs, so I'll tell you all now:  I'm looking for a job.

My area of interest is higher ed, but not necessarily teaching (that is, I like teaching, but I am happy to do other things too).  I'm particularly interested in educational technology, but more generally I'm interested in any sort of higher ed jobs that allow me to work with lots of different people.  So far I've applied for jobs as an instructional designer/educational technologist, director of international studies, and honors program coordinator, just so you can get an idea of the kinds of positions I'm interested in.  My degrees are in Spanish and Communication/Advertising (I have Master's Degrees in both), I've taught at the college level, and I have work experience in educational technology.  I plan on staying in Connecticut for a while.

I'm telling you all these things in case you know someone who knows someone who is hiring, or if you can suggest any particularly good places to search.

Back to work now.  Happy weekend, everyone!

Feliz Navidad

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas

And a Happy New Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I probably won't have time to post on Christmas, and I'd never remember to post this after, so I will wish everyone a Happy Holidays right now.  Here's to a fabulous 2010!

I can't believe I had to do this.

Today I had to put a laminated sign on my door.  It reads:  "This is room 25.1, a student room.  If you are looking for your guest room, please go next door to staircase 24 for room 24.1."

Why did I do this?  Well, on four different occasions this term, college guests have tried to get into my room.  They've either practically followed me in as I was going in myself, or I could hear them sticking the key in the door late at night.  I don't even have to ask what they're doing any more:  I just stick my head out the door and say, "You're looking for the staircase next door."

I wonder why this has happened so often this year.  I lived in this room last year and it never happened.  Maybe it is because we have so many new porters this year?  Are they directing people to the wrong staircase?

Weird.

Catching a (Google) Wave

I got an invite for Google Wave a while ago, and after I joined, I didn't use it that much.  It turns out that if you want to make the most of Google Wave, you have to know other people who are on it as well.  And since I didn't know many people with whom I'd want to "collaborate," I didn't see any real reason for it.

Today I logged on and found out that Google had given me eight invitations for Wave.  I sent out a Twitter/Facebook status asking who wanted them, and was soon bombarded by randoms on Twitter asking for one.

And then it hit me:  if you want Google Wave to be useful, you have to approach it in a way that will make it useful for you.  That means two major things:

1.) Don't look for invites in random places online.  Would you ever get in contact with these random people again?  Instead, ask around to your friends and co-workers to see who might have an invite.  If you're really desperate for an invite and no one you know has one, look for invites in places that have people you might collaborate with.  If you're a blogger, for example, looking for invites from fellow bloggers of the same genre (mommy blogs, sci-fi blogs, academic blogs) might yield you some interesting contacts.  Because otherwise, you're going to log on and see maybe three people you know, and none of them are people who would interact with each other, and then what's the point compared to email?

2.) If you have invites to give out, don't just throw them out to random people.  When I got my eight invitations today, I decided to give priority to people I know and would most likely interact with on Wave.  The first three went out to people I used to work with (and am friends with) and still do contract work with occasionally.  Another one went out to someone the four of us interact with, because we thought he would find it useful.  And the last four went out to friends and fellow bloggers.  Now I actually feel like I have enough contacts to really give it a go and put it to good use.

If you're on Google Wave and have no one to talk to, don't worry - it seems like the number of users is picking up now.  And with mere mortals (read: non-Google employees and non-developers like myself) being allowed to send invites, it's becoming more likely that you'll find someone you know on there.

I'd be interested to hear how people are putting Google Wave to use out there! 

Ch-ch-change

Living between two different countries for the past four or so years has given me a weird perspective on money. Sometimes I think in dollars, sometimes in pounds, sometimes in a weird combination of both. Whenever I travel to a Euro-using country, I never know how much anything costs because I can't remember if the exchange rate in my head is for pounds or dollars. It's kind of confusing.

But sometimes the exchange rate works in my favor in unexpected ways. Earlier this month, I bought a coat online from a British website. The coat cost £69, and I paid with my US credit card. It was too big, so I returned it and got a refund on my card.

The coat cost me $113.86 on my card. The refund was for $114.24.

And to make it even better, they now carry the coat in the local store, and it's £10 cheaper. Huzzah.