kind of a cop out

maura @ 6:15 pm

Yeah, you guessed it, this isn’t really a post. Kind of a finger in the eye after 6 days, huh? But I did write a post on my other blog about the website I made for the course I’m teaching this semester. It’s long enough that I can add a “W” to the calendar for today (= I wrote something somewhat substantial), and will just have to do for a Sunday evening.

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cool and cut into slices

maura @ 12:26 pm

I think I may have too many blogs. Not that this is new — I’ve wondered about this before. But lately I’ve been feeling more blog-related confusion than usual.

Okay, so there’s this blog, the old reliable. A personal blog. For personal stuff. Except that sometimes I do want to write about library-ish things in a more casual way than on the other blogs. Like a couple of weeks ago, when I wrote about my class. But then I wanted to write about the class in a more formal way and give a shoutout to all of the other library classes I’d found inspirational, so I posted something about it on the ACRLog too. It felt a bit weird to write about the same thing in two different ways, but not so weird that I didn’t do it. I’ve also been feeling a tiny bit bloggers block with more formal library posts, too, and in some ways I think it loosened me up a bit to write casually about the course here before I wrote more formally about it over there.

It’s probably more of a systemic issue: things have been busy lately, and I haven’t done as much writing as I like. I am keeping my hour before work for research/writing, but there’s been a bunch of procedural research stuff to do lately like photocopying fliers and applying for grants and reading for literature reviews and… So not so much writing has been happening in the mornings. This article in the Chronicle last week, which I’ve just gotten the chance to read now, has come at just the right time. And it has helped me push through a bit more writing in the past couple of days, too. Just need to keep repeating that mantra which has worked so well for me in the past: To Write A Lot, You Have To Write A Lot. Where’s my pencil?

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nothing to see here

maura @ 9:23 pm

Decided to write something about open access for my other blog today. Really it was finishing something I started a few weeks ago when Gus was at karate on a Saturday morning. I usually bring the netbook and can often get a bunch written, which seems impossible sitting near 30 kids yelling “yes sensei!” every few minutes. But it’s a surprisingly productive time for me. For a bunch of different reasons Gus hasn’t gone to karate on Saturday morning in a while, and I kind of miss it. I think he misses it, too. Despite being sick he’s still pretty high energy. Begone, evil fever!

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i had a little trouble with the scissors

maura @ 10:58 am

Yes, it’s November, so once again it’s time for NaBloPoMo. All fall I’ve been laboring under the assumption that I wouldn’t participate this year. Just like last year, the first 3 weeks of November is the busiest time at MPOW for library instruction. I’m on more committees than last yr, too, and in the midst of a big research project.

BUT. The big but. The point of NaBloPoMo is to force gently encourage yourself to write more, and I could use a kick in the pants w/writing these days. Back in September I settled on a new writing plan: I come into work at 8am and write for an hour before work. (This year Gus rides the school bus to school as well as home, which means that he and Jonathan need to leave the house at 7:30am, which suddenly makes this plan feasible.) Mostly this writing is supposed to be scholarly, but lighter stuff like library blogging also counts.

And this all worked swimmingly until around the 2nd week in October, when I started the student interviews portion of my research project. Suddenly I needed all the time I could scrape together to manage my research; my one Reassigned Time day/week just wasn’t cutting it. So I started devoting mornings to the project too. Which is fine — it’s a great project and I’m really enjoying the work. But I miss my writing time.

Now that the data collection part of my research project is starting to slow down for this semester, it’s time to get back to that regular writing again. And I figure I’ve got a couple of posts that I already know I’ll write, between Twitter Tuesdays and the other blags I write for.

So, I’m in. 30 posts in 30 days. I’ve done it before, I can do it again, right?

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index and quotient, he knows what to do

maura @ 8:38 pm

Today I wrote a post for my other blog. But I almost put it here, that’s why I’m linking to it. I had trouble deciding which one is a better fit (it’s kind of a love letter to my iPhone). Probably here, but I haven’t posted at the other one in ages so I decided it needed the attention more.

Back to your regularly scheduled mauraweb! next time.

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¿se siente mal? podemus ayudarle

maura @ 12:56 pm

Woah, long time gone here. I’ve been busy — got pulled in on a big project @ work, fun but time-intensive. And then there was the sick, oh yes, the sick. Gus had the stomach flu, then I had the stomach flu, then Gus had the stomach flu again. Good times.

I’ve missed you, blag! It’s weird, I’ve really felt pangs of longing lately for some time, any time, to write. That’s positive, right? that I really want to write these days, so much so that I’m frustrated when I can’t.

Good thing, too, because I got my bloggy wish. What girl doesn’t need 3 blogs, I ask you? (I don’t want the trackbacks so I’m not going to link them — y’all can cut-n-paste ‘em if you’d like.) You can find me blagging 1-2x/month about library stuff on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ blog at acrlog.org. And I made myself a blog on the CUNY Academic Commons (another project I’ve worked on this year) for general higher education and instructional technology thoughts as well as stuff specific to the CUNYverse. That one’s at msmale.commons.gc.cuny.edu.

Last week I had a meeting in Manhattan. I do love my current (walkable!) commute, but it’s fun to have the chance to ride the subway over the bridge sometimes, too. There’s always something new to see — like last spring when I kept thinking, “what the heck are they building on that pier?” and it turned out to be a waterfall.

Right now there’s this cool underground art between the DeKalb Ave stop and the Manhattan Bridge. Brightly colored images are painted on the walls and when the train goes by and you look out the window the supporting tunnel girders make it look like one of those old timey spinning wheel animation things. The internets remind me that’s a zoetrope (thank you Wikipedia!).

(Ooh, it’s called Masstransiscope, see article + video in the Times here!)

Also when I ride the subway I remember that I really want to learn Spanish. It’s so tantalizing to read all of the Spanish signs and almost understand them. Someday there’ll be time, right? I suppose I could give up some blagtime, but I think I’m more attached to blags for now. Sorry, Spanish!

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shameless self-promotion

maura @ 10:25 pm

It’s National Library Week, and I’ve got a post on the Oxford Univ Press blog. Yay for libraries!

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sputtering to a stop

maura @ 9:24 pm

Well, that’s it, this NaBloPoMo thing has ended for this year. I feel a bit blah about it compared to years past. I did blag every day, it’s true, but it doesn’t seem like I really gave it my all. There were a few meaty posts, but mostly they were short + very picturey.

Ah well, that’s the way it goes. I guess with the superbusy class time of the semester in the first half of this month, my energies were not as available for writing. Maybe next year I’ll have figured out how to devote more time to writing even during the teaching crush.

Or maybe I’ll just prewrite a bunch of blags before I get too busy, and post them sneakily each day, as if they were written fresh + new! Except that I’ve just blown my cover, dang.

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registration-free comments are back

maura @ 6:59 pm

Thanks to Jessie’s Spam Karma suggestion, woo hoo!

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stop killing me

maura @ 1:19 pm

Okay, I just can’t take the blogspam anymore, so I’ve changed the options to require registration to post comments. Sorry if this bugs anyone! If you can tell me how to make WordPress more spam-proof, I’m all ears.

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