thoughts and rants

thank you for electing Barack Obama.

luvz,
jambina

i know i’ve said it before, but i’ll say it again. twitter has rocked my world when it comes to professional development.

one of the prime examples is the AWESOME Kathryn Greenhill who blogs at librarians matter. i felt like i was a bit in a bubble in terms of my second lifeness, and was unsure how non-US librarians were doing tech stuffs in academia. and then Kathryn introduced herself and was nine kinds of welcoming to me.

since that moment, oh so long ago (maybe 9 months), Kathryn has continued to support me in my craziness and encourage me to keep pushing the LIS envelope.

so i would love to take her for coffee (okay, pints).
and would love to take her for a kick-ass meal.

BUT

she lives in western australia.

so though i think she rawks the kasbah, me and my measley aeroplan points will not get me to oz anytime soon to thank her.

so, to Kathryn, a big SMOOCH to you. and many many thanks for encouraging a library school student to go with what she knows.

got my akoha cards tonight care of the always rockin’ Patrick who got to go to PodCampMontreal while i was working (yay work but BOO schedules).

srsly, check out Akoha

get ready to play it forward, peeps.

i love games
i love meeting new people
i love doing things for people i believe in
and
i love montreal.

akoha fits the bill for all of these.

check it out and sign up for the beta release. or if you bump into me (and i’ve received my cards - hint hint akoha peeps!) i’ll invite you to play!

i kid, i kid.

but i just want to publicly thank a bunch of people without whom my degree would NEVER have been possible.

first, naturellement, to my hubby™ who loved me when i had no idea what i wanted to do with my life (and was doing very little), and who continues to support me now that i think the world is my frickin’ oyster and i am invincible. (i even have a superhero - you should too!)

second, to my bestest ever friend, who will remain an online-enigma, save to say that if Alexander McQueen ever went straight, she would be first in line to marry him. and he’d be one lucky dude to have someone so intelligent and creative at his side. velouria FTW!

third, to my rugby posse. who tonight surprised me not only with sushi and molson export (YAY!), but earrings from the Frank Gehry collection at Tiffany (love me some Frank) to celebrate my graduation. the card read:

with so much love & pride.
congratulations on everything amy.
love cathy, shelly, gij, susy and jess

given the accomplishments (leaving their rugby achievements aside) of these women (anyone need an accountant, social worker, teacher, graphic design firm owner, or philosophy professor?  just holler) i can’t believe they have the time to look out for me - but i know they always have my back.

and to my online network of librarians and ed tech folks. [i was thinking of linking each of your blogs to a word in the following paragraph - but i don't have enough words to thank everyone...] you played a significant role in my success in library school. i couldn’t find all the components of the professional network that i wanted to create from the peeps i knew in Montreal/at McGill, and all of you have managed to answer questions, lend support, tell me when i’m doing something stoopid, and share your lives. you are all part of one of my fundamental beliefs, that knowledge requires collaboration.

finally, there are many folks from grad school who made academia WAY more fun - you know who you are, JJaCL. the day-to-day would have been excruciating without you. i am forever in your debt.

Randy Pausch died today.
i stumbled upon his “last lecture” on youtube a few months back, and i just rewatched it.
sure he’s famous for being a comp sci whiz, and developed a wicked-friendly way to teach programming to kids - Alice - but you should watch the whole video (ya ya it’s over an hour long…) because he will make you want to DO SOMETHING like follow a childhood dream. or, at the very least, write a blog post.

when i started this blog i really thought i would be blogging about library-related matters in Second Life. i have, and i will again, but i don’t think calling this blog “informing MUVEs” is entirely accurate.

since my motto/mantra/catchphrase/thing i like to write is “knowledge requires collaboration” maybe i should try and incorporate that. but how, without it seeming awkward.

and after chatting with Jill, i also like keeping the whole “informing” angle. but that seems a bit daunting - does that mean i have to always inform when i blog?

what about in.forming ? thoughts?

pecha kucha (pronounced “hootchie kootchie” by those of us who were tired of sounding like idiots) is a rockin’ great way to present at a conferences.

here’s the dirt: you get 20 seconds to talk about your slides, and 20 slides for your presentation. the slides advance automatically (well they’re supposed to - aaron was taking care of this for everyone but then started cheating during his own presentation so greg took over) so you really only have 20 seconds to get your message across.

it rocks.

you have to be creative with both the visual and the aural presentation, and the time constraints gives the whole thing a sense of urgency which the audience picks up on and it really increases engagement.

the presenters at this hootchie kootchie were all rock stars:

• amanda - IM
• greg - podcasting
• david - videocasting
• meredith - wikis
• aaron - facebook
• greg n. - skeptic

i really think this format would be great for students - it allows you to practice a presentation, using tech, where you have to be succinct and entertaining at the same time. you could hold monthly hootchie kootchies over a lunch hour. you could choose a theme, or even better, turn them into skill-shares/unconferences where people would present on a topic which they know particularly well.

so much fun!

UPDATE

check out the hootchie kootchie for yourself. 

but it wasn’t totally uneventful. the security folk in Montreal weren’t sure what my XO laptop was so i got the “special” treatment - went into that little glass room and told them all about Nick Negroponte, MIT, the issues surrounding the north/south digital divide…
actually i just turned it on for them and tried to surf the net (no free wifi at the Montreal aeroport - blech!) i guess they believed me because rubber gloves never made an appearance.

so i’m here and bunking with krista. our beds have remote controls and the wine glasses come with lids (sippy cups anyone?) so i feel like i’m the lap of luxury.

i’m not meeting up with the twitter gang (twang?) tonight because i still have homework to do and they are doing naughty things.
but tomorrow night - i’m meeting them for a beer or two and so that cindi and i can write the rules to the twitter drinking game (more on that soon).

…like me.

i really hope i don’t act like a complete dork (a little dorkiness is de rigeur for me) at CiL2008 when i come face to face with librarians i think. are. the. bees. knees.

i’m heading down april 6-10 (returning in time for my presentation at the ABQLA conference on the 11th) and staying at the Radisson which i’m told has free wifi in all the guest rooms, which is good, because the conference hotel does not. (actually, that’s not true, it has T-Mobile, which isn’t actually bad for me because my little XO laptop came with a year’s free T-Mobile service! yay! free stuff!)

oh! and i get to spend some time with krista writing our IFLA paper (has to be dunzo by may 1st) which rocks because i have only met her once in real life (though we’re old SL buddies).