DeAnne Smith giving props to librarians (start it at 5:55 if you just want the rap)

i am addicted to modifying photos using picnik – especially since every social network requires you to have some kind of avatar for you profile.

picnik is free and doesn’t require you to register (though there are some perks if you do). you can crop and rotate and fix colours (you can even use curves), as usual, but picnik also allows you to add filters to your photos, text, funny pix, and frame things in a bunch of different ways.

so you can make a boring picture like this:

look like this:

(there’s lots more you can do – i just wanted to give you a rough idea. this was cropped, rotated, had the Orton-ish effect applied, speech bubble and text added, and i gave myself a loverly ‘stache.)

such as present at a workshop where you’re on the slate with seasoned veterans like Stephen Abram and Michael Stephens.

i would say that i am fairly comfortable presenting in front of a group. we do a lot of teaching at my branch, so i have had a lot of practice explaining somewhat complicated things to folks.

i also read up on presenting (slide:ology and presentation zen are two recent faves) and while i don’t consider myself as proficient with powerpoint as Larry Lessig, i certainly don’t force my audience to suffer “death by powerpoint”. or as Dorothea puts it, “i don’t think i’ve ever wasted the audience’s time”.

so though i’m okay speaking to  people, and know that my presentations are, for the most part, not-so-bad, being asked to speak at this workshop was still scary.

scary because…

• both Stephen and Michael know how to engage an audience.
• i wasn’t presenting at some far-off  conference to peeps that i will only ever see again at another conference. i was presenting to local librarians and library school students – my colleagues and friends!
• i didn’t get to rehearse nearly as much as i had hoped (note to self: your procrastinatory skills are epic. you must fix this).

but scary is good. scary makes you try harder. scary makes you prepare better (plz to disregard my 3rd point above). scary makes you try things. scary pushes you to do something!

and then the next time you do it, it’s less scary. and then the next time, even less scary. and so on, and so on…

so how have you scared yourself lately? (alright alright, use “challenged” if that sounds better in your head.) i am well aware that it is easier to say you are going to do something new than to actually do it.

what if a double-dawg dare you?

… listen to this podcast.

(thanks to my associate producer jason for advice)

UPDATE: thanks to the always-awesome jason, i fixed this. should work now.

… i worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan daily.

the site Stuff Journalists Like – is very accurate. especially post 3. i was a starving student (okay, not starving, but the lowest paid in the room) and even i knew that the food at the election night buffet was for everyone working that night and i shouldn’t fill up tupperware and keep it at my desk.

also, i wore shoes at work. can’t say the same for all of the editors ; )

no one tagged me but we all know how much i love a bandwagon – there’s a meme going around…

here are seven things you might not know about me.

1. i can sing the alphabet backward as easily as i can forward. i was a bored child and took to reading books backward once i had read them the “proper”. if you buy me a beer i’ll even serenade you with “mary had a little lamb” backward. if you want me to do this on karaoke night, it’ll cost you more than one beer.
2. i can read hebrew (with the vowels, pls) and russian but have no idea what i’m saying.
3. i was in a “reverse-integration” (holy gawd i hate that term) program in grade five where i was lucky enough to go to Mackay Centre with kids with various physical disabilities as well as share a building with a deaf school. my sign language, at the moment, is atrocious.
4. my cousin is a bit of a rock star in quebec. for the record, i hated him between the ages of 9 and 13 because he was always being told how awesome he was for being able to sing so well. now, however, i think he’s a big sweetheart.
5. this was the first gizmo i ever used to get on the internet. (actually, my uncle had a coupler so i could get on it at his house, but this was the first thing we had chez nous.) my parents had no idea how to work it. i won a samantha fox cassette answering a quiz on a bulletin board.
6. i was on the opening crew of the Disney Wonder and loved everything about it. i trained at Disney World for a month (working in the Magic Kingdom). then was flown to the Fincantieri shipyard in Venice to pick up the ship and sail it first to Southhampton (where Sir Richard Branson sponsored an “open ship” event and we had the most amazing fireworks EVER), then to Porta Delgada in The Azores, then across the Atlantic Ocean for a week (sans guests) to home port in Port Canaveral, FL. i sailed through hurricanes and worked with 3 year olds. i consider this some of the best management experience i’ve ever had and actually feel the company gives (some of ) their employees an awful lot of autonomy to make people happy. cult-like corporate culture, i eats it up.
7. due to my diastema, i have amazing accuracy when spitting water out through my two front teeth. i love knowing that i share a bar trick with the Wife of Bath, Cleopatra, and Madonna.

according to the rules of this meme – i have to tag seven peeps. so here ya go!

1. jason puckett
2. david rothman
3. jan dawson
4. graham lavender
5. steven cohen
6. jason hammond
7. anna creech

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 gotta start getting my beloved CLA to do some of these fun things!

wicked easy to do – click here to start.

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.

a wee bit outta control
a wee bit excited
and definitely supported by some good folks that won’t let me fly away

(thanks to jan, one great supporter, for sending me the pic.)