traci in the swamp

Florida Library Days - Tallahassee, Florida

Every year, the Florida Library Association holds Florida Library Days in Tallahassee.  It's an opportunity for library leaders to talk with their legislators about library issues.  It's especially important this year, with the State budget cuts.  So, I took advantage of this opportunity and spent last Tuesday and Wednesday meeting with two state representatives and one senator.  USF actually was nice enough to pay for my travel costs and registration.  The only caveat, I would volunteer to work at the sign-in desk.  This was actually a lot of fun and gave me a great opportunity to meet a number of interesting people.  I also got the chance to meet my school's new Director and chat with him for a bit. Tuesday afternoon, the Broward County Library group was nice enough to let Melanie (a classmate) and me tag along on their visits to their respective legislators:  Elaine Schwartz and Franklin Sands.  And then the Alachua County Library District welcomed me on their visit to our Senator Oelrich Wednesday.   All in all, this was an excellent opportunity to learn about library advocacy and the need for continued support from elected officials.

And Tallahassee is still as beautiful as I remember when I last visited more than ten years ago.  Way back when, in high school, I even served as a Senate Page.  But this time, I drove alone, which was even more of an adventure, since Tallahassee has real hills, something I forgot until I was nearly at the top of a few waiting for the stoplight to turn green.  Once it did, I had to step off the brake real quick and onto the gas, all without hitting the guy in front of me or rolling back and hitting the guy behind me (yes, I've obviously always lived at sea level and haven't had to worry about these things).  Anyway, I survived to tell about it, at least. 

Hopefully, I can convince Matt to take a trip with me one day, even though it is the land of FSU. Hmm...we'll see.

I'm behind the times, I know

I've never played with Second Life (although I have read a number of very interesting articles) or any other type of virtual world and the closest I've come to avatars are the ones in Wii. But it is a relevant subject often discussed in my classes and is the subject of lots of research.   Anyway, a classmate sent out a link to Portrait Illustration Maker creating your own avatar for free and I took advantage of the opportunity.  So here are Matt and Traci in avatar form.

Photoshop and me

A few weeks ago, Matt and I went to the Herlong Mansion in Micanopy to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. I've talked about Micanopy before, it's one of the oldest inland communities, whose motto is" "The place where time forgot".  It is the home to Blue Highway Pizza.  We enjoyed our time and felt "pretty" (I use this term loosely, long story) relaxed.  When we were pulling into the Mansion, I noticed this old beat up Dodge and I wanted to make sure I got a picture of it, so I snapped one before we left the next day. 

Now, I love taking pictures and I also love Photoshop.  One of my former co-workers and good friends gave me a copy before I left my old job.  I'm not great at it, by any means, but I've mastered a few skills that can help make pictures look pretty neat.  Here's what I did with the Dodge - what do you think - better before (one on the left) or after?

My favorite comic strip

I'm a comic junkie, I have my Sage feed set up to catch a couple of my favorite ones (especially For Better of for Worse - which is my soap opera) and of course, my favorite Unshelved. 

I love sarcastic (witty!) humor, although it does get lost on a lot of people, so if you have any comics that are like that, please send them my way.

All distractions welcome...

I really should be working on my paper, but I've been enjoying other distractions like looking up old movie clips on You Tube.  Here is one of my favorite scenes of all times:

Okay, I better get back to work now! 

Heading back to school - Go Bulls!

I've always loved school.  The first day, new books and new notebooks, in a Jansport backpack although nowadays, the totes are the the cool thing.  Either way, school was something that that I always looked forward to. 

In college, although I had a less than the traditional approach to finishing school - graduating two years later than my high school peers from USF with my BA and then graduating two years later with my Masters degree from the University of Central Florida, I still looked forward to going to school.  Even though, I often complained since school meant going at night, when I would much rather have just been lazy and done nothing.  I still loved it.

So here I am again, getting ready to return to school - to my Alma Mater - University of South Florida to start my Masters of Library and Information Science.  Libraries have always played a role in my life.  This is where I would visit on Saturdays, with my poor father, who became the designated book holder, since my little hands couldn't hold all of them.  This is where I researched information for a book report on some obsecure topic such as Singapore or Amelia Earhart (using encyclopedias - gasp!) .  Back when I was growing up, the Internet may have existed, but not to the masses.  It wasn't until I was in high school, that I even knew what AOL was, and we suffered with dial-up.  I was actually one of the cool ones, because most of my friends didn't even have that.   

I'm looking forward to starting this program and the possibilities that are before me.  I get to combine my love for technology, especially the Internet with books.  Hopefully, I'll even be able to instill in a child the love of books that is so ingrained in me!