WELCOME TO THE VOID

So When I first got into the apartment, I accidentally locked myself out. The lock is a little button I push but when I grabbed the gate to open it, I accidentally hit it.

So I sat around with my realtor waiting to get in. I noticed that the windows and door weren't well insulated, so I'm sure that they're going to have me bleeding money through my a/c bill. What I've done is packed up the windows to minimize how much cool air leaks out of the old windows. They're those fan kind of windows that have slats that turn open, so there's several lines of leak.

The sliding door that is my entrance is an older door. So same problem.

That's the last time I take a place that's in the middle of being renovated. Because when they say they're going to finish upgrading it, it's nicer to see exactly what you're going to end up with. My bad.

My a/c wasn't working though.It wasn't working for the first few days, then they managed to get it slugging along, and it was ok, though not really doing the whole job for a few days, before it crapped out again. Then it would knock out the power whenever they did get the a/c working. And then it just crapped out completely.

So basically for the past month I've basically been without a/c. They gave me a portable unit which served as little more than a glorified fan.
Yesterday they managed to get it working, and the landlord told me that it turns out they'd have to replace most of the a/c units on the building because they were in really bad shape. Guess he's having a little buyer's remorse.

Live and learn for the both of us I guess.

I do like my place otherwise. There's nothing else really wrong with it that you aren't going to find in pretty much any place here in Houston. But it's got a nice sized bathroom, storage that I'm surprised I haven't filled up yet, a bedroom that serves me well, and a living/dining room that I can watch tv while I'm working on the computer or cooking dinner (I have a islanded kitchen, so I just look over the counters to see the tv as I whip up dinner). It's in a nice neighbourhood, amenities are close, so overall it's not bad. We'll see if I have to move at the end of the lease or not depending on how the rest of the year goes.

Unpacking went smoothly. I had most of it taken care of before I started work. I mostly just have one box that's kind of a miscellany that I'm not sure where to put or how to organize it. But I do have space for it :P

So overall, if you ignore the air conditioning things have been about as well as expected.


Sorry all of these are so spread out and delayed. I'll get caught up soon!

So, my father and I spent quite a bit of time packing up my stuff before moving. I brought stuff up from my room that I wasn't sure how to pack and have it arrive safely and he took care of that, while I packed up the stuff that I could pack just fine.

The big problem was that I was also doing the first major weed of all my stuff since I moved there, so it was 7 years worth of clutter that I had built up.

I was throwing out all kinds of things that I had kept around for sentimental value. A whole lot of them would have made my RM prof cringe :P So needless to say there was lots of shredding, and recycling and such.

Eventually I got it all packed up with a little bit left for storage with my parents because I didn't figure I'd have room and didn't want them working towards my shipping weight with the movers.


Speaking of the movers, they came and got me loaded up in their truck in under an hour. I was pretty surprised, mostly because I know it would have taken me far longer, but they whipped it all in in no time.

Later that night I got dropped off at the airbus station on my journey to get on the plane and fly to Houston.
I had to work very hard to prevent myself from crying as my sister went to drop me off.

The journey itself was long. I was basically awake right through til I got to Houston around noon the next day.

As we crossed the border I really just had to show my little visa card and they let me through. The border guard said 'wow, you don't look like a librarian!'
"uh, thanks? still don't know if that's a good thing or not"
and he laughed and said I was more like a pro wrestler or something lol.

I more or less napped a little bit at Detroit Airport as I waited for the counters to open at get checked in. But managed to get checked in, transferred over to my connecting flight and on my way.

The 2nd flight was hilarious. The flight attendant kept cracking the most hilarious jokes. Hope I get her on a flight again, it was so much fun I was laughing so hard.

I got in and got my rental car and got my keys and started to try and learn where things were that I needed.
The movers arrived on the 20th, having taken my stuff on the 17th and my arriving in Houston on the 18th. I had slept for a couple nights on the floor, and then my stuff arrived.

There was a huge issue with the movers contracting out my move to another company and the guy wanted payment on delivery. However, the original arrangement was that the movers were supposed to bill the university for the amount of the move.
So some frantic phone calls around and discussions with both parties managed to get it sorted out that the university would charge it directly before my stuff arrived so that it would be all taken care of.
However, I didn't appreciate constantly changing things on me. So I doubt I'd use these movers on the way back to Canada.

The movers took a little longer to get it in. There were fewer of them so it took longer. And it was killer hot. So I think one of the guys had heat stroke. When he left I found him outside the gate throwing up the water he had just drank in my unit. I didn't know what to do, and he refused help so I left him there, but felt bad about. it.


Next step, unpacking and the apartment!

On Friday the 12th, I managed to convince my mother to lend me her car so I could drive down to Windsor to get my TN status.

I would call it a visa, except that technically they don't issue a visa unless you need to bring dependents into the country, in which case they give you a visa along with the TN status.

The TN status is Trade NAFTA status. Certain occupations are listed with the necessary credentials to cross the border easily for a temporary work permit. Previously this status had been assigned for 1 year at a time, but as of October they changed the status to last for up to 3 years. The basic idea behind the status is that it allows for the 'free trade' of professionals with in demand qualifications between North American countries.

Most of the information I had found said that you wanted to get the TN status at a point of entry between 1-2 weeks from your employment start date and that 3 weeks was really pushing it, but hadn't been unheard of. I was applying 17 days before my start date, which I thought might present a problem.

The border guard at the gate told me that he didn't think I'd get the status because they only do it within 10 days of the start date. At worst I thought they might make me wait til 14 days before the start date, but I couldn't wait until the 10 days because I moved 11 days before my start date!

The officer in the office at Windsor told me much the same thing until I mentioned that the movers needed a copy of the I-94 in order to get my stuff across the border and I wouldn't have been applying so early if it wasn't for that fact. She swiftly changed gears and started processing me through.

I was awaiting that fateful interview that you hear everyone talking about with TN status. Having to prove my intent to return to Canada after my status expired, etc. But it never really came. I flashed my degree, gave the letter that had been supplied by my employer, and then she chatted me up about some genealogical research that she was doing. I *suspect* that this was actually the interview. Though I think much of the information she needed would have been more appropriate to ask an archivist about.

I was fingerprinted, which was standard procedure. But I admit not something I was happy about. I rather enjoyed not having my biometrics in a database anywhere. I just don't like having that level of personal information out there. It would be like them asking for a dna sample.

Anyway, my status was approved, and she made up a little card. The card was the I-94, and I was to turn it over whenever I left the US by sea or air, and when I finally leave at the end of the status regardless of what means I used, I was to turn over the card as well.

Then she sent me on my merry way. Since I wasn't ready to actually stay in the US and didn't have anything to do there, I followed the sign that said 'return to Canada' Eventually had some guy yelling at me, and then eventually pointed me in the direction to cross back to Canada, not really clear on why I wasn't going into the US, and then I crossed the bridge back to Canada.

It was totally not the experience I expected. But definitely was a lot smoother.

Next issue, actually moving!

Well, Greetings from Houston. or Howdy as the locals say.

Last I left you was back shortly after my apartment hunting trip.

After that point, I had to start making major arrangements for getting set for the big move to Houston

I was tracking down boxes for packing, trying to read up as much as I could on the things I would need to sort out before, during and shortly after my shift over.

Thankfully, with my lease, all my utilities except for hydro were covered. But finding that covered down here is a diamond in the rough, and, based on my apartment hunting experience, a way to cover up a serious dump.

Thankfully I only had to arrange the one utility. Texas is deregulated for hydro so, they have this site called Power to Choose that lets you shop around on the basis of a variety of factors, including renewable sources, contract length, kW.h price, etc. I basically went with the cheapest for now to see what my hydro bills are going to be like here, and then maybe later I'll be able to switch to something with more renewability if I can afford it.

I also picked up renter's insurance, and a health plan that's designed for ex-pat's. Though I admit that didn't get approved (and therefore ordered) until after I arrived here just because of the delay in finding it, asking if I'd still get reimbursed, and then finally ordering it.

Packing was a rather painful process. at 7 years in the same house I hadn't had to weed a whole lot, and suddenly found myself weeding as much as possible to bring things that were important to me or would be useful rather than just throwing everything in boxes. There were many boxes of recycling, shredding, garbage and goodwill that went out as a result.
I put a lot into storage at my parents place, but still ended up bringing a lot of things just because they made me smile and I wanted to keep them for those days I needed those smiles.

I tried signing up for things like cable and the internet, but the providers that had plans I was interested in couldn't sign me up without a social security number, and I couldn't even apply for that until I had my visa. So I signed up for a basic dsl package and left it at that, figuring if I really wanted to watch tv, I'd have a dvd player and plenty of dvd's (ie BUFFY!) that would get me by. But it really interfered with how much I could get in place before I got here

I was also, of course, harassing friends in the US, and particularly those heading to Houston/in Houston/recently vacating Houston for tips and hints about, places to go, things to look at and keep in mind when I got down there.



All through the process I don't think I knew what I was doing. I never felt anymore prepared even when I got something lined up. And even now that I'm here I don't feel like I did everything. But alas. Here I am, taking it as it comes!

Next chapter, getting TN status!

Ok, So this week I went apartment hunting in Houston.

Talk about stressful. Though I had things all mixed up in terms of stress. I was worried that when I told the border that I was going to be crossing over to look for an apartment that they'd give me a look and say 'yeah... go home' But thankfully my offer letter and explanation that I would be applying for the TN status closer in a month was enough for the guy to let me on through.

The airline lost my luggage. Though to be fair, I should say that they had 10 planes landing at the same time and so my luggage just got mixed up so that it was in the airport, but not on the baggage claim turntables for my flight at the right time. But before I left with my rental car, they managed to get it back to me. So really I just took the shuttle from the rental place to the airport an extra round and got a $50 off coupon for my next flight. Score!

My new GPS worked wonderfully and got my to my friend Andy's place.

Day one I wandered out and met with my realtor, the guy Andy had used when he moved here. The guy was great, and definitely someone I'd recommend to anyone coming to Houston. We got together, talked about what I wanted, and went through some listings. We pulled a whole bunch, and went bopping around the city to see what we could find. By the end of the day, we had only really seen one place with an amazing kitchen. Though the living room was a little small. But it was what felt most right by the end of the day. So I asked Josh (the realtor) to look into it, and we parted ways. I went and looked at a few complexes. I felt much better about them than I did anything else I had seen that day. Even though the complexes had mixed reviews online.

So I stewed and thought about it. Josh said that the one I had asked him to look at was already gone, so it was a non-issue, and I was trying to decide if I should just go to the complexes or keep looking for a gem.

I sent Josh an email asking what I should be doing. What he thought or suggested. I figured at the very least I could take another look around and then go to the complexes and put down a deposit if I still didn't have any luck.
I was also getting a lot of pressure from Andy and his b/f to not go into a complex. Which didn't make sense to me since they were the best things I had seen anyway. And anything dubbed a garage apartment and such was just dumpy. Anything I've ever seen that was a segmented building, anywhere, was usually dumpy.

So in the end I just figured that I would do another round and see what happened.

I'll say one thing. I don't understand the obsession with hardwood floors. Whenever I think of hardwood, all I think of is creaking floors, hearing every pin drop on the floor above you, and something too uncomfortable to sit on. but EVERYWHERE has them, or ups the price when they put it in.

So I looked at a few more places with Josh the next day, including one Andy's b/f had pulled up in his searching. Overall, I wasn't too impressed again with most of it. But there were 2 places that we saw that could have worked for me. Both in smaller complexes, both ground floor. One building had a pool (though it wasn't maintained well). Good locations for both. Both at the upper end of my price range.


By the end of the day (we saw a couple more after these 2) I had opted for the one that felt right and impressed me right off. It has a private balcony for an entryway, and a relatively typical layout. the bathroom was spacious, neither the bedroom or living room was cramped. They're freshly renovating them as we speak, new appliances, carpet. A cozy out of the way ground floor apartment. The only thing I could have asked for was nicer laundry facilities.


So in the end I went and put an application together, and put down a deposit. It was such a relief to go and get it all done.

And this complex was also willing to take my own supplied credit report from Canada, and handle things with me being a foreign national. So I really can't complain.

It was a good experience, and definitely a huge load off, though I still have lots more I need to do now that I have a place lol. Utilities to hook up and such.

But one step at a time!

So I thought everyone might be interested in my giant list of things to do regarding the whole move.


Renew Passport
Get moving quotes
select mover
get mover approved by UH
Finish final school projects - April 16th ish
Book apartment hunting flight
Book flight for move
Find an apartment in Houston - May 11-14
Convocate - June 8th
Get transcripts that say I convocated - June 15th
Apply for Visa - pending convocation
Get visa info to movers - pending visa
apply for SSN - pending visa
Convert Ontario driver's license to Texas DL - Pending move
Cancel Health card - Pending move
Find bridging health plan to cover until my work health plan kicks in
Cancel Cdn cell phone - June 10th
Sell car
Change address for professional memberships, subscriptions, etc - pending apartment
Get Texas cell number - possibly May?
Get Houston Public Library card
Apply for membership at Credit Union affiliated with employer - pending US address
Get US based credit cards, etc
Lease/buy car down in Texas
Arrange LIS sushi night
Arrange a math ed get together
Let friends who have expressed interest in a final hurrah night know what nights I'm available
Visit Toronto AT LEAST one more time
Put in Final notice at work - likely May
try and figure out what the hell happened to my family doc and if I have any chance of getting copies of my medical records for transfer


This list may change as time goes and I add more things. So you facebookers who see the imported version might not see the changes.

Some of you may know that I used to have a collection of piercings.

Almost all of these have since been removed. Though one I planned to get put back in, but done more appropriately.

I was wondering if any of you knew any really good piercers who work with surface bars? or really good piercers who have a lot of experience with surface piercings.

I know a number of you have had body mods done in the past in Toronto and such, so any advice on particular studios and piercers would be appreciated.

Thanks!

(oh, and I don't want to hear any of those 'why would you get a piercing? natural body, etc etc blah blah' things :P)

Last night I had a dream that was fairly elaborate. It almost felt like I was watching a movie.


Here's the basic idea.
I was at a 24/7 corner store picking up something, and when I walked in I saw a few people there. I saw a young mother (her kids weren't there). A middle aged black woman with 2 kids (infant and young child), a butcher and butcher's assistant (seemed a little out of place for working at the store, but it was a dream :P)
and this youngish guy, maybe just out of his teens. He looked at me, smiled, made some sort of comment about my being there, and then took this long piece of chewy candle from the racks and took a bite of it. I picked up a piece myself, and when I looked back up at him he had pulled out a gun and was holding up the store.

He fired, and shot the butcher's assistant who had been carrying out a tub full of hot water in the freezer, which he ended up dumping over the young mother as he fell (she was in the freezer looking at a roasting pig for a party she was hosting. She was a vegetarian, but was having a number of friends over for a party).

He told everyone to stay where they were, but was looking at the people in the store rather than me, so I ducked outside and used cars in the parking lot for cover as I ran off to my car parked behind the store. when I reached a part of the building that was recessed, providing some cover, I left the parked cars and hid there to get further back. But I peeked out and saw the guy standing outside the store, and he saw me peeking so he came after me.

I nearly got to my car when he tackled me, and tried to put the gun to my head. However, I managed to get on top of him and sit on him and hold a deadlock like that for a couple hours.

Unfortunately it took a couple hours until he gave up struggling enough for me to get my car door open and reach my cellphone and call 911. I didn't know where I was, but there was a giant k-mart across the street from the parking lot. I told the operator that I needed police and probably an ambulance.

the police eventually came and took the guy away, and took his gun, and we all went back to the store to see what had happened.

The young mother was dead. She had frozen to death in the freezer. and the hot water had made it so that her skin and such stuck to the floor so when they removed her a lot of it tore right off her.
The butcher's assistant was dead too from the gunshot. The butcher was unconscious from getting pistol whipped in the head. The black woman was ok, but the baby was dead because it had been sitting on top of a freezer, and she had been too afraid to pick it up when the guy had said 'don't anybody move' and raced out to get me.

I later met the children of the young mother. They had been raised on meat for easy nutrients while the mother and father were vegetarian, but they had since switched to being vegetarian themselves.
They couldn't stand to eat meat. It reminded them too much of their mother and the awful sight of them peeling her off the floor. They'd walk up and down the meat aisle while doing groceries with their father, touching the cuts of meat under thier plastic wrappings, both reminded of their mother's gristley death, and strangely comforted by the sight of something so similar to what they had seen.

So, as many of you know, I went to Houston for an interview and managed to successfully snag a job there.

I thought I'd share the process of this application for you folks out there who are curious.

Because the application was to me submitted physically, and had such a far distance to travel, I decided that I was going to courier my completed application down to the University of Houston.

I had been sitting on the posting for a while, waiting for a chance to sit down and do a good job. But because the posting had been up for a while, I wanted to make sure that it got there soon, because I was sure they were well on their way with the search process by the time I had time.

So when I sent the application, I tracked it online. It arrived 11 something Thursday Feb 5th, and I was called later that afternoon to schedule a phone interview. Of course, I was in class and had left my cellphone at home to charge, so I didn't find this out til I got home. But eventually I managed to connect with them and scheduled a phone interview for the next day.

Phone interviews are great, because I can walk around, have notes up on my computer, and on my desk, and, of course, be comfortable in my pajamas. I gave them quite a lot of ideas about liaison services to the point that they commented on how much there was.

45 min after the interview ended, I had an email in my inbox telling me they wanted me to come down to Houston and they would contact me Monday about arranging a trip.

So, application arrives Thurs, Called on Thurs, phone interview Friday, and request for me to come down that same day.

One the Monday I made arrangements to come down on the 27th. I wasn't going to be so lucky to have it during the reading week, but I could at least use the break to get ahead on my work.
I was to fly in on the 26th, have dinner with some folks, interview all on the 27th, and then fly back the 28th.

So of course, I was in a tizzy, nervous and excited and trying to get things together for the interview. I not only had to interview, but I had to give a presentation.

The flight down was fine, despite being on Air Canada. I managed to avoid a lot of hassle by not having any checked luggage. Spent time on the plane reading over some more info on the university and getting some more silent practice runs of my presentation through.

I had no idea who I was looking for when I arrived, but I got a phone call from the guy that seemed, to me, to be orchestrating a lot of the process. We eventually managed to find each other and have a bite to eat before heading into the city.

I got toured around, saw where the museums and theatres, and Enron building, and libraries, and bayou and different post secondary schools were in the city. It was quite a tour, but the city seemed to have a little bit of everything.

I was dropped off at the Hilton on campus ( they have one right on campus for their hotel management program). I unpacked, freshened up, and decided to take a wander of the campus. In many ways it felt like Western. Except there were LOTS of fountains. Seemed like fountains were everywhere!

Eventually headed out for dinner with a few people, one my possible supervisor, another an assistant dean, to a snazzy restaurant near the convention centre. It was quite the place, rather upscale, nice atmosphere. DELICIOUS broccoli soup. Had a nice chat with everyone there and a good meal. It was very casual and laid back.

By the time they dropped me off, I was beat. I ran through my presentation a couple more times. Then sipped some camomile while watching some tv, and noting service providers in the commercials so that I'd have something to work with if I got an offer.

Next morning I started my interview. It was day long, but it flew by quickly. Started with breakfast, and since I don't usually eat breakfast I ate very little so I wouldn't make myself queasy. But had a lovely chat with those who were there. Lots of laughs.
Then a tour of the library. I was very impressed with the facility and saw everything. Had to bite my tongue when I saw someone wearing full cowboy regalia sitting at their desk. I did get an explanation later that there was some sort of Texas days festival going on :P

I gave my presentation. It was on undergraduate information literacy skills and the best ways to give them these skills. IL is a HUGE topic. there are books written on it. So having only 10 minutes made it a little difficult. I boiled it all down to the research process and the skills at each point, and then talked about possible assignments and projects and activities that would get students practicing these skills.
Of course, it was an ideal situation. So someone asked me, in reality, what would I do since we don't live in an ideal world, but I think I managed the question relatively well.

This was then followed by a series of questions by the maybe 20 people who were there for the presentation. I had them laughing and they seemed to like my answers well enough. And it was a great opportunity for my questions because people from quite a variety of places in the library where there.

Next I met with the Assistant Deans. I was supposed to meet the dean too but she was in a meeting, so she managed to chat a bit with me earlier that morning. But I had a good conversation with them about possible ideas and where I wanted to go. I wasn't sure if I was adequately describing my research interests. AT this point in my career their only partially formed, and from what I've seen, most people find their research interests as they go through and issues come up. It's a lot of reactionary research.

Anyway, there was also lunch with another group of people. I was running out of questions at this point. and I felt bad about it. But thankfully all these people had been at the presentation anyway.

Lunch was followed by an interview with the department. I had thought they meant faculty members from the department I'd be working with, but they meant fellow librarians. This interview went well. Then I talked more with the woman who could be my supervisor. She was really nice, comes from an education background as well, so I think she'll be an excellent mentor and advisor as well.

Then I had an interview with the search committee. This went well. It was funny that they asked me the same question as the department did, "what would you bring to a potluck if we had one?" it was so out of left field, but thankfully I have a favourite choice of potluck food hehe.
They also asked if I would bring them maple cookies from Canada since their last Canadian hire had got them hooked lol.

Finally the day ended with some chatting about benefits and such. It was really helpful because it helped me make a decision about how much I would have to cover myself, and compare it all to my government coverage in Canada.

Overall it was a good day and a great experience :)
A friend of mine met me from there, and we toured around the gaybourhood and went out for dinner to a Tex Mex place. Pappasitos or something like that. We were going to go to Ninja's but they were packed.

They dropped me off at the marriott at the airport where I was staying that night.

Overall it went really well, and a couple weeks later I got a phone call from the asst. dean offering me the job. Such a load off my shoulders and an incredible opportunity!

Hooray Hooray!

It's Pi Day!


Have Some Pi(e) and celebrate!

*gets far too emotionally invested in some shows*

stupid fucking Torchwood

So, I woke up this morning and checked my email as per my usual.

I had a rather nice surprise in there.


You see, I fill out tonnes of those online surveys. Partially because I used to do market research stuff (for about a month before I quit and took a lower paying lower stress job) so I sympathize with the process. And Partially because I know how it affects survey validity from my own statistical studies.

Plus I like getting to peek at some of the new products that are coming out or might be released. Or really give my opinion when I think something sucks horribly.


Well, many of these sites offer you the chance to enter draws for prizes up to $5000, or chances you can put into a number of different draws for different prizes. Or just filling out a survey results in a donation to a charity that they let you pick from a list.

I had never put much stock into these things, figuring they were mostly enticements and I'd likely never get anything out of it. Believing myself to be helping out more with the altruistic aspects of survey participation.


But then finding a notification that I had been paypal'd 100 USD this morning :) well, I can't say I was complaining! Most I usually get is the odd 2-5 payment for a particular survey. 100 was certainly a nice surprise, and with the dollar the way it is.. well, USD was the currency to get it in hehe.

So I went up for on of my monthly clean outs of my mailbox at school, and I found a letter in there.

The letter said that a faculty member had suggested my name as a student who would be successful in the phd program.....


I've chatted about this here before, because it was once suggested to me by some of my fellow TA's that they thought I'd be a good phd student too.


Seems strange though. The idea of getting through comp exams, writing a book sized paper, and calling myself Dr. Pibearian, just doesn't seem like something I would want to do. Not really because of the latter reason, but the others.

Plus spending another 4 years or so living in student poverty. No thanks! I'd like an income thanks.


But it's weird that so many of these factors seem to be suggesting I should more seriously consider it.

a quote I like from tv

"the average life is full of near misses and absolute hits. Of great love and small disasters. It's made up of banana milkshakes, loft insulation, and random shoes. It's dead ordinary and truly truly amazing.
What you've got to realize is it's all here now, so breath deep and swallow it whole. Because, take it from me, life just whizzes by and all of a sudden it's...."



In other news, I saw the most awesome bumper sticker today as I pulled into the parking lot. I'm sure it's not new, but first time I've seen it and it gave me a good laugh

"My other car is the TARDIS"


hehehe

I totally forgot that they changed the supply system for the local school board.

So I completely fucked myself out of a possible day of supply work because I got the call and kept trying to use my phone number as the ID which was the old way, but it turns out it was changed to the employee ID (which would have made sense to begin with, but anyway!).



STUPID STUPID STUPID *bangs head on wall*

Especially since I really could use the money right now, and supply work pays fairly well.

So, as I've mentioned in the past, this is my final term.

Despite having only 3 classes this term, I'm still finding myself hitting those periods of hell where everything seems to come due at once.

This of course has impacted my job search for some sort of employment after finishing my degree.

I've basically been hitting all the job boards I can for librarians and saving ads to work on when I have a chance, but over the past couple weeks I've had to delete a number of them because as the deadline approached, I knew I wouldn't have time to do a good job on the application and get it submitted AND get the more pressing issues of my papers dealt with.

However, not all is lost. I have got a few applications out there now, and just today I've traversed into the realms of applying for jobs in the US library job market.

Some of you may be surprised at this. I love my country. If you had asked me a few years back, I probably would have told you that I wouldn't live anywhere else. Though I suppose a lot of that was an assumption that applying for work anywhere else would be more of a headache than it was worth.

I found out a few months ago, that Librarians are eligable under NAFTA for TN Visa's, which make the entire process really REALLY easy. Or at least significantly easier.

This has led me to consider leaving Canada for a few years to work, though I doubt I'd leave North America since I'm not aware of a similar system for working as a librarian in the UK.


I guess I'm also at a point where working for a few years somewhere different would be quite an adventure. And while I'm not talking different to the point that I wouldn't speak the local language or have to deal with some middle eastern perspective on sexuality, I am talking different in terms of somewhere I've never been or lived before that I've never thought much about living in. I guess I look at it this way. even if I end up hating where I am, it'll only be temporary. I'll be getting experience so that I can apply somewhere more desirable.

Should be a bit of an adventure!



anyway, other than work and school and these applications, I haven't had much time for anything else, so apologies for not sharing the mundane details. Most of my posts lately have been private and more diary like than blog like, so you haven't been seeing them.

I also haven't been getting into too many details about the job hunt because I read some stuff that said it was better to not discuss the job hunt much if at all to anyone. It made some valid points so I haven't been posting them publically.

The saddest thing about George Bush leaving office this week?


Now my Avenue Q soundtrack is dated

Though I suppose that's to be expected of a song that repeatedly says 'only for now'


However, I did notice that there was a contest over replacing the lyrics that refer to George Bush with something else

The ones that will be performed are
"Recession"
"Prop 8"
"This show"
"Your mother-in-law"

Though not likely in a way that you would guess right away.

In the interest of breaking out of my sedentary study mode that I tend to end up in while I"m in school, I opted to start this new term by adding some exercise to my routine while the new term's routine was still forming.

However, I'm too big for most of the gym equipment that I would bother using, so I picked up this set of resistance pedals, so that I could pop on the tv and pedal away like made for 20 min to 1/2 hour a day to get the heart going.

It's a pretty simple setup. Pair of pedals mounted on a stand with a knob to up the resistance. That way, I can sit in my own chair and pedal and not worry about the machine collapsing.

However, as I finished up today, I looked down at the pedals and noticed that they were wobbling a bit as I used them. So I unhooked myself and picked it up, and gave it a test jiggle.

BIG mistake. Totally forgot that all that friction had to heat up something, so my finger instantly blistered from touching it.

But it also looks like I'm wearing through the weld that attached the pedals to the stand. *grumbles* I've only used it a couple days so far!

Well, I have a warranty somewhere around here, so I"ll be figuring out how to redeem it. Pain in the ass though

SO!

Here I am about to start my final term of my masters. I really didn't do much to wrap up last term, so I'll take care of that now.


Last term was interesting, in that I got to take on a number of projects that I got to choose topics on. But it also seemed far more stressful than any of my other terms. Though I'm not sure I could put my finger on it.

For thesaurus construction, I got to make my fetish thesaurus, which I still continue to add things to occasionally. But outside of the thesaurus, the course was entirely a pain in the ass. The prof was not only a jerk, but one of those guys who thinks he's the only one who can teach right, etc etc. Being in his class left me demotivated most of the time. I'm unsurprised that it was my lowest mark, though to be honest one that I can definitely live with. I'll never take another course with him again.

My indexing course was great. I feel I got a much better handle on cataloguing from it. I had had big plans for writing a paper on how classification systems currently fail for classification of pornography, but realized I'd have to learn far more about the aesthetics of pornography than I had time to do. So I did a last minute change to another topic. Unfortunate, but one that I didn't mind doing since I could pull on some equity back knowledge to finish it up.

Web design was great. The course didn't take up a lot of my out of class time, which gave me more time for other courses. Though it also encouraged slacking off. My grade could have been so much better (though it was comparable to all my other marks in the program so far (excepting of course, thesaurus)) if I had put in more time ahead of time. I got to build a webpage that looked at things to keep in mind when shopping and dressing for a big and tall body. It was about the only thing I could think of that wouldn't require a whole lot of background research that the content would be relatively simple to develop. I still ended up writing most of it in an all nighter though lol. Part of the perk of taking this course was that it was with this prof who wrote a book that I thought was great. (though I admit to having had my attention drawn to it because of his picture lol)

Records management. It was an entertaining course because of the prof, but beyond teaching me some stuff to better manage my own personal records, I learned more that I'm pretty sure I'll never become a records manager for any great length of time. I did enjoy the final assignment, though. I got to work with a partner creating a retention schedule for some records, and I did find the research and process interesting. But many parts of the course I just found... dull :P



So now that I'm done with that term, I'm preparing for my final term. I only have 3 classes this term, which means I have more free time to dedicate to a volunteer project that I'm working on. It also means that I'll be able to dedicate time to searching for a job (yeah, THAT"s going to be great with the economy like it is).

My courses for this term are:
Financial management: I figured it was good to get another general course under my belt to up my versatility. Most of the management courses are pretty good for that, particularly this one because many of the financial skills that are explored, are great for funding proposals and budgeting the funds on special projects. Also, the course is another Joyce course, which means the assignments will actually be useful, thought provoking while not kicking me in the ass :P

Special libraries: with my hope to catalogue, there's a good chance I may end up in a special library to do it. The project for this course is a group project, which may end up kicking me in the ass because I don't know anyone in the course (very few people in the program in fact) so it may mean that I'll be working on a special library that I'm otherwise disinterested in. But hopefully it'll work out well. We shall see.

DIALOG/Online searching: this course came highly recommended to me by those who had taken in in the past. THere's a big unit on dialog, which I was using a lot this summer for citation searches. I'm hoping it'll give a lot of tips and tricks like it has others in the past for using databases super efficiently. It's a different prof than usual, so hard to say what will come of it. This is a course that I've been planning to take since my first term, though.

I'm kicking myself for not managing to take collection development. In any term I've been unable to take it because of conflicts with courses I only had one chance to take, or I was on co-op, or this term it was taught by a prof that I REALLY wasn't interested in being in their class. So I got screwed over. I have to find out if there's some other way that I can get the info.

Wish me luck with job searching!

So, having completely healed from having my tonsils out over a year ago, I knew I needed to get rechecked out for my sleep apnea stuff. See if I should still be on the machine if my pressure should be different, that kind of stuff.

So I did the sleep study again in early December. unfortunately, I wasn't tired at all, and so I didn't even manage to sleep a couple hours the entire night, but it was enough for them to get some results.

They changed the form on me a bit, and I didn't post all my numbers from before (and not sure where I tucked away the previous study for proper comparison). I find this new format less informative than the old one, which they changed because people didn't understand the chart. I may go back and get a copy of the chart so I can actually get all the information.

So anyway, my RDI was overall a little worse than before (83.6/hr), and grimmlok will be unsurprised that that number spikes to 124/hr when I'm on my back.

So they've upped my pressure on my cpap (which I have to go get adjusted) and they're going to test me on cpap to see if they put it to the right level.

Funny thing is, I didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I did before I got the cpap in the first place, so it must have been the cumulative effects before, and now I've only got a little over a year of fatigue behind me now, which is nothing compared to what I had before which is why I felt relatively normal.

Ah well, at least I already have the machine and it was covered under my parents health plan (which I'm too old for now).