Check-in

Not a technical post, but a personal update. I promised over a week ago.

I’ve been exceptionally busy at work, we’re beginning to finish up a much needed, much discussed by librarians, redesign of PubMed. We’ve put a ton of user interaction effort into this project, as well as a good sprinkling of graphic design (watch out, I even did some parts!) I think people will be really positive about these new changes.

[Just for the record, if someone happens to stumble upon this from the librarian community, yes, release date is still end of summer, and yes, there will be a Beta period, so no need to worry about a short timeline to update your class or instructional slides. We do listen!]

It’s also been exciting that we’ve brought a few new people on board. Always exciting to have new hires, despite the fact that it’s a lot of work… and all of the trainings I have to do.

What else… I’m planning on attending the DelveUI masterclasses this week in Brooklyn. It will be interesting to see what some of the heads of state have to say about the field. I’m a little excited, this masterclass format isn’t the usual boring no-content fluff that you hear at most conferences. I get the feeling that there will actually be code present! My thanks to the lovely Jina “Sushi & Robots” Bolton for the opportunity for the free ticket.

I’ve been reading… way too many things. I’ve been reading Learning jQuery 1.3, jQuery UI 1.6, and jQuery in Action and you’ll see the reviews of those two books very soon. (Can you tell that we’ve switched to jQuery at NCBI?) I’m a little behind with that reading, but I’ve been working hard on other things. Additionally, I went on an Amazon spree, and started reading Programming the Semantic Web, An Introduction to Lambda Calculi for Computer Scientists, To Mock a Mockingbird, 101 Things I learned in Architecture School, Code Complete 2. Last but not least, I’ve also been reading any photography book that I can get my hands on.

Yes, that is a lot of books, and I haven’t had much time for them. I’ve been working hard at work, and I want to relax a bit when I come home. Once summer ends, things will return to a slightly more regular pace. I’ve been learning so much on the job, that I’m not very worried about falling behind in reading.

Beginning of the fall semester

Tomorrow is the start of a new Columbia Orchestra season. It’s the first rehearsal. I could not be less prepared either. For the first time I can remember, I am starting a new semester and nothing in my life is changing. I don’t have a new place to live, any new classes, any new books/clothes/shoes for school, or even any new school.

At this time last year I was about to return from East Hampton. I was moving into a new house, one I had never seen, and was about to start searching for a new job. It was exciting. From almost nowhere, I decided I was going to get a job writing webpages, or programming, or both. I wrote up a resume, replied to a few postings, and got a temp job. I was offered a regular position within a week-and-a-half and have been doin’ it since.

As an aside, I believe I’ve come a long way. First, I’ve made many new friends, and have been many new places doing many new things. It has been a lot of fun. I have taken my HTML & CSS from zero-to-sixty, learned a ton of Javascript and Rails, and am now looking into usability, design patterns, graphic design, typography, algorithms and more. And I pick up things very quickly, and hope to get even faster.

But back to the semester starting, I’ve got my usual panic. End of summer. Start of fall. Baseball, hot days, and lazy weekends are all winding down. Football, brisk breezes, and rehearsals all starting. Time for something big and new. I just have to figure out what that is going to be this year.