Saturday, December 27, 2003

Heavy work, light blog Yes, the blogging's been rather light over the last few weeks. That's because I've been using my few remaining brain cells on various work and volunteer projects, all of which hit in roughly the same time span: I completed and submitted my curriculum development project coincident with the latest software release, PeopleTools 8.44, and I'm sure glad that's over with. As much as having training development might look good on the resume, I'm not sure it's the right use of my skills. Curriculum developers have a different skill set from technical writers, and I'm not sure that they overlap enough to work for me. Added some navigation and pages to the CHI2004 web site, specifically the calls for participation in the various workshops. The deadline is January 12, so hurry on over if you're interested. There's more to come (tutorials, advance program, additional events) that will go up as the content is fed to me. Prepared for a presentation on offshoring to the Sacramento chapter of STC, coming up on January 7. Also did some early prep for presentations at the STC conference in May (same topic). Collaborated with STC and usability luminaries Ginny Redish and Whitney Quesenbery on a presentation for the STC transformation team on envisioning what STC communities might look like three years from now. Whitney and Ginny did the bulk of the work, with some commentary from me. This work, and that of other members of the transformation team, will be presented to the STC board at their January meeting. Plus the usual email traffic involved in running the Silicon Valley chapter of STC, including preparation for Jared Spool's appearance at our January meetings. So I'm taking the opportunity to rest the brain and just vegetate in front of a nice, warm television, taking in the flurry of holiday football games. I trust you'll forgive me. 4:32:06 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Feeling generous? And while I'm feeling a bit generous in the waning days of this year, I mosied over to the Electronic Freedom Foundation site and dropped a few bucks on them too. Seems they're not as efficient as some organizations about hitting up their members for annual donations, so I'm glad I checked on when my last donation was--last year. They deserve my help as much as the ACLU or Amnesty International, who are also looking out for our rights at a time when we need to be extra vigilant about not losing them. 3:18:08 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Quake contrasts Christmas day we had another little shake of very nearly the same magnitude, and located right smack where the previous day's quake hit--practically in our backyard. But now Doc Searls puts some perspective on the week's seismic activity: Call for Helpquake. Last week we had an earthquake in Big Sur that hit 6.5 on the Richter Scale, killed two, and dropped several buildings in downtown Paso Robles. Yesterday we had another quake of exactly the same size in Iran. It killed twenty thousand or more and destroyed the ancient city of Bam, which comprised perhaps the largest mud brick structure in the world. Talk about terrorism. Mother Nature gives us the real deal. [The Doc Searls Weblog] So yes, I went to the web site of the American Red Cross and made a contribution marked for International Response Fund. It's the least I can do, after our President declares Iran to be evil, to help the survivors of this devastating natural disaster. 3:12:09 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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