Meghan Kowalski
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  • Resume
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The Weekly Wrap: May 15, 2022

5/15/2022

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I've never been one to specialize. I find that I am far too interested in far too many things for that.

I started working on the strategic planning for a revamp of my website and found that I could, at best, manage to clump my professional work into three major chunks: outreach and marketing, leadership and management, and information literacy and instruction. Within those categories are a ton of subtopics like customer service, productivity, and photography. 

I don't know how to specialize my work... and I don't want to.

I find that all the aspects of what I do roll into one another. Knowing how to provide effective customer service increases my leadership skills which, in turn, leads me to be more productive, which allows me to focus on creating new things for our social media, which allows me to share what I've learned with others, which helps me improve my teaching skills, and on and on and on.

I see my work as one big mush of things and I love it all. I would be loathe to give any of it up.

It's the same with my personal interests. I jump from reading about calligraphy, to life management, to cooking, to parenting, to history, to minimalism. My reading list abounds what random titles that caught my eye in the moment.

I thrive on having a variety of interesting things to learn. It's one reason I write this. I can flit from one idea to another, never being bored of learning new things.

Are you a generalist or a specialist?

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  • Testing the best ways to ripen an avocado. [Kitchn]
  • When it comes to parenting decisions, where you raise kids matters. Everything else? Eh. [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]
  • On how recipe writing has changed. [David Lebovitz]
  • Ways to make work more fun. [HBR - may be paywalled]
  • I love goldfish crackers and I love Old Bay seasoning, but I'm not sure about this. [NBC4]
  • We build too much parking. [The Deleted Scenes]
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  • Even science says trust women. [Short Wave]
  • Adding this magical sounding underground garden to my list of places to visit. [Atlas Obscura]
  • We're getting old and it's kind of a problem. [The Indicator]
  • Misinformation kills. [Short Wave]
  • A lot lives in the shadows of the Constitution. [Throughline]
  • How inflation may personally impact you. [The Daily]
  • The emerging science of ASMR. [Science Vs]
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  • We have a list of movies that we want to watch one day. It's not long, but what's left on the list are things you have to be in the mood to watch. We have not been in the mood. So, in our desire to watch something not too serious, we went off list . That led us to stream The Protege. It's a hitman narrative starring Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson, and, in a surprising choice, Michael Keaton. Aside from some weird plot holes and my standing issues with movie age pairings, it was a good movie. Lots of (almost) believable action, well acted, and great production. [Netflix]
  • We watched one of the latest entries in the "Liam Neeson Punching Things" genre: The Marksman. It also tied right into our trend of watching things in the Narcos field.  The film was about what you'd expect. The writing was strained and the acting was just fine. I will say, it did a decent job of walking a fine line with the politics of Neeson's character owning a ranch on the border.  [Amazon Prime]
  • Hand harvesting salt from a lake in Senegal. This is a fascinating look at how the work is done and how the high salinity of the lake came to be. [Eater]
  • While the Husband was out of town this week, I decided to watch The New Pope. It's an artistic fever dream of a show with incredible writing, acting, and narrative. Profoundly weird, but profoundly good. [HBO]
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  • For my meal prep this week, I made lemony cucumber couscous salad because it let me combine a lot of flavors I love in one bowl. This dish was refreshing with great textures. Perfect for the warming weather. I did bother with the parsley this time... but I just went ahead and tossed in the whole bunch. [Budget Bytes]​
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Just Good Things #37

5/13/2022

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I didn't sleep last night. I think I finally nodded off around 4:30am. With a kiddo who wakes up (loudly) at 7am, I probably managed three interrupted hours of shut eye. 

Friday is one of my work from home days. I was able to roll out of bed, shuffle bleary-eyed to the coffee pot, and not have to worry about getting ready for work and commuting. For that, I am grateful.

Here's what was good in my week.
  • The kiddo was kind to me during my few days of solo parenting.
  • Binge watching the entirety of a TV show.
  • I blew through a nearly 800 page book.
  • On Mother's Day, I got to enjoy a nice long bath.
  • Simply gorgeous weather for much of the week.
  • Lucking into free parking at work.
  • The caramel sea salt mini kind bars
  • Dancing around in the kitchen with the kiddo to her current favorite song
  • Enjoying mobility because of Apple AirPods
  • Making room in my closet and our kiddo's toy bin by weeding a bunch of things for donation
  • Dumplings, pork buns, and snow pea leaves

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The Now: May 11, 2022

5/11/2022

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The Husband is away on his first work trip since the pandemic started. He sent photos from his travels for me to share with the kiddo. It's really weird to see wingtip images again. I am looking forward to getting back as close to normal as we can, but they really need to come through with vaccine approval for the under 6 set. I am following that news very closely.

Here's what else has my attention:

WORK
  • I posted the first submissions to our new Faculty Research Index. This is going to need a LOT more data before it's even close to done, but it feels good to get those first submissions posted.
  • I finished converting all our guides to the new website template. Huzzah! I also created a new landing page to make things easier to find. Up next, converting those last pages to the template and developing some admin material on the backend.
  • I finished cleaning up my Canva account. It's so nice and organized. Now I need to keep it that way.
  • Working on my two presentations for our local consortium's conference. One is looking at how OER can promote DEI and the other looks at Library 101, our asynchronous library instruction platform.
  • Project planned for the summer. I listed out what I wanted to do in the coming months and set priorities. Now I've got a few Trello cards and a printed list posted right above my main computer screen. I'm probably tackling too much, but I'll make as much progress as I can.
  • One of my main projects this summer is the data analysis for our research project. We are individually coding our interviews with faculty. It is going to take for-ever. I already have far too many codes, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 

PERSONAL
  • Surviving a few days of solo parenting. So far, so good. The Husband told the kiddo to be extra nice to me. So far, she's cooperating. Two more nights to go...
  • Got more details of how to convert my last accounts to our new Trust. Now I just need to do it.
  • I decided to go ahead with second weekly newsletter post. I'm doing more strategic planning, writing some prep material, and working on graphics. 
  • We had a donation pick-up at our building earlier this week. I weeded my closet and our kiddo's toys. Felt good to clean out some old stuff.

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Tuesday Tips: Ctrl+F

5/10/2022

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Sometimes the best tips are the simplest.

One of my favorite shortcuts is Ctrl+F. This is the keyboard short cut for the Find command.

Simple hit the "Ctrl" key and "F" key at the same time to open up a small search box in your document, webpage, or whatever is on the screen. Then, you can put in the word you are looking for. You have to type in the exact thing you want (this won't autocorrect or understand what you want like Google).

This is really helpful when you need to search long pages of text to see if they have what you need. It's also great for when you just know something is in a document but can't remember where. 

I use Ctrl+F a lot when I am working with students to show them how to quickly "read" an academic article to determine if it's a source that will work for them. I also like how, depending on the program you're in, Ctrl+F will also show you how many times your search appears in the page. That's a great way to know the density and importance of a topic in whatever you're looking at.

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Now On My TBR

5/9/2022

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My interest in lettering, food, photography, and romance continues.
Y​ou can see my complete TBR list on Pinterest.
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The Weekly Wrap: May 8, 2022

5/8/2022

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I have mixed feelings about the subscription business model that everything seems to be moving to these days. On the one hand, I like being able to actively choose the individual content I pay for. On the other hand, it gets expensive quickly.

For example, I pretty much replaced all my print magazine subscriptions with Substacks.  I love being able to pay authors directly but this is getting so pricey that I've decided to limit myself to just 5 subscriptions at a time. I want full access to many more, but I can't justify the cost.

That makes me think that I would happily pay $200 a year directly to Substack itself to avoid all the paywalls on their website...

But then - oh, look - we've reinvented cable.

This is my problem. Bundling generally keeps prices down but it dilutes the payments to the original creators. Direct payments are more rewarding to the creators BUT they get too expensive to allow me to support everyone I want to support.

So, in the end, what really is better for everyone? The individual subscription model or the bundle model?

What's your opinion on subscriptions and paywalls?

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  • Ending Roe was always the plan. [Men Yell at Me]
  • There's a hole in this church. [Atlas Obscura]
  • You can now ask Google to stop using your personal data in search results. [NPR]
  • Planned obsolescence uncovered in the quest to replace a washing machine. [The Deleted Scenes]
  • Kids are tiny philosophers. [ParentData]
  • How to store leafy greens. [Food Network]
  • I now feel the need to try all of these breads. [CNN]
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  • A musical explanation of the GDP. [The Indicator]
  • What strong emotions mean and how we process them. [Life Kit]
  • When economic conditions are a breeding ground for unions. [The Daily]
  • The psychology of money. [Hidden Brain]
  • Pandemic data tracking in the the U.S. was just plain bad. [99% Invisible]
  • Let us raise a glass! [Life Kit]
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  • I generally enjoy Roland Emmerich films. Sometimes, you just need an overly CGIed blockbuster in your life. When Moonfall came out, it immediately went on my watch list. Now, with an Emmerich film, you know what you're getting. You have to suspend disbelief in science and narrative storytelling if you're going to enjoy it. Sadly, Moonfall was not even a good popcorn flick. It was just plain bad. It was 2012 meets Independence Day meets middle school play. [Amazon Prime]
  • One show I am happy got a reboot is Leverage. We recently started watching Leverage: Redemption and, while the actors are certainly older, it has the same whimsy and campy plotting as the original. This week, we watched one episode that centered around a small town librarian played by LeVar Burton. (Meep!) Aside from it showing our librarian having time to kick up his feet and read at the circulation desk (hahaha!), I adored this one. It spoke to the essence of the library and what libraries stand for - with a madcap spy adventure tacked on. AND THEN! The next episode was all about the dangers of influencer culture and search engine algorithms and there were no lies in the structural narrative [*deep inhale*] and it made me very happy and I want to use the set-up scene in a library instruction class. [Amazon Prime]
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  • Last Sunday afternoon, our building hosted a dessert extravaganza in the courtyard. Everyone was asked to make or bring a dessert of their choice. I opted to bake a lemon pound cake which has been sitting in my Evernote for years. It was a good if dense cake, but the error was on my end. First, I'm still learning our new oven. This cake helped me uncover some hot spots. Next, I overwhipped the batter in the final stage which caused one quarter of the cake to sink. I had to bake it 30 minutes extra to help cook that bit. On the upside, when you flip a bundt over and add a glaze, nobody notices. [Real Simple]
  • I can't remember when I first tried Waldorf salad. It was ages and ages ago, but I know I've eaten it. A memory of tastiness stuck in my head. When this recipe for chickpea Waldorf salad landed in my inbox, I decided it would be a decent lunch meal prep. I was not wrong. It was crunchy and sweet and delicious. I served it with wheat thins instead of over spinach. I also skipped the parsley because I just could not be bothered. [The Kitchn]
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Just Good Things #36

5/6/2022

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I'm doing my first ever faculty-level research project and we're in the data coding phase for our transcripts.  My brain is fried and I have too many codes but at least one of them is ASSTOP and I find that amusing.

Here's what else was good in my week:
  • Family-style sheet pan nachos was a big hit for dinner this week. 
  • I got 11 out of 12 questions right on the Alexa Jeopardy game one day this week.
  • There was one day that was super quiet on the reference desk and it was a nice break.
  • The Caps actually won a playoff game!
  • Dessert extravaganza in the building courtyard
  • Group work chat helping us all tolerate an awful meeting.
  • Finished a major work project
  • Getting to organize some digital files
  • The book I am reading is excellent and entertaining

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The Now: May 4, 2022

5/4/2022

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With everything that is going on in world, it has been really hard to get work done the past few days. To quote a colleague, we've truly hit "whatevs" mode.

Here's what has captured my attention in the past week.

WORK
  • I finally (!) finished converting all of our research guides to the new website template. I even managed to make a new landing page for said guides. 
  • I sent out the staff newsletter for May. It's a good thing I gave it a second edit. Half the meeting dates I originally wrote about were changed or cancelled.
  • Prepped all my content for finals week! I also scheduled most of it to auto-post. 
  • I started cleaning out my Canva account. While I do have a pro account, the amount of stuff in it has gotten unwieldly. I am downloading a lot of material to upload to my work drive which will make it more readily shareable to my colleagues. That also means I can delete it from Canva. Anything that is left is getting organized into folders.
  • We've entered that marketing phase for the faculty research index. I pushed out the first data collection email and made the Index live online. Once I get some more material, I will start inputting it. I've added a reminder to my calendar to do this every other week.
  • Working on my outlines and slides for two upcoming presentations at WRLC's Annual Conference.
  • I actually don't mind online conferences. I get to avoid the overly ACed ballrooms and inevitable conference crud. I do, however, miss the chance to fully engage. It's really hard for me to block off time on my calendar to just watch sessions. Right now, I am slowly catching up on all the Computers in Libraries sessions I was unable to attend live.

PERSONAL
  • I've been hemming and hawing about going partially paid on my newsletter. I got an idea in my brain about how to do it. Instead of losing it, I got it all on paper and started strategic planning. I'm excited about the possibility this offers for me to write more, but I'm still itchy about going to a subscription model.
  • I set up my bullet journal for May.

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Now Reading: A Court of Silver Flames

5/2/2022

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A Court of Silver Flames
Sarah J. Maas

I’ve decided that I need to clear some space on my bookcases. While the non-fiction shelf is the most crowded, I was not in the mood to dive into something intellectual.

I went on a Maas binge the year our kiddo was born. It was one of the things that got me through the first few sleepless months. It’s been nearly two and a half years since I read the last book in this series. While the writing is just as enjoyable as I remember, my memory of the characters is shot. Might need to dive into an online summary to reorient myself to everything.

I’m about 100 pages in and pivotal plot points are coming back to me in fits and spurts. I don’t know why, but I’m surprised that the author shifted to focus on two other characters. The choice makes sense, but it has me wondering where everything is headed. That said, Maas has never led me astray. I’ve enjoyed all her books.

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Now on My TBR

5/2/2022

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A slew of new books must have come in to DCPL this week. The weekly Wowbrary newsletter was three times as long as normal. I added several good looking books to my TBR list.
Y​ou can see my complete TBR list on Pinterest.
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