 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.
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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
PERSONAL
 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. My interest in lettering, food, photography, and romance continues.        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? 
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:
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
PERSONAL
 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. This week, I presented at a conference. I also presented at a conference last month. Next month, I present twice at the same conference. In the fall, I'm giving a webinar for a national library organization. I've got half a dozen more proposals out for consideration and I legitimately think most of them will be approved. Every time one of my proposals is accepted, I am surprised. There's a heavy dose of imposter syndrome going on because who am I to be chosen to talk about these things? Who am I to say that I can teach these things? Who am I compared to the others in attendance? I have a hard time seeing myself as more knowledgeable, skilled, or talented. In fact, I know I am woefully average. And - yet - my proposals are still selected. I think my shock comes partly from societal norms that tell women that they're not good enough. I think many (myself included) have a fear of rejection. If your proposal is not accepted, it must mean you are not as good as you think. I also think it comes from the lack of transparency when it comes to demonstrating expertise. At least in librarianship, there's no one teaching you "this is how you present at conferences." You don't learn a process. It's a leap of faith to jump into it. I took that leap of faith because, one year, I just decided to say "Screw it! Let's try." It was one of the best decisions I ever made. What are you going to leap of faith into?
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