When I left our home this morning, it was actually cold! It's finally starting to feel like fall and that gets me more in the mood to work. This energy saw me through my entire to do list for the day (plus a few extra things) before lunch. I'm going to ride this productivity high as long as I can. Here's what I'm working on. WORK
PERSONAL
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Continuing my internal series on keyboard short cuts, have to recommend Ctrl+Z this week. This is known as the "Undo" or "Oh, shit!" shortcut. That is because it undoes the last thing you did. This is mostly used in word processing or other programs where you make stuff. It is great if you deleted a chunk of material on accident, moved something where you didn't want it to go, or had an image go wonky in editing. In many programs, you can keep Ctrl+Zing until you run out of things to undo. The day the queen died, I was presenting a webinar. The news broke a few hours before the session was scheduled to start. On a day that is considered historic, it felt weird not saying anything. But, I'm an American citizen. She's not my queen. Also, aside from the fact that royalty are highly photographed, there were no ties to the content I meant to cover. I chose to not say anything. While I came to that decision on my own, I did discuss it with my colleagues and the webinar organizers. Everyone seemed to be of the same mind. Yes, this is a moment we'll remember, but there's really no need to offer a response. The next day, I opted to walk over to the British Embassy because it's not far from where we live. I was just curious and had no real intentions in mind. The press were numerous. As it was early, I was one of the few "regular folks" there. Three reporters approached me at once to ask if I would like to share my comments. While I have "thoughts" about the Queen and the monarchy in general, I declined. I didn't feel the need to share those thoughts beyond discussions with those I know. As a constantly online person, when certain things happen I always have the urge to respond. But I have a rule that I need to wait at least a few hours. What happens is that gut reaction often disappears and I find that my voice is not one that needs to share. Yes - certain things I will opine on but, more often than not, I find that it's best to not comment. At what point do you comment on important events?
This morning, I walked over to the British Embassy. I have many feelings about the passing of Queen Elizabeth. I'm not sure I could explain them all, but walking over there felt like something I should do. The weather was cool and the walk wasn't far. The scene was what you'd expect. I politely declined to be interviewed. While my feelings are still all over the place, it was a pleasant way to spend some time before the work day. Here's what else was nice this week:
I feel like life has been going non-stop the past few weeks. Usually, I have one "down" day at work each week where I can focus on mindless stuff. Those have been non-existent lately. Even my admin days are full. I'm ready for my schedule to ease up but I don't think that is going to happen any time soon. Here's everything I've been working on. WORK
PERSONAL
On Thursday, I'm presenting a webinar for the Library Marketing and Communication Conference about how to increase your photography skills. We held a practice session his past week which meant I needed my slide deck pretty much done. For each best practice I recommend, I provide an image as an example. I didn't want to critique someone else's work without their knowledge, so I only used my own pictures in this section. Selecting these images turned out to be a painful process. I spent hours over analyzing each choice. I was looking at every lighting choice, depth of focus, angle, and subject with a critical eye. This resulted in me hating my own work. I'm including pictures I adore, but having to act as an "expert" made me want to look for perfection. Perfect doesn't exist in photos. It can't. But there I was asking, "Does this do what I say it does?" to every pixel. A bout of severe imposter syndrome raised its ugly head. I know I'm not a professional photographer, but this session is designed for amateur photographers like me. It's not about fancy tech or creating material for professional publication. It's for librarians who take pictures and just want them to look better than a quick snapshot. I know I can teach that. But critiquing my own work - even when that is a best practice itself - was painful. Self-assessment is a great skill but not when you hold yourself unreachable standards. How do you critique your own work?
Our kiddo gave us all some daycare crud. Luckily, it has not been too bad. More importantly, she timed it so that she didn't miss a day of daycare. Small victories! Here's what else made me happy this week.
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