Kid and Caboodle

Had a brief walk at lunchtime.

Here is the view from my hotel room.

Just finished with today’s morning sessions for the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) conference.  So far, it has been both an educational and an entertaining experience.  I’ve been taking pages of notes about everything from writing good headlines to using Twitter effectively — far too much to post here.  I’ve also been laughing at the irony of some of the things that have been happening: 

– During the opening session, ACES President Chris Wienandt told listeners that the conference program guide contained a typo, and offered a prize to the copy editor who could find it first.  Conference attendees found three — a missing apostrophe and two misspelled names.

– During a session on “Twittering for Journalists” presented by Julio Ojeda-Zapata, a technology writer for the Pioneer Press, the speaker experienced problems with his laptop presentation, his iPhone and his microphone.

– Presenters have been talking about how important it is to stay connected through Twitter and other online fora.  When I asked them if their presentations were available online, though, they told me that thought hadn’t occurred to them.

– I’ve been writing down lots of tips about using Twitter — far too much info for me to post on Twitter!

On a more serious note, these are the rest of the conference sessions I’m planning to attend over the next few days:

THURSDAY P.M.

Committing Acts of Conscience
Editing With Your Mind’s Eye
Opening Reception

FRIDAY:

Brain Speed Bumps
Blogging Ethics
What Else Can I Do With These Skills?
Usability, Data Projects, Flash, S-E-Oh-No!
Banquet and Silent Auction

SATURDAY:

Making the Switch:  Implementing a New Publishing System
The SEO Headline Game
Small Staffs Forum
Smackdown!  Merrill Perlman vs. Bill Walsh (With Points for Style)
Closing General Session
Post-conference party

More info on conference sessions is available at the ACES Web site:  http://www.copydesk.org/

This evening my husband gave me an example of the types of questions he receives at work: “Do you want to program in Restful Services or Java Beans?” (Apparently these are two types of database programs.) I told him that if someone had called me up with that question, I would have wondered if he had dialed a wrong number while trying to reach a nursing home. My husband said the sad thing is that he understood the question perfectly, even though he is not an information technology guy.

One of my co-workers was late to work today because of “a polar bear at the Metro station.” Later he showed us a local news story on the Web as proof:

‘Polar Bear’ Deemed Safe; Columbia Heights Station Reopens

The polar bear was fake; what caused the delay was the need for security staff to make sure it did not contain any explosives or other dangerous substances.

What a strange town I work in ….

Attended a training session today by Shel Holtz on social media networks. I am mildly dazed by all the different tools that are out there. I thought I was doing fairly well by having a personal Web page, a blog and a Facebook presence, but apparently I should also explore Twitter, Second Life, digg, de.lici.ous and other software.

I think I’ll call it a night instead.

A few weeks ago, A.J. insisted that the training wheels on his bike come off.  My husband complied, and spent a somewhat frustrating evening trying to teach A.J. to balance and ride.  He wanted A.J. to practice on the grass so he wouldn’t be hurt if he fell.  I think riding on the grass might have contributed to the difficulty, though, because the surface wasn’t very smooth.  The next day my neighbor Kevin and I took turns pushing A.J. around in the street.  Soon he was zooming around the cul-de-sac.  My husband was astonished when he came home.  He commented that he didn’t learn to ride a bike without training wheels until he was 7; A.J. is 5.  A.J. now has learned to stop his bike without having to run into a curb first or simply falling over, and he can almost start riding if he first positions his bike on a downward slope.  He’s still trying to figure out how to start from a standstill.  I look forward to the day he can really ride properly; perhaps I’ll get out my own bike, then, and we can have a family activity.  I need more exercise anyway ….

Today I’m hoping to finally receive my new laptop.  I ordered one from Dell, which produces a few under the (PRODUCT) RED line.  DHL left an attempted delivery notice on my front door Monday night.  I called them as soon as I saw it, and asked them to deliver the machine today, Thursday, when I would be home.  The customer service representative said she would make a note in my file.  The very next evening, though, I came home to find another attempted delivery note.  I called DHL again, and once again explained the situation.  Again, the customer service representative said he would tell the courier.  Yesterday at work, I received a call from the DHL courier department complaining that they had been trying to deliver my package all week.  I told them that I had been calling them all week to tell them to deliver on Thursday.  She said she had not received any such notice.

I’m sorry the DHL courier has made three wasted trips because her company has bad internal communications.  I don’t see what else I could have done, though.  Since the package is a computer, I absolutely refuse to allow DHL to just leave it on my porch.  I really hope it gets here today!

Starting tomorrow I’ll be off work for five days in a row.  I’m really looking forward to this break.

This afternoon my supervisor approved my request for two consecutive days off in May, no questions asked, despite my recent three-week trip to Taiwan. I wonder whether she is trying to boost my morale. She keeps asking me how I am adapting to my new work schedule and points out that it enables me to spend more time with my family. So far I definitely appreciate the benefits. I am very tired at 5 a.m. and at 9 p.m., though. This schedule is quite an adjustment for me; I have had the evening shift, which is in line with my natural sleep cycle, for over five years so it is hard to remember to go to bed early so I won’t feel miserable the next morning.

The weather was very nice this evening. I let my son, A.J., ride his bike and play with a neighbor for more than an hour after we got home.

Since A.J. was having so much fun outside, I delayed our evening meal until my husband got home from work so we had a family dinner for a change. The three of us had asparagus-and-gruyere ravioli with smoked salmon, which was a spur-of-the-moment but very tasty combination of ingredients. A.J. also had a bowl of chocolate ice cream for dessert.

One of A.J.’s classmates has invited him to play at his home on Saturday. The two of them seem to be good friends in school. I had a nice chat with this classmate’s mother and look forward to meeting her.
Tomorrow will be my teleworking day. I look forward to sleeping in an extra hour.

Had a productive day at work today. It was tough — Wednesdays generally are for me — but it was productive despite some miscommunications and network problems this morning.

Found one of my Mandarin textbooks and got through the first nine chapters without much trouble.

Treated myself to some Asian food for dinner — shrimp with a black bean sauce and vegetable pad thai.

We have a small ant infestation in our house right now, but the exterminator will be coming tomorrow morning.

I’ll be telecommuting tomorrow, which means I’ll get to sleep in an extra hour and have an extra hour at the end of the day before I have to pick up my son from school. Yay!

Getting up at 5 a.m. is tough, but I’m enjoying being able to choose where I park in the garage in the mornings. I also got window seats during my commutes to and from work today so actually was able to nap. And, of course, I am enjoying being able to just drop everything at 4:30 every afternoon and go home!

A friend of mine whom I haven’t seen in about half a year will be in town this weekend. I’m looking forward to sharing with her some of the special teas I got in Taiwan and showing her the sunroom. Hopefully it will be pleasant Sunday morning so she can really appreciate it. We also plan to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival downtown on Sunday and it would be nice to have good weather.