Opening Pandora's... Website?

For a variety of reasons, my current job is the first where I've felt free to put in an earbud while at work and listen to the radio all day long. Up to this point, I've only done this when previewing a new Wiggles album for storytime songs, so this is an exciting development. It also means that for the first time ever, I've been listening to Pandora.

I know the rest of the world has been enjoying Pandora for years and years, but I was new to it. What can I say? I'm a bit of a dinosaur. I'm all for new technology and staying current as an institution when I'm, you know, representing an institution, but I'm reluctant to embrace new technology in my personal life.

Pandora, though... that's different. Pandora, you sexy beast, how did I not meet you sooner? I knew I loved Pandora when I noticed the "Why was this song selected?" button, and one of the attributes it thought I liked was a "Prominent accordion part".

First of all, ha! Is that your prominent accordion part, or are you just happy to see me? Get it? The phrasing is funny! And so many of its phrasings are funny. Mild rhythmic syncopation? Either Pandora thinks I have a dirty music mind, or it knows that I love hand claps. Either way, I am totally in. Always and forever, Pandora. With or without extensive vamping.

Second, I am almost positive that I hadn't thumbs-upped any songs with accordions. I hadn't even asked it to add some variety with a Decemberists sea shanty (yet!), so apparently I just seem like a person who would like accordions. Which is true! Pandora can see into the heart of me! Though, really, who doesn't like accordions?

I will grant that it is not all hits in the world of Pandora. Pandora has overestimated my love of Wanda Jackson and only plays She and Him songs from Volume 1. It is convinced that if it just keeps trying, I will want to listen to Jack Johnson. No matter how many times I tell it to play more Talking Heads, it only plays a few select tracks from Stop Making Sense. But that's true of any relationship, right? It's only a matter of time until we get to know each other completely. And it will be a time full of prominent accordion parts.

Creative Output



My loom in my studio!

Last year I posted about my studio. Since then, we’ve moved, and with the move came a new studio. This one is a little nook in our apartment. As much fun as it was to say, "I'm going over to the studio," the actual act of going to the studio was sometimes a work deterrent, so it is lovely to have a whole studio at home.  

Anyway, picture posts are fun, right? Wanna see what I've been doing?

Knitting
I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I swear to golly that 2014 is the year that I'm going to finish the mitred square blanket that I started in, like, 2007.

For the blanket you knit a bunch (in my case, 80) of little squares, sew them into 2x2 squares, and then sew those into a blanket. This is but a representation of what I've done so far.

3 of the 20 needed 2x2 squares. I've sewn 5.

Oh, it will be so lovely when it is finished. Psychologically, I mean. Hopefully it will also look lovely, but I'm really just trying to free myself here.

I wasn't going to start any new knitting until I had finished knitting the little squares (I'm on #72), but I couldn't resist Ysolda Teague's mystery knit-along (where you get the pattern in dribs and drabs without knowing what the end product will look like). It starts Monday, and I am so so super-psyched that I can't use big girl words about it.

Weaving
Here's a picture of the dish towels I finished in November:

Dish towels! Fresh off the loom, so they're a bit wonky.

 

Here's a close-up picture of a scarf I made last year whose pattern makes me happy:

Waffly scarf! So warm.

I haven’t started a new project. Why not? Because...
 

Stitching

Hey, I know what I need! A new hobby to take up my already limited spare time. How about handstitching? Don't mind if I do!

I started with an embroidery kit from Sublime Stitching, but stitching patterns on towel after towel seemed kind of silly, and it was hard to find other embroidery targets.
 

So, after some soul-searching to make sure I was invested enough to invest in it, I bought an Alabama Chanin kit:
 

Lots and lots of teeny stitches

 

That’s my progress as of a few weeks ago. I'm not too much further along, because I've started sewing the blanket squares, and I also have to go to my job sometimes. But, oh my god, I can’t even explain to you how very much I love this, much less why. It is repetitious and fiddly and I can’t read or watch tv while I do it. But love it I do. I love putting little stitches into my fabric. Teeny little stitches added one by one. It's like mindfulness training, which, when you factor in the fact that I'll end up with a skirt, makes it a very good investment indeed.

And that's what I've got right now. Three hobbies, lots of projects. Now all I need is more time to focus on them. (And a better camera to document them.)

 

One Shot To Win Devotion

One thing I do at my current job is teaching. I don't have a whole class to teach, but instructors can ask me to visit their classes and evangelize about the library and the proper usage of databases. In the library world, we call these one-shots (because you have one shot to fill the students with love for research skills). Please note that I didn't invent this phrase.


The number of these that I do can vary from term to term, but I have one regular one-shot gig, which is visiting the information technology class that all students have to take in their first term on campus. In the fall term, where there is the biggest incoming class, there are several sessions of this class, all needing to hear the exact same basic spiel about what online services are available through the library website. 

I genuinely look forward to these visits. I like meeting the new students, and I genuinely believe I have useful information for them. But even for a true believer, doing multiple sessions is rough. The first session is fine. It is early in the day. I have energy and jokes. I have a silly name (Ilse) and a back story for the sad looking blonde woman with a stack of books in my clip art image. I *sell* those databases. 

By the second session, I start to notice that the room is warm. I still have jokes. I still tell the students about Ilse, but I don't give all the details of her back story. By the fourth time, I can't remember if I delivered the jokes yet, and frankly, I'm starting to think that they're not all that funny. Poor old Ilse and her back story go down the toilet. 

I didn't have this problem when I was a children's librarian and would repeat programs. I could sell the same story over and over, and I never lost faith that thing I was delivering was awesome. This was partly because I was delivering songs and stories, which are kind of inherently awesome, and the people I was delivering them to were there because they (or, at least, their parents) thought library storytime sounded fun. But it was also because I had a basic confidence in my own abilities that I am still working on strengthening at my current job. 

I mention all this for two reasons. One, because it is almost time for me to do the info tech one shot for the winter term students, so it is on my mind. And two, because sometimes I feel like blogging is a little like doing a one-shot. I get an idea and I flesh it out it in my head. I think about it and tweak it and plan out the jokes. But by the time I sit down to write the post, I've been living with the idea for long enough to doubt its need to exist. I write two paragraphs and decide the whole thing's stupid and close the Blogger tab in disgust. 

In blogging and in teaching, I am working on building my confidence. When I am planning my Info Tech presentation, I know that it is good to have a name and a back story for Ilse. I think it's funny, and even if the students don't, it shows that I have a personality, albeit a dorky one. It is never the case that everyone in the room cares, but it is pretty much always the case that someone does. I don't know for sure that the same applies to the blog, but it seems likely that it would, at least some of the time. 

So, if you are the one who cares today, thank you. If not, well, maybe the next post will connect. Either way, I'm going to keep doing it.