February 2009 Archives

Last night I got home and was immediately hit with "Can I borrow the car?" from the Senior Teenager In Residence (STIR). I really didn't mind, as the only plans I had for the care was to run it through a car wash to get some of the winter grime off now that it is a bit warmer out (I can't seem to get it out of the garage each morning without brushing up against grunge). "Sure, as long as you get it washed before you come home. I'll even give you money." A win-win solution, I thought, as he could drive to his basketball game, and I could stay home and focus on work while still getting the task accomplished.

Fast forward to this morning. I get dressed, grab my stuff, and have a happy mental moment of joy as I walk around my clean car in the garage, all ready for a full day. (Yes, folks, it's the simple things.) On time and ready for work. Right?

Wrong.

In trying to create a portfolio of my work, the first step is to figure out the organization of the site. I am thrilled we have the ability to use Moveable Type's templates with tabs, as it makes a clean separation of areas while keeping a visitor clear on the site's setup, but not really requiring a site map or breadcrumb trail to bring you back to GO. It's a nice feature, and I think it gives me the opportunity to create segments of my life as a whole.

Now the question is, what sort of segments am I looking to highlight?

• Well, there's this blog. You can't get rid of the blog. That's a tab.
• Home is sort of a given; an introduction to whom I am. Okay, we'll keep that.

But now what?

Before the winter (okay, Christmas--I said it, Christmas) break, I was really working through the kinks of deciding what kind of information I wanted to put on my personal PSU site. I've been working on getting more blogging done, and to remember the "professional, not confessional" mantra, but I think that in my attempts to keep things professional, I've taken a lot of my personality out of the equation. While I do prefer to keep this professional (after all, it is under the auspices of Penn State), I think there needs to be a better, more rounded method of delivering my content. All of my content, not just a blog, or just a resume, or just some contact information.

Larry: People just don't understand what is involved in this. This an art-form! You know, I think that most people just think that I hold a camera and point at stuff, but there is a *heck* of a lot more to it than just that.

So here we are: Groundhog Day, 2009. If it's February, then it must be the next One Post a Day (OPAD) challenge, the gauntlet thrown down this time by none other than Allan Gyorke. Anyone who remembers the first round last August knows that I had to bail because, quite simply, blogging each day while prepping the start of a new school semester was waaaaay more than I could handle. The beginning of the semester is always overwhelming, and add to it The Rules By Cole (specifically that everything would be relevant to educational technology) meant that I suffered from a severe case of paralysis by analysis in my blog writing. Everything had to be timely, and interesting, and well written, and thought provoking (Shelby Thayer, anyone?). And we all know that's really not how I role. I'm the exuberance, the community, the engagement. I'm about the people, the connection, the passion.