We here at Enquiring Minds Want to Know would like to wish everyone reading this a happy and wonderful and positive and fulfilling and engaging and terrific new year and year to come.
May it be everything you want it to be, and everything you don’t know you wanted yet :)
London Eye - New Year 2006Originally uploaded by diamond geezer
Tags: randomI’ve been filled with a terrible ennui for the last few weeks, not just for blogging, but for pretty much everything work related. It’s been really frustrating me - I don’t like to be apathetic and grumpy about work all the time - and I couldn’t work out what was up. And then I thought about it a bit more, and realised that not only is it the end of the year, but I’ve also been at MPOW for a year now. It’s not the biggest milestone ever, but it’s enough that it’s been causing me to look back on the year and dwell on all the things I hadn’t achieved. Which is completely the wrong way to go about it.
So, in an attempt to spruce up my spirts, and try and get some perspective on the past year, I’ve been thinking about about what I’ve achieved this year, and what I’m thankful for (too late for Thanksgiving, I know, but as I don’t celebrate it anyway, I figure that any time is a good time to remember to be thankful).
This has been a good year for me – I have a lot to be proud of. I’ve achieved things that I didn’t think I would have, I started writing this blog, I’ve done awesome things at my work and for my career that I’m really happy about, I’ve learned things and changed things and been happy, and all in all I don’t really have very much to complain about.
Despite this, it’s really hard for me not to hit that wall at the end of the year though. It’s just in my nature. And it seems to be the time where everyone becomes frustrated and disgruntled, looking for changes that just haven’t happened. I’m trying to keep the good things in front of me, but it’s very hard not to focus on all of the things that I haven’t achieved, that haven’t been done yet, and that don’t look set to change anytime soon.
So how to keep my head above the water? Well, I’ve been reading lots of great and inspirational blogs – not library blogs, but career oriented blogs, mostly aimed at millennials/gen-y workers and the angst associated with it (a bit self-indulgent, I know, but educational and motivating at the same time). I’d recommend Modite, Employee Evolution, and Brazen Careerist (even when I want to yell at her for being difficult) as gen-y aimed blogs that help keep me focused on my goals, whilst also helping me be oriented as a young but (relatively) ambitious worker in an industry that it’s (relatively) difficult to be ambitious in. And blogs like Web Worker Daily, and ProBlogger Daily help my motivation to blog and be proactive – I don’t really want to blog as a career, but they make it sound so appealing! Surrounding myself with these positive examples really does help, even though it doesn’t seem like it some days.
How about you all? This time of year get you down? Any tips to share on beating that mid-winter, year-end ennui?
Tags: blogging, work, work life balanceI’ve never owned a laptop, I’ve just never been able to justify the money, when I have a perfectly good PC that I love to pieces. And I’ve never felt the need to be able to take my computer with me anywhere. I never wanted a laptop at uni, mostly because I used to get really annoyed at those that did take them and then sat on MSN for the entire lecture, serenading the people around them with their tap-tap-tappity. And most of my classes were small or in workshop environments that just don’t allow for laptop use.
When I went to Sydney in September, I borrowed a laptop from work, so that I would have access to the web, and be able to use it at the conference. I had plans of liveblogging the conference, and typing up my notes at night. It turned out though that there was no wi-fi at the venue, nor would there be accessible power points. And seriously, what is the point of a laptop battery that only lasts 2 hours maximum?!
Sydney was my first experience with a laptop. And I was not so impressed. First, the abovementioned batterylife. If I’m travelling, I’m not going to be near a powerpoint all the time. Second, the weight! I had a fairly big laptop - I think it was a 17 inch screen. And it was heavy. I felt like I was lugging around a bag of bricks. This could be because I’m just not used to carrying one, but it seemed like an awful lot of unnecessary weight. It all served to remind me of why I’d never gotten one in the first place. I know that they’re not all behemoths (Vaio’s case in point) but it does make me wonder why they make such massive machines.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend introduced me to a new laptop, and I must admit I fell in love straight away, and if it wasn’t such a bad time of year, I probably would have at least made an attempt to buy one by now.
The laptop is called the Eee PC, and it’s an ultra portable baby laptop that weighs less than a kilo. It’s small - I could probably fit in in my handbag, it comes preinstalled with a Linux operating system and open source software like Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice. And because it’s in part aimed at kids, it has preinstalled games - typing games and maths games etc plus a few other educational programs. It’s also got a built in webcam and Skype installed. And, most important of all, they come in multiple colours!
On the downside, it only has 4Gb of space, however it’s got an SD card slot, so that’s expandable. Basically, it’s the perfect machine for taking with you when all you’re really needing is somewhere to type, check your email etc. It would be perfect for travelling, so that you can download your photos off your camera and upload to flickr, and type a journal entry or two. Or perfect for conferences and classes - it’s small, light and unobtrusive.
Have I mentioned I want one?
Tags: tech
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