I really need to write the sequel to my last post about the tropical low that became Tropical Cyclone Carlos on 15-17 February, but I felt like writing this post today instead.
It's kind of a gratitude post I guess, but really I just wanted to write about some of the things that were good about today. It hasn't been a perfect day by any means. I started the day dog-tired, I'm finishing it dog-tired, and it was crazy-busy in between. But it was good too.
Good things about today:
Rain. We got a thorough soaking this morning. It rains just about every day in Darwin in the wet season. And I'm getting kind of used to it. It's hard to imagine that soon it will stop and not rain again for many months. But I think I will like that too :)
Positive feedback. From lecturers about a hands-on training session my team ran with first years this morning, and for the information I provided about library activities and services that they will publicise in their online subjects. From students who wandered into my office throughout the day and sought help locating books and journal articles for their first assignments.
Leftover macaroni cheese. Real macaroni cheese. Made from real macaroni. And real cheese.
Crazy cat time. That time of day when the cat runs up and down the corridor as fast as possible and for no apparent reason. It always make me smile. Of course, there *was* a reason - she was running away from the poo she had just done in the litter tray. Or rather, that she had *not* done in the litter tray. But that scrambling around the house like a mad thing still makes me smile.
Magnum P.I. reruns on TV. Even though they're programmed in a completely random fashion, with complete disregard for what season each episode is in, I'm still glad they're showing. The silly storylines, the shorts, the hammy fight scenes, the red Ferrari, the moustache, the Hawaiian scenery, and did I mention the shorts?
My netbook. So I can blog on the couch in the lounge room instead of the desk in the study. And its grainy webcam, because I had to take my daily pic and I am not even vaguely photogenic today. BeFunky's photo effects helped out with that too ;)
Tim. For coming up and giving me a cuddle while I typed this blog post.
This blog post has been updated a few times since I started writing it this morning. It's changed from a "boy it's wet" post to a "OMG cyclone!" post *lol* - you can see my earlier scribblings below :)
The wind is really picking up now and the lights are flickering, so I'm going to turn the computer off when I've uploaded this blog post (although I'll try to keep up with the news via my laptop and wireless connection). I'm sure we'll be absolutely fine - our house is built to code, and this is just a baby of a storm really. But it's my first cyclone, so I've been a bit excitable today (have you noticed? *lol*).
We've just heard that all the schools are going to be closed tomorrow, so it's possible that the University where I work will be closed too. I think it's standard procedure when a cyclone warning is issued? There's nothing on the website to say what's happening though, so I guess I'll find out in the morning ...
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6.00pm
I'm home now. Everything was fine in my litle office cocoon, but I was a bit worried about getting home safely. Now we're here, and I'm not going anywhere for the time being. It will be interesting to see what the weather's like tomorrow morning when the tropical low is closest.
The cyclone watch has been upgraded to a cyclone warning, which is mostly related to how close it is. The tropical low will pass by us overnight before heading to sea (and Bathurst Island), by which time it will be a Category 1 cyclone. Hopefully it will keep on going and not turn around!
We've had a couple of severe thunderstorm warnings this afternoon. I'm not sure if they were related to or separate from the tropical low, which will pass Darwin later tonight. They came from the other direction, but I don't know enough about weather patterns to know if they could have been part of the low. The thunderstorm warnings were for destructive / damaging winds. We saw a few trees down on the way home, and heaps of leaves and branches on the ground. I also heard of power outages and road closures. A really wild and woolly day.
I took another video when I got home to demonstrate the effects of the wind and rain on the trees in our backyard. It's like an amplified version of this morning's video - more rain, more wind and more frogs :)
And of course I found time to do a little photoshoot in the rain for Daily Image 2011!
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12:00pm
A cyclone watch has now been declared for the tropical low that is currently just south of Darwin. I rang Tim to let him know to secure the backyard and prepare our emergency kit as part of the cyclone watch procedures. He reminded me that it was a couple of days ago that I first noticed the spiral movement on the radar.
A forecast track map has now been published by the Bureau of Meteorology. The tropical low is expected to pass close by Darwin overnight, before developing into a Category 1 cyclone over water. It will then be heading for Bathurst Island. Here's a link to the Bureau's Tropical Cyclone warning website. The website is dynamic, so the information will be different depending on when you view it.
Honestly, a tropical low / Category 1 cyclone is more exciting than it is scary at this point. A bit of wild weather drama without the run-for-your-lives factor. We'll see if I still feel that way later tonight ;)
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10.00am
I started writing this blog post in the morning before coming to work. I didn't upload it at the time, because I wanted to include a couple of videos (see below). Since then, the tropical low has become official, and we have a severe weather warning in place. We've been advised to secure loose outside objects, with winds of up to 90km/hr forecast. It's not our first bout of severe weather this season, but it's the first time we've seen a tropical low develop over land. As I mentioned in the blog post below, it's the high winds that make me nervous. And looking at the weather radar, the tropical low is moving in a slightly alarming spiral fashion ...
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8.00am
At the time of writing, it has been raining pretty solidly in Darwin for over 24 hours. There's a monsoonal trough or tropical low or something, and it's dumping a bunch of rain on us! The Bureau of Meteorology predicts squally storms for the next few days. There's a flood threat warning and coastal wind warning in place. On the plus side, all this rain sure keeps the temperature down! We're looking at maximums of 27°C for the next couple of days (the minimums are 24°C in case you're kidding yourself that it's cold up here!).
Here's a short video that I took this morning of the rain in our backyard. It's not pelting down hard, it's just constant. I must admit that I get a little nervous when the wind picks up - it's still cyclone season here.
In the video, you can hear the croaking of a single frog. We called him "the frog that was left behind", a lonely bachelor still looking for love after all the other frogs had paired up. Here's another video I took this morning, where you can see the little fellow who's making such a racket!
I suffer for my art - I got absolutely drenched from the chest down while taking this video! I have a big birdcage-style umbrella, but it can only do so much when the rain seems to hit you from all sides. It's kind of funny actually, everyone in Darwin seems to have big golf-style umbrellas, as anything less (such as a folding umbrella) just won't cut it. In Melbourne, I remember that golf umbrellas were few and far between - especially in the CBD, as there just wasn't room on the footpaths for everyone to have such a big umbrella :)
So, I'm still taking part in the Daily Image 2011 challenge on Flickr. I'm slightly surprised that I'm still going, and haven't missed a day yet. Even when the last thing I've felt like doing was taking a photo of myself, I've still managed to give myself a little push and do it. And I'm glad, because although I'm getting sick of the sight of myself ;) I'm really enjoying being part of this community activity and seeing the interesting photos being posted by all of the participants :) You can catch up with all my latest photos HERE.
A friend of mine that I haven't seen in years, but who I reconnected with on Facebook recently, came across one of my photos from Daily Image 2011 and liked it so much that she asked if she could "scrap it". Anne is a very talented scrapper, who creates beautiful layouts using photographs, card, hand embroidery, buttons and all kinds of embellishments. You can find out more about her work at her blog, Scraptastic Stuff.
I've attached here a screenshot from Anne's blog showing the layout that Anne made using my photo. I especially love the dragonflies that flit across the page, almost as though they are coming out of the fan. Please visit this link to see it in more detail :)
For those who haven't visited my blog before, I work as a Liaison Librarian (Health Sciences) at a regional University in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. We're in the middle of our summer break, so there aren't many students about. We use this time of year to plan and prepare for the busy first semester ahead.
My "Library Day in the Life" was as follows:
Arrive at work 9.10am (I'm a bit late actually, as I haven't been sleeping well)
Check my work emails, deleting irrelevant stuff from various e-lists
Respond to an email query from a student regarding prescribed text books for her subjects, refer her to the Uni bookshop website, and provide some tips on searching by subject code
I'm rostered on for our "Ask Us" email service today, so I check for emails throughout day, at this time of year there are few enquiries (but some spam!)
Transfer some files from DropBox to my work PC
Do a quick Twitter check, mostly for replies/mentions and a bit of cycling news
Add my major activities for the last couple of weeks to our team's report to the fortnightly library management meeting
Stretch my legs by wandering over to the bookshop to buy a newspaper and a diet coke
Create my first LibGuide from scratch for our upcoming orientation activities, which will involve QR codes - realise I still have a lot to learn about LibGuides
Have a discussion with a colleague about LibGuide box types and statistics generation, she sends me a link to Springshare's online help resources
Edit some of my existing LibGuides to reflect some of the tips I've just picked up
Have a discussion with another colleague about running intensive library training sessions for postgraduate students in late March, to be held in the same week as a series of first year library sessions (that will be a busy week!)
Communicate with a colleague in Alice Springs by email (as that campus is about 1500kms away!) regarding lesson plans for nursing students - we share information about topics of particular interest (ebooks) and handouts
Schedule in some more training for postgraduate students in mid-March, via discussion with a colleague on MS Communicator
Set up a PBworks account to participate in #libday6
Take my lunch break in my office, starting with a quick Twitter check (where another colleague offers to help me with a PC problem), then I lock the computer and read a book with my lunch :)
Do some further reading on LibGuide box types for the orientation LibGuide and my subject LibGuides
Do a quick review by email of a Twitter contact's job application, following on from having provided more detailed feedback on the weekend
Have a drop-in visit from a student looking for contact information for the academic support section
Add a post to our group Tumblr account (we use it for information sharing within our team) to let my colleagues know about #libday6
Respond to a lecturer's email query regarding placing an order for some prescribed texts - I explain that copies of prescribed texts are automatically ordered for the library, and that they should hopefully appear on the library shelves soon
Another quick Twitter check, this time I'm delighted to come across a link to the Royal College of Nursing's information literacy competencies thanks to @jaygee35 - I spend some time reading this, as most of my students are in nursing
Another drop-in visit from a student, looking for help with setting up a collaborative online workspace for a group assignment - we chat about wikis and other resources in Blackboard, which she will follow up with her lecturer
Send an email to the editor of the Student Association newspaper regarding including some information in the next edition about the library's orientation activities
Check the Bureau of Meteorolgy website to see whether this storm is going to last - yep, there's more on the way so I'll stay put for a while longer
Post another interesting information resource to our group Tumblr, this time the blog which had featured the Royal College of Nursing paper
Fill out my timesheet for the day, and head home at 5.30pm
Phew! Was that too much information? Yeah, probably :)
Thanks to a intriguing invitation from Kathryn Greenhill, I've started off the year by participating in the Daily Image 2011 challenge on Flickr.
Daily Image 2011 involves posting a photo or video of yourself each day for 365 days, or however many days you can manage. You, or part of you, must appear in each day's picture. The details are on the Librarians Matter blog, and on the Daily Image 2011 Flickr group page.
I'm a sucker for a challenge it seems, although I try to keep it realistic ;) Daily blogging challenges are a bit beyond my reach at the moment, but a daily photo should be manageable (most of the time anyway!). I decided to take up Kathryn's suggestion to try it for a week at least ...
Well, a couple of weeks have now passed, and I've published fifteen photos of myself (actually, sixteen now at the time of posting). Here's a snaphot of my first fifteen days:
Photos can be uploaded relatively quickly compared to writing blog posts - but they can be just as challenging, as every photo will reveal something about me. I'm already wondering about how I want to present myself through this challenge. How open or private do I want to be? Which moods am I prepared to put on display? How do I feel about showing my imperfections? And should every photo be "interesting"?
I think I will persevere with the Daily Image 2011 challenge - partly to find out the answers to those questions. I may not post 365 photos, but I'll give it a go for as long as I can, or at least try to post a couple of times a week.
I have a feeling that it will reveal more than I initially anticipate as the year goes on. That has happened before in other online challenges, such as blogging, videocasting and story telling. Is this a good thing? My instinct says yes. Participating in a challenge like this, in an atmosphere of trust, and with friends (old and new), encourages me to stretch myself, try new things, push some boundaries. And maybe even get comfortable with looking at photos of myself :)
You can view all of my Daily Image 2011 photos by clicking on the above image, or on this link.
My best wishes to all of you for a happy and healthy 2011!
The last few months of 2010 were pretty tough for me, for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here. And I'm pretty sure that 2011 will also throw a few challenges my way. I generally try to blog in a positive frame of mind, so posts have been few and far between while I've been in struggle-mode. But it's a new year, and I'm ready to get back on board :)
I've got plenty of blog posts in draft mode, just waiting to be polished and published. I think there'll be a lot of craft-related posts this year, as I'm finding crafting very relaxing, and a welcome outlet for creativity outside the workplace. I'll be making an effort in 2011 to stretch myself in some new techniques. And as we move into more pleasant weather here in Darwin (although admittedly that's still a few months away!), I'll make sure to share our experiences with you, as we explore the beautiful natural environment that we're surrounded by.
The frogs in our garden are going crazy. They're barking, belching, quacking, grunting and honking. Loudly.
Apparently some people enjoy this noise. Nuh. I don't get it.
The last time the frogs were this loud, this is what we found in the morning:
These frisky frogs were in our pool. We chased them out - and snapped a couple of photos ;) - but soon discovered that they had left something behind in the water. Hundreds and hundreds of little frog eggs. You can see some of them in this photo (upper right).
I would have thought it would be too chlorine-y for them, but we've had a lot of rain, so perhaps there was a layer of freshwater on top - enough for them to think their little froglets would have a chance.
We like using our pool, so the frog eggs had to go. Tim scooped them out of the pool (they looked like sago in the pool scoop!). He put them in the drain along the side of their house, which always has some water in it.
I can report that the tadpole population in our garden is doing well, and I'm sure they'll do their parents proud when they grow into frogs that keep us awake at night.
In the meantime, tonight's racket leads me to believe that we'll be cleaning the pool again tomorrow ...
Addendum: We did a quick check of the pool last night before going to bed, and discovered no less than three mating pairs of froggies on the rim of our pool (including the pair in the photo below). Tim shuffled them off into other parts of the garden, but we knew that wouldn't be the last of it. And sure enough, an inspection of the pool this morning has revealed that the frogs were very busy indeed - eggs, eggs and more eggs. *sigh*
Yes, yes, I know October is over now ;) I created each "digital story" for the #Octshowntell challenge during October, and posted links on Twitter. It's just taken me a bit longer to showcase them here on my blog ...
Anyway, I thought I'd try something different for the final week of #Octshowntell. I first came across DoInk a couple of years ago, and had been meaning to have a play with it ever since. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.
DoInk allows you to create your own animations - you can either do all the drawing yourself, or you can use the wide variety of props that others have made available. I used a bit of both - I drew the snail and butterfly myself, and then made them available for others to use (a couple of other users have already incorporated my butterfly into their own animations).
It's not much of a "story" per se, but it was great fun to make and I felt really pleased with what I produced. I hope you think it's kind of cute too :)
I've been going through a rough patch lately, and this cartoon is my picture-tells-a-thousand-words way of showing the wonderful support that Tim has given me.
Pixton's embedding function isn't working for me, so unfortunately I can only attach a small version to this post. You can view the full-size cartoon HERE.
P.S. No, neither Tim or I are stick figures, but I couldn't figure out how to change body shapes in Pixton's free version ;)
My second attempt at digital storytelling for #Octshowntell was made using Storybird. Storybird is a website where you can use high quality (and gorgeous!) illustrations to create stories, and publish them in a visually appealing digital storybook format. I encourage you to give it a go, the site is a real pleasure to use.
I wrote a simple little story about a helpful librarian (in the guise of a green fairy) answering questions about finding books and information. The artwork is by the very talented Paul McDougall.
Unfortunately, due to the width of my blog column, I can't display the storybook properly here (the right hand side is missing, but if I try to display the storybook at its original width it pushes my whole site out of alignment!), so please click HERE to view the full-screen version of my story at the Storybird site.
