Grr, this is frustrating!

I hate when I spend time writing, and then for whatever reason, the post disappears! I'm not going to recreate the whole posting, I'll just summarize it. I've come to the last section of questions for week 1, the personal ones. Am ihappy, have good relationships, have a spiritual life, spend time with nature?

For the most part, yes to all- well not much of a spiritual life, but I try to be grateful for all the good things in my life. I have finally moved beyond the grief that I felt mired in during the years right after my parents death. Not that I don't still miss them, but I have developed a sense of peace about it.

So my goals for this year is to try and develop more friendships, get back to an exercise routine, and eat better. And enjoy my life with John even more.

Week 1: con't

Lifestyle questions:
Healthy diet? Not nearly enough fruits and veggies, way too much refined foods
Caffeine intact? Some chocolate, 1 coffee everyday
Smoker or use recreational drugs? Never
Alcohol? Occasionally with meals
Physical activity: embarassing little
Why? No good answer, but my exercise bike dying is a little to blame
How well do you sleep? Sometimes, fine. Other times, I have a great deal of trouble sleeping through the night
Rate your stress from 1-5: 2
How does stress affect you: get irratible
Manage it? Try not to stress out
What is the main source of stress in my life? Work, school
How do you relax? Soak in a tub, read a book
What do you do for fun? Read a book, spend time with family/spouse
Enjoy your work? Usually

Spontaneous Happiness: Week 1

A few months ago, I won the book Spontaneous Happiness, by Andrew Weil, from Goodreads. I've decided to try the 8 week program it describes.

Week 1 begins with some assessments.
Any illnesses? GERD
Any worrisome symptoms? No
Medications? Omeprazole
Supplements? None
Last physical w/bloodworm? Within last year? No concerns
Illnesses in my family? My oldest sister had a heart attack at the age of 60
Rate your own health from 1-10: 9

Emotional health questions:
Ever diagnosed with mood disorder ? No
Consulted a mental health professional? No
Depression or anxiety? No diagnosed cases
Pessimist or optimist? Tend toward optimism
Emotional state 1-10: 8
What would make me happier? Nothing I can think of
Recover quickly from emotional setbacks? I'm a survivor
Do I experience serenity in my life? How often am I content and/or comfortable? Most of the time, as a rule. I am grateful for my family, friends and life in general. I have a good marriage and a rewarding job.

2011 the year in review

Notes: January:
took aeddon to Rmsc to see the csi exhibit for his birthday
Together we made a chocolate roulade cake
Stopped at marine oasis to buy stuff for the SW aquarium John had gotten me for Christmas
Throughout the year we enjoyed the tank in ILL
Red skunk cleaner shrimp named Shorty, 2 peppermint shrimp named Candy and Tea, who disappeared after a few months, clown fish named Verne, brittle starfish named Jules, blood red shrimp named Phobos.
Aquarium stayed in ILL until shortly after I started my new job, some time around October.
We brought it home and added the fish to our 55 gallon aquarium that we bought off Craigslist in feb for $300, including the buffet.
Also in January, I started my MBA through SUNYIT. Took classes in project management and business law. Never had a free minute, or so it seemed. Still, I decided to matriculated, and took my GMAT in August. Not in time to actually enroll for fall, but that turned out to be okay, since I started a new job in late summer. As an end of semester reward, we went to see wicked at Shea's in buffalo. Bob sold his house in brockport to the college, and during the summer they moved to buffalo.
Corey came out in April and did some work on the bathroom for us. Also out in July for a visit. Then we made a quick weekend visit July 21-25, for his 30th birthday party. 30, how is that even possible? Alden went with us, and we got to spend some time with Matt, too. His job in Indy will be ending soon, and he has interviewed back at the bank in Honolulu for a supervisor position. He takes it, and comes out for a week to NY before flying to HI. In August we go to NE PA to a VRBO, a little cottage located on a gentleman farm. Visit Longwood Gardens, and Hershey Park. Nice relaxing week away. On the work front: Laura's mother suffers a TIA in march and she is out much of the month. In July, bepress comes and gives a presentation on their IR product called Digital Commons. A few of us see it advertised in the Daily Eagle, and Greg, Lori and I attend. I am fascinated by the possibilities, and ask lots of questions. A few weeks later, when it is decided that we will purchase it, they decide to offer me the opportunity to work on it. I jump at the chance, and it works out that Logan and I essentially switch offices, and he takes over ILL,something he has wanted to do for a few years now. Laura starts investigating retirement shortly afterwards.

New iPad2 and shopping with 2 and 3

I love my new iPad2. Never thought I would be an Apple person, but it just shows that I let myself be overly influenced by John for too many years. Christmas is in a week, and John and I decided today would be a good day to start shopping. We are buying the gboys hiking boots, pocket kniVes and flint this year to take with them on their winter camping trip next weekend. We were able to find boots for A1 and A4 online, but not for the other two, so we took them with us to Rochester. In Target, we found their boots, and socks, boxers, 2shirts and 3 pairs of jeans for Brandon. Then Alden and I went to Sears where we found 4 flannel shirts for John. After a stop at Verizon to activate a phone for Tom, we had lunch at our favorite Chinese place in the Sam's Club plaza. Now we just have to get a movie gift certificate for Adrienne and Wayne and do our amazon shopping for the out of staters, and we will be mostly done.

Thanksgiving memories

We had Thanksgiving at Adrienne's this year, for the first time. Adrienne, Wayne, Rita, Aeddon, Alden, Alwyn, Arian, John, Brandon and I all enjoyed a delicious meal of turkey, ham and all the fixings. We brought the turkey, and a pumpkin roulade for dessert. Though we didn't stay long after - John was sick, it was a wonderful meal. 

Thanksgiving always makes me think back to the past. In 1979, Tom and Gerry, John, Adrienne, Brandon and I went out to Glen and Becky's home in Port Clinton, Ohio. We lived in Rensselaer at the time, and had just lost John's sister Mary in a motorcycle accident that September. Although making the trip was a bit of a financial hardship, it was very important for us all to be together that year.

Once we moved to NY, we generally had Thanksgiving at our home, and invited family over there. In 2001, we had a large Thanksgiving, and used the parish hall at Saint Peter. Tom and Gerry, Marge and Earl, and dad; Gail and Lynn, Kelly and Randy, Scott, Kelsey, Taylor and Bailey; John and I, Adrienne and Wayne, Aeddon and Alden; Rita, Jesse and her child; Brandon, Corey and Matthew; all were there. We had just lost mom less than a year before, and it was nice to be together with all our loved ones. 

Another significant Thanksgiving was spent mostly on the road. In 2004, Brandon and Corey drove from Medina to Cleveland, Ohio to pick John and I up. John had just been released from his 3 week stay at the Cleveland Clinic, where they had removed his pericardium, and saved his life. That was a very poignant Thanksgiving, and one that the year before we had no idea if we'd be celebrating together. 

This morning, I was looking over Thanksgiving albums, and noticed that in 2007, dad was missing from the picture. It was the first year he didn't come over, and really marked the beginning of the end for him. Four months later he would be gone from my life, but he and mom live on in my heart, always.

Who knows what next year, or the year after that will bring. But I am always grateful for every year and every Thanksgiving I have to share with those I love.

Building the Digital Repository at 3:23am

Here are the challenges-There is a large body of scholarly work produced by the Brockport faculty - how do we:

• identify all the citations?
• get permission from faculty to post their work?
• find out from publishers if and in what format we are allowed to post?
• come up with the article in publishable format?

Right now we have 1204 identified in the initial round of harvesting. Of those, 105 are eligible to be posted in publisher pdf (the ideal format). Please note this is less than 10% of the total. From here, we have to get the faculty's permission to upload. What about the other 1100? About half of those we do not know what the publisher allows, if anything. They will have to be individually searched, perhaps contacted, and then permission requested from faculty. Or perhaps, we should get the permission from the faculty first, so we don't waste time with the publisher, just to have a faculty member say no. (Do they ever say no?)

Maybe another strategy would be to identify a prolific author from each department, and hope they will approve a publishable article, as well as provide us their CV, so we can work person by person. Then, they could act as a champion in their department, to encourage others to work with us. The biggest obstacle that I see is that you have to balance faculty permission gathering with publisher permission gathering. Some publishers (the minority) will allow the formatted pdf from the journal to be posted. Others will only allow preprints (pre-peer review), or post prints (peer reviewed, but not journal formatted). Preprints have little value, and although post prints are somewhat better, they are potentially hard to come by. I know from my days in ILL that faculty often don't even have copies of their published works, so expecting them to have copies of their working papers might be expecting too much.

Ah, workflow issues. And did I mention the challenge of collating the citations and checking for uniqueness? But that is another post, I guess.