Now that I'm back from Austin, done with arranging and hosting the amazing Sabrina Pacifici's visit to SFALL, and done with the joint faculty-library presentation panel that I wasn't sure I'd be able to prep for with the other two things going on, I can catch up. Or at least that's my ambition.

Over the long weekend, I'm planning to post my raw notes from the SXSWi panels I attended--if I can read the chicken scratch my writing turned into on the small notepad. Yes, my notes, save for the one panel by which I'd lost my writing utensils, are analog. I confess though I popped it open from time to time, I found using the laptop too distracting. No laptop in the classroom for me, though I found that knitting through most sessions--the most extensively I have done this--definitely kept the fidgety portion of my brain occupied and helped focus my attention.

Last week I was welcomed as a contributor to Out of the Jungle, a blog that I respect and admire, and am excited and honored to join. I will likely post more coherent and discussion-inducing (I hope) thoughts from some of the panels there. My ulterior motive, of course, is to lure more law librarians to attend next year's SXSW.

Just some random observations, reports, etc. from day one:

• Freeze-dried astronaut food strawberries are yucky. No, I wasn't the one who bought them!
  

• Austin airport is nice (much nicer than Houston), and MUCH larger than I expected.

• What is with the emergency vehicles? We stopped for three in the 7-mile trip from airport to hotel, and that wasn't the last of them.

• Speaking of driving, in the ten or so miles I've driven, I haven't encountered one scary/rude/aggressive driver. The pedicabs, however, are a bit of a pain to navigate around.

• It's just a bit below my comfort level to go without a jacket temperature-wise, but I love it.

• We had dinner at Ironworks BBQ. Contrary to what we had been told about Austin-style barbecue, there was sauce available. It was fairly cheap and quite good, with a great atmosphere
  

• The Macs:PCs ratio around the convention hall made me smile. Lots of iPhones too, making it harder to control the iPhone lust.

• Registration took so long that the only session we got to was Battledecks: watch your favorite speakers craft an off-the-cuff presentation using slides they've never seen before. . . judges will score the participants based on their use of jargon, gesturing and credibility. Some were more better others, but they all had some hilarious slides to work with (pics coming soon!). A library science version of the game could be highly entertaining, perhaps with slides inspired by Library 2.0 Idea Generator? Six Apart's Anil Dash stole the show. To start off, he left the room and made the audience welcome him back with a cheering ovation. Great tactic.

• I got a ticket to see Goliath in the film festival part of the conference with my colleagues who have film passes. I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much without the audience, and I'm still figuring out what I thought of it. Is it merely trying to demonstrate the effect pets have on our lives? Is it also saying something about our society and the convenience of scapegoating sex offenders now that it's so easy to find out where they live? Some scenes dragged on far too long--this is the filmmakers' first feature-length project--but the ending seemed to work.
  

• First full day is tomorrow. Can't wait to meet the other librarians who are here at the LIS lunch!
  

Before I get into SXSW, which I do intend to record some notes about, here's a quick update on some of what I've been up to professionally and personally:

• Last week I spoke as part of a panel about Second Life experiences at SLA SARC IV in St Petersburg. Due to technical difficulties, I didn't have immediate access to the screencaps I'd brought along, and ended up speaking extemporaneously about Second Life for about 20 minutes. And I discovered I loved doing it that way, and feel like I did a much better job than I would have with the visual aids and/or a rigid outline. I've moved a little closer to the kill PowerPoint camp, though with a topic like SL, visuals are essential, and luckily I had a few minutes with them later, and the audience got to see a brief demo before my section.

• At SARC I finally got to hear Stephen Abram speak, and got inspired by him and a number of other presentations. As I told someone there, I love the law library bubble and we have a great time there, but it's nice to peek out into SLA world from time to time. SARC is a great conference--just the right size and duration not to be exhausting, and a variety of good presentations.

• And one more item from SARC: do not underestimate the power of knitting as a networking tool.
  

• Writing about social networking with Debbie Ginsberg for LLRX.com.
  

• Sabrina Pacifici will be visiting the South Florida Association of Law Libraries on March 17, and I'm excited about meeting her and seeing her present.

• My sister's wedding is coming up in a little over a month, and I'm getting excited about that. I'm even having dreams about the day going horribly wrong, though none of them have yet involved her new obsession with Guitar Hero.
  

• The wedding present is to be an afghan made from our grandmother's pattern--essentially 8 scarves sewn together. I am now halfway done with #8. This means I can start knitting other things again. First up: a pair of socks, of course.

• Did I mention I'm at SXSW? :)
  

So, I haven't blogged here for months.

I have lots of activities and cool stuff to report on, especially since I'm at my first--first of many, I hope--SXSW.

So, what am I going to write about first? Groceries. Specifically, the amazing Austin Whole Foods and how it made me feel.

In approximate order: awe, excitement, painful envy, jealous irritation, finally settling on a combination of "this is obscene" and outrage at the unjustness of it.

First world problem, I know, but it made every Florida grocery store I've been in feel like a 7-11. Minimal exaggeration involved. There were separate nut and roasted nut bars, a chili bar, dessert and candy bars, at least three juice sections, a bakery with a fiery oven, and a chocolate/candy case the likes of which I haven't seen since my last visit to Europe. There was a beer alley that I couldn't even bear to walk through; there were enough beers I'd never seen before outside it that I knew it would be too depressing. (If there's a store in South Florida with a truly exciting variety of beers, I haven't found it yet.)

The picture? Why that's just a gingerbread-style house made of gourmet dog biscuits.

Like I said, obscene. And I didn't even mention the live music!

The subject line is the name of a bath bomb I bought at the New Orleans Lush cosmetics shop, but it's also an accurate description for how I feel about my attempts to get caught up on my email, to-do list, conferences ideas, blogging, and so forth. I've started typing a post-AALL update here at least three times, and never gotten further than a sentence. So this is progress.

Everything about the conference was wonderful. I found myself scribbling ideas all over my notepad, and not just ideas related to whatever session I was in. I really wish the conference had taken place at the beginning of summer, so there would be more time left to pursue all the inspiration at a more leisurely pace. One thing I shall do this weekend is finally sort through my notes and follow the advice of someone I met who suggested rounding up all of the things one really wants to accomplish on a single sheet of paper and keeping it in sight throughout the year.

The best part of AALL this year by far was reconnecting with people I'd met last year and making even more friends and acquaintances, whom I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with and seeing over the years. I'd thought the initial bar for fun was set pretty high last year at my first AALL, but it was easily surpassed.

New Orleans requires a post of its own. I wrote about it very briefly at Novalawcity, but it deserves much more than that.

Part of the reason I've been so slow in catching up is that our law review hopefuls have been spending the week frantically trying to find print or otherwise official copies of all the items they're citing, and I've been on the front line. I'm not sure how I missed this flurry last year, but perhaps I was too new to realize what was going on.

Many of the their queries are basic, others have taught me something about the unique ways different states number and organize their statutes, and a generous handful have been in the "you want what (some book in a library three states away) and you need it when (might as well be yesterday) ?! " category. It has been fun seeing some of them get excited about the vast world of legal sources beyond caselaw, and it's a good warm up for the Fall term.

If I'm a really good blogger, I'll post my notes from the sessions I attended as I get to them. And I'm saying so here in hopes that'll help me stick to it.

In the meantime, I did accomplish putting my pictures on Flickr. The AALL Second Line Flickr pool features pictures from a few other librarians as well. If you were there and have pictures, please join the group!

Photo: a spire of St Louis cathedral taken by me.

At least until we find a new Electronic Services law librarian, I will also be blogging at NSU Law's official blog, Novalawcity. Because it's geared toward our students and faculty, it focuses on new resources, legal news, and research tips. I'm hoping to get some of my colleagues to not just send me material, but join me in the actual blogging.

Today I posted a link to Lawsagna, a wonderful blog with tips and tricks for studying and staying fit and sane through law school. One of its recent tips was to inspire yourself by making a list of five things you're excited about every Friday.

Just for the heck of it and since it's Friday, here's my list:

1. Going to my second AALL annual meeting next week, reconnecting with colleagues and friends I met there last year, and making new connections. I used to feel dreadfully uncomfortable at the mere thought of networking, but I felt right at home last year. I took that as a good sign that I'd followed the right career path.
2. That said meeting is in New Orleans. This will be my first trip to the Crescent City, and I'm excited about trying beignets, exploring the French Quarter, touring the Garden District, and participating in the association's Habitat for Humanity workday.
3. In August, my first trip to Las Vegas to visit my sister and her fiancé, and meet their dog, Chelsea.
4. In Vegas, I'll be seeing Penn & Teller, Cirque du Soleil's KA (my future brother-in-law works behind the scenes!), and possibly attending my first Star Trek convention.
   
5. Come September, no more car payments for the foreseeable future!
   

To make this a meme, consider yourself tagged if you followed the link through my Twitter feed. And happy Friday!

Photo by the_moment.

Just a note that the blog is not abandoned! I'm in Chicago this week for Back to the Future of Legal Research at Chicago-Kent College of Law on Friday, where I'm looking forward to meeting some librarians I've only previously met online.

Since Chicagoland is home, I'm also taking a few vacation days. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to lunch and dinner with friends from high school and college, as well as seeing some other "old friends" at the Art Institute, and finally seeing the Bean and Millennium Park. Saturday brings lunch with two of my aunts, and a barbecue later with the rest of the family. I love extended family gatherings, and I've missed far too many of them having been out of the area for nearly a decade.

Florida is weeks into officially being Too Hot, so I'm loving the cool weather and the beauty of all the flowering trees and shrubs here.

I'm also slightly horrified at learning that Chicago is expecting the emergence of the next cycle of the 17-year cicadas. Not because cicadas are gross--I was ultimately underwhelmed and intrigued rather than repelled by them--but because I remember writing a melodramatic high school diary entry about this time seventeen years ago, worrying that they would be horrifying. No, this time I'm horrified because they make me feel old!

Photo by oldog_oltrix.

So, I never did get to try red beans and rice, but I still had a good time in Baton Rouge. In addition to the room service gumbo, there was what I assume was a sausage and chicken jambalaya at Friday night's reception at the LSU Rural Life Museum that was quite good. I wish I'd decided to bring my camera to that event, as the mostly outdoor museum was beautiful, and it would have been a good opportunity to get some non-touristy pictures with librarians in them.

I didn't blog our plenary session, which was a talk by a Blues agent and manager. You know you're a library geek when you don't find someone in the music business as interesting as the librarian presenters. He was followed by a short concert by blues musician Larry Garner, whom I enjoyed. Great music, and fun interaction with the audience. Several otherwise respectable law librarians were accused of being gin-joint women. And all at 9am, which seems an unlikely hour for singing the blues. Acquiring or wallowing in them, perhaps, but not singing.

I had hoped to sneak out to the USS Kidd or the Planetarium, but there wasn't enough time to do any other touristy things on the trip. I hope to do a better job of that in New Orleans.

I'm back in the office, and feeling somewhat caught up.

I sorted through my conference bag this afternoon, and realized that I filled the entire hotel notepad we received at the SEAALL Institute with notes. It wasn't the thickest pad ever, and I didn't use both sides of the pages, but hey, it sounds good. Transcription will begin tomorrow.

In catching up with my blog reading, I'm loving the reports from Computers in Libraries. I really wish I could've been there, but there was a family get together early this week. Plus, two conferences back to back would have been too much.

--

The first leg of my trip back, Baton Rouge to Atlanta, was the worst flight of my life. Strong turbulence + small plane = misery. The worst part was that Delta apparently keeps their air sickness bags in the lavatories, which isn't very convenient when confined to one's seat due to turbulence. Luckily it didn't come to that.

The second worst part? I was seated next to a professional colleague I'd just met that morning, and air sickness wasn't the sort of impression I wanted to leave. Afterward, she told me that she'd almost got sick as well, as did a couple others who were closer to the front of the plane.

And the blackly humorous worst part? At the airport that morning, about a dozen of us who had been at SEAALL realized we were on that same flight to Atlanta. I'm not sure who started it, but someone joked about how, if the plane went down, the best and brightest law librarians in the country would be on it. Someone else added that the association would naturally create a scholarship in our honor. We would be the SEAALL 12. It was quite funny while waiting and worrying that we would all miss the flight in question anyway due to pilot paperwork printing problems one of the airports claimed to be having.

Boy, was I glad when that flight landed.

Okay, somebody please inform me how, exactly, people keep up with blogging about conferences as the conferences happen? I haven't paid close enough attention in the past to know how closely after the sessions blog entries I've read about conference sessions have been posted, but at the moment, I don't know how anyone blogs substantially about conferences during conferences.

So. Although the pre-conference institute I attended today was fascinating--far more useful than I expected it to be--I find I have zero energy to write about it now, and I'm sure I couldn't do it justice if I tried in spite of that. I'm going to save my notes and thoughts on the topics discussed for when I return, and write instead about the trip so far and the tourist part of my day.

I got to Baton Rouge last night two hours late, as my plane from Atlanta was delayed, then replaced. I learned today that this was no inconvenience at all, since a colleague of mine drove up with his wife, and had a tire blow out at 1am, then no hotel room on arrival at 3am.

The Institute--about how/why librarians and technologists can't just get along already--ran from 9 to 3. I happened to sit two places from the former director of our library, and had a nice chat with her during one of the breaks.

After the Institute, I meandered my way through the downtown area past the old state capitol to the new state capitol. I wasn't sure if it was do-able, but it turned out to be about a mile walk. The capitol grounds are gorgeous, as is the building itself, both inside and out. It was built at the direction of Huey Long in the early 30s, and has been compared to the Empire State Building, but it reminded me a lot more of Rockefeller Center. Had I arrived sooner, I'd have been able to visit the 27th floor observation deck, but the entry hall and chambers were satisfying enough. I also saw the spot of Long's assassination, though I couldn't find the bullet holes in the walls.

I tried to find a place for a late lunch/early dinner on the way back, but the area of the city felt strangely deserted. Maybe it's busier when the legislature is in session. I also wandered a bit around the residential area near the hotel, which bizarrely reminded me a lot of Urbana, IL. I didn't expect that, but the architecture seemed similar, as did the mature trees. There were also clover flowers everywhere, which is something I associate with the Midwest. Were it not for certain trees, and the thick tropical leaves on some of the plants, I'd think I were further north.

After a brief break in my room, I went to the opening reception at the LSU Museum of Art. There I met Miriam Childs, a fellow member of the GenX/Y social committee. Neither of us knew the other would be at the conference, and we hadn't met before, so it was a nice surprise.

The museum had a diverse collection of exhibits running: 19th-century New Orleans silver, Yousef Karsh photographs, 19th-century Louisiana decorative arts and portraits, Knute Heldner paintings, and Chinese jade. I particularly enjoyed the Newcomb pottery and needlework, which was totally new to me, and the modern and contemporary African-American art from the collection of Alitash Kebede.

I walked back to the hotel with Miriam, ordered room service, and I've managed to process the pictures I took today. On a cloudless spring day, there's not much that needs to be photoshopped beyond minor cropping and auto-leveling. The late dinner was a Caeser salad and bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo, in attempt to eat the local cuisine, even if it was just room service. It pretty good, though the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce was totally unnecessary for this palate.

I am now ready to crash.