I’m attending the Technology, Colleges and Community conference this week. It begins tomorrow and I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks. It’s not the first online conference I’ve had the option to attend, but it’s definitely the most comprehensive. The only downside I can find is the timezone the conference is running in. I believe it’s a result of being hosted out of Hawaii. Sessions begin at 1pm MT and run until after 9pm. Of course, I didn’t know that until I finished the registration process this afternoon; being away at my mum’s meant I missed the pre-conference sessions. I’ll be at work at my usual time tomorrow which means I’ll miss a chunk of the evening sessions while I’m driving home and working on my paper. Perhaps I’ll luck out and be able to work from home on Wednesday and Thursday. Otherwise, I’ll miss many chunks of the sessions running in the evenings.

Next up: ISSOTL. It’s being held in Edmonton this year and I’m hoping to take a few days off and register as a student if I’m not able to go as part of the contingent from the college. I was trying to get a proposal together but am still learning all the ins and outs of completing the ethics paperwork and creating an effective research instrument. I’m sure I’ll have lots of time to learn how to do all these fun things in future. Of course, I’ll need a new “idea” by then. My fearless leader (co-worker, confessor, adviser) suggests that the concept I want to explore would make an excellent research question for an Honours thesis and I should explore it in that fashion first.

In the meantime I’ll just have to keep my fingers and toes crossed. Hopefully the team’s paper will be accepted. I’d love to see it presented.

There are some nice benefits to working for the government (Drew) or an educational institution (me).  You get most statuatory holidays off.  When I first started working out of college I loved working on stat holidays to gain the 2.5x pay amount for hours worked.  If you met all the prerequisites for stat pay and managed to please the gods and get scheduled off took the day off you’d be paid as if you’d gone to work that day.  But if you bowed down to the world of slave labour then working a stat holiday could result in a fancy night out to dinner or a new item for the home.  After a few years I was promoted to a management position with salary instead of hourly wages.  Gone were the days of working stats for extra money.  Instead we got stats off.  If we worked them we were entitled to days in lieu.  Since I worked for an American company with a different series of stats than Canada, we often worked our stats and used our days in lieu on US stats because the company was shut down on those days.  While the not so new job is salary it is a Canadian company and I get stats off again.  Wheeee!

I didn’t get the promotion I wanted at work but the guy who did is awesome. It’s hard to be bitter when your competition is just an all around nice (and overly qualified) guy.

I was all set for a pity party when I learned that Dell is closing up shop here in Edmonton. I’ve never worked for Dell but some of my close friends do. That they’re closing seems to come out of the blue – especially since they just built a new building here and only opened in 2004. My friends always had the best things to say about Dell as an employer but now they’re all scrambling to find work elsewhere on short notice. All of a sudden my loss of a promotion doesn’t seem that important anymore.

I’m still not sure what I’ll do when my contact is up at the college in June. I know I’ll be hard pressed to re-sign if a job re-classification doesn’t materialize. For today, I’ll just have to remain thankful that I still have a job when so many of my friends have just learned there’s is done.

Today I interviewed for a promotion at work. I, of course, think I’d be amazing in the position. I will have to wait a few days to find out if the interviewing committee feels the same. Wish me luck!

The course site template is complete and awaiting final feedback and approval. In case you’re wondering, the template contains the graphics and coding that combines to create the course look and feel.

It also contains any common materials (help files, etc.) that will appear in all program courses. Having it all in a single template saves time and $$ in the long run as I won’t have to reupload and recopy these files as new courses need to be developed.

The course introduction and first module are complete (draft) and will soon be heading off to the SMEs and department managers for approval and sign off. I’m actually on-track with my original estimate and pretty damn proud of myself.

Have I mentioned I think they look damn spiffy too?

Granted, I’d never have managed the other two courses in the timeline requested. Somewhere an angel was looking out for me to ensure I didn’t burn out.

While I’m on the topic of small miracles, my former boss (what a wonderful lady she is) forwarded a copy of an email to me today. Apparently the project I was working on when I left my former employer is ready to launch and the traditional pat on the back email was sent out to everyone in the department (world-wide). One of the women I worked with in India who was responsible for a giant chunk of the project responded to the project manager’s original email specifically mentioning me and all my crazy hours and dedication to the cause. It’s nice to know I haven’t been forgotten and was appreciated – even if I did leave on a bit of a sour note at the end…

Gin: Your boy is on the phone again!

Technorati Tags: status update, ego boosting, T13