Every once in a while, I’ll try to print remotely to our printer but get an error message: Output tray full.
Archive for June, 2008
Finally, after 4 months, I am finished with one of my biggest projects in a long, long time. I’m finally able to make it a Friday Felicitation!
This year I was co-editor of True Words from Real Women, the annual anthology of the Story Circle Network. My fellow editor is a dear friend from SCN and a true Wonder Woman. I love her to pieces and hope she learned as much from me as I learned from her.
We really wanted to leave our mark on the anthology and find ways to show that it is a proud showcase of our members’ writings. In previous years it has had a very similar look to our quarterly publication, Story Circle Journal. We wanted the anthology to similar but different, so we opted for the same style of illustration throughout. Although the inner pages are black text on white paper, we chose a lavender paper for the cover because the Journal is white paper throughout.
We were expecting about 50 submissions–we ended up with over 100! But it’s done and I am extremely proud of it. And I’m sending up a little good karma in the hopes that I can be involved in the project again next year. 
I’m a bum and completely unashamed to admit it! I slept in this morning–no alarm clocks, no wake up calls, no meetings. It was divine. The STC conference was great! My brain is so completely fried that I’m trying not to think too much about it. I have notes out the wazoo, some good new connections, and several research ideas I want to explore. But not yet!
After I dragged my butt out of the hotel I wandered six blocks to the Historical Independence district, which is apparently a National Park (you learn something new every day!), hoping to tour Independence Hall. All the tickets had already been distributed for the day, so I missed out on that. 
But I took a Duck Tour and part of a double-decker bus tour. I only did the partial tour because I realized one of the stops was half a block from my hotel and my tootsies were killing me! Trudging through the rain to the ballgame last night ruined my shoes, so my feet are very unhappy. But I hope to continue the bus tour tomorrow morning between conference calls and getting to the airport. We’ll see!
Here’s Captain Butch of the Philly Ducks. Captain Butch likes long drives and making wise-quacks. (hehehe) He wisely advised us that if we saw him donning a life jacket, we might want to consider doing the same ourselves. And, of course, since it’s an open boat without closed windows, finding an escape route shouldn’t be too difficult.
Here are some highlights from our tour:
Our first celebrity sighting: Spongebob!
Dear to my passions, here we see the first free public library in our country.
Betsy Ross’ house. But is Betsy’s claim to fame really true?
And, ye olde Starbucks.
Then, from a lovely and breezy perch on the double-decker bus, I saw a few more sights.
Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continuously inhabited street in the country.
The gate to Chinatown, which the guide says was made without nails or glue (I wonder if that’s true).
And, last but not least, could I really come to Philadelphia without seeing the Liberty Bell?!
I’m at the 55th Annual Society for Technical Communication Summit here in Philadelphia. I’ve been attending since 2002–it’s my annual working vacation. But I wonder if I should stop coming to these conferences… During 4 of the last 6 conferences, my team at work has been reorganized. It’s a real pain (and slightly unnerving) when that happens and you’re traveling! 
So far it’s been a good conference. I’m on the program committee this year, so I’ve missed a couple of sessions I really wanted to attend. The wonderful thing about STC, though, is that most folks are happy to share their materials and discuss the topic outside of the conference. And I purposely am trying for a laid back schedule this year. For the last 6 conferences I attended almost all of the lunches and banquets. This year it’s nada.
That’s been nice because I ran into the contingent of students from my alma mater, New Mexico Tech. It’s been fun to hang out with them. I tried to impart some wisdom and help them decide which sessions to attend. Tried to point them to some of the events they should definitely attend. And then last night they treated me to dinner. Nice kids! Sheesh, I say “kids” like I’m some old geezer. Though I think they might suspect that!
We’re in downtown Philly, and being in downtown areas always seems like a new experience. I’m a suburban dweller so the noise and people are novel each time I encounter it. And my hotel is across the street from the Reading Terminal Market. Talk about a new experience! It’s like a Texas farmer’s market on steroids. I ate my lunch at a counter. At a counter! *squee* And sat next to a rather talkative fella from Philly, who when he found out I was attending a conference responded with, “Yeah, most of yous ah.” (ah = are, in case you need the translation)
The conference is over tomorrow. I’ve got tickets to go to a Phillies game tomorrow night, and plan on doing the hop-on-hop-off bus tour on Thursday. So for now, a few quick pictures of the area. If you’re interested, pop on over to the conference stream on Twemes.
The opening session stage:
Welcoming STC to Philly:
Funky esclator in the convention center (yes, those are oriental soup bowls and spoons):
My hotel is in a historic building:
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