Totally not tech related. Read at your own risk/boredom.

I sort of want a tattoo.

Problem is, the tattoo that I want would require a lot of time, ink, pain, money and skin. When I described the concept to a friend of mine who has several tattoos, she laughed at me and said that while it would be neat, I would probably never do it. My Cousin of Awesome in Nashville also thought that it would be "damn cool" but advised that I might want to start with a small part of it and "grow it out."

Her phrasing being completely apt, we laughed and smiled on the car ride home from the airport when we were talking about it (albeit quietly so as not to wake the sleeping angel in the backseat). In short, I want a vine-and-flower tattoo. And I'm not talking about some pretty little pink rose and a curly bit of stem around it: my body would be the growing stake for the vine. It would start at my left ankle, curl around my calf and thigh, wrap around my stomach and chest, and flow across my upper back to my right shoulder and then down my right arm with a final flower ending across the back of my hand.

I know, I know (shut UP Tiny Voices). That would be some serious ink. For a girl that has NONE. So let's examine why Erin the Fearless hasn't yet done this.

1) I don't know anything about tattoos. Like, how to design them or where to go or how much they cost or how to take care of them. Everyone in my life who does have them, lives in Indiana. Fat lot of good that does me here in New Haven.

2) Money. Actually, that's a cop out answer. Scratch that. I'm not telling you, Internet, how much I make ('cause that ain't yo' bizniz and all), but I assure you, if I can afford to buy plane tickets like mad all summer long, I can afford some ink.

3) Needles. I don't like 'em. At all. I am told that the sensation of tattoo needles is not the same as the needles that the YHP shoves in my arm when it's time for a flu shot or the anti-cervical cancer thingy, but I've got a healthy fear respect for shiny, pointy things that I can feel in my arm/ass/gumline/where ever it's being put. I had to deal a lot with needles as a kid because of my food allergies, and while I've conquered my fear loathing utter and complete horror issues with needles on an everyday basis, I'm a little scared to find out what happens when I purposefully lay myself out on a table so that some guy/gal/certified creature can poke tiny, rapid, ink-filled holes in my pale Irish skin.

(The Tiny Voices would like to me address the fact that I have a nose piercing. "That required a needle! One that you could actually see light through, if you held it up and looked through it!" Yes, yes, I had that done. But that was one needle and it was fast and despite the fact that it bled, it wasn't that scary because I knew it would be over damn quick. Also, the dude doing it was cute and had the best Irish accent ever.)(SHUT UP!)

4) Professionalism. While IT is not particularly known for being overly strict about how you look, and the media does a damn good job of stereotyping portraying geeks as people who should be free to dress, pierce, tattoo, etc. themselves however they'd like (a la Abby from NCIS, assorted characters from Bones, and some other assorted forensic science shows that are filled with kick ass female characters that I watch), I have had it beat into my pretty little Midwestern head that Mature People do not get tattoos, Tattoo'd People do not get Good Jobs, and all of that other elitist BS that exists.

Problem is that it's still justified in said pretty little head because I still don't know what I'm doing with my life. Yeah, I'm never gonna be the CEO of Chase (ew) or an elementary school teacher in the Midwest (or anything in the Midwest if I can help it) or anything else that requires you to be God Fearing and Conservative, but what if I want to be a CIO or the head of a dept. or something else that requires you to be Professional and Mature? I don't see the CIOs of either school I've worked for hosting tattoos.

(Granted, I interviewed successfully at last summer's internship and Yale while forgetting to remove wearing a nose ring, so it's quite possible that the stereotyping work force is getting looser on the whole Conservative Conformity thing.)

5) My Mother. She's still pretending that the nose jewelry is a sticker. Though I gleefully look for ways to push her buttons, the sheer DRAMA that would occur when I came home sporting a giant vine crawling up my leg and down an arm is not something with which I wish to deal. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I would not wish that "discussion" upon all but the worst of my (mostly fictional) enemies.

Although it might just prove to be so shocking that no one says a damn thing, which would be awfully awesome. But unlikely.

6) Permanency. Yeah, that shit's forever. I like how I look without tattoos. Would I like how I look with them? I don't know. I guess I could Sharpie myself for a month and find out, but that's a lot of work. And while I'm not really lazy, per say, I don't have that much dedication for a project that has a 50% chance of not happening.


It doesn't help that half the time I ease into things and the other I go for the all-or-nothing approach. (Hey, I never said I was rational!) For this, I have no idea which would be best, because the ink IS permanent, so you might as well go for the complete Body Vine as the Pretty Little Rosebud, because neither one of those suckers is leaving without some serious time with Mr. Laser and Dr. Dermatologist.

So am I insane, or do I just need to sort of direct my desires/curiosities? Thoughts on how to do the latter?

What would you do if...

Let's pretend, for a brief moment, that things are different. Perhaps we live in an earlier time, or in a later one. In this sphere of difference, there are no cell phones, no personal computers much less personal computing devices, no e-readers, no Internet, no cables, modems, TVs, gaming consoles, lasers or anything else that I (and many, MANY other people) currently depend upon to provide me with a job.

In this imaginary and perhaps terrifying world, the question becomes, what would we do? In terms of communication, entertainment, jobs, recreation, productivity... What would the skill set be, instead of that which is currently possessed by millions upon millions of citizens of the worlds?

Well, for starters, y'all wouldn't be reading this, because I wouldn't be writing it, publishing it, putting it on the web for the world to peruse or mock or whatever it is that the Internet does to my ill-used blog.

One of the things that constantly amazes me is our dependence upon technologies. Not only do we assume that past technologies will continue to work (or at least that the foundations they created will), that current technologies will provide that which is needed, and most importantly, that new technologies and ideas will continue to spew forth, making our lives "better," and full of more "conveniences." But is it?

Hundreds, probably thousands even, of articles have been written in the past 20 years about how technology is changing humanity for the worse; that we're losing touch with each other, the world, the earth, life - you name it, we've lost it and DOOM WILL COME OF IT! And another several hundred, maybe thousand, articles have been written on how technology will save the same nouns previously listed. YAY TECHNOLOGY; IT WILL SAVE US ALL! So which is it? Are we slowly dying from the carginogens in our Macbook Pros, or are we creating and pushing the experiences of the human existence with collaborative software and new media mashups?

But rhetoric aside, let's go back to the idea of our world sans the thing we love: how would we manage? Could we manage? Can we even accurately fathom the idea of such a prehistoric world? Well, I can. And do. And sometimes wish it was so.

"Noooooooooo!!" cry out millions of Tiny Voices. "Erin, how can you say such a thing?! You work for ITS!"

Actually, I say and type it with relative ease (and not without a nod to irony). Because the question isn't really can we exist without technology; the answer is clearly yes. Our forefathers and foremothers did. As I'm fond of pointing out to my cell-phone obsessed siblings, modern homo sapien didn't have phones for several thousand years. Yet we managed to survive, create, communicate, travel and raise a lot of pretty awesome buildings without a single phone call or text. No, the question really is, "Should we exist with such a dependency upon technology?" And I think the answer is no.

Should we use technology to make things faster? Sure. I can type so much faster than I can hand write things out, and my handwriting kind of dies after awhile, so type is easier to read in the long run. I like being able to go lots of places with access to the Internet in my pocket, as well as the handy GPS function the iPhone provides. I love the Kindle, and managing 100+ students is beyond easier with our web apps and email. I'm not sure that we could manage that many students without it.

But should we be dependent upon it, to the point that we don't know what to do without it? Oh hell no. But I see that happening, a lot, perhaps more so than others because of the very fact that I work in technology.

So what do we do to combat the driving need to be attached to email, cell phones, texts, updates on Facebook and Twitter and RSS feeds? Well, we start with simple things, like self control. Parents, your children will not die if you do not give them a cell phone at age 8. I promise. I didn't have one until I was 20. I'm sure the Tiny Voices are gasping that such a thing is true, but it is, and HEY LOOK I'm still alive! To put it into perspective, there are still people out there who are living on subsistence farming methods on every continent. They do not own cell phones, and they probably never will. They do not have email, they do not compulsively check Facebook to see if John and Susan are still dating, they do not give a single iota for Michael Jackson's death, life or music. And they are, amazingly, happy.

Self-control, first then. And then simple curiosity, paired with a banishing of shoe-gazing abilities that my generation is so prone to possessing. I have this crazy idea for mandatory service corp post-high school, but that's for another day entirely. But we must encourage and seek out new ideas and experiences that are not related to the computer. Wait, what is that, Tiny Voices? You ask what you would do without it?

Anything you want, my dears. Unshackle yourself from the Internet and the data networks and the cell phone towers for a day. Try it. I dare you. You might be surprised.

Firsts: a little bit of this and that

The last 30 odd days have been full of firsts for me. I started my first summer not in the Midwest, went to my first ResNet Symposium in St. Cloud, MN, and am preparing for my first major move.

Summers in the Midwest start mid-May and contain hot, muggy days where all you want to do is eat freezy pops and lie under the AC unit. Summers in Connecticut apparently consist of rain, rain, and more rain. I am told this is not the norm, but that was also said of snow in December and January, the cold temperatures in spring, and I don't know how many other things relating to weather and seasonal behaviors. I'll believe "normal" when it finally comes. Trading muggy days for rainy days is an improvement for breathing, but not for my mood stability. Damn you seasonal affective disorder!

The first ResNet Symposium was at its most simple, amazing. Somewhere after Day 2 I stopped being able to describe the fun. There was of course, the expected networking, learning, teaching, sharing, etc. but the level of humor and good ol' fashioned goofballery far exceeded my expectations. I now have many friends that I cannot wait to see again at future Northeast ResNet conferences, as well as looking forward to next year's conference at Western Washington University. And definitely looking forward to 2011, when Yale hosts the Symposium! It'll be a lot of work, but I'm excited already!

As far as the major move is concerned, it's interesting already. I reserved a 12' truck from Penske, as they had the cheapest price/truck and gave discounts for online reservations and AAA membership (it just paid for itself). When my dad and I went to go pick it up Saturday AM, we were given a 16' truck for the same price. Joy. I have now have a monstrosity to drive across the Eastern third of the US. Because 12' wasn't big enough, right?

Other random thoughts, given my current insomnia...iPhoto's "Faces" can be pretty entertaining; mine in particular thinks that car wheels are people. Why can't I mark more "Locations" in iPhoto? The iPhone photos label themselves due to GPS, but I'd like to add more info to the other 500 photos that I haven't taken with the iPhone. Goose Apocalypse in the park today was entertaining: my little brother threw some leftover bread into the water, and then next thing we knew there were 20 Canadian geese surrounding us. I climbed up onto the picnic table to "take pictures." Rain on the 4th of July should be illegal. And I should definitely go to bed.

Continuation

I've decided that since I still have this blog, since I'm still working in educational technologies, I'm still a feminist and I'm still a woman, I should continue in the blogosphere. If no one reads it, ok; if someone does, awesome and thanks for reading.

In the last 13 months, some pretty amazing (and sometimes scary) things have happened. There was a graduation, a summer school class, a paid summer tech internship, lots of pet sitting, a third job at ND working weekends and nights, three job interviews, 2 flights, and one job offer. Thankfully, it was the job offer I wanted. And needed. And good freaking lord I work for Yale now.

Yes, that's right folks, Erin got a job at YALE. Complete with a nice paycheck and benefits. I lived some some "interesting" people for 6 months, and when that lease ended, got the hell out. I now live with very nice people in an apartment 10 blocks from work, that is pet friendly and normally houses quiet people. Currently the subletters downstairs are...well, less than quiet, but I'll deal. PS, my backyard is I-91. That would be an eight lane highway.

So what do I do? Basically, what I did in college, only for lots more money and more permissions to the fun administrative programs. Have I mentioned how sweet this job is? No? Let me declare it so: MY JOB IS AWESOME. Yes, there are days that are less awesome (like when I have to fire someone) and days that are spectacular (like the day I got put in charge of the tech side of Yale's potential/future e-reader program); but every day, I learn something and laugh at least once. Usually more. Definitely more.

I'm learning more about how to be a Boss and a Friend, Dell and Apple hardware, e-readers, ResNet, photography, how to make a film, how to live with strangers (yep, still mastering that one), and how to live on my own. Actually, scratch that last one, I've got it pretty well figured out. I can cook and do my own laundry. I pay all of my own bills. I own a dog and he's all set; I show up for work every day (usually on time, but occasionally I slip up). Yeah, I've got the supporting self thing down. W00t.

As Janice would say: "You go girl." Well, I went East, I settled in, and I'm happy. It doesn't get much better than this.

Patience is a virtue, I hear...

and I must confess that I do not possess it at all. But a great many readers of this already knew that, I'm guessing.

No word from Yale yet. I have somehow managed to not bite all of my nails off; in fact, they are growing. The mind boggles.

I'll let y'all know soon as I hear, one way or the other. (Everyone clap their hands and say "I do believe in Yale, I do! I do!" and I'll get the job, right? I mean, it worked for Tinker Bell!)

Sort of related news, I didn't get the job working in the registrar's office at ND. "We found someone with more database experience, but we were very impressed with your technical credentials and your interviewing deportment." I didn't really want that job anyways.....but meh.

Thanks for all of the well wishes and support over the last two weeks!!

Erin Graduates, Gets a pseudo!Job, Gets Interview for real!Job...

So far all you Erin the SMiChick fans out there, here's a quick-and-dirty update (yes, the title does more or less sum it all up....but there's no fun in that!)

So I graduated! YAY! May 17th, 2008 shall forever be awesome. Plus that one summer class needed to graduate...yeah. DONE.

So I got an internship (besides the really fun one with Vince, Janice, Kathy, Dan and the IT Crowd)! I've been working for United Fixtures Co/Interlake. They make big steel...things. Like those big steel girder-esque things you see in Home Depot and Lowe's. Yeah, those're all ours. Other clients include but are not limited to: Wal*Mart, Meijer's, and some companies I've never heard of before this. I take care of: cell phone problems, documentation, rewriting manuals, SyteLine education, customer service initiative, and whatever else they want to make me do.

Hey, for a $10/hr internship, I'll do just about whatever they want. I drew the line at cleaning the office for them. Loudly.

So I applied for "real" jobs. You know, the ones with things attached to them. Medical, dental, retirement plans, etc. Those are rumoured to be handy. Had an interview with Zimmer mid-summer that went nowhere, had an interview with ND's Registrar's Office last Monday (I'll hear back from them on Thursday at the latest; I am SO overqualified for that position), and I am now in New Haven, CT for a third.

New Haven, Connecticut would be the home of Yale University, where I am interviewing for a position in their Information Technology Services, to be an Asst. Manager of the Student Technology Collaborative. Think...SMC's ResNet with more hands-on stuff and some Helpdesk practices thrown in. Super awesome. So far, so good. I'm in an awesome hotel, have a Yale loaner laptop and dinner with my potential future boss and her family was a lot of fun. We had seafood and ice cream and Nate (their little boy) didn't want me to leave at the end of the night. Aww. Major Parent Points were scored. (Didn't hurt that my fabulous past boss told her that I babysit and am generally full of awesome!)

So now I'm off to bed, because I've got a crazy schedule in the morning!
I'll let y'all know how it goes!!

PS I feel like such a Midwesterner...but Midwesterners are wonderful people!!

Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age

Sherry Turkle, Patricia Diaz Dennis, et al., from Living in the Information Age

As a young woman soon entering in the workplace, I had a particular interest in this article. Turkle and Dennis are concise and direct in their assessment that the technological education of girls needs to begin in the K-12 area and continue through high school and college. Their main concerns are that technology is not created with women in mind (as the creators are men), and that current cultural ideas and action circulating among women regarding technology point out the deficits and short comings of current technology education methods.


They point to the lack of "quality of educational software" as well as few, if any, "opportunities to design" programs and software that can be used to best suit needs across disciplines in a single classroom.

While all of this is true and extremely relevant to the students at Saint Mary's, what I would have liked to see fewer bullet points and more discussion. Perhaps I'm just a HUSTian at heart and have been trained to read rather than scan; I do know, however, that more things can be said in a essay than can be said in a set of bullet points. But I digress from the point of things.

My actual and non-superficial critique of the article is that Turkle and Dennis seem to have forgotten one key detail in the implementation of new technology methods in the lower divisions and new pedagogy in higher ed: support. I.e., Money. American greenbacks make the US school systems go 'round, and without financial support from tax payers, administrators in the individual school systems, parental involvement and support, the change will not occur. I can easily identify with the problems, as several, if not all, of their changes should be made within my high school. Seeing as I still have siblings in that school system and the high school itself, I've heard many a tale of what's changed and who's left and who's replaced them. What I haven't heard is that improvements have been made to the computer labs, the teachers' computers themselves, or that software upgrades have been purchased. Oh, I'm sure certain upgrades have happened - I'm betting that all the Dell's are running XP Pro by now, and that the single Mac lab has one of the last three OS upgrades.

Most school systems (based on what I know of the school systems in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties) don't have a large budget marked out for computers and technology. The ones that do are typically one of the magnet schools that specifically use technology for art or science. The liberal arts' relationship with technology is non-existent as far as high schools are concerned, suffering from some misconception that all liberal arts folks need is an OS and MS Office (Which is completely incorrect and crazy, I don't know what I'd do with a computer on which I could only write papers. Maybe use it as a paperweight?).

Other problems rear their head in the issue of funding. Thanks to the Bush Administration's infinite levels of unquestionable wisdom, most teachers don't have the time to worry about giving their students a comprehensive education that includes decent computer knowledge (and I don't mean programming or building from scratch; we're talking basic "this is Office and it's a set of programs that make your life easy;" the distinctions between web browsers and e-mail clients, etc.). Instead of learning new techniques, ideas, and software and then incorporating that into the curriculum, teachers are forced to spend time going over basics in reading, writing and math so that students can take pointless, ridiculous standardized tests which then determine a great many fates: the student, the teacher, the school and even the school system. No Child Left Behind places an emphasis on a sort of false holistic approach to education and leaves no room for individual learning and teaching styles, forgetting that the world is a dynamic place.

(I shall endeavor to leave that soapbox; I obviously have a deep and long-standing dislike of NCLB, having been the first graduating class that suffered under its delusions of success and grandeur. I make no apologies for it, however, and never will.)

However, it is my deepest hope that as more women join the technology field, it will be seen as more socially acceptable, feasible, and even promotable to increase the availability to computer classes to young women, as well as teaching styles from the beginning. I do have one thing that I would like to add to Turkle and Dennis' ideas: the expectation of computer competence. When parents and teachers begin to treat young women as a) competent computer users and b) give the proper guidance and tools (which is largely influenced by economic status, I am aware), then female students will not feel that this is a boys' realm. It will become simply a skill to possess, like spelling or addition. Non-gendered and demanded is my hope, I suppose. Let's see how long that actually takes.