8 May, 2009
Here is a video that a group in Europe put out in digital preservation. It explains a bit of what I do in my job-although obviously not with nuclear plant data. But the basic issues of bit rot and metadata are the same, and I think it does a nice job of explaining a very complex topic.
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26 March, 2009
We are moved . . . mostly. The last little bit will be finished up on Sunday. Unfortunately I have a New England Archivist conference on Saturday, so that day is shot for moving/clean up work. But Erik isn’t working on Sunday, so we will wrap things up then. On the whole, the move went as well as could be expected. The highlight was that we assumed the worst and put Thomas in a pull-up all day, and he totally surprised us by asking to use the potty three times and didn’t wet his pull-up at all. On the whole potty training is going very well for the last two weeks, although we still need to work on going poo in the potty.
In other great news, we met with Thomas’ teacher and the special ed coordinator earlier this week and they are recommending that he be promoted to kindergarten! Plus, the summer session will be six weeks rather than four like it was last year and it’s moving to the early childhood center were he is going to preschool currently (all of three blocks from the apartment!) So he won’t have much of a break this summer, but the consistency really helps him stay focused so it should be really good for him.
In work news, I’ve been asked to be an alternate board member on the newly restarted Massachusetts State Historical Records Review Board. Admittedly I’m a little unclear about exactly what a SHRRB does, but it definitely seems like a pretty big honor, so I accepted the appointment. More details as things progress. And my involvement with the CoSTEP (Coordinated State Emergency Preparedness) group from cultural and historical institutions got me an invite to the official opening of the Commonwealth Museum display of the state’s founding documents. I actually got a sneak peak at the set-up last month at the meeting at the Archives, and it was AWESOME!! It’s not every day you get to see documents from the early 1600s. :-) And my co-worker Jen and I have been plugging through solutions for preservation of digital materials that is really exciting. (Okay, it’s really exciting to me and it’s the basis of a workshop we’re going to teach in the fall at a conference, and I think we might get a publication out of it too).
I’ve got a really cute picture of Thomas reading in his new room, but I have to find the camera cord to upload it, so that will be coming soon.
3 December, 2008
So yesterday Thomas asked me to read him Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM which is one of our favorite stories because of all the great rhymes and the beat of the words. I read the first line, and then Thomas recited the next one. I read another line; Thomas answered with the line that follows. We went through all but the last two pages of the book like that. I read a line and Thomas recited the next one back to me.
We had parent-teacher conferences today. We spent a very productive hour talking with his primary teacher, Ms. Lisa. They have started a new curriculum which he is breezing through and should really help his language skills. Also, she said that they have made some changes to the structure of the day that he has really responded to well. He’s transitioning between activities in the classroom more smoothly and they are having less trouble with him being “silly during serious time.” Outside the classroom he still tends toward the silly and that unfortunately often manifests itself in him bolting away from the group. We also talked a little about options for next year. Probably late next spring we will have a big meeting with all the teachers and the coordinator to get recommendations for whether he should move into kindergarten or if he should have another year of preschool or some combination. The school district is looking to set up a kindergarten similar to the preschool he is currently in where there would be a PDD-NOS/autism specific classroom, so my feeling is that he would probably start kindergarten in the fall. But we’ll have to wait and see how he’s doing later in the school year. It’s definitely going to be a challenge balancing his academic abilities with his social abilities. We want to keep him challenged and growing, but not overwhelmed.
On other fronts, I had meetings today with both my primary and secondary thesis readers and worked out what revisions I need to do on my first draft. The revisions are due on December 18th which is also the day I give a 15 minute presentation on my topic. After that, DONE!
At work, I’ve been invited to join the Content Committee of COSTEP (Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness) that is working with cultural institutions (libraries, museums, archives, historical societies) on preparation and planning for dealing with emergencies and disasters. The first meeting I’ll be attending is in January. If it sounds at all interesting to any of you, check out http://www.nedcc.org/services/disaster.costep.php and http://statewideplan.pbwiki.com/. I’m actually pretty excited about it and think it will be a great opportunity.
