Alexandra Taylor's Blog

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Wow, being an adult is hard and time consuming. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I remember the days when I could sit at my computer all day everyday and just play around with it. While I can still – to an extent – on weekends, I just find myself doing other stuff. That and well, there’s honestly not been that much for me to update on this blog.

It’s kind of startling.

My life is… routine. I work, I come home, sleep. Repeat. Weekends are slightly more varied but then I don’t do that much. I find myself so tired come the end of the work week that I just don’t want to do anything. Over the past year I’ve started Karate and stopped due to an injury. I want to pick it up again I just need to organise it. I started a freelance archiving job for the Bugatti Club of Australia but gave that up because it just wasn’t happening. It was very hard to get motivated when all I want to do is sleep. Now that’s over I’m hoping to go back to volunteer archiving as that was nowhere as much pressure as the job. Less pressure is what I need at the moment.

I ended up dropping out of Uni. I just couldn’t keep up with it and with not being in the field I just didn’t see the point. Plus, honestly, the difference between a Bachelor and a Masters in the Library field is absolutely nothing. I did it for something to do and to keep my Centrelink payments. That was the middle of last year and it was a relief. Well technically the end when I dropped but I took leave for the second semester so I did my last subject first semester last year.

I’ve also kind of given up on my novel. Mostly cause I can’t figure out a decent ending… If I do I’ll go back cause I truly do want to finish it but the endings I have are cop-outs and that just seems wrong to me. Perhaps in time I’ll come up with another one.

I enjoy my job, it’s a long day and doesn’t leave for much else. I’ll stick with it for a few years but I really do want to advance. I’m twenty seven this year and while I have a better idea of what I want to do with my life I’m still not 100% sure. It’s startling. I spent all of my childhood and early twenties wanting to be a librarian and archivist and perhaps I’ll end up back in the field but honestly… as much as I want to work in history I don’t think it will happen. I want something challenging and diverse, something that pushes me to grow and in many ways that doesn’t? It’s familiar, it’s safe and while I’ll always love it perhaps its not a career for me? I suppose we’ll see what the future holds, one really never does know though.

So that’s a year in what four paragraphs?

OH WELL!

Click the animation to open the full version (via Penny Stocks).

This is something that appeared during my university subject this semester and it really is quite fascinating. Scary too!

Blog more regularly. The fact that it’s already March 13th and I’ve yet to do anything? Well. We’ll see how I go. It’s amazing just how much this ‘real life’ gets in the way of things. I’ve spent the day working on my book blog to get it into a more workable condition. What was I supposed to be doing? Uni work. Still University is going well and I’m studying Social Media this semester which is a lot of fun though I’m lurking on the Facebook group more than I probably should be.

Still one does what one has to do.

I’m starting my very first full-time job on Tuesday. I’m nervous as but also incredibly excited. I guess we’ll see how that goes.

I have been taking an active stance in my fitness and weight loss regime. At least, more than I have been. My Fitbit is getting an incredibly good workout and I’m constantly pushing myself to beat my PBs of steps, active minutes etc. Most steps I’ve done so far is 30k in  day. The workweek hustles and weekend warrior challenges are brilliant motivators. Feel free to add me. Combined with the counting calories and water intake (MyFitnessPal) I’m starting to see some movement though it is slow. I’m feeling much healthier and generally better overall so that is certainly something!

Hope you are all well and had a good holiday season (is it to late to wish that? Oh well.)

Insurrection News

STATEMENT ON THE DISRUPTION ON MELBOURNE PRIDE 2016

Today at the Melbourne ‘Pride’ March, on Boon Wurrung land, a group of queer and transgender activists staged a peaceful sit-in with the aim of disrupting the march. We drew attention to the ties of ‘Pride’ with environmentally destructive and socially unjust corporations as well as police and political parties that institutionalise oppressive systems.

Our group wanted to remind people that ‘Pride’ is not simply a celebration, but a protest fighting for liberation for everyone harmed by heteronormativity, cisnormativity, misogyny, ableism, racism and other forms of oppression.

Several onlookers – many of whom were drinking alcohol at the adjacent pub – violently assaulted us. They sprayed us with a hose, threw large buckets of dyed yellow water, threw glass bottles and some attempted to violently take a transgender flag. Victoria Police and some Pride attendees also assaulted a physically and visibly disabled…

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It’s amazing just how one minute it is January, then you blink and it is nearly September. Well in this case it was July and now it is nearly September but that doesn’t sound as good even if the sentiment is the same. I’ve been writing when I can but for the most part, unfortunately, my life has been kept up between work and uni, both are important, no doubt about that but sometimes I would just like to sit down and write? I should be volunteering today, but I’ve decided to stay at home and relax so hopefully I’ll get some done. In between cooking scones for tomorrow as we’re hosting the morning tea for the staff.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. Well not as much as I was but it’s better than nothing.

My goal is still to finish the first draft of the Obsidian Vortex (WIP title) by the end of this year. I’m about maybe a quarter of the way through? Though of that I’ve written three-quarters of that this year so it could be doable. I’ll have to buckle down in a bit but I’m determined to do it.

As part of my degree through Charles Sturt University (CSU), we are required to do a ‘Study Visit’ for one of our subjects. I finished mine today. What it involved was going to various archives and libraries throughout Melbourne and learning how they work. What was interesting though was just the wide variety of libraries available and what they offer to us. I had visited some of them before and was excited to see them again but what really got me was the one that I had little interest in visiting turned out to be quite interesting and different to what I expected of it.

Some of the highlights I think were

seeing the souvenir of King George VI ‘the pictures in a walnut’
seeing the rules for the 1859 game of AFL, the very first one to be played!
The State Library and PROV (Public Records Office of Victoria). I’m in love with these two places and can spend forever at them time and time again

The people that went on the tours with us as well as my fellow students from CSU were a delight to meet. While it wasn’t strictly part of the Study Visit, one of the other students and myself went to the WW1 exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, something I greatly enjoyed. As I walked around it I took photos of all the information going ‘this will be so helpful in this story. Oooh that is an interesting fact’ etc.

Between that and the rest of the places we visited I have so many ideas for new stories. Oops? I really need to finish the ones that I’m currently working on first before starting new ones but damn these ideas are calling to me. I suppose I’ll give in and start them eventually but I do also know I have a lot more research that I need to do for some of them before I’ve got enough information to start writing them.

Of course, Thursday was wrapped up by the Let’s Talk event at the Library at the Dock which was a networking event at the Dockland’s library. It was interesting and while I got to talk to a few new people I’m glad overall that it wasn’t too much of a ‘talk and eat’ session as I find those incredibly awkward. We instead got to listen to a panel of four people in the industry as they discussed various things. It was interesting to hear their advice and tips for resumes and being hired but what really made me sit up was the fact that they mentioned editing your skills section for each resume you submit something that seems so obvious yet I’d never thought of it… Also that as a recruiter they actually do like receiving phone calls etc. from potential candidates. That was something I was glad to know for sure as it was something I’d considered in the past but hadn’t been sure how it would be perceived.

It was a very informative panel though!

While the week was exhausting and I’m so so glad to have the opportunity to have done this as well as to meet everyone that I did. The problem with being online that even though we have a Facebook group to help each other it isn’t the same as meeting them face to face.

DATABASE OF MELBOURNE PUBLISHERS

Some of you might know that I’ve been working on a picture book that I’m hoping to publish. That requires finding a publisher… That is much harder than I expected. Not only does it need to accept unsolicited mansucripts but also publish non-fiction picture books. The latter is few and far between.

In doing my search I never found a database of publishers so I’ve decided to make one.

We have a form to submit the information through and a database of all the responses.

I hope you all find it useful.

At work we said farewell to one of my co-workers the other day. I normally wouldn’t have posted anything about this but it is because of her in many ways that I’m perusing the career that I am today and where I am in generally. Some of you might know that I went to school at my work place. She started in my year nine and she was one of the most encouraging teachers I had. Well, she didn’t teach me per se but she was a teacher and I got to know her well through various things. She encouraged me to read, she allowed me to volunteer in the library which nurtured my love of books and libraries – I had wanted to be a librarian all of my life (well since I was 9 I think?). She, encouraged me and allowed me a lot of freedom truthfully and for that I will be forever thankful.

She was, from that time someone I respected and looked up too.

Then the day happened when I was walking into the station and she drove passed and offered me a job. Just like that we become co-workers and I’m incredibly thankful for that. Not only did I get a part time job but it gave me an opportunity to work at a school library where I’d only worked at a public library before then. I got to work directly underneath her and it was an amazing experience. I had seen the ‘public’ part of the school library but now I could seen the backend and the amount of work that she did between that and her classes was amazing.

Not only that but she was big on the whole e-learning part. I would sit in the library as they talked about using Google Docs and ebib and think ‘I really wish we were using this when I was a student’. It’s a well known secret that I find that sort of thing fascinating and think it has a LOT of potentional. If I don’t stick to librarires (or archives) I would love to work in e-learning, especially in a primary school.

The principal of the school recognised that and made her the head of e-learning and ICT which is a role she excelled at. What she did was amazing and continued to inspire me.

Yesterday we said farewell to her though as she moves on to another school. I’m going to miss her a lot. She is someone I look up too and respect greatly. She’s moving onto bigger and bette things though and I wish her luck no matter how odd it will be without her there. I owe her so much I and I wish her all the best.

I was reading something at work the other day which suggested a smaller library collection is better than a bigger one. The reasoning behind this is that a smaller collection is that it is easier for a patron to find a book that they would like to read.

To quote my co-worker who wrote it, “When Opening the Book introduced the observation methods of Paco Underhill into library practice, one of the most famous early observations was the member of staff who watched the A-Z fiction sequence in her library for two hours, noting every visitor and where they moved. She was astonished to discover that in two hours, not one single person got past the letter G. People looked in the early sequence and either chose a book or gave up and moved on.”

Is this really the case? I admit I’ve worked in libraries for ten years and have been using them all of my life but I haven’t seen this but then I haven’t spent hours observing people to say one way or another. I personally go through the entire collection most of the time but then I skim the books for genre tags to find a particular type of book. If I want to read something about The Civil War, I’ll scan history books until I find something about that. It does make it easier to find a book than going through each book one by one. Does anyone actually do that? I’m truly curious about that.

I’m not saying one way or another which I prefer. I truthfully don’t know! I’m just curious as to what people think. Is it better to have books lined up in a traditional matter or is it better to have face out book displays?

An example of the world

I tried to thank him for saving my life. He sid he would have done the same for anybody, even a great useless, clumsy, play-futtoed, muttoed-headed galah of an Italian.

Nino Culotta, Gone Fishing – 1962

An Explanation

The origin of the ‘galah’ is straightforward enough – a borrowing from the Yuwaararraay language spoken near Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. What is interesting is the personality that we have given this bird. Why the Galah should seem to be more stupid than other birds is hard to say. The connection between Galahs and stupidity seems to have asserted itself in the early 1900s and may arise from the observation that, like Cockatoos, Galahs like to chatter on. This notion occurs again in the name given to the period on the outback radio network given over to private conversation. It was called the ‘Galah Session.’

The Dinkum Dictionary: The originals of Australian words by Susan Butler