...and then December is nearly half gone
Dec. 12th, 2020 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaWhen last I posted I was about to finish my LTU job and start a short, half-time contract with the Norrbottens Museum Association Archives. I did, in fact, manage to finish up the report on how to do stuff in the lab, so they will be able to keep using it, and then the next day, on my way home from the archives, stopped by the uni on my way home from the archives, checked off the things I was returning on the check list, and left it all on the desk in what had been my office. Then, a day or two later I noticed that I hadn't actually left everything on my desk. While I had check off "keys" on the list, and I had left the office door unlocked, since I "didn't have my keys with which to lock it", they were, in fact, still on my keychain. However, I had left the ID card, which meant that I couldn't get into the building without help. However, due to lucky timing, when I again stopped by the uni on my way home from the archives I happened to pass one of the Ore Geology PhD students just leaving the building, and he was nice enough to let me in so that I could leave the keys in the pile of other stuff. Now I am well and truly done with that job.
I am enjoying working at the archives. Since we are mostly closed to the public (individuals can book appointments to come in and consult the archives, if they want, but no one can just walk in randomly), my job is just archiving. That is to say I collect a pile of papers and stuff to be archived and look through it, sorting into piles by category, and making notes of which categories are present. We have a set code to use for the categories that starts with A1a for "protokoll" (meeting minutes) and A1b for "dagordningar" (meeting agendas), and works through many other common categories of paperwork and stuff a club, association, or society might like to archive till the list ends with M1 "föremål" (objects).
As I sort the papers into piles I discard the binders and notebooks, the plastic sheet protectors, the blank dividing sheets, and duplicate documents. I remove stapels and paperclips, and generally reduce everything to smaller piles. Those piles then get sorted by date (any errors made in the first sorting are resolved) and any extra large piles of paper that can be divided into sub-catagories are, with notes made as to which new categories are also present. Once the paper is completely sorted I tuck each category into appropriately labelled cover (A3 sized) paper (folded in half). The labels will show the Archive number, the name of the organisation, the leter-number-leter code for that category, and the date range for the documents in this category.
I take all of my notes what categories are present, their code and full names, and their date ranges on my phone in Trello. Then, when everything has been sorted and inventoried I pack the papers into cardboard archive boxes, and any objects get packed into other boxes, the boxes each get a label showing their archive number, the name of the organisation, and which volume number that box has.
Then I go to a computer and log in to the Visual Arkiv and copy-paste the data from Trello into the archive, so that anyone can look up what is there and decide if they wish to look at any of it.
Since I am working half time I am aiming at being there every week day between 07:00 and 11:00 (though I am welcome to arrive as early as 06:00, or as late as 09:00, I rather like being done before I need to lunch each day, never mind that I do need to take very short breaks for second breakfast and fika). This usually means that I go home and take a short nap, and then get up and try to accomplish useful things with the afternoon. Last week the "useful things" were mostly focused on getting my computer working again. It had been having issues with the hard drive that had gotten too bad to ignore any longer, so Kjartan was kind enough to take an evening to replace the hard drive and install an operating system for me, and I have been putting back the various programs I need and started putting back the data. I have a bit more work to go before that part is completely done.
In the evenings I have been doing SCA meetings, for the Drachenwald Law Council, and for next Summer Coronation, for which I am the autocrat (if it happens), and for fun. On Wednesday I didn't have a meeting scheduled, but instead gave Elnaz and Vincent a ride to Piteå, where they had been hired for a one of major cleaning of an apartment. Thursday's meeting was my zoom-birthday party. I would have loved to have had one in person, but given the current state of the pandemic, I decided it would be smarter to just go virtual with it.
To make it more party-like I decorated the living room Wednesday evening, moved the computer out there, plugged it into ethernet and stereo cables, and got everything working to project the Zoom meeting onto the big screen, and the sound out the stereo. We tested the connection that evening by doing a call with a friend in California, and it was good. Then I turned off the projector and stereo, let the computer go to sleep, and went to bed myself.
After work on Thursday I woke the computer back up, and asked it to cast my screen to the projector, and it said that it couldn't see anything to cast to. So I checked the internet, and saw that it had no internet connection (never mind that it was still plugged into the ethernet cable). Called David. We spent a half an hour trouble shooting, and couldn't get the computer to see the internet. So I carried it to the office, put it into its normal docking station, where it connected directly to the internet as it should. So I opened the zoom birthday party in the office, and hung out with people there over the afternoon. I had a steady stream of visitors as the day progressed--usually only one or two people at a time, meaning that I could have some really good conversations with people I hadn't seen in a while. One friend who dropped in I hadn't seen since high school. Some called in from the States, another from Australia, and quite a few from Sweden, both local friends, and friends way down south. Fifteen people in total over the course of the day.
This year, for the first year since I was 10, I didn't bake my own birthday cake. Elnaz insisted that since it was my birthday she should do the baking. It was difficult for me to agree to that, since I am such a control freak where food is concerned, but I decided to trust her (after she promised me that I would still get to lick the mixing bowl), and I was quite happy with the result. She made an almond sponge cake (gluten free), frosted with whipped cream and decorated with berries and pistachios.
After David got off of work he came over, tried the cake, and then tried the living room ethernet with a spare computer, and, of course, it worked perfectly for him on the first try. So I moved my computer out to the living room, and we did the last several hours of the party (during which there were more people in the call at once than there had been during the afternoon) from the comfort of the recliner, with the call on the big screen, and it was good. We finally closed the call around 22:30 or 23:00, and then David and I chatted for another half an hour before he went to his other home and I put everything away that had been gotten out for the party and went to sleep.
Friday morning I worked, had an afternoon nap, cooked some food, and then joined the zoom birthday party of a friend in the UK, which was nice. After I had been there a while I got a FB message from my apprentice in Skellefteå saying that she had joined the zoom call for my party, so I sent a quick "called away" note to the chat in the call I was in, then left and went to the call from the day before, and spent a good hour catching up with my apprentice.
This morning (Saturday) I did my normal once-a-fortnight zoom call with my sisters at 06:00 my time (which is 21:00 for my sisters in the States, and around 16:00 for the one in Australia), then took a nap before having a useful day doing laundry and finally starting a new phone baldric. I bought my new phone at the end of November (to replace the work phone I was giving back), and it is larger than the last phone, so it doesn't really fit very well in the pocket of my current baldric. Therefore today I have cut out fabric for a new one, and made a checklist of what I need to do, in what order, to make the next baldric (this took about three hours).
Then I sat to the computer and noticed that they had shared a video from today's Styringheim Baronial Investiture Court, so I watched that and did a bit more embroidery on the cloak I have been working on during all of the meetings (I will wait and start sewing the baldric tomorrow, and do as much of it as I can with the treadle sewing machine, rather than by hand), after which I realized that I really should update this.
My plan for the rest of December is keep working in the archive, finish moving into the newly reinstalled computer, and keep hanging out with folk on line whenever it is an option. Come January I hope to have energy to resume the data processing of all of the laser experiments I have done on quarry samples for my second PhD research and try to get to the point of being able to write that first paper, preferably getting it submitted well before this archive job contract ends on 31 March. It is a good plan. I hope I can pull it off.
I am enjoying working at the archives. Since we are mostly closed to the public (individuals can book appointments to come in and consult the archives, if they want, but no one can just walk in randomly), my job is just archiving. That is to say I collect a pile of papers and stuff to be archived and look through it, sorting into piles by category, and making notes of which categories are present. We have a set code to use for the categories that starts with A1a for "protokoll" (meeting minutes) and A1b for "dagordningar" (meeting agendas), and works through many other common categories of paperwork and stuff a club, association, or society might like to archive till the list ends with M1 "föremål" (objects).
As I sort the papers into piles I discard the binders and notebooks, the plastic sheet protectors, the blank dividing sheets, and duplicate documents. I remove stapels and paperclips, and generally reduce everything to smaller piles. Those piles then get sorted by date (any errors made in the first sorting are resolved) and any extra large piles of paper that can be divided into sub-catagories are, with notes made as to which new categories are also present. Once the paper is completely sorted I tuck each category into appropriately labelled cover (A3 sized) paper (folded in half). The labels will show the Archive number, the name of the organisation, the leter-number-leter code for that category, and the date range for the documents in this category.
I take all of my notes what categories are present, their code and full names, and their date ranges on my phone in Trello. Then, when everything has been sorted and inventoried I pack the papers into cardboard archive boxes, and any objects get packed into other boxes, the boxes each get a label showing their archive number, the name of the organisation, and which volume number that box has.
Then I go to a computer and log in to the Visual Arkiv and copy-paste the data from Trello into the archive, so that anyone can look up what is there and decide if they wish to look at any of it.
Since I am working half time I am aiming at being there every week day between 07:00 and 11:00 (though I am welcome to arrive as early as 06:00, or as late as 09:00, I rather like being done before I need to lunch each day, never mind that I do need to take very short breaks for second breakfast and fika). This usually means that I go home and take a short nap, and then get up and try to accomplish useful things with the afternoon. Last week the "useful things" were mostly focused on getting my computer working again. It had been having issues with the hard drive that had gotten too bad to ignore any longer, so Kjartan was kind enough to take an evening to replace the hard drive and install an operating system for me, and I have been putting back the various programs I need and started putting back the data. I have a bit more work to go before that part is completely done.
In the evenings I have been doing SCA meetings, for the Drachenwald Law Council, and for next Summer Coronation, for which I am the autocrat (if it happens), and for fun. On Wednesday I didn't have a meeting scheduled, but instead gave Elnaz and Vincent a ride to Piteå, where they had been hired for a one of major cleaning of an apartment. Thursday's meeting was my zoom-birthday party. I would have loved to have had one in person, but given the current state of the pandemic, I decided it would be smarter to just go virtual with it.
To make it more party-like I decorated the living room Wednesday evening, moved the computer out there, plugged it into ethernet and stereo cables, and got everything working to project the Zoom meeting onto the big screen, and the sound out the stereo. We tested the connection that evening by doing a call with a friend in California, and it was good. Then I turned off the projector and stereo, let the computer go to sleep, and went to bed myself.
After work on Thursday I woke the computer back up, and asked it to cast my screen to the projector, and it said that it couldn't see anything to cast to. So I checked the internet, and saw that it had no internet connection (never mind that it was still plugged into the ethernet cable). Called David. We spent a half an hour trouble shooting, and couldn't get the computer to see the internet. So I carried it to the office, put it into its normal docking station, where it connected directly to the internet as it should. So I opened the zoom birthday party in the office, and hung out with people there over the afternoon. I had a steady stream of visitors as the day progressed--usually only one or two people at a time, meaning that I could have some really good conversations with people I hadn't seen in a while. One friend who dropped in I hadn't seen since high school. Some called in from the States, another from Australia, and quite a few from Sweden, both local friends, and friends way down south. Fifteen people in total over the course of the day.
This year, for the first year since I was 10, I didn't bake my own birthday cake. Elnaz insisted that since it was my birthday she should do the baking. It was difficult for me to agree to that, since I am such a control freak where food is concerned, but I decided to trust her (after she promised me that I would still get to lick the mixing bowl), and I was quite happy with the result. She made an almond sponge cake (gluten free), frosted with whipped cream and decorated with berries and pistachios.
After David got off of work he came over, tried the cake, and then tried the living room ethernet with a spare computer, and, of course, it worked perfectly for him on the first try. So I moved my computer out to the living room, and we did the last several hours of the party (during which there were more people in the call at once than there had been during the afternoon) from the comfort of the recliner, with the call on the big screen, and it was good. We finally closed the call around 22:30 or 23:00, and then David and I chatted for another half an hour before he went to his other home and I put everything away that had been gotten out for the party and went to sleep.
Friday morning I worked, had an afternoon nap, cooked some food, and then joined the zoom birthday party of a friend in the UK, which was nice. After I had been there a while I got a FB message from my apprentice in Skellefteå saying that she had joined the zoom call for my party, so I sent a quick "called away" note to the chat in the call I was in, then left and went to the call from the day before, and spent a good hour catching up with my apprentice.
This morning (Saturday) I did my normal once-a-fortnight zoom call with my sisters at 06:00 my time (which is 21:00 for my sisters in the States, and around 16:00 for the one in Australia), then took a nap before having a useful day doing laundry and finally starting a new phone baldric. I bought my new phone at the end of November (to replace the work phone I was giving back), and it is larger than the last phone, so it doesn't really fit very well in the pocket of my current baldric. Therefore today I have cut out fabric for a new one, and made a checklist of what I need to do, in what order, to make the next baldric (this took about three hours).
Then I sat to the computer and noticed that they had shared a video from today's Styringheim Baronial Investiture Court, so I watched that and did a bit more embroidery on the cloak I have been working on during all of the meetings (I will wait and start sewing the baldric tomorrow, and do as much of it as I can with the treadle sewing machine, rather than by hand), after which I realized that I really should update this.
My plan for the rest of December is keep working in the archive, finish moving into the newly reinstalled computer, and keep hanging out with folk on line whenever it is an option. Come January I hope to have energy to resume the data processing of all of the laser experiments I have done on quarry samples for my second PhD research and try to get to the point of being able to write that first paper, preferably getting it submitted well before this archive job contract ends on 31 March. It is a good plan. I hope I can pull it off.