Today

was mostly about redesigning my résumé, curriculum vitae, and references pages, along with making business cards, all of which have the same 'brand' in terms of design, font, etc. My résumé, based on a template I found on the internet that was supposed to be updated to 2017's 'look', is a two-column format with very concise information on it. My CV is all one-column, five pages, but contains everything from my work and education history to my professional activities, committees, teaching experience, and publications. It's for academic/faculty positions. The cards have my contact info on one side and a short blurb of what I'm about professionally on the back. The references page is simple, but has the word 'references' going down the side. All of them have a touch of blue very similar to my interview suit. I'm hoping this all looks much cleaner and more professional than the table-format résumé I had. This seems almost like a unified business stationary.

I printed everything out, went to Office Depot and got some business card paper, and went over a little early to pick A up from work, and sat in the hot car with the windows down proofreading, finding quite a few ways to simplify things to a more concise use of language (one of my faults is my wordiness, as I'm sure you've figured out).

After I took him to get his hair cut and dropped him off, I came back, opened the apartment windows, and started making corrections. I printed out a sheet of the cards. (I got the sides mixed up, but I don't think you can really tell). I made 'web' versions of both the résumé and CV [without my address or phone number], posted them on Google Sites at the links on the right sidebar, copied and pasted them in a format that could be easily read when going to those pages, and printed the regular ones out again.

I have a job to apply for tomorrow, and another one I'm going to apply for next week. This will help. I also plan to go to the career center (unemployment office) and library next week and have the materials critiqued and get some feedback. I welcome any comment from those of you who might be more in the know regarding what employers are looking for these days. Just choose Résumé or Curriculum Vitae on the sidebar or the links on this post and to see the formatted versions, open up the document (.pdf) link. Look them over, and let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it.

I know that they normally look at three references, but I've had one librarian, three nurses, and two doctors offer to be references, so I have them all on the sheet, indicating which ones were supervisors, which were patrons, and which are colleagues. The next two applications will be to the University of Kentucky, and three of the references have ties there. So I think that's promising.

Okay, I think I'm going to take a break. It's been a fairly busy day. I'll probably write later.

Today I:

1. Paid my rent
2. Took books back to the library and got some more
3. Called and cancelled the game.
4. Helped a friend look over some things in preparation for going to the store
5. Helped a friend get reading glasses and those eyeglass holders
6. Took a friend to the store for a larger run than we though at the bigger store which was hot, and neither of us thought we'd make it
7. Got another friend a chocolate shake
8. Watched an interesting video on the philosophy of the question of the reality of fictional objects and entities (thanks to YKWIA)
9. Watched a hilarious Christmas episode of 'Eureka' where the characters were translated into lots of cartoon styles and Jim Parsons of 'The Big Bang Theory' was the voice of Carl the ever-suffering Jeep driven by the sheriff
10. Rubbed a friend's feet until he fell asleep
11. Chatted a bit with the other for awhile
12. Came home
13. Had a bite to eat
14. Listened to some music
15. Read a book
16. Took a nap
17. Paid my cell phone bill
18. Revamped my résumé and curriculum vitae online, since I'd redone the print ones
19. Removed the steri-strips on my incisions, as they were curling up and they had told me that would be the signal to remove them--seems odd to have a bare knee again

So it was a busy day, but not so much as a normal Saturday, and I had from about 6 pm on to myself. We're not playing Call of Cthulhu tomorrow, so I'm going over much later than normal and presumably I'll work on some things here, like straightening up, getting a little laundry together, putting the massive laundry from last week away (no, still haven't done that), made the bed completely (it's just blankets and two pillows right now), take out the trash and recyclables, that sort of thing. Also I want to try out a popcorn popper I got some time ago, take it out, and figure it out. It and air popper, but it's round rather than the normal air poppers. Then I'll go over to their house, do my little bit of laundry and some things around there, and visit. I don't think we're all up to watching The Grand Budapest Hotel at the moment, so while I have it, that may be put on hold until sometime next week.

I am

home, propped up with pillows on the bed with the laptop on a lap desk atop two more pillows, listening to Loreena McKennitt and trying not to fall asleep after such a busy week while still managing to get some rest. I started out my day very stressed not by my impending work, but rather various things from my life outside of work, but forced myself to put aside my anxiety to get things accomplished, and felt much better as a result.

I did manage to get that job application in as well, and I do hope you'll wish me luck. It would be a very exciting job with benefits, a nice salary, and it would utilise my history background very nicely, as well as my training in archives and preservation, the latter of which I was fortunate to study under George Cunha, a pioneer in the field and a fascinating man and storyteller. I totally revamped my cover letter and résumé. What I had been sending out was much more like a curriculum vitae, and was too dense and packed. Instead I got the entire résumé on one page by concentrating on the most important stuff and targeting the résumé to reflect skills needed for the position I was applying for. I feel more confident as a result. I do hope I get an interview (and of course, the job!)

The position is at the public library downtown, in the Kentucky Room, which is devoted to local and state history and genealogy. One of the things that excites me about working in the public library is that there are patrons of all walks of life with information needs who seek assistance, and I think it would be a more stimulating environment than the one in which I work now. Also, I'm excited about the prospect of being one of many librarians with varied backgrounds. As a solo librarian, I've relied on professional organisations and electronic lists to interact with those of my own profession; it would be so nice to not be the only one in my organisation who really 'gets' what a librarian is and what she or he can do. Don't get me wrong, my co-workers are great, and I've been fortunate to work in teams within the hospital and really contribute, but I feel a little isolated from my profession at times.

Okay, I think I'm going to stretch out, put my feet up (it's hard to believe it has been two weeks since my surgery and I'm doing really well), and concentrate on not actually falling asleep. I should work on the notes tonight, too. So, no sleeping just yet. Tomorrow I'm going to pay my rent, take A to the grocery, watch The Grand Budapest Hotel with friends, and finish the notes if necessary. But I'm going to try to get up early enough to enjoy the morning a bit, maybe watch something fun on my own. I need to renew some books at the library, but of course I can do that through their mobile application (yay!) But I might take the books on cover letters and résumés back and get some on interviewing. I am a shy person, and it's very difficult for me to present myself to a group of strangers in a way that really markets my assets, for at heart I'm still a bit of a socially-awkward geek. I'm fine when dealing with patrons or co-workers in a professional setting--I just tend to choke when it comes to interviews. So I'm looking for some tips that will help me be more confident and 'wow' my interviewers. Still, I'm not really sure you can get that out of a book. :)

I consider any day

in which I wear a white skirt and white eyelet-lace jacket and don't get any of the following on either to be a good day:

• any food at all, including the chilpotle black bean burger with all the trimmings this afternoon and the kung pao tofu sauce I had tonight
• the gasoline I put in the car
• the quart of oil I put in the car after checking it

Today after work I:

• Returned two books to the library
• Worked for two hours in the library tinkering with my résumé in preparation for a job application
• Picked up food from Jin Jin for three of us
• Watched a couple of new 'The Awesomes' episodes (a Hulu original series which is really great) with a friend--I think the second season may be even better than the first, at the rate they're going
• Let him show me various other things online, including an episode of an (I kid you not) alien surfer chick series, 'Lightning Point', from Australia--yes, it's on Netflix

Now I'm home, and I really should work more on the cover letter, but I'm tired and ready for bed. I did check a few books out, including the one I was using as a guide to the résumé-building. I may look that over some once I go on into the bedroom. Okay, time for more ice water. I'm parched. Then it's time to take my contacts out and get into my sleep shirt. Good night.

Want to have some fun?

Reading: Necroscope by Brian Lumley

Try Wordle.

It allows you to take text, content from websites, or del.icio.us tags and create a picture that shows the most popular words, with the ones used most being the largest. It's a Java thing, but if you want to save a picture, you can take a screenshot (Shift+PrintScreen on Windows) and then cut and paste it into Paint or some other graphics program. Have fun. Here's one for this page:



Here's my résumé:



Okay, it's time to go to bed, so that's all for the night.

PS My plans for the 4th may have a wrench thrown into them. It's supposed to be cloudy with rain and storms that day. Sigh.