Project Updates:

What did I learn in the past week?

• There are so many interesting places to go in Austin. Saturday I went to the Church of the Friendly Ghost to see a play called "Ajax" with Megan.
• Mozilla Firefox is fabulous. I used the web editor to fix many website bugs athough I still have a few things to fix.
• Mozilla Thunderbird is not so great. I downloaded it on Friday and uninstalled it on Saturday. It was not up to the challenge of managing 3 pop email accounts. It also reminds me of the evil Outlook. I will stick to Eudora for now.

Does my current project have explicit learning goals?

• Web project: in testing right now. There is a random green rectangle that won't go away. I thought I fixed it but I guess not. I hope to have it all worked out by next weeks update.
• New web project: a website for Leslie Garcia. She is a dance instructor who is going on tour with the Ozone Urban Dance Conference and needs a website ASAP.

What did I learn in the past week?

• There are so many interesting places to go in Austin. Last Thursday I went to the Hot Mama event at Big Red Sun for Latina Mami.
• I learned that acupuncture is not that scary. Coincidentally, I haven't been clenching my jaw since the acupuncture on Thursday. The technique used was for stress and addictions. I will check in with Meg to see if she is still grinding her teeth.
• Mozilla Firefox has a web editor plug in with CSS capabilities. I am sold. I downloaded it on my computer last night and I am attempting to correct many of the problems my web site has on browsers other than IE.

Does my current project have explicit learning goals?

• Web project: I WILL FIX THE BROWSER SIZING ISSUE!! along with a few other things. Now that I use Firefox the page doesn't look so great. Stay tuned.
• Mike's Thesis: It turns out that Mike can use the maps in the format I built them in. I don't have to rush to put the maps up with an online viewer.

What did I learn this past week?

• Dyslexic people get all kinds of perks (sort of). I finally did my research on dyslexia. I've had a hunch that dyslexia was the reason behind many of my querks and school issues but I found out that so much more of my life has been influenced by this disability. I have never been tested but after doing the research I could have been the dyslexia poster child growing up. Why the sudden interest? I want to go to grad school but in order to do that I need to a) get a decent score on the GRE and b) my GPA isn't that great. Once I am officially declaired dyslexic it turns out that I will have more time to take the GRE. It would also explain to whatever school I apply to the reasoning behind my GPA being not so great. For more info on dyslexia go to http://www.interdys.org/ I also learned that my mom is mildly dyslexic as well (I confronted her on the issue of my not being tested at an earlier age).
• The internet knows everything. How do you get deoderant stains out of clothing? How do you reshape a slightly shrunken wool sweater?
• Power steering fluid is important. Without it my car makes a high pitched screeching noise when you turn the wheel.
• Replacing the brake lights on my car is a lot easier than replacing the headlights.

Does my current project have explicit learning goals?

• Networking 101: Ongoing
• Website: Working on expansion to include the women's group. Possibly designing a pages for a few friends.

Stay tuned

What did I learn in the past week?

• Trial software is free for a reason: 1) the company is using it to get feedback to build a better product and/or 2) the company gets you hooked so you are forced to buy the full version for all of the add-ins.
• Sometimes mistakes end up creating a better product. In the process of working on part of my Halloween Costume I ended up cutting a small hole in the fabric. I had two options fix the hole or come up with a new plan. Then I ended up making the decision to create a new costume and cut out the piece of fabric entirely.
• Networking is a valuable skill.
• Human Resources is not a useful department in most companies. If you care about your employees shouldn't you give them a functional HR deparment?

Does my current project have explicit learning goals?

• Mike's Thesis is in limbo, I need to see if someone at work has ArcPublisher.
• The self-help group experiment is moving along. My goal is to increase my communication/networking skills.

I assembled and met with a group of women who are all in the same boat as myself. We are all professional women who are deciding where we want to go next. None of us are willing to sit out the less-than-perfect job and count the days until retirement.

We are all in the process of answering the question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" Some of us know more of the answer than others and some of that group is struggling to make the changes necessary to get there.

What brought all of this on? I work with a lot of women who are all too comfortable with letting life pass them by. Not all women are like this and I am merely trying to form an alliance. There is also the fact that women are more likely to talk than men and therefore are more useful for networking purposes.

Paula seems to think that I have superior networking/follow up skills and is not convinced that I don't like people. I guess its because I view people as resources and as a girl scout I was taught to use resources wisely. Or it could be because I tend to surround myself with people who are interesting/stimulating.

My plan is to add on to my tribe of proactive women and build a website for the group. Stay tuned.