After the Love Has Gone

I’m Cecily, I’m a librarian, and I’ve come to hate reading. That’s not exactly true — my (barely) managed depression and (increased) anxiety have robbed me of the ability to process anything more than tweets, Facebook posts from the Hobonichi group, and texts from loved ones. Losing myself in novels and non-fiction is where I […]

My Distraction Sickness

What are the benefits of a distraction detox? Is it possible to find solace and quiet in such a digitally demanding world?

Things I’ve Learned as a Manager

What Has Being A Manager Taught Me About Work? Manage expectations, manage projects, but don’t manage time Maker’s Schedule: fewer meetings, shorter meetings, more time for focused, uninterrupted work Manager’s Schedule: for bosses. Highly structured, always know where you’re going next 1 Give people more responsibility, flexibility, and power Stay out of the weeds. Less […]

Capture Bonding & Professional Respectability

Many of us have made a life of hoping to get chosen for jobs, chosen for awards, chosen for acceptance from people, structures and corporations bred on white supremacy. We’re hoping to get chosen by people who can not see us. Knowing that they hate and terrorize us doesn’t stop us from wanting to get […]

2014 Year in Review

I’ve been busy, folks… Professional ALA: reactivated my membership. You might ask why I’m not a member of CLA. That’s an excellent question. LITA: served on the LITA Forum 2014 Planning Committee Maptime: started a local chapter of Maptime LibTechWomen: participated in the panel “Challenges of Gender in Technology Librarianship” for the ALA Midwinter conference […]

Finding Myself through Code

Just a note to let you know that you may experience some downtime and/or 404 not found messages while trying to access this content over the next little while. I’ve decided to move away from WordPress and give hosting a static website a try. Why am I doing this? It has nothing to do with […]

A List of Things I Wish I Could Do

Swim, especially on hot summer days. Ride a Gran Fondo Make plants grow Run Dance – I don’t mean club dancing, or boogeying around your living room, I mean dance as in modern, ballet, jazz, tap. Hike up a mountain Speak another language fluently Retire Get a Ph.D. Write with my left hand Play guitar […]

Scenes From a Bike Commute: Good Girl

A middle-aged woman with a riot of luscious gray curls crossed the street in front of me as I waited at the stop sign. She was walking a small, skittish dog, and as she drew nearer I heard her say “Good girl!” “Look at you, all colour-coordinated!” she said to me as she crossed. I’m […]

Steal Away

I dream of being kidnapped. In this scenario, the usual suspects would show up at my front door, their faces serious but their eyes alight with secret mirth. “Renee, take Cecily to the car,” Kay would say, “I’ll take care of packing a bag for her.” Don’t worry about Ella, don’t worry about work, don’t […]

Scenes From a Commute – A Boy and His Bunny

I don’t exactly recall how this exchange between strangers turned into one of my favourite things about my daily ride through my neighbourhood, but I’ve lived long enough to know that life will always find ways to surprise me. Because I don’t cook much these days (standing for longer than 5 minutes at a time […]