Concerned about your internet privacy?
I’m not.
A radical (?) statement in today’s climate, where the people are panicking over facebook’s strange ‘privacy’ (or lack of) legalese and people getting fired over making obnoxious comments about their boss on twitter.
I have valid fears for putting my name out on the internets. Which I am not going to share, because that would just be painting a nice big red arrow on my head. It took me a long while the get used to talking to and making friends with people that I know purely through the internet or ‘friending’ acquaintances I barely knew.
This has helped me in a way- I am not worried about someone seeing something they shouldn’t on my facebook status or photos of me drunk cropping up somewhere inappropriate (it helps that only 2 beers are enough to keep me merry, so I do my best to not go beyond that. I also actively hide from cameras).
There are valid things that seriously affect your livelihood that you should be worried about going through the internet: tax numbers, bank account details, credit card information.
What most people are worried about are their personal information in terms of themselves and their relationships and how this is displayed through the internets. What others think: prospective partners, friends, bosses.
If you are worried about that, there is a simple solution. And I am going to (mis)quote the doctor here and say ‘be the best human you can be.’ That is the sole rule for not screwing yourself up on the internet. Or I guess you could use the line ‘don’t be a douche.’
Else, do what I and others do and set certain profiles as secret and private for those you trust. Be choosy. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to any incoming request. Part of establishing a presence on the internets is knowing what your boundaries are and enforcing them. And being clear and professional about it if needed. I have some firm criteria on who can ‘friend’ me on facebook. Tough biscuits if I offend somebody by not acknowledging their request. In contrast, my twitter presence is much more relaxed and open.
Pouring pieces of myself out onto the virtual ethers has been a wonderful way of making new friends and acquaintances. The trick is to know when too much of the wrong kind of thing is being spilled out. And I think with that, we are all learning how to traverse this new virtual world.
Ramble. Something about time.
Oh, hi. I “missed” 2 days of writing. So….. *awkward silence*
An update to my previous post- apparently Brisbane City Council are allowing people to waive their library fines by donating cans of food to Foodbank (who go on to distribute them to people in need). I really like this.
I’m a bit tired and although there are so many things I want to write about (a letter to ALIA’s recent incite mag concerning the usage of ‘customer’ and ‘customer service’ instead of ‘patrons’ etc caught my eye), I am suffering from brain dead day (aka first day of period), so the most important thing on my mind at the moment is that focaccia dough that is rising near my heater.
Actually, I was wondering how others deal with ‘tired’ days on the job. It is not as if one can be alert all the time, with hormones, moods unrelated to the work at hand (ie you are thinking about why so-and-so never does the washing or something, even though you are at work now and there isn’t much you can do about it right now!), what you did (or did not) eat for breakfast, etc. Does “time management” (I am using finger air quotes) save you?
Don’t mean to snark on time management (ok, I lie), but it seems so much of it is really managing ourselves and where we are at this very moment, rather than what we are specifically working on at work. I have been in jobs where I have been treated as a human being and in jobs where I have been treated as a cog in a machine.
Here is the paradox: it is harder to manage yourself when you are considered to be the cog.
I owe fines to both my local and city libraries for returning books late.
Dude. As a customer, piddley fines are not enough to make me return a book. Even big fines aren’t really enough to drag my myself onto the train. Hands up anyone who has long kept a library book from their schools days, too embarrassed to show their face at their local library until many years later, when all records have been scrubbed clean?
I love the smell of books more than anyone. Those soothing pages helped me from going totally catatonic at times. When I am stressed, the bookstore or library becomes my refuge to be calm.
But if I am going to borrow a book, I would like the itunes solution.
Itunes solution? Let me explain- itunes, as you know, is a multi-media manager of music and video crossed with an online store. Through the itunes store, one can ‘rent’ a video by downloading it to their computer. Then after the 3 day rental period is over it vanishes!
So where is the itunes for libraries? Where is the downloadable digital reader linked to my library’s catalogue? Why can’t I log in with my ID to the catalogue ‘borrow’ a book for my reader and then have it vanish after my borrowing period is over?
Oh yeah, and can someone waive my fines?
I should have known something was up when my work as a medical records clerk during my uni studies was infinitesimally more interesting than the ‘career’ I studied for.
Ever since I was 11 I wanted to be a software engineer. Because that was the job title in the credits of Commander Keen and dammit, I want to be involved in the computer games industry.
Life took a different turn as my parents told me to ‘be practical’ and to ‘get the degree now for money and the other one for love’ (which doesn’t happen, because why would you want to do that degree when you already have a ‘practical career’ going on?). Mark it down to advice #1 that you can freely ignore from your parents (Go ahead and do art classes! My only caveat is that with the creative industries, make sure you get some small business and marketing classes in there too).
Five years is a long time to slog through 2 degrees that you are not quite interested in, but feel ‘obligated’ to do. On honest days you tell people you are doing it purely for the money. You feel resentful when the friends you made at the start of this degree change degrees to what they are truly interested in and then have the audacity to tell you to ‘stick it out.’
A few years later, after yet another day of quietly dying in my ‘career,’ I stumbled miserably into dymocks and headed off into that section that looks a bit like rainbows and smells like nag champa. The holy grail of those that are blue: the self-help book section.
I wish I could say that I instantly had the tools to realise that being a librarian and information worker was a grand thing that intersected my interests and my skills at this point of time in my life and that I planned everything out very carefully, but that is not the case. It was a hard 2 years of whiny generation-y existential crisis facebook statuses (apologies to my friends and family).
So, hi! I’m Erin, currently residing in Sydney. In late July/early August I will be starting my graduate diploma in Libraries and Information Management.
I am in need of employment and although I am cute and adorable, my boyfriend tells me people don’t hire others on these attributes alone (well maybe, but he doesn’t want me involved in those industries), so I will say that I have experience in records, administration, database development and management and using weird SQL queries to find data and make new tables of data and Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation is one of my favorite characters. I will happily be your maintainer of records and/or dedicated shelver-slave. Oh yes- I am also shameless. Pleasure to meet you!
