Fall 2016 Informatics Challenge:

There are a lot of changes in our department this year. We have all had a very rough summer. We have had to step up and cover for each other and we have had many interruptions especially with the leaving of our director and the Campus IT adding to our IP numbers many of our summer projects got waylaid. Thank you to all of the full-time and summer staff for dealing with the craziness and stepping up where needed. All of us are behind and scrambling to even have things ready for the beginning of the school year.

We have spent countless hours developing the new game plan. It isn’t perfect, some stuff isn’t even quite to par yet. That’s why why I am dubbing it the year of survival and integrity. Sometimes when you go into survival mode you forget your integrity. You forget the principles that you know are correct and slip into living a life of relativity.

In our case, relativity would most likely look like taking shortcuts especially if something isn’t officially in place yet.  Remember the interview question about seemingly tedious policies? Relativity looks like slopping through a job bc no one is policing you. We need to figure out how to survive and maintain our integrity. We need to remember what principles are non-negotiable within ourselves. Everyone has heard the saying that we may not be watching but God is. That is very true but you are watching yourself. If it doesn’t bother you to let things slip or to lie then you need to do some deep soul searching. James 04:17, Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

A principle I would like you to consider:
Only a right thing done in a right way is right.

In contrast:
A wrong thing done in a wrong way is wrong.  - is the obvious one!
A wrong thing done in a right way is wrong. - giving a friend a “free” print job but following the correct procedure; substitution;
A right thing done in a wrong way is wrong. - helped patron by passing them off on someone else

Sure the outcome might turn out from a human or problem solving standpoint but not for you internally. It damages your soul. If you continue to allow yourself to justify doing something any of these patterns besides a right thing done in a right way, it chips away at your integrity and your resolve.

The good news is that God has provided a solution when we fail bc we will all fail (Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,). His Son went to the cross not only for our salvation but He died as a substitute for our sins. All we have to do is name our sins to God and we are forgiven. 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have a fresh slate to start again.

We need you each to start the year with a conscious choice that you are going to do a right thing done in a right way.

Monday, July 18

We ate leftover omelets and the most delicious homemade cinnamon bread ever made by Bridget. Then we did our Bible study. Mom texted that they were almost to Superior. We worked on getting Tug all set up and moved our stuff from cabin to the camper. We ate at noon and then went for a quick spin on our kayaks. When we got back we waited about an hour until 3pm for Mom and Dad to show up. We got them unloaded and Scott did some mowing. Then Scott put the numbers on the boat bc Dad wanted to get it put in and go fishing. God’s grace got it put in pretty quickly and Scott and Dad drove it back AND the letters stayed on. :)

I went over to welcome Patty and say hello while Dad and Scott worked on getting the bug zapper hung up. Scott went and took his bath without me but he was nice and waited while I took mine.

It was a horrible night. We were attacked by mosquitos the whole night. The last time I looked at the clock it was 12:24pm. It was freezing so we couldn’t turn the fan on which catches the mosquitos. Around midnight I got hot so I turned the fan on but I wasn’t willing to come out from under the covers. We barely slept.

Sunday, July 17

I got up at four and laid on couch. I finally fell asleep again and slept for another hour or two. When I woke up it was raining again. It didn’t last long but got everything wet. We got up and made a yummy omelet breakfast. Then Hannah sent us the forecast which was 60% chance rain from 10am-4pm. We headed out so we could kayak and bathe before the rain started. It was fabulous to be on the water again. I kayaked to the edge of the island and back to Scott. It was starting to myst but never amounted to much. His neck was kind of sore. Then we took baths and I swam a little bit back and forth. After that we did our Bible study. We are working on unpacking and setting up Tug but we keep getting random storms. Then we went to the fort bc we had a major crises at work that I’m trying to orchestrate and I needed internet. Scott read while I worked. Then we went to Bobbies and found a couple postcards for Scott’s students. After that we went to Moose Creek for ice cream. While we were there we found some really cool postcards. By the time we got home we were cold and still really dragging so we fixed a can of soup and green beans for dinner and watched a really stupid movie. We were in bed by 9:30pm.

Friday, July 15 - Saturday, July 16

It was a long trip to Canada. We were supposed to leave Friday, July 8th but that didn’t work out. Then we were going to leave Friday am and drive straight through, that didn’t happen. The next plan was leave by noon, then by 1pm. We finally were on our way by 2pm. We weren’t sure where we would stop and were worried about hitting heavy traffic since we would hit highways around 3:30pm. We took 355 to 88. Traffic was heavy but didn’t come to a stop until the exit to 39N. We lost seven minutes there. I slept off and on for about 2 hours. In Loves Park we stopped for gas and lunch. I took over driving while Scott drove. The Wisconsin Dells traffic was pretty heavy but I never had to stop - Scott slept through most of it. We stopped for gas somewhere passed the Dells and Scott took over driving. I found a decently priced hotel, the St. Croix Inn in Solon Springs so we decided we would make it that far for the night. There was a Walmart in Rice Lake and we needed ice and a cooler so we stopped there and got a couple other things. They were out of ice so we ended up “stealing” ice from the hotel to keep the refrigerated stuff cool. The hotel was really cool except that every door we went out or came in there were people smoking. Our room was on second floor and had a balcony on the St. Croix Lake. It was dark so we couldn’t see much of it. In the morning when Scott was still sleeping I sat on the porch and read my book. The lake was all fogged over at first though so I couldn’t see much. We got on the road about 8:30am and went to Duluth Trading Company and then Gander Mountain. We stopped for breakfast/lunch at DQ just outside of Hermantown when I got bad news from work. I had to make some calls and then wait until International Falls to finish getting arrangements made. I drove while Scott slept but we switched drivers in Orr because I had fallen asleep twice. After my phone calls and topping off the tanks we headed to the border. There was only one other car in front of us. The guy asked about five questions and sent us through. We stopped at Safeway for eggs and bananas and headed to 502. We were listening to Ranger Apprentice and got distracted and decided we had missed Ojibway turn. We had been on 502 for sooooo long and we hadn’t seen the usual signs. It was like someone had taken all of the signs out. We were 20km from Dryden and sure that we had missed Ojibway when we finally saw a sign we hadn’t missed it!! A little further on 594 there was a bear running away from us. It wasn’t too far from Machin Dump so we were thinking he was heading there when we caught him. When we got to the cabin it was after 6pm and we were locked out. I had forgotten to bring the keys. Not even sure I would know where they are at this point anyway but I could have at least brought mom and dad’s set. Went to bed around 10:30 - slept in mom and dad’s room it was almost cold with the cross breeze but felt great. I saw lightening about five times and heard thunder and Scott never heard or saw a thing.

Tuesday, July 19

The plan was to go fishing so we came in at 7am to eat and do Bible study. There was a fluffy Great Blue Heron on our rock that we had to take pictures of. After that Scott and Dad went somewhere to by minnows and get gas for the mower. Mom and I packed lunch and our fishing stuff. We headed out to three towers and found out that our trolling mower was dead. We still had a really nice time. Scott caught a northern and Dad caught a walleye. When I was on the phone with Alan a northern hit my line, I yelled in his ear and threw the phone to Alan. Later Dad and Scott both caught a perch that we kept. When we got back Ron showed up and told us about grandson being in the hospital with a really bad bacteria infection. He had to be quarantined for three days. No one could see him. Dad cleaned the fish and everyone went to take naps. After I talked to Hannah about her new roommate news, I kayaked around the island. I didn’t see anything but it was beautiful. It was pretty choppy but fun. The side that is usually windy was the leeward side this time so I went the opposite that I usually do. The water is really high so there isn’t much of a beach. When I got back I weeded the beach a little more and then Nana was ready to wash windows. We washed windows while Scott and Dad worked in the yard.

After windows we fixed fish, beets, salad, and Red Lobster biscuits. It was a delicious dinner. After dinner Dad decided we were not going to go out fishing bc the battery had not charged enough. The mosquitos were horrible so we decided not to go out fishing. There were over 40 mosquitos on the kitchen screen window!! Scott and I put our mosquito abatement plan into action. He sprayed outside of the camper with mosquito fogger and plugged in the zapper. We started the crazy moose puzzle after dinner and worked on the dumb thing for about three hours. Everyone was staying up late because we were waiting to hear news from a family member. Dad and Scott finally gave up around 10pm. Mom and I finally went to bed around 10:30pm after we had heard back. I sprayed the camper windows again and it was warm so we could turn on our fan mosquito killer BUT the mosquitos stayed out!!! It was God’s grace gift! I got almost 8 hours sleep.

Wednesday, July 20

We fished today and didn’t catch anything but it was a beautiful time and we had fun together. I saw a loon with a baby.

Canoecopia

As a technology librarian and a past educator I have been to a lot of conferences. As a conference veteran I have learned to be prepared. I don't step foot at the conference until I've studied all of the presentations and prioritized them. Even though canoecopia wasn't a work related conference for me I did the same thing. My niece, Hannah, and I spent three hours Sunday trying to decide which sessions we would attend. It was really hard I have never had such a challenge choosing between some of the sessions. The variety was incredible including kayaking, canoeing, fishing, camping, portage trips, birds, wildlife, photography, writing blogs, and even NPS presentations. 

Our arrival did not disappoint! As soon as we got there Hannah was thrilled that there was a camping display with actual teardrop campers, her latest investment adventure. We were early but the hallway was filled with booths giving out free information and even trinkets. A lot of the booths represented national parks. We started in the vendor section but couldn't stay long because sessions started at 4:30pm. Of course Hannah and I had our backpacks on so we couldn't leave until they checked our bags. We watched three of the four sessions. They were  very interesting BUT not necessarily what the descriptions had said.

So for my soapbox: I haven't been going to as many conferences lately because I've been frustrated with the last few I've been to. I go into these sessions based off of what I read in the description and then they talk about something completely different. Even if they are good sessions you go away with an unsatisfactory feeling. 

Having presented at other conferences I understand. You are expected to come up with a description months in advance and things change by the time you get to the preparation. You are also too busy to work on revising your abstract or it's too late because the programs had to go to press already. 

I don't have a solution to this problem but maybe it's as simple as the presenter starting out the session with a summary of what will be covered so that you don't spend the entire session wondering how he's going to fit in that special topic with the little bit of time left. If you know right from the beginning you can change your expectations and not be disappointed. The session may still be great and you can enjoy it even more.

Below is a quick recap of our sessions. I don't use names because I know how hard it is to present and not sure the sacrifices they made to be here. I really enjoyed all the presentations but my personality likes to analyze.

The Happy Camper - hilarious! BUT didn't leave with any of the information/tips I was expecting.

Colorado River - interesting but jumped around too much kept switching to other presentations throughout the day

Royal Isle Park Ranger - one of top presentations. Stuck to description and very professional. She started with introduction and used recaps as transitions.

Bird one was entertaining and interesting. He was a little hard to hear but I was impressed with his bird call imitations. 

Canoeing with your dog was really cute. The guy was really passionate about his dog but seemed like expectations were for him to be an expert on how to teach your dog how to canoe with you. His dog seems to have taken to it without special training so that was a little weird. Had couple good tips.

Standup canoeing guy was engaging. He really seemed to know the whole gamut of the sport including history, important names, and spoke of his own personal experiences. His description was actually his presentation. 

Pictures that don't suck was very cool but I thought it would be about taking pictures from your boat. It was more about taking commercial type photos and getting published. Really like some of his tips though. It was the first session I  took notes on.

Waves for paddlers followed the description but we got there late trying to get from main building over to the hotel. It was so informative. I really want a wave generator. 😀 These speakers followed the abstract too. The second speaker was a little hard to hear because he spoke softly.

Adventure writing session was about writing to be published too. I thought it would be a little more technical but it still had a lot of really good information. The speaker also engaged with audience to make sure we were satisfied.

Sunday sessions were great! I actually took notes, pictures, and clips of all three sessions I attended. 

Exercise session done by Rutabaga staff member. She did a great job. I can't wait to try some of her moves at home.

Professional wildlife photographer had incredible slideshow of animals A-Z of photos he had taken. He was very knowledgeable about each of the animals and entertaining.

Apostle Island author and a NPS ranger did a really nice job of how to kayak the Apostle Islands. I can't wait to try it - def on my bucket list. 

My husband attended all of the fishing seminars and had great things to say about all of them! He also won a camping table set at the SundayFun Day drawing. It was donated by TC Teardrops which was Hannah's favorite vendor. 

We got a lot of great deals, tons of tips, and had a fantastic time! We definitely plan to attend again next year! Thanks to everyone for their hard work at making it such a great conference! #canoecopia