Resolutions for 2014

2014 will be full of changes for my family! Adjusting to new things can be tough, especially large-scale things like where we live, work, and volunteer, and who shares our life with us. Instead of nailing down a bunch of quantifiable goals, I've decided to change things up. I have had long lists of resolutions for previous years, but 2014 bodes to be both simpler and fuller in several ways. So my new year's resolutions are less numerous, but larger in scale.

CC by BazaarBizarreSF (Flickr)

The Liebster Award

I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Joshua Brown at Brown's Balanced Life. (Thanks! It's nice to know more about who's reading.)

This "award" (okay, it's more like a chain letter -- but don't be scared off!) says something like, "Hey, I like reading your stuff!" and is an opportunity for new(er) bloggers to introduce themselves to a larger blogosphere. Bloggers love an excuse to talk about themselves!

If you're coming here because you were nominated or tagged by me, welcome! Here are your instructions:

1. Make a new post about this award in your blog.
2. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
3. In your post, answer the questions the nominator has created (below). 
4. Then choose 3-5 new bloggers (with fewer than 200 followers) to "nominate" and link to them in your post.
5. Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer.
6. Go back to their pages and tell them about the award.
7. (If you'd rather have an "Honorary Award", you don't have to do any of this -- just keep blogging!)

A Week in the Life of a Library Student

Next week I will be cataloging my daily activity for Hack Library School's "Library Student Day in the Life" project (#HLSDITL). Because of the inadequacies of contemporary time travel, I'll be backdating my posts: that is, I'll live my day, write it up, and then publish it with a post timestamp of, say, noon from that same day.   So don't worry if it looks like I haven't posted anything on Monday -- just check back on Tuesday, and so on. If you have my blog in your feedreader, you'll get the new post at the time I click the Publish button, and I believe it will show up at the top instead of near other posts from noon. Don't quote me on that.

You can read others' posts -- and see pictures and videos -- here on the project wiki. Maybe you'll meet some library students you want to start reading. (I recommend Lezbrarian, for a start.) Enjoy the glimpses into different types of library student life and all the ways we integrate our studies into our other work and home commitments.

It's not too late to join the blogging/tweeting/otherwise updating crew! You could also have a look at the results from this trial period (March 4-8), and decide later about joining the next round. No pressure!

Peak pageviews!

Woo-hoo! August closed strong, sweeping past that target of 3000 pageviews to almost exactly double May's 1650. Total at the end of the month: 3293 pageviews.

Analytics Update

Addendum to my previous post -- and a special request.

Analytics of note, one year in

Crossing my fingers as I'm still counting down a few hours... but by the time this posts, it will have been a full week since the last time my blog's hourly page views hit zero.

Strange Search Keywords II

While this does not compare to the question I once received about Robert Munsch, I'm still amused that people found my blog while searching for the following:

Strange Search Keywords

Hack Library School, that excellent blog for LIS students, just posted their 2011 blogging stats. I'm impressed! They're definitely a popular location. (Go, check them out!)

Now, I'm just starting out on this blog, and it's a hobby I have to cram into little spaces of free time between work and school. But I do watch my traffic stats on the Blogger dashboard, and I keep an eye on which posts get the most views. One feature I hadn't noticed until last night is the Search Keywords (under the section on Traffic Sources). I guess some people are stumbling across my blog while looking for something in a search engine -- not just from the links I post to Facebook and LinkedIn.

For now, most of the search keywords that led users to click on my listing are from (presumably) other library science students: "libr 285" competency proposal and subject analysis "libr 202" head the list, and also someone's search for design and implementation of instructional strategies for information professionals. Boring stuff like that.

But the best keyword search so far?

Welcome, 2012!

I am excited about this year. This year, I'll really be hitting my Saturn return (a concept I don't really believe in astrologically but have fun blaming big life changes on). Basically, it's a period in a person's life where large, life-altering changes can happen -- sometimes many at once! A Saturn return is a transition into a new stage of life. It's a opportunity to redirect yourself if you're paying attention -- kind of like a new year can be.

So, in 2012, I get to:

Turn 28

Get married

Continue graduate school

Start an internship

Make some big steps toward future financial stability

And... ???

The rest is yet to be seen! I hope I'll be blogging about a lot of my 2012 experiences here. Please comment if you're reading -- even if you don't have a blog of your own, I'd like to know more about you and what you think. :)

Happy New Year!