CPD23: Thing 15 – Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

Back again with the CPD23 after a year. But it does not mean I’m less interested in competing it. This project is brilliant. I will restart it from the place where I broke off last time.

In the thing 15 it’s all about conferences and events. I have attended, participated and even organised conferences for LIS students and professionals in the past 4 years.

Attending:

One of the most relaxed ways of getting information about news and progress in your field. It’s a great way to get information without looking for it. Once you are there, everything you need to do is to go to the right place, take a seat and sponge everything you need. I have attended several conferences back in Latvia, BOBCATSSS 2009 and 2012 and 2 conferences here in UK. I really like attending conferences – it makes me feel more involved even without contributing. I also like to take notes during the conference and put down the best ideas that might get useful in the future. It also helps to remember what was this conference all about.

Cake Camp, Birmingham, 2011

Participating:

This part is a little bit more tricky. You have to be prepared. Some training might be useful. First you need to get a little bit acquainted with your audience, feel their mood and what are they there for.  During your speech it might be hard to keep your voice in the same level – main thing is to stay calm and continue no matter what. Making some jokes might make you more relaxed but you need to be careful not to make yourself look stupid or telling inappropriate jokes. Also, it is important to be confident and prepared for all kinds of questions. Personally, I like the question part even better than the speaking part – it is easier to get feedback and tell the audience exactly what they want to know.

BOBCATSSS, Amsterdam, 2012

Organising:

I have been involved in the process of organising a unconference almost 2 years ago. It was a very interesting experience for me. In planning a conference, the most important part is to know, what you want to achieve. Each type of conferences is different and so is the planning process. Planning unconferences is harder as you never know how big will the interest of the participants be. You have to have perfect communication in your team and know all strengths and weaknesses of all members. Find a strong leader and someone who will keep track of everything that has to be done or is done already. Delegate responsibilities by person’s abilities. Know your team and who is responsible for what. Bad promotion might attract wrong audience – people will not be satisfied, if their expectations will not be even remotely close to the actual event. If something goes wrong – don’t panic. Fix it quickly yourself or find someone who can. There is no such thing as “perfect” – every time there will be something that will go wrong – be ready and relaxed about it.

BibCamp4, Riga, 2010

In each conference there is this special something that will attract specific audience. It might be the place, the topic or the people involved. Each and every one will be a bit different. I like conferences because they let people get out of their routine and get inspired. It is also a great place to meet new people with similar interests.

 

Russian will not be the second language in Latvia

Yesterday was a very important day in the history of Latvia. We had a referendum about Russian becoming the second state language. The issue arose from the fact that there are still many people in Latvia who speak Russian as their first language. This question has been sharp since the collapse of USSR.

The problem is that many Russian speaking citizens don’t want to learn Latvian language. They are used to get all services in Russian and take that for granted. It gets even worse as many have the opinion that they are “discriminated” by people who speak only Latvian. This absurd situation led to political debates, and in the end to referendum about Russian becoming the second official language.

Fortunately this question was taken seriously and more than 70% of the eligible voters decided to take part. Not only people in Latvia but also many Latvians living abroad went to vote. In London, for example, there was a 2000 people queue. Me and my flat-mates went to “Straumēni” by car. We got there early so it didn’t take very long. I am proud of all people who decided to cross the “against” field in those bulletins.

The results are already known – almost 75% of the voters decided that Russian as a second language is a disgrace to the nation and voted against. But what about those 25%? What will happen next – it’s a hard question. The tension between people has been big for a long time.

My mother is from Russia and arrived to Latvia 25 years ago (USSR times) when she got married. She still has the alien passport (another disgrace of my country) and knows Latvian language in the basic conversation level. It’s not that she wouldn’t like to learn (she is an English teacher) but the government has done very little to stimulate the will of Russian speaking people to learn the language. I think that the solution would be free Latvian language courses for anyone regardless of their income, occupation or origin. And not only for Russian speaking people. I have a friend from Jamaica who moved to Latvia after getting married to a Latvian and she couldn’t get a job. She couldn’t find any Latvian course suiting her – living in the country side with a one-year-old child it was impossible. In my opinion, the perfect solution would be developing a free online course which could suit both Russian and English-speaking people. This way it would not cost too much and be a good legacy for the future. Making it interactive and interesting would make it more attractive for young people and easier to learn for elder.

I really hope that after the referendum the tension will go down and people will tolerate each other.

 

The joy of books

I saw this video today and would like to share it. I love books and reading, and this video made me smile.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

Resolution for 2012

Hopefully this will  be a successful year. I’m going to set only measurable goals:

1. Finish university
2. Attend LIS conferences – depends on how many I can afford
3. Go to Paris
4. Go home to Latvia for a couple of weeks
5. Finish my CPD23 as soon as I get rid of my masters dissertation
6. Continue Swedish language course
7. Travel more around UK – visit at least 6 different cities
8. Read 30 books (maybe even more)
9. Make 30 creative projects
10. Continue with our New Professional Section
11. Get all my electronic files in order, make lists, upload some old essays to student essay database (can earn some money with it)
12. Meet someone at least once in two weeks (my social life has suffered enough last year).
13. Make changes to my blog – make it specific, goal oriented and more consistent.

This list seems to meet SMART objectives and hopefully should be fulfilled by the end of 2012. And I really hope that they are wrong with the End-Of-The-World date .

 

 

Review of 2011

As usual, I like to make a personal review of the past year. 2011 was very busy for me. A lot of things were going on at the same time and planning had a crucial role. In 2011 year I:

• got engaged
• learned a lot of new skills that have practical use
• finished my studies and started writing masters dissertation in tourism
• travelled more than usual – mostly around UK (England, Scotland and Wales) but also I had a one week trip to Gran Canaria with my course and went home through Estonia for 6 weeks
• went to my first-ever wedding and got the honour to dress the bride, so I know what was under that dress
• was active during the first 6 months thanks to Anete – going to gym and eating healthy (need to get another buddy for the next year)
• read more books than the last year. As I got a Kindle for my birthday/Christmas I managed to read 4 books in 2  last weeks even with my though schedule
• actively took part in planning and writing articles for our LIS new professional group
• Went to two LIS (un)conferences in UK
• started CPD23 (I intend to finish it next year when I have more time and energy after getting rid of my dissertation)
• started this blog
• learned many new recipes and worked on many small crafts projects
• started Postcrossing and now postcards are a big part of may everyday life
• found many interesting links and websites like Postcrossing, Pintrest, Bookcrossing, etc.
• after 2 years break started learning Swedish again

So many big and small things were done. Altogether 2011 was a successful year for me. The new years resolution will follow soon

 

Traditional Latvian Christmas meal

Today we are celebrating Christmas and the most important part of the celebration is to get together and prepare some great food. I will share some of the most common and traditional recipes:

1) Stewed sauerkraut

Stewed sauerkraut

You will need:

• Sauerkraut – can be bought ready (in UK most common in Polish/Lithuanian shops)
• Onions
• Butter
• Tomato paste
• Spices: 1 bay leave, ground pepper, sugar

The preparation depends of your taste – there can be many variations. What I did was:

1. Fried the chopped onion in butter until golden brown
2. Added sauerkraut and a bit of water
3. Stewed the sauerkraut until turning brown
4. Added spices and tomato paste
5. Stewed everything for about 15 – 20 minutes

*you can get the more interesting result by adding bacon or orange juice

For the best result don’t use Teflon pans – the temperature will not be enough and you will spend the whole day in the kitchen. Metal pans on the middle heat work the best.

Stewed sauerkraut is usually served with boiled potatoes.

2) Gray peas with bacon and onion

Grey peas with bacon and onion

A very traditional Christmas food.

You will need:

• Grey peas
• Bacon
• Onions
• Butter

Preparation process is quite simple:

1. Peas should be left to soak overnight and boiled for about 40-60 minutes in salt-water.
2. Bacon should be sliced and fried until fat comes out.
3. Then add onions, fry until golden
4. Add the boiled peas and heat for about 3-5 minutes

Serve hot.

These dishes may not look very tempting but they taste so good. The mix of different flavours and amazing smell makes your mouth water.

 

God Save the Queen!

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’). (I love that one)

Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’ ‘ (I love that one too)

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.)

8.You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

 

(Author unknown)