my, what a busy bee I am

busy & creative - got cast in a show - Godspell in Ballard in August. After angsting myself silly the first couple of weeks, wrapped my head around the whole "you're an actress - act!" vis-a-vis the content of the show (basically, the Gospel of St. Mathew). Nothing against it, per se - just not a religious type. Moreover, got over my innate aversion to the song assigned as my solo: Day by Day. Insipid repetition, anyone? [wry smile]

Which reminds me - the one film I was able to catch at SIFF this year was Julia Sweeney's world premiere of Letting Go of God. And I'm pleased to see that, post-festival and with all the votes counted, it was named one of the Top 10 audience favorites of the festival (not bad out of a field of 191 narrative features, 57 documentary features, and 170 short films from 69 countries) - go, Julia! She was there for the screening and did Q&A afterwards - what a thoughtful, funny, charming and smart woman. Anyhow, what an interesting film to see just as I launched Godspell rehearsals. The SIFF summary: "When two Mormon missionaries knock on Julia Sweeney’s door one day, they have no idea what they’re getting into. With one seemingly simple question about God, they unwittingly precipitate a soul search of cosmic proportions. The result is a friendly, funny, intelligent chronicle of one lifelong Catholic’s conversion to atheism."

Rehearsals are (for the most part) fun. And it's challenging physically and harmonically (as in, I've lost what little sight-reading ability I had and learning all my parts by ear is quite the come-back-up-to-speed-FAST challenge). I've downloaded Finale NotePad (free - my favorite price) so I can input the notes of my sections and listen to them repeatedly. As an ensemble piece, every person sings and dances in every number so it's a lot of harmonies to nail. And with only 10 people in the cast, you really do have to nail 'em. [wry grin]

Working on two books: a novel and a non-fiction computer book. While the thank-you from Beth was lovely in the Acknowledgements section of her book on Outlook, I think it's time I declare my own small territory of computer geekiness (well, beyond articles & white papers) for literary posterity. It would be lovely to think of people I don't even know becoming more facile and productive with computers thanks to my scribbles. However, that's all I can say until the two books are more fully formed and legally protected. Why, yes - I have worked in the legal industry for over 20 years. What made you ask? :)

busy & corporate - drafted a survey on User Support issues which will be the centerpiece of an ILTA white paper I'm authoring in November. Since we don't intend to make this an annual survey, I'm aiming to make this a resource people can use for some years to come. I've included survey questions about the types of software firms are using (eLearning; Learning Management Systems; skills assessment; etc.) as well as the qualifications/skills of both Training and Help Desk staff and their range of responsibilities. We've also got a nice section on training rooms and resources. Hopefully, this type of quantified and statistically validated information will help trainers across the industry when working with management (i.e., a long way of saying "show me the training money!"). Survey went out to the 3000 subscribers to the User Support listserve last Friday - I'll post a link to it on the General Membership listserve on Monday in order to catch management level people who may not subscribe to the more tactically oriented (read: real-time problem-solving) User Support list. Send lots of good energy for people to complete the survey.

Also, I'm working on a speech for our annual conference in August entitled "The Impact of XML on Legal Documents" - a think piece to help people start wrapping their brains around all the aspects they probably haven't begun considering (ODF vs. Open XML - the battle rages on; legal eDiscovery issues; eFiling with courts and agencies; the future of templates/document assemby programs in an XML world; etc.). Building a wiki around our findings - looks to be very cool and "have legs" for some time to come (will update with link once we make the wiki public). Have put together a really fine panel which includes my So. African friend Sean Power, IT director with a firm in FL; a great gal who did a webinar on personal attorney coaching for me earlier this year, Maria Leslie: one of my Steering Comm members, Corby Guenther, who also founded the Bay Area Legal Trainers group; and longtime ILTA listserv contributor Anita Evans out of Dallas.

tired - doing a lot and not a lot of downtime. Very good for me (lots of exercise) in some ways; but sensory overload in other ways. The last two weeks, in addition to Mon/Tues/Thurs evening and all day Sat rehearsals, I had commitments each Wed and Fri evening. Plus last Sunday, cooking for Tent City *and* St. Martin de Porres shelter at the waterfront. Unfortunately, I caught a cold the first week of rehearsal and have been trying to do all the above while recovering. Went to the doctor Friday and was able to confirm that I don't have a sinus infection (yay!), but was told they're seeing tons of people with this "cold that will not die" (booo!). So continued NetiPot use and lots of rest is the recommended treatment [sigh]. Thus, I've decided to skip my trip to Cannon Beach this year - I'll miss getting together with Sarah and the kids, but really need to take the time to rest instead. And they'll be heading into Seattle after their two weeks in Oregon, so Sarah and I have booked a Wednesday evening for just us in second week of July.

On the plus side, my houseguest of five months moved out last Saturday so more psychic space to myself. And I've cleared my calendar decks for Wed/Fri/Sun for the next week so that's a little more time to rest and recoup. As you can see from this post, I'm being terribly lazy this lovely Sunday so good on me. [grin] Ooops, there goes the dryer buzzer - off to hang clothes or I'll end up having to iron (the horrors!).