Here I am in warm, sunny Jupiter, Florida for a week of golf, parties and just relaxation for the holidays. Wait, relaxation? No, that does not come to me naturally. Soon after we arrived here, we grabbed something to eat and hit the golf course for 9 holes. My sons and I had a very good first outing, the last 2 holes were played in not so ideal conditions, but we were able to locate our balls. I have been up since 5:30 AM, my usual wakeup time, attending to College work – we have some purchases to finalize because we got “excellent” deals because of the end of the year. It is yet another game that we all have to play.
I am happy to say that I have brought a different attitude to negotiating purchases at Wellesley and I am thrilled to see some of the staff practicing it effectively. We have saved significant amount through these bargaining which are going towards academic initiatives such as classroom technologies and academic software purchases.
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This week so far has been a difficult one – too many late nights. A couple of holiday parties, meeting a good friend in Boston and then the headache caused by the OS upgrade to my machine, which I discuss in detail later. I am looking forward to the trip to Jupiter, FL next week with my family. my sons and I plan to play golf and hopefully get some time to relax too.
I was all excited by the prospect of upgrading to Lion sometime in October when I got the DVD. Here we are in mid-December and finally it happened. My frustration with the upgrade is caused by unique circumstances surrounding my own computer, however, there have been more than the usual complaints about a Mac OS upgrade like the one discussed here.
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I am not sure if things have changed the way we celebrate the holiday season or that I am getting older. It just feels so different. I remember the excitement around looking forward to the month of December. I distinctly remember how happy I was walking along 5th avenue in NY City looking at all the displays and going to Barnes and Nobles downtown to pick up books on sale. I was in NY City last Friday and didn’t even occur to me to do these things or the Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and watch the skaters in the skating rink. I am sure that all of these are still happening and that I am just geting old and my interests are elsewhere.
Our children have grown and the celebrations and buying gifts for them have changed so dramatically, partly due to technologies. I remember how I was running from store to store like a mad man trying to locate that one missing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Character that our elder son so badly wanted. I literally snatched it out of the hands of an old lady in one store after not finding it in seven stores. She was deliberating whether to take that one or another and the moment she put it down, I took it and rushed out. It was a rare commodity then! And boy, it was indeed a happy holiday when the little kid was thrilled to see it under the Christmas tree! Good old days!
A year has gone by since I began at Wellesley around the Holiday season. The creation of the Advisory Council for Library and Technology Policies coincided very closely with my official arrival date and I had a chance to review and comment on the legislation. The first meeting of the ACLTP Committee was held on Wed. 12/15/2010 at 4 PM. Happy Anniversary to ACLTP!
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