Something Unexciting, and Probably Not Completely Different

I got back from Traverse City, MI, last night, where I attended the ACE conference, followed by the first session of the ACE Leadership Institute (ALI), a program designed specifically for people working in Cooperative Extension areas.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had signed up for Twitter.  Today, a fellow tweeter posted a link to this article that explains specifically why IT people should be interested.  After hearing another session on it at ACE, I think I finally have a grasp on it; it’s IM or SMS pulled into an RSS feed.  I post, you subscribe, you read.  Instead of keeping up with people in conversations (people who I probably wouldn’t take the time to otherwise keep up with), I volunteer information and read what they volunteer.  Yesterday, I signed up for facebook, which I had been avoiding doing, because the alumni of the ALI sent out an invitation.  More exploration into social technology…

At this first session of ALI, we spent a lot of time studying Myers-Briggs personality types.  I suppose I didn’t find out too much that was really new to me about me, but one of the interesting things about it was some of the things that I do that really annoy/hurt other people.  I’ve caught myself doing one of them twice since coming home.  Having heard what I do from an objective perspective makes me very aware of the fact that I am doing it.  Sigh… so much to work on.

You’ll probably be hearing much more about all this in the next posts – it takes me a while to process information and I’m only just getting started…

Surprisingly, I did not knit one single stitch while in Michigan or in transit!  I did however read an entire book – Smiley’s People by John Le Carré – and start another.  Smiley’s People is the fourth and final book in the George Smiley series, a set which I have thoroughly enjoyed.  It’s sort of like an complicated version of “Murder She Wrote” – a spy series with very little actual action, where most of the story is you watching George Smiley recall events, hear accounts of others’ experiences, and put a ridiculously complicated puzzle together.  It took me two novels just to get a handle on the type of world he lives in, but it was worth the effort.  I started with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and am going to have to go back and read it again, but boy! was it fun.

On a different note, if you are a Coldplay fan, you can hear one of their songs from their newest album here.  That’s it for today!