Ken Newquist @knewquist@higheredweb.social

Got so focused on writing tech reviews that I completely missed the meeting I was supposed to be running [head desk]. Ah well, there's always next week.

From what of heard from my faculty friends ... this sounds about right.

ELDEN RING OR TENURE-TRACK PROFESSOR?
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/elden-ring-or-tenure-track-professor

Working on technical reviews for potential projects. #StayOnTarget

(during which, we review, discuss, and tweak the ever-changing process that is admitting, enrolling, and onboarding our first-year students).

Forest and I are ready to tackle Thursday. First off was getting NeutronLad back to school after a week off from COVID. Next up, is the College's quarterly First Year Student Onboarding meeting.

It's a new year, and folks are considering starting a bullet journal.

If fear of messing up is holding you back, my advice is ... it's ok to be messy. #BulletJournal #BuJo https://www.nuketown.com/a-messy-bullet-journal-is-a-happy-bullet-journal/

My new co-worker. His name is Forest and he's an 8-week-old Golden Retriever. He's also my family's sixth Seeing Eye puppy. https://www.seeingeye.org/puppies-dogs/raise-a-puppy/

Only four more days until Seeing Eye Puppy F arrives. I pulled together the "Big List of Possible Names" based on people's guesses; I'll update the post with the official name (and puppy photos) when he arrives.

https://www.nuketown.com/getting-ready-for-puppy-f/

I'm always mildly amused when I get holiday greetings from Scantron. I got on their mailing list while working on a paper course evaluation project many years ago. Our paper evals are long gone, but Scantron's still emails me from time to time.

It's a weird thing to be nostalgic about and yet, there it is.

Working with Huck (a 10-month-old German Shepherd Seeing Eye puppy) today.

He's having a hard time of it, having so far seen a very scary jogger (whom he barked at) and a very suspicious cooler at the coffee shop, which he's pretty sure is going to ATTACK AT ANY MOMENT.

WHY CAN'T YOU HUMANS SEE THE THREATS THAT SURROUND US EVERYWHERE?

One of my personal projects this fall was better understanding Core Web Vitals ... and then getting my personal site to actually score well on the metric.

I finally got there; I posted an article at Nuketown recounting the quest.
https://www.nuketown.com/the-quest-to-improve-nuketowns-core-web-vitals/

Long work week as we continue to interview candidates for our data analyst job while juggling my regular work responsibilities. Took some time to decompress this morning by working on our Universal Analytics to GA4 inventory.

After a week of conversations, it's nice to kick back and work on something that doesn't require me to talk to anyone :)

Thinking the time has come to clean up my "clean up" folders (which is where I shove all of my random files when I need to clean up my desktop ahead of a presentation).

The great thing about my #BulletJournal is that it forces me to confront the reality of my calendar.

It's all too easy to gloss over the patchwork appointments of my home and work digital calendar, but when I recreate all those meetings, appointments, and obligations by hand in my journal, it becomes obvious that I can't *actually* clone myself to do all of it.

I'm looking for good examples of colleges/universities that document their support for the myriad digital identity attributes (e.g. preferred first name, professional last name, gender identity, pronouns, photos, etc.).

Not just the policy; I've got lots of examples of policies. I'm looking for sites that document the implementation details in people-friendly ways (e.g. here's how these values are supported in various campus apps ... and maybe why).

Any suggestions?

Just realized that the #HighEdWeb hoodie that I hung in our work coat closet in March 2020 was still there.

Which is great, because it's kinda chilly in my work office today and I needed to pull a Mr. Rogers.

I counseled my first-ever Citizenship in Society merit badge last week. It's focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics, and it's a much more reflective and thoughtful merit badge than its "Citizenship" peers.

My key morning/work ritual is reviewing my bullet journal. Taking a look at the day, prioritizing tasks, and noting what I hope to accomplish (as well as what happened the day before) helps ground and focus me.

Rituals at Work and on the Job Search: What’s in It for You?
https://www.higheredjobs.com/Articles/articleDisplay.cfm?ID=3256

It was my first camp out since March (leaving aside a week at summer camp) and I discovered my camping gear is no where near as organized as I thought it was. Fixing that is on my to-do list for the Thanksgiving break; camping works best when I can get packed in 30 minutes (rather than spending 3 hours trying to find random bits of gear I haven't used in 6 months).