Quick check-in

Yeah, it's been a couple weeks since I last posted.  Been one of those stretches where work is busy, and home is busy enough that I don't want to take any time to blog.  Anyhoo, just checking in with a few quick hits.

Quick Hit #1
Bought one of these from newegg.com Sunday night.  It arrived yesterday.  Played around with it a bit last night, enough to get a few podcasts loaded onto it, and listened to it on the way into work today.  Worked very slick, and it was nice to listen to on the train ride into work.  Thing is, my commute is only 12 minutes station-to-station, with a few minutes on either end walking to/from the station and waiting on the next train.  Not really long enough to get through anything in one trip (though I did get through an entire podcast of Monday's Best of Mike&Mike from ESPN) but with around a half hour each day, I should get some fun/interesting listening in as time goes on.

Quick Hit #2
Speaking of commuting on the train, yes, I'm taking the train more the past couple of months.  In response to the impending I-64 shutdown, my manager and I were charged with creating an action plan for how the County will address employee commutes and customer service impacted by the road project.  For the action plan, I proposed and implemented a subsidized Metro transit pass for County employees.  This year the County ponied up $15k and next year they've allocated $30k (in addition to the $7500 that we didn't spend this year) to allow 50-60 employees to get a transit pass for $10/month (the same amount we pay to park in our parking garage).  That has the County picking up $50/month for each employee, no small amount. 

So, I decided to turn in my parking pass and get a Metro pass and take the train in most of the time.  Like I said, it's only 12 minutes station-to-station, and it will sure beat being on the road for the next couple of years.  At my subsidized rate (or even full fare, really) it saves on gas money when gas tops $3/gallon.  And at the end of the day, it really is simply nicer to ride the train and not have to hassle with traffic, even with the 2-block walk to/from the office (yes, even on a day like today).

Quick Hit #3
Back to the digital voice recorder for a second.  While the MP3 player is a fun perk and something I will enjoy having, I really bought it with two purposes in mind.  One, to record an oral history and oral descriptions of all of the family pictures I'm scanning (mentioned briefly here) from my grandmother.  I hope to get a lot done when we visit for Xmas.  Two, I'm going to be taking a Bosnian class this spring semester.  Yes, Bosnian.  I want to do this for a couple of reasons.  One, we have a large and growing Bosnian population where I live, and I hear it spoken nearly every time I go to the grocery or anywhere shopping really. I have 2 Bosnian neighbors, and I just want to be able to connect to a growing segment of my community population. Two, professionally, the language and culture is a huge barrier to the sort of community engagement work that I do, and I want to become a resource for the County and simply be able to do my job more effectively and inclusively.  So, I plan to learn Bosnian, and no doubt having the digital recorder will be a huge help.  I haven't been in school in 10 years, haven't taken a language in 16 or 17 years.  This is going to be interesting.

That's all for now, back to work I go.  I hope things slow down just enough that I can blog with a bit more regularity, but this is the season of madness (not to mention colds and the kiddo getting pinkeye yesterday) so I'll do what I can.  Hope everyone else is surviving the hecktic times leading up to the holidays.