End of the Tunnel

My regular readers have probably noticed I haven't been posting quite as frequently lately. As you can probably imagine, things have just been too busy trying to keep up with graduate school without having a serious nervous breakdown in the process. (And I've had plenty of minor breakdowns along the way.) Going back to school full-time has definitely brought several "What was I thinking?!??!" moments, but I know in the end I'll be glad to have done the program this way.

The good news is I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. After this semester (which isn't over yet, I have to keep reminding myself) I'll have two classes left, and I was originally planning on taking both of them next fall. (One is a required course I have to take in the fall, the other is an elective.) Then I thought it'd be nice to take the elective over the summer if I could, get that out of the way and only have the one required course in the fall. The problem is there aren't a lot of classes offered during the summer sessions and the type of elective I need to take isn't available. In the meantime, though, there is a class I really wanted to take this semester but couldn't due to my schedule and workload, so I'd talked to the professor about doing the work for the class on my own over the summer on a casual basis, just so I could learn the material and not totally miss out. To make a long story short (or shorter, at least), my advisor is letting me do the work for the class I couldn't take as an independent study course over the summer, so I'll not only get credit for work I was already planning to do, but he's allowing me to do this in lieu of taking the other type of elective. This is allowing me to make the most of my program, molding it to my goals and what I want to get out of it rather than molding myself to fit it.

For the independent study I'll be compressing a 16-week course into a 5-week summer session, but I've already put together the schedule I'll follow and it's doable. I took a summer course last summer so I'm familiar with the 5-week concept, which helps. What this all means is that on June 25th—the day my independent study will officially end—I'll have only one course left in my graduate studies. I probably won't have much time to breathe between now and June 25th to get it all done, but being able to see the end of the tunnel there definitely helps motivate me now.

Last but not least, finishing the program this way means I'll be able to start my job search several months earlier than I'd originally planned. Living on one income and our savings has been so much fun, of course (or not), but I'm ready to start earning money again sooner rather than later. More importantly, I'm more than ready to put what I've been learning into practice, which has been the goal all along here. If I was taking two classes in the fall I wouldn't want to work full-time while I did that (many people do, I know, but I wouldn't want to), but having just one evening class will allow me to go back to work full-time if the opportunity arises. I definitely hope it will arise and I'll be working toward that. Just last night I got a possible job lead that would be the right timing and could possibly turn into something, so I'm already keeping my eyes and ears open for that perfect job.

If you don't see me much over the next couple of months now you know why. (Well, more specifically that you probably guessed already, anyway.) As part of my independent study I'm also going to be putting together a new blog, which I plan to host on my own Web site. (A Web site I don't have yet, but will.) My goal for that blog is to focus on topics in the field of technical communication; I'm not exactly sure what topics yet, but something where I can contribute to the technical communication community. I'll probably still maintain this blog as a purely personal blog; after all, I need a place to post pictures of the pooch!

Lazy dog.

Smart Dog

I think our dog is pretty smart. That is, she knows how to communicate and tell us what she wants.

Last night hubby and I were sitting on the couch watching TV, and doggie was lying on the floor. She got up and looked at us and wagged her tail as if she wanted her nighttime biscuits; she'd already had them, though, so I told hubby she probably wanted to go out. He got up to let her out, at which point she ran around the coffee table, jumped onto the couch where he'd been sitting, settled down and put her head in my lap, then looked up at him with her big brown eyes as if to say, "What?" Apparently doggie was trying to tell us that hubby was sitting in her spot on the couch (which he was) and she wanted to sit there! While laughing, hubby called her a conniving little mutt. I thought she was pretty smart.

Not to let the dog get the last word hubby squeezed in next to her, which she thought was just fine. She didn't move, of course; after all it was her spot. But she's willing to share. She's a snuggly dog and likes to be close to her folks.

Spring Break

Spring break is coming up next week and I've been making plans. Wanna hear them?

1. Take one entire day off from school work to go shopping with my husband. We both need clothes. Really. We've been putting it off way too long.
   
2. Clean the house. ('Nuff said.)
3. Have lunch with a friend.
4. Write the majority of the content for my capstone project and put together a 30-page document for my other class.

I really wonder why they call it spring break; "break" is such a misnomer when you're a grad student. There's really nothing "break" about it.

Vancouver 2010

I've been watching the Winter Olympics this year and I can't resist making a few comments about them. I'm struck not by just how different the athletes are but how differently they're treated by their home countries.

When I was watching the ladies' figure skating the announcers emphasized the pressure the two favorites, Kim Yu-Na of South Korea and Mao Asada of Japan, were under. Not just the pressure of being in the Olympics and wanting to do well, but enormous pressure from their countries: These girls were expected to win gold. One of the announcers commented that winning silver would be a huge disappointment. I have to agree, the expression on Mao Asada's face during the medal ceremony certainly reflected that sentiment. I don't follow figure skating except for the Olympics so I'd never heard of either girl, but apparently they're both huge celebrities in their home countries. Kim, they said, makes $8-$9 million dollars a year marketing every product imaginable. If she hadn't won gold apparently she would have disappointed her country and could have lost her celebrity status, and I gather Mao Asada may face a similar fate with "only" a silver medal at the Olympics. I think that's absolutely horrible and an astronomic weight for these 19-year-old girls to bear.

Then there was Canada's Joannie Rochette, skating only days after her mother died suddenly from a heart attack while at the Games. From my limited perspective she's received only praise and support from her country and the world in choosing to deal with her emotions as she sees fit. Yes, she won the bronze medal, but I doubt anyone in her country or otherwise would have treated her any differently if she hadn't won a medal, or if she'd chosen not to compete at all.

Watching Apolo Ohno compete in the short track has definitely been entertaining, and the expectations he endures from the U.S. appear to be a huge contrast from those of the Asian figure skaters. Apparently, Apolo has also become a celebrity in the United States; when I heard his name I recognized it from previous Olympics but otherwise I've been oblivious to his growing fortune and fame. (I don't watch Dancing with the Stars, which he apparently competed in and won in 2007, so that probably has something to do with my ignorance regarding his social standing.) What struck me about Apolo, though, was his maturity, both in how he handled the actual races (demonstrating his experience in the sport and in international competitions), and in how he handled the results, whatever direction they took. While Apolo certainly had pressure on him and undoubtedly hoped to become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian, I never felt that he was carrying the weight of his country on his back the way the figure skaters were. I certainly hope Apolo didn't have to worry about losing a product endorsement if he happened to make a mistake in a race and didn't win a medal. Being disqualified in the final heat of the 500-meter race probably would have been devastating to other racers but Apolo handled it with such poise (in front of the cameras, at least, and you want to assume he handles things equally well in private), accepting, as Phil Taylor of SI.com put it, "the seemingly random twists of fate that can make or break a speedskater on the short track." Taylor's article doesn't focus on the disqualification but instead notes that Apolo has, "grown into a great Olympian and more importantly, a mature man." I think that's a greater testament to the man, his sport, and his country than any gold medal could ever be.

Some Notes on My Interview with Adobe

Recently, I was interviewed by RJ Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe. I met RJ over Twitter and have communicated with him about a variety of topics, including Adobe Community Help, which is the subject of the interview. You can read the full interview here:

Interview with Peggy Harvey - The Future of Documentation: Adobe Community Help

RJ conducted the interview using Adobe Buzzword through Acrobat.com, a collaboration tool that allowed us to edit the same document without having to send files back and forth through e-mail. Since we're in different time zones we took turns editing the document, notifying each other through Twitter's direct messaging when the document was ready for the other person to respond. In this way we completed the interview over a few weeks without any disruptions to our regular schedules.

I really enjoyed doing the interview and thinking more about how user assistance is changing in the 21st century. As I finish up my master's program and get ready to re-enter the workforce as a technical communicator, I'll be looking for opportunities where I can contribute toward the type of collaboration Adobe encourages, merging user-generated content with official product documentation to create a more unified user experience.

UPDATE: If you'd like to learn more about how companies incorporate user-generated content you can read my original paper, Enabling User Interactivity with Documentation, now shared on Acrobat.com.