"Okay, so there's the RIT website... Now show us your project."

Remember how I was building an undergraduate recruitment webpage for a class project, and then the next project required building upon that page? Well, that next project is now done - and even besides my desire to use my blog to virtually sing through the mountains about the fact that I am all done for this semester (that still feels weird to say), I figure it is appropriate to post a link to the page here since it is, in fact, incredibly relevant. And, with any luck, it will actually go live as part of the CIS website soon! So without further ado...

Bethany's next class project: An expanded look at Imaging Science at RIT

I put a lot of really hard work into trying to make a website that was clean, professional, and presented a lot of information without overwhelming the user. I used JavaScript to create sub-menus that separate each page's information into chunks that are visible only one at a time (I think this is pretty cool and surprisingly sophisticated for what I thought I was capable of). And, I like the overall look and feel. Obviously I'm no professional design team, but I am pretty darn proud of what I've learned and accomplished over a single semester. I hope you like it. (At least my professor does... the title of this post is actually what he said when I presented my project in class!)

As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to comment!

Finally, a student willing to build a CIS website for their project.

PSYCH - that "student" is me! Right now I am in a class provided by RIT's IT department all about web technologies. For our second assignment, we had to build a multi-page website with certain criteria (menus, etc) from scratch using HTML and CSS. I chose to build a site about the imsci undergraduate program aimed specifically at prospective students and their parents. This is both something I am very familiar with and something I have an actual professional need for, so it seemed like a good choice. Although we have a lot of web content that can be used by prospective students to learn more about Imaging Science, we don't necessarily have anything right now specifically written for that audience with an explicitly clear navigation path; rather, much of our content skirts a line between current and prospective students. I even have print material for prospective students that isn't necessarily available online. So, I thought it would be a good idea to take a stab at creating a very segment-specific website. After all, if it ended up being redundant in CIS's eyes, there's nothing saying we have to use it, but it will fulfill my project either way.

So anyways, without further ado, here is the "finished" page I am submitted for my project. I welcome any input you have (please leave in comments)! Please bear in mind, although this is "complete" in terms of project requirements, this is not a page I would go live with quite yet. I would add more images, some more pages, and probably a secondary menu - but, that's for our next project. We were told that Project 3 actually builds upon Project 2, so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't too exhaustive so that I still have something left to do. With that in mind, suggestions are very welcome!

Bethany's class project: Imaging Science at RIT

And with today's freshmen move-in, it hits me: I'm OLD.

10 years ago I was a freshman moving into RIT, and now I feel really weird because if I think of the students who would have been moving in 10 years before I did, they would have been high school class of 1992 and those people are obviously OLD. So now that means that obviously I am OLD in the eyes of these freshmen. But instead of moving in as a freshmen during super old things like the height of grunge, the last year of having both the summer and winter Olympics, and using Windows 3.1 as the premier operating system, I came to RIT during things that seem pretty old to today's college freshmen like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera actually being popular, the emergence of MP3 players and the first iPod, and, well, the aftermath of 9/11, which really dominated all else at the time. When I was a freshman we all used AIM and livejournal and DC++ and played PS2 and wasted time with Homestar Runner... Now it's all Facebook/Twitter/txting and iPads and YouTube. TVs still had tubes and I'm pretty sure I brought a VCR with me; my dorm had a land line phone; my roommate used a desktop tower, NOT a laptop; and Zip drives were where it was at for high capacity storage (we didn't have thumb drives until I was a junior or senior, and man were they pricey). OMG... I'm OLD!!!!!! :*(****

My dorm room on move-in day... Just check out those state-of-the-art electronics.
My printer still used a serial port, and I had to install an ethernet jack card in my laptop. However, I did have a fancy brand new technology called a cordless optical mouse.

Meanwhile, a funny thing happened today on the way to the forum (better known as Facebook):

I love when randomly perfect juxtapositions appear in my newsfeed.

Happy Bethany Day 2012

Today's my birthday, NBD. I spent it working, that's how I roll. (I've only been celebrating my birthday in various ways for like, 2 weeks already, anyways.) This morning the interns sang Happy Birthday really awkwardly so I left the meeting (for the record I did show my gratitude on my way out the door). This afternoon was the Staff Council annual retreat, which started with a fantastic lunch from Brick City Catering:

This picture would look better if it were outside.

There we go.

The feast included BBQ ribs, roast chicken, corn on the cob, salt potatoes, corn bread smothered in honey, and oh darn I ran out of room on my plate for the salads. Oh and watermelon, too! It was very summery and also very messy, but I managed not to get anything on my pretty dress (that's a first!).

The retreat was incredibly positive and productive, which actually made it rather uneventful (in a good way). All in all, a very successful retreat. During break time I was subjected to another round of Happy Birthday singing, this time even more awkward and reluctant than the interns. I couldn't leave this meeting though, so I had to sit there and blush through it; luckily I was rewarded in the end by being served the first plate of strawberries and angel food cake:

That was worth it.

And then I went on working and wrote this blog. The end! Happy birthday to me!

No dice were harmed in the making of this blog post.

We found a game die in one of the corner conference rooms, so I pocketed it and left this note.

And then later I got this e-mail... So I dropped off the die to the main office.

It turns out there had been a clever response waiting. (Thanks for playing!)
Dicey was safely returned.

I <3 my job.

And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

HI! I'M BACK!

I have been gone for the past what-seems-like-forever on a two week whirlwind vacation in Europe! My husband and I flew into London on May 12, and were there for 3 days; then Paris for 4; Munich for 3 (though this was more like 2 once you take travel time into account), and Dublin for 3! WHOA! I had a wonderful time visiting multitudes of historical sites and monuments and attractions... but I have already had to tell my stories to so many friends and family that I am a little tired of going over it all. Plus it was all play and no work - like seriously no work at all - so this blog is not really the place to relate my whole trip. (If you really are dying to hear more, you are more than welcome to buy me lunch so we can go over it in person).

I went to the Eiffel Tower and this happened.
Leave it to me to have a perfectly good picture ruined by my hoodie drawstring slapping me in the face.

Luckily I came back in time for a holiday weekend, so I had a few days to relax at home before coming back to work today. And luckily on top of that it is right after RIT's Commencement, meaning campus is vewwy vewwy qwiet! So my transition back into working hasn't been too bad (....yet). My day was mostly spent catching up on everything I've missed for the past two weeks - e-mails, job postings, news articles, intern questions, etc. OH, and tripping out to THIS:

Yep, that's what my office looked like when I came in today! WHAT! Best return to work from a vacation ever. Yeah, I have the best job in the world.

"If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative." -Woody Allen

So I know I've been quiet for a few days... Truth is, I have busy researching and writing a paper for an assignment. You might be thinking, "Hey, you shouldn't be doing that during work" but AU CONTRAIRE! This paper actually was written about my job (I planned it that way), researching and developing new and improved approaches to science outreach and recruitment (the official title of the paper was "An Exploration into STEM Communication Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Electronic Communication - With Applications to Imaging Science Outreach and Education"). At any rate, one of the ideas I came up with as a part of this paper just seems SO GOOD that I'm actually going to try it - right away - tomorrow. I'm excited, can't you tell? But I'm also a little bit nervous.

I'm not going to give away any spoilers as to what my big new idea is (you'll find out soon enough, once I report back on how it goes tomorrow), but I can say it has the potential to either be really great or a super crash-and-burn failure. Either way, at least I will have tried something new. And tomorrow is the perfect venue - for it is Workforce Innovations 2012!

As you may recall, last year I had mixed feelings about how it went (I even titled my entry that day "You Win Some, You Lose Some"), and I was feeling a little down about the challenges posed by the way the event was organized. Well through challenge comes opportunity - and the types of challenges that come from an event like Workforce Innovations makes for a prime opportunity to try my new idea, which will hopefully help overcome some of the difficulties I had last year.

I know you're just dying to know what I have up my sleeve... Relax! You'll find out tomorrow. I'm pretty excited... fingers crossed it goes well!

It's a Major Award!

This is pretty much completely unrelated to my blog, but still a moment in time worth bragging about capturing...

I won it!

For a little context: when you send in your United Way pledge packet early, you get entered into a raffle. Five winners get picked, one each day, and they get their choice of prizes. There are only two prizes left by now, from which I'm choosing an HP Mobile Printer. Woooo!

This text will be replaced with pictures once I've picked up my MAJOR AWARD. No point in making a 2nd blog post about it just for pics...

Awesome! Thanks, RIT United Way Campaign!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today I returned to RIT. It has not been easy (I now smell of everyone else's perfumes, because of all the hugging) (PS I don't wear perfume) but like my mom says, it gets harder the longer you wait. Besides, working helps take my mind off things. So I'm actually quite grateful for the small accumulation of things to do that built up while I was gone.

As I get back into the swing of things, my focus is on tying up all the loose ends on the things I did remotely while I was away (as mentioned a couple posts ago). I have spent today getting everything back up to date (seminars, website stuff, the screen downstairs, job postings) and checking in with the people and events I have had to miss (several prospective students, San Francisco alumni, inquiries into the intern program).

With regards to the San Francisco alumni event, it sounds as if the reception was a success! Fifteen alumni and one current graduate student attended, and several also brought along guests, which makes for a very nicely sized event. A true measure of the night's success is the fact that most everyone stayed for the full two hours, which is fantastic! I have since received some nice notes from alumni that said they missed me being there this year, so I made sure to reply and let them know that I was equally sorry to have missed out. I had a really great time when I was out there two years ago, so hopefully we will have another event that I can go to!

Also while I was out of the office, the science department at Palmyra Macedon sent me the group faculty picture I took of them with the FLIR when I was there. Enjoy...

This is one for the yearbooks!

It's probably about time I let the cat out of the bag.

I normally try to refrain from posting anything too personal here, especially if it is not a positive or exciting story related to my work in at least some remote way. But it feels like I should make an exception here, to explain my absence over the past week or so and for the foreseeable future, as well. While I have been quietly dealing with a serious illness in my immediate family for quite some time, it now appears to be the beginning of the end - and not the end that we were hoping for. While we had learned last November that this was eventually going to be the case, things had been going quite well until last week when it became suddenly apparent that things would indeed be drawing to a close. Although there has been a sharp decline, there is no way to know how long this final descent will take... Each day is unpredictable, so we have to just take things as they come and try to all stay comfortable.

Meanwhile, this isn't to say I haven't been able to get any work done. Although a majority of my time has been spent with my family during this difficult time, I have made some brief stops in to the office and have been able to keep on top of many things remotely. I have continued to be hard at work with e-mail, alumni activities, seminars, the CIS Facebook page, job postings, connecting other departments with CIS labs for potential collaborations, website maintenance, intern questions, and other things.

I've mentioned several times before on my blog how I often "take my work with me" and drum up interest in Imaging Science in places where it's least expected. Well, this past week has been no exception: one of the visiting nurses who stopped in asked what I do as a job, and what do you know - she has a son thinking of going to RIT for something engineering-related, but he isn't sure what exactly he wants to do. I gave her my card, and after he checked out our website, he became interested in learning more. So I sent out one of our folders full of goodies, and what do you know - she and her son are scheduled to come in for a visit and to sit in on the freshmen class. It can be crazy sometimes how random circumstances seemingly fall into place.

That's all, for now. One of the pleasant things made apparent by all of this is what amazing friends, family, and co-workers surround me and my family. To all of you, thanks.

2012! dun dun dunnnn

Happy New Year! I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays and are off to a happy and healthy 2012. I had a wonderful time during my week off, spending most of my break with friends and family and the rest of the time relaxing and enjoying an open calendar. But, now it's back to the grind! This year is interesting though, because with New Years falling on a Sunday, students got a third week off for their winter break - meaning that, although staff are back on campus, the students don't come back until next Monday! Although it's quiet, and kind of sleepy, I'm enjoying having a bit of transition time to get over the laziness I became so accustomed to over break. (I'm also enjoying better parking and lots of space at the ice rink - oh yeah.)

You know how, in December, you see that things are coming up in the next year and think that's so far away, but then New Years passes and suddenly you realize those things are coming up much sooner than you thought? Now that I'm out of the holiday time warp, this week is all about preparing for those 2012 things that are suddenly right around the corner. I've been updating the summer interns website and getting the application package ready to post - turns out I am taking over many of the internship program duties this year, even more so than last year. I've also been working with Alumni Relations to hammer out the details of our upcoming event in San Francisco (the official announcement should be coming out tomorrow, so stay tuned). And other housekeeping here and there - updating the screen downstairs, uploading CIS news, adding seminars, the usual. And then before I know it, students will be back and things will be right back to normal - but this time with the addition of the post-holiday blues, WAH-waaaaahhhhhh.

I miss xmas cookies.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Today I updated the alumni directory, did some maintenance on this blog, finished up my annual report input, and checked a few other small items off my to-do list. And with that, I bid farewell for the rest of 2011. Whatever you may celebrate, I wish you safe and joyous holidays, and a happy new year! I leave you with this...

CLICK ME!

See you next year!

Holiday Shenanigans

Now seeing as it is break week around RIT and we are less than one week from Christmas, things are pretty low key around here. So, this post is really just for fun. :-)

Today was the annual College of Science White Elephant party! For those of you not familiar with white elephants, everyone brings a wrapped gift - usually something they already have lying around and don't really want anymore. Anyone who brought a gift takes a number and then as your number is called, you can choose either to take someone else's gift that they have already selected and unwrapped, or you can choose an unopened gift and see what's inside. The best number to have is #1, because not only do you start by unwrapping a gift but at the end you can decide either to keep it or trade with any of the ones opened after yours. Other than that, it's best to get a high number so you're one of the last ones to pick. So, when I got 27, I figured I was in pretty good shape.

When it was my turn to go, there were 4 or 5 unwrapped gifts remaining. I decided to employ a method I learned of last year: take the smallest one. That way, if it's no good, at least it doesn't take up much space. Well it turned out to be two ceramic "handcrafted in China" angels - SO not my thing. (Then again, few things at a White Elephant are anyone's thing.) We all had a good laugh at the gift's expense, though in retrospect I hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings in case they thought that was a really nice gift they were giving away.

Well I must not have been the only one not enamored with angel tzotchkes, because sure enough no one going after me wanted to cash in on my gift. But after we got through all the numbers, there were still 2 gifts remaining - which doesn't make sense, unless someone brought multiple gifts or someone who brought a gift didn't take a gift. Someone proposed that each of the tables nominate one gift from their table as "ugliest", and whoever was in possession of the two ugliest gifts of all could take the last two gifts. Well, guess who got voted ugliest at their table!

Since I chose a bagged gift for my first one, I went for a boxed gift the second time around. Much laughter and applause ensued as I pulled out....

A COLOR CHANGING FIBER OPTIC PILGRIM TURKEY!!!!!

I'm putting this one in the win column.

PS: I apologize for the poor picture quality on that photo - being an Imaging Scientist and all, I should have known better than to try to use a cell phone camera. But the convenience...

Just what I needed today

Today I received a surprise big envelope in the mail. Inside was a book of thank you notes from one of the classes at MLK Elementary in Utica! 

The letters are all hand written following traditional formalities - how often do you see that anymore? They are very heart warming, and many of them have cute mistakes or silly statements.

I hope Meraly is just referring to the big spark, not that she actually got shocked!!

See? I told you they loved it when I crossed my eyes.

There are 23 of them in all, and they are a hoot. I love it! Thank you, Mrs. Karam's class!!!

Outreach can happen anywhere

My passion to spread the good word about Imaging Science isn't just confined to classroom visits and materials development; in fact I am always looking for creative and unexpected ways to promote Imaging Science, and often find ways to do it outside of the normal scope of my job. This often spills over into my personal life, where I'll have opportunities to tell people about Imaging Science at cocktail parties, networking events, social mixers, and even when I go ice skating. Another personal outlet is Facebook, where I happened to see a posting by the Democrat and Chronicle's Young Professionals page asking for volunteers to have their Facebook Timelines featured (the Timeline is a new way of presenting your FB profile, which I happened to take the steps to enable before they start rolling it out for everyone). This seemed like another opportunity to get Imaging Science out there, and you never know where you might spark someone's interest! - Especially for something like Imaging Science, where it seems a lot of people find us through some random and unexpected connection.

A sneak peek into my personal Facebook identity... Recognize the banner?

Unfortunately, the size of the browser that the author of the article was using cut off "RIT Center for Imaging Science" from my profile info, so I made sure to get CIS featured in my caption. The text I had supplied was originally edited in such a way that my all-important wording was removed, so I actually worked with the author to make sure I got my CIS plug in - after all, the whole reason I was putting myself out there was to also get Imaging Science out there. Apparently he doesn't normally do favors like that, so I'm very grateful he was willing to work with me.

So who knows whether anything will come of it, but it's always worth a try! You can check out the whole article and read my full caption by going here.

Gobble Gobble

So, I haven't been around too much for the past few days; and no, it's not because of Fall Break. I've been sick! This has been the first time since I started here at RIT two years ago that I've had a cold - which is actually unprecedentedly long for me. Unfortunately it coincided with Thanksgiving, boo! Thankfully I was able to enjoy my turkey dinner, but the days leading up to and following have been pretty miserable. Anyways, I'm not here to complain, just wanted to explain my absence as of late; and, more importantly, to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful celebration of generosity and of what was almost our national bird if Ben Franklin had had his way (and I'm inclined to agree).

Isn't he beautiful? I'm glad the ones we buy at Wegmans don't look like that, or else I'd be forced to enjoy tofurkey.

If you don't get it, google "nyan cat"

This has happened.

Definitely not "bored" meetings

So in another week of many meetings, I am happy to say that I haven't disliked or been bored in a single one of them!

Wednesday, Institute Council: Whoa. So this was my first IC meeting, and it was so interesting. Though, being a newbie, I sat in a place which I thought was in the back of the room. In my defense, there weren't a lot of seats left (even though I was 10 minutes early), and another newb sat next to me (undoubtedly making the same assumption). Well eventually Dr. Mary Beth Cooper came and sat 2 seats away from me... Jaw drop... And then Dr. Haefner sat on the other side of her... Jaw falls to floor... and then President Destler sat next to him... Okay, my jaw was in China at this point. (Side note: Hey China alumni! Come out and meet Dr. Pelz at an alumni reception next week!) Anyways, I apparently accidentally sat in the big-wig area. Gulp. But anyways, it was cool. I was surrounded by staff, faculty, students, and deans - and, oh yeah, upper administration - and got to hear all about campus news and issues before the rest of campus does. Seriously, how cool is all that? It was a great meeting, with great people, and very efficiently run. I am looking forward to the next monthly meeting.

Thursday, Breakfast at Liberty Hill: What an opportunity! Thanks to my leadership in RIT Young Professionals, I got put on the invite list to attend a breakfast discussion at Dr. Destler's house, led by Mayor Tom Richards. Once again: Seriously, how cool is that?! Mayor Richards spoke all about the topic “Innovative Strategies and Creative Thinking That Will Make Rochester, NY Thrive". He was fantastic to listen to, and I really appreciated a lot of what he had to say. He also had great answers to questions posed by audience members, my particular favorite addressing the jobs issue for young graduates in response to how to handle the Rochester area's brain drain. It was an interesting talk and an exciting opportunity to interact. This time, not only was I rubbing elbows with RIT people that I look up to, but with community and industry leaders as well. It was a wonderful experience that I hope to be able to partake in again soon.

Thursday, Staff Council: Not to say that I was shy or uncomfortable before, but I feel so much more at home now at RSC meetings thanks to my experiences on the executive committee, RSC outreach committee, and at Institute Council. My favorite part of this meeting was when we went around and said who we were, what our jobs are and how long we've been at RIT, and one thing that people might not know about us. It was a great way to introduce ourselves and get to know interesting things about each other, like who has twins, belly dances professionally, runs marathons, is a parent to 9 children, and more. One of the reasons I joined Staff Council in the first place was to get to meet people all across campus, so this was perfect for me. After we got down to business and carried out the rest of the meeting, Molly (the chair of RSC) and I updated the Staff Recognition Awards display along the SAU hallway between the cafe and the RITreat. But since the winners haven't actually been announced yet, in place of pictures we put blank silhouettes with question marks over the faces, tee hee. I'll be writing a Staff Council blog about our little teaser next week.

Today, COS Staff Retreat: This morning, the College of Science held their annual Staff Retreat. This is a great way for us to make our voices heard, and it is wonderful of our Dean to provide us this opportunity. We outlined all sorts of hot topics, discussed important items such as professional development, promotions, sabbaticals, awards, and networking, and established a plan to organize a COS staff advisory committee. But my favorite part of the whole experience was getting to see and interact with fellow COS staff members. Although Imaging Science is part of the COS, because we are in a different building we don't often get to be around our fellow COS'ers. I met some new faces, made some new friends, and overall enjoyed the company of my colleagues. I hope that we do make sure to do more social events together in the future, because we really have a great bunch of folks here.

Phew, what a busy two weeks this has been. I thought I really meant this when I said it last Friday, but this time around: TGIF x 1,000! Luckily, my schedule next week is actually pretty open - for now... :-)

Urban League Summer Camp: Hostage crisis!

So on Friday, Sterling arrived with a bag full of little balloons with faces drawn on them that he was calling his "babies". He was super protective and concerned for their well being, afraid that someone might try to take them or hurt them. Anyways, I have no idea where they came from (probably an activity earlier in the day), but nonetheless there they were. He was even afraid to leave them in the Fishbowl while we went up on the roof to see the telescope, and hid them behind a curtain behind the podium.

Well apparently, one of them got left behind - because today when I opened up the Fishbowl, I found THIS:

MINUS THE BALLOON. The hostage-taker doesn't seem to be making any demands, yet... We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

I take my work with me - which is not necessarily a bad thing

Although you could say my job follows a "typical 9 to 5"-ish schedule, I am actually working around the clock in the sense that I am always looking for more opportunities to promote Imaging Science and act as an ambassador for RIT. One of my extracurricular activities is membership in the Eastman Young Professionals (EYP) group out of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. If you're interested, you can find more information on EYP here. 

I recently wrote and uploaded a blog post for the Young Professionals blog section of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle website. I undoubtedly found a couple ways to sneak RIT and Imaging Science in there ;-). Check out my blog post: Top 10 Things to Do at the George Eastman House (& Nearby!) in July - and better yet, go DO some of the things I mentioned!