iPoe

This is the last day of the last week of intersession for us, so we've had non-stop faculty development, meetings, trainings, etc. to prepare us for the beginning of the fall semester on Monday. One of the biggest deals - from my perspective - this week was the mock class I taught in our new iPad-based classroom to show the librarians how it will work and what it will be like to be a student in there. Poe was a big help in preparing:

Here we are testing one of the apps I'm using as a class activity. (Since it seems to baffle/worry everyone at work, don't mind the glove on my hand... it's an old color guard glove that I'm wearing to keep my hand from touching the screen when I try to write with the stylus. Very effective, but apparently very similar to something I might wear if I sprained/broke something in my hand.)

"Fireplace"

There's an unusual space in our library that we've had lots of great ideas for since we opened nearly two years ago, but for various reasons, none of them worked out. An aquarium would require too much upkeep and extra technology installed; a real working fireplace required too many changes to meet fire code requirements, and because of its location in the building, is not easy to keep an eye on. For a while, the space served as a display case for a local history collection of objects, but now, it's a "fireplace" made of glass pieces by a local artist. And it's beautiful!

That's about 2/3 of the case (there's more to the right). I don't know how many glass pieces are in there; I haven't asked (or counted).

Blood Drive

There's a blood drive at our library today. While Poe couldn't donate (the Red Cross didn't need stuffing donations today) he helped me through my first blood donation.

The only Poe-sized sticker was the calendar reminder sticker for the next
time I'll be able to donate! But it works... "Give Blood Today!"

You can see my red bandage on my arm, which matches nicely with my
Scarlet Witch (Age of Ultron) costume - we were encouraged to dress as
heroes to honor the blood drive - and my bigger-than-Poe-sized stickers!
(Actually you can also see the little hoop I got from Mountains & Clouds
in the last LV swap on my office wall, too!)

TWCC and TCC

My goodness, we're behind on sharing adventures!

Well, Tidewater Comicon (TWCC) was last weekend, and we had a great time. Although I didn't get a lot of photos with Poe, because I was too busy having my own photos taken (ah, the life of a cosplayer). I did get a couple, though.

Outside the convention center

Helping me get ready by preparing my quiver
(I was Sera from Dragon Age: Inquisition)

The admission wristband fits! Albeit a little unconventionally...

Veterans' Memorial outside the convention center

Then on Wednesday, we had a big college-wide library training day at the Portsmouth campus of our school (TCC). I started off working at that campus, but I haven't been back in about two years, and they have a new statue of Fred Beazley (who, among other things, donated the land that campus was built on) so we visited that.

Poe can't... quite... reach... the hat...

...so he gave up and posed on the base.

ACRL

The whole reason Poe and I came to Portland was for ACRL 2015 (the conference for the Association of College and Research Libraries). Poe learned all sorts of interesting things about my job, and he's ready to help me at work when we get back to Virginia!

Welcome to ACRL 2015!

This Sasquatch cut-out moved all over the convention center.
He always had little buttons on a tray next to him, and we were
encouraged to tweet photos of him with his hashtag (#acrlbigfoot).

I co-presented a poster session about how our libraries are supporting
interculturalism initiatives at our community college. Here, Poe gets us set up.

Ipo and the WHALE

We're redoing one of our classrooms in the library, to make it more interesting, allow for more active learning, and to improve accessibility. The new chairs were delivered today!