James Howard Returns

When I say "Slurpees", you say "Murder"!

Slurpees!





Oh wow that went poorly. Well, never mind that for now! We're all pretty rusty, so we can get back into form later.

James Howard is back in town! I had announced this previously to the four or five of you who followed my sporadic sidestory blog, but I'm sure everyone else will be quite surprised to learn that -- yes! -- I just recently completed my Master's of Library and Information Science at the University of Western Ontario, and have since returned to my beloved wasteland hometown of Winnipeg.

And why wouldn't you be surprised? Why, I graduated a full term ahead of my original expectations! I had initially expected to take sixteen months, or four graduate terms, to work through the program and earn my MLIS. But when I got there and learned that a fair percentage of their students do complete the entire Master's program in three terms, I figured I'd give it a shot and see if I couldn't save myself a term's worth of tuition and living expenses.

Go figure, the one-year Master's is possible; insanely grueling, and in most circumstances a dramatically unfeasible idea, but possible. And you out there in readerland know how much I love a challenge (new readers, let me assure you, I love a challenge very much), so I hunkered down and I went for it and evidently I was just crazy enough to pull it off.

And here I am! The rest of the big surprise is that I did, indeed, return to Winnipeg -- not exactly something you hear every day from a newly accredited professional under the age of thirty -- and landed some temporary employment almost immediately in a burst of fortuitous timing and blind luck. So what do you know, I'm currently serving a three-month term position as the Librarian and Coordinator of the John and Bonnie Buhler Library, in the downtown Princess Street Campus of Red River College. Surprise!



I never did get the hang of wearing a tie, and you can see how it completely throws off my OctoCamo, but otherwise I'd say I look pretty good as a professional. The job is awesome so far, but so am I, so I like to think that's how it balances out.

(Ha ha ha ha I have no concept of humility whatsoever. If somebody asked about it, I would guess that it's the measure of relative moisture in the atmosphere! I don't even know!)

Of course, temporary term work being what it is, I have no guarantee that I'll find any more employment once this well runs dry, and so my return to this particular blog (the very specifically Winnipeggian one) may end up sort of short-lived. But, hey! At least I know where I'm going to be until the end of the year, and as long as I'm back in town -- with my fancy-schmancy education and my grown-up job -- I may as well kick out the jams and get back to what made me famous
infamous

largely ignored

get back to what made me the deadly sexy writing machine I am today.

Let's do some writing! James Howard returns! Actual content to follow!