Saturday, March 01, 2014

I Found a New Job and I'll Be Moving Far Away, so March is Ask James Anything Month

Hello, friends! It's been quite the week.

You may've wondered why I seemed to disappear into the internet ether after my most recent post. Those of you who also follow me on Twitter were aware by then that my cat was pretty gravely ill around that time; I spent my time before that post my the time after that post coaxing medications into her, nine times per day, ultimately taking her back to the vet's the next day when she still didn't show any improvement. (The details get a little grisly, so I'm trying to be concise about it.)

So I stuck next to the phone very closely those next few days, waiting for updates, and a rather different sort of call came in when I did; if you've encountered me any-elsewhere on the internet lately, you've already heard the big news. My favourite cat in the world passed away, and I found out that I'll be moving 1,100 kilometres northwest about a month from now. Those two life events were within 24 hours of each other. It's been quite the week.

Onward to adventure! I'm incredibly excited to become the Library Consultant for the Pahkisimon Nuye-ah Library System, based out of Air Ronge, Saskatchewan. And when I say 'based', I mean that my role with the organization will involve extensive travel; I'll be making trips all around to the member communities, driving to anywhere that has a road (I'm told the furthest drive will be the six hours to La Loche) and flying to anywhere that doesn't. So as someone who really loves librarianship and really loves exploration, I'm quite looking forward to this new opportunity.

If you've never been up there, it is beautiful scenery. I drove up there this past December (from Winnipeg, in one day -- get at me), and the route north from Prince Albert is two and a half hours through breathtaking boreal forest. And very early on in that drive, a great big sign beside the highway helpfully warns you that there won't be any gas stations for another 230 kilometres or so.

That's the other thing: if you're unfamiliar with the La Ronge / Air Ronge area, you may not appreciate how far north it is. It's about two and a half hours north of Prince Albert, as I'd said, or approximately six and a half hours north of Regina. Y'know how 90% of the Canadian population lives within 160 kilometres of the US border? Well, this isn't that. When I say I'm moving north, I mean a different biome north.

It's exciting! I'm really excited. (And if you've talked to me recently but before I landed the job, you knew how miserable I was feeling about a lot of things. Ah, but that was then.) But, alas, this means that I'll be leaving Winnipeg behind -- and with it, everything I've been doing around here.

So with the position starting in the first week of April, I have about a month remaining to tie up everything I'd had on the go. The other blog has now drawn to a close, and the radio show will run a few more episodes before officially concluding on March 19th. Here on Slurpees and Murder, I won't be around to finish ManLinkWeek, so I'll let that end where it stands -- and there're a couple more things I want to get onto the Slurpees and Murder Record Club before it's all said and done, so hopefully I'll get those out while they still make sense.

Having established all that, I'd thought to myself -- well, what can I do to play this site off, for the last month I'm still around? And then I remembered, oh yeah, I have a March feature, I did it all through March last year.

So let's give it one more spin, friends and faithful: March is Ask James Anything Month! If you've ever wondered or wanted my thoughts on something, well, now's the time, I'd say. Hit me up!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://goo.gl/kTOHZi

Me thinks you could all too easily find yourself living in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan without any income...

unclebob said...

So an easy one- do you like to fish?

unclebob said...

And a harder one - will Katz be run out of town?

Anonymous said...

Why do library schools (ha, ha, ha i meant Information schools, as if) keep expanding student numbers when it is getting harder and harder for librarians to find work?

Anonymous said...

Slim pickins huh. Take the time to develop another career. Have fun and only eat yellow snow every other day.

Anonymous said...

What's your sign?

Shaun M Wheeler said...

Sorry to see you go, James. Good luck on the new career!

Anonymous said...

What's your opinion on the continuation of the Winnipeg Cat meme by a third party?

Sean said...

Re: Anonymous @ March 2, 2014 at 8:08 AM

Seriously, did you actually read what you linked to?

Sure they ran a small loss last year, but their cash reserves would allow them to continue operating in that state for at least another decade. As long as they continue to receive their 'Provincial/Territorial Funding' I'd say that they're a pretty safe bet for the coming future.

Sorry James, I don't want to start a flame war in your comment section, but I cannot abide clumsy interpretation of financial information.

Anonymous said...

Sean, as a former board member of a library that is now part of the Winnipeg Library system I can assure you that you don't any basic concept of the operation and funding of any library system.

You comments won't start a flame war because I'm quit sure that anyone beyond their teens is well aware that when the vast majority of funding for any activity is provided by political grant (political whim) it could end virtually overnight and it's program end.

Have a nice day.

Ben Century said...

Dammit! I'm gonna miss your blog. It's been a joy to read and it's pretty much the only way I keep up with all the goofiness that goes on in Winnipeg.

So my question is... Are you gonna start a new blog called "Wheat and Roughriders"?

Anonymous said...

Good one Ben, but I think that "Pilsner and Incest" would be a more appropriate title for a Saskatchewan blog (if he still bases the title on the region's popular drink and common crime).

Unknown said...

Were there internal discussions at WIPs about finding a replacement host before deciding to kibosh the show?

What are your opinions on an unbalanced budget law?

Do the economies of scale from amalgamating rural municipalities outweigh the loss of unique communities?

Will you blog about Saskatchewanian politics?

Unknown said...

Congratulations James, Well deserved, couldn't be happening to a better or nicer person as yourself. Those students will be lucky. Thanks for reading all my medical reports when you were at Herzing. All the best to you, I'd skip the part about eating the yellow snow or you might end up at my office. All the best. Debbie