it's been a circus
what a week.
hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, oh my.
it's recently been full on mobilization across the oxfam organization, to respond to the variety of humanitarian crises around the world. in the gulf coast, in central america, in pakistan-india. continuing food crises in southern africa, and the sahel region of west africa. all while still maintaining ongoing development project work with 3,250 partner organizations in over 100 countries around the world. it's very inspiring to work for an organization that does so much.
what this all means for me is a lot of content to put up on the website. but at the same time our project to move the site into CMS is ramping up. for instance, last week we finished the "migration matrix" - a spreadsheet of EVERY page, link, and image file on the site where we track which pages we'll keep and migrate over into the new system, and which pages we'll chuck.
this spreadsheet will also be used to help us sort out which pages or assets can be auto-migrated. the more things we can get into the new system automatically, the less we need to do by hand - cutting & pasting text from 900 pages of stories, press releases, policy papers, etc is nobody's idea of a fun time.
i don't mean to bore you with the gory details. suffice it to say that work has been sort of like a 3-ring circus.
and so has oxford become, now that the students are back in full session. (for some reason, the term doesn't start until quite late in the season - oct 9! oxford university faq here) i didn't realize how relatively sleepy oxford had become over the summer, apart of course, from the constant stream of tourists... no giant queues at the grocery store or the pub. no hordes of drunken young'uns bumbling out of the pub without looking such that you nearly bowl 3 of them over with your bike while trying to avoid the other 17 crossing the road. they're sort of like pack animals when it comes to the pub scene. in any case, they're back in their full studying and partying glory. if you count all the students, professors, and support staff, it's nearly 30,000 additional bodies on top of oxford's +140,000. but the truth is, overall i enjoy the infusion of energy and i suppose even tradition that they bring to this hallowed and hoary bastion of higher education. for instance, i noticed that the longtime ritual of stealing street signs - of which i managed to gain fair skill and reknown for in my day - was in full swing last friday night!
speaking of circuses, the fabulous st. giles fair was held at the beginning of september in the center of town. it's been an annual event for a few hundred years now, where "showmen and hucksters have gathered" and for which there were several proposals by the end of the 18th century to close it down "as it had become too rowdy and licentious." my office is just up the road from st. giles street, so i saw them setting up on my way to work, and then met some friends there on both evenings of the fair. i mustered up the courage to go on the "free fall" ride but circumspectly avoided the "waltzer" and the other whip-yourself-around-at-ungodly-speeds-so-your-hair-stands-out-straight rides. i also dropped about 12 quid ($20) trying to win a giant 4-foot stuffed Tigger doll for Ardon (my 2 1/2 yr old nephew). in the end, i walked away with a Snoopy doll that was just under a foot long, and an unnamed palm-sized tiger of no cultural significance, for my 9-month old niece Shayna.
here are some pics of the 2005 st. giles fair (click on a photo to enlarge it):
giant toys at the 2005 st. giles fair, oxford
funny juxtaposition
i had to try a hot dog from this booth. big mistake :(
the "meteorite" ride. i just took the pictures!
hope you're enjoying the fall. i miss the furious colors of new england foliage! xoxo
hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, oh my.
it's recently been full on mobilization across the oxfam organization, to respond to the variety of humanitarian crises around the world. in the gulf coast, in central america, in pakistan-india. continuing food crises in southern africa, and the sahel region of west africa. all while still maintaining ongoing development project work with 3,250 partner organizations in over 100 countries around the world. it's very inspiring to work for an organization that does so much.
what this all means for me is a lot of content to put up on the website. but at the same time our project to move the site into CMS is ramping up. for instance, last week we finished the "migration matrix" - a spreadsheet of EVERY page, link, and image file on the site where we track which pages we'll keep and migrate over into the new system, and which pages we'll chuck.
this spreadsheet will also be used to help us sort out which pages or assets can be auto-migrated. the more things we can get into the new system automatically, the less we need to do by hand - cutting & pasting text from 900 pages of stories, press releases, policy papers, etc is nobody's idea of a fun time.
i don't mean to bore you with the gory details. suffice it to say that work has been sort of like a 3-ring circus.
and so has oxford become, now that the students are back in full session. (for some reason, the term doesn't start until quite late in the season - oct 9! oxford university faq here) i didn't realize how relatively sleepy oxford had become over the summer, apart of course, from the constant stream of tourists... no giant queues at the grocery store or the pub. no hordes of drunken young'uns bumbling out of the pub without looking such that you nearly bowl 3 of them over with your bike while trying to avoid the other 17 crossing the road. they're sort of like pack animals when it comes to the pub scene. in any case, they're back in their full studying and partying glory. if you count all the students, professors, and support staff, it's nearly 30,000 additional bodies on top of oxford's +140,000. but the truth is, overall i enjoy the infusion of energy and i suppose even tradition that they bring to this hallowed and hoary bastion of higher education. for instance, i noticed that the longtime ritual of stealing street signs - of which i managed to gain fair skill and reknown for in my day - was in full swing last friday night!
speaking of circuses, the fabulous st. giles fair was held at the beginning of september in the center of town. it's been an annual event for a few hundred years now, where "showmen and hucksters have gathered" and for which there were several proposals by the end of the 18th century to close it down "as it had become too rowdy and licentious." my office is just up the road from st. giles street, so i saw them setting up on my way to work, and then met some friends there on both evenings of the fair. i mustered up the courage to go on the "free fall" ride but circumspectly avoided the "waltzer" and the other whip-yourself-around-at-ungodly-speeds-so-your-hair-stands-out-straight rides. i also dropped about 12 quid ($20) trying to win a giant 4-foot stuffed Tigger doll for Ardon (my 2 1/2 yr old nephew). in the end, i walked away with a Snoopy doll that was just under a foot long, and an unnamed palm-sized tiger of no cultural significance, for my 9-month old niece Shayna.
here are some pics of the 2005 st. giles fair (click on a photo to enlarge it):
giant toys at the 2005 st. giles fair, oxford
funny juxtaposition
i had to try a hot dog from this booth. big mistake :(
the "meteorite" ride. i just took the pictures!hope you're enjoying the fall. i miss the furious colors of new england foliage! xoxo
posted by Joel Bassuk at 1:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home