New Post
05.14.06 (11:35 am) [edit]After a truly extended hiatus, I've finally decided to return to the blogosphere. There've been a lot of changes in my life since my last post which was something like 2 years ago? I can't remember and don't really want to bother looking at my last post date because it's depressing enough that I haven't written much in all that time. Some things are still the same however and foremost is that I'm still working in the same library system and thus still disgruntled by and disgusted at the behaviors exhibited by the patrons of the library. So with that in mind, it's time again for me to start venting about the people who annoy me on a daily basis - otherwise "going library" could become the next catch phrase of the 00's as "going postal" was for the 90's. ;) I actually don't have a lot of time to post today as it's Mother's Day and I'm off to a family gathering to celebrate. I just wanted to post something brief, more to break the inertia of my inactivity. More to follow later . . .
Tired . . . and pissed off.
05.20.04 (8:47 am) [edit]I have a cold again - one of the hazards of being both a parent and of working with the public all day long. I also didn't get much sleep last night because I was up late . . . really late.
I was trying to restore my home computer to some semblance of functionality after unsuccessfully trying to remove an extremely nasty, self-downloading and self-replicating piece of malware called "vx2 abetterinternet." This browser-hijacking trojan managed to download itself onto my system and won't allow itself to be deleted or removed by my usual anti-virus or anti-spyware programs. Following conflicting advice from several web forums, I managed to screw things up so badly during my removal attempts that my computer would only start in "safe mode" and not very well in that. :evil:
I had to do a system recovery, which [b]thankfully[/b] didn't wipe out all of my personal files, including 2 years of pictures of my family and more MP3's than I should probably admit to owning. Tonight, I'll have to redo all of my custom settings and reinstall several programs and drivers. :x
And still, after all that grief, that piece of shit file is still on my computer, still hijacking my browser, causing popups and downloading more crap onto my system. :evil:
At least now, after doing more research this morning at work, I think I know how to safely remove it and prevent it from coming back. This time though, I'm going to burn copies of all my important files first, so if the worst does happen and I need to wipe my system clean to fix things, then I won't risk losing everything like I stupidly did last night. :oops:
[b]I'd like to meet the shithead who designed this malignant garbage and released it onto the web and then bash his head in with a baseball bat.[/b] :twisted:
I'm not normally a violent person, but I really equate this kind of malicious, invading software with a burglary attempt on my household. It's legal to defend your home from an intruder, why should your computer be any different.
In any case, I'd really like to see whoever is responsible for this to be prosecuted under the same laws that apply to hackers and virus creators. Just because it's legitimate to create pop-up ads, or adware in general, doesn't make it right to make something that can install itself without permission on a system.
Okay. Now that's out of the way, I can report that nothing else really important has happened since my last blog. The hamster problems have been fixed and things are going okay both at home and at work - except that I've been really too busy to blog and too busy to read blogs.
So to all my blogging friends out there, I apologize for being absent for a while. Unfortunately, I don't see myself having much free time for me to blog or read blogs in near future. For the next several weeks, it seems as though every moment of my time is spoken for and I'm not as free to blog at work as I once was. In fact, during my last hiatus, I debated again about quitting the blogosphere altogether, but I haven't come to a final decision yet. I'm not saying that because I want people to tell me not to quit, but because I just fell like it's just becoming more of a chore than the pleasure it once was. And it's not final that I'm going to stop. Who knows? Working with the public is "like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get," and the right one might set me off on a rant to end all rants. :wink:
Addendum
05.11.04 (6:05 am) [edit]After escaping by jumping from hand to floor twice in a 24 hour period, we've decided to try to trade the Robovorski in for a more traditional pudgy, slow, sometimes-biting hamster. R. will not be happy, but will soon forget the one for the other hopefully. :cry:
Sticky day
05.10.04 (12:53 pm) [edit]It's humid and warm today, with thunderstorms rolling through . . . glad I'm working, for once. :wink:
I've had a busy past few days and again haven't been much interested in blogs or blogging. My apologies to everyone who has probably gotten used to my frequent comments on their blogs, as I just haven't been around much in the blogosphere of late. I promise to find the time to check in again soon . . .
Lets see, where to begin?
Firstly, my sister-in-law is doing much better. Her plasma count is back up in the normal range and her treatments have decreased accordingly. She's back home and things are somewhat returning to "normality" in both her home and mine. She won't be returning to her job teaching before the summer break and depending on how things are progressing with her pregnancy, perhaps not until the baby is born. (It's still a matter of wait-and-see as far as whether or not her blood disorder has had any affect on the fetal development, but we're hopeful and optimistic.)
Secondly, I went to court on Friday for bankruptcy. I know it's not a great thing to do, or to admit, but on the other hand I now have a chance to get my finances back in order. Much of the reason for my decision to file stems from the financial troubles of last year when my wife lost her job and our whole world spun off it's axis. I'm certainly not alone in having this problem in our current economy. I don't care what the spinmeisters in the government or their lapdog press says, things are not going fine with the economy. Proof of this can be demonstrated, I believe, in the record-setting number of bankruptcies filed in the past year. In fact the session I was in had at least 25 people all filing and that was before 10AM in the morning of that day. :evil:
What else? I've got a large paperback order to do at work and only 8 more days to complete it.
My wife had to work her "long weekend" of the month - once per month she ends up having to work 4 nights in a row; from Friday to Monday. So I've had a lot of time alone with my daughter . . . not to say that I don't love to spend time with her, but going to work today was a pleasant change. :wink:
Also, I decided to spoil her by getting her a first pet. We decided on a hamster because it's small, and because our landlord who lives downstairs is allergic to cats. I picked out a non-biting variety, which in retrospect perhaps wasn't the best choice as it's very tiny and very fast. But it's so cute! The exact variety is called a Robovorski and looks like a mouse with a very short tail. He's pretty tame, but definitely likes to poop when he's out of his cage - like on my shoulder. :roll: We're still looking for a name for him, but "Poop Machine" is moving up the list . . .
Anyway, R. is thrilled to have him and woke us up at 5:50 this morning because she wanted to play with him. :roll:
Here's a little picture of what he (we're assuming it's a he, but he's been too fast to try to sex - not that it really matters to anyone but him, or her) looks like:
Anyhow, that's what's going on . . . and why I still need a vacation. :roll:
Just a quick rant
05.05.04 (5:18 pm) [edit]Okay, I said in my last little blog today that I didn't have time to read or write anything lately, but after the news I just got here at work, I'm making time. :evil:
My branch manager, fresh from his latest meeting with the administration of my library system, just told us that now they (the administration) has decided to remove the last petty perk that we library employees get: we're now going to have to pay overdue fines on [b]all[/b] materials we check out. :evil:
This means in essence that the employees are going to be held to a stricter standard than the general public because not only are we going to be fined for overdue items, we also aren't able to wipe out fines for other staff members for fear of being reprimanded or potentially dismissed. Our log-ins can be tracked and every transaction observed; so, it's okay for a patron to bitch to have a fine removed, but not an employee. :x
When I started here 3 years ago, employees didn't get fined for any overdue items owned by our system - not that it really mattered to me because I was scrupulous in my returning of materials, but it was nice to have the option of keeping something a few days longer. Suburban materials were another matter, as those we did get fined for, but so what . . . we're encouraged not to order them anyway because of the cost to our system for borrowing other city's materials. Then they decided that employees would be fined for overdue media materials like videos, CDs, DVDs. Again, that was fine with me because I understood that these were popular items and in demand and it made sense to have more incentive for employees not to abuse the system by keeping them longer than they were supposed to. I can even see this being applied to new books that have a 7 day loan period, but now it's [b]everything[/b]. :x
I just can't see how it makes a difference to anyone if a book that's just gathering dust on a shelf is returned on time or not by an employee. It's not like there's any demand for it, and if there was then the item would have to be returned.
Every job I've worked at has had it's little perks. It's a fact of life that every job has it's drawbacks and it's little benefits. Now things have gotten to the point where all government employees are being bashed for everything and in response, the higher-ups in the system are making the job even less enjoyable - all in the name of clean government. I don't understand how library employees being able to keep things out overdue without fines is now seemingly being equated with widespread government corruption as has been seen in this city lately, with several aldermen going to federal prison for bribery and extortion.
I hate to say this, but I think the next catch phrase like "going postal" will be "going librarian," at this rate. :evil:
Productive
05.05.04 (12:17 pm) [edit]Just a quick blog to let my 3 readers know that I'm still alive . . .
With all that's been going on with my sister-in-law's health problems (she's been up and down lately) and the general chaos of my life in general, I haven't had much time or desire to blog or read other's blogs.
Besides, I've actually rediscovered a sense of satisfaction about being productive at work and seem to have gotten over the malaise brought on by my last library's stress-inducing environment.
I've also been really caught up in my latest read - The Confusion by Neal Stephenson and working on my genealogy web page for my dad's relatives to see before they come for his memorial service in June. (I'm hoping that some of them are inspired to bring me more documents and information when they come.)
Hope everything's going well for all of you out there and I'll try to check out your blogs when I have a quiet moment here at work or at home - hopefully later today or tomorrow. :)
Rollercoaster World
04.26.04 (3:41 pm) [edit]Even after 37 years on this world, it still amazes me how quickly the wheel can turn; one minute you're on top and the next . . .
As noted by my wife on her blog; we were all thrilled last week at the news that my sister-in-law was expecting. She and her husband had been trying for about 3 years to conceive and had finally just about given up when she took a home pregnancy test because she was late. Ironically this was on the final day of her husband's job as a computer graphics designer, as his company had eliminated his local division. He had a generous severance package from his employer and had decided to go freelance, having several prospective jobs lined up. So, it was a bit of an anxious time for them on both fronts, but an exciting one as well.
Then, a few days later, my sister-in-law began to develop symptems of jaundice, which grew more pronounced with each passing day. Her doctors didn't think too much of it and just scheduled her for an early OB/GYN visit and some laboratory blood work, telling her that it wasn't out of the ordinary and that she needed to rest. She continued to feel worse and worse until late yesterday afternoon when she began vomiting severely and her husband took her to the ER, where she was diagnosed with having an extremely rare and potentially fatal blood disease called [b]Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura[/b], or TTP for short. One of the main triggers for this syndrome is pregnancy, as the pregnant woman's hormonal balance is thrown off kilter.
Up until relatively recently, this disorder was fatal in something like 80% of all cases. Today however, that has changed to an incredible 80% survival rate. The main treatement for it is total blood blood plasma exchange, meaning that she has to have all of her blood plasma removed and replaced by plasma from donors. There are a lot of potential complications due to this process and we don't know if or how it will affect her pregnancy, especially this early on (6 weeks).
Time will tell if she's going to respond to the treatment and if she does, there's a very good chance that she'll be cured permanently. There's also (from the site I linked to about the disorder) at least some small hope that the pregnancy will continue unaffected by this unfortunate occurrence.
My thoughts today and for the foreseeable future will be with my sister-in-law and her husband who've both been very good to and supportive of me, even when my wife and I were having our own difficult times in our relationship.
Just before I forget, there were two things of note here at the library today. One is a kid who comes here every day and asks to borrow a calculator frequently. I asked him why he couldn't bring his own in and his reply was that he wasn't allowed to have one at school. (Are they banned like guns are or something?) I pointed out that he didn't need to use it there and that they cost something like $1.99 at the grocery store. To this he replied that his family didn't own one . . . :roll:
Secondly, we had a young man walking around in here today with what appeared to be a Siberian Tiger tail hanging out from the back of his jacket, as if it was growing from him. :shock: The other librarian on duty and I just stared as he passed us several times, apparently making sure that we saw him and his tail. I casually mentioned that perhaps he was a "Furry," but the other librarian, who must lead a more sheltered life than I, didn't know what I meant. :wink:
Day of Rest?
04.25.04 (1:44 pm) [edit]Thanks to a complaint from someone that I hadn't updated my blog in a while, I finally decided to devote some time to writing an entry. :wink:
Things have actually been so busy for me at work and at home that I haven't been reading other blogs much, let alone writing my own. I haven't had much material to write about either - at least none that seemed blogworthy. I mean if I'm only going to post sporadically, then it should be something more than just the usual "things are fine" or "this crappy patron bugged me today."
But anyway, I did have a complaint from my friend Goofylibrarian that he needed something new to read on my blog, so here it is:
As I said before, things have been really busy at work. I haven't had much time for surfing the web there and what little time I've had for it has been devoted to doing genealogical research. I've done a lot before, but I've recently had more interest in working on my ancestral database because my dad's memorial service is coming up in June. I've got a lot of relatives from his side of the family coming into town for the service and I thought I'd try to do as much work as I can on genealogy before then so I can share the info with the relatives. I really just need to clean up and organize my database, but since several of my web-based sources (Ancestry.com & HeritageQuest) have been adding to their databases recently, I keep finding more and more - particularly from the ever-growing wealth of online census images on those two sites. I won't bore anyone out there reading this with a lot of details, because it's really only of interest to me and my family and sometimes not even to them. :roll:
Yesterday at work, we were scheduled to provide emergency help for other libraries in our system, so we had three librarians (including my paraprofessional self) on duty and surprisingly no other libraries called for help. That meant that I was able to work in the staff area cleaning up some of the piles of damaged items that I've been assigned to deal with. I managed to test a box of supposedly damaged videotapes, replace a bunch of CD cases and labels to get the items back into circulation, bill people for damaging or returning items missing parts and generally take care of about 75% of the crap that's piled up on my desk since I arrived at my current library. It'll probably be another month or two before that happens again. :roll: It was really satisfying to get that much accomplished and to not deal with patrons for a whole day. :)
Last night though was a really fun one for my family and I. First, my wife asked one of her friends to drop by with her new 3 month old cocker spaniel puppy for our daughter to play with. That was a blast, and the puppy was really well behaved - aside from a few little puppy-nips on the hands. :wink: Then we went bowling and had a great time. :D [b]R[/b] had a blast rolling her bowling ball down the lane with the bumpers up and knocking down the pins. After we did three games, we went into the arcade area for a little while and let her play some videogames for tickets that she redeemed for a piece of candy which painted her tongue and mouth blue. :roll: The only downturn to the evening came as we went shopping at Target after the bowling excursion and [b]R[/b] had an "accident" in her pants, causing her a bit of embarrasment and discomfort since she's been so good with her potty training. :oops: And there was one other unfortunate complication brought on by the whole bowling/shopping excursion: [b]R[/b] got so wound up that she didn't get to bed until way late last night . . . so mom and dad didn't get to have any time alone together as planned. :wink:
Today, I'm "voluntarily" working at one of the three locations that my library system has open on Sundays. It's the last one until Fall and it's been pretty crazy here (rainy day outside).
I'm having flashbacks of my last library since there are many people trying to fight for time on very few computers at this location. I've been having to chase kids away from the computers when they aren't using them because it's getting to be like a video arcade here today with crowds of them wanting to watch their little friends play games on the computers. :x
Once again, I'm wishing they could ban games from the computers and reserve them for research only - in fact, I've had several people complain that they needed to get on to do homework and couldn't because of the gameplayers. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about it with our current system and policies. :x
Tonight though is D&D night and I'll be able to channel some of my building aggression into slaughtering monsters and verbally fencing with my friends as we roll the dice and drink a few beverages - revelling in our geekdom. :wink:
Okay, is that enough for you Goofy? :P
Crazy weekend, but good.
04.19.04 (11:36 am) [edit]I took a vacation day on Friday so that I could have 3 days off in a row. I couldn't have asked for better weather. :D
It was just a fluke, but all three days were above 70 and sunny, if a little bit windy. Sunday it actually hit about 83 here, while to the North of us, on the other end of the state where one of my sister-in-laws lives, it was only 40. Such is the weather here in Wisconsin in the Spring. :roll: At least it wasn't the other way round. :wink:
The whole family got to shed a lot of the blahs from cabin fever and played outside a lot - at the park and around the house. :)
Saturday was a bit hectic though, as my wife had agreed to babysit for some friends and we had two extra kids (a 2 year old and a 4 year old, to go with our 3 year old) running us ragged for the afternoon. The two year old was a grinning little demon - getting into the toilet water and destroying several of my daughter's books, among other things, smiling all the while . . . :x
My daughter was never that "evil" when she was two, thank goodness. :)
Lets see, what else happened? I cooked brats (bratwurst for all you non-Wisconsinites) on the grill Saturday, made chicken curry for dinner yesterday, watched the movie "Human Nature," played Dungeons & Dragons, worked on my car, and finally managed to convince my wife to watch some of Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring (which she started to really get into). :)
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend! :)
Assorted Stuff and An Anniversary
04.14.04 (12:31 pm) [edit]Today is my 4th wedding aniversary. :)
If you would have asked me 2 months ago if I thought I'd be celebrating it, I'd have said you were crazy. After all the problems and the separation, I think both of us have finally figured out where we want to be: together. And I truly believe we're both fully committed to staying that way. :) We still have a long way to go, but we're going to work on it together.
I'm sorry that it took us almost getting divorced to realize that marriage isn't easy or happy all the time, and that there's a lot of crap that has to be dealt with to enjoy the happy times. Most importantly, I think we've both realized that we need to communicate. We've both matured from experiencing the bad times to understand that we both want to work to prevent them from happening again. :)
Now for some less serious stuff:
My easter bunnies. :D
Today started off great. I got to sleep in . . . not as much as the wife did. :P It's sunny and in the low 60's today. :) My daughter serenaded us for over an hour this morning, singing along with her favorite MP3s on the computer. She's a regular song and dance prodigy. The other night, she put on a whole dance routine in the shower to one of her favorite songs. :D Today, she threw a fit because I didn't take my earmuffs to wear to work - despite the fact that it's a warm, sunny day. ;) She makes us laugh so much with her goofiness. :)
I'm going to have to purchase some sunblock to keep in my car for days like this. My new ride has a moonroof and I love to keep it open when the weather permits, as it did today. Unfortunately, with my rapidly balding pate I need to watch out for sunburn on my scalp. ;)
Oops, just got the word that I have to go for emergency help to my old library. I'm sure that means more blogging later . . .
Video rush
04.10.04 (2:45 pm) [edit]It's been a quiet day at work. Things started off really slowly, probably due to the holiday weekend. Most people had their video selections picked out by Thursday because the library was closed yesterday. Now that we're on our last open hour of the day, the desperate slowpokes who never plan ahead are all swarming the video/DVD racks in search of those elusive "good," new movies. :roll:
Other than that, it's been so quiet that I've actually been able to get more than half of my new paperback order done, as well as look at a couple blogs and investigate some camping gear prices online. :)
I'm planning on initiating my wife and daughter into the joys of family camping trips this summer. Unfortunately over the years, all of my old camping gear has either gone missing, been sold at garage sales or fallen apart from age. We're going to have to start from scratch and build up a new assortment of camping equipment little by little.
When I was growing up, we used to go camping all the time, both as a family and with the Boy Scouts. I used to love it and have some really great memories of sleeping in the great outdoors and sitting around campfires into the wee hours. :)
Of course after more than a few years, the memories of how grimy, buggy, cold, wet, hot, and sore we'd be when we were camping have faded to a huge degree. :wink:
Full Moon?
04.08.04 (4:51 pm) [edit]What is it about Thursdays here?
It's been a crazy Thursday again at the library. We had Energy Assistance causing problems - the signup was filled by 5 minutes after opening, causing a parade of angry people past my desk all afternoon. :(
There were lots of kids running around unattended while parents were waiting in the meeting room for their turn. One little urchin climbed up the front of a freestanding signboard, causing it to fall on him and injuring him - not seriously, thank goodness.
His mother was irate however and called the library administration to complain that this happened and that no one from the staff even bothered to inquire as to his status - an out-and-out lie. :evil:
Besides, isn't it her job to watch the little brat and preserve him from harm? I think she was really pissed at him and at herself, and the staff here were convenient targets for her wrath. The administration of the library however took her complaint seriously, reaming out the librarian in charge and directing him to remove this dangerous, crippling, and totally threatening signage - regardless of the fact that this sign (and countless others throughout the library system) have been in use for decades without causing bodily harm to the patrons :roll:
This incident reminds me of the latest flack over libraries in this region not telling parents what materials their kids have checked out. Parents don't want to take responsibility for their kids behavior. Here's an excerpt from one of the letters to the editor of the local paper on the subject:
[b]Parents expect better from public librarians[/b]
[i]The March 27 article describing library checkout policies for children highlighted the disconnect between public librarians and the people they serve ("Many libraries don't restrict what children check out").
The ability of children to check out restricted materials without their parents' knowledge or permission is intolerable. Public librarians fail to note that children are minors, and, thus, parental supervisory responsibility supersedes the privacy rights of children regarding their access to restricted materials.
Free speech and open access are suitable and laudable for adults, but where clearly defined national standards are present - such as video ratings - the libraries should not consider themselves above responsibility. For other items, blurred age recommendations should be discussed and consensus guidelines chosen.
Librarians, with their knowledge and ability to educate, should be leaders in this process instead of allowing fear or laziness to define an open-access free-for-all.
Access to restricted materials should be determined by a positive decision by parents, not a hidden open-access policy that parents must discover and then "opt out." Often, children are escorted to the library during school hours when their parents are not present.
The librarians' unwillingness to take responsibility for what the children under their care are viewing demonstrates their detachment from the community they serve.[/i]
Letters like this one always drive me nuts because no one working for a public library will reply back to one of these uninformed rants for fear of reprisals from their bosses and from the public. We're a bunch of cowards, myself included. :(
I mean really, come on, the children aren't in "our care." We aren't their parents. If they don't want to take responsibility for their children, why should we have to? Free speech and the free flow of information is the backbone of the library's purpose for being. Why should we restrict it for some people and not others, whether they're minors or not? I don't think that standing up for free speech or the free flow of information is caused by fear or laziness. It's a principle that defines librarians as well as the libraries.
As for implying that we're equivalent to teachers, if so then I want the same tax and educational benefits that teachers get. My sister-in-law who teaches has had much of her student loan debt erased through government programs which exclude other educators like librarians. :evil:
Okay, got off on a ranting tangent there but still . . .
Also included in today's fun was a woman who locked herself out of her car with the engine running. She tied up the other librarian's phone for nearly an hour (leaving me to handle all the phone in reference questions) trying to get someone in either the police or fire departments to come out and get her into her car. As I told the other librarian when he explained about the patron's problem, she needed to call a locksmith - which she eventually ended up doing. When I used to work retail a few years back, the cops and fire departments gave up on doing that kind of thing for people due to liability issues from damaging the cars and because they didn't want to be competing with local locksmith businesses. :roll:
At least tomorrow I have off for Good Friday before I'm back for Saturday.
One last note: Saw Hellboy last night. It was one of the best comic book adaptations I've seen yet. 4 stars out of 5. :D
Election Day Parade
04.06.04 (10:27 am) [edit]Today is an election day here. We're electing a new mayor and county executive today. This library is a polling place, so we've had to have our doors open since about 7:00 AM, even though the library was actually closed. I was the only reference staff member here, but other than a couple of quick questions about where to go to vote, no one really bothered me. :o I was expecting to have to deal with a lot of reference questions and people trying to check out materials before we were "officially" open for business.
As far as the election goes, so far it's been mainly a parade of elderly, retired people. I hope that a more diverse section of the population comes out today, especially because who's ever elected mayor today will ultimately be my new boss. Neither of the candidates are really inspiring and there's little to distinguish between the two of them besides color of skin. The only real "deal breakers" for me and a lot of other "undecideds," I think are that one of the candidates has come under scrutiny for many minor questionable decisions regarding campaign finances and he's had some other political gaffes that really seem to stem from surrounding himself with incompetent advisors. I guess if it's going to come down to that then I have to trust that the one who hasn't made the mistakes in the past will be the better of the two . . .
No matter who wins this election, I think there are going to be some major shakeups in the library's administration because the head city librarian is a member of the mayor's cabinet and the new mayor isn't going to want to keep someone who's a holdout from the previous administration.
Fingers & Toes Crossed
04.05.04 (3:17 pm) [edit]It's quiet today here at the lib. Let's hope I haven't jinxed it by saying that. ;)
I had to work yesterday for my first "voluntary" Sunday. It wasn't too bad except for the crazy - truly chemically imbalanced - teen that we had to deal with at closing time. And the old guy who didn't comprehend that I couldn't just send an email for him. The afternoon actually went pretty quick there. :) Got to play D&D last night, so I was in a good mood before and after that. :)
Today, I didn't start until 12:30, so I got to sleep in a bit. :) And the only difficulty today has been that I had to swap out some bad public computers today (3 of them) when I got in. Apparently, we've had a rash of patrons inserting foreign objects into the floppy drives and damaging them; library cards, paper clips, gum. One of the "new" computers couldn't find the network after it was hooked in, so that entailed some detective work and wire tracing back to the main server to get it going. :roll:
I guess it's time to get back to work again . . .
Energy Resistance & Utopia
04.01.04 (4:19 pm) [edit]One of the many things that this branch is "host" to is the Energy Assistance program from our local energy monopoly - "WEenergies."
We only provide the meeting space for their weekly program and yet we end up dealing with all of the headaches and problems associated with them. :x First and foremost is the fact that they're only able to help the first 25 people who sign up to be seen that day. We're instructed by them to put out the sign-up sheet at 10:30AM when we open up on the day of the service. The actual program begins at 1:00PM. There are people outside the library waiting to sign-up on the sheet from almost the minute staff arrives in the morning at 8:30. :roll:
Today, the sign-up was full by approximately noon and from that point on, there was a steady stream of argumentative people demanding to be helped by the one person sent out by the utility for the program. When told that it was full for the day and given a list of alternative sites for the help, most of the people launched into tirades about how they couldn't go anywhere else and how dare we turn them away. They didn't want to listen to the fact that the only real involvement that we had in this was letting the program utilize our meeting room space and that none of us had anything to do with the program beyond putting out the sign-up sheet. :x
Quite a few of the people wouldn't take "no" for an answer and actually tried to "crash" the program by barging into the meeting room and demanding to talk to the utility person - so many in fact that she came out and told us not to let anyone else into the room unless they had signed up on the sheet that morning.
One man in particular got into an argument with the branch manager over the EA program. It seems that he goes to school until 2 pm and can't make it in to sign up for the program here and it's always full when arrives. Well who's fault is that? :twisted: Why should we bend over backwards for someone who is clearly incapable of making small changes in his life schedule for something that's clearly important to him? And especially because he thinks if he yells loud enough we'll somehow magically do something for him that we don't have any jurisdiction over? :roll:
When I saw this man come in (actually I heard him first before I saw him and recognized him by his voice from my past library assignment), I knew he was going to be a problem. He was a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS at the other library and hasn't changed a bit. (I know I've blogged about him here in the distant past, but can't find it in my archives.)
The short version: This guy is an older Indian/Pakistani man with a very thick accent. He's supposedly studying to be a veterinarian. He used to come into my old branch and bully the retiring manager there into letting him take out medical reference books and then further bully her into letting him keep them for months at a time. She hated confrontations with him and would let him walk all over her - or send me out to deal with him while she cowered in her office. :roll: Once, he got upset at me because he couldn't understand a: our computers where not the same as the ones at his school and didn't have his veterinary test practice software on them and b: there was no way for us to get this software for him or install it on our computers. :roll: I also had previously gotten into it with him in my previous role as a circulation manager over fines on other books either checked out and returned late, or not at all. :x
Anyhow, today after the argument over the Energy Assistance, he reported that he lost a book he'd checked out from here and wanted to know the price he'd have to pay us for the replacement. I, unfortunately, got stuck helping him with this - yet again. :roll: The book he lost was out of print, or at least unavailable from our purchasing source, so I found a price listed for the same item in a record from one of the suburbs included in county library system. That price was $10.95, whereas the default price for a trade paperback if the system had generated a bill for the lost item would have been $20.00, so I was being extremely generous to him.
When I told him the price, he started up complaining and trying to get me to cut him a deal - he's a senior; the book wasn't any good; it was a little book (so how could it cost that much?); if he found it in the future could he get a refund? (yes, a partial one as I explained, setting him off on another tirade). It went on and on for about 5 more minutes as he tried to get concession after concession from me and tried to get me to trip up on what I was telling him so he could pounce on that and twist it. :evil:
When he finished and I wouldn't back down, he left and didn't end up paying for the item after all. :roll: Something I suspect he never intended to do in the first place. He was just testing the water so to speak; trying to find a weakness he could exploit to further bend or break the rules. Sigh . . . :roll:
Okay, two more final things for this long entry . . .
Just kicked out two of our regular problem kids for being caught throwing a plastic "egg" full of chewed bubblegum at each other in the library. The one kid denied doing it at all, but before being thrown out he asked the other librarian where he could go to wash his hands because they were sticky. :roll: Auditioning for "America's Dumbest Criminals" perhaps?
"Jeffrey Dahmer" just walked in. He's this crazy guy who looks like the notorious hometown necrophiliac serial killer and who stares disturbingly at our circulation aides and also stands for long stretches in front of a mirrored glass wall separating our work area from the public one, grooming himself in the reflection. We're really not sure he knows or not that he's completely visible to the staff in the back. :?
Okay, I think that's enough for one day. The moral of this story is that nowhere is paradise forever . . .
Quiet time
03.30.04 (7:55 am) [edit]45 minutes to go before the doors to the library open. It's so peaceful here. No cell phones going off. No patrons with their headphones blaring their music so that everyone can hear. No kids shouting, running and throwing things. No adults shouting, running and throwing things.
If only it could stay that way for just a little bit longer . . . ;)
Let's see. What else is going on in my life? Family squabbles, child care issues, Grandfather's illness, pinkeye flares up yet again, therapy sessions with my wife, busy at work, busy at home - nothing out of the ordinary there.
Blah, Blah, Blah! Life is too complicated. I need a vacation that lasts for a year or two and then I'll need another one to recover from that one. ;)
Dawn of the Dead
03.26.04 (10:20 am) [edit]was . . . disappointing. Probably because I had gotten myself so psyched up about seeing it. :?
I am such a fan of George Romero's original trilogy - hopefully soon to be a quartet since the successes of 28 Days Later and this version of Dawn of the Dead.
What made them so good was the fact that they were actually character studies. The audience learned about the people and could sympathize with them because they were normal human beings put into an insane situation. In the Romero films, whether due to budget constraints or plan, the casts were kept small. That tighter focus allowed each survivor to have their moment in the camera's eye - to become real (and plausible) to the viewer.
The zombies were a slow moving, relentless force of nature that forced the characters to act in ways that were at times inimical to their normal modes of behavior and also at times brought forward other better aspects of their characters. The survivors were forced to discard many of their prejudices and preconceptions, bonding together for the common good. Those who were selfish in the face of disaster, perished . . . violently.
The zombies in the original films provided a chance for social commentary. The redneck zombie-killing party; the mall-walking corpses from our consumer society; the empathetic "Bob" and the soldiers from Day of the Dead, all forced the audience to think about who and what was "evil" in the films.
This new version jettisons nearly all of that depth for a torrent of gore. There are now 20 or so (it actually got hard to keep track of how many survivors there were) characters in the film, where the original had 4. Many of the new characters are seemingly introduced only to provide fodder for the zombies to attack and kill in, I have to admit, inventively gory situations, or for extremely underdeveloped subplots, or in one case, to provide a brief glimpse of T&A in a 5-10 second sex scene.
I do appreciate the nods to the original and the cameos by original cast members. :)
I guess my main problem with the film was that it [b]was[/b] such an unrelenting torrent of gore. There was no explanation of why or how the zombies kept "functioning," particularly at the rates of speed that they displayed. How can a decomposing corpse still run like an olympic athlete after several days/weeks. What ever happened to rigor mortis? I can certainly understand that a recently dispatched person could get up and move like they did when they were still alive, but after several days of dehydration wouldn't they at least move a bit slower? And the blood? Why wouldn't it coagulate after a relatively short time? At least in 28 Days Later and Romero's other non-zombie but similar film [b]The Crazies[/b], the "zombies" were more just infected humans that had been reduced to mindlessness. The original's stiff-legged weak assaults were much more "realistic" and "plausible" than the gallons of blood and gore from the speed demon assault engines portrayed here.
For a more realistic view of how a world affected by a zombie-plague would be, see my links on the left for the one to the online novel Autumn.
Okay, after re-reading this entry, I'm thinking that my zombie obsession might need psychiatric scrutiny? :wink:
Perhaps it's just that so many of the patrons I deal with seem to be more undead than alive? So sometimes it's not hard for me to imagine myself in a zombie film. :roll:
Open library doors, insanity ensues . . .
03.24.04 (1:00 pm) [edit]Last night I had a guy here at the library blow up at me because he had used up his turns on our automated internet control system and he needed to finish something. He started yelling that he wanted to speak to the city's head librarian about our computer policies - regardless of the fact that she works at the main branch downtown (9-5) and has literally dozens of deputies under her to deal with this stuff. It would have taken him quite a while to work his way up through the chain of command and all for 15 minutes more of [b]FREE[/b] internet time before the computers shut down for the night that he didn't have left anyway because he'd wasted it. :evil:
I, of course, did know exactly how to bypass the problem and fix it for him, but his behavior didn't exactly endear him to me. :twisted: (Time for me to attend Customer Service Training again?) :roll:
So I told him what the policies were and how the software controlling the sign-up system was set up and that there was no way to fix the problem using [b]his[/b] library card to sign on to the system again.
That said, then he wanted me to use my library card to log him on for more time - which I wasn't about to do. :roll:
Why should I, as a city employee, want to break library rules and policies which are designed to give every patron an equal chance to use the computers and, at the very least, bend the city statute that we have regarding the fraudulent use of other people's library cards. Not to mention the fact that if he did do something illegal on the internet, I would be the patron of record who used the terminal. :roll:
Finally, when I managed to involve the manager in this patron's harangue, the manager told me that we have a couple of fake cards for this type of situation - a fact that no one had mentioned to me previously. I should have known that I would be left twisting in the wind. So I had to quickly make it known to the patron that this was not something that was done at my previous library and that no one had informed me that these fake log-in cards existed - which they hadn't. :x
Final Score = Patron happy, ArcadeAttendant pissed off.
Once again it seems that the rules only exist to be broken . . .
Today, in the first hour on desk, I've already had to deal with two crappy patrons - one in person and one by phone. :x
The first one was a guy who wanted to put something on hold from another library, but claimed to have forgotten his pin number for doing the transaction online. I asked for his card, which he then handed to me. The card number didn't exist in the system anymore meaning that he'd probably lost it and gotten a replacement card at one point. I mentioned that to him and he looked at me and said,"This is my little cousin's card." I told him that he was breaking the law by using someone else's card and confiscated it. I told him that the card was no good any longer and had probably been noted as stolen and that if he was over 15 (he looked like a high school kid - which meant I should have kicked him out for being truant), he needed to get his own card at the front desk. He didn't do it, which usually means he has a record and owes way too much money or doesn't have any ID, or is actually truant from school and didn't want to be caught. What he did do was hide in the back of the building and quietly worked on what looked like homework - which is fine. I didn't spot him until almost two hours later, at which point it was close enough to school letting out that I wouldn't have been justified in giving him the boot anymore for being truant.
The second patron was a notorious nutcase from my last location. This lady owns a dance studio and calls the libraries on this side of town looking for music on CDs, but doesn't want to learn how to look things up on her own. She wants to call the libraries and ask us to look up songs on very broad subjects - this time it was "gifts" as she was providing some sort of musical service for a wedding - and then read off the long lists of things that we come up with from the catalog so she can request that some of those items be ordered for her. She also wants us to comment on whether or not we think that each song is appropriate for what she's doing, as if we all know every song out there and can make the decision for her. I had someone waiting in the chair in front of my reference desk and I told her that she would have to come in and we'd be happy to give her bibliographic instruction on how to do the searches herself, but wouldn't do them over the phone in the manner that she wanted. If she wanted more qualified help in her musical selection process, then she needed to go to our main branch where they have an entire department and several librarians devoted to music. That seemed to shock her that a small branch library wouldn't have a music specialist on duty to assist her for what I know from experience would have been a half hour to forty-five minute call. :roll:
Ah well, the day is still young and there are many more crazy people lurking about outside, just waiting to pounce on a poor unsuspecting paraprofessional such as myself . . .
At least I can look forward, after a day of dealing with the living dead, to seeing them onscreen. Yes, I'm going to see [b]Dawn of the Dead[/b] tonight after work with another geeky librarian friend of mine. :D
Unfortunately I've started looking like an extra from that movie again as my pinkeye has started to come back after I'd finished my last course of eyedrops for it. I'm afraid I'm going to have to visit the doctor to cure this with some permanence. :(
The way things are going, I'm sure there'll be more stories later today. :roll:
Given up.
03.23.04 (12:50 pm) [edit]The gift romance paperbacks have finally broken me. :roll:
Someone donated about 500 romance novels about a month ago and I can't stand looking at reviews of them anymore! :roll:
Besides that, I don't have room to add any more of them; especially not Regency romances which seem to make up the bulk of the gift pile here. There are only so many that we can fit into our rapidly growing collection.
So, I'm boxing them up and sending them on to become someone else's problem at our main branch. I don't care if they add them, sell them or trash them. I just don't want to see them again. :roll:
I've never read a romance novel; never had the slightest urge to read one. Don't want to read the male equivalents: westerns & action/spy/military man-romances either.
Unfortunately, the patrons at this branch love romances, particularly historical ones. They love romances and cozy mysteries, which shouldn't come as any surprise because I'm guessing the median age of our patrons to be something like 50 years old.
Sci-fi doesn't go here and especially not Star Trek/Star Wars novels which circulated a lot at my past location - surprising because of the largely Hispanic immigrant patron base there. :shock:
It almost makes me miss my old spot, when I could order all kinds of Sci-fi titles and have the circulation stats to justify it. :)
Just last week, I stopped over there at the old place and grabbed three paperbacks off the rack that I ordered for there (and for me, when I got down to them on my reading list). I'm almost through with the first one (see my current fiction link for more details) and then it's on to Dreampark by Larry Niven and Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. After that, I've got I think 2 more waiting for me on the hold shelf - better get crackin'! :o
Two quick last notes:
I saw [b]Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [/b] on Saturday and I have to say that it was one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. I highly recommend it and though I'm definitely not one of Jim Carrey's biggest fans, I think he did a great job in this movie.
I'm going to see [b]Dawn of the Dead[/b] tomorrow night after work. My brother, who's a Zombie film connoisseur like myself, saw it on Friday and said he thought it was as good as 28 days later, or possibly even better. He did admit though that because this version is set in our hometown area, it really enhanced the horror and fright level for him. His actual words were that, "they did a great job of capturing the "brownness" (bleakness) of our region's landscape during parts of the year," so it made it all the more believable for him and hopefully for me as well. :D
Maybe more later . . .
St. Patrick's Day Curmudgeon
03.18.04 (2:31 pm) [edit]I don't celebrate St. Patrick's day.
People have a hard time understanding that, especially in light of my last name: Caughey. They automatically assume that because the name is ostensibly an "Irish" name that I'm of Irish descent and that I was raised in the Catholic church - they also assume that I must be a fan of drinking green beer till I puke, eating cabbage & corned beef (I do love a good Reuben though), dancing jigs, singing "Vaudeville" Irish songs like "Danny Boy," and wearing radioactive green clothing in what I find to be a horrific celebration of an awful ethnic stereotype - something we here in this city get to do more than once per year.
My family and ancestry is "Irish" only in that my ancestors moved from Scotland to Northern Ireland for a couple of generations before they set sail for the even greener pastures of America. We've (my forebears) been here in America (at least as far as my attempts at genealogy have proven) since before 1800 - way before the potato famine that sparked the mass migration of the Irish to America.
My family has been Presbyterian for literally centuries. We've not venerated saints since the time of Calvin, though I don't want to sound anti-Catholic in any way, shape or form. In fact, I went to a Catholic university for a year before transferring for financial reasons to a state university across town. For another example of how little religious distinctions really mean anymore in this day and age: my best friend, who grew up in the same church as me, converted to Catholicism when he got married 2 years ago and his family didn't even bat an eyelash about the switch - though that may have been because they were just so happy that he was actually settling down with someone. :wink:
We've also never needed an "excuse" like a single holiday to drink hard and party in my family, despite the "puritanical" roots of our "Calvinist" religion. The only thing that holds us back from partying more than we do is another family tradition: diabetes. Luckily for me, I was past the college-drink-till-you-dr op stage in my life long before the spectre of diabetes that had been shadowing me for years finally caught up with me.
St. Patrick's Day celebrations used to have a legitimate purpose as a means of protest (against what were, sad to say, probably some of my ancestor's harassment), strengthening ethnic identity and consolidating political power - not to mention venerating an important saint. What's unfortunate is that this celebration has become coopted by the very groups that it was aimed against and perverted into the stereotypical "amateur night" drunkfest that it's become, particularly in recent years.
I'd consider celebrating it if there were other equally offensive ethnic stereotype holidays such as a Polish one where people acted stupid and did things backwards, or a French (not Bastille day) one where everyone had to act snooty, eat snails and drink cheap wine - you get the idea. At least then there wouldn't be one group singled out and something like diversity would appear in un-PC holidays.
I don't need a "holiday" to celebrate my ethnic heritage (real or imaginary), especially not one that cheerfully celebrates how an ethnic group was abused and vilified.
Okay, now that I've probably succeeded in pissing off all 3 members of my audience, I think my work here for the day is done.
Maybe tomorrow, I'll get down off my soapbox and write some actual library-related stuff again.
:wink:
Eyes of Pink
03.16.04 (1:12 pm) [edit]Yes, once again I have succumbed to an occupational hazard: conjunctivitis. Handling filthy library material + staring at a computer screen for extended periods + rubbing eyes, forgetting to take the precaution of handwashing or sanitizer =
So, rather than run the risk of infecting my co-workers, I valiantly called in sick yesterday - facing further possible reprimand for the unforgivable sin of actually using sick leave days. :roll:
I've already been given a warning about how many sick days (6) that I've used in the past year, even though what I've used constitutes only a fraction of the total number I've accumulated in the past 3 years of working for the library system.
What's really stupid about the way that sick leave is counted in my library system; anything more than 4 hours constitutes one incident of sick leave use, but if you stay out for 3 full days, that also counts as one incident. So there really isn't much incentive to come back early from being sick. In theory, you could (if you had enough time accumulated) stay home sick for 18 days during a year and get reprimanded for it the same as if you'd been out for 6 days. :roll:
Also, with the new federal family/sick leave rules, you could be out sick more than that if you can get your doctor to sign something saying that you have a chronic condition. I have an occasional migraine and if I wanted to, I could get my doctor to sign a statement to that fact and then I'd never get reprimanded for being ill. With my diabetes, I could get him to say that as a person with a compromised immune system, I'm more susceptible to catching viral infections, therefore whenever I get a cold, I can stay home and not get in trouble for it. :roll:
I guess I'm just going to have to get over the notion that I'm doing the library and my co-workers a favor by trying to come back early from getting ill - especially when to it seems I'm only penalizing myself by coming back too early.
Hmmn . . . could it be that I'm really discovering where the whole stereotypical lazy public servant image comes from? In the bureaucracy, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. And I'm in the Union Dammit! :wink:
Saturdazed Again
03.13.04 (8:46 am) [edit]
Ugh! Working another Saturday. It wouldn't be so bad if:
a. I had enough sleep last night. The girl was over at my place and kicked me all night long.
b. My back wasn't sore (see "a") and giving me the posture of a 90 year old.
c. I had enough caffiene this morning. I was trying to be quiet getting ready for work this morning and didn't want to make my usual dose of tea, because I didn't want the kettle to wake up my daughter.
Finished reading that crappy zombie novel last night. I wish the cover would have said that it was part one of two, then I would have waited for the second part to come out before reading it. I mean, it wasn't very good, but now I want to know what happens to the main characters since this book literally ended midway through the action. [b]I hate cliffhangers![/b]
Now I'm waiting for another book to arrive from another branch and I feel lost without something to read. Ironic because I work here in a library, literally surrounded by books. Unfortunately, the collection at this branch doesn't reflect my tastes at all. I've had such a hard time finding books to put on our "staff recommends" shelf because I can't recommend anything from here.
At least it's slow here today and we have extra reference staff on duty since we were supposed to provide help if someone at another branch called in sick and no one did. Maybe I can even start to tackle the growing pile of damaged materials on my desk? Probably not. The other librarians have seniority, so their projects get priority.
Time to go on break, so I think I'll just end this pointless caffeine-free rambling here.
Letdowns and Strange People
03.10.04 (1:06 pm) [edit]Last night I just finished Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I really loved this book as well as the last one of his books that I read, Quicksilver. But now, I'm feeling a bit like one of the main characters of his book, Lawrence Waterhouse. Waterhouse is a mathematician and cryptanalyst in WWII and he loves the intoxicating drive of actually breaking a code and solving a puzzle, but then hates the "mundane" details of actually reading the messages. He's more about the problem-solving than the actual tedious work of applying the solution and that's how I am. Reading these two books were a long and drawn out pleasure, but now they're done and I'm feeling a bit of a void.
Anyway, until Stephenson's next volume of his Baroque series comes out in April, I'm reading more light stuff, like Brian Keene's The Rising. and probably more than one Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms novel. After Stephenson, these ought to be going down about 1 every day or so.
Currently, for my music I'm hooked on The New Pornographers.
The library has been fairly quiet lately, except for the chaos of the Dr. Seuss program on Saturday. I have noticed a lot more religion-based questions lately, which are probably the result of Mel Gibson's film. In fact yesterday I had a man who wanted help finding passages in the bible using a concordance. Then he proceeded to give me an impromptu lecture on crucifixion techniques. Several other patrons have wanted books of paintings depicting the crucifixion.
The scariest information request I've had lately came last night though. It wasn't about religion. A man came up to the desk and asked for technical manuals on biometric identification systems. He told me he loved to keep up on this stuff. Of course here in a small branch library we don't have materials like that. I gave him the URL of a government website that deals with that stuff and he seemed pretty satisfied. There was something not right about this guy, but we have a lot of weird patrons. The funniest thing was that this guy wanted all of these heavy duty technical journals, but couldn't master our fairly simple Internet sign-up software. :roll:
Tonight I'm being sent out for emergency help to one of my old haunts in the library system. I used to work at that branch as the circulation supervisor before being transferred into my current position of reference assistant. It'll be strange to go back there, but familiar at the same time. I know I'll be busier there than I would have been here tonight. Guess I'll just have to surf the net between patrons, since I've got all of my "portable" projects finished at the moment. :wink: It's Murphy's Law though that I'm being sent back across town to work when I've made plans on the side of town I'm currently on for after work. :roll:
On a personal note, things have been getting better between me and my wife. We're more than likely going to get back together, but we're still going to be in therapy for a while. We both have a lot to work on, but I think both of us want to give the marriage a chance again. :)
Slimer Day
03.06.04 (8:53 am) [edit]It's a "Slimer Day." Warmer, but still snowing a bit; gray, with no breaks in the cloud cover. I'm working again today and this is the 3rd out of 4 Saturdays in a row that I've been scheduled to work. This time it was of my own doing though. I needed yesterday off to help move my grandfather's furniture since we had to move him into the medical care unit of his senior living complex. (My back is really sore today :( ) The way things are going, I might get one Saturday off this month before I have to start doing my stint of 3 Sundays in a row and have no weekends to speak of for a while. :?
Our library system is open for about half the year on Sundays, from October through April to combat the suburbs for circulation - it's a long complicated financial mess involving reciprocal borrowing charges.
They keep the main branch and the two most active neighborhood libraries open on Sundays from 1-5 and staff them with "volunteers." The staff service is voluntary, but mandatory, meaning that you have to "volunteer" for a selection of the days they want to be open and tell them which days you'd be "willing" to work and then they choose from the pool of volunteering staff and assign dates. The wording on the date selection form is very ambiguous as they ask, "how many days would you [b]prefer[/b] to work." I and others have gotten in trouble for stating that we'd [b]prefer[/b] to work 0 days. Because as you can guess, they don't want to hear that we'd [b]prefer[/b] not to work on Sundays. The true question is how many total days we'd be [b]willing[/b] to work out of the ones on the list.
As someone with a degree in English, that kind of misuse of the language burns me - especially when the ambiguousness of the text, particularly in a job-related form, can get one in trouble. I don't know what the author of the form's intent is, so I have to go by a strict definition of the terms in the text - even when it's known what the intent was . . . :twisted:
Today we have our Dr. Seuss 100th birthday celebration this afternoon. I would expect that we're going to have over a hundred people attend, if the attendance at the other branches that have had theirs is any indicator. I just saw the cake that's been provided; it's going to take a mathematician to divide it up so that everyone can get a piece and the pieces will be have to be about 1 inch square. :roll:
At least it's quiet for now though and I can catch up on my blogs while I wait for the fun and games to begin. :roll:
Utility player
03.04.04 (3:58 pm) [edit]Here at the "unbusy" library, I've become something of the utility infielder. I keep getting shuffled around from desk to desk filling in whenever someone else needs a break. It's great that they think I have such versatility, but frustrating too when I have to keep jumping up from whatever project I'm working on and move to another spot. :roll: I think I've gotten to actually sit and work at my own desk for less than thirty minutes at a stretch today. :(
Tonight I'm working the children's reference desk, but I've already sat over here two other times today for a couple of short stints to cover breaks, meetings and just plain shortages of reference staff out here on the main floor.
The hardest thing has been getting re-oriented at each desk I've been asked to work, especially when I've had to leave the other staff member logged in on the terminal because they're in the middle of something online (a book order for example). I keep looking for my favorites and end up having to search again for the site I was on for my work (paperback ordering), or wanting to check my email and having to log-in using the web based version of our email program (slower and clunkier).
At the children's desk here, I'm also having to deal with the bizarre placement of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and telephone. Instead of moving the desk in a rational manner to provide the best vantage point for keeping an eye on things, the librarian who's desk this normally is, has placed the CPU under the desk where it's constantly in danger of being kicked; placed the monitor, keyboard and mouse in such a manner as to make the computer impossible to use unless one is straddling the drawers of the desk; and finally, he's placed the phone at the far end of the desk, necessitating a 3 foot lean and grab whenever the phone rings. I feel like a contortionist working here . . . :evil:
No wonder he needs a pad on his chair for his back . . .
At least tonight for dinner, I found out that the Chinese restaurant down the street makes decent
Singapore Noodles (I even found their recipe online in the local paper). :D A little pricey, but great for helping to clean out my still stuffed up sinuses from being sick. :DTomorrow, I'm off again from work, but I have to work on Saturday and were having our Dr. Seuss celebration that afternoon - should be a real zoo, if the other libraries that have had their parties already are any indication of how things will go here. :(
But there's no rest or relaxation in store for me tomorrow. I'm helping to move my grandfather's furniture into storage in the basement of my mom's house because we've had to move him again. This time it's from his assisted living apartment into the nursing care facility at his senior complex. Last time it was from his regular senior apartment to assisted living and that was only about eight months ago. At least now when he goes, there won't be much physical labor to do . . .
Okay, it's official. After writing all this and thinking about the shortened weekend I'm going to have, I've decided to goof off the rest of the night now. :wink: