December 30, 2016

 This morning was interesting at work because I was the only one in the department there until eleven o'clock. One librarian was taking a personal day, another was off because she works tomorrow, and neither assistant worked today, so my boss and the other librarian didn't come in until eleven because they were both closing. No offense to my coworkers but it was kind of a nice quiet morning. There wasn't a lot going on in the librarian so I was able to focus on my own stuff.

My friend asked me a reference question last night about the location of a couple towns that no longer exist because they were destroyed when a dam was built. I picture O Brother, Where Art Thou? but I could be wrong. We have county maps but the only thing older than the 1950s, when the towns disappeared, are plat maps, which are hard to read and not very helpful. I did some digging online and came across two really good resources. The first is the Department of Transportation, which has scanned images of state maps going back to 1863. The point is to show the highways I think, but they also show all the towns, including the ones my friend was looking for. There is also a website that has a bunch of scanned maps from around the state and I was able to find a few that also showed the towns my friend was looking for. It was a successful endeavor and I printed out the information and put it in our plat map books for future reference. I have had at least a few instances of people interested in the plat maps and I think the same people would have benefited from the information I found today, so now I'm ready for the future.

I also started coming up with a list of books for my second display next month. I didn't really want to but I am going to do it on New Year's resolutions. I have the main display and I figure that is the topic patrons will be most interested in next month. I'm putting my own twist on the sign, calling the display Lifelong Progress: One Year at a Time, and the background of the sign is a sheet of legal paper titled World Domination, with a big list of all the things needed to accomplish this, most of which are traditional resolutions. I was really close to finishing the sign but have a couple more things I want to add before it is printed.

I made two other signs today. I finished the In Memoriam display sign, getting the last of the celebrity photos and arranging them. There were several celebrities that I hadn't realized had died, so 2016 got a little bit worse in terms of celebrity deaths. I also made a small sign to go on my display that highlights a few of our online resources.

I helped several patrons throughout the day, in person, via chat, and on the phone. It wasn't an overwhelming amount by any means but it was enough to make me feel like I was serving a purpose.

This afternoon the PR lady gave me a quick lesson in how to edit the website. My pages have been set up so I can start adding in registration buttons and information for the first classes. It's going to be a decent amount of work but I am looking forward to it.

But yeah, I had a really good day at work.

On my way home I stopped by my sister's to get a couple things she got me at the grocery store, some empty egg cartons for safe storage of the ornaments she made this year, and some leftover homemade tortilla triangles. Then I went home and had the last of my leftover Christmas pizza for dinner. And the last piece of cake for dessert. Sad to see it go but it was delicious.

With the rest of my night I watched YouTube videos and played Terraria. I was going to watched Netflix but it wasn't working again. I can't remember what day it was when it wasn't working last time but it would surprised me if it was a Friday. Or at least a weekend. I'm wondering if it is a peak time in the neighborhood or just a peak time for Netflix in general. Either way, I ended up spending most of my night listening to music while playing Terraria.

In the game I collected a lot more presents but still didn't get the dog whistle for the puppy pet. I also beat one boss, tried to beat a second one, and crafted some armor and a really cool laser gun out of meteorite ore. The gun uses manna but when you have a full set of meteorite armor it doesn't use any manna, so it's like an unlimited automatic laser machine gun. It looks pretty sweet.

I tried multiple times to fight the dungeon boss. The first time I waited for night to fall (the only time it can be summoned) and a blood moon ended up rising. The second time I actually summoned it but I got on top of it with my slime mount, which just kept bouncing on it dealing damage, and it kept going higher and higher into the air until I fell off. It must have gone beyond its range because its hands fell back down to the ground and it despawned. This was super annoying because I had just taken a few different potions to get me through the fight, so that was a waste. I then tried going into the dungeon anyway but was eventually killed before I got to anything because you can't go too far before killing the boss. There was also a goblin invasion at one point. It was like a perfect storm of the world not wanting me to fight the boss. Maybe next time.

It's nearly one o'clock now but I want to get up early so I can get my laundry done before my coworker's party tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes. I might be taking naps while my laundry goes.

December 29, 2016

 Good grief I'm starting this late. Thankfully there wasn't a lot going on today so this should go quick.

This morning while eating lunch my Mom and sister stopped by with the second shelf because Hobby Lobby ended up still having it. I was trying not to get my hopes up but I'm pretty happy they were able to get it.

Work happened today. It didn't feel very productive. I weeded for a little while. It's going slower than my last few sections because I'm flipping through every single book. I figure I am familiarizing myself with the collection. I haven't really paid much attention to our painting section but now I have a much better idea of what we have. The best part of weeding, other than improving the accessibility of our collection, is getting my hands on the collection and increasing my awareness. I am much better at knowing where things are when helping patrons thanks to weeding.

Tonight I found early 1900s menus for Delmonico's restaurant in New York for one of the people in circulation, who needed the information for a book she is writing. My initial thought was to go to the NYPL website. Their catalog wasn't working but I eventually found my way over to their digital collection, which is what I wanted, and was able to find a bunch of scanned menus. NYPL's digital collection is really freaking cool. I also like that you can buy prints of the scans. They're a little rich for my blood but maybe someday if I come across a really cool picture.

After work I met my mom at the mechanic so she could drop her car off again. When we got back to the house I loaded up with my small appliances that I hadn't had room for before the shelves. And when I got home I found a place for everything on the shelves. My kitchen is really starting to look like something. I like it. Baby steps.

This morning I made a lava trap in Terraria so I can stand under it and easily collect all the loot when mobs die in the lava. There are probably better designs out there but it's working for me. Now I'm able to let the game run and hang out in relative safety while doing other things and let the loot stack up. If I were to make another one I would make it more like a funnel or v-shape so that mobs would fall down into it and the loot would automatically go into my inventory without me having to run along the trench to collect everything. The main goal behind it was to increase my collection of presents because those will probably go away soon. Before the lava, I was waiting for nightfall, going far enough away from my house for mobs to spawn, and then killing a bunch of zombies. The lava trench gets the zombies at night but now I also get all the slimes as well. I've I let it go for awhile this morning and for the last hour or two, and I'm up to 82 presents, without having to run around or fight any mobs. At one point I was killed by a King Slime but I didn't have the game on screen at the time so I'm not entirely sure how he got me. I need the event to happen again while I'm actually paying attention.

Enough Terraria, though. I'm going to bed.

December 28, 2016

 This morning was a little rough at work because I was freaking tired. I eventually got a second wind but until that happened I wasn't sure I was going to make it without taking an involuntary nap at the desk.

I spent a lot of time continuing to build my display lists. Still not sure what I'm going to do for my second display. One of the other librarians wants to do an In Memoriam display and I started making a sign for that but then got distracted by something. I can work on it tomorrow if I remember.

I started weeding my new section today. I looked at a bunch of painting and drawing books. Thankfully, I only ended up checking out one book. Last night I checked out three books based on one of the display lists I was working on. It is really hard to work in a library and not check out books.

I had a meeting with my boss, the head IT guy, and the PR lady about getting my tech website set up. That went well I think. We also spoke briefly about what kind of tech setup I would need for the classes. For most of them I'll just need the regular stuff, if any, but the Minecraft one will apparently be a little more involved. At some point I'll also need to get some instruction on how to use the EDU version.

I also had an interview with one of the other librarians who wanted to get more information about the staff participating in the Staff Picks display in order to make the bookmarks more unique. It was interesting. I'm not a big fan of talking about myself and some of the questions really made me think. I'm interested to see what it turns into. One idea is that we will all take new pictures for our bookmarks that show off our personality. I'm not a fan of having my picture taken, especially when it involves more than me just faking a smile. We'll see.

Other things probably happened today but I'm tired so let's keep this moving.

Tonight was Chipotle night and my bowl was the best one I have had in quite awhile. I'm not sure what was different about it but everything about it was working. I only had a few videos to show and after that we sat around and talked and watched TV for awhile. Then we all headed over to my house, each driving our own vehicle, because my Mom and sister went to Hobby Lobby today and got me a cool, multi-colored shelf for my kitchen because it was on sale. Now I have extra room to put stuff and I can clear off my counters. There was a second shelf and they said they would go back in the morning and get it if it is still there because it would fit in my kitchen and give me even more storage. And if it isn't there, I'm still a lot better off than what I was.

With the rest of my night I watched YouTube videos, read some things, and played a bit of Terraria. And now it is late and I'm still freaking tired, so I'm going to go to bed.

December 27, 2016

 This morning I woke up early so I could pick my Mom up after she dropper her car off at the mechanic. When I dropped her off I also fixed the sections of Christmas lights that had come loose when we had all that wind the other day. I'll be taking them down in the near future but I didn't want to leave them hanging there.

When I got home I still had a few hours before work so I decided to watch The Peanuts Movie, which I got for Christmas. I ended up pausing it part way through and taking a couple short naps in my chair because my early morning was catching up to me. I did eventually finish the movie. I think I liked it but I'll need to watch it again. My main complaint was that it was really long. That makes sense because it is a movie but I'm not used to seeing that much Peanuts. It could be my tiredness but it was hard to stay focused for such an extended period of time. I'll give it another shot at some point.

At work a lot of my day was spent working on book lists for displays. I continued working on the list I started yesterday for inspirational book but while working on that I kept coming across books that involved libraries or bookstores. That led me down a rabbit hole and I started another list of books that involve libraries or bookstores. Next month I also have the main display, and I don't know that I want to use the libraries and bookstore theme for that, but I will use it at some point in the future. I also don't want to do an overt New Years resolution display on the main display next month but I'm not sure what else I would do. I've still got a few days to figure it out.

It was a fairly quiet and uneventful day at work, at least what I'm remembering of it, so there isn't a lot to write about. It is also late and I'm tired.

On my dinner break I went to my Mom's house and had the leftover pizza and pie I had dropped off there this morning. While I ate I continued to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special. It might take me a couple more days to finish it but I'm getting there.

While I was at work I got a text from my friend who is in town for the week. He had pushed something on his mom's TV remote that caused the sound to stop working. I stopped by when I got off work and we played around with it for awhile and eventually got it working. Somehow the HDMI inputs had gotten switched, so when the cable was playing there wasn't any sound, but when it was on the DVD input the cable sound would play. My friend said he had been pushing a bunch of buttons trying to get it to do something but neither of us could figure out how he could accidentally swap the inputs like that. We may not have actually undone what he did, just come up with a different solution. Regardless, his mom can now watch a show and hear it at the same time. Crazy. After we got that fixed we stood around and talked for an hour or so. It's always good to talk to friends.

Now we're coming up on midnight and I need to go to bed so I can wake up early and open tomorrow. The only thing I'm looking forward to is getting off at five o'clock.

December 26, 2016

 Today everyone who was on the desk had to answer phone calls asking whether or not we were open. I guess it was a federal holiday and a lot of places were closed so it came as a shock to at least a small portion of our population that we were open. I decided that we should have picked a number and after we had answered the question that many times, then we would get to close in order to live up to the assumption of our patrons.

I spent the first part of my day updating my homebound spreadsheets. The rest of my day, when not helping patrons, was spent playing with my new weeding list. I'm weeding part of the art section and based on my initial numbers, I'm apparently going to be weeding it pretty hard. Based purely on the original standards, out of just over 1100 books, I was going to weed over 550. After talking with my boss about it I went back through and for the books that had checked out in the last two years, I lowered the checkout standard from twice a year to once a year. That saved around 70 books and got me down to 497 books scheduled to be weeded. I'm going to have to make some judgment calls when I actually get out in the stacks and see the books, but that's still a lot of books. I'm not in a very popular section.

The most notable patron today was one trying to print stuff. He told me that he debated on what would be easier, buying a printer or coming to the library. By the end I think he wished he would have bought a printer. He started by trying to put twenty dollars in the change machine because he had just over $20 in prints. Our change machine for the printers only accepts $10, so he had to go down and get smaller bills at circulation. There is apparently a timeout after putting money into the machine and if you don't print soon enough after putting your bill in, instead of spitting the bill back out, it spits out change. This happened to the guy twice upstairs (after he had been sent up from the computer lab because their printer had run out of ink and the kid working didn't know how to change it). The first time he got back ten dollars in quarters, which he then had to feed back into the machine to get his prints. The second time the machine had run out of quarters and he ended up with a whole bunch of dimes. After that he ended up downstairs and I could tell the same thing happened again, possibly twice, because I heard the change machine going nuts. I told him he was probably going to have traumatic memories if he ever went to Vegas. I'm not sure that he ever got all of the prints.

I briefly spoke with a girl I graduated with today. We never really talked in school but were both aware of each other. She knew I was working at the library because she is friends with another girl we graduated with, who I was friends with and whose mother is the head of the circulation department. It is always interesting to find out that people talk about you when you're not around. And I don't mean in a derogatory way. I always kind of assume that I do not have object permanence for other people, so that when I am not around, then I don't exist. I know that is strange because I often participate in conversations where people who are not around come up. So it only makes sense that I would occasionally come up in the conversations that other people have when I am not around. But I still have a hard time believing that. Maybe part of me believe that the world and everything in it only exists in my mind, so that when I am not there to perceive it, it doesn't exist. Like a tree falling in a forest.

When I got home from work I had leftover homemade pizza and a piece of cherry pie surrounded by cake. Both were even better on day two. I am looking forward to day three.

After dinner I organized driving around town to look at Christmas lights. My mom mentioned it happening tonight after our first two nights didn't work out, but then I never heard anything about it. So after multiple texts between her and my sister we decided on the plan. My mom drove and she came and picked up me and my sister. We drove all over for about an hour and a half and talked about a whole bunch of random stuff. It was good times.

Some time in the very near future I will be going to bed because even though I don't work until noon, I am waking up early to pick my mom up from the mechanic after she drops her car off. My work schedule is weird this week. I close tomorrow, open Wednesday, close Thursday, and open Friday. Waking up after closing is kind of annoying, and this week I get to do it twice. Yay.

December 25, 2016

 Today was Christmas, as evidenced by the date. This morning I woke up, got ready, and loaded up my car. I packed my laundry, presents, my laptop, a couple TV trays, and one of my TVs, and then headed over to my Mom's house.

When I got there I started my laundry and then set up the TV and my laptop downstairs. We discovered that the fireplace wasn't working and we're assuming it was another victim of the power surge awhile ago. Kind of annoying. To save things a little bit I played a video of a fireplace on the TV while playing a couple different Christmas music playlists on Spotify. The best song was (All I Want for Christmas) Is My Two Front Teeth by Spike Jones. It was really funny.

After my sister and her husband arrived we ate some brunch before going downstairs to open presents. My mom and sister both liked their crocheted bears, so that made me happy. I got several cool things, including a new set of pots and pans, and two loaves of homemade bread. Along with the bread, my sister also made a chocolate cake with a cherry pie in the middle. I was a little bit skeptical when she first mentioned the idea of trying it but it turned out really well. The cake was more like a brownie and she cut back on the sugar a little bit for the pie so it wasn't overly tart. It was delicious.

I came back to my house for a few hours before dinner and watched The Santa Clause 3, finishing the trilogy. I started watching Arthur Christmas but only got part way through before my friend and her boyfriend stopped by. My friend got me a cool little carved dragon for Christmas. I plan on making her a crocheted robot but it will be slightly belated.

They left at seven o'clock and I headed back to my Mom's for dinner. We had our traditional homemade pizza and mine was delicious as always. Tater tots, artichoke hearts, a fake hamburger, with a creamy garlic sauce. Green peppers are also supposed to be involved but they have been forgotten the past couple of years. Life goes on.

When I got home I finished watching Arthur Christmas and played Terraria. Now I'm going to go to bed because I'm freaking tired. I had a really good Christmas but it was apparently exhausting.

December 24, 2016

 Today was a good day. I once again woke up early-ish so I could enjoy a longer day. I spent that time watching Christmas movies and playing Terraria. I made significant progress on my Christmas movies list. I watched Love Actually, Nightmare Before Christmas, Polar Express, Four Christmases, Santa Clause, and Santa Clause 2. I still have some more to watch but those will have to wait until after Christmas.

In Terraria I did things, like expanded my base a little bit, went to Hell, and explored more of the jungle biome. Exciting stuff. One of my main goals has been to take advantage of the Christmas event that has the mobs randomly dropping presents. I think before I got back into the game recently, the last time I played was during a Halloween event however long ago that was. I've gotten some cool stuff so far but I think there is a pet dog I can get, so that's the goal now. I'm not sure how long the event goes, if it's just through Christmas or if it goes until the end of the year, but we'll find out.

I did leave the house today, but only briefly, before dinner, because I needed to go pick up a UPS package at my Mom's house. When I got home I ate dinner and washed a few dishes. After that I took a break from Christmas movies and video games to wrap presents for my Mom and sister. And then I went back to movies and video games.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it's after midnight and I once again have to wake up early tomorrow because it's Christmas.   

December 23, 2016

 This morning I got out of bed about thirty minutes after my alarm went off. Not bad.

My morning and the first part of my afternoon was spent sewing my crochet bears together. That was a success because I now have two complete bears. They look a bit derpy but they aren't bad for a first attempt.

This afternoon I continued the Christmas movies with Scrooged. There are still several movies I want to watch so I need to step up my movie watching. It's on the agenda for tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon I wrapped presents and then went over to my Dad's for dinner and Christmas stuff. My sister made cheeseburger pizza pie, one with meat and one with my fake meat. I don't think it tasted like a cheeseburger but it was good. After dinner we opened presents and then sat around and talked for awhile. Quite awhile actually because I didn't end up getting home until about 11:30PM.

Overall it was a good but fairly uneventful day with not a lot to write about. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

December 22, 2016

 This morning I could have gotten up super early because I was wide awake way too early, but I refused to get out of bed until after my alarm went off.

When I did finally get up it felt like most of my day was dedicated to crocheting. My fingers and wrists certainly feel like that was the case. I finished the body of my sister's bear along with all of the appendages except for the tail, which I would like to finish before I go to bed so tomorrow all I have to do is sew things on. I should be able to finish everything tomorrow but I will probably drag it out until Saturday.

While crocheting I watched a lot of stuff. I finished watching the first season of The Magicians and that was frustrating. The best friend kind of redeemed herself a little bit but then I was reminded why I'm not a fan of watching TV. Freaking cliffhangers. And the season felt more like it ended one episode too early rather than just having a cliffhanger. I have no idea when the new season starts but it's already too far away. Other than the best friend, the most annoying thing about the show was how often they used the f-word and the equal number of times it was muted because that is not allowed on the Syfy Channel. Makes me curious what channel it was filmed for originally. And if I can see the unedited version sometime.

I also finished the first season of The OA. It also ended in a cliffhanger but had more of a logical ending point. It sets up the next season, unlike The Magicians which felt like it was setting up another episode. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the show overall. The synchronized, interpretive modern dance that is used to do things is awkward to watch, making me feel awkward on behalf of the characters doing it. We'll see if I continue watching when season two comes out.

I took a break from crocheting to run a couple errands. I stopped at the bank to deposit a check and then went to Walgreens. The original plan was to get a Christmas card, tape, and scissors. I wanted the scissors for my kitchen because right now I have one pair that I have been moving back and forth between my office and the kitchen. It seems like every time I need them they are in the other place, and that was getting annoying. Problem fixed. I also got a few other things at Walgreens, including a small whiteboard for my fridge that I am going to use to write down my weekly work schedule. Right now I look at the schedule online and end up checking it every night before I go to bed and often again in the morning just to double-check. It seems like it will be much easier just to write it out once at the beginning of the week and then won't have to constantly check it online.

After Walgreens I stopped by my Mom's house to get some newspapers, a UPS package, and some magnets because I thought I would need them for the whiteboard. Turns out the whiteboard came with magnets, better safe than sorry though.

This morning I thought about calling the city about my lack of water bill but didn't. Then when I got home I had a bill in my mailbox, so it's a good thing I procrastinated on calling.

This evening I started watching Christmas movies. I made it through Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Fred Claus. There are still several that I want to watch so the movie watching will continue tomorrow.

Now I'm going to crochet that tail so I can be done with it, and then go to bed. I'm looking forward to sleep, as per usual.

December 21, 2016

 This morning I woke up an hour early. I would like to get to the point where I wake up at the same time every day. Because my work schedule can fluctuate between 8:00AM, 9:00AM, and 12:00PM, the only consistent time is 6:00AM. That kind of sucks but really only if I stay up too late. Which is bound to happen. We'll see how it goes. It was kind of nice this morning having a little extra time before I had to go to work.

At work this morning I finished a personalized reading list. Despite the contents of the list not really being in the genres I usually read, I did add a few books to my lists of books I want to read eventually.

This afternoon we went out and delivered books. I changed up the order a little bit because one of my patrons was in rehab and his wife was only going to be at the house for a little while. We got there in time but she didn't think he would have time to read until he got back home so I just picked up his old books and kept the new ones.

I delivered to my new patron today and that went well. She can't see very well and her door was apparently unlocked because when she tried to unlock it she locked it, so it wouldn't open. Then she unlocked one lock up locked the other. It was a process but she got the door open. The whole time her little dog was barking but we made fast friends once I got in and petted him for awhile. Or her. I have no idea the gender of the dog.

After we got back I had an impromptu meeting with the lady in children's about our scheduling software and the tutorial videos. I reserved one of our meeting rooms but we ended up just talking about it at the desk, along with other random things with one of the other librarians. It was good times.

My boss was off today but she stopped by to give us all lemon bread. She introduced it by saying “keep in mind I made it... so it's the thought that counts.” It is known that her husband is the cook in the family and her kids encourage him to do all the cooking. I haven't tried it yet but she warned us the bread tastes good but it might have a weird texture. Time will tell what that actually means.

The Sphero arrived today so before I left tonight I played with it for a little while. I like the potential. Now I need to come up with how I want to use it for my class.

When I got off work I stopped at Sonic because they were offering $0.50 grilled cheese sandwiches today. I got four because I like a good deal. I only ate one for dinner and the rest are for later. From Sonic I stopped by my mom's house to pick up my UPS stuff. I didn't actually get tape or newspapers so I can't do any wrapping, but at least I have the packages.

Tonight I did a lot of nothing. I watched YouTube videos and more episodes of The Magicians. I'm still not a fan of the old best friend and her storyline about wanting to be a magician and the fight against the evil girl. I could not care less about it. I imagine at some point the two storylines will merge and there will be a point to the whole thing, but I just find it distracting. It's like the storyline in Castle about Kate's mom. I immediately lost interest whenever that became the focal point. And the same thing happens when the best friend comes on screen and starts being a whiny little child. SO hopefully that will change.

Tomorrow I want to wake up early-ish so I can work on the crochet bears. I don't want to leave the house tomorrow but I think I need a Christmas card, so that might happen at some point. We'll see.

December 20, 2016

 This morning I woke up and it felt like my alarm should have gone off already. I put my glasses on and in the split second it took my eyes to move to my alarm clock, the music came on. Perfect timing.

I did things at work today. We got the 'okay' to take DVDs to my newest homebound patron so I pulled some of those. I also wrote up a short form for her to sign so we can put her daughter's email on her account so she will get the email notifications about DVDs, because even though I can take her DVDs, she can only have them for two weeks, which means the daughter will need to bring them back.

I started working on a new personalized reading list. They want mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels. I don't really read those books so I thought it would be a good oppportunity to see what's out there and become more knowledgeable. Hooray for learning.

I came up with an idea for how to organize the training videos I found for the event and room reservation program we use. I thought about it like tiered programs, where you get a few things with the free version, a few more things for the basic price, and all the things for a premium price. In the case of the videos, I created three groups: everyone, front-line, and schedulers. There are a few videos that I think everyone should watch, just in case they are out and about and a patron asks them a question. Then there are a few more for the front-line people who work at a public desk and may not schedule events or reserve rooms, but should at least have a basic knowledge so they can help patrons navigate the system. And then there are the last set of videos that specifically talk about scheduling and reserving, which are obviously for the people who do that sort of thing. I created a table based on this with the list of videos along the left side (which are links to the actual videos), the three groups make up the columns, and then I have dots under each group corresponding with the videos I think that group should watch. It kind of looks like I know what I'm doing. Tomorrow afternoon I have a meeting with the lady in children's that I was supposed to work with on this, so we'll see if she has any further ideas. It doesn't really seem like we'll need to do any more but she might have a brilliant idea that I hadn't thought of. Originally I kind of felt like we should have just posted a link to the support page with all the videos and called it good, because they're pretty short and wouldn't take much time to run through, And I still kind of feel that way but at least now it looks like some effort has been put into it.

This afternoon I had my sixth-month evaluation. My boss had already sent it to me and I didn't really have any questions or problems with it so the review itself took less that ten minutes. Painless.

I guess the lady from the bible study I spoke with on Sunday when the group overstayed their welcome had a lot of really nice things to say about the library and the second floor staff in general. This even after I had to go in there and a speed up the exit process on Sunday. I guess I handled it well and didn't come across like a dick, which I was afraid would happen. The coming across like a dick part, not the opposite. So that's good.

Tonight was Chipotle night and I got a parking spot on my first pass. When I got to my Mom's house I realized she had sent me a text asking me to get her something from Chipotle. Whoops. She very rarely gets something from Chipotle because she gets bored with it quickly and usually picks up her own food. I did have a rose to give her because one of the ladies at work was handing them out, which isn't as good as food but at least it's something.

After dinner we watched YouTube videos and my sister let us pick out the ornaments we wanted from the ones she made this year. They are tiny glass balls that she swirled wood floor cleaner around in and then poured in glitter. They kind of look like tiny galaxies. I like them.

When I got home I just watched YouTube videos and clicked around the internet. No crocheting happened. There's always tomorrow. And the next day. And so on.

Soon I will be going to bed so I can wake up and go back to work. My sister informed me that Sonic is offering grilled cheese sandwiches for $0.50 tomorrow. I might take advantage of that. I have leftover pizza bites and Chipotle, so I don't need the grilled cheese sandwiches, but that is what the refrigerator is for.

December 19, 2016

 This morning I woke up at a decent time and eventually got ready, loaded up my car, and headed to my Mom's house to do laundry.

While my laundry was going I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation and started to crochet the bear for my sister. Crocheting a tiny bear takes a surprisingly long time. At one point I took a break and to go mail a bill and stop by Jo-Ann's. I bought some yarn needles and with the assistance of the lady at the cash register, I found the safety eyes.

Tonight I spent at least a couple hours putting eyes on my Mom's bear and my sister's bear. My Mom's bear took forever because it turns out trying to put the back of a safety eye inside a project that is already closed up. Despite my best efforts I couldn't get the circle into the tight stitches and ended up having to trim down two of the sides. And then once I got them inside the head I had to smoosh the head in order to connect the front of the eye with the back. Pain in the ass. It was only mildly easier with my sister's because I had already gone just past the neck and stuffed the head. I had to pull the majority of the stuffing out and then could only get one finger up into the head so I still had to do a lot of smooshing from the outside. I will have to keep this in mind for the future.

Also, I think maybe I made my Mom's upside down. I thought it was odd that the head was bigger than the body but now that I'm making my sister's, I think maybe it's the other way around. I don't think it matters though. We'll see how I feel once I get the ears and nose sewn on, but I think it will work out. Also, I think a bigger head and smaller body will make a cool looking robot. Before I put the arms and eyes on it reminded me of Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Future project.

With my sister's bear I've got the body to finish and then all the appendages. Still a chance I might finish by Christmas. Maybe.

While I worked on the crochet stuff I started watching The Magicians. Apparently quite awhile ago I saved the first book in my Amazon cart and now there is a show on the Syfy Channel. It's interesting. I don't love it but I don't think I dislike it. I'm intrigued. The main guy reminds me a lot of Chris Pratt. They could be brothers. The former best friend of the main guy, Julia, is not likeable. She looks vaguely familiar but I don't know from what and there is just something about her face I don't like. And a lot of it is probably her actions on the show. That adds a lot to the likeability of a character. Or the dislikeability. Hopefully she redeems herself and pulls her self out of the self-loathing pity party. Doesn't seem like it though. I also feel bad for the actor who plays her boyfriend because I like him but he always seems to get screwed over on shows.

Now I'm going to go to bed. I've got to open in the morning and I'm not looking forward to waking up early. Thankfully, this is only a two day week for me. I'm not sure why I'm off Thursday and Friday but I'm not complaining. It will give me a chance to hunker down and finish the bears. Fingers crossed.

December 18, 2016

 Today started much better than yesterday. My car started up first try last night and first thing this morning. I got up earlier than I would have liked but I wanted to make sure my car was good to go in time to get a ride if it wasn't.

When I got to work there wasn't a lot going on. I went a little early to make up for yesterday and was able to count the register and get my homebound books put into bags by the time we opened. Then I went and pulled the books for my last patron, processed them, and got them bagged up. I stashed my bags in the break closet because I was up to ten bags this month and that is way too many to get onto my cart, especially with the weeded books I still have on there.

Speaking of, I went through all the cookbooks I still had on my cart. They were all marked as Withdrawn but I left them on my cart because I wanted to look at the recipes. I took pictures of the recipes I liked and finally put the books on the big cart of weeded books. I left a book about the history of cookbooks and the story behind Betty Crocker, because those I want to read.

I also did some other things today, like helped patrons and did some research for my tech classes. But all-in-all it was a very quiet day. We were a few minutes later getting out because of a bible group. They were still standing around and talking when I gave them the three minute warning (after they had ignored the thirty-minute, fifteen, and five-minute warnings. They slowly started to pick up their stuff but didn't make too much progress until I went and stood in the room after the final closing announcement. They were real apologetic about it but they had plenty of opportunities to avoid the building-wide inconvenience. Also, reservations don't go past thirty minutes before we close. So they were supposed to be done at 5:30PM. It's not the first time groups have done this though so I don't know how clear it is that reservations at the end of the day don't go all the way until we close. I'll have to see if we can make that more apparent somehow.

On my way home I stopped by my Mom's house because she made me Chinese candy and Chex-Mix. Not a bad excuse to make a pit stop. I also grabbed my hiking boots so that I will be prepared the next time I need to walk through the snow.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and livestreams, and I rewatched some of the actions scenes in Magnificent Seven. I also sewed the arms on the crocheted bear I'm making. I'm really not a fan of the assembly. It is tedious, but my real problem is that I'm having to make permanent decisions on the placement of things. They're not really permanent, everything is fixable, but the pressure is still there. Tomorrow while I'm doing laundry I will hopefully get the ears, nose, and tail sewn on. And hopefully find some buttons already in my possession that are appropriate for the eyes. If not I can hit up Jo-Ann's on the way home. I also want to start making another bear for my sister. I don't think I'll be able to finish it by Christmas but maybe there will be a Christmas miracle.

Soon I'm going to go to bed so I can wake up at a decent time and head over to my Mom's to do laundry. It would be nice to get that done at a decent time, and that is hard if I don't get started at a decent time.

December 17, 2016

 This morning started off well. I got up and was ready to leave the house early enough to give myself a little extra time to get to work. And then I noticed the trunk of my car was open. I hadn't touched my keys since I parked my car Thursday night, which means my trunk had been open for more than a day. And the little light in the trunk had been on that entire time. That meant that when I tried to start my car, nothing happened. Son of a duck.

I tried calling my sister because she is the closest but got her voicemail. I called my Mom and woke her up and she said she could take me to work if my Dad couldn't. I tried my dad and also got voicemail so I called my Mom back. More than twenty minutes later she showed up, slightly delayed by being woken up by a phone call and having to deal with three dogs.

I got to work fifteen minutes late and the cash drawer wasn't on my side so I didn't finish getting that ready until about five minutes after we opened. But I got it. My coworker also ended up being a little late because the stairs outside her apartment were covered in ice, which slowed her down, and then she couldn't find her ice scraper so she had to wait for her windshield to defrost. It sounded like kind of a bad start for everyone today.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. As the day progressed there was some discussion of closing early because it kept getting colder and colder and the snow got heavier and heavier. We probably only got a couple inches but it was coming down a thin layer of ice and with the wind the temperature was below zero. I would have been the person to make the call about closing. And that call would have been to the assistant director. It was looking pretty bad outside by the afternoon but a lot of that was the wind making it look like a blizzard outside. Eventually my thought was that if we held out, eventually the city trucks would clear the roads so it would be slightly safer to to drive home if we waited. We'll say that was the right call.

As for work, I helped some patrons, sent some emails, finished adding descriptions for my classes on the event calendar (minus the genealogy and resume classes), researched Sphero and Minecraft stuff, pulled books for all but one of my homebound patrons, checked the books out, and made the comment slips for them. A productive, snowy day. Tomorrow I'll have to pull books for the final patron. Not sure what I'll do after that but I'll come up with something.

After work my Dad picked me up because my mom didn't want to go out in the snow. Can't blame her there. I think it actually worked out better that my car died because my dad's truck was better suited for the snow. Speaking of, while I was at work my Dad, sister, and brother went over to my house and charged my car battery. They left the charger just in case but I'm hoping I won't need it. I didn't try to turn my car on when I got home because I didn't want to deal with it if it had died again, but I'm going to try it before I go to bed. And I'm going to wake up early enough that if it doesn't work I can get a ride and not be late.

Tonight I wanted to finish watching The OA but Netflix wasn't working. Good grief. Instead I watched the new Magnificent Seven. I can't remember the previous iterations so I didn't have that to sway my judgment. I liked the movie. It was filled with comedic lines, making me want to watch it again because I know there is probably a lot of stuff I missed. The last battle was also pretty epic. I would have liked a slightly happier ending but it was a more realistic ending, and the one I was expecting, so I'm not mad about it.

While I was watching the movie a crew of people showed up to clean the snow off the driveways. My HOA money is slowly starting to pay for itself. Not that it will ever pay for itself, but at least I know I'm getting something out of it. The snow guys had a skid loader with a plow, at least one guy with a snow blower, and guys with shovels and brooms. Quite the operation. I wouldn't have known about it but the skid loader beeped every time it backed up and it's method for clearing snow involved a lot of backing up.

It is now midnight and the plan for tomorrow is to wake up early enough so I can make sure my car starts before work. Thankfully I don't until 12:30PM. I should be able to manage that.

December 16, 2016

 Last night I changed the time for my alarm clock but then forgot to set it. Story of my life. Despite that, I ended up waking up around the same time that I had wanted to, so it worked out.

I spent my morning reading. I think I switched between four different books. It was a nice way to spend the morning.

For the rest of the day I worked on the crocheted bear. It is such a tedious process making all the appendages. Part of it has to do with how tight I'm making the stitches. I tend to crochet a little tight to begin with but I also want to make the stitches as close as possible so the stuffing is less obvious. With all my work today I managed to finish making everything and was able to sew the legs on. I could probably finish sewing everything on tonight but I need a break. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I can get everything sewn together. I still need to decide on the eyes. I looked for safety eyes, or whatever they're called, when I was at Hobby Lobby the other day but couldn't find them. My next stop will be Jo-Ann's. If I can't find them there I at least know where the buttons are.

While I crocheted I watched YouTube videos and started watching The OA on Netflix, their latest original series. They finally got the marathoning right by not having a long opening sequence and making the credits optional. It gets really annoying having to sit through or skip the opening sequence of a show when you're watching multiple episodes back-to-back. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. As for the show itself, I'm hooked. Netflix has done it again. I'm nearly done with the fifth episode, leaving three more to go. If I didn't have to work in the morning I would probably stay up until it was over.

Unfortunately I do have to work in the morning. Which is also unfortunate because it apparently rained today and it is well below freezing outside so the roads are slick. And it will be even colder tomorrow, with the possibility of snow. A perfect weekend to stay home. Or I guess wake up early and drive to work in the dark.

December 15, 2016

 This morning I woke up early so I could go get a haircut. When I got home I had quite awhile before I needed to go to work so I watched YouTube videos and crocheted. It was a decent beginning to my day, minus the waking up early part.

Today was an odd day at work. It felt like it should have been a Friday (although it was kind of like my Friday because I don't work tomorrow). Most of my day was spent working on a spreadsheet to keep track of the books that are delivered to various places around town. Previously the stats were tracked by typing in the date and the number of books delivered into a Word document. And not even a table in a Word document, just an ever-growing list.

I created a spreadsheet that breaks everything down by month and year, and separates adult and childrens books. There are also totals all over the place. I have totals for each location by month and year, as well as totals for all the locations combined by month and year, and the overall total for the entire program. The totals are all based on equations, so they automatically fill in, and set it up to go through 2030, which should be way longer than necessary.

And I did some other things. Probably. A creepy drunk guy hit on a teenager, who called her mom, who called us, and eventually came to the library. My boss and the librarian who thought she had seen the guy the girl described went to find the guy but he had already left. An incident report was written and it turns out the guy may have a history of being drunk and flirty. Sounds like a great guy. The mom was worried about the whole thing but appreciate our efforts. She ended up staying at the library for awhile because her daughter went to a teen event and I ended up helping her find books, so I got to be a librarian for a little while today.

Nothing else is coming to mind about my day.

On my way home I stopped at the store to by food. For dinner tonight I had my leftover Chipotle. It was a pleasant surprise because I had forgotten all about it. After dinner I watched Chipotle videos and crocheted. I finished the body of the bear (which is already connected to the head), both ears, and the muzzle. Tomorrow I can hopefully finish the arms and legs, and then get everything sewed together. I am excited to see how it turns out.

Now I'm going to finish an episode of Bob's Burgers and then go to bed. It's going to be really tempting to sleep in but I also want to get up early enough that I get to experience more of my day off. We'll see which desire wins.

December 14, 2016

 I had another productive day at work. My day started with two hours on the desk, which I spent most of printing out all of the letters and interest forms for my homebound patrons and then stuffing them into envelopes. I also got a call for a new homebound patron. Oddly enough, like my most recent new one, this patron also only wants audiobooks.

Continuing the theme, I spent my off-desk time upstairs working on the book lists for my homebound patrons. I was able to finish all of my lists, including my new patron, minus the one who I have to pull old books for.

I worked on something before our departmental meeting but it is escaping me so we'll just skip forward. The meeting went well. For the first half an hour or so we had a few people from the children's department and the PR coordinator there and we talked about how we go about creating programs and deal with scheduling. It was interesting to get different perspectives. Right now the goal is to have stuff scheduled at least two months in advance but the ultimate goal is to have things scheduled six months in advance. That seems a little daunting to everyone right now but I think it'll be better once we're in that mindset and it just becomes the way we do things.

For the rest of the meeting we talked about goals, our roles in the department, the customer conduct policy, handed out kudos, and the librarian who works on programming and I handed out our sign-up sheets for next semester's programs and tech training. It was a productive meeting.

After the meeting I had a walkthrough and then I spent my last forty-five minutes putting the training classes for the one-on-one tech lady on the calendar. I didn't think that would take me the whole time, but it did. I was also able to add in some descriptions for my other classes, leaving with only a few more to come up with descriptions for. I also need to come up with our policy for what we will and won't do during our tech help time.

Tonight was Chipotle night and I only had to drive around the block once before I got a spot in the parking lot. The line was going particularly slow tonight but I eventually got through it. My bowl ended up being pretty good tonight but I didn't get chips. Not on purpose, they just didn't hear me ask for two. And on the plus side, it wasn't a mistake where I was charged for two bags but only got one.

I left my Mom's house around nine o'clock, after we had watched videos and talked for awhile. I honestly wanted to leave earlier because I haven't been able to crochet for the last few days and I want to finish my projects for Christmas. That is fast approaching and I can't save it all for the last minute because my hands won't be able to handle it. I think it'll be a stretch even at this point. And it is now too late to do anything tonight. I don't have to go to work until 10:30AM tomorrow but I have a haircut at 8:00AM, and I'm tired, so I don't want to stay up any later than I have to. Which means I will be going to bed soon, and I can't wait.

December 13, 2016

 This morning I did not get up and do anything before work. My alarm went off and I stayed in bed, listening to the radio, and drifting in and out of dreams until I actually had to get out of bed. I enjoyed it. And then I got up, got ready, made a sack dinner, and ate lunch before going to work.

At work I did things. Pretty much all of those things revolved around homebound stuff. I spent a lot of time making lists of books. And I nearly finished. I have one patron who I need to go back through his old requests and see if I can find any of those and another patron who I have resorted to just walking through the large print section and pulling books because she kind of destroys books and we only give her older books that have had a good life and won't be missed too much. I also got a new patron today who only wants audiobooks. I've never actually paid much attention to our audiobook collection but I know we have a lot and the patron gave us a long list of authors she likes, so hopefully it won't be too hard.

I spoke with the teen librarian and the PR coordinator today about possibly moving my resume workshop back to my original date so it is on the same day as the teen resume workshop. The thought is that if we get the same organization to teach it, maybe they will have two people with different information and they can talk to one group and then swap. Sounds good in theory but we'll see.

I also spoke with the PR coordinator about promotion for my classes. It was a brief talk because I only had a little time before I had to go downstairs but I think it was productive. We at least have an idea of how we want to promote everything. I just need to finalize the class descriptions and the guidelines for the drop-in time so promotional material can be printed.

Tonight I made a new reading interest form and a letter to mail to all of my homebound patrons. The goal is to get more detailed information about what they like to read. And what they don't like to read. The original form is fairly broad, which isn't very helpful. Also, it has been awhile since some of them have filled out the form and their interests might have changed. And, they fill out the form before they even start the program, so now that they know how the system works, they may want to tweak their responses. That's the idea anyway. I'm going to mail them tomorrow and hopefully some of my patrons will have them filled out by next Wednesday when we go out to deliver books.

I also helped the occasional patron. There was a lady looking for business books and I think I found some good information. There was supposed to be the regular chess club tonight but the guys who run it didn't show up. Despite that we had a few different patrons asking about it. The third was a small boy and I told him that if he wanted to borrow a board he could still play. Him and his dad did that and that got a few more people interested so we ended up having two games going. Not bad.

And we'll say that was my day. Now I'm going to try and think of a few nice things to write about my coworkers for our departmental meeting tomorrow. Or I might just go to bed because I'm tired and have a headache. We'll see.

December 12, 2016

 I did a lot of things at work today but I wasn't really keeping track so I have probably forgotten most of the stuff by now.

I opened this morning, which means I was going to stock up on our sharpened pencils. I used the majority of the sharpened ones filling up all the holders around the library but then there were only three unsharpened ones left in the box, including the one I had just started when the pencil sharpener died last week. So no one had touched them since the last time I opened. I was hoping someone would at least get a new box of pencils. But no. And maybe for good reason, because I tried to find a new box but couldn't. The administrative assistant couldn't either, so our stock of sharpened pencils is still lacking. When the librarian who has been working there forever came in she went and got a box because she knows where they are. Now we're ready for whenever someone feels like sharpening.

Throughout the day I started, worked on, and finished a personalized reading list. In the process I came across several books that I now want to read. It's a constant problem when surrounded by books. I also found a few Christmas books to add to the Staff Picks display. To keep with the theme of the month I am exclusively picking Christmas-themed books. Due to that, I have strayed from books I have actually read. I make personalized reading lists all the time recommending books I have never read and pick out fifty or sixty books each month for homebound patrons, so I think it is alright to pick books that look interesting, even if I haven't read them. I just hope I don't accidentally pick an awful book.

I sent and replied to emails today. I emailed the PR coordinator about promoting my Spring classes. I emailed one of the youth librarians about setting up a meeting for next week. I emailed the one-on-one technology lady the class schedule for the Spring. I emailed the teen librarian about Spheros. And I emailed the patron from Texas who mailed me a nice Thank You note and a package of glazed pecans.

The lady who calls a lot to ask for business information and to place a bunch of ILLs called today. She has been known to hang up on me while I'm working on a request because I don't talk constantly and then when she asks me a question, and I respond, she ignores it, hangs up, immediately calls back, and tells me we got disconnected. Today I got to hang up on her because she went quiet and stopped responding. She eventually called back and after a little while hung up on me. Then she called back twice and immediately up on me, before calling back a third time to tell me we got disconnected. She's an odd duck.

I also got a start on making lists of books for my homebound patrons.

Other things happened but I'm kind of losing interested in trying to remember.

After work I went to Hobby Lobby to buy yarn. I have bags and bags of yarn but I needed new yarn. Or so I told myself. When I got home, after dinner, I started a new amigurumi based on a video/tutorial I found for a small bear. The robot is bigger than expected and I was wanting to make my mom and sister something for Christmas. My fingers and wrists couldn't take it. The bear is quite a bit smaller and I think it will be much easier. Rather than making a head and a body and then sewing them together, the bear's head and body are one continuous piece, decreasing for the neck and increasing again to transition into the body. I finished the head and stuffed it with stuffing stuff. It was like a clown car. I just kept pulling more and more stuffing into it and it felt like a bottomless pit. I eventually got it filled but I'll need to add in more when I get a few more rows added so I can fill up the neck. Tomorrow I might be able to finish the body, but probably not because I close at work and I don't know that I will wake up early to crochet before I go in.

While I crocheted I watched YouTube videos, including recordings from this year's Yogcast Jingle Jam. I can't watch when it's live because I'm at work so I'm glad they upload the videos to YouTube.

Shortly I will be going to bed, hopefully. Tomorrow at work I want to send out some letters to my homebound patrons and then do something else. Maybe finish picking out books for my homebound patrons.

December 11, 2016

 Today was a good day. I woke up early, which was kind of annoying, but it allowed me to do more things. I spent my morning reading in bed. I finished a book about the history behind A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was an interesting book and I learned (or was reminded) that the term 'security blanket' was coined by Charles Schulz in referring to Linus' blanket. I also read from a few other books. When I had read enough I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. Still great. Afterward while crocheting I listened to the soundtrack a few times.

Speaking of, throughout the day I continued work on the amigurumi robot. It took me all day to finish the body. It was a lot of crocheting and my hands aren't a fan of extended crocheting sessions. But I got the body done so now I just need to make the ears, arms, and legs. It's a larger project than I originally intended, both in the size of the robot and in the length of time it is taking me. I found a video for a smaller bear and I think I might take the pattern for that body and add on the robot appendages and see if I cut the time down a little bit.

I continued looking through the digital magazine subscription for work. There are so many magazines. We're only going to start with a handful of them but hopefully there will be one or two I'm interested in. I also want to start checking out some of the physical magazines we already have at the library. We're already paying for them and I'll be able to knock out a magazine much faster than a book, which I currently have a stack of.

Tonight I took a little break from crocheting and while I ate dinner I watched the movie Spectral projected up on my living room wall. I haven't used my projector in awhile but tonight I was in the mood for an action movie. So I threw it up on my wall and put my headphones on so I could turn it up loud. Spectral is an original Netflix movie and it was pretty good. I was kind of annoyed by the suits they were wearing at the end. Not only because I think they were supposed to just be thrown together, even though they looked like a lot of time went into designing them, but also because there were high-tech mask things that they started off wearing, and some continued to wear, while others opened them up. There was a lack of continuity. I still enjoyed the movie, for the most part.

After the movie I washed a few dishes, refilled my daily fountain pen, read a little more, finished crocheting the robot body, and watched some YouTube videos. So, all-in-all, it was a good day. It was productive, I got to do all the things I wanted to, and I just got to relax at home. I could use more days like this.

December 10, 2016

 This morning I slept in, read from a few books, got ready, packed up my lunch, loaded my laundry in my car, and headed out. Before going to my Mom's house I stopped at Jo-Ann's to get some stuffing because I want to make some crocheted toys.

When I got to my mom's I started my laundry and then went downstairs. While I ate my lunch I watched an old episode of The Librarians where Bruce Campbell played Santa. When I was done eating I started figuring out a crochet pattern for a robot that is in a book I checked out from the library. I didn't have the right size of crochet hook but I really just wanted to practice with the pattern. I'm a little confused because the finished robot in the book looks like it is made with single crochets but the pattern says to use double crochets. Also, I believe the instructions in the back of the book for a double crochet are actually a single crochet. I've been going with a single crochet. I think maybe it is a US/UK difference. Maybe.

My laundry was finished around six o'clock and I packed everything back into my car, including all of my yarn, in case I get into the crochet thing. Speaking of, after leaving my Mom's house I stopped by Jo-Ann's again so I could get the correct size of crochet hook for my project. When I got up to the registers the line was really long because there was only one person working a register. After a few minutes they brought a couple more people up to open registers so the line sped up.

While I was standing in line I heard the lady behind me say “Oh... it smells like childhood.” I looked back and she was smelling a pack of Fruit Stripe gum. That started a brief conversation and I wondered if it still tasted the same. She thought it would but we both said it had been decades since we had tried it. I said that even if it did it would only last five seconds. It took her a second to get it but then she started cracking up. She had just asked me if I would try a piece if she bought a pack, and she was debating buying a pack, when I got called to the next register. It should have been the lady in front of me but she had to speak with a manager so I was up. Who knows what could have been. If nothing else I could have found out if Fruit Stripe gum is still hard and only packed with enough flavor to last five seconds.

Little Caesar's was on the way home so that became my dinner. And it was delicious because that is what pizza tastes like. I think the next time I get pizza I want to get Papa Murphy's so I can get a bunch of different toppings on it. We'll see if I remember that in a month or so when I buy pizza again.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and crocheted what will eventually be a robot head, with the correct sized hook. It was during this round of crocheting that I made the connection between the single and double crochet thing, which happened when I looked up how to double crochet two stitches together. I ended up kind of making up single crocheting two stitches together and I think it worked out alright. Tomorrow I'll start on the body.

It's midnight and I'm not really tired, so I'll probably be up for awhile, but I plan on waking up at a decent time so that I can have a longer Sunday and so I will be tired at a decent time tomorrow night and can actually go to sleep before one o'clock in the morning.

December 9, 2016

 Today was pretty uneventful. We had a meeting with a new volunteer who is going to help with our tech help classes next semester. After he left my boss and I discussed the schedule a little bit more and then I was able to get the last few things added to the calendar. Some of them are still up in the air so I didn't make them public but I at least have the time reserved.

I spent a good chunk of my day looking at the digital magazine trial. One of the magazines is called Computers in the Library and it had a lot of interesting information. A lot of it was over my head but the stuff that I understood and was actually relevant was interesting. It got me thinking about bluetooth beacons instead of RFID tags for the project I want to work on. I don't know if they're quite right for what I want to do either, but I think there is potential. It's still a bit of a mind bender.

I also answered the phone a bunch and helped a patron find books. My two displays have not really been checking out so I haven't had to put much effort into those. Next week I'll start working on my homebound stuff, so that will give me something to do. I don't really have much else going on at work at the moment. I should probably start getting plans ready for my spring classes.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and played Terraria. It was good times.

Tomorrow I'll be taking my clothes over to my Mom's to do laundry. While that is happening I'll probably read. I've got a lot of books to catch up on.   

December 8, 2016

 I forgot to mention yesterday that I got a package from a former classmate, the one who drew the dwarf librarian, and it had a Christmas card / Thank You note along with a signed copy of Escape from Mr Lemoncello's Library. It was a thank you for helping him figure out something for his final portfolio. I think that's pretty cool. Still one of my favorite classmates. And, little does he know, I've wanted to read that book for years. No more excuses.

This morning I woke up when my alarm went off, because I remembered to set my alarm last night. It's pretty nice how that works out.

I got to sharpen pencils this morning and I was three away from finishing the box when the pencil sharpener stopped working. It already sucks and I kind of hope it finally died but part of me thinks it just overheated because the bottom was hot enough to burn you. I forgot to check it later in the day but maybe tomorrow, if I remember.

What else did I do at work today? I spent a lot of time watching usability videos. They were fairly uneventful but I did discover a page on our website that can no longer be reached unless you know the address or have it bookmarked. I'm assuming the patron had it bookmarked, but for good reason because the schedule was much easier to read on that page. I was talking to my boss about it and she said she would suggest adding the calendar portion to the bottom of the new page.

It felt like I was ping-ponging between being on and off the desk, so I didn't have any big chunks of free time. I went upstairs twice in order to finish watching the video on project management, and finally managed to finish it after bumping the speed up to 1.5x normal. Making a Gantt chart kind of seems like a tedious pain in the butt. I can also see why it would be useful to have one. My boss likes them but hopefully she doesn't try and get the rest of us to use them.

I spent more time looking through all the digital magazines in our trial. So many magazines. My goal is to at least see the name of all of them before the trial is over. It's really interesting to see all the magazines that still exist. And all the magazines for obscure subjects that I never knew existed.

As I was leaving for lunch the patron stopped by who I found the architect information for and she brought me chocolate. So now I've received chocolate, glazed pecans, and forty dollars stuffed in my pocket. It's been a pretty lucrative career as a librarian so far, even if I didn't keep the forty dollars.

After work I went home and had dinner, and then went with my mom and her friend to see a comedian. We saw in a year or two or three ago and he was really funny, both back then and tonight. I think he's the only comedian I've seen twice. Following the show, as everyone filed out, I ran into the academic librarian who I interviewed and then set me up with my practicum supervisor. Running into him at the university where he works isn't as random as running into him at the ALA conference in Orlando, but it's not like we were in the library, so it's still kind of random.

Now I'm going to go to bed. I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I won't get as much as I would like tonight, but it's nearly the weekend and then I'll be able to sleep in. Hopefully.

December 7, 2016

 This morning I woke up at four o'clock to use the bathroom and checked my alarm clock, noticing that I had forgotten to turn the alarm on. So I did that and went back to bed. I woke up a couple more times but didn't think much of it because my alarm didn't go off. Then, it seemed bright enough outside, so I rolled over, put my glasses on, and looked at the clock. It said 8:03AM. I was supposed to get up at 7:00AM. I was a little pissed and got up to check my alarm clock. Turns out I had not only forgotten to turn the alarm on, I had also forgotten to change the time to seven o'clock. I have forgotten to turn the alarm on at least a few times recently and I think it is because my alarm clock has been sitting on my floor. Tonight I grabbed the cabinet thing I had at my mom's and now my alarm clock is sitting on that, hopefully it will help me remember it is there.

Despite waking up an hour after I wanted to I still made it to work on time. Not bad. Today was another day of feeling kind of like I was in limbo. I sent the list of tutorial videos to the lady in the Children's department I'm supposed to be working with on this random project. I didn't hear back from her and I know she was at work today but I don't know how often she checks her email. Or how often she works. There are a lot of people in the Chrildren's department and I can't remember how many of them are full-time. Oh well.

I spent a lot of time researching my augmented reality idea. Most of that time was spent looking into Sportvision, which is behind the superimposed yellow line in football games and the tags that follow cars in a NASCAR race, among other things. That seems to be a different, more advanced technology than what I want to do but it got me thinking.

My main accomplishment for the day was finding out the architect for our library. A patron wanted to know that information last night and I couldn't find a copy of the book I was thinking of so I got her number and said I would call her today when I figured it out. My boss showed/reminded me of the history folders in the cabinet by the microfilm. I had been shown that once before but it was months ago when I didn't actually need information from it. Now I know. I found the architects name in the book I had been thinking of, and then I found a digitized copy from the local university library of a small book about the architect with pictures of the local buildings and houses he had designed. I looked up the patron's information and emailed her the name of the architect and a link to the digitized book, and then I called her to let her know I had found the information because she is older and I didn't know how often she checked her email. She told me her and her husband actually come to the library every night to check their email because they don't have the internet yet because they only recently moved to town. She said she would be in tonight so hopefully the information I sent her, particularly the digitized book, will be of use to her.

We're thinking about getting a digital magazine service and the free trial started today. When we actually get the service I think we'll only get about ten magazines just to try it out and see how it goes, because each magazine will cost $150 each, or something like that. But, for the free trial, we get access to all the magazines. That's over 1100 magazines. It's fantastic. There is a magazine called Garden Railways and I have now had to update my life goals. I need a backyard now so I can have an intricate train setup that fills the whole thing. I spent way too long looking at issues, staring at all of the pictures and feeling envy. Before our trial runs out I need to see what other magazines are out there I've never heard of.

After work I went to my Mom's house because we were finally going to have her belated birthday dinner. It ended up being a little later than planned because my sister had dozed off and didn't show up. It turns out our text messages hadn't got through so I didn't get her until I called and she ended up meeting us at the Chinese place. Food-wise it was not the best experience at the Chinese buffet. Definitely had better, in all the various food I got, but it could have been worse. I also learned that “Happiness isn't an outside job, it's an inside job”, kind of a like a bank robbery. Thank you fortune cookie.

We went back to my Mom's house after dinner and had cake that my sister made. She made three tiny ones that were double-layered pink with chocolate frosting. I'm not sure if the pink had a flavor or if the pink was just for color. Regardless, the cake was really freaking good. I only had a little of mine because I ate way too much Chinese food, as per usual, but I am looking forward to eating more.

It is now late and I am going to go to bed because I have to open in the morning. I am most looking forward to sharpening pencils because people have obviously been slacking on that and we ran out of sharpened ones today.

December 6, 2016

 This morning I woke up fairly early for a day where I didn't work until noon. But I didn't get out of bed. I just stayed there, curled up with my eyes closed, and it was pretty great.

Today was another one of those days at work where I did things, because I was there for eight hours, but the day kind of disappeared from me. I spent a decent amount of time adding in all of my classes for next semester into the calendar. The January schedule is still up in the air due to scheduling conflicts but I think the goal is to sort that out on Friday when I have a meeting with my boss and the lady who does individual tech training. I want to do another genealogy class and emailed the lady who came and taught the last one but she has to wait for her partner in order to confirm a date, so that one isn't scheduled yet. Also, I want to do a resume writing class but I noticed the teen librarian has a resume workshop scheduled on the same day I was planning on having mine. We're going for different demographics but I think it would be confusing to have both of them on the same day. I ended up reserving dates for the potential genealogy class and the resume class but didn't publish them, that way I will at least have a room, even if I don't know what I'll be doing with it yet.

I think I finished compiling a list of tutorial videos for the program we use to schedule events and reserve rooms. All of the videos are embedded in company's website, all playing in the same player, so when I started my list I just put down the title of the video. Today I became annoyed by this so I inspected the page using Chrome and found the links for the individual videos and added those to my list. I still need to talk to my boss and see if that's all she wanted. She mentioned something about writing a little bit about how we use the various things at our library but I'm not sure about that. The videos are pretty short and to the point, and I didn't include the ones that involve stuff we don't really mess with, so it seems like the list would be enough. We'll see.

Tonight I spent awhile talking with my coworker about politics and school. He could possibly be graduating in May and isn't really sure what he wants to do but now that he's been at the library for a little while it sounds like he is interested in going to library school. I'm not sure what his interests are within librarianship but I think he would make a good librarian. He's got the right demeanor for it and he has really good customer service. We'll see if we can sway him to the dark side.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing tomorrow at work. Maybe I'll have time to finish watching the video on project management. Or I could start thinking about my homebound books and get a head start on those. Who knows. I do know that I'll be going to bed soon.

December 5, 2016

 This morning I parallel parked perfectly. I was a little worried that meant I was early for work because the last time I parallel parked perfectly I was an hour and a half early. Thankfully that was not the case this time. I just had a lucky parking job.

I spent the first part of my day finishing my self-evaluation for my upcoming sixth-month evaluation, finished inputting all the statistics for November that I keep track of, and I started watching the video on project management that we were tasked with watching for the next departmental meeting. A productive morning.

This afternoon I did things, I'm almost certain of it. I found some Christmas-themed books to add to the Staff Picks display for this month. I was also on desk for a couple hours. I helped patrons in person with printing, frozen computers, and finding books. I helped patrons online with placing books on hold, searching the catalog, and answering questions. I also started looking at tutorials for the room reservation program we use because apparently another employee and myself are supposed to do something with that by the middle of the month. It was briefly mentioned a month or so ago by my boss but not since and I kind of forgot about it. And I've never heard from the other employee. She works in Children's and I've seen her but we've never actually spoken. After watching some of the tutorial videos I'm not really sure what my boss wants. The videos are pretty straight forward so it seems like just having a list of the more pertinent videos that employees should watch would be enough. I'll have to talk to my boss about it.

On my way home I stopped by Target to get bread and some other things. At some point I'll venture into a real grocery store but not yet. I don't know if it is the projected snow on Wednesday or what but there seemed to be a run on the bread supply at Target. The only non-fancy bread left was a couple loaves of Bimbo bread. Never even heard of it but for some reason it reminded me of Wonder Bread. Hopefully it's good.

Tonight I read a little bit, watched YouTube videos, played Terraria, and watched the final three episodes of Westworld. I'm a fan. There were a lot of twists and turns and I won't say I picked up on all of them, or even most of them, but my favorite involved how they played with time, having the viewer make assumptions about the past, present, and future. I did not see that one coming, mainly when it pertained to certain characters. Or rather, character.

Now I'm going to go to bed because I'm freaking tired. I ended up getting to switch shifts with another librarian so I am closing tomorrow night and I have Thursday night off. That means I get to sleep in a little bit. Hooray.

December 4, 2016

 This morning I slept in and then finished reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. That brings my finished book total up to two this weekend. Not bad.

After lunch I washed dishes. A lot of dishes. I ran the dishwasher for the first time to clean all the silverware, the dishes that are for sure dishwasher safe, and some of the dishes that are top-rack dishwasher safe. While that ran I hand-washed ninety-one dishes. That's a ridiculous number of plates, bowls, and cups. More than I'll ever actually need but I've got them. Thankfully they're all clean now and I'll never have to wash that many dishes at one time again.

I didn't want to stack everything up and put it away immediately after drying it out of fear that it wasn't completely dry yet. Instead, I laid everything out on on the counter and a couple different tables. An hour or two later I put everything away and realized how lacking I am for cabinet space. I need to get some storage in the kitchen.

My mom briefly stopped by to borrow my tire gauge, so I got to wish her a Happy Birthday in person. We're supposed to have her birthday dinner on Tuesday, due to conflicting schedules, and maybe I'll have a birthday present by then. Maybe.

To celebrate being productive today I took the night off. I watched Shutter Island while I ate dinner and when I was done eating I played Terraria. I had fun. At some point I need to take some time to organize all my chests. I have so much crap and none of it is organized. I also want to make my house look nicer.

It's now late. I'm going to wrap this up so I can iron some pants and go to bed. I live an exciting life.