October 31, 2016

 Last night I think I went to bed sometime after one o'clock. And then I woke up before 5:30AM. Not a great night of sleep. Definitely had better.

When I was brushing my teeth I heard a gate fall upstairs and then Alfie started barking. I went up to investigate and found Tanner having a seizure. As far as seizures go it was pretty mellow but it did last about fifteen or twenty minutes. That set me behind schedule and I had to leave for the closing without eating breakfast.

I found the office on the first try and got there five minutes early. I saw a lady unlocking the door and walking in as I got there so I sat there for a little bit, figuring maybe they didn't actually open until eight o'clock. Then I saw my banker pull up and walk in another door. And through that window I saw my realtor. Turns out there were two doors. So I got out and headed in.

We stood around and talked for a few minutes before heading back to get started. Turns out my banker, realtor, and the title officer are old friends, so the whole closing process went really well. Very laid back and full of jokes and interesting anecdotes. At one point the title officer asked if I was still single or if a spouse would be signing on the mortgage. That led to a brief conversation and I said something about considering it once I met a girl. The title officer assured me I wouldn't actually meet my wife until after we were married. That was pretty funny. After about forty-five minutes, at the end of closing, the title officer said I could keep the pen. I said that was the only reason I showed up. Everyone enjoyed that one.

When I left the closing I headed home. Not the new home but the one with all my stuff. The first thing I did was call my insurance company to make sure my homeowner's insurance was in order. They said they had been planning on calling me soon and they went ahead and did whatever they needed to do to finalize things. And on the plus side, I wasn't randomly selected to have an inspection, so that's one less thing to worry about.

I then ate a quick breakfast before calling a couple locksmiths. The first has apparently switched to exclusively working on cars. The second didn't have an opening until Thursday afternoon. That was kind of disappointing, but not really surprising.

Following that I set up the installation of internet on Saturday. I ordered a new modem but it won't be here until Monday. Hopefully they can do the installation without that. If not I'll just see if I can rent one. Fingers crossed.

I started looking into a cleaning service and that seems like a no-go. I tried various combinations using the quote generator and I got anywhere from $300 to over $500. I also couldn't narrow it down to just the kitchen and bathrooms, which are really my only concerns. I have no real desire to pay that kind of money, especially considering the house really isn't that dirty. My mom suggested just going over and cleaning one thing each night. That sounds much more reasonable.

I never made it over to the house today. That probably isn't normal. There's just nothing to do over there at the moment, other than clean and fix a light switch. I was also incredibly tired, physically and emotionally drained, and unmotivated after all the phone calls and stuff today.

Throughout the day I also read from three different books. None of which were the budget books I brought home with me. I'm going to need to step up with those. Devote more work time to it, considering the classes are next week.

In the spirit of the day I watched I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives In The House on Netflix. I was not into it. At the time I was researching house things and not really paying attention. It is one of those really quiet, slow-moving, psychological kind of horror movies. Those aren't the kind of movies you can have on in the background and still get something out of. I also don't think I would have liked it even if I had been paying attention. I wasn't in the mood.

I started watching Supergirl today, and I'm liking it. Also, tonight I discovered that iZombie has a new season out. I was scrolling through the horror movies when I realized I was in the mood for funny, so I searched for iZombie, and surprise, season two. I re-watched the final episode of season one just to jog my memory and now I am three episodes into season two. They've still got it. The writing is very witty.

As soon as the episode is over I'm going to bed. I'm looking forward to that.

October 30, 2016

 Today was short and uneventful. I didn't get out of bed until noon. I woke up several times this morning but I just kept rolling over and going back to sleep. I don't know why my body needed ten hours of sleep but apparently it did.

When I finally got out of bed I had lunch, watched last week's episode of Westworld, and did some research beds. I looked at matresses as well as possible bed frames I could make. At some point I need to go look at matresses and actually lay on some but I found some of the online ones that seem to have potential. We'll see what happens.

I finished watching Black Mirror today. And now I want to go back and watch it all over again. For my own productivity it is probably good that it isn't a show that I just discovered after being around for a long time with dozens of episodes. Although that would be nice.

Following Black Mirror I watched the first episode of Glitch, another original Netflix series. At least six people rise from their graves, looking as good as new (if naked and covered and dirt), even though they have been dead for varying lengths of time. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It seems like it will be a bit of a downer.

I just finished watching Event Horizon, a movie I have known about for a long time but I don't know that I've ever actually seen it. Maybe just parts here and there. It was an odd movie and one that I don't feel the need to ever watch again. It was mildly interesting but I'm good.

The problem with sleeping until noon is not being tired even though it is late at night. This is why I woke up early last Sunday morning. But this weekend I said screw it. Which may have been a mistake. To be fair, I'm not sure about my ability to go to sleep even if I had woken up early due to the fact that I'm closing on a house in the morning. It's like Christmas except the excitement is more terrifying. And it won't stop after signing because then I have to continue doing adult things. I want a break from all the stress and it's only just begun. Hooray.

Now I think I'm going to listen to music and read for awhile. And hope for drowsiness

October 29, 2016

Black Mirror is great.

This morning I woke up early even though I had no interest in doing so. I got ready, had some breakfast, and then tried to switch utilities in the new house into my name. That was unsuccessful because none of them are open on the weekend. I'm so used to jobs where weekends are a thing that it is weird when people don't work on the weekend.

After that fail, my mom and I went to meet my realtor at my potential new house. She spent most of the time talking to him while I walked through the house for one final look-through. I also measured a bunch of stuff just to get a better idea of what could fit where. Good thing, I still like the house, which is good.

When I got home I had the bright idea to look online and I was able to sign up with the electric company and the gas company. Not the water company unfortunately. They allow you pay bills online but not actually start up service. Annoying. I'll have to save that until after closing on Monday because I don't think they open until eight o'clock. But even if they turn off the water before I can create my account it won't matter much because the carpet thing is going to delay my moving in. I also need to figure out everything else, like a bed and furniture and whatever else.

I spent a good chunk of my afternoon looking at the sketches I drew with the dimensions of the house and trying to figure out where I would put stuff. I also looked at bed frames and other furniture, just to get ideas. I'm back to thinking I want to build a simple bed frame. It will definitely be cheaper than most options, and comparable to the least expensive options, but probably a lot more sturdy. So we'll see what happens.

Tonight my sister and her husband came over and my mom grilled burgers. My sister made an inside out cake, where the icing is baked into the cake. Sounds kind of odd but it made the cake super moist (describing baked goods is one of the rare instances that word is acceptable), and it was really freaking good.

After dinner I continued watching Black Mirror. It is so good. And I'm almost done, which kind of sucks. Each season has more episodes and hopefully that will continue to be the case whenever the next season comes out. I'm going to finish watching the second to last episode tonight and save the final episode of the third season for tomorrow.

Tomorrow I also want to work on my budgeting class for awhile. We'll see how that goes.

October 28, 2016

 Yesterday the teen librarian came out of her group with a bunch of teenagers to borrow some markers from our desk. She was laughing because one of the teenagers, a fourteen-year-old girl, had been trying to write with on of the markers when she announced: “This marker is dead, just like my love life.” That's pretty funny, and I might have to steal it.

Today was pretty laid back. I made a small sign, for my display, that advertises Consumer Reports. That probably took longer than it should but I like how it turned out so it was worth it.

I worked on my new weeding list, continuing to go through it and do the math on how many times a book should have checked out and marking the ones that fit the criteria to be weeded. There are various methods for weeding. I think two of the librarians just go out with their list and figure it out as they go. The other librarian and I, and possibly our boss, mark the sheets before we go out so we can just quickly pull books and not think too much about it. I like my method but to each their own.

I helped a patron figure out where and when a track meet was this weekend. I also went beyond that and found a schedule of when each group ran. And what group a particular school was in. I nailed it.

One of the other librarians was excited to tell me today that while I was gone she became an official librarian. Her reasoning, is that she finally had a patron come up to her and ask if she just sat around all day and did nothing. Apparently that is a thing that all librarians get asked at some point or another. She said the only thing that would have made it better would have been if he'd ask about the level of education needed to be a librarian.

On my way home from lunch I stopped by the bank to get a cashier's check. I got the same lady that accidentally withdrew close to four million dollars from my account the last time I went to the bank. Four million dollars that I unfortunately do not have. This time when I asked for the check she asked for ID, but she worded it weird so I thought she was referring to a pin number or password of some sort for my account. So I was confused and asked her if she meant one for my account, which I think confused her because then she asked “You don't know what an ID is?” I don't know if it comes across in text but it was pretty rude. But I'm not one to pick a fight with a lady who looks like she's about eleven months pregnant, so I worked it out in my mind, figured out what she was talking about, and showed her my driver's license. Several minutes later I walked out with my the check for my down payment.

I ran home and ate a quick lunch before heading back to work. I did my walkthrough when I got back to the library and then I took a break so I could call and schedule the installation of the new carpet. Unfortunately they aren't able to start until November 7^th. There's not a lot of point in moving stuff in if it's all going to have to be moved around for the carpet guys. And I don't want to schedule the cleaning service until the carpet is down. So that's a bummer. I guess in the meantime I can see if my cousin can give me a quote for the roof and the sliding door so I can get that stuff taken care of. I also need to start thinking about a bed and a microwave, and eventually a washer and dryer. For now I'm cool with the idea of driving over to my mom's to do laundry.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and then played a little BF1 multiplayer. It was not very enjoyable. The game still looks great but I kept getting long pauses in my gameplay that often resulted in my death. I would say it was a lag spike but it was longer than that, like a full-on pause but I could still hear the game going on. It looks like one theory is a CPU bottleneck. Given the fact that I need to upgrade my CPU, I would believe it. Still annoying though and kind of made the game unplayable because it was so random. I'll look into it some more later.

After that I watched the first three, out of four, episodes of the second season of Black Mirror. Still an interesting show.

And now I'm going to bed because it is late and I'm tired. Tomorrow at ten o'clock my mom and I are going to meet my realtor over at the house for a final walkthrough. Hopefully I don't discover a deal-altering fault with the house. I would also like to wake up early enough to call the various utility companies to get those switched over to my name on Monday. It's all slowly becoming more real.

October 27, 2016

 The other day I was talking to my Mom and mentioned I was thinking about hiring a cleaning company to go through the new house (if the bank doesn't screw me out of it) before I move in. My mom thought that was a good idea and said that my grandma had cleaned my Mom and Dad's first apartment kitchen and my Mom had cleaned their first house. She didn't plan on doing that for my house because she said she was younger back than and didn't see that happening anymore. I commented that I didn't think I was ever not old. She thought about it for a second and said “I don't think you were either.” It was a very non-sarcastic comment, which is rare, but also interesting. I do feel like I have always been old. Not only because my knees have sucked since a young age and I started getting kidney stones in my early twenties, but I have always looked at things with a healthy dose of common sense and I try and live responsibly. I let my friends do the crazy youthful things and learned from their mistakes so I didn't have to make them. I'm okay with that. It's just interesting.

This morning I woke up earlier than I would have liked because of dogs but I stayed in bed until I actually needed to get up. Then I got ready, ate lunch, and went to work. My main goal today was coming up with a display idea for the main display next month. I had a moment of inspiration not too long after getting to work. It is called Be Prepared: For Whatever November Brings. At least for now. I might change that later. The idea is that it will cover everything from cookbooks about Fall food to dealing with family to preparing your house for winter to whatever else people do in November. I think it has potential. We'll see if it goes anywhere. A big chunk of my day was spent making the sign for it, which is a collection of Polaroid-shaped pictures representing the various themes within the display. I didn't like any of the Polaroid-shaped templates I found online so I made my own. It would have been much quicker if I could have found a decent one that suited my needs. But it all worked out and the sign is done. This evening I made my book list so tomorrow I can go pull the books and get them ready for next week.

I spent the end of my shift tonight working on my budget presentation. I'm getting there. I just want it to be good and useful, and I think I'm getting there.

I got the closing disclosure today and the best estimate of what the closing cost will be. Tomorrow on my lunch break I'm going to stop by the bank to get the cashiers check. Yet another shortened lunch. I also need to schedule the carpet and the cleaning. If I still have time after the bank I'll call about the carpet. If not, there's always Saturday.

After work there wasn't a lot of time so I watched some YouTube videos and shortly I will be going to bed. I always look forward to bed.

October 26, 2016

 This morning I woke up early so I could get to work early. The staff meeting started at eight o'clock and I didn't want to walk in right as the meeting was starting. The other librarian I was presenting with was already at the desk so we walked over to the auditorium together. I went up to the front to plug in the flash drive and open up the presentation. While I was doing that apparently the assistant director asked my boss if I was giving a presentation. She was in a little bit of disbelief because she had mentioned it on a couple occasions and thought it was assumed that our department would do a short security presentation at the staff meeting each month. There was already a full schedule but he put our presentation at the end. And then the full schedule was too full and the presentation got bumped. All that work and anxiety. I guess we've been jotted down for the next meeting, which isn't until December, I'm assuming because of Thanksgiving. Who knows. I need to write down everything I wanted to say so I don't forget it.

This morning I answered a call from an older woman who was hard of hearing who wanted to know about the electoral college. I know that she was hard of hearing because she yelled at me for the entire conversation. It was rough.

We got our new weeding lists today so I spent some time working on that but most of my day was spent working on my budget class. I'm making progress. At some point soon I'll need to start bringing the books I have home so I can make actual progress. Time is running out.

I also need to come up with another display idea because I have the main display next month, which means next Tuesday. And I've got a lot of crap going on between now and then. I have thought about the need for a display idea but haven't actually thought of any ideas. That should probably be my focus at work tomorrow.

A little before lunch I emailed the guy at the bank to get some clarification on things. Like if I had been approved for the loan yet and how much I needed to get a cashiers check for and when the closing would be scheduled. Not too long after that he wrote back and said I had been approved and he would let me know tomorrow how much I would need for the check. At the same time I got an email back from the go-between lady wanting to schedule the closing. I didn't check my email until after four o'clock and I don't know what her hours are but she doesn't appear to work after four o'clock, or at least answer emails after four o'clock because it always defaults to an automatic away message. I let her know I wanted it as early in the day as possible so hopefully she'll go ahead and do that tomorrow. Then I can start scheduling the carpet, cleaners, locksmith, cable, and whatever else.

Other things probably happened throughout the day but it is getting late so let's get this moving.

After work I picked up Chipotle and managed to get a parking spot on my first try, which is a nice change. My bowl wasn't too impressive but it was edible. After dinner the videos went over well, which is always good.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos and started work on my next cross stitch pattern. I saw a Home Sweet Home pattern with a TARDIS on it. I liked the idea so I'm making my own pattern. I made the TARDIS look better and now I'm trying to find a better font for the words. I'm making progress.

I recently learned about the show Black Mirror on Netflix and I watched the first three episodes tonight. It's great. I'm a big fan of The Twilight Zone and it really is like a modern-day version of that show. So far there are only three seasons, and not a lot of episodes. The first has three, the second has four, and the third has six, which means it will make a fairly quick binge, but at least the episodes are at are a minimum of forty minutes. I want to keep watching but it is much too late right now.

October 25, 2016

 My day at work started with trying to get people to fill out a survey. I thought it would be easier than doing it during people's lunch break, and my ratio of success might have been better, but there were so few people to ask. Quite a few people came into the library this morning but only a small portion of them came in the door I was standing at. It was a very long hour.

The bank seemed to accept the note from my cousin and later in the day the seller's agent submitted a letter from the roofer they had look at the roof. He gave an estimate of repairs at $97. All of this stress and bullshit over $97. Good grief. Moving on.

This morning the bank had me sign a waiver saying I could still go through with the closing even if I didn't get the appraisal outside of three business days before closing. And then about an hour later the appraisal was submitted. So now, everything should be good to go. The house appraised for $4,000 more than my offer, so that makes me feel good. I am glad I asked for $5,000 less and didn't go for it when it was $10,000 more. The appraiser had access to my contract though, and knew what I offered, so that has to create some sort of bias. We'll ignore that.

My realtor wanted me to call him so I did that over lunch. The appraisal came in right before that so I spent most of my lunch looking through the report trying to find the appraised value and talking to the realtor. That left me less than ten minutes to eat my lunch. It didn't help that I was five minutes late leaving for lunch and had to get back on time because of the genealogy class that started at two o'clock.

Despite the rush I made it back in time for the class. That part of my day was pretty stress free because I wasn't teaching the class, two people from the genealogical society were. There was a lot of information to cover and I think they handled it admirably. They've taught the class before and they do this for a living, so I would say it went well. Only four out of the five people showed up, but I kind of like the smaller class size because it makes it a more personal experience and the patrons seem to like when one-on-one opportunities are available. Hopefully I can get them back for another class sometime.

I was on desk after class until I got off work. I spent that time working on my budget presentation. At some point I need to start taking the books I'm using home so I can actually read them a little deeper than the skimming I can do at work while on the desk. I want to highlight different methods for keeping a budget and I think that will include focusing on information from each of the books I picked out is a good start. Not only will it provide information, it might encourage people to check out a book. I'm making good progress so far but I need to put a lot more time into it because I want it to be good.

Most of my night tonight was spent reading through the appraisal report. I've never read an appraisal report before but it seemed pretty straight forward. I also practiced the presentation I have to give tomorrow with one of the other librarians at the all staff meeting. We actually have to give it twice because there is a meeting first thing in the morning and again later in the afternoon to make sure as many people as possible can attend. Along with practicing it I also made a few tweaks. I added the short joke Mitch Hedberg had about flyers and how when someone hands one to you it's like them saying “here, you throw this away”, because it is funny. I also made a few aesthetic changes. Now I just need to remember to bring the flash drive with me.

My realtor told me some things I should do before closing so sometime in the next couple of days I am going to call the gas, electric, and water companies to have those services put in my name on the day of closing. I also need to find out how much my final closing costs will be so I can go to the bank and get a cashiers check. I either didn't know or had forgotten about that when my mom bought her house because I thought I would need to use my own check, of which I only have one left. (I didn't want to get more if my address was going to change because I'm just now getting through the checks with my old address on them). I also need to find out when the closing will take place so I can schedule the carpet installation and the cleaning service. And sometime this weekend I'm going to go over and walk through the house again so I can take some measurements and just to make absolutely sure I still want the house before I pull the trigger. My near future is going to be a very stress time. And then I have to move. Yay.

October 24, 2016

 This morning I woke up an hour early so I could read. I enjoyed it but unfortunately I couldn't go back to sleep afterward like I do on the weekend because I had to get up and get ready for work.

Work felt long and fast all at the same time. I weeded over one hundred books today, which included taking one double card and two single carts upstairs. Taking two carts at the same time is a bit tricky. I also “found” a book that had been declared missing earlier in the year. Not as impressive as the book that had been declared missing three years ago but not bad. The best thing is that I managed to only find one book that I want to read.

For an hour before lunch I had to stand by one of our entrances and ask people if they wanted to take a survey about the library. I got some people to fill them out but I didn't like it. People are preconditioned to either avoid eye contact or immediately say 'no' when someone starts to ask them to fill something out. I felt like a bell ringer at Christmas. It also didn't help that I was doing it at noon when a lot of people rush in over their lunch break. I have to do it again tomorrow but it will be first thing in the morning so at least I won't be interrupting people's lunch break.

I got the handouts from the genealogical society for their class tomorrow so I got those copied and ready for them. They ended up having to cancel the evening class on Thursday, which is unfortunate but no one had signed up for it so no one really affected. One person had to pull out of the class tomorrow so we're down to only five people signed up. They were saying they usually have a packed house, so that kind of sucks but at least five people will be there.

At one point today another librarian and I were looking up K2 and trying to find out how high the base camp was. I had just weeded a cart full of books and she was leaning over it when the whole thing tipped over and all the books came crashing down. She didn't fall, just the books, and it was pretty funny.

I got a note from my cousin about the roof and I sent that on to the bank to make them happy. And it didn't make them happy because he didn't sign it so it wasn't official. Good grief. I let him know and he was coming back into town tonight so I met him when he got back and had him sign it. I then went home, scanned it, and sent it to the bank. My fingers are crossed that this is the end. My realtor was saying the bank has until Thursday to get me all the documents if we are still going to close on Monday. It's so ridiculous. They have all my financial information and can see that I have the money to replace the roof if I have to, even though everyone is saying the roof doesn't need to be replaced for awhile. I don't get it. It's very simple math, but the bank seems to struggle with it.

When I got home I was able to finish the last mission in Battlefield 1. I had to clear a village and then defeat a giant armored train. The first part was pretty easy but the train was a pain in the butt. It had x-ray vision and it seemed like every time I got a glimpse of the train it was raining down shells on my head. I had an anti-tank rifle but got screwed when I tried to re-load it from a crate so I ran out of bullets too soon. That left me with the artillery guns. There was only enough time to shoot or reload before the train would start dropping shells so I had to shoot the first gun, run to a second artillery gun, shoot, run back, reload the first gun, run back and reload the second gun, run back and shoot the first gun, etc. and so on. I think I started with four guns but by the end there were only two left and I was super worried I was going to get hit and have to start all over. I had to start over several times. But I managed it in the end. I really enjoyed the campaign. It was interesting because each storyline felt like it could have been expanded into its own game. Each one gave a taste of different things so it was cool to try each thing. I am hoping that the DLCs include some more campaign missions, not just new maps or guns for multiplayer. I won't be getting the DLC if it's just multiplayer stuff because I don't really care about multiplayer. Unless they release a remake of Metro. That would be super tempting.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is late and I'm tired. I think whatever triggers my allergies was peaking today because I spent all day with an itchy throat, runny or congested nose, itchy eyes, and a headache. It didn't help that I drove to and from work with the windows down. I need to stop doing that. Anyway, bed time.

October 23, 2016

 This morning I woke up early for two reason. The first reason is that I wanted to be able to get to sleep at a decent time this evening. I enjoy sleeping in more than anything else but sleeping in late on Sunday makes it hard to be tired enough to go to bed at a decent time Sunday evening. Reason number two, I wanted to read my books. I want to read more but I am still trying to get back into the habit of it. Baby steps. I read for two hours, took an hour nap, and then played Battlefield 1 for an hour before lunch. It was a pretty good morning.

After lunch I watched YouTube videos and then played more Battlefield 1. My goal was to finish it today but then I heard from my sister about going over to my Dad's for dinner. There wasn't really a set time, so that was kind of annoying, but I ended up going over around five o'clock. And everything still needed to be prepared/cooked so we didn't end up eating until around seven o'clock. And I got home at 8:45PM, which is better than I thought it would be. I had a good time but the lack of any set plan was a bit stressful. I like knowing when things are going to happen, not leaving it up in the air and figuring it out as we go. But it was a good time and I can say I got out of the house at least once this weekend.

When I got home I was just going to write this and then go to bed but I decided to play a little more Battlefield 1. I made it to the last storyline and I beat the first two parts, leaving the final one for tomorrow. It looked like it was going to take awhile to get through it so I made the executive decision to save it for tomorrow. During the second part of the last storyline I was able to steal a small tank but then couldn't remember how to repair it when it got damaged (even though I had a whole storyline where I was in a tank) so I blew up. The second time around I took the time to figure it out before I got in the tank, and I went into the tank with my wrench out so that when I had to repair I could quickly get out of the tank and do the repair without having to swap to my wrench first. I was more successful the second time around.

Now I'm going to go to bed because I wanted to go to bed an hour ago and I've been tired since before the sun went down.

October 22, 2016

 Today I slept in later than I thought I would but I'm okay with that. Then I took a nap later in the afternoon. Apparently I needed some extra sleep.

I read until it was time for lunch, then ate lunch and read some more. My day was basically filled with sleep, reading, YouTube, video games, laundry, and movies. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. But also not a lot to write about. Tonight I got around to playing more Battlefield 1. I completed the third storyline, leaving three to go. This one involved flying, which was cool, but also annoying because the flight controls were limited. It's like when there's an easy mode that kind of assists you and doesn't let you go too crazy, and then a more realistic mode that lets you do whatever you want, like barrel rolls. I've heard it's less restrictive in multiplayer but in the campaign you can't do a barrel roll and it takes a hell of a lot of mouse movement just to turn the plane around. I do not have the real estate required for that much movement. So that was frustrating but I still enjoyed the storyline. The game still looks incredible, as well, easily making trench warfare look very real and terrifying. I am thankful this is not a VR game.

I just finished watching Lights Out, which was a pretty scary movie. The overall concept was interesting but I particularly liked how the scary lady worked. It was kind of like the weeping angels in Doctor Who.

Right now I am watching the Warcraft movie. I don't know how well it did in theaters but so far I am liking it. The special effects are pretty cool and I like the little bits of humor sprinkled throughout. I'd watch a sequel if they make one, but hopefully it won't be a direct-to-DVD kind, because then I probably would not watch it.

Tomorrow I suspect there will be much of the same and I am totally okay with that.

October 21, 2016

 This morning was so long ago. I briefly woke up at five o'clock and remembered that I was scheduled to go in to work at eleven o'clock instead of noon. I knew this shortly before going to bed but then I set my alarm with the idea that I was going in at noon. I still got up at the same time because originally I set my alarm an hour early so I could get up and read. I decided to sacrifice the reading so I just got up with enough time to get ready and eat lunch before work.

My work day went by fast. When I was on desk I worked on my budgeting class. When I was off the desk I either did walkthroughs or worked on my budgeting class. I also talked a lot with one of my fellow librarians and one of the assistants. That prevented me from being as productive as I could have been but it was Friday and I needed the distraction. It was good times.

I ended the night on desk so the hour before that I went out and weeded so I could withdraw the books while I was on the desk. I found two more books I want to read but I avoided checking them out because I already have too many to read. I also found a book that was marked as missing back in 2014. It looked like it did pretty well up until that point so I decided to let Circulation put it back in the system. It's true that it didn't check out in the last two years, because it would have popped up as missing if someone tried to check it out, but that just means no one was browsing and decided to check it out. If they had tried looking for it in the catalog it would have said it was missing, which usually discourages people from going to the shelf to double-check.

Speaking of that, a patron came upstairs looking for a book that showed up in the catalog as being on the shelf. She looked first and couldn't find it so I went with her a second time to make sure and it wasn't there, or anywhere in the vicinity because we spent a decent amount of time looking. So I recovered one missing books but it looks like another one is there to take its place. I liked this patron, too, which made it more annoying that the book wasn't there. When she first came up to me she complimented my green fleece jacket. Then, when we went to look for the book she noticed my green shoes, which she liked, and when I showed her that I also had green socks on she got pretty excited and said her mom would love me. I don't know what it is but I get along really well with middle-age women. And apparently have a love of green in common with their mothers.

When I got home I eventually got around to playing Battlefield 1. I bought it last night and then left my computer on so it could download. I went right into the singleplayer campaign because that's why I bought the game. I did the first setup mission and then the first actual storyline with the tanks, and it has been pretty epic so far. I saw part of a review on YouTube (which I stopped once the spoilers started) and they were complaining that the campaign was only four hours long. They said the tank story is by far the longest but they had it clocked at an hour and a half and I am sitting at three hours right now. I'm playing on Hardened, and it isn't really that hard, but I'm definitely taking my time with it. Trying to be stealthy when I can and getting distracted by just looking at the really nice graphics.

Some of that time was also due to a bug that respawned all of the enemies I killed when I respawned after being killed. The first time it respawned me near the end of a level but I was completely surrounded by enemies and it kind of ruined it because I was down to only a few enemies left before I died. The second time was after I spent a long time taking out a bunch of tanks at the railway station. Afterward I was driving to the next town but went out of bounds and couldn't get back in bounds in time because a cut scene took over and wouldn't let me move fast enough. So, it all ended up being longer than it should have been but even if everything had gone perfectly I still think I would have ended up with a much longer playthrough than the guy on YouTube. Apparently the next storylines are a lot shorter but we'll see. Time will tell. I already feel like I got my money's worth so I'm not too worried about it. There's also the multiplayer aspect, which I'm not that interested in, but if I want to really get my money's worth I could dump hours into playing multiplayer.

It is now much later than I would like it to be so I'm going to use the magic of sleep and make it much earlier in the day. We'll ignore the fact that it will be a completely different day, but if anything that is even more magical, being transported to an entirely different day. Crazy. Anyway, it's time to teleport.

October 20, 2016

 I did things today. That should be the goal of any day I guess, so mission accomplished.

At work today I finished updating my spreadsheets for homebound so now I'm all set for next month.

I spent time reading up on budget stuff for my class next month. I have been at a bit of a loss in how I wanted to teach the class but now I think I am just going to cover a bunch of different ways to make and keep a budget, along with why it is important to make one. So today I started reading up on different theories and methods. I didn't write anything down but I've made a start.

I did more research for the patron yesterday who was interested in military endorsements for presidential candidates. I ended up finding some more information so I sent that his way. Wikipedia had the most information, and I let him know I couldn't vouch for its accuracy but it was at least a good starting point.

Thirty minutes of my day was spent coming up with a list of authors who write urban romance with another librarian. There might be another name for the genre but urban fiction is a thing and I figure romance novels that feature non-white individuals could be considered urban romance. I have no actual interest in romance novels but that is one of my displays this month and I thought I would try to change things up. So I've included urban romance along with supernatural and fantasy stuff, trying to go along with Halloween for the latter. Books have been checking out but I didn't actually make note of the ones that strayed from the norm for the display so I have no idea how well it's going over. No one has complained yet so that's something.

I helped the lady who asks for ILLs and purchase requests all the time with the microfilm machine again. It was a little less hands-off than last time. Progress.

I spent forty-five minutes helping a lady with her new Kindle. Or at least trying to help her with her new Kindle. It was a little too new and she hadn't registered it yet and I couldn't get it to connect to the wi-fi. We don't have a password but you have to agree to our terms when you first connect. And you can't get past the registration screen on the Kindle until you register. I also don't know if you could connect after it is registered, I'll need to ask around and see if anyone has had luck with that. Or maybe take my Kindle in.

Anyway, we couldn't do that but I created a new Amazon account for her by creating a new Gmail account for her. She had an Amazon account years ago but didn't remember the password and she couldn't use her email account because it was used to set up her original Amazon account. And we couldn't reset the password because she didn't remember the password for her email. Very reminiscent of the last patron I tried to help with a Kindle.

But I got those accounts for her and then we set up accounts with our ebook services and I showed her how to use them. It was a lot of information and it is all counting on her being able to register her Kindle when she gets home. My fingers are crossed for her but I also pointed out our phone number, email address, and chat service so if she has problems she can try those options first before having to drive the thirty miles into town again.

And that was pretty much my day at work.

Tonight kind of just disappeared from me. Read a little bit, watched YouTube videos, clicked around on the Internet, and now I'm finishing up a Star Trek movie. I only vaguely remember the others but this is the best one so far. The action is great and then there's the Beastie Boys. When it's over I may read some more but then I'm going to bed. I get to sleep in tomorrow and I am looking forward to that.

October 19, 2016

 I can't remember the specifics of it but last night I had a dream that Cheez-Its were made out of dead people. They may or may not have been killed for the purpose. I'm assuming the weirdness of the dream can be tied to watching The Purge: Election Year right before going to bed.

This morning I felt like I got a slow start but then I had several extra minutes to kill before going to work. Interesting.

After I did all the opening stuff I messed with my homebound spreadsheets for awhile until I had to go upstairs for the virtual conference. The keynote was interesting but the next session was less than interesting. Also, there were three presenters and at one point one of them forgot to mute their microphone and started doing dishes. The current presenter eventually had to apologize for the other presenter creating background noise. I've heard some random background noise before but dishes rattling and water running is a first.

After lunch we went out to deliver books. It went well. We had a minor Austin Powers hallway golf cart moment when trying to finding a parking spot at the first nursing home but the other librarian recovered nicely. I again managed to get back to my first patrons room without her noticing me but this time she didn't scream so that was good. I had a good conversation with the patron who I'm losing next month because she's moving to a nursing home covered by the other librarians. I also met my new patron who is my new favorite because it will be easy picking books for her. She is a former librarian and was really happy to start the program so that was pretty cool.

When we got back we unloaded the books and I spent the rest of my shift updating my spreadsheets and helping patrons. I got a little sidetracked by helping patrons so I didn't finish the spreadsheets but there's always tomorrow. Or the next day. One of the sidetracking patrons asked me if there was a resource that kept track of how many members of the military endorsed each presidential candidate during each election. A very interesting question and not the easiest to find. When I wasn't helping other patrons I did some brief googling. It's fairly easy to find information on the current election but I didn't find a single source that had the information for past elections. I think I need to just search for each candidate individually. I emailed him the few things I found but I want to keep looking because it is an interesting question.

It looks like my mom doesn't need to be a co-borrower on my loan after all. In my explanation about a deposit I mentioned a graduation check and it turns out earning my latest degree is explanation enough for why I wasn't making that much money in the recent past but now I'm making considerably more. Who knows. I sent them a copy of my diploma tonight, which will hopefully clear that up. I also sent a copy of the final counter addendum for the contract that deleted the line from my original offer mentioning the roof. Fingers crossed that will end the roof discussion and the loan can proceed.

I watched Jason Bourne tonight. The car chase scenes did not disappoint. I'm kind of over the story because we get it already, but I like the movies. It also makes me want to work on my purposeful walk. There is a lot of purposeful walking in those movies.

I still haven't bought Battlefield 1 yet but I was texting with my brother about it today and he's not helping. He was telling me how good it is, and I already know how good it looks. Maybe if I can get this loan thing un-stalled tomorrow I'll buy the game in celebration.

I want to read before bed but I'm tired so I think I'll just go to sleep instead. Sleep is always good.

October 18, 2016

 This morning I woke up around 6:30AM, which was way too early, but I was awake so I decided to read. I started reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. I liked the introduction because he gave a brief history of each of the stories and it was nice to have some context for them. After reading through all that and a couple stories I curled up and went back to sleep.

For the rest of the day I read more, watched YouTube videos, and did a little bit of laundry. I continued reading short stories, most of which I liked but one was definitely over my head because it felt like I was missing the point. Not the first time that has happened to me with Neil Gaiman. I also continued reading Shutter Island. I am nearly through the first day. I have a vague recollection of the movie but not enough to really know what to expect with the book. I'm into it so far though.

I had more interactions with the bank today regarding my quest for a loan. They needed more explanations and documents even though it was all reiterations of what I had already sent them. They also brought up the roof again. The goddamn roof. That thing won't go away. I really don't get everyone's obsession with it at this point. I already agreed to take it as-is, it's in the contract, but everyone is still talking about it. I also heard from the banker I've been talking to since the beginning and now my mom needs to sign on as a co-borrower because I haven't been working at the library long enough. My mom thought that would be the case from the beginning but the banker was convinced it wouldn't be necessary. Less than two weeks left and wrenches are still being thrown. This is why I have tried to not get my hopes up too much, because who knows what the hell is going to happen next.

Right now I'm finishing up The Purge: Election Year. I have seen the previous movies, none of which are great but it's an interesting premise. Also terrifying. When the movie is over I'll probably read some more before going to bed. Tomorrow I have to open. Then I'll spend a couple hours watching a virtual conference before I go to lunch, and then going out to deliver homebound books. It is going to be a long, fast day.

October 17, 2016

 This morning I slept in but I did not oversleep because I remembered to turn my alarm on last night. It was nice being able to sit down and eat my lunch.

At work today I did things. I started by calling my homebound patrons to let them know I would be coming out on Wednesday. Then I threw together a presentation for the staff meeting next week. I might add some more to it but for now there should be enough content to reach our five to ten minute goal.

We got the information for my new homebound patron so I made a list of books and got those pulled. For the moment she is my favorite patron because she doesn't require large print books and there isn't a long list of books that she's already read that I can't pick from. Our large print collection is a big limiting factor with most of the homebound patrons and the longer we've had them as patrons the more they have read so the smaller our collection gets. It's great having access to our regular collection and not having to double-check all of my choices against a list of previously checked-out books. It's great.

This evening I weeded seventy-five books. That's a lot of books but not many compared to how many books I actually looked through. I'm still in a fairly popular section apparently because the books are either too new or check out way more than they should. That is great news for the books but also makes my weeding feel less than productive.

As far as patron interactions went, I helped one with the copier and helped another with the microfilm machine and gave him directions to get out of town. There was one “bad” interaction via chat where a patron in the computer lab used chat to complain about kids being loud. It is supposed to be a quiet place but there wasn't any school today so there were more kids in the library than usual. I told the patron I would call down to see what the problem was and they replied with the suggestion that there should be more than one person watching the lab when kids were there. I said I would let someone know and they said not to worry, that they would just go let the city commissioners know that adults were no longer welcome at the library, and then they logged off before I could respond. Gotta love some of our patrons.

When I got home from work I watched some YouTube videos and now I'm watching the beginning of the singleplayer campaign for Battlefield 1. I want to buy the game eventually for the singleplayer campaign because it looks awesome and I have been tired of all the futuristic FPS games as of late. I like that they went back to WWI. I don't really have much interest in the multiplayer because I suck at multiplayer and with Battlefield 4 I feel like I lost interest pretty quickly. I spent too much time running around looking for people and then getting immediately killed when I finally find them. I think it would be a fun game to play with friends but I don't have those so the singleplayer is the main draw. I can get it for $46 right now rather than $60 but I am also probably buying a house at the end of the month and that $46 could go toward something more practical, like food.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is late. I have tomorrow off because I worked this weekend and I think my main goal is to sleep in and then read a book. I have so many books checked out right now and I just keep checking out more. I need to be reading a lot more but I am still recovering from school and getting past the idea of reading because I have to. I'm slowly getting back into reading for fun but it is taking some time.

October 16, 2016

 This morning was a bit of a mess but I didn't realize it until I got out of bed. I slept great last night and kept having really interesting dreams. I immediately forgot all of them as soon as I sat up, and couldn't even give you a broad description of any of them, but I remember liking them.

And that turned out to be my downfall because I wanted to just stay in bed and keep dreaming. I didn't think that was a bad thing but last night after changing my alarm time I forgot to turn it on. I was laying in bed, enjoying the dreams, assuming my alarm would notify me when I needed to get up, but I was waiting for an alarm that would never come. At one point I rolled over and glanced at the clock and it read 11:20AM. What. The. Hell? I had set my alarm for 10:00AM so I could get up, take a shower, and have plenty of time for lunch before work. Instead, I slept great, but then had to quickly get ready and eat a quick lunch while standing in the kitchen before rushing out the door. It also didn't help that I couldn't remember when I actually needed to be at work. The schedule said noon but I was thinking 12:30PM because on Saturday we show up half an hour before we open and today we opened at 1:00PM, so 12:30PM would make sense. It would also make the shift five and a half hours long, which is what it is supposed to be. But then I started thinking about it too much and thought maybe it was noon and that the two fifteen minute breaks we're supposed to take during the day would count as a half hour off the day, bringing it down from six hours to five and a half hours. In the end I decided to just split the difference and got there at 12:15PM. I think I may have been early but it's better than being late.

Today at work I did things. I pulled the books for my final patron, printed out all the bookmarks and put them in the books, and put all the books into bags. So all I have left is to call my patrons, which I will hopefully do tomorrow because I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday morning I'm supposed to watch a virtual conference on something library-related.

When I was done with the homebound stuff I made a personalized reading list. It mostly consisted of fantasy novels with a few horror novels thrown in. They didn't want explicit sex or excessive bad language but I can't really guarantee any of that because I haven't read any of the books I put on the list. I just tried to stick with books that didn't sound like they would have that stuff based on the descriptions. Fingers crossed. I have yet to have anyone provide feedback on a personalized reading list, even though they're supposed to. Maybe this will be the first. Hopefully not because I completely screwed it up.

I did a few other things today, like helped patrons and chat statistics stuff, but the homebound stuff and personalized reading list were the big things. And overall it was a fairly quiet day, which is appreciated on the weekends when I am in charge of the library.

After work I ate dinner and then sorted out the email on my mom's phone because it wasn't updating in the app she normally uses after she changed her password. Turns out it was a security issue with Yahoo but it didn't take to long to fix.

With the rest of my night I watched videos, played a little Stardew Valley for the first time, and read the first chapter of Shutter Island. I've wanted to play Stardew Valley since it first came out but I was still in school and didn't want to get sucked into another game. I also didn't want to pay full price. The opportunity came up recently to get it for a discount through Humble Bundle in conjunction with their latest monthly subscription bundle. I have no idea what the other games will be because they won't be announced until November, but for signing up for the subscription I gained instant access to Stardew Valley. It ended up being even cheaper because there was an additional 10% off for being a first time subscriber. I only played a little bit but I like it. My only problem at the moment is how quickly the days go by and how quickly I run out of energy. But I'm sure I'll get used to the days and that my energy will improve over time.

For several weeks now I have been interested in watching Shutter Island. I think the last time I saw it was when I previewed it at the theater, so that's been awhile. I didn't realize it was a book until today when I was working on the personalized reading list, and even though I already have way too many books checked out and I'm not reading them fast enough, I decided to checkout Shutter Island. I also checked out Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman because I like short stories and one of them is supposed to be a Doctor Who story. I really want to go back and watch Doctor Who again and this can be a way of dipping my toes back in the universe. I also want to watch Battlestar Galactica again. There area so many things I want to read and watch and do and so little time. Time is annoying.

But now I'm going to go to bed so hopefully even if I forget to turn my alarm on again, I won't sleep in until 11:20AM. Which would be great because I know for a fact I need to go to work at noon tomorrow.

October 15, 2016

 This morning I had to count the money for circulation and for the first time ever I pretty much had perfect change for the drawer. It was nice.

My main goal for the day was to work on homebound stuff and the majority of my workday was spent doing just that. I made significant progress. Throughout most of my morning and into the afternoon I worked on my book lists. It takes so much time to look at what the patron likes, look for books that match that, and then compare that to what they have already had to make sure they haven't had what you've found. And then doing that anywhere from three to thirteen times for seven patrons. It doesn't help that most of the patrons aren't very specific when it comes to their likes and dislikes and typically don't leave feedback on the books we take them. It's a great service but I think it could be handled more efficiently.

I spent two hours this afternoon going around and pulling books. For two of my patrons I ended up only finding one of the books I had picked for them, so I had to go back and forth trying to find new books. I ended up getting the books for all but one of my patrons, who is the one I need to actually go to the shelves and look for books to make sure they aren't too new because she tends to mess them up. But I also have to have her spreadsheet pulled up on my phone to make sure I'm not getting books she's already had.

I got a call from a lady in a town about two and a half hours away today because she found a wallet in her parking lot and there was a library card in it. She knew I couldn't give her the person's phone number but wanted to know if I could look the person up and call them to let them know their wallet had been found. My first attempt to call them was a fail because instead of calling the patron I typed in the number for the person who had just called. That was awkward. But then I called the right number and left a voicemail letting the person know that their wallet had been found and giving them the number of the lady who called so they could contact her. Not too long after that I got a call from the patron to thank me because he had been able to retrieve his wallet.

I also helped a few patrons with random things and finished watching the usability recordings of our website for the month. Overall it was kind of a long, slow day. But I was productive. Tomorrow I need to get the books for my last patrons, type up and print out bookmarks, and bag up all the books. There is also a personalized reading list that I would like to do.

On my way home I went to the new Jimmy Johns and I was not impressed with the service. I went in because there was a line at the drive-thru and there was no sense of urgency from the staff inside. It took awhile for my presence to be acknowledged and in my experience with other Jimmy Johns, they at least greet the customer when they walk in. It then took quite awhile for them to make my sandwich. There also isn't enough room to have the two counters like they usually do. The front counter is really close to a row of tables so if you're waiting for your sandwich there you're basically standing with your butt up against a table someone is eating at. But they drop the sandwich off down at the end of the counter so you have to squeeze down there to get your sandwich. Meanwhile the other counter faces out toward a more open space and it would make so much more sense to use that one. My food was good when I finally got it but layout and the customer service do not bode well for the future success of this new location.

Tonight I did one load of laundry and then went and hung out with my friend for a few hours because she was in town. I talked with her while her and her mom worked on a craft project, then we went out and talked on the driveway for awhile so we could see the full moon, and then we went down to the theater room to watch the tail end of Cars 2 with her younger sister before watching an episode of Dexter. I think she said we started watching Dexter in the summer of 2009 and tonight we made it through episode nine of season seven. Slowly but surely.

Now I am going to go to bed because it is one o'clock in the morning and I am tired. I don't have to work until noon, so I can sleep in, but I would like to actually enjoy it, not just get the normal amount of sleep before having to get out of bed and get ready. Ideally I will wake up on my own and then be able to read for a little bit. That would be great.

October 14, 2016

 I ended up finishing Luke Cage last night. Couldn't resist. As a whole I liked it. I will more than likely watch season two whenever it comes out.

This morning I slept in quite late and then read a book before I got ready and had some lunch. After lunch my mom and I went to look at carpet. It was a little overwhelming when we first walked in but after the salesman pointed out the in-house inexpensive stuff that made it a lot easier. It all looked so similar so there really wasn't much of choice even though there were several to pick from. They are going to go out and measure the house on Monday so I can get an estimate.

Later on I went to the bank to deposit a check and at one point the teller looked to be a little flustered. I discovered why when I got home and checked to see if anything had shown up yet (because I need to send a bank balance showing I have the money for the down payment for the house to the bank I'm getting the loan from). All the activity was already there and at one point there was a withdrawal for almost $3.5 million and then a credit for the same amount. I'm not quite sure how that happened because it wasn't like some extra zeroes were added onto the correct number. It wasn't anywhere close to the actual numbers. So it was an interesting typo. Hopefully those few seconds are the only time I am in debt for $3.5 million. It was crazy to see a seven-figure number in my account, even if it was false, and kind of made me want to play the lottery again. I'm certainly not going to get there as a librarian.

With the rest of my day I did laundry, caught up on YouTube videos, and downloaded mods for a newer version on Minecraft, in anticipation of possibly playing a newer version of Minecraft. I want to play with the harvest mod again but it skipped over the version I'm currently playing, which is annoying because it hadn't been updated in forever and then it skipped right over my version. I didn't actually get to the point of upgrading today but I think I downloaded everything I'll need.

Tonight I played Minecraft while watching the movie for Westworld. Turns out it was a movie long before it became a show on HBO. I think it was also a book before it was a movie. The movie was old and interesting. And it just made me want to watch the new show.

Now I'm going to go to bed because I have to wake up for work in the morning. This weekend I would like to finish my homebound stuff. That is my main goal.

October 13, 2016

 Today already seems so far away.

I slept in this morning and it was exactly what I needed. I stayed in bed until the last possible moment and then I got up, got ready, and ate a quick lunch before going to work. I wasn't on desk for the first part of my shift so I spent most of that time working on my homebound stuff. I sent out my two letters and got a start on book lists. So much time goes into making those lists. I think it would be best for all parties involved if we just loaded up the car with a bunch of books and let the patrons pick the books they wanted. Maybe in the future.

I met the lady who always calls in with all book and address requests. She came in to look at microfilm so I showed her how to look up information and use the machine. She was as nice as she is on the phone and she is a very interesting woman. Very perceptive and who knows what's going on in her head. She would make an interesting character study.

After dinner, not a lot happened. It was a very slow night. I didn't have anyone register for my class so I didn't have that going on. I made an example Instagram picture for one of the other librarians because she was asking me about it yesterday. I also started looking up information for the presentation I have to give in a couple weeks and the post I have to write before the staff meeting next month. So I had a somewhat productive evening, but it was super slow and it was nice when the clock struck nine.

When I got home I got sucked into watching Luke Cage. The last episode of the season just started but it is also two o'clock in the morning so I need to stop watching so I can go to bed. I don't really want to be up until three in the morning and then sleep through half of my day off.

October 12, 2016

 This morning I woke up early so I could go get my flu shot. I only had to wait about thirty seconds to get in and it took about that long to get the shot. When it was over she said “all done” and I looked down and saw she gave me a bandaid with The Flash on it so I replied “done in a flash.” She and the other lady giving shots both laughed at my bad joke, so it was worth it. Unfortunately, the lady was a bit of a butcher with the needle and my arm was hurting almost immediately. Maybe I'll sleep it off. Or maybe I'll wake up and be unable to move my arm.

I mailed a bill on my way home and then went and made my lunch and watched some more Luke Cage before going to work. I weeded when I got to work and then spent my time on the desk looking up the books that either weren't on my list or had discrepancies in their records. I also dealt with an angry customer who couldn't log into the computers. He's in every day and I checked his account for blocks but there weren't any, so my only explanation was that it was connected to the system upgrade we did this morning. That seemed to appease him a little bit but when we went to get him a guest pass someone took the last computer upstairs. I told him there were several downstairs but he wasn't interested in that, which he informed me about in an angry way. I then said I could reserve a computer for him but he didn't like that idea and told me the whole process was bullshit, but he excused his language, so I guess it doesn't count. He eventually calmed down and I saw him on the computers later. I just hope his account is working tomorrow.

This afternoon we had our staff meeting. The first hour was spent on our department stuff. We started by hearing from the lady in charge of ILL and the librarian in charge of purchasing (among other things). They told us what to do with patrons that reach or exceed their limits for ILLs or purchase requests and we talked about how to avoid those situations in the future. We then moved on to other things, like talking about communication and discussing our assignments for the next meeting.

For the second hour of our meeting we were joined by the children's department because they were having their meeting at the same time and it was decided that it would be a good job to work on our inter-departmental relationship. Our department is full of new blood and our role in the library is changing, which includes working more with other departments. This was a good first step. We went around and introduced ourselves, said what our main responsibilities were, and mentioned our work and education backgrounds. There is a lot of diversity in the backgrounds, which is something I noticed when I was in school, and I think that is cool. I also thought it was interesting that when everyone was talking about themselves, no one mentioned their significant others. It seems like a lot of times people tie their self to their relationship, especially when talking about their background. And that was never brought up. I'm sure it comes up in regular, casual conversation, but it was just interesting. Maybe it's a sign that we are all strong, independent professionals that don't connect their self-worth to their partner. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

I only had about a half hour of work left after the meeting so I went and weeded a bit more. It wasn't a very fruitful outing because it turns out our section on Buddhism and meditation is super popular and/or too new to weed. It was obvious that it is a relatively new and fast growing section but the popularity was also surprising, with a lot of books checking out two or three times more than expected. That is pretty cool but it also meant I didn't have a lot to weed.

Tonight was Chipotle night and it turns out they are super busy around 5:30PM. I drove around the block twice before parking behind the building. I then had to wait in a line that went past the door. It's been awhile since I've had to do that. The food ended up tasting really good though, so we'll say it was worth the wait. I haven't been too impressed with the food lately but this was a good week.

After dinner I only had a few videos to show and then I spent the rest of the night relaxing. I watched the latest episode of Westworld because I kept forgetting about it. Then I switched over to Luke Cage. I'm currently on episode six, so about halfway through. I am still really enjoying the music. I also like this show better than Jessica Jones. It doesn't have David Tennant but I like the main actor better.

When I finish this episode, or maybe before, I'm going to go to bed. My lack of sleep this week, and I think my flu shot this morning, are catching up to me. I need rest. Thankfully tomorrow morning I'll be able to sleep in.

October 11, 2016

 This morning when I got to work I printed off my stuff for my afternoon class and then weeded. I have made pretty decent progress on my current section, knocking out another fifty books today. I also ended up checking out a couple books that are going to be weeded but they sounded interesting.

The old man and his wife who have come in a few times about genealogy stuff came in this morning. I was talking to a coworker and one of the other librarians tried to help them but the man was insistent on waiting for me. He came back in because he got the results for the National Geographic DNA test and wanted me to help him access them. In order to register for the site he needed an email address, which he didn't have, so I created a Gmail account for him. Then we looked through his results and I pointed a few things out for him before I downloaded them and showed him how to print them out. He and his wife were both really appreciative and wanted to pay me but I politely declined and said I just liked learning new things. Before leaving the library they ended up stopping by to talk to the assistant director and apparently went on and on about how helpful I had been. That is pretty cool. The assistant director came over to tell me and my boss about it and thanked me for doing my job. That was pretty cool.

I had my class this afternoon and the one lady who signed up came but she only had forty-five minutes so it was a bit of a truncated class. It felt a little rushed and disjointed but she seemed to really enjoy the class and she said she learned a lot so I'll say it was a success.

Right before lunch I printed off my microfilm signs and after my class I was able to cut them down to size and get them set up. They're simple but they also look really good, so I'm happy.

The rest of my day was pretty much just spent making a spreadsheet look better. Sometime soon we're going to keep track of how people are using our reading room. We'll do this by marking the information on the spreadsheet for a week, sometime soon, and then again in January. This will give us a better idea of how it is being used and what the needs are of the people who use it. I think there are plans to move and/or downsize the area and this information will help in that decision. And I made the spreadsheet more useful and aesthetically pleasing.

Tonight I was going to take the night off but I got an email from the bank with a list of the documents they needed so I spent most of my night finding those documents and scanning the ones that weren't already digital. It took a lot longer than I would have liked and my night was gone before I knew it.

Right now I have just started the second episode of Luke Cage on Netflix but I'll be pausing it as soon as I finish this because I'm freaking tired. I don't have to go into work until ten o'clock tomorrow but for some reason I signed up for a flu shot at 8:30AM. That means I'll probably be waking up two hours earlier than I would have for a five minute appointment. And I won't have time afterward to even take a nap. On the plus side, tomorrow is a shortened day to make up for working on the weekend, and we have a staff meeting so that's another two hours of just talking. So it should be a quick day, followed by Chipotle. And hopefully a night off.

October 10, 2016

 I accomplished things at work today, which is generally a thing that happens, but it was important today because I finished my outline and handout for my class tomorrow. There's still only one person signed up, and they didn't show up for the last class they signed up for, so it is still uncertain whether there will be a class or not. And if there is a class, it's going to be super informal and all the preparation I have done will be overkill. We'll see tomorrow.

This morning I spoke to the same woman on the phone six different times. In the medical profession she would be referred to as a frequent flyer. She apparently goes through phases where she'll call a bunch, usually around ten o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the afternoon. This is one of those phases. She either asks for the phone number and address for random people or places (usually churches) or asks for religious books to be purchases or obtained through interlibrary loan. The first two calls were for books and the last four were for phone numbers and addresses. We learned later that she has exceeded her interlibrary loan limit because she currently has fifteen or sixteen books either checked out or in the process of being shipped, and the limit is eleven. So she's cut off there. I think the librarian who is in charge of purchases has also spoken with her on a few occasions about her excessive purchase requests and what is eligible for purchase. I just hope she doesn't call when I'm on the desk tomorrow so I won't be the one that has to explain this to her. Six calls is my new record so hopefully she burnt herself out.

Throughout the rest of my day I watched usability recordings of our website, helped a few patrons, pulled several books to restock my displays, and probably did some other stuff. The day went by pretty fast, which was nice. Another nice thing is that it wasn't raining when I got off work. It was pouring at lunch and I got a tad wet walking to my car, but I survived.

Tonight I played a bit of Minecraft and watched movies on Netflix. In Minecraft I dug a long staircase into the ground and got the briefest of starts building a mine. I figured I can dig in there until I figure out what I want to build next. I watched two movie on Netflix.

The first was After the Dark. It was about a class of seniors in high school on their last day in a Philosophy class. The teacher, who was really creepy, basically forced them into different thought experiments by saying their grades would suffer if they didn't play along. It was a nuclear apocalypse scenario, they were all assigned different roles, and there was only room in the bunker for half of them so they had to decide who got to go in. There were parts of the movie that I enjoyed but the creepy teacher pretty much ruined it for me. The older I get, I'm also less entertained by teenage romance, which I guess is a good thing. They always make it seem so serious when in reality you know they'll be broken up a week or a month later. Also, pervy older dudes that have a thing for their teenage students are creepy.

The second movie I watched was called Circle. I did not plan on watching it but it was recommended following After the Dark and I was in the mood for more thought experiments I guess. This movie was about a group of strangers that find themselves in a room in an alien ship and they have to vote on who dies every two minutes. I'm a fan of shows or movies that consist of a single tiny set but can still hold my interest. I'm also a fan of psychology and human nature and this movie is all about that. I don't think I'd ever watch it again but it was interesting.

And because I watched that movie it is now after midnight and I have to wake up in the morning. My sleep schedule still sucks.

October 9, 2016

 Today kind of sucked. It was one of those avoidance days where I couldn't really enjoy anything because I was doing my damnedest not to do anything. I can barely even find the motivation to write this.

My only goal was to work on my presentation for my class on Tuesday. Things started off well. After sleeping in a bit I stayed in bed but spent awhile coming up with my game plan for the presentation. I then thought I would get up and eventually turn that plan into a handout and outline. But that never happened. And that means I'll have to kick it into gear tomorrow. I've got a lot of time on the desk so as long as I don't have a lot of patron interactions I should be able to knock it out. I should have been able to easily knock it out today, too, so I guess that's not saying much. It's been a bit of a frustrating day to say the least.

My only real accomplishment was watching movies. Tonight I watched Hush, The Giver, and I just finished watching Desk Set. Hush is a horror movie where a deaf lady is trapped in her house by a killer. It had an interesting premise and the movie wasn't too bad. I would have liked the killer to have kept his mask on longer because that was way scarier than when you actually see his face. Also, the killer was played by the younger guy in 10 Cloverfield Lane, fun fact. The Giver is one of my favorite books, probably in the top three, and I never got around to seeing the movie. The movie is definitely not the book but it obviously wasn't supposed to be. I liked how they handled it. At some point I'd like to see a more faithful adaptation though. Finally, Desk Set is a classic with Katharine Hepburn playing the head of a reference department that is threatened by the addition of a new machine that can quickly answer questions. It is interesting because even though it came out in the 1950s, people are still convinced humans, and libraries, are going to be replaced by machines. We're still not there yet.

Now I've got to go to bed because I open in the morning. I don't like this pattern I've gotten into of getting very little sleep during the week and then trying to make up for it on the weekends. It's not working for me. And I don't think it will get any better in the near future with all the new house stuff still in the works. If all goes well closing should be on the Halloween but then there's all the moving in stuff. I just need to figure out a routine. Basically just be a better adult and get better at managing my time. The library has been interesting because I not only have to work hard in the present, I also have to be planning for months in the future. It's a lot to juggle and I don't think I'm quite there yet.

October 8, 2016

 I slept in today, which was great, as always. Then I read in bed before having lunch. And then I continued not really doing anything productive with my day. I watched YouTube videos and movies, played Minecraft, clicked around the internet, wrote quotes in my notebook, and did laundry.

Right now I am watched a movie called Zoom and it has an interesting concept. It's kind of like Stranger Than Fiction but on steroids. The basic premise of the movie involves a comic book artist who is drawing the life of a film director, who is directing a movie about a novelist, who is writing the story of the comic book artist, who is drawing the life of the film director, who is making the movie about the novelist, and so on. So it's a cool concept. I like how it's telling three different stories in three different worlds and that they're all connected.

Tomorrow I need to do work stuff. I need to figure my class out. I'm definitely putting way too much thought into it, especially if only one person is going to show up, but that's what I do. I also save things for the last minute. So I'm right on schedule.

And now I've got nothing else to write so I'm going to finish watching Zoom and then go to bed.

October 7, 2016

 For the millionth time, I need to write these things when it isn't so late at night, when I still have the motivation and haven't forgotten so much.

Work was pretty slow today. The morning was super quiet and kind of disappeared. I spent the first part of it making a sign to put next to the microfilm machines to let customers know that the computer would timeout if they didn't move the mouse often enough. I got some input from the PR Coordinator so it should be good to go next week.

Speaking of microfilm, this afternoon I helped a couple look up information on a relative in a 1905 newspaper. It's a really old newspaper and it is kind of crazy that we can look through it in 2016. We also have newspapers that go back to the late 1800s. I need to look at one sometime. Anyway, we ended up finding one article and they were both very thankful. They wanted to repay me somehow and I said that wasn't necessary, that I just liked learning new things. Then they asked about making a donation, which is something we actually do when it comes to more in-depth research, like microfilm stuff. But, I feel weird bringing that up, and I have no idea how patrons actually make donations. As long as I stay ignorant of that procedure I can safely refrain from bringing it up.

I weeded more books today. I had more books that weren't on my list and I think I figured it out. I found out the newer ones are because my boss didn't include books added to the collection in 2016. The older ones remained a mystery. Today, all of the old ones were added to the collection in 1988. Every single one. That seems beyond randomness. I'll have to keep my eye on that. I meant to check my list and see if any books from 1988 were actually on it. That would certainly confirm my suspicion that 1988 was left off my list somehow.

This afternoon I also helped an older couple find a church they used to go to back in the 1960s before they moved out of town. I easily found the church's new address online and spent awhile trying to explain to them where it was because it seemed like they were interested in going there. But what they were really interested in was going to the old church building. I started to look on the church website for a history of the church but then had the idea to look in an old city directory because we a collection of old ones. I grabbed one from 1965 and was quickly able to find the address. I then used Google to pull up a map. I showed the couple that and they were still a little confused about how to get there so I wen into Street View and we stepped through the directions and I showed them exactly how to drive there. It was a cool combination of old and new reference.

Tonight was a belated Chipotle night. I had to drive around the block a couple times and then wait in a decent line, but I eventually got the food. Right before dinner I got a call from my realtor because he had the results from the termite and radon stuff and had drawn up the paperwork and needed me to sign in. It had to be in tonight so he said he would just stop by and I could sign it at the door. So, not long after I had finished eating there was a knock at the door. Turns out the doorbell isn't working. Probably related to the power surge the other day. Anyway, I signed the document and my mom showed the realtor the new bit of brick siding on the front of the house that was finally fixed yesterday morning after it fell off months ago.

After dinner I showed a lot of YouTube videos. There were a couple weeks worth, and I probably should have only shown some of them and saved the rest, but I didn't, so we were watching videos for quite awhile. At least a few of them went over well.

The rest of my night was spent watching YouTube videos, playing Minecraft, and a few episodes of season two of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. I'm up to episode ten, so I'm getting there. I feel like I should have probably re-watched the first season again because I'm missing a lot of references back to it, but I'm surviving. I think I am liking the show better than I did the first season. In the first season there were enough funny bits throughout each episode to keep me going even though a lot of it missed the mark for me. Although I don't really remember the first season that well, I think they are doing better with season two. There are at least a lot more funny moments.

Now it's bed time because my eyes are struggling to stay open. Tomorrow I need to work on work stuff. I need to figure out how I'm going to teach my class for next week. One patron has signed up but this patron also signed up for the last class and was a no-show, so I'm not holding my breath. I also need to start thinking about a presentation for the next all-staff meeting. The librarian I am presenting with keeps bringing it up so I figure it might be time to participate. Maybe.