March 9, 2017

 Sleeping in this morning was really nice. I could have stayed in bed another hour or three but I got up and did all the things I do before going to work.

When I got to work my first project was working on homebound lists and I came very close to finishing. By the end of the day I did manage to technically finish my lists. I still have the one patron who I go directly to the shelves to pick books for, and I need to pick out DVDs for another patron. But other than that, I'm good.

I had my meeting with one of the IT people today who has been making the training stuff that I was kind of volunteered to do. I don't really care because it means less work for me. I was just shocked that after over a month of trying I finally got a meeting with one of them. And it went well. She showed me what she had been working on and we discussed how the training would happen. I think it's all good, mostly because it's one less thing that I have to do, as long as it goes well.

I went up to talk with the PR lady about website stuff and she was taking a break in the breakroom with one of her volunteers and the former tech center worker but now technical services person. I think it was the first time I have been in the breakroom since my first week of work. And kind of my first real break since almost that long. It was kind of nice to just sit down and not be in a work setting for a little bit.

After a little while my boss stopped by to get water but we ended up talking about the WWII memorial meeting that she went to this morning. It was originally going to be another project I got involved in but she said that the feeling she got from the meeting was that the library was kind of pulled in very late in the process and the ideas they had for library involvement could really be better handled by other people. So that's another project I no longer have.

When that conversation was over I went and talked to the PR lady about the website stuff. She made a page for next weeks tech class and I think she's going to get the other stuff sorted out soon. Now that I have a page for it I need to start putting links there. I'm not sure what to put there but I'll come up with something. At the very least I'll put the handout there. Which I still need to make.

On my way back from dinner I saw two crows going after a hawk in mid-air over the highway. No idea what that was all about but it was interesting to see.

My workshop was tonight and I think it went pretty well. It also went unexpectedly. I pushed the four tables in the room together, lined it all with books and put a few scattered around as obstacles. I also included various book stands as things to drive through and around. And on the floor I set up the markers as something to knock over or drive around.

The only person to sign up was my fellow librarian's husband and the two patrons who I heard were interested in coming didn't actually come. One of those patrons was an 84 year old man who stopped by the desk today. There was one walk-in who played with the Sphero a little bit and we talked about robots and STEM and STEAM for a bit but then we ended up spending most of his time there talking about starting a podcast because that was something he was interested in. Coincidentally I just made a tutorial video on starting a podcast and have gotten into recording an audio journal every day, so I could actually have an intelligent conversation with him about it. He also expressed interest in coming to the workshop next month.

The librarian's husband got to spend a lot of time working on different programs but throughout the workshop we had three people from circulation stop by on their break to check things out. Two out of the three actually drove the robot around a little bit so that was cool. I also spoke with two of them for more than just a “hello” for the first time so that was cool. I think I was more social because I was in my public face mode, which I can turn on when I'm teaching a class or interacting with strangers for work-related things. Overall I'll say the program was a success. It would have been better if I had gotten a second robot from the teen librarian but I think she forgot about it and I didn't think about it until after she had left.

At the end of the night there was a kid who tried to call his mom for a ride but wasn't able to get through. He ended up texting her but he was still waiting outside after we closed so I stayed with him and sent everyone else home. After a couple minutes of awkward silence I just started asking him questions because it's been awhile since I've gotten to talk to a kid. And it turns out it's a small world because the kid this year just started going to the elementary school I worked at for the last four years. That was super helpful because I was able to start asking him questions and name-dropping some teachers which I think made him feel more comfortable. We talked about the subjects he liked and didn't like and I learned that his birthday is on Saturday. While we talked he started playing a game on his tablet. It was PewDiePie's Tuber Simulator. I didn't even know PewDiePie had a game but it doesn't surprise me. I started asking questions about it to get the kid to talk more, because kids are always up for talking about the games they're playing. I also showed him Flop Rocket on my phone because that's the addictive game I always go back to, and he seemed pretty interested in it. After he still hadn't heard back from his mom I let him borrow my phone so he could call again and managed to get her. A little before 9:30PM his mom showed up and he thanked me for waited with him. He's the same kid who was in over the summer, often until close, and I had a little interaction with him then but it was nice getting to know him a little better. I'm also going to do my best not to mention the fact that I was there a half hour after work to my boss because then I'll have to make up that time. That would mean leaving early, which means less time to work on things, and I have a lot of things to work on, so I'm going to try and keep it quiet.

When I got home I inked up my new pen which arrived in the mail from Japan today. I bought it almost a month ago I think on Amazon but it still had to ship from Japan so it took awhile. It's the same pen I currently carry with me everyday, the Pilot Prera, but this one is a clear demonstrator with a light green end and tip. It looks really cool. I like that I can see my ink level but I especially like that I can see the color of the ink in the feed. And I went with the green ink I got at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter which is pretty much a perfect match for the green on the pen. I'm happy with the purchase.

I then watched YouTube videos. And it has taken me way too long to write this because I kept getting distracted by videos. It is now after 11:30PM and I still need to record my audio journal. So I'm going to go do that so I can go to bed.