May 11, 2017

 This morning my main accomplishment was waking up before my alarm. That gave me about thirty minutes to to figure out DOSbox before getting ready for my day. I decided I didn't want to trust the browser-based version with all the issues I had the other day, so I looked to see if there was a way I could run DOSbox from a USB drive because I didn't want to install anything on the computers in the lab. Turns out there is a portable version that can be installed on a USB drive, so I downloaded that. Then I figured out how to navigate to the game using DOS prompts. Many years ago I played around with DOSbox but far too long along to actually remember anything.

The idea was to have this ready to go on the computers before people got there and navigating through DOS over and over again didn't sound very fun so later on at work I found out how to edit a shortcut so that it would automatically open the game. I then copied and pasted the files onto twelve USB drives, just to be safe, and edited the shortcuts so they would link to the right thing. It was a bit tedious but it saved me a lot of time later on.

By the time I finished that it was time to go to a presentation about books. It was for a book fair thing at the library and the head of the technical services department talked about several books she has read recently. I was only interested in a few of them but I could have listened to her talk about books all day because she was very entertaining.

I went from the presentation immediately into a meeting about summer reading. I still feel a bit like I'm running behind the train trying to catch up. I'm just kind of there, hoping they don't ask too many questions. I also think everything will be alright once summer reading actually starts. I'm almost to the point now where it feels like an election, where it is talked about and dissected beyond any recognition, only because too much time is given to the topic. If that makes any sense. We need to just do it. But this is just my perspective. I know there are a lot of details to figure out but when it comes down to my role I don't feel like there is much else to do other than wait for the program to start. We're almost there.

Today I was volunteered to make instructions on how to sign up for the online part of summer reading and coming up with an FAQ. And the idea was that it would be done today. It seemed a bit much, especially considering I've been shown the program a couple times but haven't actually used it myself. Thankfully at the meeting, the IT lady said she would have one of the other IT people make that stuff. I thought that should have been the idea from the beginning because they have more experience with it. Our department is supposed to be in charge of training the rest of the staff in various things, so it makes sense that we should do the training for this, I guess, but when it comes to something like this I don't think we should be responsible for it. And thankfully, now we're not, because I don't think I would have been able to finish it today.

When I was on desk today I missed a call because I went over to help someone with printing. The person on the phone left a message so I called them back and it was an old lady. She sounded very surprised when I told her I was calling from the library and she jokingly said she didn't think they let men work at the library because she had never spoken to one before. It was pretty funny.

Tonight I think the Oregon Trail workshop went pretty well. There were five attendees, two librarians, the ILL person, a husband, and a boyfriend. I'll take it. Rather than playing one big game together I played mine up on the projector and everyone else had their own thing going on. Every time someone died I wrote the name of the person and how they died up on the whiteboard, including an initial by the name so we could keep track of how many people each person lost. I also kept track of ending scores on the board. Once everyone had made it through once a few people used the online spinner I created to randomly select the next occupation they would use to travel the trail, so we got some use out of that. As everyone was playing I also created certificates for them, for things like getting the highest score, killing the most people, and being the opposite of a snake charmer (because the one librarian's husband had someone in their wagon that was bitten by a snake at least five or six time before finally dying from a snakebite). In the end, everyone seemed to have a good time and I think it went well. I really want video games (whether it's discussions or old games or tournaments) to become a thing for adults at the library. I think the problem at the moment is making people aware that these things are happening. And I think it would help if I could do them more regularly, rather than just once or twice a semester, so people could come to expect this activity at the library. Next semester we only have one video game discussion scheduled, but maybe I can do better next Spring.

I checked with my Mom after work to see if I had received anything in the mail and I hadn't. I was supposed to get the date stamp I got as a going away gift for the librarian who's last day is tomorrow. I thought my timing was perfect. But someone it went from a two-day delivery to a possibly five day delivery, which sucks because I only had two days. That is kind of annoying. Now I have to wake up early so I can go to Staples before work, which I guess is what I should have done in the first place. Now I get to deal with the fun of returning the stamp when it finally shows up, because as far as I know I don't need a date stamp.

When I got home I ate birthday cake and ice cream because I still have both and I was a little bummed by the stamp thing. While I ate that stuff I watched YouTube videos and clicked around the internet. That included finding out that Staples had a date stamp and that it would take me twelve minutes to drive to the store in the morning. Good times.

It is now midnight and I have to get up in the morning, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed.