January 31, 2018

 This morning I woke up and my leg was still bothering me from yesterday so I didn't run on the elliptical. I think I pulled something and it is annoying. I am glad it's not s knee issue, though. And this is only the second day I have missed on the elliptical since I started at the end of December. Hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow morning. Instead of running I played Staxel for awhile and then got ready and went to work.

When I got to work I read a few news articles and then reviewed my article. I ended up having to add the word “Tuesday” to meet the appropriate date format, and that put me one word over the max limit. I looked at it for awhile trying to find a word I could remove but didn't have much luck.

And then I had a half hour monthly meeting with my boss. With other people the meetings seem to last close to an hour and mine usually last maybe ten or fifteen minutes, so a half hour is a new record. We went off on several random tangents, so that helped.

After the meeting I went back to my article and finally found an “I am” that I could turn into “I'm,” brilliant. And then I emailed it to the paper so I didn't have to worry about it anymore. Then I had a couple walkthroughs and looked at possible games for the video game discussion. I think I found one but we'll see how I feel about it in the morning.

The closing librarian came in for like two minutes today. Last night she started feeling sick and this morning she woke up feeling worse. She came to work because she though maybe she would feel better when she got to the library, but that didn't happen. The craziest thing was her voice. At some point in her life she took a medication for something (super descriptive) and it messed with her vocal cords, so now her voice isn't necessarily raspy but it isn't as full. It's hard to explain. But today, due to whatever was happening with her illness, her voice was more full and deep. She sounded a little congested but it wasn't like when someone else is sick. Her voice sounded like a “regular” voice and it was crazy. It makes me wonder if that is close to what her voice used to sound like. It was just really interesting.

I got to shut off a constantly running toilet today because circulation couldn't get ahold of maintenance. The power of a screwdriver.

I was on desk for an hour and it flew by because there was just a constant flow of things. I helped a patron find a book and then spent awhile researching other books for him and requesting them through interlibrary loan. I also had several phone calls and chats that were perfectly spaced to completely interfere with anything else I was going to work on. Mildly frustrating.

One of our unfortunately regular patrons had another minor incident at the computers today. It was a confrontation with three young men about their talking at the computers. The upstairs computers aren't a quiet area, and this patron knows this, but he feels the need to confront patrons about their talking. But, only when they're African American. White people can talk all day and he won't say a thing. Black people, on the other hand, laugh once and they're going to get stared at. And if they open their mouth he's going to confront them. For awhile he would come over to the desk and complain, which he still does if they don't stop talking after he tells them to, but I think he tries to avoid talking to us because we've stopped taking him at his word and often tell him that he can go to the tech center if he wants and actual quiet environment. That's when he started going directly to the assistant director. Anyway, he was at it again today and the young men weren't being overly loud. When my boss got back she went over and reminded him that if he had an issue he needed to come talk to us and he wasn't allowed to confront other patrons. Maybe it will work this time. Probably not.

I went to lunch at two o'clock today so I could cover the desk for the librarian who went home sick. It was a little weird going that late, but it also made my afternoon shorter.

I was on desk for two hours when I got back and it was one of those simultaneously fast and slow periods of time. I talked to my coworkers, helped a patron use the scanner, answered phone calls, and made a small adjustment to my DVD display sign for next month before sending it to the printer.

When I got off desk I went and printed my display sign along with some brochures. I went upstairs to use the folding machine for the brochures and that took awhile because I started tweaking the settings trying to get the brochure folded better. That ended up being pointless because I basically ended up where I began. But at least I tried. And then I pulled DVDs for a patron to end my day.

For the last hour of work I didn't have my phone because I let the one-on-one tech trainer borrow it to show two of the other people in the department around an Android phone (as part of the tech training thing, like the copier yesterday). I'm a big fan of not having my phone because then I'm not always checking it, but it is inconvenient when I want to check the time.

After work I picked up Chipotle and headed to my Mom's for dinner. We ate, talked, and watched videos. Good times as always.

I got home around nine o'clock and got lost in watching videos for a podcast on YouTube and clicking around the internet. And we're now approaching midnight and I have to open in the morning, so that's going to suck. Such is life.

January 30, 2018

 I set my alarm for 6:45AM so that I wouldn't be as rushed to get up and run and get ready for work. I ended up waking up at 6:30AM (exactly) because I had to go to the bathroom and I said screw it and stayed up because I knew if I went back to bed it would be much harder to get out of bed. Instead, I played a little bit of Staxel before running on the elliptical, getting ready, and going to work.

I was off desk for the first two hours so I went upstairs to work on my article. I didn't quite finish it but after my walkthrough I went back up and put the finishing touches on it. I was fifty words over the limit so I read through it and got it down to just below the limit. Later on I went back and added a word so I was exactly at the word limit. I printed out a copy for the head of technical services to edit and a copy for the librarians in my department. Both came back pretty much the same. One of the librarians pointed out that it felt a little disjointed, like I was trying to tie two trains of thought together, and that is completely accurate, but I liked both ideas and it would have taken too much work to try and separate the two, so I'm going with it.

I had two walkthroughs in the noon hour and when I wasn't doing that I used the big cutter in the basement to start cutting out the maps and surveys for an upcoming event. The maps were a full sheet of printed ink, which made them super slippery and hard to cut without them moving all over the place. After lunch I was able to finish up the maps and I got the surveys cut out as well.

I made the edits to my article after I finished cutting things and then we had a mini department meeting about how to use the copy machine. We all pretty much new how to use the copy machine so it was little bit pointless, but it is part of some department goal, so it happened. Then I read part of a short story until I was on desk.

My hour on desk flew by. I helped an older couple find a couple books, helped a kid on the computer, responded and composed a few emails, and did some other random things that I can't remember. For the last hour of work I reshelved the books I pulled for my article, printed adulting flyers and got those put out as a little bit of advertising, and went upstairs for a little bit to check my email and read a couple news articles. Overall, it was a successful day at work.

On my way home I decided I wasn't in the mood for roasted vegetables and rice (or rather making them), so I stopped at Jimmy Johns to pick up a sandwich, and at Sonic to get a drink and an egg sandwich. For the first time in a long time they put meat on it, which was annoying, but I just pulled it off and called it good. I already assume their eggs are cooked in the same place the meat is, so I'm not going to get worked up about it.

After dinner I watched videos and played Staxel. I finally started to invest my money in expanding my garden. I have some farm animals but I've heard they can be pretty expensive in the beginning, so I haven't put them out yet. I also finished building a fishing spot and bought an apiary, so things are slowly coming along. I haven't tried fishing yet but it would be nice if that was decent form of income.

I played a little CoD: WW2 tonight and had a few good games and a few not so good games, but I had fun. I also unlocked gold camo for one of my SMGs, so that's cool.

Now it's late and I want to go to bed, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to sleep. This week is going by pretty quickly. Although the remaining days could drag out, so maybe I should hold off on that judgment.

January 29, 2018

 Last night I got a full eight hours of sleep (which was great), woke up before my alarm, and got to click around the internet for awhile before running on the elliptical, getting ready, eating lunch, and going to work.

I was on desk for my first two hours at work and it was slightly eventful. Not long after getting on desk I had to wake up a sleep. And then I had to wake up another sleeper, along with the first sleeper again. And on my first walkthrough I had to wake up the first sleeper again and a third sleeper. There was a fourth sleeper but he was at least pretending to read and no one was complaining about him, so I walked right by him. When I wasn't waking up sleepers I caught up on emails, read a few news articles, and read part of short story.

My first walkthrough lasted forty-five minutes, which is about half an hour at least longer than usual. I stopped at the children's desk because the teen librarian and I wanted to let her know we could buy the adulting books to give away at our classes. She ended up doing that but along with one of the children's librarians, we ended up have a long conversation about the recent illness sweeping through the library and then the upcoming renovations.

When I got back to the desk I sent an email to the EMS director about the possibility of them coming for one of our adulting classes. Fingers crossed on that but I'm feeling good about it because he seemed into the idea when he messaged my Dad back. Then I helped the teen librarian set up for the teen club because I was being nice and I was avoiding my article.

I was on desk for two hours after dinner and I kind of forgot what all happened, because there wasn't much. I talked to my coworker, worked on my article a little bit, and helped random patrons. Then I was off desk for two hours and made actual progress on my article. I really started hitting my stride in the last fifteen minutes of work, which is the annoying part. That just means tomorrow I'm going to have to get back into it. Hopefully that won't take all day.

When I got home I ate some tiger bread, clicked around the internet, and watched way too many videos while trying to write this. It has taken far too long. It's frustrating because I do it every time.

January 28, 2018

 I ignored my alarm for a little while this morning but I did eventually wake up earlier than I would have liked to. And then I didn't really accomplish anything with that extra time, so I probably should have just stayed in bed. Oh well.

I spent my morning doing laundry, watching videos, and clicking around the internet. I live an exciting life.

Throughout the afternoon I made tiger bread, also known as giraffe bread. I think it's European in origin. There is a bread recipe, which is just a regular mixed white/wheat recipe, and then a crust recipe, which consists of rice flour, sesame oil, yeast, and some other things. The crust recipe creates a paste which is spread over the bread. In the oven this paste dries out and cracks, creating the distinctive flavor and the tiger/giraffe look. It's an interesting concept and it totally works. I followed a recipe that made eight big rolls and they came out looking just like all the pictures I've seen online. They were super crunchy on the outside and really soft and fluffy on the inside, and they tasted really good. Given my mediocre success with bread making, I was pretty surprised how well they turned out. I'm interested to see how they hold up in the coming days.

Near the end of the process while I was waiting for things to rise and then bake, I played CoD: WW2. I had my best game of War ever while the the rolls were in the oven, and it could have been a little better but I kept running over to check and make sure they weren't burning. It was on Operation Breakout and I ended up getting 110 kills, 76 of which came in the first round, and my score per minute was 687 (that is really high). I wish I could play that well all the time.

After dinner I ran on the elliptical and took a shower. Obviously late in the day but I still accomplished both, so there. Then I played CoD: WW2 for another half an hour before calling it good. I kind of want to keep playing because of the double XP weekend, but I managed to prestige and get back up to level 21 this weekend, which isn't bad.

I also played a little more Staxel tonight. I was only going to play a little bit and then I played a little bit more than that. It is definitely one of those games. It also takes a lot of work to get the materials to craft things, and I'm hoping that doesn't become a reason I stop playing the game. I imagine once I can get a farm going I'll have a better cash flow and things will be a little easier.

I didn't work on my article at all this weekend, even though I avoided a lot of other things because I wasn't working on it, so that will have to be my focus tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have time at work, because it would be nice to finish it tomorrow. We'll see.

January 27, 2018

 This morning I slept in and it was really nice. Then I watched YouTube videos, paid bills, and played Staxel, which is a new game that ticked my boxes. It's like Minecraft was made in the style of Cube World and had mechanics similar to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. It's slow getting started but it's one of those games that are a complete time sink, and I hope I can get sucked into it.

This afternoon I eventually got around to running on the elliptical but I was running late so I only got ten minutes in. But I ran faster to make up for it. And then I got ready, wrapped my brother's birthday presents, and then headed to my Dad's house.

We went to the same restaurant we went to last year for my brother's birthday, it was quite a bit busier tonight, but we ended up sitting at the same table, which was interesting. And I ate the same salad I had last time because there are really only two vegetarian options on the menu, and the other one involves mushrooms and raisins, which doesn't sound appealing. After dinner we went back to my Dad's house, my brother opened the presents I got him and his birthday cards, and we all sat around the table and talked until about nine o'clock.

When I got home I played CoD: WW2 and prestiged for the fifth time. I had some good games tonight and some bad ones. I also had weird computer issues. During the middle of one game I lost my HUD for a couple minutes and then I lost all ability to control my character. No keyboard or mouse. The game kept going but it was War and it was at the end of the first objective so everyone else moved on and I was just stuck there. I couldn't exit out of the game so I just played on my phone until the game was over and then everything went back to normal. Several games later I got a warning about memory and then the game crashed. Who knows.

Now it's late, and I want to accomplish things tomorrow. Like laundry, make bread, and hopefully work on my article. We'll see what happens.

January 26, 2018

 This morning I woke up at 6:30AM because I decided to go into work half an hour early instead of staying half an hour late. So I woke up half an hour early, ran on the elliptical, got ready, and went to work. We're apparently at that time of year where the sun positions itself just behind the trees so as I drive to work it creates a potentially seizure-inducing strobe effect in my peripheral vision. I don't like it.

When I got to work I turned on the computers downstairs and then I sharpened around seventy pencils. And when we opened I was on desk for two hours. I read news articles and worked on my own article. Then I had a few walkthroughs and kind of worked on my article but probably spent most of the time talking to my coworkers.

After lunch I was off desk for an hour, read part of a short story, and talked to my coworkers. Then I was on desk for two hours. I helped the occasional patron, read library-related articles, and once again, talked to my coworkers, because it was a Friday and no one really wanted to work. For the last hour I had a walkthrough, looked up a recipe for tiger bread, and touched base with the teen librarian about our adulting series.

On my way home I stopped at the grocery store. They are in the process or rearranging the store and I ended up having to ask workers twice where stuff was. The first time was for rice flour, which turns out is in the aisle next to the aisle with all the other flour, which seems weird. I also had to ask where the peanut butter was. That one I should have been able to find on my own but it's in a really short aisle and I walked right by it. In the end I found everything I was looking for except cranberries. I wanted to make cranberry salsa but that's not going to happen for the time being.

Tonight I ate dinner, watched YouTube videos, and later on I got around playing CoD: WW2. There were one or two not fun games but overall it was an alright night. I have two more levels before I can prestige again, which I should be able to hit this weekend, maybe.

Now it's late and way past my bedtime.

January 25, 2018

 Last night I had to get up at least twice to go to the bathroom. I'm fairly certain this is directly related to the fact that throughout the night I consumed thirty-two ounces of water. I was apparently very thirsty. After my alarm went off I ran on the elliptical, got ready, and went to work.

I did the usual opening stuff and upped my pencil sharpening game by sharpening over seventy pencils. And then I was on desk for two hours. I read news articles, read part of a short story, and talked to my coworker (and most of our conversations were work-related). Then I was off desk for an hour, which I spent reading a little bit and talking to my coworker. It was a pretty quiet morning. And then I went to lunch.

My afternoon was filled with part two of the mental health training. One of the activities we did was attempting to simulate schizophrenia. Two of us tried to have a conversation while a third person whispered different phrases into one person's ear. It was really distracting and hard to follow the line of the conversation, which made me glad I don't hear voices in my head on a regular basis. Today's training was more interesting than Tuesday and the time passed more quickly. It also helped that we got out thirty minutes early. Which sucks a little bit because now I have to make that time up tomorrow.

When I got home I played a little CoD: WW2 before dinner, ate dinner and watched YouTube videos, and then played more CoD: WW2. It was not a good day for CoD: WW2. Almost every game was a struggle and my team rarely one, regardless of the game mode I played. It was rough. And not very fun. But sometimes that's just how the game goes.

And now it is late and I want to go to bed. I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can just lay in bed and not wake up to an alarm.

January 24, 2018

 This morning my Bluetooth speaker worked much better and I was actually able to listen to music while I ran on the elliptical. Last night before bed I uninstalled and reinstalled it. I think maybe that is a thing that has to be done every now and then.

Today at work, not a lot got done. My boss was in a meeting all day and it was a very Friday Wednesday. I was on desk for the first two hours. I helped a couple patrons, read news articles, looked at short stories for my article, and talked to my coworkers.

I was then off desk for an hour before doing a walkthrough. I kind of kept working on the short story thing but I was mostly just distracted by my coworkers. And then I went to lunch. My sister stopped by to drop off the pretzels she made for our birthday thing today and I ate several of them before going back to work.

I was off desk for two more hours when I got back to work and I read a little bit of a short story but I was mostly just distracted by my coworkers. At one point I blew up a balloon, I think for the first time in maybe two decades. One of the librarians was working on creating Dementors using cheese cloth and balloons. I blew up one of the balloons so she could get a better idea of how much cheese cloth she would need. I then rubbed the balloon against my jacket sleeve for a little bit so I could stick it to the filing cabinet, because science.

We had our birthday thing in the boardroom, which lasted an hour, and that rolled into an hour-long meeting to go over the upcoming renovation. This is going to quickly turn into a hectic semester, and probably a bit of a hectic summer. Can't wait.

I spent the last hour at work reading and talking to my coworkers. Then I picked up Chipotle (because there were parking spots) before heading to my Mom's for dinner. We ate, talked, and watched YouTube videos. My Mom actually provided a couple videos tonight and they were pretty good.

I got home around 8:30PM, clicked around the internet a little bit, and now I'm writing this. In the very near future I will be recording my audio journal so that I can go to bed. I have been tired all day today and I have to open tomorrow, so it would be nice if I could get more than six hours of sleep tonight.

January 23, 2018

 Today was fairly uneventful, which is good because it is late and hopefully it won't take me forever to write this.

My day started off less than great. I got up when my alarm went off, which is technically before six o'clock in the morning, and I should have plenty of time to run on the elliptical. But then I couldn't get my Bluetooth speaker to connect to my old desktop or my laptop. I tried both of them multiple times and by the time I finally said screw it, I was running behind. I ended up only being able to run for ten minutes and I had to do it in silence. It was frustrating.

When I got to work I did the usual opening stuff and then I was on desk for two hours. When I wasn't helping patrons I spent that time working on a handout for the tech class this afternoon. I didn't really get anywhere with that. I had a few links to put on the handout but other than that I was hitting a wall. I looked at a bunch of handouts from other libraries but they were more involved than what I was looking to make. Fortunately, I wasn't teaching the class, so in theory the person who was already had a handout. But I feel like I should have had something ready because I'm in charge of training. I can do better.

I had an hour off desk before lunch and I was going to continue working on the handout but ended up spending about forty-five minutes helping one of our regular patrons get back into his email. This was at least the third time I have helped him do this, and I know other staff members have helped him do this before, so who knows how many times this has happened to him. My go-to is creating a Gmail account that he can use that to reset his password. He writes down the Gmail information each time but then loses that information. It took awhile this time to create the Gmail account because I inadvertently tried using address names I have used in the past (but none of his password ideas would work on those old names). And then it took awhile to create a new password for his old account because the first few ideas he had couldn't be used because he had used them previously.

He has a flip phone, with no way to take notes, so I ended up creating a contact in his phone called “Hotmail” and in one of the fields put the new password. I also wrote down the information for the dummy Gmail account and kept that for myself so the next time he needs help resetting his password we can at least skip the step of creating another Gmail account.

After lunch, my afternoon was spent at a mental health training thing with five of my coworkers (and several other people). It lasted four hours and we talked about some interesting things but had too many activities for my liking. Part two is on Thursday and I think it will be better because we will have gotten past all the introductory stuff and will hopefully get into some actionable steps for assisting people.

On my way home I stopped at the nursing home (across the street from my house) so I could pick up the found book from one of my homebound patrons. And then when I got home I ate dinner, watched YouTube videos, and clicked around the internet.

After dinner I played CoD: WW2. Eventually. First I had to figure out how to actually launch the game because there was an update today related to the latest event, and it sounds like it broke the game for almost everyone on the PC. Thankfully someone figured out that if you had the Task Manager open when you tried launching the game, the game would actually work. And thankfully, that solution worked for me, minus a random crash later on, but I think that may have been due to another small update.

One of the new things added for the new event is the Prop Hunt game mode. One team hides around a map as random props and the other team tries to find them. It is based on PropHunt which is a game created using Garry's Mod, I'm assuming. It's pretty fun but can be a little boring if you're a prop and are found early. Then you just sit there waiting for the round to end. There also aren't any consequences for the team hunting. In the original PropHunt, the hunters take damage when they shoot things that aren't props, and can eventually die. In the CoD: WW2 game mode, there is no penalty, so you just walk around and shoot everything. I don't know if adding damage would speed up the rounds or slow them down if people ended up playing more cautiously. Anyway, it was fun, and I'm looking forward to the Demolition game mode coming out soon as part of the event.

And now I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed because it's late, and I am tired.

January 22, 2018

 This morning woke up, ran on the elliptical, got ready, and went to get my haircut. When I woke up I checked outside and it was wet out (from the rain, obviously). After I got ready I checked again and everything was white and the snow was coming down thick and fast. When I drove to my haircut the roads were covered in snow. And then thirty minutes later when I was driving home, there was still snow in the grass but the streets were clear. It was an interesting weather morning.

The only thing of note about my haircut is that the radio started sounding weird halfway through my haircut, almost like the speaker was broken. The radio is on a shelf near the ceiling and after my haircut I decided to mess with it. Near the end of my haircut a caregiver came in with the old lady she was looking after, and as I walked over to the radio, the caregiver looked over at the old lady and said “watch this”, as I was able to reach up and mess with the radio. Shorter people are always impressed by me being able to reach slightly out of reach things. In the end, it ended up being a problem with the radio station, so after changing the station everything was good.

I got to work at noon, had a walkthrough, and then pulled a bunch of books for my Inspirational display because it moved a lot of books this weekend. Then I went upstairs so I could call one of my homebound patrons about a missing book and ended up staying up there until I was on desk. The patron couldn't find the book when we were on the phone but she looked a little more and called back saying she found it. She called the desk so I called her back and said I would pick it up at six o'clock tonight. Later on I remembered that I was closing tonight so I had to call her back and said I would pick it up tomorrow night. Anyway, while I was upstairs I checked the news and worked on my latest personalized reading list.

I was on desk for an hour and we got a lot of phone calls. Definitely more than the normal amount. I also helped a patron find possible contact information for a tax question he had unrelated to income tax. And I worked on the personalized reading list.

Then I went back upstairs for an hour, worked on the personalized reading list, and went back down to grab my dinner, which I ate in the cubicle. The snow really started coming down this afternoon and I didn't want to mess with it so I stayed at the library. A good call on my part.

After dinner I was on desk for two hours. I had to take a brief break in the second hour to go move my car. Normally, if I'm closing and know I'm not going to leave for dinner, I park near the closing parking area. I didn't think about that when I got to work today so I parked in the daytime parking area. My bad. I think it worked out for the best though because I ended up having to scrape off my windshield and windows, so it was nice not having to do that after work.

Sometime after that I was able to finish the personalized reading list and got that sent off. Then I spent the last hour, give or take, reading a Kurt Vonnegut short story and talking to people. Not a bad way to end night. Also, I didn't fall on the very slippery sidewalk or street on the way to my car, which goes toward it not being a bad way to end the night.

When I got home I ate the last of my homemade bread, watched some YouTube videos, and now I have finally come to the end of this. Tomorrow I have to open, which I'm not looking forward to because it's never fun to “clopen”, but at least I get off at five o'clock.

January 21, 2018

 Today was pretty unproductive, but that's what I expected. I did my laundry throughout the day, which is always the main goal for the weekend, so I'm okay with it.

I set my alarm for nine o'clock this morning and when it went off, I got up, turned it off, and went back to bed until 10:45AM. It was nice.

I spent the day catching up on YouTube videos. I fell behind this week thanks to the rabbit hole of underground and indie rapper interviews I watched this week.

I finally got around to playing Superhot today. I have wanted it since it first came out but never bought it because I wasn't going to pay full price and whenever it went on sale it was either not tempting enough or I wasn't in the mood to play it. But then at some point it was available for free through Twitch, so I picked it up, and promptly forgot about it because I never think about the games I pick up for free from Twitch. It requires the Twitch launcher, it's not just a Steam key, which is part of the issue because if it's not in Steam than I forget about it. Like Origin or Uplay games. Today I remembered that Twitch games were a thing, though, and I installed Superhot. I ended up playing through the entire campaign, which I didn't mean to do, but it wasn't too long and it's one of those games that makes it way too easy to say “one more time,” kind of like the Trials games. Beating the game unlocks a couple other game modes, which I might try out at some point.

I played a little CoD: WW2 tonight and stuck mostly with hardcore game modes to get through contracts, and a little bit of regular Domination. I didn't do the shotgun contract so overall I did alright and had a good time. There was one game where the other team started spawn camping in the second half but I had managed to finish my contracts so I was able to leave after that game.

It's now after midnight because I got distracted by YouTube. I switched over to music so I could finish this. I'm listening to Lil Skies, who is one of the rappers I've stumbled across in the past week. Catchy stuff. But now I need to record my audio journal so I can go to bed. I don't work until noon but I've got a haircut at 10:00, so I have to get up a little bit earlier. I'm hoping the weather ignores the forecast tomorrow, which calls for rain overnight, then rain and snow, and then a snowstorm. I'm kind of over Winter.

January 20, 2018

 Today was pretty uneventful. Last week I had the thought that I should do all my productive things on Saturday so I could have a completely lazy Sunday. The motivation wasn't there to make that happen today.

This morning I turned a Wall-E “Haters gonna hate” GIF into a video so I could add a song to it. I came up with three different versions, all great (in my opinion), but ended up going with one with lyrics from Cardi B's “Bodak Yellow” that worked best with the title of the GIF, and I posted that to our small librarian Facebook group because that is where the teen librarian posted the original GIF yesterday. And that was a really long sentence.

This afternoon I took a nap, partially because I was tired, but mostly because I was bored. I'm okay with any excuse to lay in bed in the dark and just relax.

I watched more videos after that and eventually got around to running on the elliptical and taking a shower before dinner. My pizza was as delicious tonight as it was last night. And I'm looking forward to having it again tomorrow night.

I got around to playing CoD: WW2 around nine o'clock. I have found that when I start playing it late I don't get to play it as long as I would like but I also don't play it longer than I should. I played a lot of hardcore tonight in order to complete various orders and contracts. It is hard going back and forth between regular and hardcore because I find myself not firing quick enough in hardcore or not firing long enough in regular. Several times tonight after switching from hardcore I found myself stopping after hitting a guy with a couple bullets and then getting turned on because it takes a lot longer to kill someone in regular game modes. Live and learn.

Right now I have fallen down a rabbit hole of dancing videos, both choreography and dance battles. Very impressive stuff but watching them is enough to hurt my knees.

January 19, 2018

 This morning I woke up, ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, got ready, and went to work. I was off desk for the first two hours so I ran around and did things. I printed off another copy of the tax instruction book and took both copies upstairs so they could be cataloged. I also printed off several copies of a brochure we needed and used the paper folding machine upstairs to fold them quickly. And I updated the tax help handout with the appointment booking information, because that information came out today. It required me to redesign the handout a little bit but I think it looks better now, so that worked out.

I was on desk for two hours after that. I showed one patron our law books, read a few news articles, and spent most of my time going through my weeding list, which I was able to finish. My rough estimate is that I will have 218 books to weed, or 4.5% of my list.

After lunch I had a walkthrough and then I printed off the tax help handouts. I used the paper cutter in the basement and it has been so long since I've used it that I had forgotten how loud it is. I then skimmed through the local newspaper for the past few days just to catch up on things.

I was on desk for two more hours and right off the bat ended up in a long, mostly one-sided conversation, with an older lady who I have helped a few times in the past month or two with her computer. I learned later that she is an old regular, and I think she just recently started coming back to the library because she canceled her internet at home. Anyway, she wanted to apologize to one of the other librarians for an incident the other day about the computers. The librarian had just left to do a walkthrough, so the lady ended up talking my ear off, telling me about the incident and occasionally asking a question. But for the most part she seemed content to just ramble. At one point my boss sent a chat from back in her office asking if she needed to come out and intervene. I let her know everything was fine, and eventually the lady decided she would go find the other librarian. Which she did, down on the first floor, and she was able to apologize.

Other than listening to that patron, I looked through information from the January department meeting that we're not having because of scheduling conflicts. Our boss sent us the outline with some links to different policies and other things, so I read through that stuff. And I started working on another personalized reading list, because why not. It's my sixth one for the month. It seemed like it would be fairly easy but then it took me forever just to find the first book. And only slightly less time to get the second one. Hopefully it gets easier next week.

In my last hour at work I was off desk and sat at the table behind the desk with the laptop, trying to work on the personalized reading list. I didn't make much progress there, but I did help a patron find a couple books, talked to one of the librarians about a lot of random things, including her memories of the first color TV she saw, and I ordered a pizza online.

On my way home I picked up my pizza from Papa Murphy's. I was just going to eat leftovers but this morning I got a promo code for 50% off pizza, which was too tempting of a deal to pass up. I got a stuffed crust pizza and there version of that is to stuff the entire pizza, so there's a layer of dough, all the pizza toppings, and then another layer of dough with cheese on top. Definitely not the healthiest option, but it was delicious.

While I ate I continued watching rapper interviews. I haven't heard the music of at least half of the rappers I've watched interviews for, and that seems odd. My latest musical interest involves interviews, not music. But it's probably for the best, because I don't think I'd like the music. It's fascinating that the music videos I have watched have millions of views. And the interviews are fascinating because it makes me feel like an ethnographer, learning about a new culture.

After dinner I played a little CoD: WW2 and had a pretty good time. I got in the top three several times, including first place, and I got the final kill cam a couple time. I played a decent amount of hardcore game modes to make some of the daily challenges easier, like getting shotgun kills, and that went better than I thought it would. It's still a little frustrating not being able to kill guys that I know I could have if I had a better gun, but that's on me. I just need to develop a better shotgun play style.

It's now very late. I got sidetracked by those damn rapper interviews. It might be getting out of hand.

January 18, 2018

 This morning it was a little rough getting out of bed but I still managed it. I ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, got ready, and headed to work. Once again, the usual opening stuff, including sharpening fifty-one pencils. A decent amount.

Once we opened, I went around town with one of the other librarians to deliver hats and gloves to various places that we had collected over the holiday season. It was an adventure. We had never been to any of the places before and I don't think we successfully found any of them on the first try. Or at least found our way into the building. There was a lot of backtracking and door-checking. But we got everything delivered in about an hour.

Then we decided to be nice and get air in the van tires, because I think the light has been on for at least a week or two. We chose the one gas station in town that has free air and that was a mistake. It is nice because you can set the PSI you need and then it will beep when you reach it, and that would be great if it worked better. We got the first two tires without much issue. Then it was downhill. The tires were supposed to be at 36psi and they were at most in the mid-20s. And then instead of putting air into the tires, the compressor was just causing air to come out of the tires. Or we'd gain a couple pounds and then lose it all. We tried waiting a little bit, thinking maybe the compressor just needed to fill back up, but that didn't see to help either. We also got a couple errors on the machine. On top of that it was around 30 degrees, which is better than single digits, but there was a hell of a wind going and we were both freezing our toes off because we hadn't dressed for standing outside for twenty-five minutes messing with tires. We finally said screw it and went to another gas station. This one charged a dollar for three minutes but the attendant turned it on for us at no charge, possibly because when the other librarian went to get quarters from him she looked well on her way to hypothermia. The pump on that compressor had a built in gauge, which took awhile to figure out, but we managed to get air in the tires and the light finally went off. It only took freezing our asses off outside for thirty minutes. Worth it.

When we got back I worked on my weeding list for about a half an hour before I went to lunch. When I got back from lunch I printed out a copy of the individual income tax instruction book and got it put in a notebook. I just need to get it cataloged so that we can put it out and patrons will be able to check it out or make photo copies.

I was on desk for two and a half hours after that. My favorite substitute stopped by, and I haven't seen her in months, so we chatted for awhile. I also helped the occasional patron, but spent most of my time working through my weeding list. I'm nearly done. Then I have to go back through and count how many books are on the chopping block. We're each doing that before actually weeding so we can get a sense of how much space we'll free up, which will let us know if we need to be more strict to open up more space, or if we're on the right track.

My evening was the same old thing. I ate dinner, watched YouTube videos, and then played a little CoD: WW2. I switched the sprint button to the third button on my mouse, in an attempt to give my left pinky finger a break (because sprint is usually bound to left shift). But it is so ingrained to just tap left shift that I kept hitting it without even realizing. It's going to take a little bit of time but hopefully it will work out. Previously I had the third button set to melee but I never used it (except right after I got rid of it tonight when I tried to melee someone and sprinted instead).

Now I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed. Sleep sounds very appealing at the moment.

January 17, 2018

 I woke up this morning, ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, got ready, and went to work. I did all the usual opening stuff, including sharpening a bunch of pencils. I was on desk for two hours when we opened, answered phone calls, caught up on emails, and reprinted the MLK articles I found the other day. The originals printed out really blurry and I wanted to see if I could do better. I compressed the images before importing them into Publisher and I also printed them out on the copier, instead of the regular printer. I don't know if it was one of those things or the combo but the result was a much better print job, so the articles are much more legible now. And it was worth the trouble with the copier, which took three of us to figure out how to print in black and white, which sounds ridiculous, but it's true.

The spanking phone caller came up today because of the email I sent this morning about the call last night. My boss wrote an incident report, based on both phone calls, and there was talk with admin about it. One of the IT people looked up the number and found out it was for a 101 year old man in Wisconsin, who lives with his 69 year old son. We're thinking it was the son. Later in the day someone found a post on a librarian Facebook group from a librarian in another state describing a phone call she received that sounded exactly the same as our phone calls. And this post turned into a long thread with multiple librarians in different states describing the exact same thing. So this dude is definitely a serial library creep. I think it was after the Facebook post that it was decided to block the number so we won't have to deal with him anymore.

I went upstairs briefly before lunch so I could call one of my homebound patrons. And then after lunch we went out to deliver books. We had to use the other librarian's car because all the library vehicles were taken, and that added a more laid back dynamic to the whole thing. We also didn't have as many books to deliver so we got the whole thing done in about two hours, rather than closer to three hours, so not bad.

When we got back to the library I got my new weeding list. The second floor remodeling is on a much faster schedule than we originally thought and now we need to do a lot of weeding in a short amount of time. Unfortunately I didn't get to print off my own list, which would have allowed me to reorganize things and sort the list to make it easier for me weed. It's way more efficient the way I do it and saves a lot of paper. But apparently the person in technical services who usually prints the list felt bad that we were printing our own lists, which made my boss feel bad, which led to me getting a 423-page weeding list that I have to sort through. Hooray.

After work I picked up Chipotle because there were parking spots. Then I took a horribly planned route through town, getting caught in a lot of traffic at every turn. I stopped and got gas, and then stopped at my house to pick up my trash and grab an HDMI cable before heading to my Mom's house for dinner.

When I got to my Mom's, the first thing I did was take a look at her TV because she said it hasn't been working for a day or so. It would come on but all she got was a black screen. My first troubleshooting step was to check the different inputs to see if I could get a picture. I got one for the Chromecast and got her Xbox to show up, which was a good sign. Then I switched the Xbox input to the one the satellite was on and could still see the Xbox on that input, also a good sign. That is when the HDMI cable came into play. I switched out the HDMI cable going from the satellite box to the TV with the cable I brought over and, voila, the TV was working again. I'm really glad it was an easy fix like that, and not a broken TV.

Once the TV was working we ate dinner, talked, and watched YouTube videos. It was a pretty good night. I got home around eight o'clock, clicked around the internet, watched YouTube videos, and took forever to finish this, as always. I'm still deep in the rabbit hole of rapper interview videos.

I open again tomorrow and I'm already looking forward to getting off at five o'clock. I need a weekend.

January 16, 2018

 Last night I got eight and a half hours of sleep and there's a possibility it was the best night of sleep I've ever had. I had a couple long dreams, that I instantly forgot, but I remember I had them and that they were nice. It would be nice if I could recreate whatever conditions led to last night.

When I got up I ran on the elliptical for sixteen minutes, got ready, ate lunch, and headed to work. I checked my email, had a walkthrough, and then I pulled books for both my displays, just to top them off.

We had our first tech drop-in of the semester today and one person showed up. They showed up an hour and forty-five minutes into the two hour drop-in, and then just wanted to create a new email address. So I clicked on the link she needed, she did all the work, and then thanked us. The volunteer and I spent the rest of the time talking about video games because we both are a little addicted to Steam. It was good times.

On my way back from dinner there was a bit of an incident on the highway. The cops were directing cars on that side of the highway to the off ramp because there was a man sitting on the railing of the bridge. There was an ambulance parked back by the off ramp and a couple cops standing on the bridge talking to the guy. It was interesting. I also question the thought process because it is right next to the police station and it's not a high bridge, so it's definitely more a cry for help because I would say you're more likely to end up with life-long injuries rather than life-ending injuries. I'll have to check the news tomorrow but I am hoping for a happy ending, or no mention of it at all, which I think would be even better.

When I got back from dinner I was on desk for two hours. I was able to update my homebound spreadsheets, which was my main goal. I also made updated extension lists and put those on the phones at the desk to reflect the new PR person, because that was annoying me.

I made a short personalized reading list tonight with just five books, so that went quick. A week or however long ago I made a personalized reading list that went over really well and the person posted about it on Facebook, which most likely lead to the flood or requests we got shortly after. One person responded to the post saying their list from a year and a half ago, had been really bad. My boss is friends with the original poster so she saw that negative response and responded to her, asking if she would like use to send her a few recommendations and if she liked them we could create a full list for her. She agreed and I didn't want to do anything else tonight so I made the list. I pulled out her old request and it was tricky because she listed a bunch of stuff that she liked, which was helpful, but then she said she wanted light and uplifting stuff without any death or tragedy. This countered most of the books she listed as liking. It's also surprising how many books involve death or tragedy in some form or another, something you may not realize until you're looking for a book that doesn't have any of that stuff. They're certainly out there, but some of the best, most uplifting books, come from tragedy. But I made the list, sent it off, and we'll see what she thinks of it.

We got another phone call from the patron with questions about corporal punishment and spanking tonight. The assistant answered the phone, realized it was him, and then put him on hold. I picked up the phone and asked if I could help him, there was some stuttering, and then silence. I asked a couple more times if I help him and after no further response I hung up. So we'll see what happens now.

When I got home I clicked around the internet and fell down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos with indie (maybe?) face-tattooed rappers, in the same vein of Lil Peep, and it went downhill from there, ending with a fifteen minute rant by Paul Wall about sipping syrup. YouTube is an interesting place.

But now it is late and I have to open in the morning, so I'm going to ramble in my audio journal for awhile and then go to bed.

January 15, 2018

 This morning I woke up, ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, got ready, ate breakfast, and went to work. I went upstairs for the first two hours at work, read news articles, and worked on my homebound lists. Then I was on desk for two hours and continued working on homebound lists. I also answered a lot of phone calls and a couple chats asking if we were open today because of the holiday. We were.

I got a real reference question while on desk, asking for more information about when Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in 1968 at the local university. Online I pulled up the archive of the university newspaper and clipped the article about the speech. Then I used our microfilm to find the article about it in our local paper. It was fun doing research.

For lunch I used my bread for my peanut butter sandwich. It was pretty good but the bread is very dense. I need to get better at not making dense bread. Maybe throw a book in with the other ingredients...

When I got back from lunch I had a walkthrough and then I edited and printed out the Martin Luther King Jr. articles. The one from our paper was arranged weird on the page so I had to cut and move columns around so I could get it all on one page.

Then I was off desk for the last three hours of the day, which was perfect. I finished making my homebound lists, pulled all of the books, checked them out, made bookmarks and got them stuffed in the books, and bagged up the books. All I need to do is update my spreadsheets. And maybe call one of my patrons to see if she wants books this month. I was far more productive than I thought I would be.

On my way home I stopped at Target. Once again their bread aisle looked like a hurricane is coming. It's crazy. When I got home I ate dinner, the highlight of which is that I didn't eat too much spaghetti. I have a horrible habit of eating too much whenever I make pasta of any kind. It's just so good. I did it last night but I avoided it tonight, and I'm thoroughly impressed with myself.

After dinner I maybe dozed off in my chair for a little bit and then I played CoD: WW2. It took several games but I was finally able to unlock diamond camo for my sniper rifles. I needed to get five kills without dying two more times and I think I did it once in my first or second game tonight. And then I played several games where the other team had four friends playing together and they were coordinated and good. I would have accused them of cheating but there aren't kill cams in hardcore so it's hard to prove. Also, they were using SMGs and rifles and I was using a sniper rifle, so it makes sense that they were winning the gun fights. I finally managed it when I switched to hardcore Domination. It helps when there is an objective to focus on because that provides a little bit of a distraction for everyone. I tried to do Kill Confirmed because I had success with that last time, but no one was playing it tonight. But Domination worked on, on the first try I think. And I actually played the objective, coming out on top on my team. Hardcore Domination is kind of nice because there are a lot fewer grenades being thrown around thanks to friendly fire being on. At least their should be.

I once again got distracted by YouTube and Twitch and it is now nearing one o'clock in the morning. I don't go in until noon tomorrow, which is nice because it is supposed to be in the negatives to low single digit temperatures tomorrow morning, with a wind chill advisory. It's only supposed to be up to seven degrees by noon but that's better than negatives. Because of this they canceled school. They've had two cancellations so far this semester and I am really missing not working at a school anymore. Oh well, at least I get to sleep in tomorrow.

January 14, 2018

 Today was more productive than yesterday, and I almost accomplished everything I wanted it. Throughout the day I did laundry, which was a given because I actually needed to do that. I also brought up the containers for my Christmas stuff. I didn't actually take any of my Christmas stuff down, but I've taken the first step, so that's something.

I made my first loaf of bread in the oven today. I found a recipe for white bread but instead of four cups of all purpose flour I substituted in two cups of wheat flour, because I have a lot of wheat flour. I started the dough in my food processor but had to finish the kneading by hand because it was too much for the food processor. It didn't end up rising as much as it was supposed to but it ended up tasting really good. I might try using it for my sandwich tomorrow. I don't think it's quite right for sandwiches, so I'll keep trying.

I listened to a few more discs of A Study In Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro. Things are heating up and I need to stick with it and finish it. I am still liking how Sherlock Holmes is embodied by a teenager girl. It works.

I played more Hearthstone today and I did much better than yesterday. It's slowly coming back to me. I also ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes and got closer to coming up with an idea for my first short story.

Before dinner I played a little CoD: WW2 and jumped back in after dinner. I tried Zombies again to see if maybe I had gotten better. I have not. After a few attempts I went back to multiplayer. Thanks to hardcore Kill Confirmed I was able to unlock a few more camos for the first sniper rifle. Now I only have one left, requiring me to get five kills without dying using the sniper rifle. I've done it three times but need to do it two more times. Piece of cake, eventually. And then diamond snipers.

For dinner I roasted potatoes, because I needed to use the potatoes, and spaghetti. I tried some different seasonings and both turned out pretty well. I'm looking forward to the leftovers.

It has taken me forever to write this thanks to YouTube videos. I've watched three since writing that last sentence. I need to go back to listening to music while writing my journal.

January 13, 2018

 Today disappeared. I slept in and then spent my morning watching YouTube videos and playing games I haven't played in forever. I started with Hearthstone, which I had to reinstall. I was never good at the game but I think I became competent. I lost all of that. It was awful. I completely lost any ability to play strategically. I want to get back into it, though, because it's a fun passive game. I also had to reinstall Cube World, which is a game I got sucked into at least a few years ago, maybe more. Around the time I stopped playing there was a lot of talk about how the development for the game had died, even though it was still in alpha. That seems to still be the case, which is unfortunate, because there is a lot of potential. And I played Trove, which is a game I want to like but I was still as lost and confused as I was the last time I played, and the time before that.

I watched part of a CoD: WW2 tournament this afternoon. They were playing on console, so I couldn't come close to competing, but comparing some of the games to my ability on PC, I feel like I could hold my own. I also doubt that at the same time. I feel like it is the same as when you see a really good guitarist play a song. They make it look so easy but that doesn't mean you can play the song.

After dinner I watched more YouTube videos and livestreams, ran on the elliptical, took a shower, and eventually got around to playing CoD: WW2. My major accomplishment was finally getting one hundred one-shot kills with the first sniper rifle. Now I just have the remaining camos to unlock before I get diamond camo for all of my sniper rifles. It involves at least 100 more kills (fifty in the Mountain division and fifty not in the mountain division) and I'm hoping I can complete the other camos while getting those kills. I might continue using hardcore but we'll see.

Tomorrow I want to be productive. I'm definitely going to do laundry but it would also be nice if I took down my Christmas stuff, did the dishes, made a loaf of bread, and worked on a short story (because I want to write one a month and haven't started one this month yet). I'm going to consider it a victory if I finish my laundry, so I'm going to set the bar pretty low.

January 12, 2018

 I slept in this morning, ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, ate a quick early lunch, and then went to work. I was on desk for two hours when I got to work. I answered phone calls, helped a regular patron print directions, talked to someone from the senior center about their tax service, and worked on my homebound list. Then I had a walkthrough and finished a short story that I have been trying to finish for awhile.

While I was sitting at the table reading, the librarian on desk got a phone call that, from my perspective, started off pretty mundane, and then took a turn. It was a man and he asked if we had any books on corporal punishment. We have a few parenting books and most of them are anti-spanking. Then he asked if we had any books on adult spanking... that's the turn. That went down a rabbit hole of erotica and BDSM. It didn't come across as a prank call, so to each their own. But the librarian kind of lost it after she hung up and had a good laugh.

I had a good conversation with two of my coworkers about a bunch of random things. It started with a discussion of the book The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. It's getting a lot of buzz, possibly the next Girl on the Train or Gone Girl, and one of the librarians read it. I have no intention of reading it so she was telling me about it, and it sounds like it would make a really intriguing short story. The librarian said she almost gave up on it halfway through because it just kept dragging on, but she thought the ending was interesting. My initial guess on the ending was wrong but I would say it was as good as the actual ending. After that, the conversation moved from talking about a show that theorized that John Wilkes Booth wasn't actually killed and lived quite awhile down in Texas, to the assassination of Kennedy and 9/11, to WWII, PTSD, homelessness, and abused children. It was a good conversation.

On my way back from dinner I very nearly got in an accident. Thank goodness for anti-lock brakes. There was a truck in front of me that was stopped to turn at the same spot that I needed to. I started braking early but it was on a brick road, which are apparently as slick as ice rinks when there is snow on them. My tires stopped moving but my car kept sliding forward, always a disconcerting feeling. The anti-lock brakes kicked in and I was able to slowly guide my car just to the right of the truck in front of me, coming to a stop just past his bumper, so it definitely would have been an accident if I hadn't been able to turn. But I realized I wasn't too freaked out about it because at the time I was whistling along to a song, and I never stopped whistling.

With the rest of the night I talked to one of the other librarians about random things for an hour and then I was on desk for two hours. I spent that time updating the tax information handout for this year and then reading a few articles. I realized when I got home that I should have continued working on my homebound list but I completely forgot about that. We don't go out until Wednesday so I should have plenty of time to get everything done next week.

When I got home my garage door wouldn't shut. I tried cleaning the sensors and holding down the button on the wall but neither worked. So much for remembering that trick. I dug out the manual but it ended up just being an installation manual and didn't include troubleshooting. I searched around the internet and found a bunch of unhelpful information but eventually stumbled on a video that mentioned turning up the closing force (or something like that). In cold weather I guess the grease or whatever lubricant is used, can thicken up and not work as well. I brought my ladder up from the basement and climbed up to look at the garage door opener. It is different than the one in the video but had the up and down force adjustments, so I turned up the down force and that seemed to do the trick because the door went down after that. Before I found that video I had kind of thought I would end up having to leave the door open all night, so I brought all my valuable stuff inside (router table, air compressor, jigsaw, foldable workbench, saw horses), but then I got the door down, so I had to move everything back out. I may have been able to pull the emergency cord, but I was reading that it wasn't safe to do that when the door is up, because if the spring is broken, the door will come slamming down. That actually happened when I was younger at my Mom's old house. So I wasn't going to mess with that. And I didn't have to.

I relaxed after that by playing some CoD: WW2 for the first time since Monday. It was fun. I got in the top three several times in different game modes and even went decently positive with a shotgun in hardcore Free For All. That mode is like a completely different game and I need to play more of it. It is definitely the best way to unlock camo for shotguns, and I still think it is the easiest way to unlock the initial camo selections for the first sniper rifle. I might play around with that more tomorrow. I also play more 1v1 in the headquarters and I'm now one win away from finishing that challenge. I stuck around for a little while after my last match but no one would play me. Annoying.

I watched YouTube videos after that and started writing this. And then I stopped watching YouTube videos and continued writing this because the videos were far too distracting and it is now one o'clock in the morning. I'm tired.

January 11, 2018

 I got to sleep in this morning, which was nice, and then I read a couple short stories before getting out of bed. Then I ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes before getting ready, eating lunch, and going to work.

The library delayed opening because the snow was a bit much this morning. I slid so much on my drive to work, whether I was slowing down, speeding up, or turning corners. The schools actually closed, which made me miss working in the school. The library opened at one o'clock instead of nine o'clock, which is a decent snow day for the people who were scheduled for eight or nine o'clock, but I was scheduled for noon and was told to come in at 12:30PM. Thirty minutes. Not great.

When I got to work I was reminded that I had a workshop tonight about creating a website/blog. Whoops. So I spent the first hour and a half upstairs creating a couple different websites using Wix and WordPress and playing around with things. The positive thing is that workshops are more laid back than classes. It's more about exploration and playing around than following a lesson plan. So I wasn't too worried about it. After getting a chat from one of the people signed up for the workshop saying they weren't going to be able to make it, I sent an email to the other three people signed up, kind of encouraging them to stay home. I got a response from a husband and wife saying they would still be attending. It was worth a shot.

I had a walkthrough and then eventually had my dinner break. Rather than leaving I just went up to the cubicle because I didn't want to mess with the roads and walking through the snow. I watched videos, checked email, and read a little from a book.

I was on desk after that and spent that time making a handout for my workshop. It was an uneventful hour on desk. Then I had two walthroughs before going to down to set up for my workshop. Only the husband and wife showed up but I think it went pretty well. I was able to sit with them and walk them through each site, answering their questions as they came up. I liked it, and they seemed to get a lot out of it.

The roads on the way home were better but there were still some slick spots. I'm interested to see how they are tomorrow. When I got home I made popcorn and watched YouTube videos before starting this. I close again tomorrow and don't go in until eleven o'clock, so I should be able to get a full night of sleep again, which I'm looking forward to.

January 10, 2018

 I was able to run on the elliptical for fifteen minutes this morning so that was nice. Always nice when pain isn't involved.

When I got to work one of the other librarians had to go home sick so I covered the desk for the first two hours. I dealt with emails, phone calls, and a chat. I read a couple articles. And I started reading about basic computer stuff because we have a class coming up that I need to start thinking about.

I had an uneventful walkthrough, and then two more walkthroughs, followed by re-filling the large print western display because it was running really low and I wasn't sure if the assistant would be in after being unwell yesterday. Turns out she did come to work, but large print westerns are super easy and I was bored, so I'm okay with it.

After lunch I was on desk for another two hours and didn't accomplish much of anything. I read a short story by Chuck Palahniuk and was reminded that I probably shouldn't promote him in my newspaper article because it's probably a little too dark for the newspaper demographic. I also caught up on my timesheet, read a news article, and talked to the teen librarian.

Then I had a walkthrough, read a couple articles, had another walkthrough, and had a long conversation with the teen librarian about ink, fountain pens, and short stories. And then, no one was scheduled on the desk, so I was on desk for another hour, bringing my total to five hours on desk for the day. That's a lot of desk time. That hour was spent looking at YA short story books. I really need to get back into reading regularly again. There are so many good things out there to read.

After work I picked up Chipotle because their were open parking spots, and headed to my Mom's house for dinner. I beat my sister there so before dinner I took down the Christmas lights. My sister got there not long after I started so she and my Mom helped organize the lights as I took them down. We ate dinner and watched an episode of The Goldbergs where they were eating out at a restaurant. I've only ever seen the show while eating dinner at my Mom's, but it is really funny, and I love how there is always video or photographic evidence at the end of the show letting you know the episode was based on a real thing. When that episode was over we watched YouTube videos and then I helped my Mom take down all of her boxes filled with Christmas decorations to the basement.

When I got home, I watched YouTube videos, clicked around the internet, and started writing this. And now it is after eleven o'clock and I've got a headache, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed. Overnight there is supposed to be rain, then freezing rain, and then apparently the potential for two to four inches of snow tomorrow morning, so I'm glad I don't go into work until noon. Hopefully the roads will be cleared up by the time I have to go out. The fun part is it was nearly sixty degrees today. Mother nature.

January 9, 2018

 I got six hours of sleep last night and somehow managed to get up and out of bed at six o'clock and run on the elliptical. Unfortunately my right knee started to bother me around the seven minute mark so I only made it to ten minutes. I think maybe I should alternate days, running every other day, and on the off days doing some other form of exercise, giving my knees time to recover. We'll see.

I opened and did all the usual opening stuff, including sharpening pencils, because that's my favorite thing about opening. And then I was on desk for two hours. I spent a lot of time with emails, both catching up on my own from yesterday and handling a lot of purchase requests and another personalized reading list request. I also answered phone calls and read a few news articles.

I was off desk for an hour before lunch and that hour flew by. I caught up with one of my coworkers and we talked to our boss about work-related things. One of those things is that in the near future, hopefully, is that the public computers are going to start shutting down five minutes before we close, rather than right when we close, something that several people have pushed for. It's going to take awhile because things have to be done, but I'm pretty excited about it. Too many people stay on the computers until the second we close, and I think they should be exited the building as we close, not getting all their things together (and even trying to use the restroom).

The hour when I got back from lunch also flew by, mostly because I don't think I sat down for more than five minutes. I went upstairs to get the outreach box but couldn't find it, I printed off brochures and went upstairs to fold them on the folding machine, I went upstairs again and found the outreach box, I went down to the basement to get the van key, I picked up the credit card for the parking garage, and I went back upstairs to get candy to add to the outreach box. Constant movement.

And then we went to the university for the outreach event. We talked to fifteen people and it was an interesting experience. We went to the same event in the Fall, when there were a lot more students, and it was a different experience. This time around, none of the girls spoke to me, or really even acknowledged my presence. They all walked up and started talking to the other librarian (a woman). Maybe it was a cultural thing. All the dudes, however, spoke to me, not her. Interesting. But it was good times and hopefully we see some of them at the library in the future.

As soon as we got back I immediately started helping a couple of very entertaining women with the microfilm machine. Their father was adopted and I helped them find the first obituaries for some of their biological relatives. It was pretty cool. Once I got them settled in I went and returned the van key, turned in my receipt for the parking garage, and returned the credit card. When I got back I helped the women again and then it was five o'clock. Yet another disappearing hour. It was kind of a weird day in that respect. It was over before it felt like I really did anything.

When I got home I did a few things and then I had dinner. My mashed potatoes survived really well for day number two. Very rarely do leftover mashed potatoes reheat well, at least in my experience. But these were great.

After dinner I researched new laptops because one of the hinges on mine broke last night. I figure it is only a matter of time before it breaks even more and bad things start to happen. The most annoying thing about it is that I use my laptop for the video game discussions, so I need to at least be able to close it and transport it and be able to rely on it for the two we have this semester. We'll see what happens.

Much like my day, might night kind of disappeared on me and now I am tired and want to go to bed, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed.

January 8, 2018

 Today was fairly uneventful but I enjoyed myself. I only got six hours of sleep but I didn't want to go back to sleep because I knew that would make it harder to get to sleep tonight. I just hope I get to sleep at a decent time tonight so I don't regret the lack of sleep last night.

The first thing I did was jump in CoD: WW2 to get my first payroll. Then I decided I would just play one game. But then the guy I played with the other day came online so we ended up playing together, and then his other friend got on, so we ended up playing until lunch. I was able to prestige again, so I'm now level four. I really like the fourth prestige emblem, it's a silver plus sign with green in the middle. Kind of makes me want to stop prestiging because it might be my favorite emblem.

This afternoon I watched YouTube videos, clicked around the internet, and did laundry. I also ran on the elliptical for twenty minutes. Not bad. I'm getting into the territory where I'm actually going to have to start waking up earlier (or at least getting out of bed earlier) if I want to get a full run in. That's unfortunate.

Tonight I experimented with dinner. A couple weeks or so a go I bought a bag of red potatoes because they were on sale. Then I got the leftover artichoke hearts from my Christmas pizza. And a hand mixer for Christmas. So I decided I would make artichoke and parmesan mashed red potatoes. I don't know if that is already a thing but it sounded like it might work, so I made it. And it worked. The hand mixer is a game changer when it comes to making mashed potatoes. The last time I made them I mashed them with a fork and really they were just lumpy potatoes, not mashed potatoes. The potatoes tonight were creamy mashed potatoes. So much better. I also roasted vegetables and made brown rice.

After dinner I spent quite awhile doing dishes because I created a lot of new ones tonight and I had others I had been avoiding. I actually ran my bowls and silverware in the dishwasher. It didn't really save me that much time, because there really weren't that many things to put in the dishwasher, but I figure I should use it occasionally just to make sure everything stays in working order.

Then I played a little more CoD: WW2. I think I played one or two games of War and then I hung out in the headquarters. I recruited some other people at the firing range to work on the final challenge sequence. It took several tries but we managed it in the end, and then did it again just for fun because it shoots off a bunch of fireworks. Then I moved down to the 1v1 area and ended up playing a lot of matches against the same player and it was a lot of fun. I am now up to eighteen wins and I have to get twenty-five in order to complete another challenge. That will be the last headquarters challenge that is currently available. There is one more after that but it seems to be tied to a specific event that hasn't happened yet. Time will tell.

I have spent the past hour watching livestreams, listening to music, and writing this. And now that I have reached the end of this entry, I'm going to record my audio journal so I can go to bed, so I can get up in the morning and run on the elliptical. Oh joy.

January 7, 2018

 I got nine hours of sleep last night, ran on the elliptical for fifteen minutes, and eventually got around to watching YouTube videos and eating lunch before going to work.

It was a pretty slow and quiet day at work. At least on the second floor. I finished the personalized reading list I started yesterday and started/completed another list. There is only one list left, which I could have started, but it had a lot of detail that sounded like it would be of interest to one of the two librarians in the department that has a masters degree in English. I had a few walkthroughs, read news articles, woke a sleeper, helped patrons on the computer, gave a Bible study leader a piece of her mail and told her she couldn't put our address as her return address, and was given two tiny 8oz bottles of water and a pack of cocoa as a Thank You from one of our regulars. I think she just didn't want to carry them.

And that was pretty much my day at work. As I said, slow and quiet, and not a lot to write about.

When I got home I ate dinner, watched an old livestream of a streamer explaining why he had been banned from a GTA5 roleplaying server. I haven't watched one of his streams in probably a couple years, but for some reason I got sucked into the drama.

While watching that I joined a new dating site, because it's a new year and why not. I will say, the photo uploading/organization system is trash. There is no way for me to set which picture is my main one, it seems to be automatically assigned. And it kept picking a picture with my friends in it and centering on one of my friends, making it look like it was his profile. They make it sound like you can click this little button to select the main picture, but the buttons don't work. I have uploaded, deleted, and re-uploaded my pictures so many times, even trying to change up the order I did it in, but it didn't seem to help. I'll mess with it later.

I played a little CoD: WW2 and probably should have stopped before I did because my left wrist and fingers are a little sore. I think a lot of that has to do with my hands being really cold while I was playing. The lag and connection issues were a lot better tonight so the games I played were much less frustrating.

Now it is late and I have been distracted by YouTube videos for far too long, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed.

January 6, 2018

 Last night I only got six hours of sleep, which sucked, but this morning I ran for fifteen minutes on the elliptical, so there's that.

Today was a long day at work, and not just because I was there for nine and a half hours, it was just a long, quiet day. So neither good, nor bad. I got to work a little bit early, counted the drawer (which went well), and printed off the room schedules because the assistant was having computer issues. It was my first time actually printing the weekend schedule using my template (other than when I was making the example) and it worked out just how I designed it to.

I spent the first two hours on desk and it was relatively busy. I answered a few phone calls, had a chat with an involved room reservation question, helped a couple patrons find books, and completed the personalized reading list I started on Thursday. By the end of the day we had received three more requests. I'm just glad I currently have the time to not feel overwhelmed by having so many requests.

And speaking of, after a walkthrough, I started on another list. And helped a few patrons.

For lunch I went up to the cubicle and continued watching the Yogcast series for Colony Survival because that has been my recent obsession the past couple of days.

After lunch I was on desk again. I helped the occasional patron, finished a personalized reading list, caught up on news articles and the local paper, and started another personalized reading list. I took a break from that to refill my Inspirational display, but then spent the rest of the day working on the latest personalized reading list and helping patrons when they came to the desk. Again, it was a long day, but I got some things done.

When I got home I ate dinner, watched YouTube videos, and finished adding my Humble Bundle games to my Steam account. That's something I should have been doing for years now. And I eventually played a little CoD: WW2. For the most part, it was not a good night for the game. There were definitely lag and connectivity issues because my bullets weren't killing anyone and I was often getting killed long after I had gone around a corner. It was frustrating. I had a couple good games of Capture the Flag, because that mostly consisted of me grabbing the flag and running, rather than trying to shoot people. I also had one great moment where I saw a dude peaking over a ledge so I stepped behind a rock, jumped so I could briefly see over the top of the rock, and sniped him in the head in the fraction of a second I could see over the rock. After that I played like complete crap, but I had one great moment.

I finished the first season of Colony Survival Yogscast series and have started on season two, which just started a couple weeks ago, so there aren't very many episodes. But I need to pause that for now because I'm tired and want to go to bed. Bed sounds great.

January 5, 2018

 Today was pretty uneventful. I got nine hours of sleep, which was nice. And eventually I got around to running for thirteen minutes on the elliptical. If I can keep up with the elliptical throughout the year I might look into getting a better one. The one I have now can't offer any resistance, so it will slowly take longer and longer to get the same effect because I can't ramp up the resistance. We'll see. I had a pretty good run (pun intended) a couple years ago on the elliptical but then my knee started to hurt and I lost the motivation to wake up early. Maybe I'll be able to keep it going this time.

I caught up on YouTube videos and clicked around the internet for awhile. I also made a deposit in my IRA for 2017 and set up automatic deposits for 2018. I think I low-balled my estimate of what I can afford and not notice, but I think it's better to underestimate than overestimate. I can always make another deposit at the end of the year.

I eventually left the house to make a quick run to the bank to deposit a couple checks and a stop at the gas station to get a Powerball ticket. The cashier had to come out of the back room to help me and she looked really annoyed. Always nice feeling welcomed when you enter an establishment.

When I got home I played several VR games. I haven't played VR stuff in forever. One of the games was a lot of fun but the throwing knife mechanic was kind of awful. But other than that I had a good time.

After dinner and YouTube videos I played a little CoD: WW2. I had a couple rough games, due to hackers and using a shotgun for a daily order, but I survived. And I confirmed my theory that playing a hardcore game is a good way to level up a shotgun and unlock camos (which require a lot of one-shot kills) because it takes less to kill people. I need to try that with my last sniper rifle. I ended the night with a game of War against a good team, and my team was not that good. I did rack up a lot of kills and come in first, though, so there's that.

Now I need to record my audio journal and go to bed because it's late and I have to wake up early for work tomorrow.