Monday, April 30, 2018

April 30, 2018


I got less than seven hours of sleep last night. And then I didn't run on the elliptical because my legs were exhausted from playing Space Pirate Trainer last night.

When I got to work I was off desk for an hour. I caught up on emails, read a few news articles, talked to my coworker, and got a brief start on making a display sign for the Biography display next month (also known as tomorrow).

I was on desk for two hours after that and a lot of that time was spent working on the display sign, while simultaneously compiling a list of books. I also answered a lot of phone calls and helped the occasional patron. While looking for books I came across a new icon in the catalog. These icons tell you the format of the item in the search results. A book with have a book, a DVD has a disc that says DVD, and so on and so forth. There are quite a few icons, which I compiled for a catalog tutorial that someday I will actually finish. But today I found one with a quill that stands for manuscript material. I wouldn't have even thought to look for that one. I sent an email to everyone in the department with a screenshot, because it was interesting and might be useful information, and I updated the slide in my tutorial to reflect the latest icon.

I had two walkthroughs before lunch and during each one talked for awhile with the person working at the childrens desk, because she's always entertaining. We covered a lot of topics in a short period of time, including an annoyance with overreactions to cultural appropriation (which we both believe has negatively impacted the power of that phrase), weird picture books, and documentaries about portrait photographers. After lunch I had another walkthrough and dropped off a three volume set filled with portraits of old Irish people, because they're really cool books.

I was able to finish my biography display sign. The last time I had that display I made a bookcase for the sign and put books on it that I was also putting on the display, which featured only female authors. This time around I'm going broader, but I still like the sign design, so I just replaced the books with new ones. I also added a shadow to the book covers, which I think makes them look more like books on a shelf. It looked really good when I printed it out.

I had about forty-five minutes after that so I checked out a laptop and went up to the meeting room because there were two people at the desk and another person in the cubicle. There are two computers in the cubicle but most of us avoid sharing that space because it's small and it's just awkward.

Then I had another walkthrough, spent the short time remaining in that hour in the cubicle, and then came back down to spend my last hour on desk. In that hour I finished making my list of books for the biography display, and I made a list of audiobooks, because I also have that display in May.

Over the course of the day I texted with the academic librarian who I presented with at the conference several months ago. On Friday, we're either making dinner at her house as friends, or it's a date. I'm not good at picking up signals, which is possibly quite evident given my history with the opposite sex. Regardless or what it is meant to be, it will give me an opportunity to get outside of my comfort zone and work on my social skills, which need a lot of work. She has led a really interesting life, so hopefully I can learn more about that.

Also over the course of the day, I think my inner ear decided to crap out on me. Starting late in the afternoon I started getting a little light-headed that was significantly twinged with dizziness, whenever I bent over or moved my head too much. It's not too noticeable if I remain still. At first it felt like the beginning of a migraine, which I get in the form of shimmering visual encroaching from my periphery. Thankfully that never manifested, but the feeling hasn't gone away. I'm thinking it might be related to an ear infection. Yesterday and the day before I would occasionally feel a sharp pain when I would chew food. I like being able to hear but my ears can be a bit of a nuisance.

When I got home I roasted vegetables and made couscous, because I didn't feel like rice, I've had the box in my cabinet for quite awhile now, and I felt inspired after the dinner I made last night. It was a different type of couscous but it was still really good. It was nice to change up the same old thing. And I've got leftovers.

After dinner I played a little bit of CoD: WW2. I was a little worried about my head but it seems to be entirely based on movement of my head, because moving my eyes around the screen didn't bother me. I wasn't about to try VR though. I'm pretty sure that would have had me on the ground. I don't need to add to the struggles of my inner ear by dropping it into a virtual world.

Now I'm going to go to bed and hope I wake up feeling rested, with a normal equilibrium when I sit up.

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