NaBloWriMo Day 27

Sunday, 27 November 2011
Topic of the Day: My Random Thoughts

This will be very random. You've been warned.

• I don't much like the holiday season. Never really have, probably never really will. No particular reason, but as much as I don't like the cold in January, at least the holidays are done.
• This was not the week to start cutting back on my consumption of Diet Coke. Perhaps a better time to do so would be the 12th of never.
• Mass on Saturday night was, um, interesting. Since the changes to the Missal took effect this weekend, it was amusing (to me) how many people were still on what I call "AutoCatholic". You know, like they've said the responses, etc so many times before that it's just by rote, not because they're thinking about what they're saying. Me, well, I never bothered to memorize any of that. I have more important things to remember, like all the lyrics to '80's songs that I haven't heard in 20 years.
• I really need to finish the storage closet in our room. But since I messed up cutting the 1st two boards and had to go get replacements, I'm apprehensive about doing it wrong again. So by not doing anything, I'm at least not doing it wrong. It makes more sense in my head.
• I keep thinking that I need to make a list of everything I need to do this week. Sadly, when I start to make said list, I forget what it was I wanted to put on it.

There you go. You just got to experience 5 minutes in my busy brain.

NaBloWriMo Day 26

Saturday, 26 November 2011
Topic of the Day: Enough

This week I've really been thinking about who/what I'm thankful for.

Yesterday was Black Friday, and I didn't go shopping until much later in the day. I know that perhaps I didn't get the best deals, but I maintained my sanity, so I'll call it a win.

However, I gave some thought to the whole Black Friday hoopla, and how that fit in with my evolving belief system.

I used to gladly go shopping at the crack of dawn to get things for the kids and not have to spend lots and lots of money. It was even kind of fun. Except the year the woman in front of me in Target got mad and pushed my cart into me because someone else (NOT ME) had hit her. That year...not so fun. Anyway, I get the whole thrill of the hunt thing, and I'm not here to condemn it or anyone who participates in the day.

Every year on the news, there's stories about how people get run over, in fights, whatever. I've come to realize that for me, there's nothing in a store worth that. It's not a mentality that I can get behind for my own self, not in this season of Advent.

This has been years in the making. Maybe it's because I really dislike having to come up with a Christmas list that has things that sure, I like them, but I don't NEED them. Maybe it's because we've come so far financially that I don't have to balance the wants vs. needs anymore, and can usually just buy whatever it is that catches my fancy. Maybe it's because I'm less tolerant of STUFF than I used to be. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above.

Every year my husband asks me what I want for Christmas. Every year I tell him that I'm pretty sure that I've already told him. Every year he tells me that if I did, I only did in my head, which we've established DOES NOT COUNT (maybe). Or that I pointed out something in a store, but changed my mind 2 aisles over (true).

One of the best presents I got was a couple of years ago when I got him to agree to take most of the money he'dve spent on me, and let me buy food and other supplies to give to a family in need. We asked our priest if there was anyone who needed a hand-up (not a hand-out), and actually since we had so much to give, it ended up being split up between 2 families. One was to a guy who'd pretty much lost everything when the economy went haywire, and was struggling to hold on to a house that he shared with other family members--he'd almost lost his faith in life, but our gift helped give him enough hope to keep going (I love that); the other was to a single mom with 2 little girls who had been in an abusive situation & had managed to get out, but was thinking there was no possible way to have any sort of Christmas for her girls. Thinking about how we could share even just a little of what we take for granted, and at least for that moment make life a little easier for someone was awesome.

It's not about doing it so I feel better about what we have. It's not about doing it because I should (if there's one thing that will make me NOT do something, it's because someone tells me I "should"). It's not about doing it because it's the Christmas season and I'm buying into the whole "Christmas Spirit" thing, because I'm usually low on Christmas Spirit in the best of years. It's not about doing it because as a "good Christian" that's what's expected.

No, it goes back to my Mom telling me that we give because we can. We give because it is a way to acknowledge and be thankful for what we ourselves have. And as I look around our house, and what we have, both tangible and intangible, we have enough. That's one of my mantras when I'm panicking about money, "For today, for right this moment, I have enough."

We have more than enough to share. We have more than enough that we can freely give some away and not worry if that would be the make-it-or-break-it between this payday and next. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the help that is needed, and I feel so inadequate. But then I realize that may be the lesson that's being taught. To do what I can, where I can, with what I have. And to do it from love and compassion, not because it's expected.

And that's a wonderful feeling. That feeling of Enough. That's what I want to hold onto during not only this Advent season, but the rest of the year as well.

NaBloWriMo Day 20

Sunday, 20 November 2011
Free Choice Topic

Today I spent some time cleaning out and organizing my favorites on my computer. It's times like these that I really wish I'd remember to take the time to re-name the links to something I have a shot at remembering why I saved them in the first place.

Alas, I probably never will.

It's kind of like a treasure hunt. Oooo! Lookit! I'd forgotten I'd saved this! My Pinterest boards are the same way, which makes it fun.

However, sometimes I re-discover really cool things. Like this guy, whom I love love love:



I'll go ahead and call tonight a success.

naBloWriMo Day 6

Sunday, 6 November 2011
Today's Prompt: My Free Choice

This seems to be a good topic during the month of November: Thankfulness and Gratitude.

"We do it because we can." "We give because we can."

I heard these many times while growing up, usually from my Mom, and always in conjunction with an appeal for donations for some charity, whether it be for our time or material goods.

When I got old enough to think it through, I asked why. Why did we give? Why was that so important to her?

Mom's answer was simple: By giving some away, that's how we say 'Thank you' to the Universe for blessing us with what we have.

I still do that, but I prefer to give anonymously if I can. I also tend to choose to give to things that have meaning to me, like the county food shelf, or other various organizations. I definitely like to keep it local if at all possible, though.

I'm so very grateful for all the good things I have in my life. I'm so very lucky to have enough that I can share joyously, even if sometimes it doesn't seem like much. Even on the worst days I know that things could be oh so much worse, and that what I consider to be my biggest problem of the day would be a dream situation for someone else. Sure, there are days where I have a bad case of the "I wish we could have ______", but I take a moment to remember that at least for that day, that moment, I have enough.

Powerful thought, that.

For that moment in time, I have enough.

And then I remember to tell the Universe, "Thank You."

NaBloWriMo Day 5

Saturday, 5 November 2011 (written on Sunday, 6 November 2011 because I didn't pay enough attention to the directions to notice that weekends are for free writing...d'oh!)

Today's Prompt: My Free Choice

The fact that I'm actually writing this on Sunday afternoon is a good jump-off point for a topic, I think.

This is pretty much the story of my life sometimes. The whole read-or-listen-enough-to-get-started-on-a-project-or-whatever-and-not-actually-listen-to-ALL-of-the-instructions-which-would-help-in-the-long-run-so-I-don't-have-to-reinvent-the-wheel-or-totally-mess-stuff-up thing part anyway. It goes along with my "eh, I'll just eyeball it instead of actually measuring it" way of doing things.

Unfortuately, the two are not compatible with my sort-of perfectionsm.
That dichotomy of thinking/doing/being is what makes me, well, ME, though.

One of my friends tried to get me to buy into the whole "B and Done" way of being when we were in graduate school together. For our program, anything less than a B was failing, so obviously a B was good enough to get through. I tried, but I couldn't do it. I just couldn't stand it when I'd get docked points for (what I considered to be) stupid mistakes. Especially when those points could be the difference between me failing the class or not (Yes, I graduated with high honors, but not with a 4.0 GPA).

It may seem I set myself up for failure because of those disparate ways of thinking, but it actually works for me. No, really. I'm learning to let go of the little(r) things that just so long as they get done, I don't care how or by whom. Even if they aren't done the way that I would have done them. Sure, sometimes I have to walk away so I don't have to see the process, but at least I'm getting there.

LIS 768: Hello? Is this thing on? (My Choice of Topic #4)

I'll admit it, I really dislike writing (or typing, as the case may be) my thoughts down. I did keep a diary for 2 years in junior high, but got rid of it soon after.
I mean, it's not like I thought back then, "Huh. So when I run for the office of the President of the United States, this stuff could totally come back to haunt me."

It's not even that I think my random musings are so interesting or revolutionary now that they need to be kept under wraps.

My Mom thought my aversion to keeping a journal was amusing and and would tell me, "Maybe in a past life you got caught out on something like that, but you know, they don't burn people anymore..." to which I'd usually reply, "You don't know that for sure."

So, anyway, here I am having to do just that. Spill my thoughts out on a public forum for all to see. Or not see...there are approximately a gazillion blogs out there (give or take a few), and the odds of someone randomly finding and reading mine are fairly slim. Sure, I tag all my entries, but that's mainly so that I can find them again. But, if the right search is done...there I am, 3rd from the top (how weird is that?!?!)

I write with the thought that someone somewhere will find this, and what I say can (and very well might) be used against me. Does that make me self-censor?

Uh, yeah.

Too many horror stories get told about the bad things that can happen when a blogger writes about certain topics (like dooce, for instance, who wrote about her job and got fired for doing so). And knowing that I will be applying for a professional librarian position in the not-so-distant future is enough to keep me in line. For now.

Even so, oftentimes I feel like I'm writing in a vacuum. I mean, I post, and can tell by the Sitemeter that others come and take a look (besides my classmates, who have to), but there's no 2-way conversation taking place which seems odd. I admit to always being somewhat surprised when I discover that someone has left a comment on a post. On the flip side, though, when I read the different blogs, although I might find myself nodding in agreement, or wondering about a point, I don't leave any comments either.

According to Technorati, there are approximately 1 million blog posts a day. One MILLION a DAY. Wow. That's a lot of voices to be heard at any given time. And for now, anyway, I'm one of them.

LIS 768: Watching TV with Strangers (My choice post #3)

I hardly make time to watch TV as it is. When I do, I focus on what I'm watching, and then during commercial breaks (nope, don't have TiVo), I get up and go do something else.

Now, though, CBS is testing what it calls a "Social Viewing Room" where you and I, as well as any or all of our friends and various strangers can watch shows together, even when we're not physically together. As we're watching the show, we can chat, take quizzes, do polls, and 'throw' things at the screen, all of which in turn theoretically enhances our viewing experience.

Really?

To me, there's no difference between what CBS is proposing and just watching a show on my own and using, say Twitter, or IMing my friends who might also be watching that same show. Besides, how does that work if I can't watch the show at the same time my friends are, which is often the case? Or one of them has TiVo, and prefers to start the show a few minutes late in order to speed through the commercials?

It's great that CBS is trying to give other avenues for people to connect with each other. I can really see the merits in this new technology. I know that watching something on TV or in the movies in a group has a completely different feeling than watching the same thing alone does (although it doesn't faze me much to be the only one laughing at something). But seriously, when I'm watching TV or a movie, I'm watching what I'm watching. I don't want to have all those other things going on at the same time.

Who knows? It may be the next big thing. If you want to give it a whirl, it all starts this week.

LIS 768: Work Like a Patron Day (My Choice of Topic Post #2)

That whole "Work Like a Patron" day thing...yeah. I've given it some thought over the last few days, and have come to the conclusion that I don't wanna.

Now, it's not because I can't. Because I can. It's not because life is so grand being the librarian v. being a patron. Because, trust me, it's not.

We already use the same entrances and the same restrooms. There's no public meeting space to reserve, so we're good there. Our (only) computer terminal we have at the circ desk is just as slow as the patron ones, with the same lack of easy to find USB ports...theirs might actually be better because at least their CD-ROM thing works.

It's not even that being a patron would be so hard, because I already am. I have to abide by the policies as well, although if there's a loophole, I'll be sure to find (and use) it. The library I'm at is a smaller branch library. Even though there are Official Policies sent down from Headquarters to be followed, we push the limits as far as we can without completely breaking them. Well, to be sure, I do, anyway.

So, why wouldn't I jump at the chance to Work Like a Patron? Even for just a day? I think it's a good idea and all, but I think I'd become too disheartened to want to come back. Ever.

Which is exactly why I need to take a day, hour, week, month and walk in our patrons' shoes.

Many of the problems in our library have been listed on our annual Project List as something to fix. The library board and the city are working together to improve things, but it never seems fast enough, nor can some of the problems be changed due to systemwide policies. Sometimes it all seems overwhelming...there's so much to fix, where do we start?

For instance, in the instance of the computers, I swear that the saying, "Yesterday's Technology Today!!!!" is spot on. How frustrating it is to not be able to save one's work? Even if a patron brings a flash drive along, just getting to the USB ports are a struggle (they're all on the backs of the computers...how inconvenient). And that's without the 30 minute time limit being enforced.

And don't even get me started about the system policy of "all videos and DVDs have a 2 day loan period"--that just makes me want to throw things. And just in case you're wondering what the overdue fines are for said items, that would be $1/day. And your card gets blocked when you hit $5 in overdue fines.

When I read The Starbucks Experience for my context book, I realized that we're on the right track, and eventually we'll get there. But will it be soon enough?

So, for now, even though I don't wanna...I will take the time to Work Like a Patron and look at the library and the services it offers with fresh eyes.

LIS 768: New Conversations (My Choice of Topic Post)

I've been thinking this last week about how the new Web 2.0 applications and other technology have changed how we interact as individuals.

Watching the kid interact with her friends brings home the difference between how she and her friends have conversations versus how at the same age, my friends and I did. Her dad is always telling her to call her friends and go do something...but because he doesn't hear her talking, to him, it doesn't seem like they are talking.

In contrast, when I was her age, I spent countless hours on the phone with my friends talking and doing homework together. The conversations were audible. There were drawbacks, though. I could only be talking to one of my friends at a time, and if someone else tried to call, s/he was met with a busy signal. And if I wasn't at home, I couldn't call anyone (our phones were attached with cords to the wall). So, there were definite limits to how and where conversations could happen.

Now, though, watching the kid texting 3 different people on her phone all within a minute of each other, and IMing others, I can't help but wonder about how conversations have changed. She's fully engaged with whomever she's 'talking' to, and is capable of keeping the different threads straight. But I sometimes wonder about the quality of these 'short-burst' conversations. Yeah, I'm sure my parents wondered what in the world my friends and I could find to talk about for hours on end (well, duh-important things like who was going out with who, did you see what so-and-so was doing between classes, what are you wearing tomorrow...really important stuff). Who knows?

I also find it interesting that for the kid and her friends, conversations can be had whenever and wherever their phones are. They don't have to be in one specific place anymore...they aren't limited by how far their phone cord stretches. They can text way faster than I can...maybe because I spell my words out and they don't (OMG!! did u c that? lol).

Technology and Web 2.0 applications have changed how we interact as individuals. Time and space don't hold the same sway they used to, that's for sure. Conversations aren't limited by how far the cord stretches anymore, and in some respects, that's a good thing.