Looking for the dead

Today I got a call from a lady looking for information about a friend of hers that had died. She was certain that he died a few weeks ago while hiking. Her father and another library worker had told her that they had seen an article in the paper talking about his death but she was not able to find anything.

So I did my usual searches. I looked at archives. I did a news search because the circumstances that she told me made the death a bit unusual so I thought perhaps there would be news coverage. I searched for a good two hours without finding ANYTHING related to this gentleman's death.

I was a bit mad at myself because I don't like not finding what I'm looking for. I feel like a failure and I don't like feeling like a failure so I try not to fail.

So I continued to search. And then I found it. The gentleman in question wrote a lot of articles for a local paper. He was published A LOT and it made some of the searches difficult...until I started looking at the dates of the articles published. He's been responding to articles published after he "died". Not just posts mind you, but publishing posts that are responding to articles that were written and published after he died.

I told the lady that it was all I could find on him but she was adamant that it wasn't him and they must have been "saved up".

Whatever lady. I would have thought you'd be happy to find out your friend isn't dead.

Or maybe he's a zombie... and that makes me and my coworkers...

~blue-seme via deviantart

Deep Thoughts by Teenage Librarian

Deep Thought #1:

It's annoying when people walk away from you in the middle of explaining something or answering their question. So much so that I refuse to follow after them telling them they are going in the wrong direction. If they had waited for me to finish what I was saying they either would a) know where they needed to go or do or b) I would get up and walk with them and show them whatever they need to know. Instead I just let them flounder.

Deep Thought #2:

I'm thinking of creating "creating" an identical twin. I work at two different public library systems in my county. One is the "county library system" and the other is a city library. I work in different jobs in these libraries. A library assistant at the county system and a library page (book-put-backer) at the city library. These libraries are maybe 30 miles apart? In fact, let me check. They are 24.6 miles apart. You would think that I wouldn't run into the same people, but I do. In fact I've been recognized and even touched (TOUCHED!) by patrons/customers who have recognized me and asked me if I work at one branch or the other.

Side note: Please don't touch the librarian/library assistant/library page. We have our own magical bubbles and will bite if you invade them.

Anyways, so one of the guys that recognized me at city library asked me if I worked at the county library and before I could even think about it I said "No". It's the nature of my job that my employment and salary and all that stuff is public record and anyone could find it, but I guess I just felt that this gentleman did not need to know that I travel up and down the coast to work at different libraries. Just on Monday I saw a patron/customer (they are patrons at the county library and customers at the city) at city library that I've only ever seen at the county library. It was odd, I think he recognized me but couldn't place me. He's here at the county library today and hasn't said anything to me, but has inspired me to create my twin.

Her name shall be Matilda.

Wordless Wednesday at the Library

100 Books in 2011

This is my list for 2011.

I suppose it should be titled 62 books in 2011 but whatever.

1. The Seventh Wife by Shirley Damsgaard
2. Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
3. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
4. Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block
5. Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys by Francesca Lia Block
6. The Girls by Lori Lansens
7. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future by Michael J. Fox
8. The D.U.F.F. by Kody Klepinger
9.The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn
10.Claim to Fame by Margaret Peterson Haddix
11.Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls by Victoria Laurie
12. Confessions of a Prime Time Kid by Mark Johnathan Harris
13. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
14. Deenie by Judy Blume
15. Switch by Carol Snow
16. Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix
17. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Ninth Grade Slays by Heather Brewer
18. Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Tenth Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer
19. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
20. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
21. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
22. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
23. Look for Me by Moonlight by Mary Downing Hahn
24. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
25. My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters by Syndey Salter
26. Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain
27. My Lucky Life In and Out Of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke
28. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
29. The Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
30. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
31. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
32. Good Stuff by Jennifer Grant
33. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
34. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
35. Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
36. Choker by Elizabeth Woods
37. Matched by Ally Condie
38. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
39. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
40. Schooled by Gordon Korman
41. Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern
42. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
43. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
44. Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting
45. Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern
46. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
47. Vision Impossible by Victoria Laurie
48. Are You There God? It's me Margaret by Judy Blume
49. The Initiation by L.J. Smith
50. Heat Rises by Richard Castle
51. The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
52. The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
53. The Sherlockian by Graham Moore
54. Eerie Tales of Terror and Dread by Bernhardt J. Hurwood
55. The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
56. Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell
57. The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket
58. Two Kiss for Maddie: A Memoir of Loss & Love by Matt Logelin
59. The End of Normal by Stephanie Madoff Mack
60. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
61. The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma

This just happened..

Patron: If there is only 30 seconds left on my computer session what will happen to my paper.

Me: It will erase if you don't save it to something.

Patron: Ok. Do you have anything to save it to?

Me: Yes, here is our thumbdrive.

Patron: Ok. How does it work

Me: You put it in the USB drive and save your document to the D drive.

Patron: Ok. *walks away*

Me: *thinking: Why would you wait until 30 seconds before your session ends to figure out what will happen to your paper if you KNOW you aren't going to finish it or have anything to save it to*

In other news, I want a library cat.

So..

I made an "AWESOME PLAYLIST" last week. Seriously, it was called "AWESOME PLAYLIST". It contained songs that did not require me to ever hit the skip button.  It centered around one new song that I thought was awesome and I loved it. I listened to the song on repeat for days. I dance and I sang and I twirled to it. The other songs on the playlist were pretty awesome too. I also danced and sang... but no twirling, that was specifically for my one new awesome song.

I put the playlist on yesterday as I was driving from one job to the other. I was pushing the skip button throughout the entire playlist. My awesome playlist became not so awesome in one week's time. It was very sad. The song that I danced and sang and twirled to? Annoys the hell out of me now. Seriously, I don't even want to post it here because I'm THAT annoyed by it.

Oh what a difference a week makes.

Is my blog ethical?

I was thinking the other day about this blog, more specifically if it's ethical or not to even have it. I've been a little bit more open with who I am by posting pictures of myself and the like and I'm pretty sure if someone searched hard enough they could find out who I am, where I work, and everything. But I'm concerned about if I should be posting patron stories.

It's not like I'm identifying patron names or their checkouts or anything like that, but am I being unethical by talking about my encounters with them? How is this any different than telling my friends about a crazy day at work? If there is no identifying material, does it matter?

Any thoughts?

LIfestyles of the Rich and...

The other night I went out with a friend and we saw Bob Saget. It was a fun night and I really enjoyed seeing Bob Saget perform his stand-up routine. Yes, I knew going into it that it would be crude and it would most definitely NOT be Danny Tanner from Full House on stage, but I didn't really care and I had a great time.

After the show my friend and I went behind the venue and waited for Bob to come out so we could get pictures. Bob was very gracious and took pictures with us (we were the only ones there) even though the jerk staff member came out and laughed at us and told us that he wouldn't be taking pictures. It was a nice interaction but it got me thinking and ultimately lead me to the conclusion that...

I don't want to meet celebrities any more.

It always seems to be such a let down. Now I know that actors are actors and the characters that they play are not who they are in real life. I don't expect to meet Danny Tanner if I meet Bob Saget, but I think that I would like to think that most celebrities are nice people. And I'm not saying Bob Saget wasn't nice, but he was just.. eh. And because he was just eh, I felt let down. My expectations weren't necessilary unmet, but I was just a bit disappointed with the encounter.

Another example is when I met Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz in 2002. I was 13 and my parents had donated money to a charity so I could meet them (BEST. PARENTS. EVER!). But it was after the show and I went back stage and I remember thinking that they were kind of skeezy, leacherous, old men. And they were to a certain extent. That's not to say they weren't nice and accomodating and everything, but as such a huge fan I found it kind of gross to see Peter drinking and sloppily hanging onto some much younger girl. It kind of ruined my experience of them.

So, I won't plan on meeting anymore celebrities. I'd much rather just enjoy the person I think they are in real life in my head than be disappointed to find out that they aren't who I imagined them to be. And yes, I know that I'm putting expectations on people that I haven't met and aren't required to live up to them but still. I'm much happier thinking that Alan Rickman is a classy guy who loves the theater and acting and tea, rather than finding out that he's a dirty old man who hates the films he's worked on and is pretentous and a jerk (a baseless example, I have no idea what kind of person he is).

And I'll leave you with the terrible picture that the staffer took of me and Bob.

I think the staffer was pissed because we lied to him and told him we didn't want pictures but we really did so he ruined my picture.

No Alan Rickman for me...

I was so sad to lose that contest. :(

In other news, I've been a busy little library work/library student. The three jobs thing is slightly killing me but somehow I'm managing to survive/not pass out in the library whilst shelving. So I'm going to say that's a positive.

I'm applying for a new job. What's that you say? Don't I already have three jobs and I was just complaining about how busy I've become. Well, this job is at a community college library and my friend, ASL, just started working at one and has been singing the praises of it. I'm thinking it sounds like a pretty sweet gig and I hope that I get the job and will be able to get my foot in the door in a community college library system. So, fingers crossed mmmkay?

I haven't been reading much, I thought I would over "winter break" but I was sick all Christmas and it sucked. I read in between my codeine-fueled sleep but I don't remember much it. Thank God for codeine eh?

I'll leave this little entry with a funny library story.

I was called pretentious! Now for anyone who knows me they know I CAN be pretentious if I want to be, and usually it's a humor/sarcastic pretentiousness. But this patron actually told me that she didn't know how I could have my job and be so pretentious. Did I mention that she never let me finish a sentence while trying to help her on the computer? Our interaction went something like this.

Crazy lady: Can you come help me on the computer?
TL (that's me): Sure *walks over*
CL: This computer is slow and it won't load my video and I want a different computer. They put me on a different computer last night and I want a different computer because this one isn't working and it's not working and ASDKLJADLKAJSDASLDASKL.
TL: Okay ma'am, well you can log on twice a day, so you're more than welcome to log onto a different computer but I can't guarantee that it will work any faster, our network is notoriously slow.
CL: Can you just go away? You're not helping me. Just go away! And stop calling me ma'am!
TL: Okay then *walks back to my desk*

About 30 minutes later the library computers are shutting down because we're closing. She gets up and turns to me and says

CL: I'm sorry about getting angry before, it's just frustrating when you're computers are not working.
TL: I understand that, we just can't guarantee how fast our computers are.
CL: *Interrupting me* GOD! You know, you're so pretentious! I"m not an idiot! How did you even get this job, you're so pretentious and rude!
TL: I'm sorry you feel that way, ma'am. *internal smirk*

I went to put a note on her account saying that she kind of blows up at staff members and yells and low and behold there were already a ton of notes from other libraries. She came in about  a week later and refused to come ask me for help, asking my co-worker instead. Fine by me, I would have refused to help her anyway. Because being "verbally abusive" to the staff just doesn't fly by me.

Signed,

The Pretentious Teenage Librarian