Today's Weather Outlook is...

It's a nice, cool 74 degrees outside.
Then WTH is it a stuffy, warm 80 in the backroom?!?
I feel like filling my cubicle with sand and wearing my beach gear.

I See Dead Pixels

I read a few GRE prep books and a few websites about tips for the exam.  They all recommended simulating the sterile testing room by taking a timed practice exam on a computer with no distractions. 

Yeah, I did all that but that didn't prepare me for the "Alien Invasion" font I was distracted with. Everything I read on the screen felt too pixelated to me and I was straining to read, the only thing missing was the single button mouse and the 8.5 inch floppy disk.

I don't know, maybe I was the only one whose LCD monitor was hooked up to a Commodore 64 but my tip for anyone preparing for the GRE is to switch out your Ariel or Times New Roman for a highly pixelated font

Its on like Donkey Kong!

Late Spring cleaning reaps its rewards...

Damn you GRE!!

So I took the GRE yesterday, let me say that when it comes to any test, I am almost always the first person to finish. That wasn't the case yesterday. It was an omen when the testing center left a voice message asking if I had the address. Well, I had an address, apparently the old address from my confirmation email. I called the center and spoke with someone and they said that several people never received the correct address and missed their tests, sucks for them. My test started with the writing portion first, I wanted to save that for the end but oh well. Then came the math section, I don't know what happened but I struggled through the whole section. This was the only section where I had to rush at the end because I was running out of time, so the last few questions I guessed. By the time I finished the verbal, I was so frustrated and wanted to leave that I clicked over the portion where it showed my score - doh! I asked a proctor if I would get a print out and he said its online. Well I checked online and I need to receive my scores in the SNAIL mail before I can access it online. WTH, this isn't my week at all...

Volunteers - You Get What You Pay For...

I love these teen volunteers who completely slack off during the whole summer when it comes to completing their community service hours. They walk into the library with their form completely empty and ask if there's any work to be done --- right then and there.
The other day we also had a young teen who thought they were being helpful by removing all of the inter-filed adult graphic fiction novels and placing them on carts next to the young adult graphic novels. Thank goodness there's only a handful of '300' and 'Sin City' like books. Well, at least our pages had something to do.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love our volunteers. They're a great help when the County keeps making employees do more with less.

This Week's Winner is...

Patron #....3099.
Congratulations! The collection agency will be repoing your car shortly.

Worst Bookmark Ever

Peterson GRE 2010 - FAIL

Thank you Peterson for giving me the wrong answer, ultimately causing me to question my ability to do basic multiplication and division. And for also distracting me for the past 20 minutes from studying so I could document and email you about this prime example of FAIL.

If You Can't Stand the Heat... Get Out of My Library

I'm a religious follower of the cartoon 'Unshelved' (www.unshelved.com), as I'm sure most library workers are. I remember a few weeks back they were making fun of the point that their library was being advertised as a relief shelter from the summer heat, despite their A/C not working.

Well I can relate, but our A/C actually works. It just isn't set low enough to feel any negligible difference between outside and inside. The county raised the temperature threshold of all the buildings, so it can get very warm inside. A lot of patrons have complained but that hasn't changed anything. This building isn't exactly new so the ventilation is not great. While its tropical humid at the circ desk, its cool 2 feet away in the backroom, and downright frigid in the stacks near sci-fi. Can't wait to see what it'll be like in here during winter. I'm all for an open bonfire in the middle of circ, I know some great romance novels that would burn nice and toasty - Harlequin Series, I'm looking right at you!

Spoke Too Soon...

Disregard my previous post.

Today's Winner is...

Patron 9011 with 23 lost items. The collections agency will be contacting you shortly...

FAIL - Dog Training

Joined the Darkside

Within a month of transferring to my current branch they hired a somewhat young person to join the ranks of management. I say "somewhat young" because after the 4 of us who are in our 20's, she's the median between "us" and the next closest staff member in age. She can relate to the younger crowd but she can also relate to the rest. It was cool to think that the younger ones had someone on the inside of management who could let's our woes be heard.
Well that plan didn't last long. She's fully developed what my coworker calls, "Management Syndrome." She was probably brainwashed during the monthly Circ manager meetings. While branch, circ, and info meetings have been cut to once every other month, circ management has deemed it necessary to continue to meet every month. No one has any idea what they actually do during them, but I believe they use those 2 hours to get away from annoying patrons and the stress they bring.

Based on the Best Selling Novel

I was working the phones when a young patron called. She wanted to find out where her hold for 'The Time Traveler's Wife' was... number 369 in the holds queue to be exact. When I told her, she sighed loudly, and I told her she was better off watching the movie first. But she "really, really, really" wanted to read the book first. This always happens when movies are soon to be released. I was surprised though when there wasn't a big surge in demand for 'Q&A.' 'Slumdog Millionaire' is a 100x better movie than 'Genetic Time/Space Continuum Disorder Guy's Spouse,' yeah, I said it!