Falling!

Here are some photos I took this morning. I don't like the way Blogger makes your photos smaller when you upload, it takes away from the quality.

This one I took with my Canon, using a special setting.

Random, I know, but appreciate it for the artistic quality...

Loved it!

I recently read The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards. It's a very good read. Only after a few weeks of finishing it I discovered there was a movie made based on the book. I usually don't like watching movies after I have read the book, but this one was actually pretty good. The book has 401 pages and everything is very detailed. Like most movies from books some details were left out, but the movie followed the book pretty closely. This is definitely one of my favorite books. Check it out at your local library!

Stop! It's Hammer time!

It is currently 1:25 P.M.

Someone just signed in for a computer and put the time down as 1:11! Not a child mind you, he is at least 18.

I rest my case...

State Fair, a GREAT movie, and frustration!

So this is a little delayed, but here it goes!

Tuesday I dropped off my photos for the state fair in Little Rock. I won't know how they did until at least the 10, that is when the fair actually starts. I hope I get to go back while it is actually going on, I have two main reasons, the first is to see how my photos did. The second is I want to try a Pig Licker, for those of you who don't know a Pig Licker is chocolate covered bacon! If I don't get to back whiloe it is going on I won't know until the end of the month when the entries are picked up. Here's a random photo from the road...

After we got back from Little Rock, Clay and I saw the movie Fireproof. It is so good! I would encourage everyone to go see it. I'm not married, so I can't say this for sure, but I think it will have an even bigger impact on you if you are married.

So let's move on to frustration, after 3:30 or so on weekdays there is a steady stream of young people who come through the library to use the computers. We have 10 computers, so once they are full we start a waiting list, everyone gets one hour and when there time is up we ask them to let someone else use it, then we call the next person on the list. So here's the scenario 10 computers, 10 users, one user gets up leaving 10 computers, and 9 users. So obviously the person being called would use the open computer. Amazingly enough at least half of the people say "which computer do I use", Okay once again just to clarify, there are 10 computers, 9 people using them leaving 1 computer open. Am I crazy or should it not be ridiculously obvious?!?

It amazes me, I'm to the point I just laugh and say the only one open. One day someone ask that and they response they got from my co-worker was "the one that's open, unless you want to sit on someone's lap!" I thought I might actaully pee my pants!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

So here is an issue that really troubles me...a large portion of today's youth cannot tell time. When someone wants to use a computer here at the library they have to sign-in on our time log. This process consist of writing your name and the current time of day.

Simple enough...right?

Well, there is an alarmingly high number of teens of come through here that can't tell what time it is by looking at an analog clock. We have a clock hanging right behind the circ desk so all you have to do is look straight up and there it is. It's funny a lot of patrons know the clock is there, yet every time they sign they say "what time is it" my reaction to this is always the same I point to the clock and say "there is a clock right there" unless of course I can see some reason to just go ahead and tell them the time. The other thing that happens is, they write their name and then look at the clock (usually for a long period of time) and then say "What time is it?". To which my reply is the same, at that they usually just guess the time or they just don't write a time and walk off. What really takes the cake though, is today a lady who is at least in her mid-thirties came in and said "I wanna play computer" so I hand her the sign-in sheet, she writes her name and some random numbers and says " you can just make up a time I didn't know what to put" I say there is a clock right there (slightly stressing the RIGHT THERE part) and she says " I know, but I didn't know what to put". I almost wanted to laugh out loud, I mean seriously this woman is a mother of 3 children, she drives a vehicle on the open road, but she can't tell time.

It disturbs me!

I'm veering off course here, the point is there are entirely too many of today's youth that cannot tell time.

When I have children I will make a point to make sure they develop skills like that very early on.

Woes of the Library...

Here's an actual conversation I had today...

Emo Girl "I need to return these books, I have one more at home, but we are in a hurry. My mom knows these are overdue and that there is a fine , but we'll pay it later"

Me "Okay, well actually we don't charge fines, and I can re-check the other book if it is over due."

Emo Girl "Oh ok, good we are in a hurry"

She proceeds to walk away from the desk and I realize that the top 2 books on the stack belong to the High School Library.

Me "Excuse me, these books don't belong to us, they belong to the High School"

Emo Girl "I know I told my mom that, but she said we could bring them here."

Me "Well you can't return school library books here."

Emo Girl "Oh they belong to the school?!?"

Me "Yeah, see this stamp that says "Properly of Green Forest High School" in the front cover?"

Emo Girl "Oh, ha ha, okay, well we are in a hurry! Thanks!

So here's my take on this conversation, I'm assuming that probably this girl's mother realized that they had overdue library materials about 3 seconds before they left to go somewhere else. In a hurried panic she says to Emo daughter "We have got to return that stuff to the library, go grab it quick, WE ARE IN A HURRY!" So Emo girl runs to gather up the materials and realizes a book is missing in reply she says "Mom, I can't find one of the books!" Mom says "Those books are already overdue, they are going to charge us a fine, but go ahead and come on, WE ARE IN A HURRY! Emo girl and mother run out the door, jump in the car, and speed away. On the way to the library mother tells Emo girl, "run in and return those, tell them we know one is missing and that they are overdue and we will pay the fine next time, cause WE ARE IN A HURRY!" Mother pulls into library parking lot, Emo girl jumps out, mother says" go fast, WE ARE IN A HURRY!"

So by the time poor little Emo girl gets inside and relays the message all she can think of is "WE ARE IN A HURRY!" It was quite amusing. I'm still not sure why her mother thought we could accept High School Library books?!?

I don't really know what to do with my hands right now...

So I had a very loverly long weekend, I went to West Plains to see my amazing best friend! A lot of random fast food and Wal-Mart trips were made. I got an awesome Razorback hoodie that I am super excited about! On Sunday night I got to sing with the praise team at his church, that was pretty cool. Monday consisted of a lot of helping out at the church loading trailers and stuff like that for an event later this week. On Tuesday we went to Mt. Home to see my love, Jessica and her new found mate, Joseph. We ate at CHILI'S, my favorite! Then we watched Baby Momma, it was ok. I expected to laugh more, but it wasn't bad. Wednesday I came home and returned to work. Tonight is bowling, I didn't decent last week, I hope I do even better tonight.

Some weekend pics...

So excited I could PEE!!!

Ok so ever since they made Batman Begins I have been saying they should make one with The Penguin played by Phillip Seymore Hoffman, well guess what?!?!? THEY ARE! I am so excited, if they had made one with an other actor playing The Penguin I probably wouldn't have watched it.

I CAN'T WAIT!

Look! Look!

http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-09-batmans-pulling-out-the-big-guns-confirmed

Politics...

Check it out!

http://shelfcheck.blogspot.com/2008/09/shelf-check-265.html

When will I learn?!

So, ever since I started working here at our loverly public library I have been throwing around this idea of a people-less library with my co-workers. Basically it would be like a large underground vault if you will. It would have arms with claws that would retrieve the books and they would be dispensed through a slot.

Well look out kids someone else thought of it too! Slightly different than mine, but the same premise, it's called the GoLibrary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzpF9FQtoR8

Mine would house a lot of materials, where this one has a limited selection, much like the Red Box located at McDonalds and Wal-Mart.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing that beats the experience of going to the library and browsing through the books, doing research, or getting information hands on. There are some days around here that get crazy when we search high and low for a book and can't find it. This would eliminate all that confusion. Of course if all libraries converted to this I would be out of a job! I think the GoLibrary is a great idea that will appeal to our fast paced society, and possibly encourage reading to people who never think twice about going to their local library.

Either way I had the idea, did nothing with it, and no someone else is doing it!

This always happens, I had the idea for Bluetooth on phones before I ever heard of it, and now it is something used by millions of people everyday!