Power Failure.

Last night I walked in to work and about 4 people stopped me to fill me in on the happenings of the last half-hour. Apparently some weird transmisssion-line something failed near Central Sq in Cambridge and caused this huge power outage that ran from Kendall to Harvard Yard. And because our servers are located in another part of town they were affected. So we had lights at work, and little else. No phone, no internet, no network drives. Nothing. It made my night really quiet, as I only had to field questions. I think everyone else's night was a lot busier. Lucky for me, one of my co-workers took pity on me and found me a book to read to help pass the time. (Yeah, it would have been a good night for me to have actually brought my homework with me. I would have gotten tons done, oh well. hindsight is 20/20.) But it made for a nice evening. I got to enjoy the effects of a power outage in a warm, lighted building.

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/11/29/cambridge-power-outage-thousands-hit-blackout/0r93dJVZglkOagAFw8w9bK/story.html 

Beware the full moon

When I first started at the library someone mentioned to me that it tends to get kind of crazy around the full moon. I know it sounds weird, but that's what she told me. And she was being serious. I made a mental note and didn't think of it again for a while. Craziness comes and craziness goes and I didn't pay much attention to the cycles of the moon--until last month. The week of the full moon was out of control. Things went wrong, computers went down, patrons had problems, very much a Murphy's law week.

I believe in the full moon now.

Yesterday, one of my more superstitious colleagues came up to me and mentioned that the full moon is on Thursday, and that typically we have troubles for the three days before and the three days after. Which puts us at "full moon" starting today.

It did.

Tonight has been a little bit out of control. Seems like nearly everyone and everything has had some kind of issue. It should prove to be an exciting week. I'm a little afraid for it.

Daily Commute

When I got home from work tonight to my dismay I found that there was a dishwasher parked next to the pillar I chain my bike to on the back porch. Turns out that dishwashers are surprisingly light, though they make pretty terrible sounds when you drag them across concrete. Despite having to relocate a dishwasher at 9:45 at night, I got home a solid 15 minutes earlier than the earliest I'm normally home, and I was about 25 minutes before the time I get home when the bus is late (which it usually is). I'm a huge fan of biking. Of course, I do give up on my reading time, but I am getting some solid exercise. And somehow I feel like the books will still get read whereas the exercise might not happen otherwise. Overall, my new commute is a success so far. We'll see how it continues. 

Nooks and Kindles

I have a pretty awesome job. And as part of my job I have to learn how to use the Nook and the Kindle. What a shame. I'm sure most of you know my feelings about e-readers, but for any of you out there who are unfamiliar... I think e-readers are great, but not for me. I am totally on board with the idea that I can travel somewhere and I don't have to carry tons of books with me. I think it's awesome that you can change the font size for people who need that. I'm not on board with having to purchase e-books, that the publisher can then take away at random from me if they choose. I mean, come on. A publisher (or Amazon or anyone) would never walk in to your home and re-possess your actual books, so why can they do that for e-books? I also just love to hold actual books, and I like being able to turn the pages and see how far I am in the book and skip around easily if I choose to. To sum up. I think that e-readers are cool, but I have no plans to purchase one.

Even though I have no plans of owning any kind of e-reader I nevertheless think it is super cool that I got to sit down at work one day last week and play around on a Nook and a Kindle and learn how to use them. I found the Nook a little bit more intuitive than the Kindle and I liked the interface it had better. The Nook was also in color which I liked whereas the Kindle I used wasn't. But I wouldn't be surprised if my preference for the Nook stems from the fact that it was the first one I used. In all reality, since I still have no plans to buy an e-reader I don't feel like my preference matters in any way shape or form. And I'm sure that with time I will become equally adroit with both.

Signatures

So in my spare time (heh. what's spare time?) I moonlight as a cashier at a local retail establishment (and by local I mean in the next town over?).

Side note: Because of the nature of the word I have always associated moonlighting with night jobs, but I checked the OED--there are no time of day restrictions on the use of the word. Which is good because my "regular" job is my night job, and my "moonlighting" job is my day job (I know, it makes no sense--but such is life)

Back to my story. A customer came up to my register one day this week and after giving me a nice compliment (it's always nice to be appreciated) we chatted for a minute about signatures while he signed for his purchase. He mentioned how a signature is kind of like the way you make your mark on the world. (A symbol of yourself if you will). Our conversation was fairly short, not much more than him making that statement and me agreeing because it seemed reasonable. But I've been thinking about it since then and thinking how really our signature is a reflection of who we are (as well as the society that we are from). I think it would be an interesting study to study the ways that people sign their name in different cultures to see what it tells about that culture. For example I think that a collection of signatures from people in the US would tell a lot about the fast paced environment we live in. I mean how often do you see people with truly beautiful signatures anymore? (Incidentally, this customer's signature was very beautiful--he was from China, I think.) Today so many people when they have to sign their name sign nothing more than a scribble, not a single identifiable letter present. But when you see signatures from bygone eras you can really tell that they put some time and effort into it. Look at the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Nearly every one of them is identifiable, and if it's not its more because they're too close together than because of any neglect on the signer's part.

Imagine trying to forge Benjamin Franklin's signature...

I am proud to say that when I sign my name it is 98% legible (sometimes I put in too many o's or too many humps on the m...). Unfortunately, I don't think that my signature reflects who I am in the way that I wish it did, I have some work ahead of me to improve it. I really believe that our signature is a reflection of who we are (whether in this digital age we realize it or not) and I think that it would behoove humanity to take a moment to reflect on not only who we are, but who the persona is that we present to the world. I think that someone who takes the time to sign their name properly on even the most meaningless slip of paper is probably someone who takes pride in who they are and is probably making the effort to keep their life in good order.


I think this shift between caring about our signatures and barely even taking enough time to scribble on a page may have something to do with the shift between the "culture of character" and the "culture of personality" talked about in Susan Cain's book Quiet. This just occurred to me, so I think I'm going to have to ruminate on this some more and come back to it another time.


If you signature is a symbol of yourself, what does yours day about you?

Public Libraries

A while ago I think I promised to explain more about the libraries here in Boston. And since I am feeling lonely because I've run out of other people's blog posts to read I guess that means I should post one myself and then I can solve someone else's loneliness (except I think there are only maybe two people who read this, but maybe it'll be just what they need...a blog post about libraries...)

Ok, so in Boston there are about a billion public libraries.There is the Boston Public Library and all it's branches and then there's what's called the Minuteman Network. From what I understand BPL was so big that it caused problems for all the small libraries in the surrounding cities and so they banded together and formed a network that is a formidable opponent to BPL (or at least this is what I imagine happened). Luckily you can use either library system and nobody really cares. So I have library cards for both which allows me to check out books from almost anywhere I can imagine (and this is great until I have books from BPL and from Cambridge and from Simmons and I get confused about which books are due where when). So when I got my Minuteman card I got it from the Brookline library because it's right on my way to and from school, but then about a week later I got a job (!) at another library in the network and so now I pretty much get my books exclusively from them (for what I hope are obvious reasons). Needless to say I am a huge fan of public libraries. And because I happen to think the library I work at is one of the most gorgeous libraries ever here are some pictures I found online.

The Reading Room

Gorgeous space, isn't it?

One corner of our children's floor (they get a whole floor all to themselves--
and that doesn't even include the teen room on another floor.

Don't be deceived by the difference in styles of the pictures. A few years ago we had a major expansion and so our reading room is in the older building and the other pictures are from our new building, they are simply gorgeous; I always feel so lucky that I get to work in such a beautiful space.