March 11, 2013
I’m a total local library fan from way back. I loved the smell of books, I loved the stacks, I loved the nearly-audible hush when you walked in the sliding doors. The absence of sound creating an echo. It was so Zen.
Then they started letting kids talk, and bring food and drink. Sacrilege!
My neglect of our local one here up North can only be explained by my ridiculously hermity nature. There’s one only a mile down the road and in these three (or so) years, I’ve been there once. (It was closed.)
I blame the really strange business hours. There are a couple days when they open midmorning and stay open until the evening. There’s a couple days (not consecutively) when they open midmorning and close earlyish. There’s a day where they open late and close early. Also a day when they open late and close late.
This is too complicated for my easily combobulated brain – hard enough to recall which day of the week it is, they’ve gone and given it a good scramble for good measure!
Judging by the crowd of people milling around or sitting in their parked cars, when I dropped in for a quick peer-around on my way home from a brunch, this schedule situation is not just a problem for me. We all looked sort of stupid, I guess, but it was still entertaining to watch a man walk through the crowd, bang into the still-locked door with the schedule clearly printed on it and turn to ask the rest of us: “What? Closed? When does it open?”
Well…..
Like the vast SF Library system, the Peninsula Library System has 35 affiliated branches. (I thought it was nine.)
We’ve been to one of the more southerly branches and checked out audiobooks before, but I found their actual book collections to be somewhat lacking.
This branch was small – a single room with medium sized nooks for various sections: Children’s books, “Teen” books (isn’t that supposed to be Young Adult?), a coffee corner, and a rather large selection of DVDs and Fiction/NonFiction. Not definitively large, unfortunately.
The fiction section only housed 1 John Scalzi, 1 Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (I will not be judging her books by her website), and 2 Terry Pratchetts. That was disappointing. I didn’t have time to search further, though on my way up and down the aisles I saw two shelves’ worth of Mercedes Lackey and G.R.R.M.’s A Dance with Dragons which I will be back for.
One hopes that Patrick Rothfuss is represented somewhere in there as well because I love both him and his writing but let’s be honest, I’m quite likely to purchase the third book in his series because I will be rereading it to bits. Return? NO.
This is, by the way, how I know I’m “rich”. There was no money to buy books until college, and then it was only if I had earned enough awards from my credit card spending on essentials. Discover’s $25 worth of points translating to $40 of Borders or other bookstore money was a bookworm-saver. 17-18 years of, (ok, 16 years because I didn’t start reading until I was 2 according to the parents) of borrowing books I couldn’t keep and cherish. Now? It’s an option. I AM RICH I TELL YOU.
Ahem.
Right, so the book selection is light, but there are definitely books to read. And dope that I am, I didn’t realize that putting a “hold” on any item in the online catalog is how you request books from other branches to be delivered to your branch. It costs 75 cents per item but that’s still cheaper than driving to some of the further out branches. That’s a reminder, btw, to my cheap arse that less than a dollar to borrow a book is not a bank breaker. I’m so conditioned to think of the library as the place you only pay when you did wrong (late fees and lost books augh!) so a voluntary fee seems weird.
Their new checkout machine so I don’t have to talk to humans? Also amazing! You just stack between 1-3 books on the thingie and it scans all of them. You don’t insert them one by one, lining up the barcodes anymore! I assume it’s magic. This is my excuse for the crazy face I was making at the machine when it all went down.
And! You have the option of printing the receipt for the books or emailing them. When did the library get this crazy progressive technology? (also, could we now spend money on great books please?)
Of course I didn’t use the email function. The receipt is my bookmark and physical reminder of when the books have to go back.
Other things: they hold educational sessions for teens (I think? Teens come in that hulking size, right?) to teach them how to use the library. The librarians sounded pretty helpful to the people who were talking to them. I just assume, anyway, the library visit is, for me, a solitary, almost reverential thing and talking is not part of the game.
Must say, though, their instructions for managing e-books, online or the paper printouts they provide at the more posh branch are pretty crap. They honestly didn’t make any sense and the website had no clear information about the rules around checking out ebooks. One section suggested that ebooks could only be reserved for 24 hour checkouts! In reality the checkout period can be 7, 14, or 21 days. It’s just also unclear what those timeframes apply to.
Also, it always puts me in the happy creative mood even if I don’t have a creative atom in my body. so we’ll end with this Ira Glass piece:
January 11, 2011
I’m kicking myself up the road and back right now. I knew that my Rapid Rewards Award flight was going to expire in January but forgot to check on the exact date back in December so that I could do something about it before the expiration.
Logging in, I find that dratted thing’s expired on the second and it’ll cost me $50 to reissue. And reissued awards are “subject to capacity controls, meaning seats for travel on reissued Awards will be limited and not available on all flights.”
*&@*$&(*$!!
Quite. Annoyed.
The kicker here is that there was never any need to even log into my account to check on that. I keep a spreadsheet of all my airline awards specifically to track issue and expiration dates against this very scenario.
*sigh* That’s really aggravating to my penny-pinching soul.
April 13, 2010
I discovered that the San Francisco public library has 27 branches. 2-7!! And you can go to any branch, request books from any other branch, and return books to any branch.
I died.
I can even walk to at least one of them so on my “lunch break” I skipped food to get myself a card and started requesting books like a madwoman.
Two Terry Pratchett paperbacks came home with me immediately, and I have three pending requests for management books promoted by Harvard Business Review. If they’re good, depending on the focus and subject matter, I plan to share them with my direct reports who are management material.
Has anyone ever been so excited about discovering the library over the age of five??
April 10, 2010
The sun’s not shining, but I woke up naturally without a struggle at seven this morning, and had an hour to accustom myself to the odd sensation of painless early rising. That’s pretty fantastic. I was really worried about adjusting to long workdays again because of my weird spates of fatigue. I make it through longer days but am pretty beat at night
Today’s my “sixth workday” – it’s time to do everything I didn’t manage to work on during the week.
1. Log at least 3 hours on the freelance gig.
2. Write ~ 4000 words. (of which, at least some should be to help out Funny About Money)
3. Transcribe notes from work and organize them so I’ll be ready to start a new week on Monday.
4. Take my new employee training courses, plus the one assigned to my staffer.
Accomplished this week!
Counting today’s planned meals, I’ve very proud to say that I’ve only eaten out once this week. It was a little rice curry and sashimi meal (just a few pieces) to celebrate surviving my first full week intact.
I’m working on the dinner menu for next week, starting with some salmon tonight and roasted chicken tomorrow (which becomes at least two meals, chicken stock and delicious chicken soup). I’m avoiding red meats for now because they’re both expensive and less healthy, but am casting about for some good crockpot and ground turkey recipes. Not necessarily in conjunction, but I’m ok with that.
Reading this week
My gleanings aren’t as robust as usual, but I’ve been lucky to squeeze in a post or two, reading on my commute.
The NY Times continues coverage on the Pope’s earlier dealings with abusive priests. This whole thing just infuriates me. How can you look at such an egregious transgression and just say “let’s wait [years!] to conclude this decision”!? If I were Catholic, the sense of betrayal would be overwhelming.
Mrs. Micah ‘fessed up to a pretty big mistake that’s totally understandable and I’m proud of how she rallied after realizing what’d happened.
She also shared this most hilarious site specifically for designers but totally applicable to anyone who has ever dealt with clients: Clients From Hell
Me in Millions wondered why you would throw down a frugality gauntlet. In this case, it was Life as a Purse‘s challenge to herself.
MoneyMateKate had a turbulent experience traveling without her credit card. I’m totally paranoid about carrying much cash so I couldn’t do it unless I’d already phased the cards out of my life.
Having a good weekend, all?
April 4, 2010
I was having a distinctly teenager moment on the way home from a fantastically fun screening of The Last Unicorn with Peter S. Beagle in attendance. Not just the goofy giddiness that comes of seeing an iconic figure, hearing him speak (he’s funny), sitting two rows behind him. Cravings are what I’m after — cravings for donuts.
A’course, in my advanced years, I only wanted one donut, not the dozen and odd that would have been inhaled ten years ago.
My companion remembered a donut chain that was open until midnight, we had plenty of time. Pulling up in front of the darkened shop, I started to resign myself to going without. My companion popped out of the car to check anyway, “what’s the worst that can happen? They can just say no.”
Well, no, the worst that can happen is the guy can respond to your “can I get two glazed donuts, please?” with a stuffed box (that won’t close) of a full dozen glazed and sugary heart attacks and a sack of mini glazed doughy chunks. All for free.
Why is that bad, you ask? How can you say no? But then, what are we going to do with all of these donuts??
If they don’t go stale by then, I’ll gladly take them in to work on Monday, but glazed donuts don’t store well when crowded so now we’ve got to separate them. Like an army of pastries.
February 21, 2010
I’m a bit of a klutz. I accidentally closed the Random number generator screen, when I was trying to take a screen capture of it, but the winner of the Uprinting Giveaway is …..
#1 Investing Newbie!
Congratulations! I’m passing along your info to the Uprinting folks.
February 12, 2010
I’ve got a queue of things to give away, but as we’re well into tax season during which people swear to start better recordkeeping, and it’s still the first quarter of the year, I think it’s practical to start with tools for organization and business.
**You may enter both giveaways, you just need to tailor your entries for each one! I’m keeping track of entries separately so you have equal chances for either prize.**
Free one-year subscription to the upgraded online PearBudget
Value: $36
Co-founder Charlie Park was kind enough to drop by and let me know that all my major objections to the software had been addressed in the online version and offered me a free subscription as well as one for my readers. I encourage you to drop by and try their 30-day free subscription to decide if you like it. You won’t need a credit card for the free trial.
How to Enter:
(One entry) Leave a comment including “Pearbudget,” your name and a valid email address.
Tell me about your current tracking system and what you love and hate about it.
(One entry) Follow me and tweet this ONCE
“Win a Pearbudget subscription from @RevancheGS: http://bit.ly/aV8AMp”
(Two entries) Blog about this giveaway
Link back in a comment to let me know.
(Two entries) Subscribe to my feed (If you already subscribe, let me know in a comment)
And lure in a new reader who would sincerely like this blog and hang out for good times. Actually I have no idea how you’d do the latter, so instead you can regale me with a story about how you would have done, if you could have.
Rules and Restrictions
1. I will select a winner at random using a number generator.
2. My decisions are final.
3. Pearbudget is responsible for changing your account to a free account for a year after I select a winner.
4. Open to anyone with an internet connection.
5. Giveaway closes 11:59 pm PST, March 2nd.
500 business cards from Uprinting
Uprinting’s at it again, so for those of you who still haven’t snagged a set of business cards for yourself or your blog, you have a chance to win a fairly snazzy set here.
The Specs:
Sizes: 2 x 3.5”, 2 x 3”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (skinny card)
Paper: 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock
Specifications: Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing
The ordering process should be pretty simple (though playing with the template designs might take you a while). I was pleasantly surprised when I ordered business cards online the first time around, though it was with another company. If you like, you can check out what other swag and doodads you can order and print online at their site.
How to Enter:
(One entry) Leave a comment including “Uprinting,” your name and a valid email address.
Tell me what you’re going to do with the other 400 cards because, let’s face it, I’ve never given away more than 100 of any set of business cards ever.
(One entry) Follow me and tweet this ONCE
“Win Uprinting business cards from @RevancheGS: http://bit.ly/aV8AMp”
(Two entries) Blog about this giveaway
Link back in a comment to let me know.
(Two entries) Subscribe to my feed (If you already subscribe, let me know in a comment)
Come back and tell me a funny story. (Optional)
Rules and Restrictions
1. Open to US residents only. (Sorry guys! They’re paying for shipping, I don’t have a say in this.)
2. I will select a winner at random using a number generator.
3. My decisions are final.
4. Uprinting is responsible for everything that comes after I pick a winner and tell them who to reward.
5. Giveaway closes 11:59 pm PST, February 20th.
Disclosure: There may be something in it for me in exchange for posting this giveaway, but I don’t know what it is yet, or if I’ll even accept it.
