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Quiet day of work, probably just as well for my still-recovering self. Also my still-recovering voice, which I seem to have damaged yesterday afternoon in a protracted period of coughing and hacking. Nearly called in sick again but the voice was pretty much the only problem and I practised talking in the morning to make sure I could actually do my job. Did have to convince my co-workers I was mostly recovered and the dread sound of my speech were mainly an artefact of damage than illness per se.
One patron asked if we had a particular book which has had a bit of recent notoriety, something he had heard was a bucket list kind of read. I tracked i down for him while he went off to browse other stuff - others had recently asked about it so I knew there was a copy around, just had to find the exact title which neither of us could remember off-hand. When I saw him later I said there is indeed a copy in the system but it is on loan currently and would he like to place it on hold? But he declined, as he was going in for heart surgery soon and did not know when he would be able to get back in to pick the book up.
I read into that a bit of what I felt to be understandable fear that this forthcoming operation would be the end of him and some desire to get in what classic stories could be got first. But of course this impression may have far more to do with me as a brief stranger in this person's life and how I see things than any actual insight into the person. I think it's important for me to remember that.
He also seemed to get frustrated having some difficulty navigating the self-checkout system which I attempted to guide him through - clearly had used it before, but was attempting to do different from usual things with it. Contrasting what I said just above, this prompted me to consider that people's frustrations might not have so much to do with me as something like annoyance with themselves for having difficulty with someone they don't think they should be having difficulty with, or some other pressure in their life. Certainly I've felt those things enough myself yet I don't so easily remember other people might be feeling similar things.
And of course there is always so far room for improvement in my own handling of interactions. Details to wonder if I could have said this or that, or framed the other thing in a different way.
The previous post I typed up using RedNotebook, journaling software I originally installed via PortableApps as a means of taking down notes and musings while I worked on my assignments this past semester. That experience led me to think RedNotebook would be useful for actual diarying and then if I liked the result I could just copy and paste the results as a substitute for blogging.
Although, not these words which I am instead typing as a post on Dreamwidth. And with its calendrical structure it would not be suitable for accumulating notes to refer to in an ongoing way instead of the thought-clearing sort of doodling I was doing previously. Well I've seen some hints it can be customised for other uses but nothing to convince me I should attempt that over other more-favourable tools.
One patron asked if we had a particular book which has had a bit of recent notoriety, something he had heard was a bucket list kind of read. I tracked i down for him while he went off to browse other stuff - others had recently asked about it so I knew there was a copy around, just had to find the exact title which neither of us could remember off-hand. When I saw him later I said there is indeed a copy in the system but it is on loan currently and would he like to place it on hold? But he declined, as he was going in for heart surgery soon and did not know when he would be able to get back in to pick the book up.
I read into that a bit of what I felt to be understandable fear that this forthcoming operation would be the end of him and some desire to get in what classic stories could be got first. But of course this impression may have far more to do with me as a brief stranger in this person's life and how I see things than any actual insight into the person. I think it's important for me to remember that.
He also seemed to get frustrated having some difficulty navigating the self-checkout system which I attempted to guide him through - clearly had used it before, but was attempting to do different from usual things with it. Contrasting what I said just above, this prompted me to consider that people's frustrations might not have so much to do with me as something like annoyance with themselves for having difficulty with someone they don't think they should be having difficulty with, or some other pressure in their life. Certainly I've felt those things enough myself yet I don't so easily remember other people might be feeling similar things.
And of course there is always so far room for improvement in my own handling of interactions. Details to wonder if I could have said this or that, or framed the other thing in a different way.
The previous post I typed up using RedNotebook, journaling software I originally installed via PortableApps as a means of taking down notes and musings while I worked on my assignments this past semester. That experience led me to think RedNotebook would be useful for actual diarying and then if I liked the result I could just copy and paste the results as a substitute for blogging.
Although, not these words which I am instead typing as a post on Dreamwidth. And with its calendrical structure it would not be suitable for accumulating notes to refer to in an ongoing way instead of the thought-clearing sort of doodling I was doing previously. Well I've seen some hints it can be customised for other uses but nothing to convince me I should attempt that over other more-favourable tools.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-27 16:30 (UTC)From:It seems that just about everyone I know has or is recovering from (as in my case) a cold or throat infection!
no subject
Date: 2014-10-31 09:16 (UTC)From: