At the library we have two kinds of bookdrops*: an automated one that directly sends the items to be processed by the AMH, and a "dead drop" which is just a hole in the wall leading to a bin. The dead drop's contents must be emptied by hand, so we prefer that customers use the automated drop and save the dead drop for when the other isn't working. The problem is when facing the building, the dead drop is most visible, while the automated drop is a few feet away in a small alcove. This isn't the most ideal design, and you can guess what happens.

Recently we decided to put a lock on the dead drop during open hours so that our staff doesn't have to spend all day bending and emptying the dead drop by hand. Watching people walk up to the newly locked dead drop feels sort of like administering a secret IQ test. Will they notice it's locked? Will they try to fit books in anyway? Will they notice the sign directing them to the automated bookdrop? Will they walk inside and complain? Will they stomp off and try again another day?

I watched one woman get out of her car, walk up to the dead drop, frown, then stomp back to her car without returning her item. She then parked her car and came back, finding the automated bookdrop on her second try.

Most people are figuring it out. And, yes, there is a large sign (with text and an arrow!) right in front of their faces.


*While I prefer bookdrop, performing a Google Fight on bookdrop and book drop suggests that book drop is the more widely used term.

OK, let's say you're at Target and you're ready to check out. Lane #12 is lit and there is an employee standing cheerily awaiting you, while lane #11 is unlit and completely empty of employees. It would be strange and even perhaps a bit rude to stroll over to lane #11 and expect the employee to switch lanes to help you, right?

No, you wouldn't do it at the grocery store; why do people do it at the library?

I'm having a ranty week, and today there was a man I would like to have punched. For those of you who don't work in public service, you'd be appalled at how downright rude people are these days. On the lesser scale, it ruins your whole day, and on the larger scale, your faith in common decency is diminished, eroding away slowly with each bad experience.

It's astonishing how much someone can find to complain about the services libraries offer to the public for FREE.

I picked up some roast beef and potato salad from the Cub deli and had myself a delicious dinner while watching an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Not terribly exciting, but hey.

What a fun mess work was today!! First of all, The Move was on. Lee packed up and moved into the conference room, which will be her new office. Then it was my and Janet's turn to move into Lee's old corner. Natasha, Reva and Mary moved into our old desk, Susan moved into Natasha's old desk, and tomorrow when Cyndi gets a chance she'll move into Susan's old desk. I haven't quite figured out yet who is getting Cyndi's old desk. In our corner, Janet and I rearranged the desks to maximize space for two people and it turned out great. We each have desk space on opposite sides, and our shared PC is in the middle. Naturally we'd each have liked to each have our own computer, but IT refuses to add any more network connections to the building since we've moving in less than a year, which is understandable. Several of us wanted to keep the monitors we were used to during the move, so three monitors ended up getting swapped among workstations as well. Janet and I also took our chair with us, as did Natasha -- I guess we're very attached to our furniture. ;) Needless to say, with all the moving around, it was a day of confusion and frenzy -- but wait, there's more!

In the early afternoon a puppet show was scheduled. The parking lot was packed, and people were parking in the fire lane and several morons were completely blocking off a chunk of the circular drive, so that other people driving around looking for a place to park ended up at a dead end with no room to turn around. They had to back up the whole way out of the circle. I walked outside to see what the fuss was about, and several patrons commented to me that they saw several near-accidents. One man sat in his car and just honked and honked at the car blocking the way, despite the fact that no one was in it! You could smell the road rage a mile away. Never underestimate the dangerous potential of a puppet show -- I swear, provide some free summer entertainment for their kids and people just turn into idiots.

THEN, a woman requested help at one of the Internet stations. She had filled out a form online at some apartment/renting site describing what kind of place she was looking for, and was thoroughly shocked to discover that the information she had gleefully typed in was now online for everyone to see! She didn't want her name up there after all. She'd tried to delete it by highlighting the text and hitting the Delete key. It was a webpage, not a word processor, so that obviously didn't work. I advised her to look for a "remove my listing" option on the website, and failing that contact the owners. She was obviously relatively new to the WWW and really pissed off, but I said, "Um, that's the way of the Internet -- anything you type in has the potential of being displayed for all the world to see." She went off to try and call the website. She had apparently been really nasty to Susan earlier the first time she'd asked for help with something. I guess it can be confusing. I hardly remember what it was like being an Internet Newbie, except that there weren't any visual browsers to speak of yet, just good ol' text-based Lynx. When Netscape came out, I had to buy more memory for my computer just so I could run it. Even then it was rarely worth my time to try and surf on a 2400 baud modem -- I could type in the address and go do something else for a few minutes. Maybe by the time I got back it would have loaded! :)

Oi. I do digress.

Karin, my sister-in-law, flew into the U.S. (Los Angeles) yesterday with a friend. They will be out there in California for about two weeks before flying up here to visit us for a while. They are arriving on the 12th, the same day we close on the house. We're planning to start sleeping nights in the new house starting the first day, so they will be staying in our apartment. It will be a big, chaotic mess -- but in a good way.

One last thing: 13 days!

This is gonna be short as I'm dead tired and ready to go off to bed to read my book. Jonas is working late tonight (all-night-late so that he gets to take off work entirely tomorrow), so I'm not even going to try to stay up to wait for him.

There is some kind of incredibly annoying insect in this apartment. At first I thought they were fleas (having no pets, that'd make for some fine jokes, wouldn't it?), but they are flying. As far as I know, fleas only jump. We have had occasional fruit flies before, but right now there is no food of any kind out anywhere in the apartment to tempt a fruit fly. Unless Jonas is hiding a stash of something sweet and juicy ...

At the library today was the big summer children's book sale. It was supposed to be from noon to 7pm, but they were pretty much cleaned out by 4pm -- pretty cool. It raises money for the Friends of the Library organization. As part of the promotion of the sale, some face-painters were hired. During some of the lulls in between groups of children getting painted, almost all of the staff went to get painted as well. It was childishly fun -- I got a glittery ladybug on my arm! That was truly the excitement of the day, however. It kind of dragged on after that. When I got off at 5 I had to walk over the hill to retrieve my car from the next parking lot. When I'd pulled in at 1:00 there were NO free spots to be had because of the book sale.

I've just started a to-do list for Friday since I have off. It isn't very exciting. I'm off.

Oops, haven't written in a while -- we're completely moved into our apartment now and I absolutely adore it! Everything is really great. I just love it here. We've pretty much decorated the two bathrooms in dark green (mine) and cranberry (Jonas'). Our bed is cool and our furniture should arrive around the end of the month. We've bought one computer desk for the office and plan to get another one identical to it and put them back-to-back. Our livingroom is the only one still mostly empty, as we don't yet have any furniture for in there. It will probably have to wait a few months.

I got the job at the library! When I went in to turn in my application and mentioned that I had previous experience working in a library they asked me to do an interview right then. At the end of my interview they offered me the job! Apparently, they'd been interviewing for about two weeks, but all the other applicants either had schedule conflicts or couldn't work at the Eden Prairie branch, or some other things. They were actually going to put off making any decision about the position until January since nobody seemed to fit it -- that is, until I came along! :) Yay!

I had a pretty great birthday -- Mom, Dean, Kris and Grandma came to our apartment, and then we all went out to lunch at the Green Mill here in Eden Prairie. Afterwards Jonas and I went shopping for clothes for me and my new JOB. It was pretty cool -- I found some things I liked. Afterwards we drove out to Dad's and picked up some things. Dad gave me a kitchen steamer/cooker for my birthday. From Mom, Dean and Kris I got money, a bottle of wine and treated to lunch. Grandma gave me some holiday towels and money, and Jonas gave me the new computer game Pharaoh. After leaving Dad's we drove to Chanhassen where a local resident has the largest holiday lights display in the Twin Cities -- it was nutty -- so many lights! Then we went out to eat at T.G.I. Friday's. It was a great day!

I've been writing to a bunch of people worldwide, hoping to get some letters back and start some new friendships. I can't wait!

On Friday we're going over to Grandma's and bringing our wedding video since she hasn't seen it yet. I haven't even seen the entire thing myself actually. That should be fun, though most of it is in Swedish and Jonas will probably have to do some translating.

Well, this is yet another attempt at keeping a diary/journal thing. I always start them and never seem to manage to keep up with it. Here goes nothing!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. We're having an afternoon dinner here at Dad's place. We've been in his new place for about one month. It's pretty nice, much newer, of course, than the old house. Nevertheless, Jonas and I are anxious to get into our apartment. Just one more week until we can move in. I can't wait!

It will be so cool to finally have a real place of our own. When we were in our apartment in Sweden it never really felt permanent enough to bother doing much decorating. But now finally we'll have a place we're likely to stay for at least several years.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is on TV right now and a woman from Plymouth was just the last contestant. She quit at $125,000, though.

Jonas is still at work -- he won't be home until after 11pm now that he's working at night teaching evening courses. It will be kind of strange once I start working, being on two different schedules, but it won't be forever. He'll eventually get some day courses as well.

I picked up an application for the Eden Prairie library today. It would be nice to get a position there, but I won't get my hopes up too high just yet!