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First thing today at work, I was supposed to start cataloging the books in their library, finally. Except that well, everything that could be non-functional was non-functional. The instruction sheet left for me was nuts- it's going to be this gigantic rigmarole for each book I catalog (versus Readerware, the significantly cheaper program that BORG uses, where all you have to do is put in the ISBN, and it does the rest- easy as pie, which isn't actually easy, but well- the expression stands). Then I started- I'm supposed to go copy something from a site online- the internet on the computer isn't working, nor is its network connections. So, the computer guy must be summoned. THen I figured I'd at least get acquainted with the program, and maybe see if there's some other way of entering books- well, we're missing the license number that lets us into the program. So we have to call and get that. And then I'll have to go find the appropriate labels so I can print off the labels for the books that I catalog. What a mess. It's pretty typical for projects at Slifka though- everything gets halfway done and then left to stand for some period of time. On the brighter side, Amy today made a comment about wishing I were done with school and they could hire me to make things organized and get things done on a longer term basis. OK, so I've got some pride...
For humor value- at work today, I had to go through some stuff, checking a list of names against the Yale Directory. Well, in the process, I found someone in the directory apparently named Hashem Y. Al-Hashem, which is doubly redundant, heretical, and generally strange. Reminds me of the girl I met once on the train (also, as I recall, a Yalie), whose name was Elshaddai, which she had been told meant "Many-breasted-one".
The bus has been pretty full the last week or so. Enough that people actually have to sit next to each other, which, by the unspoken laws of public transit, is something you do only if you must, unless you already know the other person well. It's been interesting to see where people choose to sit in such situations- there definitely seems to be a preference for matching racial/class background and matching gender first, with gender seeming to be less important than racial background, which seems to be of mostly equal importance to or possibly a bit more important than class background, and the obvious issue of hygiene. Occasionally someone will decide to stand rather than sit with someone who matches them in too few categories, or some such. I've watched several folks do that, recently. It's enough to make me really consider how unprejudiced people really are, regardless of what they may say, or how they act when they're thinking about it consciously. Sometimes I even wonder if all the anti-prejudice education that I at least got in school didn't actually make me more aware of such stuff than I would be otherwise. But I suppose that for kids growing up with parents (rather than just a grandparent) who were more actively discriminatory/derogatory it would make a positive difference. ANother of those you-can't-win-them-all sorts of teaching problems.
For humor value- at work today, I had to go through some stuff, checking a list of names against the Yale Directory. Well, in the process, I found someone in the directory apparently named Hashem Y. Al-Hashem, which is doubly redundant, heretical, and generally strange. Reminds me of the girl I met once on the train (also, as I recall, a Yalie), whose name was Elshaddai, which she had been told meant "Many-breasted-one".
The bus has been pretty full the last week or so. Enough that people actually have to sit next to each other, which, by the unspoken laws of public transit, is something you do only if you must, unless you already know the other person well. It's been interesting to see where people choose to sit in such situations- there definitely seems to be a preference for matching racial/class background and matching gender first, with gender seeming to be less important than racial background, which seems to be of mostly equal importance to or possibly a bit more important than class background, and the obvious issue of hygiene. Occasionally someone will decide to stand rather than sit with someone who matches them in too few categories, or some such. I've watched several folks do that, recently. It's enough to make me really consider how unprejudiced people really are, regardless of what they may say, or how they act when they're thinking about it consciously. Sometimes I even wonder if all the anti-prejudice education that I at least got in school didn't actually make me more aware of such stuff than I would be otherwise. But I suppose that for kids growing up with parents (rather than just a grandparent) who were more actively discriminatory/derogatory it would make a positive difference. ANother of those you-can't-win-them-all sorts of teaching problems.
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