Marxist Guy

Some guy came in the other day and asked where the 335.4s were located — more specifically, a 40-volume set of Marxist books — saying that he was looking on a different floor and then came down here where the books weren’t there where they were supposed to be and it’s been so confusing since books are moving everywhere. A library assistant nearby politely and patiently explained that the library is in the middle of a moving project and books are being moved to different locations on the floor. He demanded to know where the 335.4s were again, and she proceeded to lead him to the area where they were now being shelved.

Now at the appropriate section, she asked him what the call number for these Marxist books was.”335.4,” he repeated. There was a beat, as both of us waited for him to continue with the call number.

“What’s the rest of the call number?” she asked.

I pointed to some call numbers on the spines of nearby books. “There should be some letters and numbers after it,” I pointed out.

He was undeterred. “335.4! It’s a 40-volume set! It should be easy to see.”

“Okay, well, if you don’t know the rest of the call number, they’re somewhere in this aisle. So if you want to take a look, you can.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll just look.” And off he went in search of his Marxist books. The library assistant and I left the scene.

I found out later that this old guy found the books, but noticed that they were split between shelves. He called it disorganized and said they should all be together, and proceeded to rearrange the volumes so that they were all on the same shelf. He left.

When he was gone, a shelver put the books back to the way they were before.

 

So much time

Now that I don’t work nights, I don’t know what to do with my newfound freedom. I know I should write and I will eventually get to it, but Orange is the New Black is much too tempting (and easy) for me.

Overworked society

Came across this article about people working multiple jobs and how it slowly kills them and this is really just the tip of the iceberg. I remember Michael Moore talking briefly about it in one of his documentaries (Sicko, I think) about how one of his subjects has three jobs and showed Bush praising Wal Mart employees for having so many jobs. “Only in America!” he basically said. It’s sad though, and even sadder that a lot of people don’t realize how the system, including big companies, work against society to keep them overworked and exhausted. It’s something I realized growing up; I never wanted to be one of those who have a mediocre job that I’m not passionate about, to spend my hours and days slaving away and not have time to do the things I love. That doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t there, though.

I think a lot of it depends on your perspective. I’m an arts kinda guy. I know what I want to do and I’ll work hard at it, and I don’t necessarily plan on having a family and all that stuff anytime soon. For others, life to them may be just that: get a job, work until you retire, give money to your spouse/kid(s), die. Done. It’s a trap, isn’t it? Maybe some people are happy living like that, but I wouldn’t be, and it still leaves the issue of living a comfortable and healthy life.

I also found this comment at the bottom of the article very interesting:

My education was great, I have two college diplomas. There are no jobs available to me in my field; the ones that exist are immediately filled by immediate graduates. They choose the youngest who went straight from high school to college so that they can overwork and abuse them, many working overtime & weekends without added pay. If you weren’t selected to have your talent farmed at 50+ hours a week and you can’t find work for a year, you fall into the category of having no experience in the field and never get in. So you’re stuck in minmum wage jobs.

So you get a minimum wage job in any of the dozens of fast food locations available, but they’re looking for part time. Unexplainably, they hire you and 3 others at the same time, and juggle 7.5 hour shifts between everyone (preventing you from getting a full lunch break), carefully keeping you .5 hours below the “full time” tally for the week, so you are inelegible for a dental or prescription plan.

And people wonder why young adults off themselves in droves.

Any thoughts? How often do you work a week? Are you tired and exhausted from working a lot?

Falling asleep at work

Is that a sign that I shouldn’t be working and should be sleeping instead?

Not bad

Two days of actually decent work logging this week so far. Huh. Just when I’ve sort of gotten sick and tired of logging it becomes bearable. Hmm.

Too much time to think

Working as a logger gives me too much time to think. And when I have time to think, it’s always sad thoughts.

Almost crying at work

It’s not a good thing, right? I guess it depends on the reason. You could be so happy from working that you cry. But that was obviously not the case for me. That’s probably a good indicator that I shouldn’t be working there, right?

For the first time in foreverrrrrrr….

I’m writing a post on my computer instead of on my phone like I’ve been doing for the past while. Been attending a memoir writing workshop lead by the amazing Amber Dawn. Super helpful in helping me focus on my writing. I’m getting a lot out of it, and I’m so happy to be writing after a drought of not being able to because of working those dreaded 12 hour days. Thankfully, I’m now done to “normal” 9 hours a day this week (4 at the library and 5 at the TV station), which I think will be enormously helpful in getting me to bed earlier and hence not hating my life when I wake reluctantly drag myself out of bed in the mornings.

Also, I can spend more time with my cat,which is really the most important change out of all this.

Day 3 of 12-hour workday

It was yesterday, but I crashed at around 10pm. I know some people are able to work long hours, but I’ve never really enjoyed working full-time. Going to see if I can work a bit less next week. Otherwise, I will be an unhappy kitty.

Found out I’m not the greatest at job interviews. It might be because I haven’t done one in years, and before that, another year or so. I think the best thing I did was trying to be funny and making them laugh. But now, as I reminisce about what I should’ve and shouldn’t have said, I just get this overwhelming feeling that maybe this isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing. I should be writing or making films or making music as my job, something I actually feel comfortable doing. It sucks that the world doesn’t work that way.