I've been wanting to do NaNoWriMo this year, but I've also been trying to be all responsible and productive, which makes it harder to justify long stretches of time writing each day. Or 'writing', as is more often the case. The plan I've settled on is to put some time toward studying each day, and if after taking care of that and any other urgent, important business there is still time, then I should write. No particular story in mind this year, once again I am aiming to work scattershot on a variety of small ones. My real goal is to get back into a regular writing habit.

Past few days have been going well. Work is much better when I have things to do over the course of the day. Mainly, books to shelve and people to perform tech support / reference assistace for. It is very satisfying to help a library patron through a few different obstacles in the course of their business and witness their appreciation at its conclusion. That definitely feels better than sitting around waiting for time to pass.

It seems if I do not post to LiveJournal often enough, or in a sufficiently human style, I receive more spam. Very well then, I post.

I've certainly been in a position to post of late but I find myself having little to say that isn't in direct conversation. I'm not sure why.

Tried to make this earlier but it got et, presumably I did something wrong in leaving the tab open when I had to leave. Anyway. Haven't been posting because connection has been too bad to reach LiveJournal, so I haven't read anything there for a couple of months and haven't posted because I wouldn't be able to correct anything or check that it went through.

There is one book at the charity shop which is not in English. I do not know what language it is in. I would guess Eastern European. So I try to keep it prominently displayed in a relatively empty part of the children's book shelves, hoping someone who knows that language will see it and want it.

Perhaps I should dress down a bit at the toy library, as if I am not looking busily engaged in toy library related activities patrons tend to ask me for help finding books.

Which is not to say I can't help them, or don't enjoy doing so. Rather, I worry it would be seen as overstepping my bounds were members of the paid staff to see me providing assistance. So far my approach has been to say something like "I'm not sure I am supposed to help since I am only a volunteer here, but" and finish with the best I can do quickly (usually this involves handing em the book, but not always).

Today was okay. Feet are definitely getting better at handling the standing, rather faster than I had been expecting based on experience, and minimal other pain today. There had been an arrival of new furniture at the charity shop today, which I took upon myself to arrange while senior staff were out, and which was well-received. As much as I spend most of my 13 hours/week there straightening coathangers, I make it clear to the staff there that I am interested in having my time occupied with work rather than simply bludging if there is anything else they have for me to do.

Some days ago I saw a book identification post on a blog I was reading. The basic idea is, someone writes in with a vague description of a book for which they do not know title and author, but wish to know. People then comment with details of what they think the book in question is, and hopefully everyone goes home happy.

Last week after I asked the toy librarian if I could list her as a reference, she gave me one of the toy library pamphlets to copy her email address from. I put it in my shirt pocket so I would not forget it.

Last week was a further descent in caring for the toy library. Seemed just about everything returned incomplete. One item came back as nothing but its lid and a single puzzle pieces. Sets without barcodes that we therefore cannot tell the library system are returned, accumulate.