First day of vacation, and I am burned. We’re down in sunny Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, where my mom and I have been going for over 15 years. I’m reading Harry Potter 6, drinking beer, eating way too much, and mooching somebody’s wi-fi connection. Life is good. A nice quiet before the storm of moving. Thinking about taking my watercolors to the beach tomorrow — if I do, maybe I’ll take some pictures and post them…
UH, DO YOU WORK HERE?
As my days as a librarian wind down, I might do a few posts here and there about my thoughts on the profession, and what I’ve learned from the job.
LESSON #1: People don’t read signs.
We have a huge sign over our desks that says, “INFORMATION.” I wear a name tag around my neck that says “STAFF.” Our staff computers are clearly separate from the patron computers. So why is it that at least a handful of times during the week I’m asked, “Uh, do you work here?”
Though people often ignore signs, we can still try our best to make signs better. Above you’ll see a noble attempt by our graphics department. At left, the old sign. At right, the new.
This might be filed under “instructions at the point of need.”
WHAT A WEEK
I’ve felt severe blogger’s guilt about not posting much new this week, so here are a couple scraps from a project I’ve been working on. I’m stranded at a library in Coventry, and I seem to have misplaced my Wacom pen, so I can’t complete the other two caricatures. (Not on the computer, anyways.)
This week I’ve had three phone interviews**, a busted radiator and bad ball joints on my car (there goes a paycheck), an album cover I’ve been trying to finish for Hawkline, and I’ve been going to work. Not a whole lot of time to blog.
If you wanted to, you could check out my Google Shared Items, which is pretty much like another blog without my commentary.
Next week we’re at the beach. I’m going to try my best not to blog from there. We’ll see.
**I can’t really complain about having three job interviews in three days. At the end of all this job search madness, I’m going to write a nice long blog post about any wisdom I’ve gleaned from the process. I will tell you the one thing I’ve learned this week: you have to be yourself. The interview process is a lot like dating: if you get into a relationship being someone you’re not, it’s not gonna work out in the long run. Have the faith that you’re a great mind, a great bargain, and a great person, most importantly.
Thus ends my public service announcement.
REGE + PATCHEN
A lot of people are pointing to the excellent Ron Rege‘s recent adaptation of Kenneth Patchen’s “The Snow is Deep on the Ground” over at PoetryFoundation.org.
What they’re not pointing to are Kenneth Patchen’s own “picture-poems,” many of which are painted and silk-screened in wild colors. Dig them:
LYNDA BARRY, “JANUARY MOURNING DOVES AND SPARROWS”
During the (still-in-progress) move, I came across these doodles that Lynda sent me as part of a letter. Everything she does inspires me to create, so I thought I’d share these.
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