Life Update

OK here's all the info that was left out of the last update ...

After each design was finished the words "and then the migraine got bad again" should be inserted :(

I tried stitching a gorgeous little design for Claire's birthday on 40ct linen and discovered that I could not see the holes.  I literally could not see where to put the needle :(  I figure the migraine is affecting my eyesight - or the tumor has enlarged and is now pressing on my optic nerve (it was a bare 1mm away from it at the last MRI) - or I'm just too tired from work - or my eyesight is going ..... or all of the above.  At this stage I'm looking to outsource this project and see if I can find someone else to stitch it up for me as I think Claire would love it!

I stopped stitching for quite a few weeks in between projects, wishing my eyes would stop hurting and the migraine would settle down.  Then I realised that my stitching is part of my meditation and relaxation program. I need to stitch to ease the migraine. 

In between each of the canvas work pieces I keep trying to stitch on Kay's RR but my eyes give out after half an hour and then they hurt for the rest of the day.  I'll give it another couple of weeks and hope that my eyes settle down otherwise I may have to send it on unstitched :(

Kay and Sisu - let me know how long I can keep Kay's piece before you need it sent on regardless of what I have or have not managed to stitch on it - please? I don't want to put anyone else's stitching rotation out. The next rotation after this isn't sent out until 1 February.

In other news, I won a door prize at the Arelate Designs booth at the October Online Needlework Show and I treated myself to a couple of small Passione Ricamo designs and some Lilipoints designs at Colours Down Under Friday night (they were ordered back in April).  The rest of my tax refund went straight into the bills fund.

The good news is that although I've had a few setbacks, the bills are on track to be completely paid off by October 2011.  The next bill is my personal loan, which should be paid off by February, the last bill bill being the $5000 I owe Debbie for helping move Stephen and my goods & chattels to Perth.

Unfortunately the big plans for losing weight and de-cluttering my life have been derailed - but its all a journey.  I figure its like juggling, you get one ball moving well and then add a second ball, when you have them down quite confidently you add a third ball.  And then you drop them all, pick them up and start again.

the big issue that seems to be knocking everything over is the migraine.  It was supposed to be history now, but it is still here. Stress at work is not helping and both my supervisor and I are at a loss at to what to do about it.

I'm running a state-wide training course in social media and online tools for public libraries in Western Australia.  Course is here if anyone is interested ... If you have any constructive criticism, please let me know!

I'm paid to work 3 days per week. During that time I'm expected to run this course (which NSW State Library said took 8 people full-time, other State Libraries had similar manpower), plus all the cataloguing for my library, plus cleaning up the library database plus everything else I used to do that filled my time.

So I'm working 60-70 hour weeks and being paid 27 hours, The rest is supposedly being accrued as TOIL (Time off in Lieu) but all requests for taking that time have been denied until at least the first of February.

We wont mention that my base wage of 27 hours does not cover my expenses (I regularly eat only one main meal a day).

My supervisor is trying to deflect the heat from inside the organisation because I'm not managing to get everything done.  Meanwhile I spend hours a day (on my days off) helping library managers and workers in my library and other libraries playing advocate, mentor, encouragement, support system etc.  You know all the things currently being denied to myself and my supervisor {sigh}

So yeah a little stress. A little draining.  Any and all advice gratefully received. It's driving my supervisor mental seeing me through this and not being able to help.  And it hurts me to see the amount of flack she is taking - she doesn't deserve that!  So yeah, any thoughts (legal ones please - I'm not allowed to physically hurt the other managers in my organisation) let me know ;)

Another whiny rant :)

The Good
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to run a Web 2.0 course for all library staff before the end of the year. Most other States in Australia ran these courses back in 2007,  But not Western Australia. So my work has decided to go it alone and gave me eight hours to put a program together.

I looked at what other placed had done, field-stripped their courses and assembled a 10 week package of Web 2.0 Basics with the really fun stuff to follow in a subsequent course next year. With the assistance of Mark (the eservices coordinator aka web guy at my work) it went live two days later.

You can see it here at: http://swanlibraries.blogspot.com/  If you are interested feel free to play along - you just wont be eligible for the prizes :)

I also sent a report to the State-wide Public Library eServices Working Committee explaining what we're doing, why we are doing it, why we are doing it this way, when we are doing it, a link to the course itself and a explanations of our measurements for success.

The PLWA committee rang me Friday afternoon and asked if I would allow them to copy my work and send out it State-wide in two weeks time.  Some negotiations were had with my managementwitht e result that Mark will be will be opening up our course state-wide tomorrow and I will alter the content appropriately on Wednesday.  I've also been asked if I would be a consultant to a couple of state-wide committees.

Which will all look good on the resume.  Especially as all of this has been in my own part-time work hours and around my usual work.  With a migraine.

The Bad
I have named my migraine Bruce in honour of Bruce Banner, Unfortunately Bruce has been getting too agitated lately* and has turned into the Hulk for the last couple of weeks. So I've been working with the lights off at work, wearing sunglasses and wincing every time someone laughs,  I also average 5 hours a week out with the customers.

I'm back to having broken sleep because the pain wakes me after an hour or so. The other morning I fled to work within 15 mins of walking up because the next door neighbours had their bathroom exhaust fan on, and the sound was making me scream. My short-term memory is so shot I can't tell you what I had for breakfast without looking at the utensils in the sink (and its only 8:31am here). In short its as bad as it has ever been.  My doc has also been off work ill so I can't get in to see her for another fortnight to change the medications I'm on.

I know that stress is a trigger or at least an amplifier for the migraine, and I've recently established that caffeine is another trigger**. I would still have expected the medications to be countering these negative influences, not have the whole mess spiral back into what it was earlier in the year.

The Ugly
Trubs has been diagnosed with kidney disease.  I had to fight the vets every inch of the way to get them to test for it, but yes it came back positive. I'm taking her in this week for the associated blood test to see how advanced it is.  Either way kidney disease is not curable or reversible so we are talking quality of life from here on in.

When I let loose on the vets for not agreeing to perform the tests earlier, they said they didn't like to perform kidney function tests because most people, on hearing the results, put their pets down. Well geez you fuckwits, if you administered the tests earlier maybe other responsible owners would have the knowledge to help their pets before it became too advanced!  Apparently not. Apparently treatments are considered too expensive and too traumatic for the owners so 99% to opt to euthanize their pets immediately.

Treatment seems to consist of changing Trubs to a low protein, low phosphorus diet and taking a pill every day.  From what I understand this reduces pressure on the kidney and reduce the build-up of toxins int he blood, dementia, glaucoma etc.  I say "from what I understand" because I've done all of this research on my own. The Vets haven't treated any cats with kidney disease because of the afore-mentioned immediate euthanizing.  They do have a dog patient who has had kidney disease for seven years and is now dying of cancer, but no cats.

So I'm also looking for a different veterinarian clinic, one with a bit more understanding of these specialist needs ... or perhaps its another case where the locals think differently than I do.


So to sum up ... I'm frustrated!

• I'm frustrated that I live in a State where all major decisions get briefly discussed a s a good idea or passed over once every eight-week meeting and then they pounce when someone actually does something. God forbid anyone local should actually use initiative.
• I'm frustrated that my work management are finding so many ways to capitalise on the work I'm doing, but they wont pay me an extra hours to actually do it well.
• I'm frustrated that my ex-supervisor is speaking to HR about all the tiniest facets of all the other parts of my job that I'm not getting to, in an effort to get me performance-managed out of the organisation,
• I am frustrated that my health is deteriorating and I don't know how to stop it.
• I'm frustrated that Trubs is dying and I don't know what I can do to make her pain less. I don't know what to do to give her good palliative care.

I just don't know what to do and right now I am not finding any support/advice in the areas I need it.

And I swear to God, if the next-door neighbour doesn't finish whipper-snipping soon - I'm going after him with an axe!

If the Police ask, this blog post doesn't exist :)



* maybe something to do with trying to run a state-wide training course, an internal training course, setting up two other training courses for next next month, all the cataloguing, setting guidelines for good cataloguing practice, training complete novices into the art of good cataloguing and completely re-writing the 200 page work manual for all facets of work in the library pending our software change in November - all in 20 hours per week.

** I don't drink caffeine regularly so this came as a bit of a surprise. I have the rare iced coffee milk or Coke about one every couple of months, so this one was actually hard to pin down.

Outlook 2007 Calendar help please?

Is there any way, using Outlook 2007 to set up a second calendar that can be shared with others in the same organisation.

As part of my work, I arrange training sessions for staff.  I also keep a record of who is offsite at seminars/conferences etc.  I also would like to block out periods of time where my management does not want any training being conducted because we have higher priorities, planning for Children's BookWeek for example.

A calendar would a perfect, at-a-glance solution for all of these needs, but I already use my Outlook Calendar for my own movements, meetings, appointments etc. Putting all the training data into the same calendar is highly confusing.

My work IT will not allow me to download applications or tools onto my desktop and my management are highly resistant to using tools other than the Microsoft suite of programs, so I cannot simply set up a Google Calendar. So any suggestions?

Work Questions: Housebound or Home Delivery Service

Morning all,

I'm thinking of sending this questionnaire to my library managers to help with a housebound review I'm conducting.  What do you think of the following questions? Have I missed anything? Does your library do anything different? Innovative? Is there something you wished your library did that it doesn't do?

Please let me know!

Mel..

I’ve been quiet on reporting on the housebound front because I’ve been mulling over issues, especially after attending the Community Engagement training last month. I believe instead of organising the sort of service we want to give, we should arrange a series of meetings with housebound customers and ask what they want from us. At present we provide staff- or volunteer-selected books, audio books and DVDs on a regulated, rostered basis. Is that what they want from us?

 

Before going ahead with that, I’d like to ask, what are WE prepared to offer them? Could the Library Management Team please think on the following areas and let me know which options we do NOT want to pursue …

 

WHO

The image of the traditional housebound customer is a frail elderly luddite who would prefer someone to work “that danged computer” for them.  I respectfully submit that this is a very low percentage of our potential customer base.

·         Do we want to advertise in hospitals to provide a short-term service for those recovering from surgery?

·         Do we want to offer our services to anyone who requires in-house nursing, respite or carer assistance? Including children?

·         Do we want to provide a level of support and delivery to remote customers (those who live more than 30 minutes drive to a library branch)?

·         Do we want to open up a tier of service (possibly with a nominal payment) for those who would simply prefer home delivery (ala the supermarket home delivery services)?

 

WHAT

We currently provide staff or volunteer chosen books, LP books, audio and DVDs.

·         Do we want include these customers on standing magazine reservations?

·         Do we want to teach those customers interested in how to select and reserve their own materials?

·         Are there any materials or stock we don’t want to send out to housebound or home delivery customers?

·         Do we want to invest in technology such as Audio-Read’s Navigator http://www.audio-read.com.au/hardware.htm for our print-challenged customers?

·         Do we want to send out flyers/informational brochures extolling the changes/improvements to our websites? Allow them use to and understanding of databases, tumblr etc accessible via our library website?

·         Do we want to provide information on audio download and eBook download when these services become available?

·         What other information or services could we supply from the library or from City of Swan with their items?

·         Is there anything that we charge other Council departments to include in our deliveries (thereby offsetting some costs)?

 

HOW

Under the present system the housebound customer usually contacts us and the local branch asks them a series of predetermined questions to determine their likes and dislikes. This information is stored somewhere for staff and volunteers at that branch to use to select items from.

·         Do we want to start visiting these customers for face-to-face meetings to discuss their needs? Should the person who has initial contact be a readers’ advisory expert to best gauge their preferences?

·         Should we include a feedback slip in every item so they can advise us in our selection?

·         For those who possess the technology (PC, smartphone, iPad, laptop etc) should we go out one-on-one and teach them how to use the library catalogue to place their own reservations? Should we teach these same customers how to use NoveList or other databases so they can feel empowered to select their own materials?

 

WHEN

At present items are mostly delivered on a standard periodic basis via staff or volunteer at each library branch.

·         Do we want to continue doing this?

·         Do we want to centralise and run all home delivery or housebound from one library?

·         Do we want to enter into an official contact with a volunteer organisation for them to provide regular, reliable volunteers to supply and collect the items?

·         Do we want to offer staff the option of changing their position descriptions to allow them to spend time each week supplying and collecting the items on a regular rostered basis?

·         Do we want to purchase a vehicle for a library staff member to use to supply and collect the items on a regular rostered basis?

·         Rather than using the standard library bags (or shopping bags) do we want to invest in courier satchels whereby we post out the items and the customer or one of their visitors returns the satchel to their local Post Office to be delivered back to us? (We enter into an arrangement with Australia Post to pay a monthly fee for this service) This would be more like Netflix, whereby we send out the next batch when the first batch is returned. This is more flexible as it doesn’t rely on rostered regular deliveries.

 

IN SHORT

·         If the community want these options, which are prepared to provide?

·         Or to put it another way, which of these options are outside the realm of what we are prepared to fight for?

 

 

Question for all

I've been tasked to come up with ideas we can run at work for "Adult Learners Week" at the local public libraries.  The emphasis is to be on "life-long learning".

Seeing as most of you who read here are chronolocial adults, what do you wish your local library did to promote life-long learning?

Classic Stress Dream

Life has been interesting lately.  Yesterday the packers and removalists pulled out on us claiming miscommunication on timings and payments - which was bollocks. A stressful few hours later Stephen had found replacements, but now the packers and coming today so the move wont happen until after lunch.

Last night after a break from packing at 10:30pm we drove out for a bite to eat and I discovered one of my car's wheels is making a strange noise - I need to get that looked at this morning before anything else happens.

After wanting us out with two weeks notice in January, the owners are now playing hardball with us breaking the lease so I will be paying double rent now for at least the next four weeks.  We've held two open houses and not a single application has been put in yet.  How the hell I can afford to pay rent on both places when the reason I am moving is I cannot afford the rent on this place alone is frankly beyond me.

I'm working my guts out at work, taken on higher duties, put myself back into a supervisory role and of course management want to use me to sort out a branch with a poisonous culture. I've spent at least five hours of personal time this week counselling staff.  I was up at 6am yesterday morning writing confidential reports to management.  This is over and above the normal stresses of meeting the deadlines of two different jobs simultaneously and all for a lousy $200 over my normal pay packet.

I haven't slept more than 4 hours a night this week. I've been getting weepy at the drop of a hat here at home.  Is it any wonder this morning after being awake for hours I dropped off into a small stress dream.

I was four years old and at a huge family picnic. I was holding a plate of food and looking around. All the adults were doing a multitude of tasks at the same time, one aunt had a baby on her hip and was serving lunch to another child; an uncle was getting drinks while keeping an eye on some kids swimming etc etc. And the noise was deafening. Kids screaming with laughter and playing chaseys the adults all yelling to be heard above the din.

One aunt looked down at me and asked of I would like pepper on my lunch. I looked at my plate and most of the food (including all of the really good bits) were gone.  I looked up and wailed: Where's My Lunch ?????

I woke up crying.  Tears streaming down my face, huge sobs wracking my body, my cheeks and mouth quivering like chipmunks .... even now I have tears rolling down my face just writing about it, it affected me so much.

If I had the time and energy I'm sure I could analyse the dream into the losses in my life, feeling overwhelmed etc etc.

But to be honest, I have neither the energy nor the time.  Its now time to turn the PC off, pack it away, and start sorting out the kitchen before the packers come to do the fragile bits. At 8:30am I can ring the garage and take the car down and hope its nothing major.

Catch you all when I have internet again.  My phone is still working so I can txt and twitter.