Bookshelves. New habit background.
Well, that's day 1444 for my 750 words streaks. 1445 today. Won't be too long before I hit 1500. Today was better at waking up than the previous day. I managed to wake up, get out of bed (without checking social media) shortly after alarm went off. There were alas a few other delays, but things are definitely improving. I also managed to keep up my 'do the dishes before bed' habit and the 'shelve at least 5 books new habit'.
The latter is to do with my bookcase. I have had these bookcases for quite some time, and they are nice tall bookcases, deep too. Stained pine I think, but reasonable looking and sturdy. The thing is, I was running out of space. I am, as many of you are aware, a bit of a bibliophile, and do like owning books that I like, and some that I'm trying to find out if I like. And since I've been collecting for many years I've got quite a few books amassed. Heck there were a fair amount before I moved here and that was over a decade ago. Anyone who owns many books tries to avoid moving too many times. Though effectively I suppose I've done it twice, what with the moving of stuff into storage while my floors got done a year and a bit ago now.
It occurred to me though that my shelves are reasonably high, and also reasonably deep. Now I could just put one set of paperbacks behind the other, but it would make it hard to see what was there. So I figured that if the back set of books were raised up a bit, so that I could see at least a bit of the title and the author I could probably remember what it was, or at least get a better look at it by pulling it out slightly to have a look at it. There was a brief attempt to get someone who claimed to have done carpentry at some point to give me a quote to make the inserts, but they I suspect forgot, having a different business at the front of their mind, so I did what was the next best thing. I asked Dad. He has a little shed. He has woodworking tools, and he also had an old door that could be recycled into the inserts. I don't need the inserts to look too snazzy. They're going to have books in front of them anyway. So the recycled nature of them appealed both to my environmental consciousness and my pragmatism, and let's face it, it was free. For extra support, as these are fairly wide shelves the inserts are done in two parts, a bit like inverted U letters. Only of course very long across the top and short legs. I didn't want them too high, leave a little room to be able to access the books and maybe even lift them out without disturbing the books in front too much.
After the usual pause that happens when Dad got given a project (at this point he had not retired, I'm hoping any future projects go faster), they turned up. And I put the first few in and then started reshelving. and this is where I hit a bit of a stall. Because I use librarything to catalogue my books, and use little stickers to both identify them as mine and determine if I have in fact catalogued them yet. But there was a period where I didn't have the stickers, but I was cataloguing anyway. Or this may have been pre-stickers. So I'm now checking the books as they get reshelved to make sure that they are in the catalogue, and have stickers. I have printed out new stickers only this week gone. But checking them can take a bit of time, so I was putting it off until I had some good amount of free time. Which of course happens... not often. Or if it does I find other things to do with that time. So the new habit is having me check at least 5 books per day, stickers in, catalogue check, (and addition if they are not there) and put them in the new shelving. It won't get it done as fast as if I spent all day doing it, but, it will get it done faster than waiting for me to have a free day to do that.
Work was... marking mostly. Responding to students, that sort of thing. The lecture that I spent part of my gym time preparing for yesterday turned out to be cancelled due to lack of students. One of the two edged swords of having lectures recorded and available to students outside the lecture times, is that fewer students turn up to actual lectures. Of course this occasionally means that there are no lectures to listen to since nobody turned up to them. Though usually for those I record anyway. Or do it at my desk. But for this one there are those from a previous year, so that will do. So I got to finish off marking one assignment, and a lab (though then got the catchup labs to mark). Tomorrow I think I'll focus on the 3rd year labs. If I get time then the tutorials for the OUA students. The catchup students can wait.
Then gaming in the evening. Settlers of Catan, which I was briefly in the lead for, but ended up with a mere 7 points, someone having stolen my longest road and won with it.
So yes. Habits going well. Work happening. Oh and another of my kickstarter things came in. I now have all the episodes of Night Terrace to listen to. Comedy SF audio series. So all good there. And trying for a not too late night so finishing up now.
Originally posted at http://ariaflame.dreamwidth.org/89670.html where you may comment if you wish. There are currently
comments on the original post.
The latter is to do with my bookcase. I have had these bookcases for quite some time, and they are nice tall bookcases, deep too. Stained pine I think, but reasonable looking and sturdy. The thing is, I was running out of space. I am, as many of you are aware, a bit of a bibliophile, and do like owning books that I like, and some that I'm trying to find out if I like. And since I've been collecting for many years I've got quite a few books amassed. Heck there were a fair amount before I moved here and that was over a decade ago. Anyone who owns many books tries to avoid moving too many times. Though effectively I suppose I've done it twice, what with the moving of stuff into storage while my floors got done a year and a bit ago now.
It occurred to me though that my shelves are reasonably high, and also reasonably deep. Now I could just put one set of paperbacks behind the other, but it would make it hard to see what was there. So I figured that if the back set of books were raised up a bit, so that I could see at least a bit of the title and the author I could probably remember what it was, or at least get a better look at it by pulling it out slightly to have a look at it. There was a brief attempt to get someone who claimed to have done carpentry at some point to give me a quote to make the inserts, but they I suspect forgot, having a different business at the front of their mind, so I did what was the next best thing. I asked Dad. He has a little shed. He has woodworking tools, and he also had an old door that could be recycled into the inserts. I don't need the inserts to look too snazzy. They're going to have books in front of them anyway. So the recycled nature of them appealed both to my environmental consciousness and my pragmatism, and let's face it, it was free. For extra support, as these are fairly wide shelves the inserts are done in two parts, a bit like inverted U letters. Only of course very long across the top and short legs. I didn't want them too high, leave a little room to be able to access the books and maybe even lift them out without disturbing the books in front too much.
After the usual pause that happens when Dad got given a project (at this point he had not retired, I'm hoping any future projects go faster), they turned up. And I put the first few in and then started reshelving. and this is where I hit a bit of a stall. Because I use librarything to catalogue my books, and use little stickers to both identify them as mine and determine if I have in fact catalogued them yet. But there was a period where I didn't have the stickers, but I was cataloguing anyway. Or this may have been pre-stickers. So I'm now checking the books as they get reshelved to make sure that they are in the catalogue, and have stickers. I have printed out new stickers only this week gone. But checking them can take a bit of time, so I was putting it off until I had some good amount of free time. Which of course happens... not often. Or if it does I find other things to do with that time. So the new habit is having me check at least 5 books per day, stickers in, catalogue check, (and addition if they are not there) and put them in the new shelving. It won't get it done as fast as if I spent all day doing it, but, it will get it done faster than waiting for me to have a free day to do that.
Work was... marking mostly. Responding to students, that sort of thing. The lecture that I spent part of my gym time preparing for yesterday turned out to be cancelled due to lack of students. One of the two edged swords of having lectures recorded and available to students outside the lecture times, is that fewer students turn up to actual lectures. Of course this occasionally means that there are no lectures to listen to since nobody turned up to them. Though usually for those I record anyway. Or do it at my desk. But for this one there are those from a previous year, so that will do. So I got to finish off marking one assignment, and a lab (though then got the catchup labs to mark). Tomorrow I think I'll focus on the 3rd year labs. If I get time then the tutorials for the OUA students. The catchup students can wait.
Then gaming in the evening. Settlers of Catan, which I was briefly in the lead for, but ended up with a mere 7 points, someone having stolen my longest road and won with it.
So yes. Habits going well. Work happening. Oh and another of my kickstarter things came in. I now have all the episodes of Night Terrace to listen to. Comedy SF audio series. So all good there. And trying for a not too late night so finishing up now.
Originally posted at http://ariaflame.dreamwidth.org/89670.html where you may comment if you wish. There are currently
comments on the original post.