2020 post

 Here are some cool things I did in 2020(in no order): 

Stately Homes -Mom and I saw a great weekly documentary where a guy visits stately homes in Britan, it was very interesting to see how the other half lives. Sidenote: the guy made a lot of faux pas like touching glasses after being told not to or asking to sit on a chair reserved for the king. 

Virtual Murder Mystery Party - Halton Hills Public Libary's Murder Mystery Night was a one-off, so it was a positive surprise when I attended a virtual one via Greuph Public Libary. We took turns asking/answering questions in character, no single character had all the info but together the murder mystery was unfolded. People wore costumes and used virtual backgrounds if they computers supported it. The detective in our group was Justin Case! Her custome was a kid's firefighter hat! (So note someone afraid of looking silly.) I played a corner and had just come from work so had plastic gloves on. They were not the really tight kind so I could take them off, off-camera to use my computer as needed. Another person whose character was named Gabby was an exterminator and her outfit was complete with an "oversized" nametag. ("oversized", so it would be visible even in grid view and when compressed online). The whole thing was a blast and I hope I can do something like it again! 

Kahoot(Virtual Trivia) - Kahoot Trivia quizzes are a blast! I did not think I would find it so fun. It's interesting to see what I know and at Grupl Public Libary we are allowed to unmute in between questions to talk about the subject or make silly comments(like "Of course I know that one!")  

Leh Rereine Quest - I am Game Master(host) for an RPG(virtual) for my friend's daughter and her friends. They are around 10 so all my content has to be kid-friendly but some of my favorite games are, including Kindom Hearts so I am having a blast with that. One session involved my pointing my webcam for pieces of paper and saying "He clones himself and says guess which one of me is real!" then I moved the paper like one of those carnival games with the cups. At another part, I pointed in a direction and the kids leaned in that direction. Also, they were a lot of Libraries in the game and even a Libary Thrills Reine(spell). 

Shirt - I got a shirt that says "Honarary Librarian" as a Christmas Present. 

Halloween - Got some great photos here. 

Now some of my favorite Facebook highlights and other links:

"The love we found we carry with us so we are never really alone" - Muppet Christmas Carel

^ Libary post 

I have dreams about libraries sometimes... though I guess that does not surprise anyone 

other 

That was NOT me! 

"I woke up in bed one day.... which is a good place to do that in!" - Lazy Game Reviews

Bi

"Do you think firefighters are scared? Of course, they are! They would not be very good at their job if they were not! The important thing is they act in spite of their feer!" - Ron Marchant(my Dad)

Review of Libary backpack: https://youtu.be/u1brgFMyT8c

 A Silly improvised story: https://youtu.be/KQQ1hZZDVeA

I found an installer that played music when you installed it(it on was floppy), I would put the video here on my blog but I uploaded it directly to Facebook so that's very hard.  

Review of A Night To Remember: https://youtu.be/1u1h-QNj9VQ

Curling Take Out Waight Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=701khfqDifE&feature=youtu.be

I got some epic Super Hero music early this year, again I can't share it on this blog.

Mr.Bean's diary review: https://youtu.be/7fJ58ZGjY0U

That moment when you take a sip of water and then discover "oh yeah I made cold tea" ~P

Fan Fast look back(LONG) - https://youtu.be/CiOcflV2vvU

Whenever I get bad customer service I now think, "why can't they behave like the Libary!

"You haven't been to the library in 2 days are you sick?" -- my friend's daughter(February) 

Caller:

This is David of the vehicle vehicle vehicle *click?*

Me:

This is Jamie of the house house house.

fsfdsfdsfThat moment when you take a sip of water and then discover "oh yeah I made cold tea" ~P

Things I won from the library

To expand on my Facebook post here are more details on what I one, let me know on the post if you want to see pictures of the things I have not shared their: 

Green Libary bag and Fandom goodies - From FanFest and "My Hero Academia Themed", it came with a lot of goodies including a cool graphic novel where a woman is destined to marry a talking bull. (it was a sample copy the library was given). I one it cause I had the best Adult FanFic for 2019. Read my FanFic Here.
Chance: My chances of winning were unknown since entries(and number of) and judging were private.

Purple Libary Beg - One of those cool begs with all the words on it, Thrills is absent but it's purple(the color of Thrills Gum), so that's worth it!
Odds: Contests are normally every Friday on Facebook, you can enter as many times as you want. Odds are the number of participants which is normally 20 -30 people. (So like rolling dice if you keep playing you will win eventually)
Fun Fact! Wone during the 2020 pandemic when only holds pick up was allowed put on the shelf next to my hold with an elastic band -- clever! 

Purple Libary Beg AND Mug - The beg looks like the other one and the mug says the name of the library and part of the slogan "Innovation, Imagination, Opportunity", the full slogan is "Worlds of Innovation, Imagination, Opportunity within our doors"(or something like that). Chance - Enteries were public Facebook posts and they were only two so we both won. 

Beg of culture days stuff - My most recent winnings are a beg of culture stuff including Hisilon Gallery postcards and beg. I once it cause I participated in a thing where you check off the Culture Days things you did in town.(I even forget they was contest)  It was filled with sports stuff(balls, frisbee, etc) for some odd reason. (maybe cause some of the activities where outside related) Chance - No way to tell, since enteries were not public. 

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Review(contains spoilers)

WARNING: I've decided to best give my opinion on this film I will have to "spoil" some things. My opinion without spoilers is this film is ok but not worth seeing unless you're into "so bad it's great".(which I am) Also, I assume you've seen the original trilogy and the other films in the new trilogy, so with that out of the way lets begin: 

Story 

It's a typical Star Wars story, nothing special in that regard. Palpatine(the big bad guy with the lightning we thought was dead in Episode 6) is back and they are very little explanations as to why except that he just is! This really bothers me cause now anyone good or bad can die and they may not be completely dead, so how can I care about the characters good or bad if they come back to life for no good reason? I don't even think this is "so bad it's good", it's just bad. 

Action

You don't watch Star Wars for the story(at least I don't) but the cool action sequences. This time the movie tries too hard to be cool, a character shoots people behind his back perfectly without looking, Rey and Kilo Ren fight over a medium-sized spacecraft using the force from a distance away, that sort of thing. I know Star Wars has it's moments but this is pushing from the cool fantasy relm into the cheesy/silly relm, all these moments, were so bad they made me laugh. The silliest one is when Kilo Ren steals a neckless from Rey when Shes on one world and he is on his spaceship I don't know how far away!? The worst part is why couldn't Jedi Master Luke use this new force power we have never seen before to take the Wayfinder or dagger they spent a lot of the movie trying to find! Hilariously bad! 

When the movie is not trying to do something over the top, it's actually good but those moments are too rare to sit through the whole thing. (you have to be into this "so bad it's a good" thing) 

Music and sound 

Not any better or worse than any other Star Wars film. 

Acting 

I think lines are well delivered, they are just bad lines! 

Lasting Appeal 

I don't think I need to see this movie again, it's not that terrible! 

Visuals 

I've seen better in a Star Wars film but I did not think they were "bad". The spaceship battles were worse than a good episode of the TV show The Orvel which is very disappointing considering Star Wars should have a bigger budget. 

Overall 

As I said the movie is good if your into "It's so bad it's great" and if that is not you skip it, don't even bother borrowing it from the library. I definitely would not buy it, most city/town libraries probably have a copy. 

Tips for working for home

Tips for working for home from someone who works this way on a regular bases:

• Don't worry about being distracted, it happens in the office too. If you get too distracted you can always do extra work to "make up for lost time", as you settle into working from home, you will find yourself being distracted less.  
• When you start your workday, use an environment on your computer that is distraction-free, so shutdown any messaging programs you have, only keep the email up you use for work or ignore all none-work messages. Turn off your cell phone, unless your boss needs you to have it on. 
• Take breaks every so often and walk around your house. 
• Give yourself enough time for your computer to startup, it's easy to think "I am at home, so I can get to work fast" but this is a mistake even I make. It takes time for your computer to start. 
• Freel free to listen to music, so long as this does not distract anyone, you have to try and see how well it works for you. Unlike in the office, you can listen to anything you want and you won't disturb others. 
• Close your door, if they are other people in the house that might distract you. 
• Work in whatever space is most comfortable  
• Some people work better when they wear work cloaths but this is not the case for me. You have to try it and see what works for you. 
• Of course, talk to your boss and see what advice or requirements he/she might have. 
• Service like Zoom/Skype/Google Hangouts is glitchy even when everything is open. 
• You might feel some agoraphobia or fear of large spaces, so it's important to get outside from time to time. Virtual Reality is a good cure and if you don't have it yourself I am sure the library will be running VR programs in the Summer and Fall. 
• Your boss can't see what your up too, or if your delayed, so make sure you check in often. I write my boss a progress email at least once a day and an "I understand this" ever time he gives me new instructions. 
• Make sure you and your team are on the same page about things. There is nothing worse then doing the wrong thing cause your not on the same page. 

How to send better email

Since I can't drive and do a lot of remote work, I send a lot of emails, so here is some advice:

• 90% of communication is none-veribale, so you have to speak differently when writing than when talking face-to-face. Imagine you are writing part of a book, not necessarily a textbook, it can be informal but the important thing is to think of the way you read text and how this differs from how you speak.
• I have found giving context to questions often helps, for example*:
• "What VR games do you have for people to play?" is not as good as
  "What VR games do you have for people to play? I want to decide what I and my friend when to play when we book VR, this season."  The longer question helps the answer "zero in".
  I would suggest Beat Saber in the first case. In the second, the asker, mentions a friend, I would mention "Stop Talking and Nobody Explodes" stating that it's a multiplayer game. In the second case the follow-up question  "and which ones are multiplayer?" is avoided.
• Explain context with parentheses, if they are things confusing you want to explain them but never treat your audience like their a dumb. "Can I book a Librarian over the phone when you are closed?" may make sense to you but probably not it to your audience,  "Can I book a Librarian over the phone when you are closed? (do to COVID)" makes sense and brings me to my next point.
• Email can be slow, so depending on when I sent the previous email, I may not get a response till the library reopens. so it's important to give context to these things. 
• Know your audience, Libary staff may not be able to easily answer "What are the system specs for the Creativity Center computers?" but you can go in and find out for yourself. 
• If you need something fast, call, email is slow. 
• Try and sort things out on your own before emailing someone, this is because it's slow.
• People can re-read every word of an email(unlike speech in life) so be careful not to say something that could sound hurtful. Having said that, I try not to get too hung up on it, example "What VR games do you have for people to play? I want to decide what I and my friend when to play when we book VR, this season". This is the way I would write that email but now that I think about I could just say "what multiplayer VR games do you have?" but to error is human, so I expect people to be understanding when I do make a mistake like this. 
• Stick to one subject per email, I don't think anybody has any limit on the number of emails they can send/receive
• If you do have to talk about more the one subject, make sure it's clear what your doing, separate your subjects by paragraph or by writing the senders questions, one at a time and answering them one at a time. 
• Make templates or drafts that you reuse if you keep answering the same question over and over. 
• Know when to use "To", "Cc" and "Bcc". If you don't know:
  -> To: is the person you are sending the message to.
  -> If you are sending a message to more then one person use "Cc", you can use "To" for the first(main) person but the rest should be Cc. Technically their should  only be one "To" but most people probably don't know the difference between "To" and "Cc" so MOST mail servers allow more than one "To"
  -> Bcc sends an email to someone without others knowing, it's useful when you want to email a bunch of people who don't know each other. (a privacy thing) 
• Know about email priorities, you can set the priory when you send an email, it ranges from "lowest" to "highest" with the default being "normal". The higher priority message will show up first or be marked as such. I am not sure but I suspect that some mail servers ignore them. Beware that if your message is not a high priority to the sending, it might come across as rude. I leave it on default, most of the time, the only time I changed it was when I sent an email to the library that they did not have to read till they reopened, so I set it to lowest, to reinforce the idea. UPDATE: In these unprecedented times I have set emails to height but that's because I don't know if the phone systems are being monitored and I need a response in a timely manner.  
• The phone is better if you want a response in a timely manner. 
• Know about Return Recipients(AKA Read Recipients), like the ones you can send in the physical mail, requesting a "Return Recipient", means when the person opens your email, they will be asked to send a "Return Recipient" before replying. This can come across as rude, people see it like a winy kid saying "are we their yet?", email is like a car trip, we will be there when we are there. Still, they are rare cases in which you want to do this, for example, you keep emailing someone and get no response.
• You probably know this but just be aware that people often don't like attachments or links in email cause of spam/scammers.
• A "Devery Status Notification" asks the mail sever to tell you when a message is delivered, it's the less rude version of a "Return Recipient", it's done completely automatically but does not tell you if the email has been read, only delivered. Some mail systems do ignore them(not sure if they should but they do). 
• Do not worry about encoding or plan text vs HTML in this day and age, people will tell you if you have to worry about them. 
• You don't have to write an email to yourself to use "Bcc" everyone can be "Bcc" and the message will be too "undisclosed recipients" 

* Yes I know the Libary is closed at the time of writing, it's just an example. I will probably keep this guide when this COVID stuff is done.

Things to do while the library is closed

Things to do when the library is closed because of the quantnane...

1. The things on this list: https://www.hhpl.on.ca/en/research-and-support/library-from-home.aspx
2. And this one: https://www.hhpl.on.ca/en/programs-and-clubs/things-to-do.aspx
3. Take a course on Linda.com
4. Make lists
5. Place holds- don't do this too much, you don't want the staff to have to work too hard when they reopen and you can only make 50 so, Make lists if you need them. 
   Don't do this often cause you only get 50, but the library does not mind if you make lots of holds(I emailed about this). NOTE: They will probably all come at around the same time, be aware of that. 
6. Suggest purchases and make website suggestions using "askus@haltonhills.ca" 
7.  Look at the online local history If you get a 404, the staff knows about it and you have to wait for them to reopen and use the Microfilm. 
8. Enter this contest, I won the last one, do you think you can beat a Sonic/Myst/Kindom Hearts fan? (closes May 30th) 
9. Finish the winter reading challenge. maybe the contest will be extended and you can always do it for fun. Unofrchently it's not available online so if you don't already have a ballet they is not much you can do.  This is an S-rank library, so it is online now(here and here)and the date will be extended. Email them at askus@haltonhills.ca if you have questions. 
10. If you're like me you can always look at your old photos of adventures at the library!
11. Read articles(login and click on "articles" on the top by "catalog") 
12. Review materials in the catalog, if you don't see "review this item" it's a bug the staff are aware of.
13. Interact with the library on social media(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for all kinds of fun 
14. "Visit" the Frank Black Gallery. 
15. You can place Intery Libary Loans by emailing them to askus@haltonhills.ca. At the time of writing this address is answered weekdays 10 - 3You can no longer do this? I am getting mixed signals. 
16. The library is now running some of their programs online, see here for details. NOTE: most of the programs are found "in" Georgetown, as confusing as it is.  
17. Get the staff to phone you twice a week - more info here

YouTube videos are available if you need help

Year End Blog

Me and the Libary 

Last November I started becoming enthusiastic about the Libary but it was this year that I made that part of my persona. Here are some of the highlights of this journey:

The Libary is a community centre - embraces the library 

R. David Lankes(don't know how noteworthy he is) who wrote on Twitter: "Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities. " this was reposted by the library. Before reading this I thought VR, Murder Mystery Night, Boardgame Afternoon, where just coincidences but afterwards it made me think "what if the Libary were not a Libary? (in the traditional sense) what if the Libary were a sort of community centre? Then all these things they have been running would not be coincidences but exactly what they should be doing! If the Libary is a community centre then no wonder I find it so thrilling! It the sort of thing I have been looking for". I then correctly predicted the Libary would run an event like FanFest(a Fandom Celebration) and what I thought then become the basis for my speech to the board.

My speech to the board 

My friend suggested that I give a speech to the board, since they normally only hear bad news from people, so I did. They loved it! We are given 10 minutes to present to the board and after 30 minutes(most of which was QnA) I said: "sorry I have to go to my club" and left! Also after my speech, they sent me this letter. A few weeks later I walked in and was enthusiastically called over by Staff member Beverly King(She and some other Staff were at the Board Speach) to Get my photo in the paper. 

Being featured 
I was featured in the Halton Hills Camera Club newsletter in which I talked about my desire to capture the buitey of the world through photography. 

A story about how much I have changed 

It's funny, I really have changed a lot, at the begging of the year I said on Facebook "... but don't worry physical books are not going anywhere anytime soon" and a Libary volunteer replied "The library is way more than a collection of books!" and I was thinking "ok, if you say so" but now if someone said the first thing to me I would say what She said, maybe followed by "but we must not forget the collection of books" 

Eunuastic Patron/Unofficial Volunteer 

A family member called me an "Unofficial Volunteer" after I told her about how I promote the library all the time! The name stuck and now "Enthusiastic Patron/Unofficial Volunteer" appears in my email signature when I email the library!

Converting others to "Libary" 

If you own a bookstore you have a wide variety of books that you can take home(at the price of not selling them) if you want.  So Tom of White Rabbit Books has little need of the Libary but I was able to convince him to get a Libary Card (mainly so he can borrow WiFi to Go) and have converted him to Libary(his words). 

Library Thrills 

They is an Instagram tag "#librarythrills" which the Libary(and sometimes other people) used to use. It inspired me to use it as an expression and now I  have a few "Libary Thrills" 3D bookmarks. They use a purple filament since that is the library's colour.  

Things I did this year 

Now I'll tell you some other highlights of the year, which may or may not involve the library. These are not really in any order, just the order I found/remembered them in. 

Clubs 

As usual I am still involved in many clubs. We did some monthly meetups a Nox Church where we performed improv. As is always the case, clubs and social event at the library are a great way to make new friends, which I did this year.

Winter Reading Challange 

read more here

VR

Here are all my VR experiences(2019 and other years), at the time of writing most of these took place in 2019. 

Escape Rooms 

I did a couple of these with my friends at the library, they are fun and like the Adventure games that I love.  

Improve at The Macking Box 

Read here



Fan Fest 

Basically "Libary Trhills" with another helping of "Libary Thrills" ontop! They were VR. boardgames. carnival events(like beanbag toss), Spiderman and Batman where they and I won a FanFic contest for this Sonic FanFic I wrote. 

3D Printing 

It takes a lot of time but you get custom 3D objects, so I love the result. More info about the Libary's 3D printer can be found here. 

The Fox 

Read about it here. 

Culture Days 

Read about it.

Scanned Newspaper Archives

During the year I found old newspaper clippings that I had saved and scanned them. They are now on Facebook and if you don't have Facebook contact me and I'll send you the ones that might interest you. I also found some others in the Newspaper Archives one of which I printed from Microfilm(Microslide?) and scanned in.

Pathfinder 

I got to play some Pathfinder this year and it was fun. Fyi I don't want to spread myself too thin(with other things) so I don't play anymore.

Year-End Photo 

The receipt is from a restaurant when I had my existing trip in Acton. 

New Years Resolution 

Because people might ask, my NYR is personal, something I only will talk to close friends about but it is a way I will improve myself. 

OTAM

I will be doing cool things next year but without the OTAM rules, it was fun writing this blog, so I will write about them here. The reason I am not doing OTAM is that it can be too restrictive .

Thank you for reading this and 

Happy New Year!