I am reading Lao-tzu's Tao te ching and it's like woah

There are very few people around on Fridays so I spent most of the day by myself. That was fine. After four days of activity it's nice to have some alone time. I spent the morning putting the books I've already cataloged into some semblance of order so people can use the books in the library even if there's no OPAC up and they can't check them out yet. I need the new computer I've been promised; the old one keeps having conniption fits and it no longer lets me enter books correctly into the OPAC. I need the adapter to allow me to use the scanner to speed things up but that's a fairly low priority. I need the bar codes I ordered. I called the lady at Brodart and she said that the vendor will have them ready in 2-3 weeks. I had no idea it was that hard to print bar codes! I thought there would be some computer that could calculate what they should look like and just print them out. At some point, when I'm really bored, I should learn more about the complex world of bar code production but as long as I get them I'll be happy.

More pressing is that I need a printer to make call number labels and book tape to affix them to the spines. I could at least organize things better then. Everybody who comes into the library now looks at the shelves of books at marvels at how fast everything's coming along. Seriously, a collection of books on shelves does not make a functional library. After that there's policies to create and journals to subscribe to and instructional sessions to plan. Oy. I'm glad people seem happy though.

A co-worker has loaned me her Stephen Mitchell translation of the Tao te ching and I'm loving it. Some of it meshes with how I think anyway but makes clearer things I haven't been able to articulate. Some of it seems unattainable to me; I hold onto certain possessions very hard and I don't think I would be able to face death with such peace but it sets out something to strive for. Or not strive for as the case may be. To let happen. "...just do your job, then let go."

Getting close to finishing Tropic of Cancer. I've said enough about him already, I'm sure but he's fascinating in a way. His philosophical ramblings and clunky metaphors are mush and his attitudes towards other people, cultures, and religions show him to be a close-minded, juvenile little tit but the extent to which he opened himself on the page is captivating. I don't think he meant for it all to be there. He's like one of those teens who write fanfic self-inserts, making themselves to be clever and cool, looked up to and catered. They have a put on tortured facade but really seem like children pretending to be world-weary adults. He attempts to paint himself as some tragic figure surrounded be imbeciles. He's so silly but for all that he's very human in his need to make himself the hero. For some reason it's very interesting.

I'm reading Kismet by Jakob Arjouni. A Turkish detective in Germany gets involved in figuring out who's behind a bizarre new protection racket in the station district in Frankfurt. Kayankaya is a little grumpy and something of a smart-aleck. I'm about 90 pages in and it's been a good read so far. Quite a bit about the immigrant situation in Germany. The English edition was published last year but the book takes place in 1998. I don't know when it was first written.