I read somewhere that left-handed people are more accident-prone than right-handed people. Lack of sleep would have a similar effect.
Anyhow, it's certainly been an afternoon of mishaps.
On top of the problems we've been having with various computers and printers at the library, we also had a hiccup in the printer on the library bus on Wednesday. It was on and off between then and last night. So when I started up the laptop on the bus this afternoon, I wasn't terribly surprised to find that the printer wasn't working. I just apologised to my customers, saying that on top of the wireless connection being painfully slow, they weren't going to get a receipt either. In the time it took for a book's barcode to fully register on the system, I was able to place a sticker on the back of the book and put a datestamp on it.
It wasn't until around 4pm, just before the last bus stop of the day, that I realised I had forgotten to flick the power switch on the bus. Without the power on, the printer was effectively turned off and the laptop was running off its battery. I only cottoned on when the laptop screen went blank and stayed that way despite my frantically moving the mouse about, and the flat battery light went on.
It was only a couple of days ago that I'd confessed to having knocked out the side lights when I nudged the bus into a tall rubbish bin, while pulling over at the kerb.
Not to mention the time a pre-schooler got stuck in the bus door...I'd forgotton to twist the toggle which locks the step and the door; it ensures that if some button-happy tyke presses the (unforgiveably accessible) close button on the side, we don't end up having to deal with knocked-out teeth, concussions or tears.
And now for something completely different...there is this wonderful author/illustrator of children's books called Shaun Tan. He's written and illustrated a book called The Red Tree, and also illustrated a book by John Marsden, called The Rabbits. His illustrations are not just gorgeous in a kid's book kind of way - he really is an artist. The stuff he did for The Rabbits originated as oil paintings, for instance. The other distinctive thing is that the stories are really different from other kids' picture books - they aren't really cute. The Rabbit is a thinly disguised telling of the effect of white colonials on the native Australians (the Aborigines); The Red Tree, although it has a sweet ending, reads like a day in the life of a clinically depressed child.
1 comment:
mas cervesas por favor!
Post a Comment