8 hours

• Took down National Novel Writing Month and gathered statistics (how many bookmarks were taken, how many books from the display were checked out, etc.)
• Indexed negatives
• Taught computer class (2 hours; 3 students): How to safely turn on and off the computer; How to get on the Internet and informed them that there are different browsers; Parts of an Internet window (minimize, address bar, tabs, etc.); How to type in a URL and go to the webpage you want; Introduced concept of different search engines; They ran searches, using the web, video, and other tabs offered by Dogpile; Ended with vanity searches. This was an attentive group. They had good questions and offered their own observations. For example, I didn't want to complicate things by telling them about meta search engines, but one person noticed that Dogpile searches Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Another person pointed out that when you hover your mouse pointer over something, often you get words telling you what that button does. I like teaching a small group better than a single person because you get input from the various students and they can help each other understand a concept by explaining it differently from they way I though to explain it – then I learn something, too.
• Hosted NaNo write-in: All of us finished our novels before November 30, but planned to use the write-in for some revisions. Instead, a newspaper man came and took up three hours with his chatter, mostly about himself. I'm curious if he will actually write the story. It should come out tomorrow, so I'll keep an eye out for it. It was a strange experience. If he had come the previous week, we could have all gotten an easy 3,000 words out of his actions.

Yesterday I passed 50,000 words and even when the NaNo word count validator ate over 100 of my words, I still won. The satisfaction of seeing the blue bar turn purple cannot be explained. I'm surprised that "Going for the Purple!" slogans are scarce.

Now, I wrote this novel not to be read, but for the creative challenge, so I'm not too disappointed that my plot turned into the sort of political musings that I can't stand to read. I don't even think what I wrote is something that would realistically happen! How on earth did that plot come out of my brain? 

At any rate, I have a full story arc, more than 50,000 words, and am once again amazed at the things that can come out of one's imagination.

Year 1: My novel was strongly based on real life events. I wrote in the first person and used Dictionary.com's word of the day for inspiration, but it seldom impacted the plot in any meaningful way. There were few characters and less character development. Dialogue was scarce. I seemed to be in a secret competition with myself to see how often I could use the word "just" to mean "only."

Year 2: I had no plot, but a few ideas when I started. I knew I wanted a librarian/record keeper/archivist-type named Moon. She would have blue hair and ride a futuristic motorcycle. There would be a maze and a man who always carried an open umbrella, except for when it was raining. He would not be a genius or display signs of a pathology. He would be perfectly normal except that he was confident enough to be odd without embarrassment. I wanted the setting to be a realistic future with lots of cool gadgets (similar to Star Trek, but on Earth and without mention of space travel). I hoped the plot would be either a non-plot of the sort at which Alexander McCall Smith excels or a fantasy adventure akin to The Mysterious Benedict Society or The Map the Breathed. 

I started writing and wrote whatever came into my mind. I wrote in third person and from the point of view of one character. I took a dare from the NaNo organizers, but it did little more than add word padding. I studiously avoided using "just" to mean anything more than "fair." More than once, the word of the day created a whole scene and developed the plot. Several characters emerged and there was extensive dialogue. Somehow, a book I have never read, and as far as I know, is out of print (Black Falcon by Armstrong Sperry), became the key to everything.

My plot ran away from me in the 20,000s and my characters took over in the 30,000s. A penguin kept popping up in unexpected places, even though the town is close to the mountains. The ending did not answer all the questions, exactly the sort of ending I don't like unless I know there will be a sequel.

And somehow, despite it all and even though I have no plans to create a readable book from what I wrote this month, I still look forward to November 1 as being a more exciting morning than Christmas.

8 hours

• Moved indexed negatives to file drawers to be scanned at a later date. Brought up a box of new negatives to index.
• Indexed negatives.
• Taught computer class (1.5 hours; 1 student): At his request, spent the whole time practicing how to type in a URL to get to a website and how to find the link to what he wanted on the website. 
• NaNo Write-In (3 hours; 2 others): We were in the children's meeting room this time, and despite unreliable Internet connections from being partly underground, it was the best write-in yet. The children's librarian was enthusiastic and showed us her puppets and told us true stories about suicidal buzzards and in general thoroughly entertained us while giving us ideas for writing. An added benefit was that the thermostat worked and we didn't have to shiver in a 60-degree room.

Some things I have noticed about beginning computer users:

• Some become very confused when they see "***" instead of their password in the text box. They become convinced they are typing it in wrong and have difficulty understanding that this is not the case. I'm unconvinced they believe me when I tell them what is going on, even though the computer accepts their password.
• Spam blockers, such as text Captchas, are super confusing. Some people look at the distorted text and become beyond confused and frustrated because they can't make their keyboard type wobbly letters. "How can I type it in exactly as I see it?" Again, even though I show them how to use the tool, they seem unconvinced that this is the way things should work.
• Many of them have difficulty with their vision and have trouble seeing what is on their computer screens, yet don't have the computer skills to be comfortable using the magnify function. Any solution to the vision difficulty requires some level of comfort with computers, but to get to that comfort level, they need to see what they are doing. I don't know how to help them with this, but being nearsighted myself, I know how frustrating it can be when your eyes simply won't focus on something that everyone else can easily see.
• Scrolling is a difficult concept for many. They don't understand how to use the arrow keys and they don't understand how to use the scroll bar and they don't want to practice because the activity is hard for them. I need to find an interesting activity for adults to help them with this. Having them go to an interesting web page and scrolling doesn't work because they don't do it; they stare at the page and refuse to try to move it up or down.

Now all those points isn't me hating on my students. It's me trying to figure out how to best explain things to adults and how to encourage them to participate in exercises. I need some ideas for one-shot instruction on these points. 

Do you remember when you first learned to use a computer? If you were shy about practicing difficult things, what made you push through? Were there any explanations that made the puzzle pieces fall into place? When students repeatedly volunteer to come to class, then repeatedly decline to participate, what do you do?

Last week, besides increased personal responsibilities added to the time commitment of NaNo, I was checking on a friend's cats, got called into work at the last minute (not complaining), and spent Saturday and Sunday at a friend's house 2.5 hours away. My plan was to post on Thursday or Friday before I left, but by the time I had time, it took all my energy just to look at the computer, never mind turn it on. So I decided that goals should be adaptable and skipped posting last weekend. 

As much as I enjoy NaNo, I look forward to December when I can post something more interesting than an activity log.

6.5 hrs

• Indexed negatives (1.5 hrs): Finished a box, except for three envelopes with unreadable writing.
• Taught computer class (1.5 hrs, 1 student): Went over how to create folders on desktop, how to add content to folders, how to delete items in folder and delete folder, how to save a webpage. Talked about online storage and watched introduction videos to Evernote and Diigo. The video for Dropbox wouldn't load. Looked at Allrecipes and Epicurious and explored how to find recipes and other features such as videos.
• Nano Write-In (2 hours; 3 others)

7.75 hrs

• Indexed the last three envelopes of negatives. A patron knows who most of the people photographed are and can decipher the handwriting. Didn't have another box of negatives to start on.
• Looked through paper family files for mentions of specific names. Photocopied any relevant papers. 
• Taught computer class (1.5 hrs, 1 student): Talked about Yahoo Mail, including how to mass delete emails, using folders, creating and deleting new folders, changing fonts and font colors, and adding attachments. Then we practiced adding and deleting photos in Facebook. This worked successfully the first time around, but the second time, I could not for the life of me figure out where the "delete photo" link was. The student was too unfamiliar with the process to know, but fortunately wasn't in a hurry or worried about deleting the stock photo we uploaded for practice. After he left, I ended up asking another librarian and she showed me the link, right where I though it was. Can I blame my oversight on the rainy day and tornado watch? I hope the student comes back so I can show him where the link is.
• NaNo Write-In (2.75 hrs, 2 people): My two regulars come every week. We got some good writing done, although I admit, after I reached 3,000+ words I stopped and checked into #libchat. We usually stop writing at 8:00, but the security guard stuck his head in and told us that as long as we were out by 8:45, we could stay. 

6 hours

• Set up NaNoWriMo book display
  
• Tried to index negatives, but couldn't find the file.
  
• Opened computer lab for class. Half an hour later, no one was there, so I told the reference desk staff I would open it again if anyone came and went to get some work done.
  
• Searched microfilm for the rest of some newspaper articles. For some reason the digital newspaper archive only had the first page.
  
• The computer was being used, so I couldn't work more on the negatives. This library has more broken computers than functioning ones. The staff are unhappy about this, but there isn't much they can do.
  
• Hosted NaNo Write-In (2 hours; 3 people): One person was a library staff member and found out about NaNo from all my running around and talking to people about the event. The others saw the flyers in the library. I posted about the write-ins on the regional forum and they are on the forum's event calendar, so I find it interesting that the flyers are what she noticed the most. In other contexts, I've talked to people who say they don't notice flyers because they think they don't apply to them.