Libraries and TDRs

I went to the store with my wife this morning, and she suggested that I swing by the library and drop off the three books that I'd picked up the other day. Once there, I found myself just dropping off two of the three, keeping the one about working and how your attitudes affect how you perceive it. I don't tend to like the smiley-face books which tell you that, gosh-darn it, if you just have a positive attitude, all will be well, life will be better, and all of that. I don't believe that. But I have come to think that the basic of that concept, that being that what you receive from your job, not to mention your life, is affected by your attitude and your expectations, has something going for it. I don't want to take that concept too far, because I think it very easily slides into the smile and the world smiles with you attitude, but I'm willing to give it some time. And while I was there, I picked up a copy of The Last Assassin, one of the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. (I can almost never remember Eisler's name, but I can remember the name of the head of Disney, so I remember it as 'the name that sounds like Michael Eisner, but not quite'). I like this series. Its been mostly strong and consistant. I'm not sure how much further he can take it without rewriting the same books over and over; not that that would be necessarily bad. Sometimes, thats what you want. Not exactly the same book, but the same concepts, the same feel, with just a little bit more here and there -- but not too much. I got tired of the Tom Clancy novels when he moved from one-paragraph descriptions of his characters motivations to multi-paragraph and multi-page ones. Not that that seems to have hurt his popularity any.
When I was leaving the libe, though, I thought a bit about how irritated I got when they raised their overdue book fines. I don't ordinarily have that as a problem, but it irked me nonetheless. And yet when I pick up three or four books over a relatively short period of time, I am grateful to them for existing, and I want to send them money to thank them -- if I can do it in a way that doesn't say Hey, we have a live one here, put him on the list of people we send recurring letters to, asking for money. I even thought that if they took credit cards -- which they don't -- I'd just give it to them right there. Wonder if I carefully thought of that willingness to donate in a way that I knew was impossible to execute? Nah, I'm not that tricky.

I read in an article about a guy's experiences in getting interviewed by Google that they have, in their lobby, a rolling display of current search phrases being entered. So, if you have a spare moment, do a search that suggests that perhaps Google isn't as non-evil as they'd like to think. It might be fun.

I also thought, while I was out, about Things to Do After Retirement. Two things come to mind. One, being what I'll call a 'minder' -- someone who goes to the hospital or the nursing facility where your aged relative is and checks up on them -- are they getting treated well, are they getting their meds and exercise and whatnot. This is based on the observation that most nurses and nursing staff are hard workers who don't have a lot of spare time; when they they have some, they spend it on the people who are foremost in their minds, and that is usually the people who really, really need it, but also, frequently, are the people that they've been asked about.
And the other is that years ago I heard about people who are couriers for large companies that need something hand carried from here to there. You get a ticket and a package, you fly somewhere, hand it over, and fly back. Not much pay, but obvious tourist opportunities.

Either sounds -- possible.