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Going to get a library card today...


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Going to get a library card today...
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-17, 10:55

Don't know why I haven't done this 40 gazillion years ago, but the Chattanooga Public Library has five branches around town. The big, multi-story one downtown I used to go to as a pup with my parents. But there's a satellite branch just about 3 miles from my house. I think I went there once, decades ago.

I'm not a fiction/novel reader, so I'm not going for "books to read", but I'll be looking for art books, or books about painting and design, architecture, carpentry and woodworking, housebuilding, guitars, etc. Big, pic-heavy "coffee table" type fare, to look at and thumb through on a Sunday morning for the next few weeks. Checkout times are 21 days/three weeks, so that's plenty for the type of stuff I'm after.

I haven't had a library card or even used a library since early teendom. I'll probably be shocked at how modern/computerized the whole thing is, especially as someone who could never get on with that whole Dewey Decimal System racket. Years ago, I had a book about photorealism paintings/painters...I'd LOVE to find that one over there! I remember the cover and all, so I'll know it if/when I see it. Maybe find some books on Photoshop and/or Illustrator (because I'm sure they don't have any on the Affinity stuff). But I'll still learn/get inspired even if it's about Adobe stuff I no longer own/use.

I know the info is all available on the Internet, but sometimes it feels like I've worn the Internet out and visited all the sites that I'm interested in. And there's just something nice about curling up in bed or on the couch with a big book full of pics, illustrations, etc. One of my little quiet 2024 "resolutions"(?) was to distance myself from the digital realm a bit...phones, MacBook, Internet in general, etc. To that end, I've been pencil drawing again in my sketchbook, and happy at how well it's all come back to me, after years and years of not doing it this way.

Looking forward to it. Stepping into somewhere I typically don't go, something new/different, and access to so much. Too bad I'm not 10-17, because the downtown branch has a "noise room" where they check out musical instruments, drums, amps, keyboards for three weeks. I'd love to bring home a purple Stratocaster and a Fender digital modeling amp for 2-3 weeks. But it's only available to yoots, figuring us grown ups can buy our own stuff.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2024-02-17, 11:13

Libraries are great! I've been using mine a lot more lately. There's a branch a few blocks from me—a beautiful Carnegie library built over a century ago.
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2024-02-17, 12:06

Check to see if your library is part of Kanopy or Hoopla too. Those are nice little free services for library card holders, sometimes with films that are harder to find streaming elsewhere.

So it goes.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-17, 13:03

Cool, I will. Thanks. I wasn’t even thinking about the movie possibilities. I’m on Apple Music, so I’m covered on the listening front. But yeah, books and movies (for free)…speaking my language.

Having an ultra-lazy Saturday and can’t seem to get up and going. It’s 1pm and I’m still lounging around, thinking about a shower, getting dressed, etc.

Perfect Saturday. A little cloudier and cooler than it’s been the past several days, so I know that’s factoring in as well.
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-17, 14:48

Well, that was a complete bust-out.

Drove over, started to get a card, was asked where I lived, I told them, only about 2.5 miles away, just on the other side of I-24. Was informed that was outside the Chattanooga city limits (even though I get my mail at my address, which says "Chattanooga, TN 37412", then was told that library cards were free only to "Chattanooga residents". Took every ounce of raising/decorum I had to not say "then what the fuck am I? I didn't just drive down from Nashville, to scam a Chattanooga area library card, I assure you!” My mail comes to a Chattanooga address, my driver's license, which I produced without being asked (which nobody on Cops has EVER done in the history of television) and shows my Chattanooga address. Wasn't enough. Apparently I live in the one part of Chattanooga that actually isn't, according to the Chattanooga Public Library standards/policies.



I was then told, for non-city residents, a library card is a $50 annual fee.

If I wanted to spend $50 on some books, guess what? I'd go to Barnes & Noble! Just a short drive down the road, with far hotter employees. I just said "okay, thank you" and took a spin around the joint, looked at a few art history books, some graphic novels (I needed a quick dose of Batman beating on some people) and some books about space and space exploration.

There was an armed Chattanooga City policeman standing against the far wall, which kinda gave me a less-than vibe about the place. I stay out of bars, sporting events and concerts anymore because I truly can't trust my fellow humans to act right (and not shoot the joint up, like the morons in KC the other day). Now I gotta do so with the damn library? Why is gun-toting cop required at the library, other than to shoo away the chronic public masturbators on the computer terminals? That can probably be done with a flyswatter and a can of Lysol, I would think?

Anyway, so I headed home, stopped at the Domino's near my house and cashed in my free emergency pizza (ham and pineapple). So at least I got lunch/dinner out of it. Came home, totally book-free.

This happens pretty much every time I get a plan/idea to head out and do something to better myself or take care of a project or whatever. You're talking to the one guy who went to a Home Depot that had no 2x4's a few weeks ago ("Lemme guess...you're all out of nails, screws and sandpaper too?"), which I didn't even know that was possible. I should've somehow known, just trying to get a stupid library card and borrow a few books, would turn into an aggravating c.f. and a no-go on a Saturday afternoon. I just wasted some time and gasoline.

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2024-02-18 at 05:39.
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kieran
@kk@pennytucker.social
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2024-02-17, 22:44

I took my daughter over to the local library in town a few weeks ago and got a library card for the first time in 15 years.

We got a few books for her and spent some time there. Libraries have definitely changed in the last 15 years. it was good to see how things have progressed.

Little one loved it and we'll definitely be back. She goes through books like nobody's business, so I can't keep feeding her and buying books every week....

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2024-02-17, 22:47

My library has a New York Times subscription and I use it to get free access to the crossword and cooking sections.
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709
¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2024-02-18, 01:01

That's some bullshit. Go downtown to the main branch and try again – or – go to your local branch and try again; whichever one you didn't already do.

So it goes.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2024-02-18, 03:01

This cheery, hopeful thread certainly took a turn!!



Sorry it happened like this.

Figures, right?

There's always SOMETHING.


...
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-18, 06:11

Eh, it’s okay. I was just kinda blindsided, looking forward to coming home with some neat books to look through, the next 2-3 weeks. I never would’ve guessed the snag would be “you don’t live in Chattanooga, therefore bug off/get bent!”, when every bit of printed, official material in my life clearly says otherwise.

Hell yes it’s always something. Never expected it to be this something, though. I live in the city this library system serves. I promise.

The way she gleefully informed me that it’s all fixable with a $50 fee just really hit me wrong, coming off the silly shock of being told I didn’t live in the city I live in.

“You’re not gonna tell me such a thing, and then get $50 from me, 40 seconds later! It doesn’t work that way, sister! $50 gets me two magazines, a Dana Scully Funko figurine and a Star Wars Visual Dictionary/cutaway drawings book at Barnes & Noble! I’d rather have any/all of those than risking seeing hobos beating off to swingermilfxxxfeet.com!”

Oh well. I can always drive over and get a few things off the shelf and sit on a bean bag chair and look at them, but just isn’t the same. I don’t wanna hang out in a library all afternoon. I wanna curl up in my couch/bed, at my convenience and level of dress.

I suppose I could go to the big Justice League headquarters main downtown branch to try again/plead my case, but I figure that would be like going to the U.S. Capitol to dispute a drivers license issue…overkill for the issue at hand, and probably just a frustrating wall of bureaucracy and red tape to climb over. I’d rather be bookless, frankly.

Woke up yesterday morning thinking this would be the easiest, most no-brainer/hassle-free thing I do in 2024, and was happy about the possibilities and thinking of all the stuff I’d be able to get my hands on. I wasn’t even thinking about the gobs of DC graphic novels they had…things I’ve always heard about and just never got to read. I would’ve gone nuts, just over the Batman offerings alone. Hush, Year One, the Long Halloween, The Killing Joke, etc. when I saw all that stuff available it really stung that I couldn’t bring any home. I’m not gonna waste any more time/gas on it. If I couldn’t get anywhere with the smaller satellite branch somewhat near my “out of Chattanooga” residence, schlepping downtown, parking, running the hobo/protester/street performer gauntlet, etc. just to be officially denied would be too strong a hurt/aggravation. I know when I’m bested and which battles to fight. This ain’t one.

Now I’m all confused/unsure about where the hell I live. That’s a bit of a mind twist! Am I alive? Do I actually live in a space ship and don’t know it? If I don’t live in Chattanooga, then where do I live? Is all my paperwork a fraud/cover? Am I maybe a spy with amnesia and it’s all starting to unravel a bit? I haven’t displayed any unknown, suppressed martial arts/fighting abilities like that Matt Damon movie I saw ages ago. “How did I know how to smoothly choke out this person and disarm them? I didn’t know my hands moved that fast! If I see Joan Allen and Brian Cox in my peripheral, do I drop everything and run?”

Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2024-02-18 at 11:13.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2024-02-18, 10:16

I feel like you've been lying to us all this time about being in Chattanooga...


...
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-18, 11:26

Who would lie about that?!

If I was gonna lie about where I lived, I'd pick a cooler, more enviable city...Miami, Nashville, DC, Seattle, Frisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Charleston, Savannah, San Diego, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc.?



Whatever boundaries or zones they're using, I just wish maybe they'd amend it to include every zip code in the Chattanooga metro area, and/or anyone who receives mail with the word "Chattanooga" in the receiving address (as I do). If that's not living here, then please tell me what is. Now I need to look to see if my little suburb/slice of the city (East Ridge) has its own library. I DARE them to pull this again. "See that yellow house over there, on the other side of that big oak tree...that's mine, I literally just walked here. Now give me a #$%^@ card and some books!"

If I had a kid and they were with me yesterday, I absolutely would've ponied up the $50 fee to ensure they didn't live on streaming TV/video games 24/7 and might occasionally read a paper book and maybe accidentally learn something.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Send a message via Skype™ to PB PM 
2024-02-18, 13:29

Quote:
Originally Posted by psmith2.0 View Post
Who would lie about that?!
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-18, 16:44

I lie every day, but never about where I live.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2024-02-18, 19:35

I have a friend who is a librarian. Want me to pull some strings?

...
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-18, 20:29

No, that’s okay. But thank you. I kinda reached out to someone here locally just to get a bit of real info/clarification. Let’s not involve outside parties. Big picture, it’s probably not the worst thing that’ll hit me this year. But thanks for the offer.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2024-02-18, 22:18

It's too late. Expect a call from the Library Master General tomorrow!!


...
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2024-02-19, 07:06

Awesome! I wanna make a federal case out of it. The Rosa Parks of book-borrowing!

“Children, the reason you all have library cards, no matter what part of town you’re in, is because, 30 years ago a man bravely stood up and said ‘we may not make it to the promised land together, but gimme my Batman shit, right this minute!" This statue we’re looking at is that courageous, determined man who saw injustice in book form and did something about it. We honor him this month…”


Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2024-02-19 at 12:16.
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