In Search of a Retrieval System

IN SEARCH OF A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM

It's a conundrum!

And it’s frustrating!

Let me try to explain.

Due to the Covid-19 self-isolation measures we are currently encountering and needing to fill extra hours at home, I couldn’t access my usual bookstores or even the library, so I decided it was time to sign up for library ebooks.  In a complicated, convoluted series of events, I ended up signing up at two different libraries with their two different ebook suppliers. And that’s what launched this journey through my conundrum…

I'm accumulating information that I don't quite know how to manage. It's all those wee bits here and there that I'm afraid I'll forget. I get an internal picture of myself jotting something down on a yellow stickie and posting it on my forehead. That's followed by another and another to the point where I am covered from top to toe by little coloured stickies and they’ve even taken over my kitchen wall.

Later, I need that bit of information, so I start to hunt.  I kinda remember.  I am pretty sure it's there somewhere.  I search and rustle through them, but that just makes them start to fall off!  It’s a dreadful jumble - there's no organization at all.  It is beyond frustrating! 

          Help! I need an index!

That's not actually what has happened of course. The truth is I have those bits of information carefully digitally saved. The problem is laying my hands on them. I hunt through gmail. Then through WhatsApp. Then through Messenger. Then through Texts. Then I think maybe I saved it in a document so search through the computer. Or did I hear it on a webinar or zoom meeting? Read it in one of the email articles that come by subscriptions that I've signed up for? Facebook? Or maybe it was in conversation with a neighbour or my husband. No wait - maybe I got the information in a phone call.  I'm old fashioned enough to still have a notebook beside the phone - but the phone (cordless of course) is never beside the notebook.

          Help! I need an index! 

Back to what launched this epic journey through the jumble in my mind.

Yesterday I sat down to read my book and suddenly realized that I'm not sure where to find the one I’m in the middle of. Is it on that library's ebook service or the other library? Is it on a pdf? Did I leave it, a “real” paperback, upstairs beside the bed? Maybe on Kindle, perhaps I should check there first.

As a retired librarian, I know information retrieval is all about indexes. Many well written books full of good information have been useless because of a lack of indexing or at least a table of contents. I need both! 

          Help!  I need a retrieval system….
                     And please tell me I'm not the only one.

[If you are receiving this due to subscribing via your email, you can go to the address below to see the blog in its published form, make a comment or view previous posts.  Thanks for reading my reflections. Velma.]

http://uponreflect.blogspot.com/  

EMPTY WORDBOXES IN MY MIND

EMPTY WORDBOXES IN MY MIND

Seems like I'm often struggling for a word lately.

A word.

Just an ordinary word.

I know that it happens to the best of us but that doesn't make it any less disconcerting.

I get a picture in my head of going to a huge bank of small lockboxes or mailboxes. A key is in my hand, my arm reaches out to turn the lock and open the small compartment. I look inside but to my horror the space is empty! The word has vanished!

So then I circle around trying out synonyms - you know, green vegetable, looks like little trees - with the sound of confusion in my voice accompanied by just a touch of whining. Or perhaps I circle around and mentally reopen that word box hoping against hope that it will have reappeared but I peer into the recesses again and - nope - still gone. So I finish my thought lamely using a description or a synonym.

Other times I see the word as a tiny bird which rests in the wordbox as if on the branch of a tree. Just when I need it, the bird flies up and darts across my line of vision so fast I’m left with only a vague impression of it.  

It's so frustrating! Sometimes the word is there where I can find it but that only increases my unease when it's not. Maybe this isn’t the right key? the right box? And if not, where do I find it?

In the midst of complaining of not finding words when I need them, an interesting old Cockney word popped into my head – “scarpered” – that’s what’s happened, the word I need has scarpered!  What a great word!  I like the way it sounds when said out loud, and it suits the way I feel very well. The word I need has scarpered and left me suddenly and – it sometimes feels – with malice.

Sadly, I have come to fear those empty wordboxes so that it's often easier to abandon trying to verbalize my thoughts. I have found myself shaking my head and muttering "words… words".

That's why I like writing. I can take time to get the right word in the right place and no one knows if it took a dictionary or several returns to the wordbox to find it.

Speaking of which, where is my pen?  I’m hunting in the bottom of my purse and it seems to be gone. Like some weird outtake of a nursery rhyme …and the pen ran away with the word…

…done a bunk   vamoosed    skedaddled    scarpered…

[If you are receiving this due to subscribing via your email, you can go to the address below to see the blog in its published form, make a comment or view previous posts.  Thanks for reading my reflections. Velma.]

http://uponreflect.blogspot.com/  

You Guys!!

Today’s blog is actually a rant!

My question is, does anyone other than me have a problem with the phrase,“you guys”?

It makes me cringe!

In the average restaurant, the teenybopper server smiles broadly and asks, “can I get you guys something to drink?”  A few minutes later it’s, “have you guys decided what you wanna eat?”, “can I get you guys more coffee”, and “how’s it tasting, guys?”

Usually about this time, in spite of my husband making please-don’t faces at me, I politely point out that there is only one guy at the table, and that I most certainly am not him!! Or, occasionally, I will pointedly look around me as if to see who the server may be talking to, then say, “oh, I thought you must have been speaking to someone else. There are no guys at this table, just my husband and myself!”