... the IT man in LibraryLand
Yesterday was the big wedding of Doom and The Doctor. I was asked to MC the occasion only a few days ago and after sleeping on it decided to accept the offer. I was a little nervous but not as much as for previous best man and psuedo best man speeches. It helped to be able to refer to my notes between speeches and I was wrapped to be able to do my intros without a piece of paper in my hands. Unfortunately a few great lines we're forgotten but I can always save them for my stint as Legion2's best man next February. In any case it all went over well - people laughed and nobody was traumatized by my wildly inaccurate mini-biographies.
Many people I knew we're there and it was great to have the annual catch up with The Fungi Lady, who flew in especially for the occasion. Alas I had to dance with MatrixMan, my "date" for the evening, since Svetlana was unavailable.
All guests were given a Pocket Penguin as a memento of the wedding, which is a lovely gesture, but I am worried that I may have been specifically targeted to receive "The Worst Thing A Suburban Girl Could Imagine". I'll have to see what I think once I've read it.
Also in the last few days I scored another goal at soccer bringing my tally to 5 in 13 months so I'm now on one every 10 weeks or so. Still some room for improvement.
This morning I coffee'd at the Vic Market with Rugrat Twin, fresh back from Europe and Svetlanaland. She passed on some great gifts from Svetlana and photos from the trip before consenting to play the role of fashion adviser as I topped up my wardrobe in my bid to inch closer in the fashion stakes to Mr Prada (whom I bear only the slightest of malice towards - despite what you may read into my meandering musings LittleBigGirl !!)
The rest of this afternoon was spent wrestling with my stupid modem at home as it refused to allow me an ADSL connection so I could try to remotely fix some problems at work. I am suspicious That I have recently begun having problems and then Telstra calls me out of the blue offerring me "Fantastic" broadband deals. Make of that what you will...
... A Serious Lack of Mr Prada
I had to run another Your Library @ Home class for the public yesterday but this time without Mr Prada who is off in Mapleland.
I had a couple of complete beginners in the class who had to be shown how to use the mouse. Even after they left I found that it would have been a great help to have a second person to roam the room helping people login to their accounts and deal with those little problems that continuously popup when the students don't follow your instructions to the letter.
I had a couple of complete beginners in the class who had to be shown how to use the mouse. Even after they left I found that it would have been a great help to have a second person to roam the room helping people login to their accounts and deal with those little problems that continuously popup when the students don't follow your instructions to the letter.
... The Buck's Weekend
My weekend was dominated by bucks activities.
Saturday afternoon was filled with paintball fun. I collected Gavman, MatrixMan, and Amoeba and we headed off to the foothills of Mt Disappointment to play several games over the course of the stinking hot afternoon.
It was a lot of fun and - for me personally - not as painful as I'd feared. It would have been better if the opposition had the strength of character to not cheat (they basically played "got you - did not" with us all afternoon). The final game for the day had just our group hunting Camo Spice and the buck, Doom who had been outfitted in Kelly-gang style armour until we all ran out of ammo.
In the evening a smaller group of us recuperated with some more traditional Buck's night fare of dinner, booze and boobs. I may have been affected by the amount I had to drink as I decided to walk home from the city. It did start out as walking to the other side of the CBD abut then it was only a short way to the next road and then the next and before I knew it I was home.
Sunday was a rest day topped off with our second annual Absent Friends game of Jyhad (the card game of Vampire politics) played in memory of a friend who lost his battle against leukemia last year. My political deck won after a few timely card draws.
This morning was a meeting about printers and copiers with my new best friend as we talked about the options open to us as we get our three quotes before changing all the equipment over.
The highlight of the day, though, would have to have been the free lunch as part of the organisational catch-up program. Although I did find it strangely structured for a event that was supposed to get staff to mingle.
Saturday afternoon was filled with paintball fun. I collected Gavman, MatrixMan, and Amoeba and we headed off to the foothills of Mt Disappointment to play several games over the course of the stinking hot afternoon.
It was a lot of fun and - for me personally - not as painful as I'd feared. It would have been better if the opposition had the strength of character to not cheat (they basically played "got you - did not" with us all afternoon). The final game for the day had just our group hunting Camo Spice and the buck, Doom who had been outfitted in Kelly-gang style armour until we all ran out of ammo.
In the evening a smaller group of us recuperated with some more traditional Buck's night fare of dinner, booze and boobs. I may have been affected by the amount I had to drink as I decided to walk home from the city. It did start out as walking to the other side of the CBD abut then it was only a short way to the next road and then the next and before I knew it I was home.
Sunday was a rest day topped off with our second annual Absent Friends game of Jyhad (the card game of Vampire politics) played in memory of a friend who lost his battle against leukemia last year. My political deck won after a few timely card draws.
This morning was a meeting about printers and copiers with my new best friend as we talked about the options open to us as we get our three quotes before changing all the equipment over.
The highlight of the day, though, would have to have been the free lunch as part of the organisational catch-up program. Although I did find it strangely structured for a event that was supposed to get staff to mingle.
... The Stealing of Wireless Go-Live Day
Today the wireless-internet-hotspot-access-point went live to the public. There is still a bit of staff training and a few signs to go up but we had several happy customers. Miss Amanda did her best Mr Prada impersonation and created most of the documentation for staff. Supervisor Grand Chief K then cunningly distracted me with free sandwiches so that they could steal all the glory and run around signing up innocent laptop-using borrowers.
All of this happened while Torchwood and I were off at a council web site team meeting. We came back all inspired to double team some changes and updates through - and may finally replace Bomber Babe's photo on the web site.
All of this happened while Torchwood and I were off at a council web site team meeting. We came back all inspired to double team some changes and updates through - and may finally replace Bomber Babe's photo on the web site.
... The High School Reunion
Last night was my 20 year HSC reunion.
Despite having found my old school jumper the other week when I was cleaning out the last of my clothes boxes from the big move I decided against wearing something that would be skin tight nowadays. (Although the number of times I was told I haven't changed makes me wonder if I shouldn't have squeezed myself into the jumper after all...)
With BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph, and MrRogers all away at a golfing weekend it was up to me to hold the fort for the group that I still see regularly. I had a great time and was a little overwhelmed at seeing the older version of close to 100 people despite having relatively fresh memories of the 20 odd who went to the smaller 18 year get-together.
There was a little too much noise - music and chatter - to have a really good conversation and I even had to just nod and smile a few times.
Some of the highlights: two sets of twins, short conversations with the two guys who gave me some low level bullying in year 7, not even noticing it was 3am, people who looked 50 and others who looked 18, a wide mix of jobs (surprisingly few IT Guys), reminding people of nicknames and incidents they'd forgotten, hanging out with the popular girls.
Apparently we're going to aim to have one every 5 years from now on, like a mis-timed 7Up. I look forward to going to the next one.
Despite having found my old school jumper the other week when I was cleaning out the last of my clothes boxes from the big move I decided against wearing something that would be skin tight nowadays. (Although the number of times I was told I haven't changed makes me wonder if I shouldn't have squeezed myself into the jumper after all...)
With BestFriendSincePrep, StumpyRudolph, and MrRogers all away at a golfing weekend it was up to me to hold the fort for the group that I still see regularly. I had a great time and was a little overwhelmed at seeing the older version of close to 100 people despite having relatively fresh memories of the 20 odd who went to the smaller 18 year get-together.
There was a little too much noise - music and chatter - to have a really good conversation and I even had to just nod and smile a few times.
Some of the highlights: two sets of twins, short conversations with the two guys who gave me some low level bullying in year 7, not even noticing it was 3am, people who looked 50 and others who looked 18, a wide mix of jobs (surprisingly few IT Guys), reminding people of nicknames and incidents they'd forgotten, hanging out with the popular girls.
Apparently we're going to aim to have one every 5 years from now on, like a mis-timed 7Up. I look forward to going to the next one.
... Success with Wireless
All of a sudden, on Friday morning, the last steps had been made and the wireless set up was ready to go to the people stage. Which means I have to create the documentation for staff on how to sign up accounts, decide what sort of account limits/freedoms we will allow, and liaise with Torchwood the new marketing coordinator to get the message out to the public.
The last may not be strictly necessary as we had a couple of people approach the desk to find out how to connect as they'd picked up the connection once it was switched on for testing. One of them amused me as he was an expert and had done it before: "you just plug the equipment in and then print out passwords for people". On being told that we had to allow for control of bandwidth and security he scoffed that we must be doing something wrong if we can't get unlimited bandwidth.
I hope they don't get him to replace me at the library!!
The last may not be strictly necessary as we had a couple of people approach the desk to find out how to connect as they'd picked up the connection once it was switched on for testing. One of them amused me as he was an expert and had done it before: "you just plug the equipment in and then print out passwords for people". On being told that we had to allow for control of bandwidth and security he scoffed that we must be doing something wrong if we can't get unlimited bandwidth.
I hope they don't get him to replace me at the library!!
... The Weeping Women Hotel by Alexei Sayle
I finished this early in the week and it was good but not great. The big tying together of all the characters happened in a couple of paragraphs and then it was over.
I might still chase up his other books in a while - depending on how quickly the weeded books stack up at home.
I might still chase up his other books in a while - depending on how quickly the weeded books stack up at home.
... The Great Frankston Road Trip
Today Sister Serials and I ventured down the highway to avail ourselves of the Frankston library Service knowledge of the more confusing parts of Spydus Serials.
Along the way I subjected the good Sister to the torture of my 70's era teach yourself Svetlana-ese tapes, and followed it up with a good dose of Radio-Phill from the iPod. She seems to have survived intact though so I'll have to increase the dosage next time.
Once there, some light was shed on the areas of Serials that may be causing our repeated problems with 'those darn magazines' as I like to refer to them.
We also had a demo of several of the IT support programlets that Frankston's IT nice-guy, The Professor, uses to automate several of the day to day tasks that we IT people have to slog our way through oh so frequently. The public PC booking software was particularly impressive and I may recommend that we see if it's possible to institute it at our branches - even though it would mean yet another project upon my overburdened shoulders, sigh.
Oh and the lunch wasn't free but it was in enormous proportions!
Along the way I subjected the good Sister to the torture of my 70's era teach yourself Svetlana-ese tapes, and followed it up with a good dose of Radio-Phill from the iPod. She seems to have survived intact though so I'll have to increase the dosage next time.
Once there, some light was shed on the areas of Serials that may be causing our repeated problems with 'those darn magazines' as I like to refer to them.
We also had a demo of several of the IT support programlets that Frankston's IT nice-guy, The Professor, uses to automate several of the day to day tasks that we IT people have to slog our way through oh so frequently. The public PC booking software was particularly impressive and I may recommend that we see if it's possible to institute it at our branches - even though it would mean yet another project upon my overburdened shoulders, sigh.
Oh and the lunch wasn't free but it was in enormous proportions!
... Bad Timing by Rebecca Levene
I actually finished reading this yesterday but promotion is much more important in the exciting world of library IT.
This is a Strontium Dog novel based on the characters from 2000AD - a fine publication of which I am a regular reader. It's the first I've read of the recent run of tie-in novels and it gets off to a reasonable start. The prose flows, the ideas fit the Strontium Dog universe and the established continuity is followed so I'm a relatively happy fanboy.
It doesn't reach great heights but it's a good comfortable read.
My next (current actually) book was supposed to be the next in the Books of the Cataclysm but my eye was caught on Thursday morning, while waiting for the public PCs to reboot yet again, and I have commenced an investigation of what type of author Alexie Sayle is (so far he is in the Vonnegut/Foster Wallace area).
In other news Rugrat Twin should be partying away with Svetlana at this very moment as her holiday takes her into Svetlanaland a mere couple of months before I can get over there. No doubt my entrapment is being schemed at this very moment...
This is a Strontium Dog novel based on the characters from 2000AD - a fine publication of which I am a regular reader. It's the first I've read of the recent run of tie-in novels and it gets off to a reasonable start. The prose flows, the ideas fit the Strontium Dog universe and the established continuity is followed so I'm a relatively happy fanboy.
It doesn't reach great heights but it's a good comfortable read.
My next (current actually) book was supposed to be the next in the Books of the Cataclysm but my eye was caught on Thursday morning, while waiting for the public PCs to reboot yet again, and I have commenced an investigation of what type of author Alexie Sayle is (so far he is in the Vonnegut/Foster Wallace area).
In other news Rugrat Twin should be partying away with Svetlana at this very moment as her holiday takes her into Svetlanaland a mere couple of months before I can get over there. No doubt my entrapment is being schemed at this very moment...
... The Great Re-Banding
It is now official. Thanks to one of Supervisor S's final suggestions before abandoning us, and Supervisor Grand Chief K pushing it through at the council castle, I am now a band 6a and retitled as IT Support Coordinator comma Libraries.
Unfortunately it's not all roses as I now have more responsibility etc. Including this doozy -"To ensure staff are sophisticated users of library technology"
Hopefully I can cover that one by buying a lot of snazzy hats for everyone.
Oh well back to the grindstone...
Unfortunately it's not all roses as I now have more responsibility etc. Including this doozy -"To ensure staff are sophisticated users of library technology"
Hopefully I can cover that one by buying a lot of snazzy hats for everyone.
Oh well back to the grindstone...
... The Day of Training
Finally the second best day of the year arrived today! The second training day! Free lunch, morning tea and post-training drinks. Timetabling issues reduced my LMS class to a speedy rush through the first few of the issues I had planned to cover. In one of the earlier sessions I was cruelly taunted with Svetlana's far-awayness when we were presented with her poster appearance for some reader's advising material produced by my previous library service. I miss that hyena laugh she was pictured midway through.
In other news this evening's episode of Californication has redeemed the show just when I was getting a little tired of it by featuring the Warren Zevon song "Don't Let Us Get Sick" not once but twice!!
In other news this evening's episode of Californication has redeemed the show just when I was getting a little tired of it by featuring the Warren Zevon song "Don't Let Us Get Sick" not once but twice!!
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