... the IT man in LibraryLand
This post marks my posting-est month ever.
I'm up to 15.
That's a ridiculous post every second day.
(punctuate the previous sentence to taste)
Sigh, I have to get a life.
Speaking of which, I was home today to guard The Tiger as the door had to remain open while paint was being applied to it and thereafter to allow said paint to dry. All part of the great building repainting. It looks good although possibly the grey edging colour may make the internal stairwells a touch too dark - in an Adrian Mole-esque "black walls" kind of way.
I had every intention of making it a work from home day but the heat and fumes and maybe a touch of uncharacteristic laziness turned it into a credit day.
Of course Supervisor Grand Chief K and Sister Serials just couldn't help but call me to disturb my peace so I think it still counts as a full days work.
... Two Years in Hell
Well not really, it just makes for a catchy headline.
Today is two years to the day that started working as the IT Man in LibraryLand - in my previous employment I was the IT man adjacent to LibraryLand, or more precisely in LibraryLand's basement.
It's been an interesting two years and, as MatrixMan says, being thrown into such an almost all women environment has an amazing socialising effect (as long as you survive!!). I've gone from IT Officer to IT Support Coordinator comma Libraries, seen several computer rollouts come and go, overseen the LMS upgrade (said LMS system has been going great the last two days so fingers-crossed we are out of the slowness woods) and I even saw the bottom of my email inbox the other day. All that I my work here still isn't done!
I didn't make an anniversary cake this year, mostly because I didn't realise the occasion until the afternoon, and besides I was at Days of our Libraries's branch for customer training and there is just no point trying to compete with her cakery skills.
Today is two years to the day that started working as the IT Man in LibraryLand - in my previous employment I was the IT man adjacent to LibraryLand, or more precisely in LibraryLand's basement.
It's been an interesting two years and, as MatrixMan says, being thrown into such an almost all women environment has an amazing socialising effect (as long as you survive!!). I've gone from IT Officer to IT Support Coordinator comma Libraries, seen several computer rollouts come and go, overseen the LMS upgrade (said LMS system has been going great the last two days so fingers-crossed we are out of the slowness woods) and I even saw the bottom of my email inbox the other day. All that I my work here still isn't done!
I didn't make an anniversary cake this year, mostly because I didn't realise the occasion until the afternoon, and besides I was at Days of our Libraries's branch for customer training and there is just no point trying to compete with her cakery skills.
... The Sudden Appearance of More 2.0
(246 Alternate Title: Thing #12 Rollyo)
I've had a quick look at Rollyo but, like many others I didn't want to create another logon - there is only so much Freeloading Phill to go around after all. Apparently Rollyo created me as 321321321 which is a rather catchy name if I do say so myself.
I did create a free search of The Tales, which I categorised as Society & Culture, of course.
Below is the search box code they told me would work.
(Of course using it to search The Tales is a waste of time since every post is so beautifully tagged that the tag list off to the left there - no lower down - is a much easier way of finding what you're after.)
Do I see a use for this sort of search? Yes, a little. But I think the catch is that you also need to be searching to see what relevant sites have shown up and need to be added to your roll so why not just search with a search engine?
I've had a quick look at Rollyo but, like many others I didn't want to create another logon - there is only so much Freeloading Phill to go around after all. Apparently Rollyo created me as 321321321 which is a rather catchy name if I do say so myself.
I did create a free search of The Tales, which I categorised as Society & Culture, of course.
Below is the search box code they told me would work.
(Of course using it to search The Tales is a waste of time since every post is so beautifully tagged that the tag list off to the left there - no lower down - is a much easier way of finding what you're after.)
Do I see a use for this sort of search? Yes, a little. But I think the catch is that you also need to be searching to see what relevant sites have shown up and need to be added to your roll so why not just search with a search engine?
... The Sweet Sadness of Endings
After yesterdays draining experience I had a rest day today.
One of the things I did today was to finish my re-watching the fifth and final season of Babylon 5. It is eight years since the first (and only) time I watched the final episodes and, yes, some tears were shed.
It evoked in me that feeling of finishing a good book - the wishing for more and the sadness that it is over.
All my memories of watching the five year "novel for television" that Babylon 5 is, over five turbulent years of my life were brought up again. It was one of my constants as I went through: band disintegrations; bad romantic choices; good relationships crashing; some mid to late twenties aimlessness; and - like in the show itself - change scattering friends to the corners of the universe.
One of my best memories is of a party at my place with the lounge room full to overflowing with my friends all watching that weeks episode - a stark contrast to the usual solitary way that I watched the rest of the series.
For much less emotional impact I also happened to watch the final episode of Stargate SG1 today. In contrast to Bab5's winding down final three episodes I didn't even know it was the final Stargate until the last scene and even then I had to look it up on the internet to make sure.
I rate SG1 as a trek-level show - watch once with a general level of quality but hardly ever spectacular or emotion provoking. This means that it was never likely to effect me when it ended.
Phew, that was all a bit serious. Well after a hard day at work tomorrow I should be back to my usual blogging self.
One of the things I did today was to finish my re-watching the fifth and final season of Babylon 5. It is eight years since the first (and only) time I watched the final episodes and, yes, some tears were shed.
It evoked in me that feeling of finishing a good book - the wishing for more and the sadness that it is over.
All my memories of watching the five year "novel for television" that Babylon 5 is, over five turbulent years of my life were brought up again. It was one of my constants as I went through: band disintegrations; bad romantic choices; good relationships crashing; some mid to late twenties aimlessness; and - like in the show itself - change scattering friends to the corners of the universe.
One of my best memories is of a party at my place with the lounge room full to overflowing with my friends all watching that weeks episode - a stark contrast to the usual solitary way that I watched the rest of the series.
For much less emotional impact I also happened to watch the final episode of Stargate SG1 today. In contrast to Bab5's winding down final three episodes I didn't even know it was the final Stargate until the last scene and even then I had to look it up on the internet to make sure.
I rate SG1 as a trek-level show - watch once with a general level of quality but hardly ever spectacular or emotion provoking. This means that it was never likely to effect me when it ended.
Phew, that was all a bit serious. Well after a hard day at work tomorrow I should be back to my usual blogging self.
... The Long, Long Day of Decision
AKA the Election that stole Soccer
Yesterday I worked as a polling official on the federal election. I'd signed up to it on the belief that the corporate games soccer would only be on this Sunday but alas they had double the entries and then scheduled all our pool games for Saturday - bastards.
Ahem, anyway I had to miss out on the games to work on the election.
And what a long day it turned out to be.
I've been doing this at elections for nearly 20 years and it was definitely the worst run booth I've worked on - not terrible but a smidgen below acceptable.
Not only did our working day go from 7.30 until 10.15 instead of the usual 9 - 9.30 finish but in all that time I was only given two breaks from the hot classroom we were working in. Granted it was a new team in charge who maybe needed to learn the ropes but how hard is it to keep rotating the staff around?
While I was getting the absent voting area sorted out the rest of the group were taking what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to sort and count the house of reps papers. In the end the Officer in Charge finally decided to let most of the staff go instead of continuing to make us watch as she tried once again to balance her figures. I have to admit that there was a little bit of schadenfreude (or zluradost) at seeing the formerly chirpy and bubbly OIC being brought almost to tears by not adding up properly but in the end I just wanted it over and done with and to get home.
Oh and SoccerBuddy and the others failed to qualify for todays finals.
Yesterday I worked as a polling official on the federal election. I'd signed up to it on the belief that the corporate games soccer would only be on this Sunday but alas they had double the entries and then scheduled all our pool games for Saturday - bastards.
Ahem, anyway I had to miss out on the games to work on the election.
And what a long day it turned out to be.
I've been doing this at elections for nearly 20 years and it was definitely the worst run booth I've worked on - not terrible but a smidgen below acceptable.
Not only did our working day go from 7.30 until 10.15 instead of the usual 9 - 9.30 finish but in all that time I was only given two breaks from the hot classroom we were working in. Granted it was a new team in charge who maybe needed to learn the ropes but how hard is it to keep rotating the staff around?
While I was getting the absent voting area sorted out the rest of the group were taking what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to sort and count the house of reps papers. In the end the Officer in Charge finally decided to let most of the staff go instead of continuing to make us watch as she tried once again to balance her figures. I have to admit that there was a little bit of schadenfreude (or zluradost) at seeing the formerly chirpy and bubbly OIC being brought almost to tears by not adding up properly but in the end I just wanted it over and done with and to get home.
Oh and SoccerBuddy and the others failed to qualify for todays finals.
... The Day of Meetings
After spending Wednesday night with Rugrat Twin comparing our holiday photos of Svetlanaland I had to front up at work for Thursday the Day of Meetings.
Meeting one was the Sandringham branch meeting. It was catered beautifully by Mr Prada with more muffins than you could eat - but not me, alas I had other meetings to go to so far too many muffins remained uneaten. Some work stuff was probably talked about while I was eating muffins.
My next meeting, with Bomber Babe, was shifted forward to the moment I walked in the door at Brighton. It was a five minute meeting - the sort were you are only vaguely disappointed in the lack of catering, especially if you are still full of the Sandringham bounty.
Hot on the heals of that came the completely un-catered Service Coordinators meeting. However without any provisions to take my attention I was able to follow most of the meeting and even deflect several more of Torchwood's attempts to undermine me in the eyes of the other coordinators.
Again I went straight into another meeting - this time with The Flibberty Gibbet on her semi (or is it bi?) annual visit. This one, while not catered did become a lunch at the local where I struggled to fit in a full entree and main on top of the multitude of morning muffins. TFG and Supervisor Grand Chief K were their usual well-behaved selves and we were only a quarter hour late back to work.
My short break between meetings became the rest of the afternoon to myself when Supervisor Grand Chief K decreed that our regular catch-up meeting was canceled as we had seen enough of each other lately. So I spent the rest of the afternoon getting some actual work done while my body slowly digested lunch - which it finished just in time for me to rush off to soccer.
Today, in contrast to the day of meetings, started out completely clear but quite quickly disappeared in a haze of odd jobs, system slowdown monitoring, and getting caught at desk helping thecustomers borrowers.
Meeting one was the Sandringham branch meeting. It was catered beautifully by Mr Prada with more muffins than you could eat - but not me, alas I had other meetings to go to so far too many muffins remained uneaten. Some work stuff was probably talked about while I was eating muffins.
My next meeting, with Bomber Babe, was shifted forward to the moment I walked in the door at Brighton. It was a five minute meeting - the sort were you are only vaguely disappointed in the lack of catering, especially if you are still full of the Sandringham bounty.
Hot on the heals of that came the completely un-catered Service Coordinators meeting. However without any provisions to take my attention I was able to follow most of the meeting and even deflect several more of Torchwood's attempts to undermine me in the eyes of the other coordinators.
Again I went straight into another meeting - this time with The Flibberty Gibbet on her semi (or is it bi?) annual visit. This one, while not catered did become a lunch at the local where I struggled to fit in a full entree and main on top of the multitude of morning muffins. TFG and Supervisor Grand Chief K were their usual well-behaved selves and we were only a quarter hour late back to work.
My short break between meetings became the rest of the afternoon to myself when Supervisor Grand Chief K decreed that our regular catch-up meeting was canceled as we had seen enough of each other lately. So I spent the rest of the afternoon getting some actual work done while my body slowly digested lunch - which it finished just in time for me to rush off to soccer.
Today, in contrast to the day of meetings, started out completely clear but quite quickly disappeared in a haze of odd jobs, system slowdown monitoring, and getting caught at desk helping the
... The Strangely Designed Computer System
Yesterday I received an invite to Christmas drinks at the real-estate agents I bought my flat through. The previous owner also had the same invite - delivered to my address. I would have thought that a real estate agents software would be designed to keep it's eye out for this sort of same address issue. Oh well, I guess i get to have twice as many free drinks since I have both invites.
In other sad news Scully has just soiled my enjoyment of Tim-Tams by quoting some facts about each individual biscuit containing the days allowance of fat which makes a pack a day habit deadly and does not bode well for slimming down in preparation for Christmas in Svetlanaland.
In other sad news Scully has just soiled my enjoyment of Tim-Tams by quoting some facts about each individual biscuit containing the days allowance of fat which makes a pack a day habit deadly and does not bode well for slimming down in preparation for Christmas in Svetlanaland.
... Death by Stats
Well here I am up to my neck in stats after a great weekend which included catching up with FridgePower, Illuminated G and others at a wedding celebration on Saturday. Sunday was another of our Magic card tournaments in which I finished a respectable 3rd, behind MatrixMan and Legion2.
However work has been a yo-yo of stats and system crashes meaning that Supervisor Grand Chief K will probably hurt me severely if the system crashes have delayed the stats beyond the end of the day!
Fittingly enough I finished reading Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer this morning. It is volume one of the Book of the New Sun. I was reading it to see if it could be this years holidays reading in the same way that I caught up on the classic Riverworld series last time I was in Svetlanaland. It turned out to be a good read with an intriguing setting and will do fine as holiday reading. Although during our wonderful phone conversation last night Svetlana wants me to leave some books for her and I doubt that the slightly archaic "future" English would be an easy read - not to mention the fantasy aspects - so I'll have to dig up something more girly for her.
However work has been a yo-yo of stats and system crashes meaning that Supervisor Grand Chief K will probably hurt me severely if the system crashes have delayed the stats beyond the end of the day!
Fittingly enough I finished reading Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer this morning. It is volume one of the Book of the New Sun. I was reading it to see if it could be this years holidays reading in the same way that I caught up on the classic Riverworld series last time I was in Svetlanaland. It turned out to be a good read with an intriguing setting and will do fine as holiday reading. Although during our wonderful phone conversation last night Svetlana wants me to leave some books for her and I doubt that the slightly archaic "future" English would be an easy read - not to mention the fantasy aspects - so I'll have to dig up something more girly for her.
... The Courier Run
Here is another caution for you all. When Miss Amanda calls you while you're on your way in to work and asks "what do you have planned for today", always say that you are fully booked. To say something like "I planned to be at Beaumaris but I'm flexible" only invites the soul-sapping activities of doing the courier run because everyone else is at customer service training.
The run itself is not too bad, even with the warm weather, hot van from being in the sun, and mildly hard physical labour. However it does mean that you'll miss the opportunity to slip into the morning tea of the aforementioned customer service training. And it's also guaranteed that when you do finally finish and begin contemplating lunch the whole internet connection will drop out and you'll be running around getting that sorted for hours before being able to drag your starved self away for a late afternoon feed.
The day can however end on a good note if you head over to BestFriendSincePrep's for a swim in his pool, some beers and a good close game of Memoir '44.
The run itself is not too bad, even with the warm weather, hot van from being in the sun, and mildly hard physical labour. However it does mean that you'll miss the opportunity to slip into the morning tea of the aforementioned customer service training. And it's also guaranteed that when you do finally finish and begin contemplating lunch the whole internet connection will drop out and you'll be running around getting that sorted for hours before being able to drag your starved self away for a late afternoon feed.
The day can however end on a good note if you head over to BestFriendSincePrep's for a swim in his pool, some beers and a good close game of Memoir '44.
... The Worst Thing A Suburban Girl Could Imagine
This was the book that I received at Doom and The Doctor's wedding.
It is Pocket Penguin 57 in the Penguin 70th year birthday series and I knocked it off on the train trip into work this morning. It was okay, well written, but nothing particularly exciting story-wise.
It is Pocket Penguin 57 in the Penguin 70th year birthday series and I knocked it off on the train trip into work this morning. It was okay, well written, but nothing particularly exciting story-wise.
... Blood of Angels by Michael Marshall
I couldn't stop myself from sitting down this afternoon and reading through the last fifty pages of this - the third "crime" novel by Michael Marshall Smith.
His writing is once again clear and flowing and the observations on human behavior are just as good as they are in his scifi books.
I hope that the many people who've left their mark in the back of the book (in the right place but without a sticker to direct them so they have been well trained) are tempted to find his scifi books since they are all essentially also about world-weary detective types who find redemption. Of course they probably "never read that sort of stuff".
His writing is once again clear and flowing and the observations on human behavior are just as good as they are in his scifi books.
I hope that the many people who've left their mark in the back of the book (in the right place but without a sticker to direct them so they have been well trained) are tempted to find his scifi books since they are all essentially also about world-weary detective types who find redemption. Of course they probably "never read that sort of stuff".
... The Grab bag of Things
There's been no real focus to what I've been up to the last few days - except for being overworked of course.
Thursday's day of meetings began with a surprise visit from Supervisor S and the introduction of Mini S who limpeted to S the whole time they were visiting.
My next "meeting" of the day was my attempt to order some custom blinds for the flat since summer is rolling in and the natural light can get a bit much at times. In any case it took a good 25 to 30 minutes for the sales girl to input the order for my 5 different blinds into their computer system. I did multiple circuits of the shop admiring there many plastic plants and painful looking couches while it was all entered. The least they could have done was supply some coffee and/or cakes while I waited. I don't want to think about being the IT staff supporting the use of that application software.
This caused me to arrive late for my next meeting, which was with Torchwood, and provided more fuel for her systematic workplace bullying of me to continue.
I did finally make it to soccer only to have it not run overtime as another group kicked us off for their own session. I was forced to call Svetlana in order to de-stress and then headed of to gaming for the rest of the evening.
Friday morning was hijacked at the last minute with customer service training - which was in itself not too bad but did include homework! And people wonder why I don't have time for things like stats and 2.0.
I did manage to install new LMS clients at Beaumaris in the afternoon. This latest version is supposed to have improved speed for issues and returns - so fingers crossed that the freezing monkey will finally get off my back.
I spent a few hours of my quiet weekend afternoon wrestling my VPN into action with the help of SoccerBuddy. My remote spying from home is now enabled so I can be all ghostly and move the mouse when staff have the temerity to call me while I'm on call.
Thursday's day of meetings began with a surprise visit from Supervisor S and the introduction of Mini S who limpeted to S the whole time they were visiting.
My next "meeting" of the day was my attempt to order some custom blinds for the flat since summer is rolling in and the natural light can get a bit much at times. In any case it took a good 25 to 30 minutes for the sales girl to input the order for my 5 different blinds into their computer system. I did multiple circuits of the shop admiring there many plastic plants and painful looking couches while it was all entered. The least they could have done was supply some coffee and/or cakes while I waited. I don't want to think about being the IT staff supporting the use of that application software.
This caused me to arrive late for my next meeting, which was with Torchwood, and provided more fuel for her systematic workplace bullying of me to continue.
I did finally make it to soccer only to have it not run overtime as another group kicked us off for their own session. I was forced to call Svetlana in order to de-stress and then headed of to gaming for the rest of the evening.
Friday morning was hijacked at the last minute with customer service training - which was in itself not too bad but did include homework! And people wonder why I don't have time for things like stats and 2.0.
I did manage to install new LMS clients at Beaumaris in the afternoon. This latest version is supposed to have improved speed for issues and returns - so fingers crossed that the freezing monkey will finally get off my back.
I spent a few hours of my quiet weekend afternoon wrestling my VPN into action with the help of SoccerBuddy. My remote spying from home is now enabled so I can be all ghostly and move the mouse when staff have the temerity to call me while I'm on call.
... A Cup Day BBQ
After some relatively sedate Monday night drinks to celebrate Legion4's birthday Melbourne Cup Day began with a much needed sleep in - barely feline interrupted at all.
My impeccable complimentary gastronomic timing had me arrive at MrRogers's BBQ just as the meat from the spit roast was being served. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching races, fashion and kids running amuck. BestFriendSincePrep brought his brood and so did The Electric Tiger. It is uncanny how the kids know to come and stand in front of the TV for the three minutes of The Race after being elsewhere for an hour.
Later in the afternoon I was subjected to some SMS stalking by The Flibberty Gibbet thanks to the enabling activities of Supervisor Grand Chief K.
Some pseudo regular gaming occurred in the evening with Legion2 and ArchEnemy.
After such a lovely day off I returned to work today to confront issues small and large and the prospect of the looming RFID implementation. All that work ahead makes the prospect of being kidnapped in Svetlanaland seem all the more tempting.
My impeccable complimentary gastronomic timing had me arrive at MrRogers's BBQ just as the meat from the spit roast was being served. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching races, fashion and kids running amuck. BestFriendSincePrep brought his brood and so did The Electric Tiger. It is uncanny how the kids know to come and stand in front of the TV for the three minutes of The Race after being elsewhere for an hour.
Later in the afternoon I was subjected to some SMS stalking by The Flibberty Gibbet thanks to the enabling activities of Supervisor Grand Chief K.
Some pseudo regular gaming occurred in the evening with Legion2 and ArchEnemy.
After such a lovely day off I returned to work today to confront issues small and large and the prospect of the looming RFID implementation. All that work ahead makes the prospect of being kidnapped in Svetlanaland seem all the more tempting.
... The Three Days of the Conference
Day One
My conference experience began with catching the plane to Canberra at a sensible time of the morning. This time there is no drama getting to the airport - unlike my Libraries online flat tire incident.
The flight up is quite pleasant, although we are on a Dash 8, which causes Supervisor Grand Chief K to go into paroxysms of anxiety as it is propeller driven.
Upon arrival we check in and then wait 30 minutes to have our quiet drink on the patio delivered.
The rest of my afternoon was taken up with with a visit to the Australian War Memorial. It was a great refresher of my memories from the visit with the cubs when I was ten - although the groups of school kids were getting on my nerves by the end of it. The dioramas were still as impressive as I remembered them.
When the memorial closed I walked back to the hotel through the fly-infested centre of Canberra and freshened up in preparation for the evenings festivities.
Suitably refreshed I made my way downstairs for the evenings "cocktail" reception. (Being wise to my complaints about libraryland cocktails they had declared the evening to be merely a Welcome Reception.)
After a few drinks, as many free nibbles as one could gather when the trays circulated past, and several hours of conversation, we all adjourned to the hotel bar to watch the debut episode of the new ABC series the librarians. Due to a fluke of the sound system the best place to be was on the patio looking in at the screen on the far wall. The show was well received although we missed many of the subtle spoken jokes and the subtitles were unreadable at the distance.
When the show finished we all went to bed so that we would be suitably refreshed for the serious conferencing in the morning. ;)
Or not. That last sentence was simply for the "what happens on the conference stays on the conference" agreements. In reality a reasonable sized group stayed on in the bar until it closed. After that unfortunate occurrence a smaller group returned to The Flibberty Gibbet's room to drink the mini-bar dry. Our gentlemanly manners had us leave at 2am when TFG passed out/fell asleep.
Day Two
Day two began with a restrained use of the breakfast smorgasboard followed by conference registration. After that we were into the sessions.
The LMS supplier gave their usual state of the nation session, interrupted by a morning tea of some lovely little pastries, followed by their what's new and upcoming session.
This took us to the lunch which was of the cold meats and salad style with plenty of variety.
The afternoon sessions encompassed RFID and web 2.0 - all things I knew quite a lot about but it was all still very interesting. Supervisor Grand Chief K did attempt to ridicule me during her Library 2.0 spiel but I think the audience could see through her shallow attempt to besmirch my name.
After the sessions I went for walk along Lake Burley Griffen but the masses of flies soon forced me to turn back. After a short stop at the hotel bar to socialise with SGCK and friends I returned to my room to relax and prepare for the conference dinner.
Waking from a strange dream I realised that I must have fallen asleep and was now late for dinner. Not to worry though as my timing was immaculate - I arrived just before entree - and was probably considered to be fashionably late.
The dinner was quite good, and we were 15 stories up, but I think Mr Prada is correct and it lacked that extra something that revolving adds to a meal. There was much talk and socialising for the duration of the dinner which was all quite good even though I was beginning to get an idea of the plans being hatched for the morrow.
Not long after dessert we all headed off to our rooms to rest up for the final day of the conference. ;)
The true story is that most of the attendees stayed on in the restaurant until the free wine bottles were emptied and then headed down to the hotel bar were we once again stayed on until it closed.
A slightly differently composed smaller group then retired to a room to drink the mini-bar, and several others, dry. I forced myself to leave at 2.30am when my eyelids were beginning to fail.
Day Three
The third day began innocently enough with a late trip to the breakfast table.
The morning session was the AGM for SPUN, the organisation we were members of. It was during this meeting that the insidious plans of the night before were hatched. The result being that I found myself elected as the organisations Secretary for the next term of office. My fellow electees - Madame President and The Professor(treasurer) - took it so well that I had no choice but to play along. I do think that I will have to insist on being addressed as Mr Secretary from now on.
Still stunned at my election I nearly missed out on scones with cream and jam at morning tea but my instincts prevailed before tragedy struck.
The next few sessions gave the group the chance to put the hard word on the LMS suppliers and go a little more in-depth into the reporting capabilities of the LMS.
After a nice Asian lunch we had sessions on RFID, Wireless, and the many programlets that The Professor uses in his IT duties. All were things I knew about so I may have had some difficulty focusing.
The conference closed and a group of us had a few drinks on the rear veranda baking under the hot Canberra sun. We then moved to the bar to await our taxis.
A short, but highly cliched, taxi trip to the airport later we crammed into the exclusive lounge area to freeload while we waited for our continually delayed flight home.
Eventually we were allowed to board. This time Supervisor Grand Chief K hadn't booked us seats together and I didn't have to put up with the high-pitched noise... of the engines. Which was good as the strain of the past few days of concentration on the sessions had led to some slight cranial tightness.
We were delayed coming into Tullamarine and then again on the ground when they couldn't find anyone to attach the departure bridge. Once that was sorted out we had to wait again as there was nobody to unload our luggage. (I suspect that they had been reassigned to bridge-moving).
Luck turned after then though as I walked straight out of the terminal and into the long term car park bus.
In no time at all I was on my way home to feed The Tiger and provide her with some much missed human companionship.
Fingers crossed that Supervisor Grand Chief K will accept this as my conference report - her and her damnable bureaucracy!
My conference experience began with catching the plane to Canberra at a sensible time of the morning. This time there is no drama getting to the airport - unlike my Libraries online flat tire incident.
The flight up is quite pleasant, although we are on a Dash 8, which causes Supervisor Grand Chief K to go into paroxysms of anxiety as it is propeller driven.
Upon arrival we check in and then wait 30 minutes to have our quiet drink on the patio delivered.
The rest of my afternoon was taken up with with a visit to the Australian War Memorial. It was a great refresher of my memories from the visit with the cubs when I was ten - although the groups of school kids were getting on my nerves by the end of it. The dioramas were still as impressive as I remembered them.
When the memorial closed I walked back to the hotel through the fly-infested centre of Canberra and freshened up in preparation for the evenings festivities.
Suitably refreshed I made my way downstairs for the evenings "cocktail" reception. (Being wise to my complaints about libraryland cocktails they had declared the evening to be merely a Welcome Reception.)
After a few drinks, as many free nibbles as one could gather when the trays circulated past, and several hours of conversation, we all adjourned to the hotel bar to watch the debut episode of the new ABC series the librarians. Due to a fluke of the sound system the best place to be was on the patio looking in at the screen on the far wall. The show was well received although we missed many of the subtle spoken jokes and the subtitles were unreadable at the distance.
When the show finished we all went to bed so that we would be suitably refreshed for the serious conferencing in the morning. ;)
Or not. That last sentence was simply for the "what happens on the conference stays on the conference" agreements. In reality a reasonable sized group stayed on in the bar until it closed. After that unfortunate occurrence a smaller group returned to The Flibberty Gibbet's room to drink the mini-bar dry. Our gentlemanly manners had us leave at 2am when TFG passed out/fell asleep.
Day Two
Day two began with a restrained use of the breakfast smorgasboard followed by conference registration. After that we were into the sessions.
The LMS supplier gave their usual state of the nation session, interrupted by a morning tea of some lovely little pastries, followed by their what's new and upcoming session.
This took us to the lunch which was of the cold meats and salad style with plenty of variety.
The afternoon sessions encompassed RFID and web 2.0 - all things I knew quite a lot about but it was all still very interesting. Supervisor Grand Chief K did attempt to ridicule me during her Library 2.0 spiel but I think the audience could see through her shallow attempt to besmirch my name.
After the sessions I went for walk along Lake Burley Griffen but the masses of flies soon forced me to turn back. After a short stop at the hotel bar to socialise with SGCK and friends I returned to my room to relax and prepare for the conference dinner.
Waking from a strange dream I realised that I must have fallen asleep and was now late for dinner. Not to worry though as my timing was immaculate - I arrived just before entree - and was probably considered to be fashionably late.
The dinner was quite good, and we were 15 stories up, but I think Mr Prada is correct and it lacked that extra something that revolving adds to a meal. There was much talk and socialising for the duration of the dinner which was all quite good even though I was beginning to get an idea of the plans being hatched for the morrow.
Not long after dessert we all headed off to our rooms to rest up for the final day of the conference. ;)
The true story is that most of the attendees stayed on in the restaurant until the free wine bottles were emptied and then headed down to the hotel bar were we once again stayed on until it closed.
A slightly differently composed smaller group then retired to a room to drink the mini-bar, and several others, dry. I forced myself to leave at 2.30am when my eyelids were beginning to fail.
Day Three
The third day began innocently enough with a late trip to the breakfast table.
The morning session was the AGM for SPUN, the organisation we were members of. It was during this meeting that the insidious plans of the night before were hatched. The result being that I found myself elected as the organisations Secretary for the next term of office. My fellow electees - Madame President and The Professor(treasurer) - took it so well that I had no choice but to play along. I do think that I will have to insist on being addressed as Mr Secretary from now on.
Still stunned at my election I nearly missed out on scones with cream and jam at morning tea but my instincts prevailed before tragedy struck.
The next few sessions gave the group the chance to put the hard word on the LMS suppliers and go a little more in-depth into the reporting capabilities of the LMS.
After a nice Asian lunch we had sessions on RFID, Wireless, and the many programlets that The Professor uses in his IT duties. All were things I knew about so I may have had some difficulty focusing.
The conference closed and a group of us had a few drinks on the rear veranda baking under the hot Canberra sun. We then moved to the bar to await our taxis.
A short, but highly cliched, taxi trip to the airport later we crammed into the exclusive lounge area to freeload while we waited for our continually delayed flight home.
Eventually we were allowed to board. This time Supervisor Grand Chief K hadn't booked us seats together and I didn't have to put up with the high-pitched noise... of the engines. Which was good as the strain of the past few days of concentration on the sessions had led to some slight cranial tightness.
We were delayed coming into Tullamarine and then again on the ground when they couldn't find anyone to attach the departure bridge. Once that was sorted out we had to wait again as there was nobody to unload our luggage. (I suspect that they had been reassigned to bridge-moving).
Luck turned after then though as I walked straight out of the terminal and into the long term car park bus.
In no time at all I was on my way home to feed The Tiger and provide her with some much missed human companionship.
Fingers crossed that Supervisor Grand Chief K will accept this as my conference report - her and her damnable bureaucracy!
... The Hanging Mountains by Sean Williams
I finished this third book of the Cataclysm on Wednesday before flitting off for the conference in Canberra.
It continued on with the story that will probably, collectively, be my favourite read for the year. The writing continues to be good and flows well. The characters and situations expand the world and the pieces of the overall story are starting to come together. I will be reading the next book very shortly I think.
It continued on with the story that will probably, collectively, be my favourite read for the year. The writing continues to be good and flows well. The characters and situations expand the world and the pieces of the overall story are starting to come together. I will be reading the next book very shortly I think.
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