... the IT man in LibraryLand
My last few days have been a blur of IT activity.
It started with the delivery of our new RFID kiosks. Luckily they were also delivered with techs to get them set up and working. So in between all my other wonderful problem solving escapades I have been liaising with said techs and LMS suppliers and staff and maintenance persons.
And today has been training to get staff up to speed on the machines. Of course all this talk of machines brings to mind the recent, and wonderfully Terminator-esque, "You know in the end the machines will win" gambling billboards seen around Melbourne ( viewable on Daniel Bowen's blog).
On top of all that busyness it appears several of our machines have up and walked out of the library so I've had to deal with The Law as well.
The one sweet spot of the week has been savouring my success and emplacing myself on the desk formerly known as Torchwood's.
Oh and speaking of machines, Tuesday night gaming really could have used some computer assistance to work out how to apply my simplification of the game system we are using for our new story arc. I can only surmise that the problem lies with the players as my games designing skills cannot be called into question.
... Triumph Over Torchwood
Although I new this was coming I sat on the news until now in case it was another one of her dastardly tricks - Torchwood has left the Library Building!
Yes notch up another Marketing officer to my tally - three now. After the fight Torchwood gave me I have really honed my skills and fear that the next one doesn't stand a chance so prepare to make it four.
In any case my triumph was celebrated in style on Friday night at the "farewell" for Torchwood- poor thing, she thought it was to say goodbye to her.
My one concern in all this is that I will be painted as the bad guy when it's obvious that what we see is the culmination of a long brewed plot from Supervisor Grand Chief K in retaliation for the Literary Festival Incident.
Only SGCK could have enough pull in the immigration department to mess with Mr Torchwood's VISA enough to force The Torchwood's to return home to Leekland.
Of course SGCK as been particularly clever in her machinations as Torchwood's unfounded antagonism towards me (which I was forced to return) will ensure that I bear the brunt of everyone's blame for this.
In any case the night went well with everyone gathering at the appointed venue and having plentiful drinks. I may have strained a voice muscle making a sarcastic farewell speech without microphone assistance in the noisy venue and, unfortunately, said noise robbed my witty barbs of their power.
Towards the middle of the evening Kiwichick showed her excellent sheep herding nous and gathered a group of us together to enjoy a meal at a delightful Thai place she frequents regularly. I think she will be unable to return now that the restaurant has experienced the behaviour of Librarians off the Leash. For the dinner we employed a special code to save me any difficult Svetlana questions about having dinner with a table full of women. So, when I report back to my beloved, I was dining with: Pauly, Ross, Steven, Ji, Jim, Ronnie, and possibly some others but who bothers to remember names when you're out with the blokes. Oh yeah and I was Suzanne - my girl name i.e. the name Freeloading Mum had picked out before I turned out to be overwhelmingly rugged and manly - I know it doesn't make any sense but at that time of night you don't mess with Kiwichick logic.
We returned to the original venue to enjoy more drinks until eventually I managed to escape from Torchwood's inebriated clutches with the old "last train" excuse.
Torchwood has managed to get in a parting shot however as today I had to haul myself out to Beaumaris to do her job for her and help set up a seminar for the borrowers.
Fingers crossed that she's not sitting there at her desk when I get in tomorrow to give me her old "HaHA you fell for it" routine.
Yes notch up another Marketing officer to my tally - three now. After the fight Torchwood gave me I have really honed my skills and fear that the next one doesn't stand a chance so prepare to make it four.
In any case my triumph was celebrated in style on Friday night at the "farewell" for Torchwood- poor thing, she thought it was to say goodbye to her.
My one concern in all this is that I will be painted as the bad guy when it's obvious that what we see is the culmination of a long brewed plot from Supervisor Grand Chief K in retaliation for the Literary Festival Incident.
Only SGCK could have enough pull in the immigration department to mess with Mr Torchwood's VISA enough to force The Torchwood's to return home to Leekland.
Of course SGCK as been particularly clever in her machinations as Torchwood's unfounded antagonism towards me (which I was forced to return) will ensure that I bear the brunt of everyone's blame for this.
In any case the night went well with everyone gathering at the appointed venue and having plentiful drinks. I may have strained a voice muscle making a sarcastic farewell speech without microphone assistance in the noisy venue and, unfortunately, said noise robbed my witty barbs of their power.
Towards the middle of the evening Kiwichick showed her excellent sheep herding nous and gathered a group of us together to enjoy a meal at a delightful Thai place she frequents regularly. I think she will be unable to return now that the restaurant has experienced the behaviour of Librarians off the Leash. For the dinner we employed a special code to save me any difficult Svetlana questions about having dinner with a table full of women. So, when I report back to my beloved, I was dining with: Pauly, Ross, Steven, Ji, Jim, Ronnie, and possibly some others but who bothers to remember names when you're out with the blokes. Oh yeah and I was Suzanne - my girl name i.e. the name Freeloading Mum had picked out before I turned out to be overwhelmingly rugged and manly - I know it doesn't make any sense but at that time of night you don't mess with Kiwichick logic.
We returned to the original venue to enjoy more drinks until eventually I managed to escape from Torchwood's inebriated clutches with the old "last train" excuse.
Torchwood has managed to get in a parting shot however as today I had to haul myself out to Beaumaris to do her job for her and help set up a seminar for the borrowers.
Fingers crossed that she's not sitting there at her desk when I get in tomorrow to give me her old "HaHA you fell for it" routine.
... A Horrible Discovery
Ironically thanks to the work of ArchEnemy my attention has been brought to Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
- going all the way out to BestFriendSincePrep's country mansion only to be beaten soundly at my own games
- my Tuesday gaming group deciding (eventually, oh the indecision) that Deadlands' supernatural western setting was what we'd play next
- Innocent Em beating me to the end of 2.0
- my falling for the latest ploy of Torchwood - taking me out for lunches and dinners to make me fond of her
- making a cameo appearance at Sandringham, my home branch, after being on desk at Hampton
- the return of The Bastard for the Pirate Dave birthday edition of Thursday night gaming
- having The Great Sandro over to watch the Collingwood vs Nth Melbourne game debacle
... Plugging the 2.0 Gaps
(246 Alternate Title: Thing #14 Technorati)
On hearing that Innocent Em was going great guns with her 2.0 I thought I'd better get into action and knock another one off my list as people might stop falling for my techno-savvy schtick if I'm last to finish.
Remembering my impatience with the lesson podcasts I skipped straight to the skimming of the text and clicking on links.
Once I arrived at Technorati and performed a few searches I had my first big shock - The Tales is not listed, despite the 2.0 peoples promise that we would be just by being on Blogger!! I feel so betrayed.
I found Technorati to be another big search information overload site and couldn't really be bothered going through it looking for anything interesting - I have enough going on in my life and enough other ways to waste time on the internet.
I was going to do the Technorati tag thing but it looked a bit pointless and looking at it was enought to knock this one off and get ahead of Em.
On hearing that Innocent Em was going great guns with her 2.0 I thought I'd better get into action and knock another one off my list as people might stop falling for my techno-savvy schtick if I'm last to finish.
Remembering my impatience with the lesson podcasts I skipped straight to the skimming of the text and clicking on links.
Once I arrived at Technorati and performed a few searches I had my first big shock - The Tales is not listed, despite the 2.0 peoples promise that we would be just by being on Blogger!! I feel so betrayed.
I found Technorati to be another big search information overload site and couldn't really be bothered going through it looking for anything interesting - I have enough going on in my life and enough other ways to waste time on the internet.
I was going to do the Technorati tag thing but it looked a bit pointless and looking at it was enought to knock this one off and get ahead of Em.
... The Celebration of Brighton RF
Yes that's right we're halfway through Brighton's RFID tagging and running to schedule - take that Skeptic L, and you doubted me at the last SPUN meeting.
The celebration took the form of free nibbles and drinks in the staff room at the end of the day.
I am suspicious that there was a conspiracy to keep me away from the event with Bomber Babe unnecessarily calling me out to the library to fix the minor problem of no public internet connection - causing me to miss the best of the nibbles!
Once I joined the celebration it was quite a cheerful event with my personal highlight being this short conversation involving the newly blonded Big J.
The celebration took the form of free nibbles and drinks in the staff room at the end of the day.
I am suspicious that there was a conspiracy to keep me away from the event with Bomber Babe unnecessarily calling me out to the library to fix the minor problem of no public internet connection - causing me to miss the best of the nibbles!
Once I joined the celebration it was quite a cheerful event with my personal highlight being this short conversation involving the newly blonded Big J.
Someone else: How do those two borrowers communicate?.
Freeloading Phill: With the International language?
Big J: What, Esperanto? ... ... oh.
... My Guitarist's Anniversary
Saturday last I took a trip down Eastlink, aka sculpture lane, to visit My Guitarist and his wife to celebrate their upcoming 5 year anniversary and his impending aging.
I was the only non-family member so it was a little odd being there with their in-laws but they're all okay. In any case the free lunch was a delicious roast and My Guitarist provided copious hand carved beer.
On the long drive home I listened to the footy to hear the Pies beat the Swans and realise that my long-held dream of being able to wear my Collingwood jumper to work Monday morning and get a rise out of Big J was close to fruition.
Sunday was the first gaming Sunday for quite a while and the highlight was definitely ElfBoy coming along for some gaming with the three-week old Elflet strapped to his front.
Monday night's gaming saw The Viking Hat GM get his way and the game was changed to the one he wanted to run. (Unlike every other gaming related post this one should excite Supervisor Grand Chief K no end as the new game is heavily influenced by Spooks.)
Yesterday provided some lovely cake courtesy of Groovy Spirits before an afternoon RFID meeting had me running late for the final session of my Tuesday Night Judge Dredd game.
Today was a day of niggling little job after niggling little help request and I am quite glad to see the back of it. Honestly I don't know why people turn to me for all their IT help...
I was the only non-family member so it was a little odd being there with their in-laws but they're all okay. In any case the free lunch was a delicious roast and My Guitarist provided copious hand carved beer.
On the long drive home I listened to the footy to hear the Pies beat the Swans and realise that my long-held dream of being able to wear my Collingwood jumper to work Monday morning and get a rise out of Big J was close to fruition.
Sunday was the first gaming Sunday for quite a while and the highlight was definitely ElfBoy coming along for some gaming with the three-week old Elflet strapped to his front.
Monday night's gaming saw The Viking Hat GM get his way and the game was changed to the one he wanted to run. (Unlike every other gaming related post this one should excite Supervisor Grand Chief K no end as the new game is heavily influenced by Spooks.)
Yesterday provided some lovely cake courtesy of Groovy Spirits before an afternoon RFID meeting had me running late for the final session of my Tuesday Night Judge Dredd game.
Today was a day of niggling little job after niggling little help request and I am quite glad to see the back of it. Honestly I don't know why people turn to me for all their IT help...
... The Beginning of the Exercise Regime
After seeing my physio yesterday morning I've been told to start pushing the knee hard to get it back into proper action and beat my MAMILS.
To that end I was up extremely early this morning - at the crack of 8.24am - to walk to the nearby oval and walk/jog laps for twenty minutes or so, something I'm going to have to do fairly regularly from now on.
It was a wonderful clear morning for it, compared with some we've had recently, and surprisingly I feel somehow better for my early morning exercise.
To that end I was up extremely early this morning - at the crack of 8.24am - to walk to the nearby oval and walk/jog laps for twenty minutes or so, something I'm going to have to do fairly regularly from now on.
It was a wonderful clear morning for it, compared with some we've had recently, and surprisingly I feel somehow better for my early morning exercise.
... Helliconica Spring, Mongol and Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss
I finished this off this morning after battling through nearly a month of driving to work and having virtually no lunch time - and certainly no time to read at lunch.
Anyway, I was inspired to read this by my memories of reviews in White Dwarf in the 80's (when it was a magazine and not a glossy brochure) by the great Dave Langford or David as he appears to prefer to be called nowadays.
It's a reasonable read following the low-tech inhabitants of a planet coming out of it's 500 year winter while a space station looks on and broadcasts the action back to Earth reality TV style.
It's also the first of three books so I figure the space stations minor role will become larger in the following books.
Mongol
Rugrat Twin and I saw this tonight. It was spectacular looking and slightly confusing. They also used up all the ideas for a sequel in the last 10 seconds of the film.
Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
This morning was a gathering of database obsessed librarians at which Torchwood, ably assisted by Mr Prada gave a presentation and there was morning tea.
Afterwards I hung around for a lunch with Madame President and our new treasurer before heading home for a well deserved afternoon off.
I finished this off this morning after battling through nearly a month of driving to work and having virtually no lunch time - and certainly no time to read at lunch.
Anyway, I was inspired to read this by my memories of reviews in White Dwarf in the 80's (when it was a magazine and not a glossy brochure) by the great Dave Langford or David as he appears to prefer to be called nowadays.
It's a reasonable read following the low-tech inhabitants of a planet coming out of it's 500 year winter while a space station looks on and broadcasts the action back to Earth reality TV style.
It's also the first of three books so I figure the space stations minor role will become larger in the following books.
Mongol
Rugrat Twin and I saw this tonight. It was spectacular looking and slightly confusing. They also used up all the ideas for a sequel in the last 10 seconds of the film.
Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
This morning was a gathering of database obsessed librarians at which Torchwood, ably assisted by Mr Prada gave a presentation and there was morning tea.
Afterwards I hung around for a lunch with Madame President and our new treasurer before heading home for a well deserved afternoon off.
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