... the IT man in LibraryLand
Well my bountiful social activities have once again left me unable to write for the past week.
My roller-coaster week began last Sunday with my hosting of the regular Sunday gaming day.
Despite many regulars being in attendance it ended uncharacteristically prior to midnight leaving me at somewhat of a loss about what to do until my usual Sunday Gaming bedtime of 2am.
The Brownlow
Monday night was spent watching my first Brownlow medal telecast for many a year. The nigh unbearable mixture of cheesiness and tedium was made more bearable by my sharing the evening with The Great Sandro although I doubt I'll make a regular event of it as I can now recall why it is that I've not often brought myself to watch it in the past.
The Return of Supervisor S
Tuesday brought the return of Supervisor S after a two year parental absence. The omens are not good as her return was heralded by a great flooding of the library - although this happening a scant fortnight before new carpet was laid and also not affecting any IT equipment at all may actually make it a good omen.
The Umpteenth Geektogether
With the dramatic end of the game at The Viking Hat GM's last week, this Wednesday saw a gathering at the now usual Southgate watering hole. Numbers were low so it was mostly an enjoyable post-mortom of the events of the previous week in which TVHGM pointed out all our failings as players and we, in turn, his as GM. Fun all round I think.
The Free Food Day
Thursday was a day of morning tea, catered lunch, and afternoon cakes, all punctuated with moments of meeting. If only such events were held on a weekly basis.
The Sad Farewell
All of Friday's hectic workday events were overshadowed by the fact that it was the final day of Devil's Advocate's stint at HQ. There were goodbye hugs and tearful mutterings aplenty as well as much bubbly (thanks to the expedition organising skills of Big J).
I was so overwhelmed by the emotion of the event that I had to stay on into the evening until enough emotion was out of my system that I could legally drive home.
The Grand Final
Saturday dawned bright and, well, stormy. Amidst a day of hail and torrential rain I made good on my much awaited promise to The Great Sandro that we would be able to watch a Grand Final together.
So together we made the great journey out to BestFriendSincePrep's and, along with the likes of StumpyRudolph, The Electric Tiger, and MrRogers, made a great day of watching a game in which neither of our teams was participating.
We made a complete day of it and stayed into the evening as I had to once again wait for the emotion to leave my system before chauffeuring him safely home.
The Aimless Day
And so we come to today.
After a luxuriant albeit feline interrupted sleep-in I have found my first real free day to have far too easily evaporated away leaving me with little to show in terms of results other than relaxation.
Hopefully that shall see me through the coming week in good stead.
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... The Dinner with The Lords
After a hectic Friday which included:
Upon arrival, after negotiating acceptance from the hounds, I was delighted to meet Mr Lord and also discover that the evening was to include free beer as well.
So good was the meal and company that I stayed all evening enjoying conversation, a truly impressive media centre, opportunities to be a hound pillow, and free beer.
Of course the universe cannot allow everything to go smoothly so my post-midnight return home was cursed with red traffic lights at every intersection and trains at every crossing.
Still, all in all, a fine way to finish of the week.
.
- enduring a two hour meeting about carpet
- enduring a stuff lunch celebrating various things to do with Devil's Advocate, Lord of the Small Fries, and Oz at which nobody but yours truly wished to stay beyond the appointed duration
- having to leave the after lunch cake to rush off and fix problems at another branch
- spending hours tracking down a faulty piece of equipment and getting everything back working
- staying late to run some regular upgrades
Upon arrival, after negotiating acceptance from the hounds, I was delighted to meet Mr Lord and also discover that the evening was to include free beer as well.
So good was the meal and company that I stayed all evening enjoying conversation, a truly impressive media centre, opportunities to be a hound pillow, and free beer.
Of course the universe cannot allow everything to go smoothly so my post-midnight return home was cursed with red traffic lights at every intersection and trains at every crossing.
Still, all in all, a fine way to finish of the week.
.
... The LittleBigGirl Catchup
Most of my Sunday was spent languishing in an inner city pub catching up with LittleBigGirl.
She and BigBen were over from the mother country for a short visit and LittleBigGirl had the brilliant idea of sitting all day in a pub and having the hordes come to them - although I must say that BigBen took to the pub part of the idea with relish.
I myself arrived mid afternoon and forced myself to suffer through several beers, a largish pub lunch, and some quite interesting gaming conversation with BigBen himself - such are the sacrifices I make for the sake of friendship.
Eventually I had to return to my demesne and face the further trials and tribulations of a gaming night at my place with ample attendees and the expected level of fun.
.
She and BigBen were over from the mother country for a short visit and LittleBigGirl had the brilliant idea of sitting all day in a pub and having the hordes come to them - although I must say that BigBen took to the pub part of the idea with relish.
I myself arrived mid afternoon and forced myself to suffer through several beers, a largish pub lunch, and some quite interesting gaming conversation with BigBen himself - such are the sacrifices I make for the sake of friendship.
Eventually I had to return to my demesne and face the further trials and tribulations of a gaming night at my place with ample attendees and the expected level of fun.
.
... The Small Victories
This week so far has been one of small victories.
It began when I finally wrestled correct function out of our receipt slip printers as they'd been limping along with minor annoyances since our recent upgrade.
In the process I have become a master of xmlst programming - or more correctly a master of "I'll just change this and see what happens... woohoo nothing broke let's try another one... two hours later we have success". Still as long as my staff don't see the toil they'll continue to think of me as an IT Wizard extraordinaire.
My next small victory was in getting our training room DVD player to work through the overhead projector before Sister Serials eviscerated me for not having it working in time for her special book club meeting where they watch a movie... yeah I don't get it either.
In any case the problem seems to be that some hyper-efficient IT Man in LibraryLand had plugged one to many cables back in to the projector after changing the globe earlier in the year and one was blocking the DVD signal. Some quick unplug this, unplug that and viola it's all working again.
Another small victory was being able to leave work early, well, on time - which is early for the last few months.
And the most recent small victory was getting gmail chat to work despite lashings of sarcasm hurled in my direction by both Svetlana and The Viking Hat GM as I struggled to undo my all-to-good hiding of the chat functionality.
Anyway I must be off to accumulate further small victories.
.
It began when I finally wrestled correct function out of our receipt slip printers as they'd been limping along with minor annoyances since our recent upgrade.
In the process I have become a master of xmlst programming - or more correctly a master of "I'll just change this and see what happens... woohoo nothing broke let's try another one... two hours later we have success". Still as long as my staff don't see the toil they'll continue to think of me as an IT Wizard extraordinaire.
My next small victory was in getting our training room DVD player to work through the overhead projector before Sister Serials eviscerated me for not having it working in time for her special book club meeting where they watch a movie... yeah I don't get it either.
In any case the problem seems to be that some hyper-efficient IT Man in LibraryLand had plugged one to many cables back in to the projector after changing the globe earlier in the year and one was blocking the DVD signal. Some quick unplug this, unplug that and viola it's all working again.
Another small victory was being able to leave work early, well, on time - which is early for the last few months.
And the most recent small victory was getting gmail chat to work despite lashings of sarcasm hurled in my direction by both Svetlana and The Viking Hat GM as I struggled to undo my all-to-good hiding of the chat functionality.
Anyway I must be off to accumulate further small victories.
.
... The Aimee Mann Show
Last night I went to my first rock concert in years.
I like to use the term rock concert as it carries a lot of connotations of testosterone-charged masculinity which is much better for upholding my rugged and manly reputation than informing people that I went to see a female rock/folk singer performing a nigh-unplugged show for which the only standing up I did was to leave at the end.
So Legion2 and I made our way to the venue and our seats to see a fine performance to which I could sing along to - albeit quietly since the sound levels were quite a ways short of eardrum shattering. In fact the gentleman seated adjacent to me may have moved because of his inability to cope with my vocal accompaniment - which I'm sure was pitch perfect - being audible to those in the stalls around me.
All in all it was a great to finally have a chance to see Aimee live since she has been a constant in my life for the past fifteen odd years through all the highs and lows with her ability to encapsulate all those frailties that plague the domain of human relations.
(Oh, and as an aside, the fact that it was a nigh-unplugged performance with no sign of a full drum kit made for the crushing of my dream of having to fill in on stage after the drummer suffered some sort of Spinal Tap-esque accident. Sigh, I never get what I want.)
.
I like to use the term rock concert as it carries a lot of connotations of testosterone-charged masculinity which is much better for upholding my rugged and manly reputation than informing people that I went to see a female rock/folk singer performing a nigh-unplugged show for which the only standing up I did was to leave at the end.
So Legion2 and I made our way to the venue and our seats to see a fine performance to which I could sing along to - albeit quietly since the sound levels were quite a ways short of eardrum shattering. In fact the gentleman seated adjacent to me may have moved because of his inability to cope with my vocal accompaniment - which I'm sure was pitch perfect - being audible to those in the stalls around me.
All in all it was a great to finally have a chance to see Aimee live since she has been a constant in my life for the past fifteen odd years through all the highs and lows with her ability to encapsulate all those frailties that plague the domain of human relations.
(Oh, and as an aside, the fact that it was a nigh-unplugged performance with no sign of a full drum kit made for the crushing of my dream of having to fill in on stage after the drummer suffered some sort of Spinal Tap-esque accident. Sigh, I never get what I want.)
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