... the IT man in LibraryLand
The Conference Report shall have to wait a while longer as the pressing news at hand is about the state of my horrendous knee injury.
After a refreshing sleep-in this morning I headed to my appointment with the strange specialist.
This time he seemed much less alien and even on the verge of being human.
He jumped straight into the explanations of the MRI results.
It transpires that despite my preparing for a knee-reconstruction-surgery imposed holiday I am going to be out of luck and should be able to regain joint stability with a mere arthroscopy.
Supervisor Grand Chief K will jump with joy to hear that, not only will my knee "issues" be over, it shall require only a weeks absence from work - although knowing her I shall be forced to work from home for the duration of my convalescence.
My disappointment at not being the tragic medical case I was expecting to be caused me to require the remainder of the day as emotional leave so that I can show a brave face at work whenever I next deign to attend.
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... The Missing Conference Report
Those of you astute enough to realise I was at a conference for much of last week may be pondering upon the whereabouts of my usual delightfully written report of the proceedings.
Well, with the requirements of the necessary post-conference recovery and my return to the usual mountains of work, I have found myself unable to devote the time to the post that you, my loyal readers, deserve.
Stay alert though as I am sure that I shall find the requisite time in my schedule over the upcoming weekend.
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Well, with the requirements of the necessary post-conference recovery and my return to the usual mountains of work, I have found myself unable to devote the time to the post that you, my loyal readers, deserve.
Stay alert though as I am sure that I shall find the requisite time in my schedule over the upcoming weekend.
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... The Long, Long, Long, Long, Long Week
So one of our branches was undergoing a re-carpeting and installation of a new circulation desk this week.
You would think that there would be no need for an IT Man to be on site at the beginning of such an enterprise - let alone for a 6am start.
But you would be wrong.
You would also be wrong if you thought that the first day would be the only day where such an esteemed personage would be required extra early as the second day also required such supervision.
And if you also thought that early starts would entail early finishes, thereby maintaining some sort of balance then you would be wrong once more.
You would be at your wrongest if you thought the three day quote which became four and then stretched into five once the job began would not impact on the time and opportunity to restore one branch-ful of IT equipment to it's correct places and in perfect working order.
There were, however, some good things about this week that lasted forever.
In other news I have had my flowing locks pared back as part of the tarting up one must do before partaking in a Libraryland conference such as the one I shall be attending next week.
It also allows me to look my best when I am off away down South tomorrow with Redneck Ben on a drive of over an hour to attend the christening of My Guitarist's spawn.
You would be wrong if you thought this event would happen at an acceptable hour rather than 8.30am on a Sunday.
.
You would think that there would be no need for an IT Man to be on site at the beginning of such an enterprise - let alone for a 6am start.
But you would be wrong.
You would also be wrong if you thought that the first day would be the only day where such an esteemed personage would be required extra early as the second day also required such supervision.
And if you also thought that early starts would entail early finishes, thereby maintaining some sort of balance then you would be wrong once more.
You would be at your wrongest if you thought the three day quote which became four and then stretched into five once the job began would not impact on the time and opportunity to restore one branch-ful of IT equipment to it's correct places and in perfect working order.
There were, however, some good things about this week that lasted forever.
- I had fellow sufferers in the form of Sonja Roster Queen and Big J.
- I was able to muscle in on many a morning tea and cakes and the final pizza lunch. All under the pretence that I'd been working all that time that I'd been present at the library.
- I received an immense amount of help from Ms Magpie in the last afternoon which helped shave hours off the time I had to stay behind with naught but cleaners for company. Without her contribution I'm sure I would have seen midnight and beyond.
- I was far too tired at Wednesday night roleplaying to notice the maliciousness with which The Viking Hat GM disposed of my character (ironically a Viking) in his latest game. Instead I attributed it to fatigue marring my judgement.
- I had the perfect excuse for a long, long, long, long, long sleep-in this morning
In other news I have had my flowing locks pared back as part of the tarting up one must do before partaking in a Libraryland conference such as the one I shall be attending next week.
It also allows me to look my best when I am off away down South tomorrow with Redneck Ben on a drive of over an hour to attend the christening of My Guitarist's spawn.
You would be wrong if you thought this event would happen at an acceptable hour rather than 8.30am on a Sunday.
.
... The Week with Extra Mr Prada
Nobody can say I don't listen to my legions of fans.
Due to overwhelming request today's post will have the first MR PRADA content for a while. Quite a while I see after doing the research and noting his last appearance was back in June. He must have been doing something wrong, or right, to not warrant any mentions in The Tales in all that time.
And so to business.
The Early Week
I was lucky enough to spend the early part of the week back at my desk and luxuriating in the company of MR PRADA and others at my home branch. It was an unusual experience after the last few months however, sure enough, I was soon dragged back to the other branches.
The Fresh Starts
The rest of the big things of note this week seem to be gaming related - there was some big statistics things but that is more boring than hearing MR PRADA prattle on about mapleland's superiority.
We had another great session on Tuesday with the evening seeming like a fresh new game - said freshness having nothing to do with the absence of Gavman or Pirate Dave and all to do with lower numbers making for a more free flowing game, plus without Pirate Dave punning me or Gavman stunning me with his gaming non sequiturs every 30 seconds I was much better able to run the game.
On Wednesday I suffered once more at the hands of The Viking Hat GM as he forced me to partake in another of his games and play a foppish noble yet again, although he will surely claim "the dice did it!".
Thursday gaming did an abrupt about face as we (well Fantomas and I) decided to switch from space to fantasy in order to help our newest gamer adjust to what it's all about and ensure that the gaming addiction would take properly.
I look forward to rolling out a long brewing fantasy of mine involving all present even as I mourn the loss of the space adventures.
The Maple Maverick Returns
This week did see the return of The Maple Maverick however my only real interaction with him was to bamboozle him with a new backup tape system - much like the way MR PRADA bamboozles us lesser fashionistas with his dazzling array of finery.
Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
Along the way this week I finished reading the latest, for me, book from Mr Reilly.
I was immediately struck by how much the story read like a parody of himself - similiar to the way in which MR PRADA's recent freakouts have become just a parody of the earlier installments. It was vaguely reminiscent of several of Legion4's boyhood stories of spydom almost verbatim in some cases - "some bad guys came running so I pulled out a grenade and threw it at them" - would not have looked out of place in this story.
It was also full of obvious repetition of plot elements and ridiculous cliffhanger endings to paragraphs that were contradicted at the beginnings of the paragraphs immediately following.
Oh well Mr Reilly not your finest hour and somewhat tarnishing my memories of those of your older books I did enjoy.
Skyping the Svets again
I spent a raging Friday night on the internet phone to Svetlana much to her amusement that I had no partying to go to. One can't believe that she is blind to the obvious sacrifice I made of my rich social life to spend time talking to her. It's like MR PRADA and I were saying the other day in the library over a metaphorical beverage, "chix man, who can understand them?".
Speaking of my rich social life I must be off to attend Legion3's Half 70 party. I shall return bearing tales aplenty methinks.
.
Due to overwhelming request today's post will have the first MR PRADA content for a while. Quite a while I see after doing the research and noting his last appearance was back in June. He must have been doing something wrong, or right, to not warrant any mentions in The Tales in all that time.
And so to business.
The Early Week
I was lucky enough to spend the early part of the week back at my desk and luxuriating in the company of MR PRADA and others at my home branch. It was an unusual experience after the last few months however, sure enough, I was soon dragged back to the other branches.
The Fresh Starts
The rest of the big things of note this week seem to be gaming related - there was some big statistics things but that is more boring than hearing MR PRADA prattle on about mapleland's superiority.
We had another great session on Tuesday with the evening seeming like a fresh new game - said freshness having nothing to do with the absence of Gavman or Pirate Dave and all to do with lower numbers making for a more free flowing game, plus without Pirate Dave punning me or Gavman stunning me with his gaming non sequiturs every 30 seconds I was much better able to run the game.
On Wednesday I suffered once more at the hands of The Viking Hat GM as he forced me to partake in another of his games and play a foppish noble yet again, although he will surely claim "the dice did it!".
Thursday gaming did an abrupt about face as we (well Fantomas and I) decided to switch from space to fantasy in order to help our newest gamer adjust to what it's all about and ensure that the gaming addiction would take properly.
I look forward to rolling out a long brewing fantasy of mine involving all present even as I mourn the loss of the space adventures.
The Maple Maverick Returns
This week did see the return of The Maple Maverick however my only real interaction with him was to bamboozle him with a new backup tape system - much like the way MR PRADA bamboozles us lesser fashionistas with his dazzling array of finery.
Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
Along the way this week I finished reading the latest, for me, book from Mr Reilly.
I was immediately struck by how much the story read like a parody of himself - similiar to the way in which MR PRADA's recent freakouts have become just a parody of the earlier installments. It was vaguely reminiscent of several of Legion4's boyhood stories of spydom almost verbatim in some cases - "some bad guys came running so I pulled out a grenade and threw it at them" - would not have looked out of place in this story.
It was also full of obvious repetition of plot elements and ridiculous cliffhanger endings to paragraphs that were contradicted at the beginnings of the paragraphs immediately following.
e.g. they fired at him with a rocket launcher that couldn't miss in the enclosed space...
Which missed by an inch as he ducked underneath the rocket.
Oh well Mr Reilly not your finest hour and somewhat tarnishing my memories of those of your older books I did enjoy.
Skyping the Svets again
I spent a raging Friday night on the internet phone to Svetlana much to her amusement that I had no partying to go to. One can't believe that she is blind to the obvious sacrifice I made of my rich social life to spend time talking to her. It's like MR PRADA and I were saying the other day in the library over a metaphorical beverage, "chix man, who can understand them?".
Speaking of my rich social life I must be off to attend Legion3's Half 70 party. I shall return bearing tales aplenty methinks.
.
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