... the IT man in LibraryLand
One has many a time had to endure the ravings of Judge Mingus and FridgePower about the greatness that is novels by Charles Stross - such is the price of a free afternoon tea.
In any case I was pleasantly surprised to receive his latest work as a present from said couplet on the occasion of my recent momentous birthday.
The volume of concern was Saturn's Children.
I found it to be a most enjoyable romp reminiscent of early nineties cyberpunk fiction colliding with late seventies over the top extrapolation of weird ideas.
In short nigh perfect for me and I shall be looking for more of his work just as soon as I clear away my several metres of "to read" stack at home.
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Car Collection
My day yesterday included a most entertaining last minute trip to help Legion2 and BrotherStealer out on an errand.
Recognising the value of better mobility once their new addition arrives mid-year they have been recently looking for an automobile to provide the required increase in mobility.
Having decided on the particular vehicle to purchase they encountered the problem of having to get said vehicle from Dandenong back to our wonderful area.
With neither of them being well practiced in the driving arena they naturally called on the best driver they knew - yours truly.
We all took a most interesting taxi ride down to the collection point. Our taxi driver was equipped with the most inaccurate sense of crossing Melbourne. The GPS device he had - presumably to combat his terrible Melbourne sense - was unfortunately as poor in the navigation stakes as he was himself.
We started out with a long stretch in traffic rather than using some of the traffic avoiding freeways that our government has been busy constructing in recent years. After that it just became comical as he obeyed the GPS's instructions to move from one major road to another and then back onto the first major road as obviously the GPS knew of the best way to negotiate that particular intersection.
Once arriving in Dandenong proper the poor GPS became confused once more when the main road changed name and had our driver dutifully looping the block as he left and then returned to the straight forward path.
On arrival we quickly found the salesman and began the paperwork. Of course in this modern world the Rewards program was the first and most important thing to be completed.
Throughout the initial dealings I began to get a sense about our salesman and was reminded of the bumbling stereotype under pressure from the boss.
Of course this was vindicated when it came time to fork over the cash when on sight of the cheque book he uttered the fateful words "Oh, uh, didn't I mention it was supposed to be a bank cheque? I normally mention that."
A short check with the boss later and the purchase had been made on credit card - with a little extra fee for Legion2 and BrotherStealer - and we were into the auto and ready to be on our way.
Ignoring our salesman's parting advice to drive the wrong way down the service lane to get to the closer cut-through to the highway I took the law-abiding direction for all of the 50 metres it was to that cut-through and then we were on our way.
One pleasant drive home - using the short freeway route of course - and the new transport was parked in the driveway looking deceptively like the Gavman-mobile come to visit (I expect much confusion and joviality next gaming night).
I returned home for a quiet night in all the while pondering in what form I should take my reward from Legion2 and BrotherStealer - perhaps taking the first born Herod style?
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Recognising the value of better mobility once their new addition arrives mid-year they have been recently looking for an automobile to provide the required increase in mobility.
Having decided on the particular vehicle to purchase they encountered the problem of having to get said vehicle from Dandenong back to our wonderful area.
With neither of them being well practiced in the driving arena they naturally called on the best driver they knew - yours truly.
We all took a most interesting taxi ride down to the collection point. Our taxi driver was equipped with the most inaccurate sense of crossing Melbourne. The GPS device he had - presumably to combat his terrible Melbourne sense - was unfortunately as poor in the navigation stakes as he was himself.
We started out with a long stretch in traffic rather than using some of the traffic avoiding freeways that our government has been busy constructing in recent years. After that it just became comical as he obeyed the GPS's instructions to move from one major road to another and then back onto the first major road as obviously the GPS knew of the best way to negotiate that particular intersection.
Once arriving in Dandenong proper the poor GPS became confused once more when the main road changed name and had our driver dutifully looping the block as he left and then returned to the straight forward path.
On arrival we quickly found the salesman and began the paperwork. Of course in this modern world the Rewards program was the first and most important thing to be completed.
Throughout the initial dealings I began to get a sense about our salesman and was reminded of the bumbling stereotype under pressure from the boss.
Of course this was vindicated when it came time to fork over the cash when on sight of the cheque book he uttered the fateful words "Oh, uh, didn't I mention it was supposed to be a bank cheque? I normally mention that."
A short check with the boss later and the purchase had been made on credit card - with a little extra fee for Legion2 and BrotherStealer - and we were into the auto and ready to be on our way.
Ignoring our salesman's parting advice to drive the wrong way down the service lane to get to the closer cut-through to the highway I took the law-abiding direction for all of the 50 metres it was to that cut-through and then we were on our way.
One pleasant drive home - using the short freeway route of course - and the new transport was parked in the driveway looking deceptively like the Gavman-mobile come to visit (I expect much confusion and joviality next gaming night).
I returned home for a quiet night in all the while pondering in what form I should take my reward from Legion2 and BrotherStealer - perhaps taking the first born Herod style?
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Writer's Blog
One does not have much time for an update at the moment as one has been relatively busy with things such as footy, gaming, helping Freeloading Mum out of her computer woes, and, of course, spending many late hours completing my library IT duties.
More important than that was an attempt to compose a short tale for the writing competition we have as part of the literary festival. Despite my three and a bit years of hand carving these posts it has proved quite difficult - both to write and to motivate oneself to get to and start tapping away at the keyboard.
To try and engender the correct atmosphere I even went as far as taking one of the many credit days owed to me today. I ran out of dilly-dallying mid afternoon and then tapped out my story. It had, of course been mulling over in my mind for a week or so but, still, it felt a little rushed and unpolished.
However the first step is supposed to be the hardest so getting the thing done and submitting it is quite the accomplishment as I wouldn't be able to face the disappointment of having to wait another year for the motivation of a pressing deadline.
The downside is that I have spent absolutely none of the time preparing things for my regular Thursday game and Fantomas will surely gather a lynch mob should he ever find out. Luckily I have quite perfected my faking it skills over the last year of gaming and several years of work. So I should be able to get away with it, yet again.
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More important than that was an attempt to compose a short tale for the writing competition we have as part of the literary festival. Despite my three and a bit years of hand carving these posts it has proved quite difficult - both to write and to motivate oneself to get to and start tapping away at the keyboard.
To try and engender the correct atmosphere I even went as far as taking one of the many credit days owed to me today. I ran out of dilly-dallying mid afternoon and then tapped out my story. It had, of course been mulling over in my mind for a week or so but, still, it felt a little rushed and unpolished.
However the first step is supposed to be the hardest so getting the thing done and submitting it is quite the accomplishment as I wouldn't be able to face the disappointment of having to wait another year for the motivation of a pressing deadline.
The downside is that I have spent absolutely none of the time preparing things for my regular Thursday game and Fantomas will surely gather a lynch mob should he ever find out. Luckily I have quite perfected my faking it skills over the last year of gaming and several years of work. So I should be able to get away with it, yet again.
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Easter Illness
Ah the expectations of a productive Easter break go down the drain when illness strikes - this time in the form of yet another man-cold.
One believes that said man-cold was passed on by ElfBoy, lurked in my system and waited for my immune system to take a dip.
The dip itself was caused by attending the footy on Saturday with The Great Sandro and Legion2. Several hours in the hot sun and a stressful end to the game combined to make me vulnerable to the lurking pestilence. At least we won the game and I can assure Ms Magpie that my team jumper is indeed not cursed as a 1 point win over the supposed bottom team of the competition should prove.
In any case my system took a dive and I sneezed and sniffled my way through the next two days, having to discard my dreams of getting some writing done and prepping/updating my gaming materials for the Thursday night game as my fuzzy head could not contend with the required level of thinking involved.
I did, however, manage to achieve the watching of all my shows as I lay on the couch dieing and managed to be "caught up" - until last night anyway.
Of course I was better enough in time to go to work today. Sigh.
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One believes that said man-cold was passed on by ElfBoy, lurked in my system and waited for my immune system to take a dip.
The dip itself was caused by attending the footy on Saturday with The Great Sandro and Legion2. Several hours in the hot sun and a stressful end to the game combined to make me vulnerable to the lurking pestilence. At least we won the game and I can assure Ms Magpie that my team jumper is indeed not cursed as a 1 point win over the supposed bottom team of the competition should prove.
In any case my system took a dive and I sneezed and sniffled my way through the next two days, having to discard my dreams of getting some writing done and prepping/updating my gaming materials for the Thursday night game as my fuzzy head could not contend with the required level of thinking involved.
I did, however, manage to achieve the watching of all my shows as I lay on the couch dieing and managed to be "caught up" - until last night anyway.
Of course I was better enough in time to go to work today. Sigh.
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