Manoeuvres with the 4th Legion

This fortnight past has seen many an exciting event, including: my discovery of a Blogger keyboard shortcut that efficiently deletes text that one has been slaving over for nigh on half an hour and autosaves the now-blank post, all in the blink of an eye; brave attendance at a gaming Sunday by a Candidate; unbelievable attendance at a gaming Sunday by Doom and The Doctor; and arrival of exciting new technologies.

Amongst such occurrences I found myself called upon to assist Handy Dad and Freeloading Mum in bringing about the relocation of Legion4. He was forsaking the company of Jamo in order to return to the ancestral abode and, requiring both spacious vehicles and astute packing skills, naturally called on my gracious and humble help.

I had no great troubles getting everything packed into our domestic model moving vans - although I did think we were possibly creating a Dirk-Gently's-couch type situation as we folded a double mattress into the back of my automobile but it was easily extracted once we arrived at our destination.

With everything unpacked and Legion4 beginning the task of setting up his room I was quickly drafted in to giving Freeloading Mum's computer a quick going over and thereby forced to earn the dinner that was rightfully mine merely for showing up. Sigh. Sometimes it's awfully hard work being the dutiful son and having to participate in such strange rituals as "sharing" and "earning one's evening meal".

Thankfully there's always free cake in the library staffroom.
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Geeking the Winery

With no events of any Candidaturic nature scheduled for this Sunday past I decided to take up the offer extended by ElfBoy to make a day trip out to his own personal winery for an afternoon get together and possibly a game or two of that card game we all favour.

With Pirate Dave and ArchEnemy finding other, presumably funner, things to do  it ended up being an exclusive event with oneself as the only guest.

Many games of cards were played over the course of that long, languid, afternoon - as was ElfBoy's plan all along.
In the end I was forced into the consumption of much wine and, regrettably, found myself unable to worm my way out of staying for the evening feasting. Such are the things I must endure.

Eventually I was able to waddle back to my vehicle and begin the long journey home. Luckily I had sustenance with me in the form of a plate overflowing with remnants of the meal - it lasted almost all the way home.

All in all quite the way to spend one's Sunday.
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Mourning the loss of Man-Shopping

So a few weekends back I went out with the specific aim of purchasing myself a new pair of shoes, the better to impress the Candidates with.

I returned from my shopping mission with a spiffy new jacket - and no shoes.

The very next day I set out to rectify my retail failure but, alas, found myself returning home with naught but a brand new jumper.

I spent the next few weeks consoling myself that it wasn't my fault, the style I prefer was unavailable at the particular locations to which I made my grand purchasing expeditions, and in any case I needed a new jacket and jumper so it was all right. In fact I came to believe I had saved myself the need to make future jacket and jumper focused consumerist campaigns.

And so we come to this weekend last. I set my sights on obtaining that elusive pair of shoes and decided that the best hunting lay at the familiar locale that I had captured previous pairs so easily. Loading myself up with my excursion bag  I headed into the city CDB.

I returned several hours later a shaken and broken figure of a man. Barely gripped in my hands were the handles for not one, nor two, but three bags each containing a set of footwear from which I had been unable to chose the single pair of shoes I had endeavoured to collect and had found myself deciding that I should get all three instead.

One can only surmise that my immersion in LibraryLand is beginning to have more effect than the cervical problems I suffered last year. Hopefully the annual blokey camping weekend shall happen soon and I shall be able to reclaim my usual rugged and manly poise.
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Cobralingus by Jeff Noon

I read Cobralingus as an in-between book whilst I tackle the weighty tome that is my current fiction read.

I would describe this one as a poetry-ish approach to flash fiction writing. The esteemed Mr Noon (read Vurt right now if you haven't) has created a mildly interesting way of sparking his imagination and playing with words to create and iterate until he arrives at a work that he saves as the final product.

My favourites were the ones that resulted in text pieces but overall it didn't out-stay it's welcome so I recommend it - if only to give yourself an insight into the writers method.
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The new time measurement

Now a few days back it came to my attention that there is a new measurement of time in LibraryLand.
It was apparently coined by Supervisor S when she was being questioned as to why certain online resources had not appeared on the web site after nearly a week when it was only going to take a few days.
Her reply was:

Yes, but those are Phill Days.

I am astounded, and, if it weren't for the tiny kernel of truth to the statement, I would be feeling quite slandered.
However I do have to - reluctantly - agree that my estimations of time required for jobs may be a tad off. (Passenger: "Stewardess, what exactly is a 'tad'?" Elaine: "In space terms, that's half a million miles.")
My gaming group knows this as "another week to create extra rule X" often becomes, well, shall we say, a longer span, call it Phill Months.
There may of course be grounds to say that it is an exponential scale as instead of merely doubling it appears that Phill Months actually last for years as evidenced by a certain computer booking system installation.


I write about this today as nothing much of Blog-worthiness has occurred in the past week other than yesterday's trip to the footy with Legion2 and The Great Sandro where the Pies dominated so much that The Great One donned his iPod at half time and zoned out to his musical fancies.


Do not fret though, I'm sure that something good will happen soon and I guarantee that I shall post another update in a few days.