The Cautionary Tales of Freeloading Phill

The Strain and The Fall

2012-02-12T23:00:00.000+11:00

No the title of this post is not referring to any unfortunate results of the festivities of one's just-passed birthday week.

Instead it relates to the last two books that one recently finished reading - The Strain and The Fall are two books by famed moving picture director Guillermo del Toro. They are the first two parts of his vampire trilogy as recommended to me by Groovy Spirits via Mr Prada. I found them to be a quick and entertaining read that was reminiscent of the very cinematic oeuvre of Matthew Reilly. I await my reserved copy of the final instalment to arrive from the library.

Speaking of the birthday week it has gone rather well - despite Legion2 stealing most of the glory with his 40th.

As it turns out when turning 42 the meaning of life is friends - or rather Facebook Friends as one received bountiful birthday wishes on the actual day. I was also pleased to see that one's birthday twin CC celebrated hard enough for both of us.

The birthday week produced many wishes and a pile of chocolate as cake substitute from Days of our Libraries rightfully shamed for her culinary oversight.

Finally a day of presents arrived on Friday, although one did have to gift many of them to oneself - those being the latest supplements in one's favourite gaming line, the Commands and Colors(sic) series.
Further gifts awaited one's return home with the arrival of an overseas order of gaming cards and the special gifts from Salsa Girl.

Early Saturday morning BestFriendSincePrep did his part in making one's birthday special by thrashing me soundly in Memoir'44 Online all the way from Denver - and whilst preparing dinner.

The birthday week was topped off with drinks and nibbles at a local establishment attended by the likes of Salsa Girl, Freeloading Mum, Handy Dad, Legion2, and Badger.

All in all a good birthday week - although a little light on the feasting side, which one shall correct in only another 51 weeks.
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Sardine Breakfast

2012-02-02T09:30:00.003+11:00

So, finally the lifting of one's contribution to the SOPA strike has arrived and I can once again regale you with further Cautionary Tales.

But first, I hope everyone celebrated yesterday appropriately as it was International Day of FridgePower wherein we should acclaim how great it is to have such a personage amongst us, or something along those lines. Apparently it was also DragonMim day but unless there's cake at tonight's gaming one shall not believe it.

On a similar note today is Legion day (part deux) wherein you all may commiserate with one about having to share the parental spotlight, and lolly jar, with interlopers.

And now, on with the Caution.

Today's concerns the perils of relying on public transport to make it on time to an important meeting.

Suffice to say that the consequences of several delays makes for a quite tightly packed journey. So tightly packed that one would find oneself unable to even answer one's phone when Supervisor Grand Chief K calls to assess one's whereabouts.

However rather than turn back I persevered through all the trials and tribulations, against all the odds and risking life and limb until finally I trudged into the café to make the meeting with free breakfast.
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The SOPA Strike

2012-01-18T12:05:00.002+11:00

You may have heard of the US law changes being made to supposedly stop online piracy.

Now while one has never been a great advocate of piracy - it's just too much effort for one as lazy as I - one can see the implications of websites being forced to close because it is possible for copyright materials to be posted and/or shared in the comments pages; and the simple next step that these allow of government censorship of criticisms in the name of protecting the "public" - definitely worthy of a Caution.

One shall be making the great sacrifice of stopping one's prolific output on The Tales for several days in order to help bring wider attention to the Internet Strike. You may find sites such as Wikipedia following one's lead today.

I middling sized summary is here:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/

A more extensive collection of information is here:
http://youranonnews.tumblr.com/post/15783460213/stop-sopa-the-essentials-summary-and-bill-text

The Biennial Pratchetting

2012-01-16T23:17:00.000+11:00

This morn on one's commute to work one finished the latest Pratchett Discworld volume.

Latest, that is, for me.

Witches Abroad is the twelfth of Terry Pratchett's humorous fantasy series and was published some time around the pre-cambiran era (or 1991 if you insist on being exact).

One found it to be the usual enjoyable little romp with some fun characters.

I am very much looking forward to reading my next Discworld book when the time rolls around in 2014 and then finishing the series with book 39 some time around 2070 - as long as he hurries up and stops writing more of the damn things.
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The Draw of Victory

2012-01-14T12:53:00.001+11:00

This evening last one was lucky enough to attend the local World Game event in the company of Gavman, ArchEnemy, and sundry others - about 18 in all. The match in question was between The Melbourne Victory and The Adelaide United.

Due to Gavman's renowned network of connections he had been able to wrangle us seats in a suite at AAMI stadium and we made the most of the accommodations. There was a main room with seating enough for the full compliment of attendees and a fenced off balcony section with all our seating in a quite acceptable proximity to the play.

The excitement was palpable in the air before the match even began as the first round of free drinks and nibbles began to circulate.

Enthusiasm grew throughout the match as Victory scored a goal and the calamari and chips arrived.

Half time was quite the occasion as several plates of pies and sausage rolls appeared before us.

The second half grew to a crescendo as Adelaide scored an equaliser - and accompanying flare in the crowd - and hope began to fade in the hearts of those, such as ArchEnemy, with a true passion for the Melbourne Victory team.

The peak of the match was reached with barely a quarter hour remaining as warm scones with cream and jam made their most timely appearance.

One thinks this soccer watching lark is something one could become quite used to.

2011 A Year of (Gaming) Wonders

2012-01-12T19:07:00.001+11:00

As one hasn't produced one of these for a good couple of years - 2008 was the last in fact - I thought it was about time I subjected you all to another run down of a year's gaming.

So here is the summary of my years gaming for 2011.

All up I had 111 gaming events for the year!

98 may be a more accurate number taking out the ones that were traditional cards played along with a dinner catch up.

That is down by 10 to 20 on 2008 but I have gladly traded some gaming time to spend more in the esteemed company of Salsa Girl.

The occasions break down like thus:

46 sessions with my Tuesday Knights group

2 playing Magic as the main event (there are usually some games each week)
31 playing or running roleplaying.

22 running the Traveller Diplomatic Action game.
4 playing Fighting Fantasy Role-play under Legion2's control,
5 playing ElfBoy's Terra Australis game.

13 playing board and card games

21 sessions with the Black Guild on Thursdays

7 running my Phudge fantasy game Mundus Scenecit
3 just chatting - as happens sometimes (as opposed to the 50% chatting that gaming usually is)
7 playing The Bastard's D&D 4th edition Dark Sun game.
4 playing the ever awesome Tribe8 under the guiding hands of Fantomas.

1 of The Viking Hat GM's old school AD&D days

3 afternoons playing The Bastard's bimonthly Pathfinder fantasy game.

10 Sundays gaming group days playing board, war and card games

6 Spontaneous boardgaming get togethers

3 Spontaneous Magic playing sessions

3 Magic Tournaments amongst our group of players - missing only one new set for the year

1 poker night

13 sessions of Rummy 500 with the Double Jays and Salsa Girl

1 visits to LURG my old uni games club - although no games were played!! (I'm looking at you Camo Spice)

2 evenings playing Werewolf with librarians - run by Gamer Phil while at conference

1 attendance at International Day of Gaming @ the Library - as organised by Gamer Phil at the State Library

All up I played with about 40 different gamers (and about 28 non-gamers).

8 players on Tuesdays
8 on Thursdays (4 shared with Tuesday)
10 at Sundays gaming, 5 from Tuesdays, 1 from Thursdays, 4 not. Multiple attendees: 5 from Tuesdays, 1 from Thursdays, 2 others.
Spontaneous Magic was only with Tuesday night gamers.
Poker was with 4 non-gamers.
Rummy was with 4 non-gamers
Magic tournaments brought 5 from the Tuesday group, 1 from Thursdays and 2 others
The old school AD&D was with about 8 gamers and no crossover with other groups.
The Pathfinder game was with 5 Tuesday/Thursday gamers and 1 other.
The Werewolf with librarians was with about 20 non-gamers.
Gaming in the library added another 13 gamers

One thinks that's a reasonable return for a hobby for which one has an obviously mild passion.

I expect to up the ante in the coming year and push on for the magic 150 and I'm sure nothing will hold me back from fulfilling such a humble ambition.

Embassytown by China Miéville, and 2011 Reading Roundup

2012-01-06T23:18:00.000+11:00

I managed to finish this one while living life on The Berm.

It's a solid three and a half out of five however being Miéville I was hoping for a four or five.

I found the basic premise to be too much of a thought exercise to make the story feel realistically possible.
Eg (very minor spoiler)
The aliens have people act out similes so they can then talk using them, but how do they even conceive of them in the first place?

Easy to read, well written prose but again - like his previous novel Kraken - a point of view character that just moves the story along rather than being a distinct person.

Worth a read but probably not a re-read.

Reading Roundup 2011
While about half of Embassytown was read last year I've been counting books read for the year by completion date. That leaves one with the grand total of 14 books read for the year down again from the previous year (though I did read rather a lot of gaming PDFs over the course of the year so it is difficult to tell if one is actually in a reading decline).

Three books vie for the According to the ratings one dishes out on Library Thing, there are three books viewing for one's best read of 2011.
While none of them stands out from the others I would give the edge to The Hallowed Hunt by Lois Mcmaster Bujold.

My worst book was the execrable Swine Fever by Andrew Cartmel of which I had my say previously on The Tales.

Well now on to my 2012 reading and here's to reaching the lofty heights of 2008's 26 titles and 2009's many high-rated reads.
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Life on the Berm

2012-01-03T16:53:00.001+11:00

So it transpires that spending a week or so of one's holiday time up at Bermagui - or The Berm as one has popularised it - is an experience awash with Cautions.

Firstly one should note that filling a long drive with constant jovial conversation along the lines of "why is it only 80 here? Oh look at that funny-shaped tree. I saw another cow. Stop going so slow. I'm hungry." and so on, is perplexingly annoying for those such as Salsa Girl who for some reason think that moments of silence are a requirement in a five hour drive.

My next Caution concerns the opening of windows for refreshing night breeze when staying in a mosquito infested locale. One should be especially alert for windows missing the fly-wire screen necessary for a nights sleep uninterrupted by nigh-constant buzzing and biting.

Further Cautions concern the dangers of sudden loss of stretches of time in the afternoons caused by partaking in perfectly normal amounts of food and drink. As one is far too rugged and manly to "nap" these can only be explained by some kind of local time distortion unique to the coastal area.

Additional things to be Cautious about include: assuming that the sea shall be as hot as the day itself; kayaking into shallow regions where the mud clutches at ones bottom (kayak bottom that is); strenuous river swimming that can easily be averted by standing up and walking through the hip deep water.

One should also be aware that holidaying far for the big smoke can lead to sporadic network connections that make it hard to feed one's not-at-all-an-addiction desire for Internet access and can in fact lead to sudden dropou...

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The Many Expectations of Xmas

2011-12-28T22:58:00.002+11:00

This week past has - not unexpectedly - seen many an Xmas related activity.

As expected the final meeting of the inner cabal at the library had a tinge of the Xmas about it, with several goodbyes for the year and a meal shared by all.

As expected the councils Xmas lunch for the hard-working staff, as exemplified by yours-truly, signalled the end to the working year as it demolished any chance of productivity in the remaining hours of the afternoon before the Xmas break. Even partaking at the level of moderation one is famous for could not produce an iota of work after that sumptuous feast.

As expected Salsa Girl and I made our now customary annual trip slightly North to Xmas with the maternal side of her heritage. Some terrific Turkey was had in both firsts and seconds for the day as well as a traditional Aussie pav as a dessert.

As could reasonably be expected - given Xmas's past - our zoom back to the city to catch one's relatives in the early evening was delayed by the ferocity of a typical Melbourne Xmas storm.
Our final arrival at the famous Aunties had us almost missing the desserts and, in fact, further worry occurred as Salsa Girl insisted on us having mains before we could touch the dessert pavlova - I was concerned as it had been so long since I had had pav for dessert.
In any case the evening progressed with the tail end of the storm providing a lovely lightning show and Legion4 putting on an encore performance of his famous Very Messy Xmas of '08. During the evening one was also surprised to see that Cousin Dave, down from Sydney, had his eldest offspring toddling around everywhere - I mean she didn't even exist when last we caught up and one could hardly expect that much change in a scant few years.

As expected all those Xmas Day shenanigans were followed by the Boxing Day of Extreme Lassitude. I believe one may have ventured outside once just for the thrill of it but cannot recall.

Quite unexpectedly the next day became a day of gaming after Gavman unexpectedly demanded his birthday dues.
You see we have a tradition in one's corner of the gaming world that any gaming on a birthday involves the birthdayee choosing the game to be played.
We all believed ourselves to be safe from the proclivities of Gavman's gaming appetites as he shared his birthday with a rather well known messiah.
However Legion2, Elfboy and myself where all caught in his insidious web as he invoked yesterday's shifted Xmas holiday to put us at the mercy of his gaming desires.

As expected he chose Magic the Gathering (with variants) and it was a tortuous half-day playing one of my top ten games.
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Desk-Shift Disasters

2011-12-21T23:24:00.001+11:00

So today I unwittingly walked into, not one, but a series of disasters of epic proportions.

It all began innocently as I kindly offered my services up to cover a desk shift in the library since I was on the premises in my regular benevolent location rotation schedule and Lord of the Small Fries was feeling a little poorly. (There is no truth to the rumour that my volunteering was only because it was a meeting that I would covering for and one was glad to be out of the vicinity of all that meetingness.)

The first disaster struck when I found out I was to be desk-buddies with none other than Supervisor Grand Chief K!!

One would presume it couldn't get any worse but then ... disaster number two struck.

Somehow one's sense of time became muddled and it was suddenly time to begin the desk shift and one had not had a skerrick of lunch yet!! Quickly crunching my way through a carrot I was soon out there saving the world from improperly borrowed library books.

It didn't take long for one to become aware of both my gnawing hunger bringing me close to the edge of starvation and disaster number three. It came to my attention that the first part of the desk-shift was not to cover the boring meeting but to allow the branch staff to go to the local eatery and partake in an Xmas feast of grand proportions.

Oh world why do you taunt me so!
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Timetable Tribulations

2011-12-14T11:54:00.000+11:00

Here's a Caution for you all.

When one is running late for the morning locomotive and just misses said locomotive one should make sure that one looks for the next departure time in the part of the timetable app that shows one's direction of travel.

Improper determination of the next train arrival can lead to one casually strolling to the corner shop for some of that breakfast that was missed in that rush to make the initial train; followed by a leisurely topping up of one's travel card which may well be interrupted by the arrival of the actual next train into the city.

Scampering hastily without any dignity onto said train is hardly the proper way to begin ones day.

Personally I take no responsibility for this debacle and blame the app writers for putting the Hurstbridge bound trains above the city bound ones. I mean, really, nobody goes out to Hurstbridge*.
* except people with a reason or Hurstbridgers I suppose.

Anyway, consider yourself Cautioned.
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Xmas Parties, Various

2011-12-11T23:33:00.001+11:00

One has spent the past several days getting well and truly into the Xmas spirit - well the feasting side of it at least, the rest shall have to come later.

It all began on Friday with the very important end of year Xmas lunch for the user group at our suppliers headquarters. Once again the user group insisted on holding a meeting beforehand, but finally after several hours drawn-out with productivity we were treated in the manner to which we have become accustomed over the years. Many were in attendance - Supervisor Grand Chief K even put in an appearance to make sure that I received my just desserts.

After waddling home I was soon off to another evening of food and cards at the Double Jays with Salsa Girl by my side. The feasting was not too excessive there as I had an unexpected feeling of fullness part-way through the meal. Sigh, there's always next time I guess.

Saturday was the big event. The Library Xmas Party.

This years soiree was being hosted by Kiwichick (who's husband lucked out on not being able to use the get out of party card he earned by attending last years event). The catering was done by many with Days of our Libraries having many a hand in the comestibles.

The night did include a rather embarrassing tribute to the recent Facebook relationship-status change of the good Salsa Girl and oneself, replete with gifts unasked for but appreciated greatly - especially by The Tiger who commenced sleeping on our new serving dish the moment it was revealed to her.

The latest Xmas partying occurred when Salsa Girl and I made the trek to the family demesne to celebrate Freeloading Mum's birthday. There was a dash of Xmas thrown in due to known Xmas day absences. A magnificent feast was on offer, including 5 desserts (which only count as 3 as one mixed several into the same bowl).
There was rather a lot of post feast tiredness to be dealt with on return home before getting the evening meal squared away.

In unrelated news, one's past month of increased exercise regime appears to be having no effect at all.
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The Tragedy of Pizza-free Poker

2011-12-07T13:41:00.000+11:00

Sigh, bX-1fv8xl, sure is playing havoc with my regular posting schedule. Although some may say that it is merely acting as the enabler of my laziness... I can't be bothered responding to that acusation, it would take too much effort.

Anyway, here's one I've been preparing for a week or so:

This Saturday last (now Saturday, Saturday last) myself and Legion2 made the great trek out to MrRogers new-ish abode for a poker night that had been in the scheduling for nigh on half a year.

Upon arrival we traversed our way via secret stairway to the basement location of the festivities to find BestFriendSincePrep and StumpyRudolph already in attendance. As it was a completely reasonable hour of the evening, and a tradition of poker nights, one suggested that we order pizza to satisfy ones lurking hunger. You can imagine how taken-aback I was to be told "nah, we already ate before coming over".
As the evening progressed and further participants arrived,(The Electric Tiger & The Wiggs) they joined in the chorus and also took up the new refrain of "just eat the chips and chocolate". Which is all well and good if they'd just leave said chips to me but seems a tad hypocritical as they continued to take great handfuls of one's rapidly disappearing sustenance.

In the end I made it through the evening none the worse for wear and may have discovered a new diet sensation - although Salsa Girl seems to be disagreeing with one about that insight.
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Five Minute Meetings

2011-11-24T17:13:00.001+11:00

So, on ones return to work this week one was required to attend an important hour of one-on-one training in some new web based software.

Having attended a group information session I knew that said web based software allowed us to:

log in to the site automatically
see an edit button if we were allowed to edit the page
fill in the text box and click OK to make changes

Understandably as a web coding geek of some pedigree I was looking forward to some in depth training on said web based software and, dare I dream, even some under the hood secrets.

Arriving for the meeting I discovered that the caller of the meeting was off looking for me at my non-existent desk in The Castle (I work in a completely different building (and state of mind)). Upon my instructor's return we sat, instead, at their desk and commenced the training session.

"So with the new web based software you can":

"log in to the site automatically"
"see an edit button if we were allowed to edit the page"
"fill in the text box and click OK to make changes"

"Okay, we're done here. You can go now."

I did ask a few inane questions just to stretch it out to five minutes before heading back to my work, shaking my head at the waste of everyone's time.

Still on the bright side, one did feel that one was well and truly back at work...
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Holiday Haze

2011-11-15T14:00:00.000+11:00

So it transpires that when one is on holidays for weeks at a time things such as, say updating one's blog, actually become harder to make happen.

The very astute of you may have noticed that The Tales has been rather quiet for the month of October and much of this month as well. So quiet in fact as to have been non-existent. Well, as of this post, one is rectifying that oversight.

Such a lot has happened that one's usual highly-enjoyable ramblings could well go on for many a page and exhaust even the staunchest fan's endurance. Therefore I shall recount the happenings in bullet point style in order to regain somewhat of a regular posting style.

One has been through:

the horror of a Grand Final loss endured with The Great Sandro fretting that a lead of 40 points could be lost in the final 2 minutes of the game while Legion2 and I tried to accept our tragic loss. This understandably took away one's will to blog for many days afterwards.

the horror of putting myself through yet another of the The Viking Hat GM's fiendish D&D days. Albeit made easier by being held at Exploding Ninja Pony's new awesome Man-Cave (or Geek-Grotto if you are one of those pedants who prefers accuracy).This understandably took away one's will to blog for many days afterwards.

the horror of realising that accepting Salsa Girl's Facebook declaration of our engaging situation announced it both far and wide and that "Facebook Friends" do indeed see what you display there. This one nearly confirmed one's Facebook shyness.

the horror of another training day with free morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea . . . wait that one wasn't so bad. Understandably one was too bloated on returning home to conduct any blogging.

the horror of having to set up one's new computer after the old faithful failed to respond at all. Of course this one made it rather difficult to get blogging done.

the horror of realising that holding our sixth annual Absent Friends card day meant that we've been without an old friend for more than half a decade...

the horror of yet another interstate conference junket with the threat of too many LibraryLand cocktails looming over one's head. Even Gamer Phil from an adjacent library service running gamer games in the evening couldn't help one from having many a drink thrust into one's hands (and yes, I do have to drink them). Still I managed to come through okay - at least from what I remember...

the horror of another of our card tournaments where my cards refused to shuffle up in any sort of normal distribution pattern.

the horror of a planning training morning timed to end before lunch so we can all head back to work! This one had me distraught for days and unable to commit any blogging activity.

the horror of going to Geelong for another conference and, well, being in Geelong. The hotel gave me a room overlooking the stadium of the team that had so recently defeated one's Magpies and the trauma returned blotting out any thoughts of blogging.

the horror of an afternoon under The Bastard's control in yet another irregular game. Maybe I shouldn't accept all these offers...

the horror of ... ahem, the bliss of a week away down the coast with Salsa Girl. Time spent reading. playing Rummy, walking along beaches and cliffs. One did make an attempt to blog in the peace and quiet but that bX-1fv8xl error did in my mobile posting ambitions.

the horror of a feline neglected for a week that decides the attention it is due shall be collected at 4am. Sleep deprivation makes one decidedly low in motivation to think up another of one's brilliant blog postings and high in motivation for disciplining The Tiger.

the horror of BestFriendSincePrep abandoning one to make an international move of a few years and support his wife's career. Really, where was my opportunity to have a say in this decision?

the twin horrors of a day of Gaming at the State Library (organised by Gamer Phil) followed by a regular Sunday's gaming. So many games to choose from, such little time...

the horror of realising one has only a week remaining of one's holiday before having to dive into that mound of email and meeting invites.

the horror of facing up to the construction of a huge update to the sadly neglected Tales. This one, especially, made it hard to get any blogging done.

Phew.

Regular service shall resume shortly.

bX-1fv8xl

2011-10-31T23:14:00.001+11:00

I was going to give a huge and exhilarating update of what has happened in my October of silence but blogger keeps giving me the extremely helpful eponymous error message above.
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Swine Fever by Andrew Cartmel

2011-09-29T14:53:00.001+10:00

This book is the last of the books that Fantomas gave me for my birthday last year.

I have finally gotten around to reading it and one can only conclude that Fantomas bears some huge grudge against me - despite his claims that he is not responsible for what is purchased with his voucher, as what else could he have expected me to get?

Now, allow me to don my Nerd-Rage hat as I review this one star title for you all.

The plot summary is that Judge Dredd solves a case involving the illegal selling of pork made form intelligent mutant pigs in Mega-City. Except he doesn't really, as he is hardly in the story at all, the main character of the novel being a young Psi-Judge. That part is not so bad as Dredd is really just a framing device for the crazy happenings of Mega-City One and I can understand it being hard to centre the story around him.

However it didn't take long for the warning bells to go off in one's head as most of the incidental details of the story completely avoid any attempt at following the 30 odd years of Dredd continuity.

Here's a rundown of some of them:

cadet Judges having their own apartment instead of senior judges only
said apartment being stocked with illegal alcohol taken from a crime scene - and no fear shown by the cadet judge when Dredd comes to visit
all but two of the Judges we meet are incompetent buffoons despite their 15 years of training, most are physically unfit being overweight or sickly
an unending stream of flatulence jokes about one of the Judges - said flatulence being caused by all the fast food he eats
said fast food being purchased from vending machines in Justice Department, using money that the Judges have - in the comic the Judges are not paid and eat for free at justice Department.
"net rounds" for the lawgiver when standard cling nets would have sufficed for the story (double whammy is now my second most hated ammo type), other new rounds other than the standard 6 also appeared at various points
pork being legalised when many other harmful substances are banned for the peoples own good - even synthi versions are sometimes banned for still being harmful
a complete absence of the Justice Department surveillance system
ending with a Justice department picnic

When one discussed several of these points with Badger a week or so ago he informed me that the author, Mr Cartmel, had overseen the last three seasons of the original run of Dr Who before it was cancelled. Not having watched those series I can only guess that the good doctors continuity was also completely ignored in favour of whatever Mr Cartmel wanted to do.

Thankfully my next read shall be a recommendation from ElfBoy.
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An Unexpected Party

2011-09-26T12:54:00.001+10:00

This weekend past was supposed to be a grand celebration of the significant birthday of Salsa Girl. However our eponymous heroine had the misfortune to become quite ill in the afternoon before her fabulous '20s murder mystery party was to commence.

With family arriving from interstate we cancelled the main event and ended up with an impromptu family event at our humble abode - the small group partaking of cheese, crackers, wine and pizza while the the birthday girl soldiered on through her suffering.

The next day there was further misfortune as Salsa Girl recovered enough for is to be able to attend her birthday treat matinee of the girly musical Love Never Dies at the Regent Thee-ator. One may have enjoyed the production with it's stage wizardry but one would never endanger one's rugged and manly reputation by admitting so.
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The Face of Battle by John Keegan

2011-09-14T14:30:00.001+10:00

This recommended read came to me via The Maple Maverick who enthused at length about it before stuffing it into one's hands.

It is a non-fiction account of three historic battles, Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, which - once one gets past the lengthy "what is military history" introduction - delves into the psychology of the participants in a quite interesting way. Rather eye-opening if one has taken movies and more strategic focused military histories to be an insight into the battles themselves.
I rate it at three and a half stars - worth a read if you are interested in the subject matter.
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Stepping Ahead

2011-09-12T14:39:00.000+10:00

Well the global corporate challenge finished in the middle of last week and yours truly managed to end it all in a winning position.

You see I was able to complete the challenge, in true Millenium Falcon style, by using less steps than anyone else in my team.
I am currently awaiting for my accolades to commence.

In other stepping news Saturday afternoon saw The Great Sandro and Legion2 at one's domicile for some good old-fashioned lounge room footy watching. We all had a great time watching the mighty pies go one step closer to the Grand Final.

One's Sunday was spent with the likes of Fantomas, Gavman, Pirate Dave, and DragonMim, in the clutches of The Bastard as we took the first steps in his new Pathfinder roleplaying game campaign. He appears to have lulled them all into a false sense of security by making it a fun time but I, knowing better, have my eye on him and am ready to strike at the first sign of shenanigans.
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The Training Incident

2011-09-04T23:45:00.001+10:00

So last week one was, as has become somewhat usual lately, making one's commute home by the conveyance of the public locomotive system.

As the carriages pulled in at one of the stops a couple of young people boarded - one of them conspicuously carrying a banjo. They settled into seats quite close to me and it was not long before the gentle strains of banjo plucking began to grace one's journey (in a wholly un-deliverance like manner I hasten to point out).

A few stops later a woman, several seats further away from the player than I, stood to exit and enlightened the whole carriage in the field of Australian train etiquette with the following diatribe:

"Hey, you shouldn't be playing that in here, this is Australia we don't allow busking on the train, our trains are a place for everyone to be quiet. You shouldn't be playing that in here"

As she was stepping onto the platform she could be heard advising the embarking passengers:

"Tell that man to stop playing with his banjo. It's not right, we don't do that sort of thing in Australia ...m.m..m..m..m.m.m.m.m.m."

So, as I haven't given you one in a while, here's a Caution: do not pluck a musical instrument on an Australian train lest your un-Australian attitude be exposed to all and sundry.

Needless to say I am now fully informed and shall never be caught playing banjo on public transport, ever.
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A Game of Drones

2011-08-22T08:34:00.001+10:00

Yes, last Friday I finally finished reading George R R Martin's Game of Thrones - the first in his Song of Ice and Fire septology (or more).

Like most other readers of the book - and as predicted by the likes of ArchEnemy and Fantomas - one quite enjoyed it and would rate it a solid four star read.

I did find it unexpectedly teen focussed although that was offset somewhat by the tragedies that befell any character one took a liking too.

A series I shall definitely return to over the next year until I too am one of the mob clamoring for George to finish off writing the whole damn story.
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The Feline-Trichosurine Axis of Evil

2011-08-18T07:10:00.001+10:00

One is fully aware of the maliciousness of The Tiger and her ilk. All that talking, scratching, demanding, and bullying behaviour is obviously intentionally and cunningly committed on purpose.

Well, now it seems she has recruited several of our local Trichosurus Vulpecula into her megalomaniacal campaign to inflict some serious sleep deprivation upon Salsa Girl and I.

In true dictatorial style The Tiger sent her allies into action first. They commenced their demonic chorus directly outside the bedroom window at around the three am mark and persisted for most of the next hour.
After we had settled down again The Tiger stepped up herself, commencing plaintive meowing and bedroom door scratching at four hundred hours.

One also suspects that she may have also recruited Metro as the nearby trains commenced their noise making journeys and horn blowing a scant hour or so later - although it may just be the sleep deprivation making me think that.
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The Tudors

2011-08-10T23:08:00.001+10:00

This weekend past Salsa Girl and I completed our watching of the eponymous historical televisual series.

We found it to be a reasonably entertaining and educational experience.

For instance one learned much of the intricacies of the wheres and what-fors of Henry the VIII's wives various - admittedly usually after an excursion into Wikipedia to ascertain if it reply did happen in the way the show was presenting it to us.

One also learned of the power that a gruesome torture scene has to send Salsa Girl scurrying from the room, ears covered and asking to be told when it was over. Yes, given Henry's propensity for wild accusation and execution, one learned that lesson many times over.

Worth tracking down and having a look at.

One's next big task is to convince Salsa Girl that she should watch the Napoleon series I have scavenged up. Given that it begins in the heady days of the revolution and Madame guillotine one may be facing quite the difficult task.
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The Silliest of Things

2011-08-01T14:22:00.000+10:00

No, one is not referring to FridgePower's futile attempt to win a blog flame-war with The Tales.

I refer instead to my attending of the annual day of Silly Games at my old Uni gaming club.

Of course the whole day ended up being quite the silly affair. One's brilliant plan of taking a day off ended up encouraging one to frittering away time and then be caught short when crises multiple erupted at the library.

The next silly thing was making a "brief" stop at Freeloading Mum's to provide some IT Support.
So after dinner I finally arrived at the Uni club to find the room closed up and darkened.
Luckily after a short wait several gamers returned and the day was underway again.
Unluckily the majority of gamers went off to commence a short game of Nerf Warfare which yours truly had to decline due to my well-known knee issues.
The remainder picked up their ongoing game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition - a pursuit that is indeed quite a silly one. With nothing else going on I proceeded to watch the final three hours of their game much of which was filled with players requesting that other players take their turns quickly so they could "end this thing and go home". The hole experience confirmed for me that the game was one I would happily never attempt to play.
In the end my vain hope of players becoming available for my own silly game disappeared as all the players of the game left immediately once it was completed at 10.40pm, and none of the nerfers showed any sign of returning for my game's scheduled 9pm start.
One decided that it was far to silly to hang around waiting for players and promptly took oneself home again.

A further event of silliness occurred over the weekend when I decided to go to the footy with The Great Sandro and narrowly escaped confrontation when he spent much of the game slyly talking out the side of his mouth at a rather loud fellow pies supporter. Luckily said supporter failed to take it personally and there was no problem at all.

The final event of silliness is, of course, one's return to work today.
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Leading by Example

2011-07-27T14:52:00.001+10:00

So once again The Tales is an example of a particular type of behaviour on the Internet.

This is a caution for all you aspiring blog-authors out there:
Should you take the opportunity to additionalise the content of your communications via reference to other postings on the Internet you may find yourself the target of a cruel characterization along the lines of "so you're freeloading from other people's blogs now" (thanks a lot to the anonymous FridgePower).

I think this blog post explains my position, you just have to change the authors name to my own and it should work - in order to save time I didn't bother reading it properly.

Now that I have successfully defended my behavior I shall tell you about my leading by example in the Global Corporate Challenge. I have shamed my team by, several times in the past week, achieving steps equal to double my daily average. The walk is now in your court Team if you dare to match my statistically huge effort. Let's see you all add ~5,000 steps to your daily amount!
For more of my GCC goings on read this blog and change the author's name to mine. I think that should save me the effort of writing it all out.
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The Synchronicity of Blog Postings

2011-07-25T08:48:00.001+10:00

So Salsa Girl and I had an event filled weekend.

Our Saturday eve was spent at BestFriendSincePrep's for a lovely dinner and some playing of Carcasonne - which I dutifully played for last position in order that my evening's company should feel good about their games playing.

One's Sunday involved a trip to Bendigo for the birthday of Salsa Girl's lovely grandma.
In a strange coincidence FridgePower and Judge Mingus made a similar trip to Ballarat on the same day.
To save me some time and effort read all about FridgePower's wonderful experience and substitute Bendigo for Ballarat and you pretty much have what happened - although Salsa Girl wouldn't let me stop for food every time I was hungry.
Sigh.
Next time I believe I'll be truckin' with FridgePower.
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Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Onwards

2011-07-20T09:22:00.002+10:00

One knocked over this little recommendation from The Maple Maverick in only a few days. It is of an ilk to such classics as 1984 and Brave New World - and shows it.

The author presents it as her anthem to ego and living for oneself in a repressive society and it is such given the over the top repression the society has devolved into. One can see great shadows of growing up in the newly communist USSR cast over the whole book along with a healthy dose of new American Red Scare.
There is not much of new substance if one has read the aforementioned other two in this genre but it's short length, easy style, and historical interest make it a reasonable read.

Speaking of great shadows I have now commenced reading the epic Song of Ice and Fire - as heavily recommended by ArchEnemy (i.e. "read it or I'll burn your house down") and sundry others.
It is quite good so far but carries the heavy weight of expectation that has been built up over the years by the many glowing accolades it has received.

At the low reading rate one has managed to achieve this past year it's going to be fingers crossed that one can finish this first massive tome before the year's out let alone the other dozen or so volumes these fantasy epics usually run to.
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The Joys of Calendar Syncing

2011-07-13T11:50:00.000+10:00

Having to work at the corporate castle for a few days puts one in close proximity to the likes of The Jolly Giant. The consequences of this are that one is chosen to be a tester for the new mobile connection into our wonderful email and calendaring system.

It all seems to have worked well as my little calendar app has had work meetings and tasks sprung up throughout it like a virulent fungus.

Of course the horrible downside of this is that one now has lost the ability to spend time joyfully entering each work event into my mobile calendar and of course skip meetings with that most handy of excuses

"I must not have updated my mobile calendar so I didn't know the meeting was moved".

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

2011-07-12T07:54:00.001+10:00

I finished this piece of post-cyberpunk storytelling over the weekend.

I enjoyed the writing and the scene setting was very immersive. I call it post-cyberpunk for various reasons, among them are: the lack of mechanical high tech which comes from it's post oil crash setting rife with genetic engineering, the focus being on small players in the big corporations rather than the typical rogue loners, and of course it's coming twenty years after the cyberpunk boom.

The story moves along reasonably well and one's personal race to the climactic ending was enhanced by several locomotive-based commutes of reading.

All in all a good solid three and a half star read.
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In the Lair of the Dragon

2011-07-09T12:28:00.001+10:00

I'm going to gloss over the silence of the last few weeks - ignoring such excuses and incidents as: increased workload of project implementation and library refurbishment, busy social life, footy game days, gaming events, cinema excursions and many other sundry events and happenings from the lost fortnight.

Instead I am going to jump straight to the recent events without any dilly-dallying.

This Thursday last I made my monthly attendance at the fortnightly game run by The Bastard. This episode was back at it's spiritual home on the DragonMim's dining room table.

The gang was all there, Gavman with his tactical nous, Fantomas with his rules stretching nous, Pirate Dave with his rules knowledge nous, The Bastard with his rules ignoring 'kill them all' nous, DragonMim with snack providing nous, and ArchEnemy with his usual day to day brand of evil.

All in all it was a rip roaring session of goblin bashing and bastardry. I only wish it didn't take one's body several days to recover from the huge amount of snacks that DragonMim forces one to consume at these events.
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Days of Double Cake

2011-06-22T15:03:00.001+10:00

So, I've spent the greater part of a week at our "ends of the Earth" branch working on many a project from my vast portfolio of projects to be done.

One was a tad trepidatious upon starting this endeavour as I had forewarned my staff at the branch of the times of my attendance.

All has turned out fantastically as they have provided not only the eponymous two cakes for my daily consumption but also many a small snack has been appearing throughout my days of hard work - rolls, bites and leftover book club biscuits - it has been a parade of IT support satisfying snacks and one shall be sad to finish up this project and waddle back North to one's usual work places.
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The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold

2011-06-14T12:48:00.001+10:00

I finished reading this third book in Buyold's Chalion world last week.

I enjoyed it as much as the others with the only downfall being no real connection to the first two stories - being set several countries away. Her writing was The usual easy to digest prose and I recommend it highly.

I think parts of it may very well make their way into future, or even present, fantasy games that one runs.
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Local Warming

2011-06-07T07:13:00.032+10:00

This weekend past was a busy one indeed.

Friday night was consumed by one of those pre-event shopping trips where you just keep adding things to the trolley because they will make the event better. Finally you arrive at the checkout with a huge mound of foodstuffs most of which will still be lurking in your fridge the day after the event.

Saturday afternoon was the occasion of the main event itself - a drop by housewarming to welcome Salsa Girl into the place and celebrate this latest stage in our grand experiment.

Having not much space in our residence we invited only those that were known well to both of us (lest the legendary horde of Phill-friends cause a major sardine effect).

I think it all went off quite well with a rotating cast of about a dozen including:

Legion2 sadly flying solo due to family illness, well other family than yours truly
The Great Sandro who planted himself on the couch ne'er to move
MatrixMan and Vengeful Vic with young Couch Killer in tow and solidifying his blog name with a delightful splash of red on our new couch
The Double Jays turning up WITHOUT their trademark chocolate cake!!!!!!
ElfBoy and Elfboylet making a big mess and being scared off by The Tiger.

After such a hectic and fun-filled afternoon Salsa Girl and I headed off to spend the evening at the birthday celebrations for BestFriendSincePrep's bester half. With a tended cocktail bar and eighties music galore it really was quite a delightful way to end the day. And there was chocolate cake!

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An Appointment with the Judge

2011-05-29T09:41:00.001+10:00

This Friday last one had a long, long, overdue catch up with Judge Mingus.

Having a relatively sudden space in my busy schedule I sent forth the invite a mere few days before said space with little hope of a positive response.
You can imagine my pleasant surprise to have my invite emphatically accepted.

The official activity of the evening was to be introducing the good Judge to the goodness that is Commands and Colors: Napoleonics.
(One did expect that tangential conversation would be one of the major unofficial activities of the evening.)

The gaming went well with lots of back and forth both in play and dialogue and overall it was a fantastic catch up evening.

At the end of the night we both resolved for a future appointment that we would be getting together to rekindle our musicianship.
That is: we would get together to make music, not war.
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Challenged Again

2011-05-20T12:41:00.000+10:00

It's that time of year again that a young blogger's thoughts turn to walking all over the place.

Yes I am once again taking part in the Global Corporate Challenge - 16 weeks of pedometerising my steps and getting my team to take a virtual walking tour of the world.

I have managed to be included in the Library team this year lead by Mr Prada, and including such luminaries as Days of our Libraries, Fifi, Country Girl, The Pragmatist and Mrs Football.

Of added interest this year is the fact that Salsa Girl and her office are also taking part. In the spirit of encouraging better participation one aims to help my team beat the pants off hers.
So far so good on day one as my team has the lead. I am a tad worried though as I know how far Salsa Girl walks every day in comparison to oneself, and also her team haven't entered any scores yet.

Still one must enjoy the winning position while one holds it.
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A Fate Worse than Ballerinas

2011-05-14T08:44:00.000+10:00

So with Salsa Girl settling in to our new cohabitating habit it is now, as expected, that the battle over the spaces in which we live begins.

The opening salvo was fired shortly after one had graciously moved one's gaming map of a fantasy world to the manland sanctuary that the study has become in these times of struggle.
After returning from a hard days work slaving away at the library one was confronted with the sight of a picture of the quite-girly-indeed Mariah Carey assuming that same section of the wall. The horror!

In the end it turns out that it has been done with quite a lot of tongue in cheek by Salsa Girl - although one does wonder why the picture in question has failed to be removed from the wall yet?
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The Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

2011-05-02T10:24:00.000+10:00

This is the book that Fantomas suggested I read before reading a better one so as to not be extremely disappointed in it. Dragonmim also came to the party adding that he'd "made it through" the first two of the series - a slightly damning appraisal given his propensity for series completion.

As you may note it has taken one more than a month to finish this one - and I only made it to the end this week thanks to my twelve day Easter weekend.

It was an okay enough read although it has more of a teen feel to it than the adult fantasy it presents itself as - mostly, I think, due to the teenage protagonist (with a secret origin and a destiny) and the fact that nobody of importance (to us the readers) dies in the catastrophic events it contains. Still, I give it three and a half stars as the final 100 or so pages had me quite entertained.
I doubt that I shall seek out any more of the series, especially as I shall soon be reading that fantastic fantasy opus of which many have made recommendations.
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Silence in the Time of Moving

2011-04-27T19:23:00.001+10:00

You would think that an enormously long Easter Holiday break plus an extension of several days would allow one to, if not hit their self-imposed "every three days" deadline, at least make a single post in the span of a dozen days.

Apparently not.

So what has one been up to with this huge slab of time?

Well...
busy work times made busier by the impending holiday break;
chocolatey Easter sugar rushes from following one's self-imposed "if you've got them eat them" rule;
tense footy watching with Legion2;
and biggest and best of all has been the hauling of a plentitude of Salsa Girl's things to my household as we take our Grand Experiment onwards and upwards to stage two!

All quite acceptable excuses for failure to post - especially when stacked up together like that.

The future appears to have no such handy excuses lurking in it from where I sit so you should all expect a return to the regular posting you have become used to over these many years of The Tales existence.
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Late Lunch Lunacy

2011-04-15T15:21:00.001+10:00

So, one has long developed the habit of delaying one's mid day repast until mid afternoon.

There are many and varying theories as to why this behavior seems to have cemented itself in place in one's daily working routine: big breakfasts, library morning teas, late night gaming fast food feasts, later libraryland opening hours leading to later starts. All have been thought to be the culprit.

The end result is that lunch tends to be had a tad after everyone else has returned to their days work. This, of course, invariably leads to something bad happening and my being called to duty before I can commence my consuming and therefore being completely starved and on the verge of passing out as I diligently slave away to make your IT lives better.

Today however, has completely thrown me out of my usual patterns. Just as I was thinking to go and get me some lunch, lo and behold something GOOD happened - in the form of our 10 days of horrendous network problems clearing up in the blink of an eye.

As you can imagine I was at a loss as to what I should be doing.
Anyway, after having lunch, I informed everyone that it was all fixed.
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Salsa Girl's First Footy

2011-04-11T13:23:00.001+10:00

This Friday last, whilst in the esteemed company of The Great Sandro, ElfBoy, and oneself, Salsa Girl made the trip to the MCG for her first ever football game.

Once we were all firmly ensconced in our lofty seats perched at the top of the stadium she was able to experience the drama, aggression, humour, clash of male bodies, thrill, excitement, and pathos that is the drunk football spectator.

She also, I believe, enjoyed the game.
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Tender Mercies

2011-04-07T08:59:00.001+10:00

This is going to have to be a short missive as one is currently deeply embroiled in the hugely mentally taxing process of undertaking an evaluation of tenders for one's place of work.

This process, foisted upon one by Supervisor Grand Chief K as she traipsed off on some holiday or other, is one of the most painful that one can even comprehend undergoing - more painful even than missing out on morning tea with freshly baked chocolate cake! It is such a torment to be involved in this process that I fear I shan't recover for months to come.

Of course some things - such as a system wide network issue disrupting all work in the library and causing an unending stream of "hey Phill" calls - have required that I roll out the excuse:

Sorry, I can't help you, I have to work on this tender right now.

A Question of Elasticity

2011-03-31T13:48:00.001+11:00

So recently Salsa Girl and I found ourselves in somewhat of a philosophical quandary.

You see we were discussing the appropriateness of referring to the strip of substance attached to the waistband on an old pair of one's pajamas as "the elastic" when it clearly exhibited not a single one of the traits one would usually associate with elastic.

After much spirited debate we agreed to disagree and remain civil about it all.

So do you, dear reader, believe that "the elastic" is the waistband of your old pajamas regardless of it's actual elastic properties; or do you side with the misguided folly that is the belief that for something to be "the elastic" it must retain some vestigial elasticity?
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The Return of the Great Man

2011-03-28T23:57:00.033+11:00

It seems that March is the month of returns.

First it was The Bastard's return to Sunday Gaming.

And now, this weekend past has seen the return of not only the footy but also my esteemed match-attending companion The Great Sandro.
We had another of our grand days out on Saturday last. I had presumed that my fellow black and white army members would be out in force and, hence, we needed to be at the ground well before the game itself began.
Suffice to say one was able to see first-hand what the slow influx of a passable crowd into an empty stadium looked like.
The match itself was fairly one-sided but a good result and we trundled home on the less than packed train that such a lower attendance match produces..

After the footy the real challenge began as The Great Sandro met Salsa Girl for the first time. All went well due to her choice to select her suburb of residence as her footy team aligning with TGS's number one team.
I believe that Salsa Girl has gained the okay to join us for an upcoming match - her first ever. One only hopes she can prepare herself to see her team being walloped while I gloat and cackle with glee at her expense - all in my typical gentlemanly way of course.
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Recovery and Reading

2011-03-23T23:38:00.000+11:00

So, one has only recently recovered from another tussle with that most pernicious of ailments - the Man Cold.

I fear that it may have mutated as this time I was laid low for five days rather than the usual three. To make matters worse my wonderfully attentive nurse, Salsa Girl, has found that the Man Cold has been able to jump the gender barrier - although her version comes with far less whinging than the one I was struck down with.

Anyway to take your minds off the impending plague ridden mutant-Man-Cold doom the world is facing I shall inform you of my latest read which I managed to finish whilst in the throes of my illness.

It was Down the Bright Way by Robert Reed. I found it quite the interesting dimension hopping premise with some quite intriguing characters and implications for the whole set-up. Well worth a read.

While trying to decide upon my next read it came down to a choice between ArchEnemy's must read book and Fantomas's must not read volume. Of course I chose the must not read out of fascination for the horrible (and, one must admit, a little for the exasperation of ArchEnemy).

Only time shall tell whether I can finish the book or follow in Fantomas's footsteps and add another abandoned read to my tally - although falling asleep on page 2 last evening may give somewhat of an indication which way things will pan out...
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The Return of The Bastard

2011-03-15T14:21:00.000+11:00

No, the title of this post does not refer to one's return to posting after this most recent hiatus from keeping you all updated.

It instead refers to the reappearance at Sunday Games, after a four or more year absence, of the one and only The Bastard.

As befits his usual modus operandi he lugged along a large selection of new games of which we barely managed to scratch the surface by playing only two out of the teetering pile.

Also in attendance was Doom, although his new several-times-a-year frequency hardly makes an appearance worth mentioning. In the same vein I shan't even bother to mention the attendance of Pirate Dave, Legion2, or Badger.

The long weekend was rounded out by a trip to the residence of the Double Jays with Salsa Girl where one was able to easily take possession of the Rummy 500 Perpetual Trophy* for the first time ever after many months of playing with the group.

[* said trophy may exist only in my own mind]
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The Orchestra of Sniff

2011-03-02T14:05:00.000+11:00

Some of the joys of making ones commute via the agency of railway train include:

the ability to read through much of one's backlog of various reading materials;
conversely, being able to doze guilt-free (oh the uproar when one attempts this in one's automobile!);
preparation for, variously, work and gaming;
and numerous other sundry activities.

A downside to this idyllic commute is that it can be jarringly interrupted when, as happened this very morn, other passengers on the train decide that they need to engage in activities such as a good, old-fashioned, reverse-flow nasal cleansing.

I'm not objecting to anyone doing this once or twice out of necessity but when it is happening every dozen or so seconds all the way to the end of the line one can become quite irritated by the rumbling interruption. This is made worse when other passengers in the carriage begin to add their own tenor and soprano accompaniment.

It's almost enough to drive one back into one's automobile for a nice stress free commute down Punt Road.

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The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel

2011-02-28T21:41:00.001+11:00

As you may remember this was a selection that Salsa Girl had picked for me to read when I gave her the opportunity to choose my next read.

So I finally found myself able to start this novel after having read it's preceding volume - thus satisfying one's desire to read things in the proper and correct order.

It is much like the first book in writing style although the subject matter expands to a larger view of Auel's pre-history world.

I do have to apologise for characterising the previous adventure as "Ayla invents everything" because the sheer amount of inventing she gets up to this time around makes her previous attempts pale in comparison.

It was an interesting read and one has to admit that - sigh - one shall indubitably get around to reading the remainder of the series to find out what befalls our plucky heroine (albeit probably a tad more spaced apart than these first two were).

Alas, the dangers of following the reading recommendations of one's sweetheart.
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Trusting Oneself

2011-02-24T08:51:00.001+11:00

So it appears I may have jumped the gun when I was discussing the apparent lack of weird and interesting happenings on my life over the past week or so.

Making my way to my vehicle yesterday - in order to make my commute in a barely timely manner to attend a morning meeting - I discovered that my transportation was suffering from the condition known as "Flat Battery".

Apparently one's subconscious had planned ahead and left several interior lights on when last departing the vehicle.

One's subconscious must have also foreseen that this setback would cause Supervisor Grand Chief K to cancel the meeting and thereby one would be saved all the pain and stress that uncatered meetings cause.

In future I shall very much trust in the wisdom of my subconscious self.
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Tumbleweeds

2011-02-22T09:20:00.001+11:00

Well after the excitement of one's birthday not much of blog-worthy substance has occurred.

There has been the usual work and gaming. The less regular visits and dinners with friends and family. The smooth continuation of the grand experiment betwixt Salsa Girl and myself. Steady progress through my current read and not much on the film front - although I will say that I think Black Swan falls short of what it was trying to achieve.

All on all not much at all but be sure I'll inform you all should anything at all weird or interesting befall me in any part of my life at all.
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The Birthday Experience

2011-02-11T09:04:00.002+11:00

This weekend past saw the passing of a not very significant birthday - well in comparison to last year at least.

As my present Salsa Girl decided to give me an experience.
Now get your minds out of the gutter as I tell you that the experience was a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium - a venue to which one had never made an expedition.
I had quite an enjoyable time with my personal highlights being the rather Cthulhu-esque cuttlefish and, as befits my age and maturity, being witness to underwater penguin flatulence.

The day after such an uplifting experience was a gaming Sunday which included a plethora of one's favourite games, friends and even a magnificent caramel mud cake courtesy of Salsa Girl.
The afternoon included the long awaited, and much anticipated, meeting of BestFriendSincePrep and Salsa Girl - thankfully he approved of her so I may continue on in my courting ways.

So all in all I think we can agree that my birthday weekend was spent in a very Phill manner.
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The Final Step

2011-02-05T13:00:00.001+11:00

So during all that wonderful holiday time that I spent with Salsa Girl I decided it was time that I took the final step.

I awoke one morning several weeks ago, took a deep breath, steeled myself and then took the action that had been on my mind for the latter part of the holiday period.

That's right, I decided to stop using my pedometer. For all it's interesting insight into one's exercise regime, my use of it had become a tad obsessive.

With the act done - and several weeks without it under my belt - I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me.

In the end my daily averages were around 7,500 steps for working days dropping down to 6,500 during this recent holiday a slight bit less than the recommended 10,000 per day.
Despite that I think I have built some good walking habits from the whole exercise and in fact the scales at Freeloading Mum's say that I lost several kilos over the Xmas break so one must be maintaining them.

I dare say I'll saddle up with a pedometer later this year should work participate in the global challenge again so that shall test whether I have continued my habits without the constant company of the infernal device.
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The Importance of Decimal Points

2011-02-02T09:14:00.001+11:00

In my capacity as a distributor of public welfare information I bring to you today a Caution about the dangers of the online world.

You may not be aware that this whole "Internet" carries with it, not only the boundless fun of getting angry at those on it that are wrong but also many traps for the unwary.

For today's example I shall tell you the tale of one poor anonymous fellow whom we shall call Freewheeling Bill to protect his identity.
You see just the other night Bill innocently went online to perform the simple act of BPaying a bill (of the paper kind). In the simple act of typing on the payment amount it appears that his fingers danced ever too lightly over the decimal point key. Being a trusting fellow Bill failed to scrutinise the "are you sure" screen. The result was a payment of several thousand dollars winging it's way to the lucky service provider - an amount in credit that would require nearly 8 years to use up.

The good news for Bill is that a refund has been easily arranged.

So there it is, a Caution indeed. Let us hope that Bill's unfortunate experience never happens to you or I.
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Back to the Grind

2011-02-01T08:48:00.001+11:00

Well yesterday marked one's return to work after the extended Summer holiday.

One found it to be much the same as one had left it - scads of emails to be answered, mysterious equipment failures, looming deadlines, jovial work companions, etc.

A noticeable difference from business as usual was the quite apparent lack of any sort of "Welcome Back" cake or even small pastry. It seems that while I have been away tragedy has struck and Days of our Libraries has lost her cooking mojo. Kiwichick's kind gift of a thorny IT problem to sink my teeth into did little to alleviate my suffering.

Anyway, I seemed to have gotten my email under control and achieved not much else yesterday. Perhaps I shall return to work today?
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My First IMAX

2011-01-26T13:46:00.001+11:00

So for all of it's long life in Melbourne one had, until Sunday last, neglected to pay a visit to the fine institute which is IMAX.

Well that situation has been rectified thanks to the auspices of ElfBoy. He invited myself and Salsa Girl along with many others (who shunned his advances) to experience Tron Legacy at said venue.

I quite enjoyed the movie despite it's relentless electronic soundtrack and internal logic inconsistencies (it's really hard to get there - let's jump on this data train that goes right there).
Worth a watch and IMAX does seem to suit it well
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The Reading Roundup

2011-01-21T13:51:00.001+11:00

It's been a while since I posted anything about what I've been reading so here is a slew of books I've finished in the last six months.

First up is Kraken by China Mieville. This one holds a special place in my heart for it was after attending a talk by the author that Salsa Girl and I commenced our grand experiment together.
The book itself is almost up to his usual standard although it does seem to be fascinated with the "weird in the modern world" idea which makes it interesting but not quite compelling.

My next read was Terry Pratchet's Reaper man. This crossed the returns desk at work and happened to be the one I was up to in his Discworld series so I snapped it up and put it on my to-read pile.
I enjoyed it heartily - my first Pratchet for years (which means I am falling further and further behind his output).

Following the fantasy hijinks I moved on to the first of the recommendations for my reading that I deigned to allow Salsa Girl to make - Illusions by Richard Bach. Much like his seagull book it is about the power of believing in oneself and one's ability to shape reality with one's own belief. This one, however takes it a bit further and a bit more literally with it's real-world, human based setting. All in all some nice ideas but hard to take the implication that they are real.

This next one show the danger of giving one's romantic interest carte blanche to select one's reading material, especially when combined with ones own compulsion to do things in the proper order. So because the strong recommendation was for the second in the Children of Earth series I had to start with the first volume - The Clan of the Cave Bear (AKA Ayla invents everything) by Jean M Auel. It is the tale of a young Cro-Magnon girl adopted by a tribe of Neanderthals and the troubles she has fitting with her different look, new ideas, and not knowing her place in The Clan
Anyway, I'll begrudgingly admit that it was a reasonable read although there was an annoying tendency to mix scientific narrator information with point of view type narration, a fictitious example: Ayla was wary as she entered the mountains because tectonic plate shifting caused regular earthquakes.

Which brings us to Prophet Margin by Simon Spurrier. I read this one thanks to Fantomas and his generous birthday voucher.
It is a novel based on characters from 2000AD - the same comic in which Judge Dredd features.
Reading this was akin to watching a car crash as the author appeared to be too embarrassed writing the story to take the characters seriously. I had no sense of the author even liking the characters as I read numerous blokey/schoolboy allusions to the sexual relationship of the two male main characters. Mix in a lot of juvenile "world comprised totally of space whale excrement" type settings, many clumsy attempts to write like Douglas Adams, and a seeming misunderstanding of the main characters motivations and you have a book that's a struggle for the first half and then begins to settle down and flow by the time it gets to it's final 50 pages or so. All the while never really feeling like the same setting as the original comics.
Thanks a lot Fantomas!!!
Not worth a read for anyone other than a big fan of the characters looking to be outraged - i.e. me.

After reading that last one I was glad to be diving into the second Clan of the Cave Bear novel next.
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A History of Violence

2011-01-17T12:12:00.001+11:00

With a few weeks of holiday remaining I am finally getting the time to catch up on my movie watching.

This one, A History of Violence, was a birthday gift from Legion2 way back at the beginning of last year.

The movie is based on a graphic novel (which one has never actually read) by John Wagner - a favourite comic writer of mine primarily for his 30 years of writing Judge Dredd.

I found it interesting and tense. Worth a watch if violent acts are something you can handle.
Three and a half stars.
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The Holiday is Over

2011-01-16T16:48:00.000+11:00

The time has finally come for me to once again take up my virtual pen and recommence my wisened scribblings for you, my loyal audience.

These past weeks of Tales silence have been filled with a multitude of activities - most of them undertaken in the company of the esteemed Salsa Girl.

I had best give you a quick summary lest we be here all day together going through the intricacies of the twists and turns of fate that have swept about me in these weeks of holiday.

a day or so of rest before beginning the long trek north to spend some time with Salsa Girl's father in sunnier climes
much feasting punctuated by: beach attendance, Day trips, musical performances, markets, a display of bluebottle dancing put on by Salsa Girl, and much reading on the decking
some driving inside of a cloud
a mild scramble for last minute accommodation on our return journey after our "she'll be right" mindset proved to, in fact, be wrong
strings of lazy days at home composed of sleeping in, long brunches, and finishing our watching of the Rome tv series - excellent, albeit gory, stuff
a non too few gaming events including a trip out to the fringes of Melbourne to play the new Napoleonics game on a magnificent 3D tabletop mere days before acquiring one's own copy
and many, many other occurrences that have become lost in the haze that is long summer holidays

So, anyway, after my lower post count year in the history of The Tales I believe it may be time for some changes to be enacted in what remains of this year.

The first change is that one shall be endeavoring to be making more frequent postings. In order to enact this one shall have to adopt the twitter mentality somewhat and gift you with shorter posts - probably limiting myself to a mere paragraph or three rather than elabourating at great length as one as be come want to do.

Other changes may be more noticeable should they come to fruition but I'm sure you shall notice them if they become fact.
Post to you again soon...
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Tales of Xmas Survival

2010-12-27T10:40:00.001+11:00

This busy Xmas period has seen several examples of great courage, willpower and general mental fortitude in the face of nigh-overwhelming adversity.

The first such example was the attendance of Salsa Girl at the annual Library Xmas party. It all really began in the afternoon when, after arriving early at my place of work in order to feel more relaxed about the looming party, Salsa Girl was pounced upon by the inquisitive Days of our Libraries and Kiwichick. Unfortunately one was busy rescuing some forlorn computers so who knows of what was spoken between them whilst I was out of earshot.
After such shaky beginnings we were soon making our way to The Administrator's abode for the event proper. All in all it went well and Salsa Girl held up under the pressure of several dozen inquisitive librarians.
One did wonder if one had made a mistake when conversation with The Beaumaris Ballerina turned to the subject of the non-attendance of her beau. Her statement - "oh, I would never expose him to this" - did give me pause for thought as to what I was putting my good lady through.
In the end though we managed to get out unscathed before the karaoke - which I think is a big win on our parts.

The second celebration of survival involves my trekking north for an Xmas day feast with the maternal branch of Salsa Girl's family.
After braving locust swarms of biblical proportions - well a smallish bible anyway - we arrived in time to relax before attending to afternoon tea which soon became Xmas Eve dinner.
Xmas day itself saw the arrival of a sumptuous trifle, along with Grandma, and then the unveiling of a grand feast. I survived the lunch and believe I made quite the good impression by restricting myself to a heaped plate of seconds rather than returning for thirds and appearing greedy.

Our third tale of survival involves the mad dash from the northern regions back to the surrounds of Melbourne for attendance at Xmas dinner at one's aunties residence.
With consummate timing Salsa Girl and I arrived just as the main course was being commenced. We quite easily slipped into line several times until we'd had our fill of mains and then patiently awaited the desserts. There were introductions, and conversations, and general laid back family Xmas type goings on.
Upon departing Salsa Girl seemed to have survived her first meeting with my larger family with no lasting trauma. Oneself did suffer from some inexplicable stomach pains. Still nothing one hasn't survived on many previous Xmases.
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Awarding Times

2010-12-17T14:03:00.000+11:00

So after my observations about the sad lack of rewards for my time of service I received one of my longed for recognitions in the past weeks.

In an impressive ceremony involving a candle and some humble presentation Salsa Girl handed me my "Short and Lazy Service" award.

So it seems that Supervisor Grand Chief K has neglected me in her belief that she is the one that controls my reins and issues my orders.

When one informed Salsa Girl of SGCK's belief, her response was the knowing:

Well, she'll learn.

Mother Days

2010-12-13T23:04:00.001+11:00

My weekend just past was overwhelmingly about the multitude of mothers in the company of whom the vast majority of my time was spent.

The first, and most nerve-rackingly important, was Salsa Girl's mother. This meeting was long-arrange and consisted of a few gin and tonics whilst we snacked on some lovely cheese and crackers, followed by some assemble-it-yourself sandwich snacking for lunch and then it was all topped off with delicious scones with cream and jam.
One seems to have passed the test as one's invite to Xmas lunch still stands. I look forward to not having to hold myself back now that I've achieved acceptance.

The evening of that same day consisted of myself and Salsa Girl taking Freeloading Mum, Handy Dad, Legion4 out to dinner at one of their local establishments. The occasion was, of course, Freeloading Mum's birthday of the day before. Freeloading Mum took firm advantage of my offer to cover costs and treated herself to not only a main but also a dessert AND a glass of wine. Honestly I don't know where some people get the idea that it's okay to sponge off the benevolence of others - she's just lucky I haven't picked up any behavioural habits from growing up under her bad influence.

My Sunday afternoon was devoted to a trek way out west to visit new mum Rugrat Twin. Said trip ended up dropping my loyal companion Salsa Girl and I in the midst of roughly a million visiting relatives - several of them mothers of various generations. In fact it was only when Wolverine returned home somewhat later in the afternoon that the gender balance was redressed somewhat. Honestly it was like a libraryland workplace in there!

So there you have it, my days of mothers...
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The Lost Romance of Shingles

2010-12-08T14:52:00.000+11:00

Those who have been privileged enough to see me in person over the past few months would undoubtedly have noticed a certain rosy shine about my eyes. This mystery ailment has come and gone over the weeks with all attempted cures having little or no effect.

This weekend past it flared up into a different version of itself involving burning sensations and small blistering. A quick Internet self diagnosis led me to finding a match with shingles. One was immediately transported to visions of the worst symptoms - the tragedy of blindness and loss of my beloved reading! Salsa Girl helpfully suggested the need for a seeing eye cat in the form of The Tiger. One can easily imagine the resulting scenario "Are we at the bus yet?", "Meow!", "What, are we at your food bowl again?!"

Alas, after a visit to the doctor this morning, I find that the official diagnosis of my condition is merely Nasty Rash. I am disappointed that the Doctor couldn't even Latinise it for me - Nastius Rashius has a nice ring about it don't you think?
Apparently the thing that the Internet neglected to make clear was that Shingles is bilateral, meaning that it is only ever on one side of the body and hence having both eyes covered ruled it out of contention immediately. Here's a Caution for you: the Internet can sometimes contain incorrect or incomplete information.

In any case I now have a tube of face steroids to apply and so far it seems to be soothing the rash. I am however concerned about the steroid side effects of my face becoming over muscled and aggressive.
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Bike rides and Salsa

2010-12-06T23:57:00.001+11:00

This weekend past saw my once again partaking in an activity in which I had not participated in for many a long time.

Bicycle riding is the activity to which I refer and it came about due to a desire on the part of Salsa Girl to attend the open viewing of a property that she has had her eye on for quite some time.

So dutifully I donned the too-small helmet, mounted my trusty steed (a suitably manly mountain bike), and commenced the ten minute ride to our destination - my first bike ride in nigh-on 15 years.

Much to my surprise remembering how to undertake the endeavour was something one had not forgotten and turned out to be as easy as riding a bike.

On our return journey we paused for a breather and watched the entertainment of the most arrogant auctioneer I have ever seen insulting the crowd for their meagre offers of $800,000 for the featured property. Suffice to say not one bid was made after the first one was greeted with something along the lines of "don't insult me you idiot - now is there any real bidder out there?"
Amusing stuff, although the best line came after the property was passed in and the auctioneer welcomed everyone to feel free to come up and make private offers as they (the auctioning team) were very friendly people.

My Saturday evening consisted of being taken to Salsa by Salsa Girl. One ended up having quite a good evening out despite one's outrage at the lack of corn chips and comestibles as suggested by the misleading event title.
It turns out that my Salsa Girl is quite the dance-floor spinner, and also quite a reasonable teacher being able to instruct yours truly in the fine art of beginner level Salsa - the learning of which proved to be only slightly harder than riding a bike.

Several turns on the dance floor over the course of the evening resulted in not a single episode of resurgent MAMILS or, thankfully, the much feared knee blowout.

Perhaps one should have taken up Salsa rather than soccer those scant few years ago when choosing one's social fitness activity?
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An increase in Uncle-ture

2010-12-04T13:59:00.000+11:00

One was lucky enough yesterday to hear that my Rugrat Twin had finally popped and brought her daughter into this wonderful world.

It would seem my Uncle Phill status is nigh unstoppable.
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The Week of Anniversaries

2010-11-30T01:24:00.000+11:00

This last week saw me celebrating not one, but two important milestones.

First up was the amazingly sudden arrival of my wooden anniversary at the library. As has become somewhat of a tradition I decided to mark the passing of these long five years of cake consumption and hard work by making another of my famous box cakes. I had been tempted to make the cake from wood as befits the anniversary but thought the better of it in the end as consuming the leftover mixture is not nearly as much fun when one is working with timber.

It all went well other than that I am yet to receive my "Long and Tireless Service" award. A puzzling development indeed and one that I shall have to take up with Supervisor Grand Chief K.

The other milestone of importance was crossing the three month barrier with Salsa Girl. This we celebrated by recreating some of our greatest moments together: the incessant rain of the weekend at Lorne, the lazy afternoons reading on the couch, re-watching some of the magnificent Collingwood finals performances, taking short rests that somehow become hours-long naps, and sundry other snippets of our time together.
In the evening we took up an offer from ElfBoy to play cards with him and his wife at their new abode at the ends of the earth. It felt like the correct way to pass the anniversary as the journey there nicely recreated the scary trip through blinding rain that had been our jaunt down to Lorne, and the piles of snacks provided at the ElfBoy household recreated the gastronomic excesses Salsa Girl and I have often found ourselves partaking in.

It all went well other than that I am yet to receive my "Short and Lazy Service" award. A puzzling development indeed and one that I shall have to take up with Salsa Girl.
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Educating Salsa Girl

2010-11-22T22:56:00.000+11:00

So last night was the occasion of an event of much import. After a weekend that included the annual cake-fest for Couch Killer - wonderfully put together by Vengeful Vic and at which Salsa Girl was able to meet the heretofore elusive Fantomas - I was finally able to make good on my promise to Doom and educate Salsa Girl in the ways of Blade Runner.

When her sad lack of any viewings of said film came to light there had been much shocked gasping from the gaming crowd and many mutterings about what one was to do. My first impulse had been to end things there and then. However Doom, ever the pillar of reliability and maturity, advised that one was overreacting slightly and that, in fact, the unfortunate situation could be rectified by merely showing her the movie.

After last night I am glad to have followed Doom's sound advice as it turned out that she rather enjoyed the film and all is well between us again.
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Salsa Girl in the Ghost World

2010-11-18T12:34:00.001+11:00

So last Tuesday at gaming night we had a surprise visitor. Those of you with keen deductive skills approaching mine will probably have guessed that I am referring to Salsa Girl. rather than, say, BestFriendSincePrep.

After some dithering about we decided to change back from the Fantomas-cancellation-caused card games and continue on with the originally scheduled role-playing.

So we started a new game - another of John Harper's great improv games ala Lady Blackbird - called GHOST\ECHO.

Salsa Girl jumped right into her first role-playing game experience and was soon describing her actions and throwing narrative into the story along with all the other attendees - Legion2, ElfBoy, Gavman and Badger.

All in all we had lots of fun and all ended well...
ahem,
...except for the over-long post role-playing card game that had me dropping a very tired and mildly grumpy Salsa Girl home post midnight.

Still she holds no grudge, and understands the situation, so I count myself very lucky and have promised her it will never happen again, at least almost never...
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The Golf Trip

2010-11-09T18:34:00.000+11:00

This weekend past I had my arm twisted by BestFriendSincePrep to go on a two-day golf trip with the likes of himself, StumpyRudolph, MrRogers, The Electric Tiger, and sundry other hard-drinking golf players.

It may have been somewhat of a miscalculation.

Friday afternoon is when our tale begins as I collected BestFriendSincePrep and managed to avoid having to drink anything on the trip up when he grudgingly accepted my excuse of having to do the driving.
However this changed for the worse upon arrival where the number of downed beers quickly reached double figures by early evening. The late arrival of dinner did not help the situation and one was feeling quite seedy as the evening wore on. Luckily several games of pool interrupted the drinking and my constitution was able to restore my internal balance somewhat before the final session of the evening began. This final session was, of course, one of "drink whatever the bar is selling cheap". Hence some sort of sweet vodka drink was imbibed before turning in for the evening.

I knew I was not feeling the best the next morning when I was unable to eat more than a mouthful of toast and a sliver of bacon. Four holes of golf soon sorted that out and I was back to my usual level of hunger by the time we finished our round and commenced our club house lunch. My game was at my usual standard and the leader-board remained unchallenged.

The Saturday evening was a much quieter affair and one was even able to make it to bed both without an alcoholic drink and before midnight - thanks largely to BestFriendSincePrep tiring rather quickly towards the later stages of the evening.

The Sunday golf was a slight bit worse thanks to the many water features beside the course and then we were heading home a little redder about the sun-exposed portions of our bodies and gladly looking forward to a good sleep in our own beds.
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Many Days in October

2010-11-04T18:50:00.000+11:00

One is slack, blah blah blah, interstate conference, blah blah blah, too much work, blah blah blah, spending lots of time with Salsa Girl, blah blah blah.

Now I've gotten that is out of the way I can move on to the serious business of regaling you with tales of hilarity, caution, and just a smidgeon of what Phill has been up to these past days.

My mid October was filled with a holiday/conference in rainy Brisbane during which one found out that there are events that occur between the Teas (morning and afternoon) and the lunch, when one had to present several sessions. All went well except for the miserly afternoon teas. The post conference dinner shenanigans included the fun of having pints of beer spilled on me not once but twice, so I decided to scarper off to bed before it could happen a third time.

One has also spent these past few weeks training The Tiger to not be in the bedroom crushing one during one's sleep. After an initial all night whinge she seems to have accepted her fate and there is barely a complaint as I disappear for my refreshing nights sleep of an evening.

My days have also been filled with exploding* wi-fi equipment hijinks including replacement equipment that failed and replacement replacement equipment that one had to rewire oneself. I did find out that a kitchen sink is apparently a great static free place to work on the innards of a computer - although I am a tad concerened that staff continued to blithly wash coffee cups whilest I had an open computer there!
* not really exploding

There was also the event of the decade(s) with the "combined to 70th" birthdays of Gavman and The J Monster. It was magnificently catered and in the words of the spawn of ArchEnemy "the best party ever!"

Coming a close second for event of the month was the annual Absent Friends Jyhad game. This year we had Doom, Legion2, Camo Spice, Amoeba, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, Couch Killer, Pirate Dave, Salsa Girl, and Badger in attendance. There was also rather a lot of fine whisky and port to be had and I'm sure that if I could remember what happened I would think it was a fantastic evening.

Most recently one has returned from a so called dirty weekend in rainy Lorne with Salsa Girl. As she failed to kill me after four continuous days in close proximity I am counting it as a success.
The dirtiness of the weekend is in doubt as one's automobile has been scoured to a shiny state of cleanliness by what must have been about 3 feet of rain over the four days. There were also several beautiful nature walks taken in as well as many gastronomic delights.

One is now relaxing in the days off that should always follow a holiday in order to allow one to recover from said holiday.

More soon - I promise, and I mean it this time.
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One Day in October

2010-10-13T11:33:00.000+11:00

Well it seems to have been a while again since I've posted.

However I think that you, my loyal audience, will forgive me on account of the Collingwood premiership and frequent spending of time with the lovely Salsa Girl. Well maybe not for the Collingwood premiership.

In any case it has almost been a case of doing it all again because of the footy draw. I have been to two Grand Finals (or Final Finals in the cute parlance of Salsa Girl); had many an afternoon picnicking and other assorted romantic activities; also managed to squeeze in some gaming in the form of another Geektogether drinks and notching up my first win in our regular card tournaments for a good five years.

All in all a busy time and I'm afraid this pace of updating may be all that can be expected of The Tales in the foreseeable future.
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One Day in September

2010-09-28T11:44:00.000+10:00

This Saturday last was that one special day we await all year dreaming of how wonderful, magical and uplifting it shall be - Salsa Girl's birthday.

So I spent the day going to my first footy grand final to see the mighty Pies in action. Legion2 was able to snaffle us tickets in the members so we attended in fancy collared shirts and sat through a tense game and will now be able to tell the tale of our having been at the famous drawn Grand Final.
All in all it was a little deflating not getting a result but I think we got off lightly in the end and the experience was quite good - they have cushioned seats in the members.
However I do think that all the trouble of the draw could have been easily avoided if only they had seen fit to call me out of the crowd to take one of the shots on goal and win the premiership for the black and white.

To ease the minds of those with a romantic bent I did take all of Friday off to spend with the lovely Salsa Girl and participated in all sorts of romantic activities like: visiting the Grand Final parade; strolling through the park hand in hand amidst thousands of others leaving the Grand Final Parade; lunching on Lygon street and admiring the team colours festooned about; and, the largest sacrifice, going to the museum and exploring the Titanic exhibition which had nothing even remotely footbally about it.

As the footy was a draw I suppose I shall have to do it all again this week.
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Happiness is an Empty Blog

2010-09-22T14:20:00.000+10:00

Well what do you know. Who would have thought that being in a state of happiness would have precluded one from scribing posts for The Tales?

Many things have been taking me away from the blogosphere and towards sublimity. Among them are: many an outing with Salsa Girl whom you may have realised is the successful candidate; the magnificence of the Magpies as we cruise into September footy action - enjoyed along with the Legion2, BrotherStealer, Mirri Cat Warrior and the aforementioned Salsa Girl; and the most recent piece of happiness to come my way is my attainment of Uncle status once more with Legion3 and Madmog providing me with my second niece.

So all in all I'm sure they are all fantastic reasons for one to be away from ones usual writing station and I accept your forgiveness for my little lapse into lassitude.

I'm sure that I shall be returning to a more regular schedule in the near future so keep your eye on The Tales.
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Ilario by Mary Gentle

2010-09-09T13:03:00.000+10:00

With not much of great import having happened over the past few days I think it would be the occasion to put forth my review of this one that I finished nigh on a week back. I mean none of you loyal readers of mine would be interested in hearing of the delightful dinner and evening one spent in the company of Salsa Girl last night would you? No I thought such things would spark little interest.

So on with Ilario.
This book is a sort of prequel to the weighty tome Ash (that I read last year) in that it is at least set in the same world only some time earlier and actually has very little to connect it to the goings on in Ash - at least that I easily picked up on. Nevertheless I enjoyed it for it's exploration of the grander political machinations of the Mediterranean states and the many dips into interesting history that Mary does so love to turn into significant events within her writings.

Three and a half stars for this one.
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Talks with China

2010-09-06T20:53:00.000+10:00

This Saturday last saw my first ever attendance at a Melbourne Writer's Festival event. The event of choice being an author talk by China Miéville and Alistair Reynolds on the subject of Frontiers of the Imagination.

One was joined in this endeavour by Legion2, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Salsa Girl. Between our little group we had read a large amount of the respective authors oeuvre (although some of us had read none at all, being there purely for the atmosphere of the event).

We gathered in the foyer and subsequently joined the end of a snake-like queue that wend it's way around the mezzanine before curling down the main staircase.
Whilst we waited for movement from our line who should brush past me but none other than Sister Serials forging her way to some other, obviously lesser, event of the MWF. Naturally I called out to her in friendly comradeship only to find myself snubbed as she stormed up the stairs on her mission with nary a backward glance in my direction. We'll see who gets IT support this week.

The talk itself was quite interesting with both authors touching on their methods, influences, and aims of their work. Questions were solicited from the audience and, perhaps surprisingly, I found there to be no need to cringe at those posed by the many fans who raised hands skywards.

After the event we stopped for a refreshing drink and bite to eat at a nearby venue before it was time for people to be homeward bound.
Salsa Girl and I were left to ourselves and proceeded to while away the afternoon talking and walking before ending the evening in the most perfect way imaginable - watching the mighty pies dominate in the footy.
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Manoeuvres with the 4th Legion

2010-08-30T23:05:00.000+10:00

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

2010-08-16T23:48:00.000+10:00

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

2010-08-09T21:02:00.000+10:00

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

2010-08-07T18:59:00.000+10:00

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

2010-08-01T10:41:00.000+10:00

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.

A Not MIFF Review - Inception

2010-07-25T13:59:00.002+10:00

IMDB, Wikipedia
Score: 4/5
Language: English
Genre: Sci Fi/Thriller
Summary: (from IMDB)

Your mind is the scene of the crime.
In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job till date, Inception.
More information: http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com

Directed by Christopher Nolan. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page. Dist Warner Bros. Pictures. DTS.

Comments:

Special Effects (CGI) top notch
how do you consider the boundry/crossing the line on what is acceptable risking others to quiet your own guilt
What is real?
Dynamics of couples and the affects on a couple of living their long life together

Review Template by Fantomas.

Note: One would like to point out that the situation of any Candidates that may have failed to pay their own way has been well and truly rectified over the past weeks and can you all please stop bothering me about unfair representation in The Tales.

Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison

2010-07-21T23:43:00.001+10:00

I finished this slim volume today after stretching it's meagre 159 pages out over a good eighteen days filled with much hectic activity. That makes it a whopping 8 pages a day!

Anyway the volume in question came into my possession when it was deemed a donation not worth adding to the library - probably by the high-standards likes of Miss Amanda.

Having never read any of his works, unless one comic adaptation counts, I decided to snap it up and read it at an opportune moment. Said moment arrived along with the new financial year.

I found it to be an enjoyable enough romp but it didn't hit the really humorous heights I thought it might have after reading the Pratchett quote on the cover.

Next on my reading agenda is a monstrosity about ten times the thickness of Bill. If my maths is correct I expect to be reading it for the next six months.
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A Gastronomic Week

2010-07-19T01:14:00.000+10:00

It seems that, for a change, this week past has been all about gastronomy.

It began slowly with the regular Sunday gaming day at which we sampled ElfBoy's strange snack foods and played the annual Pirate Dave's birthday game of Talisman. This event attracted The Valkyrie as usual and apparently the aim of the game is now to play until my character dies in the game and then declare everyone else the winner.
The evening portion involved sampling varied pizzeria delights from one of our usual providers.

The next stop of the tour was, once again, gaming where we took advantage of the non-appearance of several of our usual coterie to sample further heretofore unknown pizzeria delights from one of our usual providers.

The main gastro event (I have to come up with a better shortening for gastronomical!) was the biennial Clean Up Your Desk Day. In the previous instalment I had only managed to clean the shelves beside my desk but this time I launched straight into snacking from the abundant table of food that everyone had brought in to help turn the morning into a celebration rather than a chore.
Suitably sated my attention turned to my desk proper and, amidst the sounds of consumption of yummy food, I managed to excavate my way down to the desk surface and I am now the proud owner of "enough space to work in". Next time we have one of these clean up days I shall have to delve into my desk draws and sort through the detritus of four years (six by then) worth of hard work at the library. I shall also endeavour to sample everything that is on the table of bountiful food - a task I fell short on this time.
Having completed enough cleaning I zoomed off to join the birthday lunch celebrations of Groovy Spirits before returning to an afternoons languid work.
That evening I suffered a mysterious stomach bloating as if I were about to burst from the inside. I could not for the life of me think what may have caused it. Even the application of a spaghetti dish supplied by Days of our Libraries in full Strega Nona form, was unable to make it abate.

My next few days were light on for gastronomy - particularly as one has to conceal one's healthy appetite when in the presence of Candidates as they may not yet have come to appreciate it for the great thing it is.

It remains to be seen whether the coming week shall be a further gastronomic one - astute readers of The Tales should have a fair idea of the chances of that though.
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The Spamming Career of Freeloading Mum

2010-07-11T11:48:00.000+10:00

Having recently returned from her overseas trip Freeloading Mum was in dire need of IT support.

It seems that her gmail account had been disabled after just one use and she had been unable to send any updates through to yours truly and the Legion.

Upon further investigation - which required partaking of dinner with Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad - it was discovered that apparently sending a long email recounting one's holiday adventures to eight (that's 8!) recipients is deemed by Google to have breached the limit for their Spam detection algorithms. The sending account is then automatically disabled because it is obviously a Spam factory pumping out annoying emails about how interesting it was to spend several days touring around London.

The alternate theory is that Google merely deems anything from the old country as Spam.

In the end it was a reasonably easy thing to have the disabledness removed - after one sorted out the problem of Freeloading Mum's contact address being one of the recently discontinued ones.
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The Error of an End

2010-07-10T13:27:00.000+10:00

In the last week my old place of work more or less closed shop for good and all related web pages and email stopped working.

Since then the hosting reins have been taken over by one of the hosted customers so some things will continue to work. Here's another caution: when closing an internet hosting business make sure you contact all hostees to see if they would pay several hundred dollars to take the hosting mantle rather than have their web presence disappear overnight. (of course the responsibility mostly rested with my old boss HawksFan but I one should probably have prompted all involved)

In any case I have established my own egocentricised web domain name, moved all my pages there, and all but discontinued my old email addresses. Should you only have old contact information then you need merely follow The Guide to find me.
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StumpyRudolph, the Coffee Date, and Footy

2010-07-04T23:54:00.001+10:00

Despite the misleading headline one did not go on a coffee date with StumpyRudolph at the football - perish the thought. This is merely another post collecting several topics together.

Last weekend was the much anticipated fortieth celebrations for StumpyRudolph. I made good my attendance despite the monsoon-like rains however both Gavman and BestFriendSincePrep excused themselves from attendance. As I had been pacing myself for the inevitable drinkathon once BFSP arrived I was a little more sedate than expected and left for home at the reasonable hour of three am.

During the past week one was fortunate enough to be able to arrange and then go on a coffee date with a Candidate. All went well and coffee became dinner over a few glasses of red wine (without the feared staple of online dating, 'reading the weekend Age', rearing it's ugly head).
Conversation flowed back and forth relatively well although I do have a Caution for you: after consultation with the girls at work I have determined that apparently it is bad form for one to allude to one's date as matronly in the midst of jovial repartee. (A secondary Caution is that one may receive a light arm punching from said girls at work for even having to ask that question.)
In any case the evening ended with the Candidate having amusing credit card issues and oneself footing the entire bill. On walking away I realised I had been freeloaded upon and began wondering if we were in fact a match made in heaven.

This remainder of the weekend involved a long overdue catching up with Rugrat Twin - not seen since one's long past ageing event; the latest football outing with The Great Sandro, wherein it was all business as usual; visiting Mirri Cat Warrior to see if she had learned any new tricks; and finishing up with a quiet night at home in front of the telly.

One feels almost fully refreshed and ready to take on another working week but we shall see as the proof is in the pudding, mmm pudding.
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Becoming Crazy Uncle Phill

2010-06-25T23:52:00.001+10:00

One has just heard from Legion2 that as of 9.40 tonight Mirri Cat Warrior has finally made good her arrival into this world.

Both she and BrotherStealer are doing well and the whole procedure was trouble free - well except for Legion2 unnecessarily missing Tuesday nights gaming.

The biggest problem we face now is tracking down Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad in the midst of their European Safari, and informing them of their new Grand status. But that is Legion2's concern which leaves me to ponder on how best to shape this new young mind into complete adoration of her crazy uncle Phill.
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Changing Rooms

2010-06-23T22:28:00.000+10:00

So we were all prepared yesterday for the last day of gaming at Legion2's as the impending arrival of Mirri Cat Warrior was soon to take him out of circulation for a while and our current gaming venue with him.

However BrotherStealer once again deprived us of Legion2's company as she decided to begin having contractions that morning.

Great pain and effort was then gone to in ensuring all participants were aware of the change of venue to Chateau de Freeloading Phill. (A special thanks to Gavman for remembering Elfboy's penchant for not reading his email and getting the message through to him with this new-fangled SMS thing).

All ended up fine as we adjusted to the new surroundings and got under way at the usual time. One was disappointed that the expected farewell to Legionville cake did not eventuate from any of the guests but perhaps there will be a welcome cake next week?

In the end it turns out BrotherStealer was having hysterical contractions and as yet there has still been no action on the Mirri front although we are being told it's any hour now.
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Opening Weekend Box Office Report

2010-06-21T13:48:00.003+10:00

So the weekend is over, the final reports are in, and it's time to take stock of the success of one's venture into the exciting (and highly tautological) field of web-based online Internet dating.

At first it looked like we were off to a shaky start when no responses were garnered in the first 15 minutes and one's thoughts turned towards eating ice cream and watching rom-com movies.

However in the wash up the weekend's figures actually look quite good: several dozen drive-by viewings, a handful of enquiries from Candidates, and some conversation started.

All in all a solid opening that gives great hope to this enterprise and alleviates the need for immersing oneself in rom-com movie despair. I think I'll still have the ice cream though.
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Going on the Market

2010-06-19T16:23:00.000+10:00

With the lovely Svetlana extending her return to Svetlanaland indefinitely the time has come for yours truly to return to the status of eligible bachelor.

Well actually the time came several months back and a discussion was had with Svets about my ending the patient waiting and returning to dating. However the plethora of projects and other distractions has kept me from making much of a start on it in the intervening months.

So in true Tales style one of my many seduction plans is to go into online dating with a brutally honest profile that reveals both of my faults.
This should ensure that no Candidates are surprised by what they get and should, in fact, result in them self-omitting themselves from contention if for some unfathomable reason they don't find me suitable.

Amongst all of this preparation I have garnered another Caution for you.
Be careful about asking the girls at work for a little help to make sure you are on the right track. There is a high chance that the likes of Days of our Libraries, Kiwichick, AntagonisticAl, and Lord of the Small Fries, will usurp full editorial control and force a whole lot of help upon you. Including incentive-cake to get you to go-live months before your slow and steady pace would have had you do so.
Of course the good side of the help is that they are making sure I don't make bad choices by enforcing their rules such as "no crazies and definitely no gingers".

So having gone live with my profile yesterday it is now time to sit back and wait for the responses to begin. I expect it shall be much like waiting for popcorn - starting with a few odd pops but quickly becoming a deafening chorus.

In the meantime I shall be busy enjoying my incentive-cake.
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The Days of Plague

2010-06-11T19:18:00.003+10:00

Well the cold from ElfBoy's boy has taken hold and I am currently in the throes of full-blown man-flu. The suffering is like nothing you have ever experienced before.

One of the side-benefits of my debilitating condition is that I have been unable to present myself for work and have hence been holed up in my flat like some crazy hermit spending half my time as a sleeping platform for The Tiger and the other half dosing myself with cathode rays.

I have undoubtedly missed many hijinks at the library and really missed hitting my gaming groups this week.

I should recover enough from my near-death tomorrow to attend the birthday party of non-other than ElfBoy's boy. Perhaps I can give him back his cold as a suitable present?
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The Innocuous return of Torchwood, and Movie Night

2010-06-09T14:53:00.011+10:00

One is at somewhat of a loss.

Friday evenings "celebratory" drinks in honour of the return visit to our shores of Torchwood went off without a single noteworthy hitch or spectacle of which to write about.
Even with Supervisor Grand Chief K at her enabling best there were no sudden spills or embarassing statements and the entire night was only fun and frivilous conversation.

Sigh. How am I supposed to satisfy my content hungry readership if things continue to go well with no unfortunate happenings?

Slightly more eventful was movie night with MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer.
We had a trio of movies that fit the "good film that at least one of us hasn't seen" criteria - Big Trouble in Little China, The Losers, Martin - thanks to Fantomas and Legion2 - although I must point out that my identical copy of Big Trouble in Little China would have been superior to Fantomas's.
As has become recent tradition Couch Killer stuck himself to me and I had to control the wriggling, squirming mass for much of the first few hours. When I taunted Vengeful Vic that I was going to steal her child she replied with glee that she had a bag packed for him in the hall and we could leave straight away, so I was forced to recant my taunt.

Since that delightful eve I have had:

an afternoon of gaming with some D-Day reenactment games of Memoir 44. Attending at the tail end was Amoeba, getting back into my good books with a very late but quite appropriate birthday present of dice and chocolate Fudge.
yet another skipped gaming night - this one due to Torchwood, and The Administrator and Lord of the Small Fries organising a last minute dinner
several cases of mysterious chocolate overdose
my succumbing (? succumbation) to ElfBoy's boys cold that he has been dosing me with for the past month

I shall be on my sneezing, snuffling way now.
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Yet another what's been going on post

2010-06-02T23:27:00.017+10:00

So, sigh, it has gotten away from me again. It being: keeping a regular schedule of post with significant content - sure I could post a whole lot of twitteresque posts ala my 25 blogs of Xmas.
However, since I can link to it, you can see I've already done it before.

As to the happenings that have kept one away from The Tales, well I can count amongst them...

A relaxing old-school gaming Sunday which led into the week of the print system upgrade.

Not only did this so quoted "half-day job" turn out to be a full five day extravaganza, but I was also forced to skip gaming and assist AntagonisticAl at one of her festival events when there was trouble getting a laptop to present correctly. The difficulty of my investigation was enhanced considerably by the official photographer's extensive knowledge of everything. So amidst this flurry of superior advice I had to listen to many a repetition of basic IT procedure (i.e. turn it off and on) long after I was already onto the more advanced stuff like searching the help file. Suffice to say the hour was late and the thank-you-for-fixing-it champagne, pizza and cake so plentiful that I was forced to stay on for the duration of the event.

To make matters worse, just when the upgrade was coming to a near close - I say near as there are still some persistent niggly issues to be addressed - the Internet decided to disappear for most of Friday leaving me pretending to have work to do.

Having made it to this weekend last it was a pleasure to load Legion2 into the car and head out bush to attend a visit back to town by The Fungi Lady. Doom, The Doctor, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer were also present.

Sunday, however, was back into the trend of horribly drawn out happenings as I attended the Carlton Weagles game with The Great Sandro after ElfBoy conveniently caught himself a Man-Cold and was unable to join us.
In true primary-school tradition though, he made a magnificent recovery in time for some post-footy card playing with Pirate Dave enticed into attendance. Said card games all being long drawn out affairs.

In a way it was a relief to return to work this week even though I was faced with the looming spectre of lingering printer problems and a return visit to our shores of the infamous Torchwood (there will undoubtedly be more on this iniquitous occurrence after a drinking session scheduled for tomorrow night).

Gaming was once again sacrificed for other pursuits - although this time not too far removed as it was another Geektogether drinks night.
Successful events from the evening include: Legion2 making it along for the first time; Pirate Dave reaching expected levels of inebriation in record time; and myself avoiding being dragooned into another game of The Viking Hat GM.

Today made the perfect antidote for lots of work with training in the city followed by an inexpensive steak lunch with CC and The Polster before returning to work for a meeting, some frivol and then home time.

Phew that was a lot to get through. Perhaps there would be some benefit to twitterising my postings after all...
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The Breakfast of Champions

2010-05-22T16:16:00.009+10:00

With no Tales-worthy happenings at last evening's Lit-fest opening night I shall instead regale you with the happenings of today.

I was awake at the early hour of 8am to partake in a breakfast with Redneck Ben. Our venue of choice was in the local cafe precinct and we were served up a quite filling and delicious repast.

Our main topic of conversation - as we did wander somewhat, as one is want to do - was gaming and specifically our usage of the Fudge system to building systems that suit our own game running style and the particular groups of players we run games for. He did impart some advice for me that was eerily similar to both, advice that The Viking Hat GM has frequently espoused, and action that The Bastard frequently takes in the games he runs.
I expect much crying from my players when I deploy such strategies.

Breakfast was followed by The Afternoon of IT Support as I had to visit the family home to fix the internet connection yet again. Although this time Freeloading Mum and Handy Dad are away overseas. You would think that there would be no IT support required but, alas, the house-sitting friend has been having regular problems and leaving frantic telephone messages for me - my personal favourite being "the phone isn't working properly".

Sigh. An IT man's work is seldom done.
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Being Corporately Challenged

2010-05-20T11:50:00.004+10:00

No I'm not talking about some sort of office-bound knife fight for dominance - those usually happen later in the year.

Avid readers of The Tales will be aware that I have been messing about with pedometer usage for more than a year now.

All that training will bear fruit now that one is involved in the Global Corporate Challenge. For the next 16 weeks I shall be diligently noting my steps, entering them into the website and taking a virtual walk across the world with my team. When I say my team it is with a tinge of disbelief as, unfortunately, Beeby has manipulated his way into becoming the leader of our little group of pacers. Sigh. I shall soldier on though.

Of interest, after using the new pedometer one receives as a participant in the event, is that said pedometers appear to be set to extra sensitive as I was easily able to cruise past the 10,000 step limit on my practice day yesterday. I guess the 16 weeks of the GCC will provide me with enough empirical data to confirm or deny this theory
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Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

2010-05-18T14:13:00.004+10:00

This is the second book in the same world and was recommended to me by Vengeful Vic. I have joyfully consumed it over the past month.

It picks up some of the characters from The Curse of Challion a few years later. I found it to once again be interesting characters in an intriguing situation. The stories are mostly low on magic and supernatural elements but the world seems to breath with a down to earth reality. One wonders if one is perhaps identifying with middle-aged protagonists over deference to your more standard young farm boy with a destiny.

There is however a darker, more disturbing side to my reading experience - other than the whole middle-aged thing - as many elements of the plot and setting bear some quite startling similarities to current happenings in my own game setting being regularly played on Thursday nights.
I am starting to believe that I may have come to the notice of the same plagiarising forces that have been copying The Bastard's bountiful gaming ideas for many a year. I shall have to search my flat and brain for idea stealing bugs forthwith.
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Leadership Training

2010-05-17T23:02:00.005+10:00

I spent Friday last at a day of leadership training.

Of all the library inner cabal I was only joined by Big J - although the Russian Menace was present at first but used the ol' sick child excuse to skip away fairly early on in the proceedings.

I found the morning tea to be quite sumptuous with a huge variety of pastries and cake-lets, and further varieties still being brought forth even as we were being ushered back to our seats for the second round of activities.

The lunch however, was quite a let down, particularly after the prelude that the morning's parade of sweets had been.
Great platters of sandwiches were on the buffet table but on close perusal turned out to contain identical varieties - or rather lack of varieties, that is one per platter. There were also some party pies on a smaller platter and possibly some rice ball kind of things but one was far to slow to leap upon the repast to be the beneficiary of those.
As is usual for an event of this type the fruit platters had plenty of variety and leftovers.

As to the training itself I found it refreshingly grounded in real science and evidence and look forward to the advance course - Tyrant Training - as that is the level I believe one requires to be able to have any control of goings on in LibraryLand.
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An Outing for Iron Man 2

2010-05-08T17:29:00.005+10:00

In his usual manner BestFriendSincePrep called me up at the last minute - whilst I was mid-commute - to propose an outing to see the titular film.

As my communication channel was dropping out repeatedly for tunnel related reasons he drove to our usual cinema and then, once I was home, called me to enforce the outing.

Having to go there early I was also forced to go to dinner with him at one of the nearby establishments. He was up to his usual embarrassing tactics: combining and rearranging menu options; correcting wait staff pronunciation; sprinting to finish his meal leaving me stranded still consuming mine as the wait staff came to clear the table.

I did manage to survive to see the movie which was quite good for what it was - the action was interesting for the most part, the characters developed somewhat and the effects were well done.

Bonus Caution
Should you ever change the internet provider of someone close to you, such as Freeloading Mum, you should always remember to change their email server to the new provider before the old account expires lest their email suddenly stop working only a day before their big overseas trip.
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The High Cost of Phone Use

2010-05-05T01:00:00.000+10:00

Here's a Caution for you all, about accepting the use of a company phone.

A couple of years ago they removed the $20 a month of free personal calls from all organisation phones. At the time we also had to begin using the online call identification system to nominate which communications were business and which were personal.

Somehow it fell into diss-use and one was no longer receiving the regular requests to log in and identify everything before fronting up and paying.

Recently we have been requested to start using the upgraded online call accounting system after a break of many, many months. We were requested to complete the backdated calls and then told to remember to complete it each month all on our own.

I have now paid up my previous nine months of personal call usage and am outraged that my free calls have been denied me requiring me to pay the $37.70 completely out of my own pocket.

I'm so upset that I may not pay for next months $4.20 of personal calls!
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Highlights of the Missing Weeks

2010-05-03T21:10:00.018+10:00

Well time has been scooting past at great pace and suddenly I find myself several weeks beyond my last blog post.
I'm going to skim over the vast array of events that befell me in that hectic time and merely pause to point out the highlights.

Doctor Who and the Miracle of Mr Prada
One of the earliest occurrences of this lost time was my beginning the latest season of the good Doctor's show. It was not without mishap though as my usually reliable sources all failed to mention to me that it was going to begin on real TV. However amongst all my disappointment at Legion2 and Miss Amanda it was Mr Prada who came to the rescue and enlightened me to the convenience that is the ABC's legitimate online viewing platform. I was quickly able to catch up and be ready for the weekly broadcast.

Prelude to a Conference
Whilst dealing with the wonderfulness that is the public transport systems ability to interfere with my precisely timed travel arrangements I bumped into a long time friend of the legion - G O We Luv You. We had a quick ten minute information dump before parting ways - he home with his significant other and myself home to bounce back city-ward for the pre-conference dinner.
I was late of course.
And then proceeded to ask the head of our the hosting company where he fit into the picture.
Luckily I dodged the bottomless wine-glass effect and made only a good impression on behalf of my organisation - which is good because Supervisor Grand Chief K was in attendance as well.

Conference Proper
A day of fun and frivolity was had with myself and Ms Magpie enduring such things as Constitution creation and IEEE standards information sessions.
The lunch was good, and plentiful though. We did get to play with new toys in the afternoon, ask the hard questions of our suppliers, and go home early, so it all worked out okay in the end.

Game Days
An afternoon and evening of gaming got off to an unexpected start when ElfBoy mixed up his dates and arrived mid-morning.
Much 1920's fun was had on several occasions as we partook further in the Fantomas gaming experience.
The Thursday night game enjoyed the return of DragonMim (and the early bedtime of Vengeful Vic - zing!).
Further ancient battles were fought with Badger.

Strategy Day
A day of strategy planning was had by the upper echelons of the library. My planning consisted of the best strategy to get to lunch early.

A Huge Footy Day
And finally myself, The Great Sandro, ElfBoy and Legion2 all attended the great Collingwood Carlton game yesterday. As it was supposed to be a sell out we had to attend extra early which turned the afternoon out into virtually a whole day affair. Still when ones team wins so emphatically such a large time investment hardly seems to matter.
The most significant thing that happened during the game was my near knockout of Legion2 as my arms shot out in celebration of one particularly excellent goal. Had he leant forward one more centimetre in excitement then it would have been much more than his hat that would have gone flying.

There you go. The skimming is all done and it should be a doddle for me to keep you up to date with whatever strange happenings arise in the future as they happen.
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My First Charles Stross

2010-04-19T23:02:00.003+10:00

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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