Apocalyptic Doom

One had the pleasure of dragging oneself through the wasteland this Saturday last to attend the existential crisis of young Doom.

As said crisis only lasted the few seconds of "what am I doing here ... having an awesome party!" one almost missed it by arriving at the apparently unfashionably late hour of 8.30 as things were winding down - young people these days.

In any case one did have the opportunity for much catchup with the likes of The Fungi Lady, Amoeba, Agent Smith (looking a little jaundiced as Mr Happy), and Camo Spice, before one's wine coat wore off and it became cold and late and time to head home (or alternatively be kicked out by Doom and Non-Gamin' Megan).

Amoeba and Agent Smith looking suitably wasted, er wastlandish

All in all a great way to spend a post-civilisation Saturday night.
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Party and Sick

Hmmm, it appears that this post is become somewhat like a pair of Young Ones episodes.

One has neglected several weeks of blog posting under the duress of having been suffering insufferably under a most debilitating dose of man-cold. In fact the tail end is still hanging around which is why I will have to do nothing other than laze around all weekend.

So, what has been happening? You ask.

This weekend last Several weekends past Salsa Girl and I had the surreal experience of going out together, to dinner, well before Hulk's settle time - all thanks to the brave generosity of Freeloading Mum, who settles Hulk herself and claimed "it was no trouble and thanks for the wifi access".

Our out was to the Huck's party for Doom and Non-Gamin' Megan. As they had the temerity to be monopolised by their other guests, one was able to have long overdue catch-ups with The Fungi Lady, Amoeba, and Agent Smith.

All in all a great night out - even if the end of it was a tad fuzzy...

Otherwise it has been pretty much business and man-cold, as usual, lots of work, lot's of whinging and a few more books knocked off.

Once one's health returns then you should all expect the Tales to return to it's usual bounty of efflusient, sparkling and incisive wit, comment and malaproprianisation.

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A Fun Games Day with The Fungi Lady

The highlight of one's weekend - nay, one's entire week - was a get together organised by The Fungi Lady. She was back in town for a short while and arranged for the event to be held at the house of Doom.

The themes for the day were gaming and food. You may be aware that they are two of one's most favourite themes for events.

Salsa Girl and I made our way to the venue in the wee hours of the late morning be-laden with armfuls of one's gaming collection suitably prepared for any gaming requirement that should arise.

Also in attendance were Duff, Agent Smith, and Non-Gamin' Megan (who played every game with consummate ease).

A great feast and time was had by all - especially after we triumphed over Pandemic on our fifth attempt as a group.

One even uncharacteristically returned home from a gaming event at a reasonable hour of the evening - something that shall have to be balanced out at this coming Tuesday Knight's gaming.
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Shed Week

Shed Week was heralded in with a weekend party in honour of Agent Smith's newly constructed residence.

While transporting Legion2 and BrotherStealer to the shindig along with myself I may have become lost amongst the unfamiliar - and inadequately signposted - surrounds of the other side of the city. (Perhaps it should be other-other side, since work is already on the other side?) However it merely added to the sense of accomplishment once we did arrive.

At first the affair appeared to be merely a family one, and one did feel out of place amongst the relatives but soon the familiar faces began flowing in. There was The Valkyrie, and Amoeba, Mechwarrior Wayne, Camo Spice, Redneck Ben, Doom, The Doctor, and a most unexpected appearance from The Fungi Lady.

All in all a great night highlighted by Agent Smith and his band belting out some rock favourites in the pool room. The only downside was the good Agent outdoing my drumming prowess by also singing for several of the numbers - such five-way coordination having always been beyond my capabilities.


Early in shed week I snuck back into my home branch to try and recall what it was I had been missing these past few weeks. Alas no luck as the harassment soon drove me to spend the next few days in the IT shed at the corporate castle, ostensibly working on new PCs but actually just secluding myself from society.

Those days did allow me to finish reading The Men Who Stare at Goats which I found to be fun and interesting. It did confirm a lot of my conspiracy theories about the US military. Thanks to Badger for the birthday gift of the book.


A definite highlight of Shed Week was an Old School D&D bash, with The Viking Hat GM and others, in which stupid rules were enforced with TVHGM's usual forceful vigour. Despite all that my poor little Gnome character managed to survive and looks forward to serving his god Sumdertgud in future dungeon delving escapades.


Shed Week was wrapped up with a full day installing new PCs with my trusty sidekick Ms Magpie. Unlike my solo working style we got a lot done with minimal fuss - something it may take me some time to get used to experiencing.
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... The Day Geisha Girl and The Composer Were Married

Yesterday was spent having a wonderful time at the Zoo in celebration of the nuptuals of Geisha Girl and The Composer.

The ceremony began in glaring sunlight in the lush Japanese Garden and ended in light rain which helpfully covered any emotional tears that may have been shed - obviously only by those less rugged and blokey than I.

After the service Legion2, BrotherStealer and I had a ramble through the grounds and made an almost fruitless search for zoo animals. We found only giraffes, elephants and orangutans - even with the added searching skills of Tooticky and Usuakari all the other creature remained unfindable.

Giving up our search we returned for libraryland "cocktails" and some delicious snacks.

Shortly thereafter we were ushered inside the cosy Rainforest Room for the reception proper.

I was seated at a table with Legion2, BrotherStealer, Agent Smith, Tuck, and a good bunch of strangers. We all enjoyed some scintillating conversations and magnificent food.

Rugrat Twin and Amoeba shared the MCing and speechifying wonderfully, even seamlessly adding me into the toast after I was caught at the bridal table when it all started - although BrotherStealer was heard to remark that I had ruined yet another wedding.

After the main course I risked life, limb, and ruined knee, to give Rugrat Twin a twirl about the dance floor. She seemed happy to come away with both feet intact so I count it as a success.

Many others were in attendance including an amazingly uncamoed Camo Spice (whom I'd gamed with until ridiculous o'clock in the morning the night before) and most of the gaming and gothing geeks who knew the couple well.

The last official act of the evening was no strange cake cutting tradition but the completely appropriate merging of the lego collections of the happy couple to show their level of commitment to each other.

We all left the strangely animal-lite zoo at the end of the evening to head home happy and tired and with inexplicable soreness of the head.

... A Serious Lack of Tales Time

Things have just been crowding my calendar and leaving me with no time to scrawl another missive.

Here is an abbreviated list to tide you over and get me back on track.


Watchmen by Alan Moore
Read this again in preparation for the upcoming film. Once again I found it good but not great.


Finishing Watchmen was interrupted by printing problems at all my branches (I hate printers) that had me struggling to remotely fix them all day and then giving up and having a pajama day.
Being sick of computers by the evening I chose to watch House of the Flying Daggers a beautiful Chinese action/romance movie rather than do any blogging.

Sunday was coffee with Rugrat Twin at the market followed by a dash out to St Andrews pub for lunch with The Fungi Lady and friends. Followed by a dash back home for a hair-colour maintenance session with Rugrat Twin.

Monday was hours of server room printer fixing (I hate printers) where the air-con in the server room may just have brought about the return of the Man-Cold. The afternoon was all about installing new coin boxes for the new printers.
In the evening I started my story-arc stint at the Gamecircle game at The Viking Hat GM's.

Tuesday started with some good knee news - it's getting better and should be fine in a few weeks as long as I exercise. I also had some free cakes at a demo of some new software thing

Wednesday I struggled with the printer setup at Hampton until quite late as it refused to work (I hate printers) .

Thursday I started early to install printers at Brighton (I hate printers) before having yet another meeting. Followed by another meeting but this one was better as it came with a free lunch afterwards.

Friday was a change of pace as I started early to do printer installing at Sandringham (I hate printers). Of course it didn't work, and it stuffed one of the public PCs so I had to spend many hours rebuilding the PC. Again I was late home.

Yesterday I visited FridgePower and Judge Mingus to deliver the good work of Agent Smith. After suffering through severe chastisement from FridgePower for not posting enough - and excellent free hot chocolate from Judge Mingus - I headed off to Freeloading Mum's to try to get her ADSL working. I was successful and had a lovely free dinner but couldn't get the internet to happen.

And now we are all caught up and I can return to my more regular posting frequency.

... The Guide Updated

Not a Lot has been happening so I am going to release the next chapter of The Guide to cover the fact that I have no content.

There was a Saturday night poker game with Legions2-3, Badger, BrotherStealer, Spare Legion and Legion3's better half. I was late because I found that I had a flat tyre when I went to drive over and instead had to be chauffeured in style by Spare Legion driving with no night vision and using his old glasses which give him a "what's that blob?" level of vision.
I managed to come second in both poker games but more importantly I came home late and then had The Tiger getting me up ridiculously early on Sunday morning.

Speaking of fun Sunday morning activities there's nothing like changing a flat tyre while you have a knee injury.

The afternoon didn't really get better as I headed off to the footy with Legion2, Elfboy, and The Great Sandro. I amusingly ran into Agent Smith outside the ground after we'd been on the phone that morning trying to arrange a time we could meet up.
Collingwood didn't really perform at all and we were subjected to an antarctic gulf stream at the top of the Ponsford stand, so there was not a lot to enjoy for the afternoon.
The evening was much better. After dropping The Great Sandro home I caught up with Rugrat Twin for a late dinner on Victoria Street and ended up getting my hands on the next few volumes of Fables as I had quite enjoyed the first one.

Monday was spent at Beaumaris branch working out their new printing arrangement with Devil's Advocate.

I was back again on Tuesday to teach yet another class with the classy Mr Prada. After escaping from educating the public I made a quick stop at Sandringham and I found that they'd given up all hope of ever seeing me again after I'd not been by in less than a week.
Alas before I could let them bask in my Phillness for very long I was summoned to Brighton to deal with even more printer issues.
Thankfully that evening I was able to get a little stress relief in at gaming when, during the Judge Dredd game, I was able to interrogate all the characters about their woeful behaviour as Judges - something that seems to be fairly common when ordinary people try to roleplay as future law enforcers.

This morning I had the professionals repair the damage that a screw had done to my tyre before cruising in to Brighton to scavenge from their Staff Room Table of Bounteous Food and do a little work as well.

Okay maybe I lied - I guess a bit has been happening.

... The Sounds of the Past

I spent a long night last night with Agent Smith converting cassettes of some of the bands I'd been in during the mid to late nineties.

The day began with me gathering together the various tape recordings of bands I had in my collection. After loading them into my trusty excursion bag I visited Fridgepower and Judge Mingus to take advantage of Fridgepower's superior archiving abilities and secure a further bounty of recordings.

I arrived at Agent Smith's just in time for dinner and a lovely drop of 1998 vintage Durif.

Eventually we got to work and, after many arguments over the inclusion of banter, I was able to stuff my excursion pack full of CD versions of recordings by Malaclypse III, Saturnalia, Def Dumb & Blonde, and Dreamcraft.

Heading home I gratefully dropped into bed to try to claim as much sleep as I could after the 3am finish.