The Final Graphical Entertainment Collection

It has been a week now and one is finally able to bring oneself to speak of the immense change that has occurred in ones life.

One has made a final pilgrimage north to collect ones standing order of Judge Dredd and 2000AD comics.

I had initially thought that I would make the final odyssey in the fittingly lone wolf style that the vast majority of trips had been made in the past decades. However Salsa Girl - ever aware of the opportunity for some alone time - quickly added Hulk's attendance into the event.
Once the journey was underway it did seem fitting that Hulk was along for the ride as she is a big part of the impetus for this change.

Upon arrival and collection I felt a twinge of nostalgia for those heady days when I began my collection. At the time the newsagent was in a different locale in the shopping complex, and I had to make a weekly trip up to collect my supermarket job pay - in an envelope from the pay office.
Of course I thanked the establishment for allowing me to collect every six weeks instead of the mandated fortnight for years on end, and found out that the staff member who I first signed up with still worked on Tuesdays.

All in all it was a wonderful farewell to a tradition that has now been supplanted by going digital and the resultant late Wednesday evening repeated clicking of the refresh button until the latest issue shows up for download.

The only blemish on the whole experience was running into StumpyRudolph at his place of business and spending a quarter hour chatting to him.
I guess it was my own fault as I did go there to see if he was around.

Now that one is saving money as well as space I am faced with the dilemma of what to do with my savings - perhaps another several hundred dollars worth of big boxed board games for the cupboard?
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Delays that are not Disruptions

So today was supposed to see one's triumphant return to early starts at work after a relaxing train journey. However a 40 minute delay on the transit leg into the city has put paid to that.

One was surprised to learn - after some quick Internet accessing - that one was mistaken about the graveness of the delay.
Both the obnoxiously "upgraded" PTV app and our dear Metro's own Delays and Disruptions web page informed me that I was enjoying good service as I spent a quarter hour admiring the view between Collingwood and North Richmond stations.
Checking again while partaking of the Jolimont to Flinders Street view for a similar amount of time showed me that, once again, I was mistaken about what a Delay and Disruption actually is.

All is not a total waste however as I now have some handy tips on how to provide good service to everyone at work while they are not actually experiencing any delay at all.
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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

There is one thing one quite dislikes and that is when either ArchEnemy or DragonMim is right. Naturally it is a step up in magnitude when both "gentlemen" are proven correct.

Both of them made sure to tell me that there would be much less time for frivolous undertakings such as The Tales once young Hulk made good her arrival. It turns out that they are correct as the last near-month has seen a cascade of Hulk-related happenings that have conspired to all be more important than finding the time to communicate here.
Foremost amongst these is a troublesome back complaint developed by Salsa Girl that has led to one stepping up and shouldering one's fair share of the baby load. Additionally there have been some sleep difficulties and a resultant attendance at sleep school (one is rather disappointed to have found out that falling asleep in class is not worth extra credit).
This has flowed on to a squeeze on work time made paradoxically worse (or is that ironically) by involvement in the recruitment process for one's sidekick as finally seen necessary by Supervisor Grand Chief K given all the work one is supposed to be doing.


Of course it is even worse when our two villains are correct twice over as has happened with them both welcoming and warning me about life surrounded by girls.
Having had one's rugged lone wolf-ism suffer under the triple pressures of Salsa Girl's girlishness, Hulk's daughterage, and The Tiger's petulant big sister like antics I can only grudgingly admit to the aforementioned duo's correctness.



But in this instance one is thrice cursed with having to admit to the rightness of the spoutings of the twin curmudgeons in the most painful way.

Having finished reading Ready Player One just the other day I have to say that they were both eminently correct about it being a great little pseudo cyberpunk tale that delved wonderfully into eighties film and game culture.

I give it four stars and shall never speak of their correctness again.
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