... the IT man in LibraryLand
So one was able to start the day yesterday with the auspicious news that yet another marketing officer had been seen off by one's persistence. We are now at something like five or six if one wants to count temporary appointments.
It is of some concern that this one lasted so much longer than previous incarnations and I do hope that I had not begun to feel some sort of ... fondness? ... for the incumbent and therefore relented on my usual efficiency.
In any case AntagonisticAl will be but a faint memory after another month and one shall be the proud possessor of two and one half desks across the library service.
My only fear is that this is part of some long term plan of Supervisor Grand Chief K to engineer the return of Torchwood later in the year to pick up were she left off with her tormenting me with demands that I do such things as provide IT assistance as per one's position description.
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Showing posts with label AntagonisticAl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AntagonisticAl. Show all posts
Going on the Market
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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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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Yet another what's been going on post
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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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 Opening Night
Last night saw the opening of the second annual Bayside Literary Festival.
Unlike last years Festival this one was disappointingly Supervisor Grand Chief K injury free.
AntagonisticAl did a marvellous job of organisation with everything going off like clockwork - I particularly enjoyed the Mayor's surrealistic performance art piece made to look like a Basil Fawlty-esque bumbling mess, bravo!
One must wonder, however, if snacks and drinks do have to stop during the presentations - surely they could be circulated amongst the crowd to save valuable IT staff from wasting away?
Luckily there was ample cheese and decorative fruit at the staff after-party once the formalities were completed and disaster was averted.
Other highlights of the enchanting evening include:
On my way home I popped in for a quick wine-bar drink with Dubrovnik Hater - now with slightly less minions. Our waiter was amusingly snooty towards us until a rather inebriated fellow tried to enter the establishment and was turned away as he would disturb "these valued customers".
I was home at a reasonably late hour which enabled Sister Serials to give me a late morning wake up call this morning for some frivolous IT support matter.
Sigh! Life is so hard sometimes.
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Unlike last years Festival this one was disappointingly Supervisor Grand Chief K injury free.
AntagonisticAl did a marvellous job of organisation with everything going off like clockwork - I particularly enjoyed the Mayor's surrealistic performance art piece made to look like a Basil Fawlty-esque bumbling mess, bravo!
One must wonder, however, if snacks and drinks do have to stop during the presentations - surely they could be circulated amongst the crowd to save valuable IT staff from wasting away?
Luckily there was ample cheese and decorative fruit at the staff after-party once the formalities were completed and disaster was averted.
Other highlights of the enchanting evening include:
- Kiwichick and Days of our Libraries with coordinated hair styles
- Dubrovnik Hater attending with a flock of minions
- Beeby suffering from a lack of party-pie style foods
- staff all frocked up to the nines (except yours truly who decided to go with a laid-back "came straight from work" style in a masterstroke of fashion trend-setting)
- a complete lack of any IT support requirement in my attendance
On my way home I popped in for a quick wine-bar drink with Dubrovnik Hater - now with slightly less minions. Our waiter was amusingly snooty towards us until a rather inebriated fellow tried to enter the establishment and was turned away as he would disturb "these valued customers".
I was home at a reasonably late hour which enabled Sister Serials to give me a late morning wake up call this morning for some frivolous IT support matter.
Sigh! Life is so hard sometimes.
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... The Big Pain in the Neck
No I'm not talking about The Viking Hat GM or Supervisor Grand Chief K or even Days of our Libraries (and especially not AntagonisticAl).
What I am talking about is waking up in the morning unable to get out of bed for the painfulness of the neck muscles. It is not a fun way to start your week.
Eventually, after much flopping about like an upended turtle I managed to gain my feet and begin some attempts at recovery. A long hot shower only aggravated the neck muscles causing waves of pain - I find out later that the neck only likes a few minutes of heat and after that it gets a tad upset.
A visit to the Physio revealed that I sprained my neck sleeping. I immediately thought that I must need more practice but apparently it can happen from sleeping too well so it's most likely that I was perfect again and suffered for it. There is an alternate theory that many and various activities over the weekend strained the muscles and since giving my place a thorough vacuum was one of said activities I will be testing this theory by not vacuuming and seeing if I still have a sore neck.
In the end I was able to take a couple of days off to recover enough to soldier on at work.
I was a little perplexed when the physio presented me with a doctors certificate stating that I had presented with "Acute Cervical Pain". My first thought was that I had been in LibraryLand too long, however when I confronted the Physio with this grave insult to my rugged manliness he fobbed me off with some rubbish about "cervical" vertebrae - if only there was some handy way to research the truth of his words.
Now at another weekend - this time housework free - I am still a little stiff but it is all loosening up so unfortunately I think I'll have to be back at work on Monday.
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What I am talking about is waking up in the morning unable to get out of bed for the painfulness of the neck muscles. It is not a fun way to start your week.
Eventually, after much flopping about like an upended turtle I managed to gain my feet and begin some attempts at recovery. A long hot shower only aggravated the neck muscles causing waves of pain - I find out later that the neck only likes a few minutes of heat and after that it gets a tad upset.
A visit to the Physio revealed that I sprained my neck sleeping. I immediately thought that I must need more practice but apparently it can happen from sleeping too well so it's most likely that I was perfect again and suffered for it. There is an alternate theory that many and various activities over the weekend strained the muscles and since giving my place a thorough vacuum was one of said activities I will be testing this theory by not vacuuming and seeing if I still have a sore neck.
In the end I was able to take a couple of days off to recover enough to soldier on at work.
I was a little perplexed when the physio presented me with a doctors certificate stating that I had presented with "Acute Cervical Pain". My first thought was that I had been in LibraryLand too long, however when I confronted the Physio with this grave insult to my rugged manliness he fobbed me off with some rubbish about "cervical" vertebrae - if only there was some handy way to research the truth of his words.
Now at another weekend - this time housework free - I am still a little stiff but it is all loosening up so unfortunately I think I'll have to be back at work on Monday.
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... The Do-overs
Well here we are at the tail end of attempt number three at "Be kind to AntagonisticAl week".
Week one ended after an hour and a half with only Lord of the Small Fries giving me any credit at all - "that was quite a long time for you to be nice to someone Phill".
The second week ended after a misunderstanding. Apparently being nice to someone entails more than just not being mean so I was hit with "you haven't been nice to me all day Phill so this week is a do-over".
At this rate I'll have to be nice until Xmas! So fingers crossed that I can make it through the remains of this week without running into Her Marketing-ness and her plethora of problems... dammit I think I just caused another do-over!
Also speaking of do-overs, at last nights gaming I was forced to retire my character after The Viking Hat GM stuck to his idea of what he should do and ignored my characters dice proven skill at deception while the The Blithe Bogan performed none of the rules-enforcing his game running position is supposed to involve and Exploding Ninja Pony cowered at his end of the table eating snacks that were destined to be mine.
My do-over character is fitting in to the team, for now, but revenge shall be mine, umm his, I have no character/player separation problem.
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Week one ended after an hour and a half with only Lord of the Small Fries giving me any credit at all - "that was quite a long time for you to be nice to someone Phill".
The second week ended after a misunderstanding. Apparently being nice to someone entails more than just not being mean so I was hit with "you haven't been nice to me all day Phill so this week is a do-over".
At this rate I'll have to be nice until Xmas! So fingers crossed that I can make it through the remains of this week without running into Her Marketing-ness and her plethora of problems... dammit I think I just caused another do-over!
Also speaking of do-overs, at last nights gaming I was forced to retire my character after The Viking Hat GM stuck to his idea of what he should do and ignored my characters dice proven skill at deception while the The Blithe Bogan performed none of the rules-enforcing his game running position is supposed to involve and Exploding Ninja Pony cowered at his end of the table eating snacks that were destined to be mine.
My do-over character is fitting in to the team, for now, but revenge shall be mine, umm his, I have no character/player separation problem.
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... The Unexpected Kindness
So after yet another Training Day where I was expected to earn my free lunch by presenting IT stuff to my staff, and a few days of last minute RFID tagging and nigh-constant scanning of books I was stopped dead in my tracks on Wednesday night.
Upon my arrival at Exploding Ninja Pony's Fortress of Doom™, The Viking Hat GM promptly presented me with two pre-cooked meals to help me in my quest for better bachelor living.
Of course I was immediately suspicious - a condition that continues despite the wonderfully satisfying full-belly feeling from the pumpkin soup last night. So far only good has come of it but you never know, it could be a slow-acting poison...
In a move more in his traditional style TVHG and The Blithe Bogan are at this moment trading blunt email ripostes over the state of the gameplay from that night. I plan to roll up my sleeves and dive in shortly after finishing my scribing here. Hopefully things will stay on a civil level as I do hate it when mum and dad fight!
In another move of unexpected kindness next week has been dubbed "Be kind to AntagonisticAl week" because apparantly my relentless hounding of her in her capacity as a hated marketing officer is somehow a little upsetting. Go figure?!
It will be a struggle but I should be able to make it as the Monday public holiday reduces the duration by a whole 20%.
My one fear is that said kindness to A could become a habit in the way that many of our character flaws often do.
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Upon my arrival at Exploding Ninja Pony's Fortress of Doom™, The Viking Hat GM promptly presented me with two pre-cooked meals to help me in my quest for better bachelor living.
Of course I was immediately suspicious - a condition that continues despite the wonderfully satisfying full-belly feeling from the pumpkin soup last night. So far only good has come of it but you never know, it could be a slow-acting poison...
In a move more in his traditional style TVHG and The Blithe Bogan are at this moment trading blunt email ripostes over the state of the gameplay from that night. I plan to roll up my sleeves and dive in shortly after finishing my scribing here. Hopefully things will stay on a civil level as I do hate it when mum and dad fight!
In another move of unexpected kindness next week has been dubbed "Be kind to AntagonisticAl week" because apparantly my relentless hounding of her in her capacity as a hated marketing officer is somehow a little upsetting. Go figure?!
It will be a struggle but I should be able to make it as the Monday public holiday reduces the duration by a whole 20%.
My one fear is that said kindness to A could become a habit in the way that many of our character flaws often do.
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... The Last Day
So it's the last day of the year and instead of being quiet I am being besieged with a billion little tasks and jobs to be finished before the year is out.
To be fair most of them are jobs I should have finished months ago but I won't let that stand in the way of my outrage!
In particular Sister Serials has been hounding me with questions about new books and the RFID process. Also, puzzleingly, AntagonisticAl has also been throwing tasks at me in some sort of attempt to undo all the good work she'd done to earn my favour.
And now I am sitting here as all the staff leave and I have to wait for another one of those drawn out processes runs until it finishes. Ooh it just finished, I better get to it so I can make my evening rendezvous.
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To be fair most of them are jobs I should have finished months ago but I won't let that stand in the way of my outrage!
In particular Sister Serials has been hounding me with questions about new books and the RFID process. Also, puzzleingly, AntagonisticAl has also been throwing tasks at me in some sort of attempt to undo all the good work she'd done to earn my favour.
And now I am sitting here as all the staff leave and I have to wait for another one of those drawn out processes runs until it finishes. Ooh it just finished, I better get to it so I can make my evening rendezvous.
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... A Proper Level of Service
Finally it was here, the day I'd been waiting all year for, Xmas Eve, which also happened to be a much more important date this year - the day of the free Xmas lunch courtesy of the council!
After disentangling myself from the perfidious RFID machines at Beaumaris I made my way to the Corporate Castle to partake in the feasting.
Upon arrival I was informed that due to my slightly late arrival I had missed out on the turkey.
As disastrous as this was I was able to keep it together and hold out my plate for the ham, potatoes, and salads that remained. It was all made better by this years twist to procedures that had the Senior Management Team serving us and one of the seniors was Supervisor Grand Chief K herself. I took a moment to revel in receiving the kind of service I should be receiving all the time.
After fetching myself a nice glass of red I found the library table joining The Administrator, AntagonisticAl, and Devil's Advocate as they finished off their repast. In an unnerving repeat of several weekends ago the dessert was whisked away from our table before I could partake.
Strangely consoling myself with work I went to harass SoccerBuddy about network issues. After growing tired of that I decided to head back and try my luck with obtaining dessert. Luckily there was another library table in the second sitting and I seamlessly joined them and had some wonderful hedgehog and conversation.
After the excitement of lunch there was not much left to the day and I wrapped up my day with a quick trip home and a quiet night in.
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After disentangling myself from the perfidious RFID machines at Beaumaris I made my way to the Corporate Castle to partake in the feasting.
Upon arrival I was informed that due to my slightly late arrival I had missed out on the turkey.
As disastrous as this was I was able to keep it together and hold out my plate for the ham, potatoes, and salads that remained. It was all made better by this years twist to procedures that had the Senior Management Team serving us and one of the seniors was Supervisor Grand Chief K herself. I took a moment to revel in receiving the kind of service I should be receiving all the time.
After fetching myself a nice glass of red I found the library table joining The Administrator, AntagonisticAl, and Devil's Advocate as they finished off their repast. In an unnerving repeat of several weekends ago the dessert was whisked away from our table before I could partake.
Strangely consoling myself with work I went to harass SoccerBuddy about network issues. After growing tired of that I decided to head back and try my luck with obtaining dessert. Luckily there was another library table in the second sitting and I seamlessly joined them and had some wonderful hedgehog and conversation.
After the excitement of lunch there was not much left to the day and I wrapped up my day with a quick trip home and a quiet night in.
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... Lollies, Lunch, and Cake
Thursday dawned bright and early with an eager IT Man trekking to Beaumaris for the last Strategy Team meeting of the year. The meeting went well with two types of lolly bowl circulating and only one call out to work my magic on misbehaving machines.
The celebratory Xmas lunch was a little dissapointing - the phrase "at your own expense" causing me much pain and going against my whole ethos. However I did fare much better than Big J and Sonja Roster Queen who were both voicing their displeasure at the surprisingly small size of the portions of their menu choices. Alltogether Heather amused all when she refused to believe that a dish with Porterhouse in it's name could be anything other than a steak.
After lunch I found some IT reason to remain at the branch and was "lucky" enough to be there for The Beaumaris Ballerina's birthday cake. It just got better when she handed out bags of lollies and mine had a Caramello Koala in it! It's like she researched and found that I like chocolate and caramel!
The day took a turn for the worse however, when I inadvertently bonded with AntagonisticAl whilst we were both working late trying to get our work done without any other staff around. I ended the day thinking nothing bad of her, particularly as she gave me the rest of her lolly bag. I wonder if I'm coming down with some illness?
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The celebratory Xmas lunch was a little dissapointing - the phrase "at your own expense" causing me much pain and going against my whole ethos. However I did fare much better than Big J and Sonja Roster Queen who were both voicing their displeasure at the surprisingly small size of the portions of their menu choices. Alltogether Heather amused all when she refused to believe that a dish with Porterhouse in it's name could be anything other than a steak.
After lunch I found some IT reason to remain at the branch and was "lucky" enough to be there for The Beaumaris Ballerina's birthday cake. It just got better when she handed out bags of lollies and mine had a Caramello Koala in it! It's like she researched and found that I like chocolate and caramel!
The day took a turn for the worse however, when I inadvertently bonded with AntagonisticAl whilst we were both working late trying to get our work done without any other staff around. I ended the day thinking nothing bad of her, particularly as she gave me the rest of her lolly bag. I wonder if I'm coming down with some illness?
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... The Abandonment of Mr Prada
(Ex: ... Abandoned by Mr Prada - apologies to Fridgepower)
This morning I was looking forward to tackling another classroom full of 2.0 recalcitrants with Mr Prada my partner in crime only to have him cancel his appearance for the measly reason of having to open the library and serve the borrowers.Shouldering the immense burden, I soldiered on and proceeded to instruct Ms Magpie, Bomber Babe, Alltogether Heather, The Beaumaris Ballerina, and The Administrator in the mysteries of the 2.0 world.
In other new AntagonisticAl's printer pranks have continued to get worse as a follow-up phone call today revealed that the the part I ordered on Thursday is "Not in Stock" and has to be back-ordered. So not only did they not inform me of the extra delay I also found out that the order wasn't put into their system until after 12 the day after my call!
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... A Very Library Xmas
Well the big event of yesterday was the library staff Xmas Party.
Sonja Roster Queen had foolishly offered her residence as the venue. It was a miserable day with constant downpouring rain but I was determined to get my free complimentary drink and dinner. So I made my way across town through the monsoon rains to eventually arrive on the doorstep only mildly bedraggled.
I had barely swigged my first Cointreau Kiss and started on the dips before Supervisor Grand Chief K, making a brief cameo, officially opened proceedings with a big thank you for the years work to all staff and especially the IT Man who had been working tirelessly all year.
Food was very good and a strangely cowboy hat festooned Kiwichick was quick to claim credit although I suspect food that good can only be the work of Days of our Libraries.
There are not too many crazy goings-on to report - the usual karaoke accompanied by The Administrator's fine air-guitar work featured for many hours, with a bonus Mr Prada and Days of our Libraries Bonnie Tyler duet this year. There was also the yelling contest that is the kris kringle ceremony. This years unexpected fall was Devil's Advocate's collapsing chair mime-routine, complete with unspilled champagne glass.
I spent a large part of the evening cloistered under the veranda roof keeping out of the rain with the dirty-smokers as that was the place for contemplative conversation. It has been so long since I came home with the stench of smoke upon myself that I don't begrudge anyone for the remainder of the bad old night out side effects.
I completed my night with my usual taxi duties dropping Beeby and Groovy Spirits off in quick succession before taking The Maple Maverick on the long haul back to our neck of the woods.
Oh and AntagonisticAl did absolutely nothing to be ashamed of all night.
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Sonja Roster Queen had foolishly offered her residence as the venue. It was a miserable day with constant downpouring rain but I was determined to get my free complimentary drink and dinner. So I made my way across town through the monsoon rains to eventually arrive on the doorstep only mildly bedraggled.
I had barely swigged my first Cointreau Kiss and started on the dips before Supervisor Grand Chief K, making a brief cameo, officially opened proceedings with a big thank you for the years work to all staff and especially the IT Man who had been working tirelessly all year.
Food was very good and a strangely cowboy hat festooned Kiwichick was quick to claim credit although I suspect food that good can only be the work of Days of our Libraries.
There are not too many crazy goings-on to report - the usual karaoke accompanied by The Administrator's fine air-guitar work featured for many hours, with a bonus Mr Prada and Days of our Libraries Bonnie Tyler duet this year. There was also the yelling contest that is the kris kringle ceremony. This years unexpected fall was Devil's Advocate's collapsing chair mime-routine, complete with unspilled champagne glass.
I spent a large part of the evening cloistered under the veranda roof keeping out of the rain with the dirty-smokers as that was the place for contemplative conversation. It has been so long since I came home with the stench of smoke upon myself that I don't begrudge anyone for the remainder of the bad old night out side effects.
I completed my night with my usual taxi duties dropping Beeby and Groovy Spirits off in quick succession before taking The Maple Maverick on the long haul back to our neck of the woods.
Oh and AntagonisticAl did absolutely nothing to be ashamed of all night.
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... Lunch and the Single Launch
This morning was the annual Xmas meeting and free lunch at the LMS suppliers in the city.
Comrade Treasurer and Skeptic L where heavily involved in running the meeting and after a couple of hours of blah, blah, blah - including something like 100 site reports instead of the usual dozen since they come out of the woodwork for a free lunch - it was finally time for the lunch.
It was quite adequate and even though mingling kept getting in the way of my grazing there was always plenty there for me to keep nibbling on.
Of course Supervisor Grand Chief K showed up after the meeting for only the lunch part of the event - showing her years of experience in LibraryLand functions - something I'll have to try next year "Sorry I'm late everyone, my train was delayed. Let's eat!"
A highlight of the lunch was being waited on by Dubrovnik Hater who, having gone over to the dark side and now working for the LMS supplier, found that an overlooked clause in her contract required her to take on the waiting staff role for the Xmas lunch. She did quite well bringing the food to me and topping up my wine glass although at one point she did approach with a platter of fruit...
Sadly I had to cut short the lunch after only a couple of hours in order to head back to work in order to make it to the RFID launch for Beaumaris branch.
One drowsy train journey later I was back in time to catch a lift down with Big J and Groovy Spirits.
The launch itself was well attended - by staff and we were even allowed to partake of the cakes before the official launch spiel from Supervisor Grand Chief K (I did make the mistake of having one of AntagonisticAl's yummy lemon-blob topped bickies without checking for poison first - have to be more careful in future).
We did have to wait until after to hoe into Days of Our Libraries usual delightful cake but Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum took the cake, so to speak, with her creation that included Playmobil borrowers using little RFID kiosks.
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Comrade Treasurer and Skeptic L where heavily involved in running the meeting and after a couple of hours of blah, blah, blah - including something like 100 site reports instead of the usual dozen since they come out of the woodwork for a free lunch - it was finally time for the lunch.
It was quite adequate and even though mingling kept getting in the way of my grazing there was always plenty there for me to keep nibbling on.
Of course Supervisor Grand Chief K showed up after the meeting for only the lunch part of the event - showing her years of experience in LibraryLand functions - something I'll have to try next year "Sorry I'm late everyone, my train was delayed. Let's eat!"
A highlight of the lunch was being waited on by Dubrovnik Hater who, having gone over to the dark side and now working for the LMS supplier, found that an overlooked clause in her contract required her to take on the waiting staff role for the Xmas lunch. She did quite well bringing the food to me and topping up my wine glass although at one point she did approach with a platter of fruit...
Sadly I had to cut short the lunch after only a couple of hours in order to head back to work in order to make it to the RFID launch for Beaumaris branch.
One drowsy train journey later I was back in time to catch a lift down with Big J and Groovy Spirits.
The launch itself was well attended - by staff and we were even allowed to partake of the cakes before the official launch spiel from Supervisor Grand Chief K (I did make the mistake of having one of AntagonisticAl's yummy lemon-blob topped bickies without checking for poison first - have to be more careful in future).
We did have to wait until after to hoe into Days of Our Libraries usual delightful cake but Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum took the cake, so to speak, with her creation that included Playmobil borrowers using little RFID kiosks.
.
... Printer Pranks
So yesterday I had to spend about 10 minutes changing a part on the public printer - including having an archaeological dig in the supplies cupboard to actually find the correct part - only to have the screen come up afterwards showing something like this:
Another ten minutes later I finally make it back into the workroom only to find that AntagonisticAl has taken inspiration from the machine out the front and broken the staff printer by fiendishly sending a print job containing Yellow to the printer. After digging through the supplies cupboard I find and change the toner and then the staff machine screen shows something like this:
Apart from being astounded at how much text they can fit on the screen I was ready to throttle the technicians who decided it was not a good idea to tell you about all the parts that need changing at the same time.
And people wonder why I don't get along with marketing officers.
.
Oh and I need this other part changed too. So head on back to the supplies cupboard and dig through the mound of boxes in the dim light and find it where you stacked it away because you wouldn't need more printer parts for months.
Another ten minutes later I finally make it back into the workroom only to find that AntagonisticAl has taken inspiration from the machine out the front and broken the staff printer by fiendishly sending a print job containing Yellow to the printer. After digging through the supplies cupboard I find and change the toner and then the staff machine screen shows something like this:
Oh and I need this other part changed too. So head on back to the supplies cupboard and dig through the mound of boxes in the dim light and find that you don't actually have a spare one of it and need to order it and install the standby printer on most of the staff machines so they can print - and everyone prints all the time these days.
Apart from being astounded at how much text they can fit on the screen I was ready to throttle the technicians who decided it was not a good idea to tell you about all the parts that need changing at the same time.
And people wonder why I don't get along with marketing officers.
.
... The Wiper Swiper
So you go to Legion2's place for the regular night of gaming. A good night is had by all and then at the tail end of the festivities you make your way to your car - parked just outside the front door in the driveway twenty metres from the road - and find the driver side mirror folded flat towards the front of the car.
You put it down to some weird joke as it does fit into the realm of things-Pirate Dave-would-do-on-his-way-out-the-door.
However, once you start driving you quickly realise that your driver side windscreen wiper is gone and on closer inspection so is half the arm that hold it in place.
It then takes you some time to fall asleep as you mind is awash with images of right-of-passage "go up the driveway and get the aerial off that car" kind of things which your cars short and stubby roof-mounted aerial thwarts leaving the wiper blade as the next best thing; or stranger bizarre revenge plots.
It all shifts from the weird to the mirk-some (mirked = mildly irked) when, after instructing another room full of 2.0ites, you find that the arm bits and rubber come with a $50 replacement cost (well $48 but I rounded up for dramatic effect.) - and they have to order the part in!
- -
Speaking of 2.0, while in the process of instructing Kiwichick and others it came to light that, despite my resolute proclamations to the contrary, I had already done del.icio.us.
Also present was AntagonisticAl, our latest marketing person. For some reason she was deeply suspicious of me and contemplating pre-emptive blog-based revenge. I suspect something about tormenting me must be in the handover notes from Torchwood or possibly inserted into the marketing position description by Supervisor Grand Chief K.
.
You put it down to some weird joke as it does fit into the realm of things-Pirate Dave-would-do-on-his-way-out-the-door.
However, once you start driving you quickly realise that your driver side windscreen wiper is gone and on closer inspection so is half the arm that hold it in place.
It then takes you some time to fall asleep as you mind is awash with images of right-of-passage "go up the driveway and get the aerial off that car" kind of things which your cars short and stubby roof-mounted aerial thwarts leaving the wiper blade as the next best thing; or stranger bizarre revenge plots.
It all shifts from the weird to the mirk-some (mirked = mildly irked) when, after instructing another room full of 2.0ites, you find that the arm bits and rubber come with a $50 replacement cost (well $48 but I rounded up for dramatic effect.) - and they have to order the part in!
- -
Speaking of 2.0, while in the process of instructing Kiwichick and others it came to light that, despite my resolute proclamations to the contrary, I had already done del.icio.us.
Also present was AntagonisticAl, our latest marketing person. For some reason she was deeply suspicious of me and contemplating pre-emptive blog-based revenge. I suspect something about tormenting me must be in the handover notes from Torchwood or possibly inserted into the marketing position description by Supervisor Grand Chief K.
.
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