... the IT man in LibraryLand
So yesterday was a day of significant aging for me - well not that significant, wait for next year.
As is the tradition at work I made a box cake, which is no mean feat in this current heat wave. With the able assistance of The Tiger I was up at the crack of dawn and stirring away before popping things in the oven and getting on with the unimportant preparation for work.
For this year I had decided to avoid the whole writing numbers on top of the cake thinking by making cupcake-lets and I was unable to resist going for caramel as it is one of my favourite flavours.
Arriving at my home branch I was proudly brandishing my creations at Mr Prada and the rest of the Sandy Squad when Days of our Libraries dashed out to her car and returned with an enormous slab of mud cake iced and covered with crumbled chocolate.
It was caramel.
The icing was caramel.
My cupcake-lets were insignificant compared to this monster of marvellous caramelosity.
I was devastated and then had to go to a Writing for the Web training session where I was told it was terrible web writing if one composed ones missives using big words and that one should not eschew the use of plain and simple phrases.
It was like a one-two punch but, being the trooper I am, I managed to recover by consoling myself with a slab of delicious caramel mud cake.
The evening saw the return of one of my previous nemeses Innocent Em for a birthday stealing farewell event at the local drinking establishment. There were speeches - which neglected the birthday boy - and a smaller coterie stayed on for dinner. It turns out Em isn't quite so innocent being in the family way now.
I also received birthday wishes via telephone from The Great Sandro who overcame his fear of embarrassment to call and scads of people on Facebook including birthday twin CC.
All in all a reasonable good day.
.
Showing posts with label Innocent Em. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Innocent Em. Show all posts
... A Horrible Discovery
Ironically thanks to the work of ArchEnemy my attention has been brought to Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
- going all the way out to BestFriendSincePrep's country mansion only to be beaten soundly at my own games
- my Tuesday gaming group deciding (eventually, oh the indecision) that Deadlands' supernatural western setting was what we'd play next
- Innocent Em beating me to the end of 2.0
- my falling for the latest ploy of Torchwood - taking me out for lunches and dinners to make me fond of her
- making a cameo appearance at Sandringham, my home branch, after being on desk at Hampton
- the return of The Bastard for the Pirate Dave birthday edition of Thursday night gaming
- having The Great Sandro over to watch the Collingwood vs Nth Melbourne game debacle
... Plugging the 2.0 Gaps
(246 Alternate Title: Thing #14 Technorati)
On hearing that Innocent Em was going great guns with her 2.0 I thought I'd better get into action and knock another one off my list as people might stop falling for my techno-savvy schtick if I'm last to finish.
Remembering my impatience with the lesson podcasts I skipped straight to the skimming of the text and clicking on links.
Once I arrived at Technorati and performed a few searches I had my first big shock - The Tales is not listed, despite the 2.0 peoples promise that we would be just by being on Blogger!! I feel so betrayed.
I found Technorati to be another big search information overload site and couldn't really be bothered going through it looking for anything interesting - I have enough going on in my life and enough other ways to waste time on the internet.
I was going to do the Technorati tag thing but it looked a bit pointless and looking at it was enought to knock this one off and get ahead of Em.
On hearing that Innocent Em was going great guns with her 2.0 I thought I'd better get into action and knock another one off my list as people might stop falling for my techno-savvy schtick if I'm last to finish.
Remembering my impatience with the lesson podcasts I skipped straight to the skimming of the text and clicking on links.
Once I arrived at Technorati and performed a few searches I had my first big shock - The Tales is not listed, despite the 2.0 peoples promise that we would be just by being on Blogger!! I feel so betrayed.
I found Technorati to be another big search information overload site and couldn't really be bothered going through it looking for anything interesting - I have enough going on in my life and enough other ways to waste time on the internet.
I was going to do the Technorati tag thing but it looked a bit pointless and looking at it was enought to knock this one off and get ahead of Em.
... Bowling with the Bayside Babes
note: this posting is sarcasm and nastiness reduced, as some people think that I never say anything nice.
This Friday last Mr Prada and I had the extreme luck to be out in in public ten-pin bowling with a bevy of the best Bayside has to offer. We were the envy of all around for the company we had while we lobbed spheres down the lanes.
It was all thanks to Torchwood's brilliant idea and excellent planning skills, and as a thank you for everyones work at the Literary festival. Of course, as I spent most of the festival at the corporate centre, I was just freeloading along for the night as was Sister Serials showing up only for the free drink.
There was much fun had by all with Big J's sparkling laughter a frequent backdrop, most participants striking at least once - which is important as Innocent Em said to me - "Scoring is what it's all about Phill!", Groovy Spirits, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Administrator, and Lord of the Small Fries all plugging away diligently on the aisles.
Of course I blitzed the field in the first game, despite re-injuring the knee last Thursday at soccer. My sense of honour prevailed in the second game and I stepped aside to allow others to claim the glory (there's a chance it may have been several drinks that prevailed actually now that I think about it).
We all played with a spirit of cooperation, encouragement and fair play. With the experts - Sonja Roster Queen, Days of Our Libraries and yours truly - imparting our bountiful bowling wisdom to all who asked and ensuring a much improved second game from both Big J and Kiwichick.
The food was good and Kiwichick came up with the fantastic idea of improving access to the sour cream for the wedges by smearing it all over the table.
All in all it was a grand night out and hopefully there will be many more occasions of it's ilk where I can spend an entire evening in the treasured company of those I work with.
This Friday last Mr Prada and I had the extreme luck to be out in in public ten-pin bowling with a bevy of the best Bayside has to offer. We were the envy of all around for the company we had while we lobbed spheres down the lanes.
It was all thanks to Torchwood's brilliant idea and excellent planning skills, and as a thank you for everyones work at the Literary festival. Of course, as I spent most of the festival at the corporate centre, I was just freeloading along for the night as was Sister Serials showing up only for the free drink.
There was much fun had by all with Big J's sparkling laughter a frequent backdrop, most participants striking at least once - which is important as Innocent Em said to me - "Scoring is what it's all about Phill!", Groovy Spirits, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Administrator, and Lord of the Small Fries all plugging away diligently on the aisles.
Of course I blitzed the field in the first game, despite re-injuring the knee last Thursday at soccer. My sense of honour prevailed in the second game and I stepped aside to allow others to claim the glory (there's a chance it may have been several drinks that prevailed actually now that I think about it).
We all played with a spirit of cooperation, encouragement and fair play. With the experts - Sonja Roster Queen, Days of Our Libraries and yours truly - imparting our bountiful bowling wisdom to all who asked and ensuring a much improved second game from both Big J and Kiwichick.
The food was good and Kiwichick came up with the fantastic idea of improving access to the sour cream for the wedges by smearing it all over the table.
All in all it was a grand night out and hopefully there will be many more occasions of it's ilk where I can spend an entire evening in the treasured company of those I work with.
... Another Weekly Round Up
Well it got away from me again. It being spare time of course.
I blame ElfBoy who's insistence on gaming on Monday night took away one of my regular blogging/doing stuff nights. (Although since we were playing Magic I did get an 80's child thrill out of SMSing everyone It's Another Magic Monday...)
Gaming Tuesday
Tuesday was a day at Brighton with some printer related meetings and odd jobs before actually getting home early for Tuesday night gaming. In contrast to a few weeks ago we only had three players instead of the massive seven. Much easier to handle - although with all the Libraryland meeting experience I've gained over the past few years a bunch of gaming geeks isn't really that much of a challenge. Okay I've talked about gaming enough that Supervisor Grand Chief K will have skipped over to the next paragraph in her dismissive manner, and I can safely mention that I managed to fight off the dose of flu she blatantly tried to infect me with by giving me a big hug in the workroom. Of course it was just to distract me from pointing out how Torchwood, (currently displacing me as favourite child), had failed to live up to her position description yet again - probably because she spends most of her time plotting how best to torment me in a variety of manager-condoned ways.
Wednesday at Holiday Hampton
Needing a break from it all I spent the morning hiding out at Hampton branch on it's closed day. I upgraded some computers for appearance's sake and then had to leave as the branch became surprisingly busy for a closed day with a book club and Days of our Libraries showing up to pretend to do some work emptying the book chute.
My retreat to Sandringham for some peace and quiet was mostly successful although Innocent Em was at it again - asking me to stop playing with my balls in the workroom. How am I supposed to de-stress if I can't bounce the stress ball off the wall next to my desk?
In any case it was lucky only Mr Prada overheard otherwise the smut level would have gone through the roof!
With the loss of my Monday time my shows had stacked up on video by the time Wednesday night rolled around so I spent a bit of time catching up on my tv before commencing The OpenOffice Experiment da da DA! That was meant to be dramatic. I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org (yes the .org is part of it's official name) to be the office suite that I use at home.
Colour me impressed - whatever colour that would be... hmm google is no help, maybe it's a thoughtful powder blue? Anyway I digress, OpenOffice opened all my simple word and spreadsheet files and appears to have all the functions I want and a fantastic export as pdf function. Suffice to say I fiddled about with it until late in the evening and unforgivably neglected you my loyal audience.
Corporate Thursday
My Thursday was spent at the corporate centre making preparations for the arrival of our new printers next week. I had a lunchtime break for some bus-driving practice with Supervisor Grand Chief K for reasons that you shall find out about in due course. My work afternoon was cut short by SoccerBuddy who insisted that since I was giving him a lift to the game then we had to be there for the kick-off. It was a strange experience being there when they picked sides, and in the end I had to play 70 minutes instead of my usual 40 since nobody kicked us off at 7. No wonder I didn't score.
Freeloading Friday
Now this was more like it.
Thanks to a corporate colleague leaving I had access to a morning tea and a farewell afternoon tea. The pub lunch was at my own expense unfortunately but the evening was the social club's cultural diversity happy hour including such diverse international foods as nachos and sushi - I guess we're spoiled for internationalism here in Melbourne.
Due to my dedication to work I arrived after the international beers had run out so I opted out of drinking rather than face the prospect of having to down some VBs (sorry Svetlana but the stuff is horrible).
I made it home for an evening of footy watching and, as the game slipped from our grasp, I began to regret my choice to not drink.
Saturday Pyjama Day
With nothing on my calendar I decided to spend the day in my pyjamas (read old t shirt and drawstring pants) catching up on all the little computery and housy things that had been building up over the last few busy weekends.
I did shut almost everything down for Earth Hour and tried to read by an epileptic-fit inducing candle flame - it's a wonder libraries even exist given how painful it was trying too read that way.
My very late evening was highlighted by an international call from Svetlana herself.
I blame ElfBoy who's insistence on gaming on Monday night took away one of my regular blogging/doing stuff nights. (Although since we were playing Magic I did get an 80's child thrill out of SMSing everyone It's Another Magic Monday...)
Gaming Tuesday
Tuesday was a day at Brighton with some printer related meetings and odd jobs before actually getting home early for Tuesday night gaming. In contrast to a few weeks ago we only had three players instead of the massive seven. Much easier to handle - although with all the Libraryland meeting experience I've gained over the past few years a bunch of gaming geeks isn't really that much of a challenge. Okay I've talked about gaming enough that Supervisor Grand Chief K will have skipped over to the next paragraph in her dismissive manner, and I can safely mention that I managed to fight off the dose of flu she blatantly tried to infect me with by giving me a big hug in the workroom. Of course it was just to distract me from pointing out how Torchwood, (currently displacing me as favourite child), had failed to live up to her position description yet again - probably because she spends most of her time plotting how best to torment me in a variety of manager-condoned ways.
Wednesday at Holiday Hampton
Needing a break from it all I spent the morning hiding out at Hampton branch on it's closed day. I upgraded some computers for appearance's sake and then had to leave as the branch became surprisingly busy for a closed day with a book club and Days of our Libraries showing up to pretend to do some work emptying the book chute.
My retreat to Sandringham for some peace and quiet was mostly successful although Innocent Em was at it again - asking me to stop playing with my balls in the workroom. How am I supposed to de-stress if I can't bounce the stress ball off the wall next to my desk?
In any case it was lucky only Mr Prada overheard otherwise the smut level would have gone through the roof!
With the loss of my Monday time my shows had stacked up on video by the time Wednesday night rolled around so I spent a bit of time catching up on my tv before commencing The OpenOffice Experiment da da DA! That was meant to be dramatic. I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org (yes the .org is part of it's official name) to be the office suite that I use at home.
Colour me impressed - whatever colour that would be... hmm google is no help, maybe it's a thoughtful powder blue? Anyway I digress, OpenOffice opened all my simple word and spreadsheet files and appears to have all the functions I want and a fantastic export as pdf function. Suffice to say I fiddled about with it until late in the evening and unforgivably neglected you my loyal audience.
Corporate Thursday
My Thursday was spent at the corporate centre making preparations for the arrival of our new printers next week. I had a lunchtime break for some bus-driving practice with Supervisor Grand Chief K for reasons that you shall find out about in due course. My work afternoon was cut short by SoccerBuddy who insisted that since I was giving him a lift to the game then we had to be there for the kick-off. It was a strange experience being there when they picked sides, and in the end I had to play 70 minutes instead of my usual 40 since nobody kicked us off at 7. No wonder I didn't score.
Freeloading Friday
Now this was more like it.
Thanks to a corporate colleague leaving I had access to a morning tea and a farewell afternoon tea. The pub lunch was at my own expense unfortunately but the evening was the social club's cultural diversity happy hour including such diverse international foods as nachos and sushi - I guess we're spoiled for internationalism here in Melbourne.
Due to my dedication to work I arrived after the international beers had run out so I opted out of drinking rather than face the prospect of having to down some VBs (sorry Svetlana but the stuff is horrible).
I made it home for an evening of footy watching and, as the game slipped from our grasp, I began to regret my choice to not drink.
Saturday Pyjama Day
With nothing on my calendar I decided to spend the day in my pyjamas (read old t shirt and drawstring pants) catching up on all the little computery and housy things that had been building up over the last few busy weekends.
I did shut almost everything down for Earth Hour and tried to read by an epileptic-fit inducing candle flame - it's a wonder libraries even exist given how painful it was trying too read that way.
My very late evening was highlighted by an international call from Svetlana herself.
... A Year of The Tales
My how the time flies. Today marks the one year anniversary of the humble start of The Tales. Perhaps fittingly I have been far too busy to post this last week. In fact the idea of closing The Tales on the anniversary had crossed my mind - going out on a high and all that.
However I think I'm going to carry on and grind The Tales into the ground, shedding readers until I am once again typing only to myself - after all I can't let 113 posts go to waste.
So, on with the show...
Mad March
My recent hecticity has been the beginning of what I am referring to as Mad March. Many projects are being embarked plus the social calendar has been busy and shonky electrics at two of the libraries have conspired to rob me of any chance of spare time blessing me with its presence.
The Prelude
The evening before the beginning of Mad March was a drinks and dinner evening for the staff of Sandringham and Hampton branches organised by Mr Prada.
Arriving late - I had to sample the free consumables being provided at the council social club happy hour - I discovered that apparently Supervisor Grand Chief K was now based at our branch. Even her renowned enabling skills couldn't get any more than a handful of staff to stay for the dinner segment of the evening - herself included.
The evening went pretty much as expected given that Sandringham has now now taken the title of smuttiest branch from Beaumaris thanks to the hard work of Mr Prada and Days of our Libraries. The ordering of the spatchcock by Kiwichick was greeted by the expected gales of laughter and Innocent Em's requests for a lift home from yours truly at the end of the evening lead to all sorts of wonderful innuendo based comedy. All in all not a bad evening as far as such self-funded events go.
A Little Geekery
My Saturday disappeared in quite quickly after I spontaneously decided to buy myself a cheap document scanner. It turns out that a combo scanner, printer, copier fit perfectly into my tight budget so I was busy unpacking and installing for most of the afternoon.
In the afternoon I tootled off to Alecto's for dinner with her and Rugrat Twin. After dinner we had Rugrat Twin and my first viewing of Shaun of the Dead. It was a good humorous addition to the Zombie genre - although if it were a book I think it would have a genre sticker a little like this:
A Bit More Geekery
Sunday began with the resumption of my watching of my Farscape season one DVDs which I have managed to guilt back out of Scully's hands since my return from Svetlanaland.
The afternoon and evening was the return of the monthly-esque Sunday afternoon gaming. There was a bumper turnout this time with Badger, Amoeba and Mechwarrior Wayne all putting in their first appearances ever.
However I think I'm going to carry on and grind The Tales into the ground, shedding readers until I am once again typing only to myself - after all I can't let 113 posts go to waste.
So, on with the show...
Mad March
My recent hecticity has been the beginning of what I am referring to as Mad March. Many projects are being embarked plus the social calendar has been busy and shonky electrics at two of the libraries have conspired to rob me of any chance of spare time blessing me with its presence.
The Prelude
The evening before the beginning of Mad March was a drinks and dinner evening for the staff of Sandringham and Hampton branches organised by Mr Prada.
Arriving late - I had to sample the free consumables being provided at the council social club happy hour - I discovered that apparently Supervisor Grand Chief K was now based at our branch. Even her renowned enabling skills couldn't get any more than a handful of staff to stay for the dinner segment of the evening - herself included.
The evening went pretty much as expected given that Sandringham has now now taken the title of smuttiest branch from Beaumaris thanks to the hard work of Mr Prada and Days of our Libraries. The ordering of the spatchcock by Kiwichick was greeted by the expected gales of laughter and Innocent Em's requests for a lift home from yours truly at the end of the evening lead to all sorts of wonderful innuendo based comedy. All in all not a bad evening as far as such self-funded events go.
A Little Geekery
My Saturday disappeared in quite quickly after I spontaneously decided to buy myself a cheap document scanner. It turns out that a combo scanner, printer, copier fit perfectly into my tight budget so I was busy unpacking and installing for most of the afternoon.
In the afternoon I tootled off to Alecto's for dinner with her and Rugrat Twin. After dinner we had Rugrat Twin and my first viewing of Shaun of the Dead. It was a good humorous addition to the Zombie genre - although if it were a book I think it would have a genre sticker a little like this:
A Bit More Geekery
Sunday began with the resumption of my watching of my Farscape season one DVDs which I have managed to guilt back out of Scully's hands since my return from Svetlanaland.
The afternoon and evening was the return of the monthly-esque Sunday afternoon gaming. There was a bumper turnout this time with Badger, Amoeba and Mechwarrior Wayne all putting in their first appearances ever.
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