... the IT man in LibraryLand
So the other day Salsa Girl and I packed up Hulk and her travelling requirements into the faithful vehicle and made the long trek southwards to visit one's workplace for the requisite showing off of cute new child.
Having listened to the tales her father had been spinning during her short life so far Hulk made sure to delay our departure - with feeding requirements and nappy changes - until there was no chance of encountering mean Auntie Supervisor Grand Chief K who makes daddy do all that hard work for no reason at all.
The downside of our delay was that our entry changed somewhat from the carefully orchestrated small group then meeting group to more of an everyone at once the moment we come through the door kind of thing. I'm told that the mass cooing could be heard suburbs away.
Young Hulk was quite blasé about being handed around from Auntie to Auntie, enjoying stays in the arms of the likes of: Auntie The Administrator, Auntie Big J, Auntie Lord of the Small Fries, Auntie Nurse Janet, Auntie Shirl, Auntie Alltogether Heather, Auntie Miss Amanda, Auntie Groovy Spirits, and sundry others in the parade of Aunties. I'm pretty confident from the empirical evidence before my very eyes that Hulk out-cuted Auntie Bomber Babe's recently acquired grand daughter.
Anyway after a reasonable stay there - and finding a disappointingly low snack level in the workroom we decided to head on to my spiritual home branch for a much less crowded meet and greet.
Upon arrival it was Auntie Days of our Libraries who monopolised the holding - so much in fact that Uncle Mr Prada didn't even have a chance for a hold of his own and had to stoically insist that he didn't need to prise Hulk from Auntie Days' arms as he wasn't affected by Hulk's overwhelming cuteness.
After that visit was over we had ourselves some cafe lunch and then made the long journey home to spend most of the evening trying to calm an inexplicably overstimulated Hulk.
.
Showing posts with label Miss Amanda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miss Amanda. Show all posts
Bill the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
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.
.
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.
.
Highlights of the Missing Weeks
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.
.
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.
.
The Knee Op and the Recovery
The big day of my knee fixing operation finally arrived last Thursday.
Despite the surgeon putting it down as routine afterwards I think it was anything but, as the list below should prove.
It all begins the day before when I receive the confirmation call from the hospital at 5pm. In amongst the machine-gun fast list of information passed on to me was this little doozy - "shave your knee before you come in".
My "excuse me? Did you just say I have to shave myself?" was met with a confirmation and the information that I could get hair remover cream at any chemist.
Taking it in my stride after the brief call finished I immediately enquired as to whether any of the immaculately presented librarians happened to have an emergency stash of said cream.
Unluckily there was not a depilatory to be had anywhere in the library so I had to venture to the supermarket and buy a huge basket of assorted groceries in which to hide my girly hair removal product.
At this point I must point out how disappointed I am with private medical care. For my last operation - under the public system - I was shaved by nurses, and you can't really ask for more then that (well except maybe for them to not sedate you before the shaving happens, but, you know, it's the thought that counts).
So in any case I was up extra early to take care of my knee smoothening. I have to say that I found it a simple process although my newly deforested knee did feel like a strangers knee - possibly something one could become used to...
ahem, but I digress.
The next "routine" thing that happened was for half a sky's worth of rain to fall in the morning and consequently my train to be delayed three stations from destination due to signal faults up the line. This was no measly delay, oh no. It was stated to be of 20 to 30 minutes duration. This delay would eat up all of my careful planning to be two trains early so a delay would not cause me any trouble. I guess Connex showed me in their final days.
So I finally arrived a mere 25 minutes late to bump into an old friend from high school who quickly informed me she was working as a nurse in recovery and would see me later.
Still stunned from the unusual and unexpected meeting I failed to take in that reception was not at all concerned about my lateness and seemed to have built it into their schedule - it's as if they knew all about me.
Much waiting around ensued, interspersed with physio instruction , paperwork and preliminary physical examination. During the physical I was informed that, although it is not stated on the literature about the operation they had given me, the patient (me) needs to be under supervision for 24 hours afterwards. "Humph", I mused. "Well luckily Handy Dad and Freeloading Mum should be accommodating for the evening".
I was also informed that I would absolutely need crutches so I dutifully hired myself a pair. In the very least I should be able to milk some LibraryLand sympathy with them.
Eventually I was called in to change into the exciting hospital robes and then, after sitting around in the cold for a while, loaded onto a bed and wheeled off for sedation.
The anaesthetist greeted me by my middle name, having taken a brief glance at my chart, and then proceeded to not find the vein for several minutes. He was muttering something about tough young manly vein walls so I forgive him - plus I have this cool looking bruise all over the back of my hand.
Once I had the thingamy in my hand he was called away before sedating me because a current operation had a patients "BP dropped to 68" or some such ER sounding thing.
This left me alone for a surreal moment with one of the theatre nurses who had the exact demeanour of Miss Amanda. Right down to the same turns of phrase - "ah yes, it's always soccer or football. My stupid husband had his knee done twice because of football." and so on.
I am fairly certain that there weren't any mind altering substances in my system causing me to hallucinate familiar faces in the hospital as I was next wheeled into the theatre and slid onto the table before the anaesthetist came rushing in and quickly had to knock me out before the knife men went to work.
I came to several hours later in recovery and had a nice little chat with my high school nurse before being okayed and sent back to the ward for some sandwiches and juice.
I recovered quite quickly and was waiting around for Handy Dad when the day's stormy weather caused an alarming power flicker - I thought that hospitals would have uninterruptable power supplies?
I was soon whisked away by Handy Dad and spent most of the evening at the ancestral abode enjoying a free dinner and supervisory company before being dropped home for the comfort of my own surroundings.
My last few days have been a whirlwind of recovery.
I've been cooped up inside going all Rear Window until this afternoon when I took myself for a short stroll.
I have been going slowly mad doing repetitive exercises, some of which have confusing instructions - how exactly is one to interpret "...hold for 6 seconds, do sets of 10. Increase number of sets as pain permits. 2-3 minutes, 3-4 times per day."
In any case I have watched TV and movies galore, read many books and magazines, and pontificated many a gaming quandary. I've also grappled with some mild afternoon nausea and some annoyingly planned road-works outside my flat for the whole day.
However most importantly I've discovered that The Tiger, and most probably all other cats, make for lousy nurses.
You know, I'm almost on the verge of being ready to return to work... almost.
.
Despite the surgeon putting it down as routine afterwards I think it was anything but, as the list below should prove.
It all begins the day before when I receive the confirmation call from the hospital at 5pm. In amongst the machine-gun fast list of information passed on to me was this little doozy - "shave your knee before you come in".
My "excuse me? Did you just say I have to shave myself?" was met with a confirmation and the information that I could get hair remover cream at any chemist.
Taking it in my stride after the brief call finished I immediately enquired as to whether any of the immaculately presented librarians happened to have an emergency stash of said cream.
Unluckily there was not a depilatory to be had anywhere in the library so I had to venture to the supermarket and buy a huge basket of assorted groceries in which to hide my girly hair removal product.
At this point I must point out how disappointed I am with private medical care. For my last operation - under the public system - I was shaved by nurses, and you can't really ask for more then that (well except maybe for them to not sedate you before the shaving happens, but, you know, it's the thought that counts).
So in any case I was up extra early to take care of my knee smoothening. I have to say that I found it a simple process although my newly deforested knee did feel like a strangers knee - possibly something one could become used to...
ahem, but I digress.
The next "routine" thing that happened was for half a sky's worth of rain to fall in the morning and consequently my train to be delayed three stations from destination due to signal faults up the line. This was no measly delay, oh no. It was stated to be of 20 to 30 minutes duration. This delay would eat up all of my careful planning to be two trains early so a delay would not cause me any trouble. I guess Connex showed me in their final days.
So I finally arrived a mere 25 minutes late to bump into an old friend from high school who quickly informed me she was working as a nurse in recovery and would see me later.
Still stunned from the unusual and unexpected meeting I failed to take in that reception was not at all concerned about my lateness and seemed to have built it into their schedule - it's as if they knew all about me.
Much waiting around ensued, interspersed with physio instruction , paperwork and preliminary physical examination. During the physical I was informed that, although it is not stated on the literature about the operation they had given me, the patient (me) needs to be under supervision for 24 hours afterwards. "Humph", I mused. "Well luckily Handy Dad and Freeloading Mum should be accommodating for the evening".
I was also informed that I would absolutely need crutches so I dutifully hired myself a pair. In the very least I should be able to milk some LibraryLand sympathy with them.
Eventually I was called in to change into the exciting hospital robes and then, after sitting around in the cold for a while, loaded onto a bed and wheeled off for sedation.
The anaesthetist greeted me by my middle name, having taken a brief glance at my chart, and then proceeded to not find the vein for several minutes. He was muttering something about tough young manly vein walls so I forgive him - plus I have this cool looking bruise all over the back of my hand.
Once I had the thingamy in my hand he was called away before sedating me because a current operation had a patients "BP dropped to 68" or some such ER sounding thing.
This left me alone for a surreal moment with one of the theatre nurses who had the exact demeanour of Miss Amanda. Right down to the same turns of phrase - "ah yes, it's always soccer or football. My stupid husband had his knee done twice because of football." and so on.
I am fairly certain that there weren't any mind altering substances in my system causing me to hallucinate familiar faces in the hospital as I was next wheeled into the theatre and slid onto the table before the anaesthetist came rushing in and quickly had to knock me out before the knife men went to work.
I came to several hours later in recovery and had a nice little chat with my high school nurse before being okayed and sent back to the ward for some sandwiches and juice.
I recovered quite quickly and was waiting around for Handy Dad when the day's stormy weather caused an alarming power flicker - I thought that hospitals would have uninterruptable power supplies?
I was soon whisked away by Handy Dad and spent most of the evening at the ancestral abode enjoying a free dinner and supervisory company before being dropped home for the comfort of my own surroundings.
My last few days have been a whirlwind of recovery.
I've been cooped up inside going all Rear Window until this afternoon when I took myself for a short stroll.
I have been going slowly mad doing repetitive exercises, some of which have confusing instructions - how exactly is one to interpret "...hold for 6 seconds, do sets of 10. Increase number of sets as pain permits. 2-3 minutes, 3-4 times per day."
In any case I have watched TV and movies galore, read many books and magazines, and pontificated many a gaming quandary. I've also grappled with some mild afternoon nausea and some annoyingly planned road-works outside my flat for the whole day.
However most importantly I've discovered that The Tiger, and most probably all other cats, make for lousy nurses.
You know, I'm almost on the verge of being ready to return to work... almost.
.
... The Free Food Frenzy
So I spent most of the last week in training sessions in the heart of our beloved city.
Many and varied was my company including: Devil's Advocate, Sister Serials, Sonja Roster Queen and Miss Amanda for the majority of the time and special guest appearances by Mr Prada, Days of our Libraries, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, and The Pragmatist.
All of these exciting training companions were overshadowed by the fact that this particular round of training was accompanied by an incredible four days of free lunches!!!
I don't believe I have ever had it so good. I didn't even mind heading out for a girly shopping expedition on behalf of Svetlana.
On top of this bounty of brunches came the Friday farewell party for a libraryland associate of years past - complete with free drinks and circulating snacks!
However, as with all good things, the universe had to right the cosmic karma imbalance and, during my Saturday attendance at the footy with Legion2 and The Great Sandro, my hunger got the better of me forcing the purchase of sustenance in the form of one $20 pie.
Things did swing slightly back in the other direction today when I was able to take advantage of a free trip to NSW care of BestFriendSincePrep.
I was recruited for my excellent company on the long drive and possibly to put my strength into lifting the package we had headed North to collect. Many hours of great conversation and camaraderie was had before we returned to his abode and he 'remembered' an IT issue he had that required urgent proffessional attending to.
Sigh.
It seems I can never escape IT on my weekends.
.
Many and varied was my company including: Devil's Advocate, Sister Serials, Sonja Roster Queen and Miss Amanda for the majority of the time and special guest appearances by Mr Prada, Days of our Libraries, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, and The Pragmatist.
All of these exciting training companions were overshadowed by the fact that this particular round of training was accompanied by an incredible four days of free lunches!!!
I don't believe I have ever had it so good. I didn't even mind heading out for a girly shopping expedition on behalf of Svetlana.
On top of this bounty of brunches came the Friday farewell party for a libraryland associate of years past - complete with free drinks and circulating snacks!
However, as with all good things, the universe had to right the cosmic karma imbalance and, during my Saturday attendance at the footy with Legion2 and The Great Sandro, my hunger got the better of me forcing the purchase of sustenance in the form of one $20 pie.
Things did swing slightly back in the other direction today when I was able to take advantage of a free trip to NSW care of BestFriendSincePrep.
I was recruited for my excellent company on the long drive and possibly to put my strength into lifting the package we had headed North to collect. Many hours of great conversation and camaraderie was had before we returned to his abode and he 'remembered' an IT issue he had that required urgent proffessional attending to.
Sigh.
It seems I can never escape IT on my weekends.
.
... The Abandoned Book
With a slight dearth of things of which to elaborate upon I am going back a week or so to inform you all of the last book I was reading.
I should say attempting to read - as my post title states I was forced to abandon my reading.
The book in question is The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton whose author bio paints her as a bit of a loon.
Being a fantasy novel it is book one of her second trilogy. You'd think that she must have done something right with her first trilogy but the eminently trustworthy Miss Amanda informs me that she failed to make it past page 60 of CDT's first opus. To further cement my belief in the correctness of my book abandoning MatrixMan agrees about the waffling nature of the first trilogy and the obviousness of the authors particular favourite subjects of interest.
Anyway on to the actual book at hand. It is a psuedo-celtic high fantasy of the farm boy with a destiny variety. The pseudo celtic includes mini essays on houshold spirits, folk tales, and assorted wights who, for all the word-count devoted to them, don't have very much to do with the story at all.
There are also many indepth discussions of the particular ways that various craftsmen create their wares - a simple stroll through a market at one point takes an unbelievable number of pages to complete because it is apparently necessary that we know how the potter came upon his clay to make the tiny pots that the protagonist affords only a passing glance.
In general each sentence has at least one to many scintilating effervescant adjectives and all of the characters talk in a prithee thee manner.
A gave up at the halfway point when the big secret about the heros past completely failed to excite me and I couldn't face the remaining half of the book.
My rating is one and a half stars.
.
I should say attempting to read - as my post title states I was forced to abandon my reading.
The book in question is The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton whose author bio paints her as a bit of a loon.
Being a fantasy novel it is book one of her second trilogy. You'd think that she must have done something right with her first trilogy but the eminently trustworthy Miss Amanda informs me that she failed to make it past page 60 of CDT's first opus. To further cement my belief in the correctness of my book abandoning MatrixMan agrees about the waffling nature of the first trilogy and the obviousness of the authors particular favourite subjects of interest.
Anyway on to the actual book at hand. It is a psuedo-celtic high fantasy of the farm boy with a destiny variety. The pseudo celtic includes mini essays on houshold spirits, folk tales, and assorted wights who, for all the word-count devoted to them, don't have very much to do with the story at all.
There are also many indepth discussions of the particular ways that various craftsmen create their wares - a simple stroll through a market at one point takes an unbelievable number of pages to complete because it is apparently necessary that we know how the potter came upon his clay to make the tiny pots that the protagonist affords only a passing glance.
In general each sentence has at least one to many scintilating effervescant adjectives and all of the characters talk in a prithee thee manner.
A gave up at the halfway point when the big secret about the heros past completely failed to excite me and I couldn't face the remaining half of the book.
My rating is one and a half stars.
.
... Learning to Fear the Desk
After a nice few days rest and a relaxing afternoon gaming on Sunday I was thrown head-first into the maelstrom today.
There I was innocently minding my own business and trying to motivate myself to get started on a mass of stats that needed to be done when Miss Amanda conveniently realised that there was a rostering muck-up and I was needed to cover out front for "only 25 minutes".
As naive as I am I did not see the trap I was blithely walking into as I considered that it was both holiday time and rather nice weather outside so why would anyone want to while away their time in a library.
Nearly two hours later I am reeling from the nigh-constant flow of borrowers with mountainous piles of books to return, unique queries, and bizarre desire to join the library. On top of all that I had to repeatedly fiddle with some of the equipment which was obviously still in holiday mode and had decided to work for only five minutes before having a little rest.
After finally crawling away to safety I made my way outside for some welcome outside-ness and fetching of a late lunch.
The whole experience has made me much wiser about accepting short shifts on the desk although I was obviously still a little stunned for the rest of the afternoon as I neglected to pay the bountiful cake and snack table in the staffroom the attention it deserved. Luckily I'm back there tomorrow.
.
There I was innocently minding my own business and trying to motivate myself to get started on a mass of stats that needed to be done when Miss Amanda conveniently realised that there was a rostering muck-up and I was needed to cover out front for "only 25 minutes".
As naive as I am I did not see the trap I was blithely walking into as I considered that it was both holiday time and rather nice weather outside so why would anyone want to while away their time in a library.
Nearly two hours later I am reeling from the nigh-constant flow of borrowers with mountainous piles of books to return, unique queries, and bizarre desire to join the library. On top of all that I had to repeatedly fiddle with some of the equipment which was obviously still in holiday mode and had decided to work for only five minutes before having a little rest.
After finally crawling away to safety I made my way outside for some welcome outside-ness and fetching of a late lunch.
The whole experience has made me much wiser about accepting short shifts on the desk although I was obviously still a little stunned for the rest of the afternoon as I neglected to pay the bountiful cake and snack table in the staffroom the attention it deserved. Luckily I'm back there tomorrow.
.
... The Long, Dark, Nightime of the Install
I have been a tad incommunicative lately as my focus has been elsewhere - namely on completing a computer rollout before the end of the week.
As a part of that process I had a Glorious Master Plan to book out the Brighton public PCs from 6pm and install until closing time or shortly thereafter.
It was not to be however.
The first setback of the day was the delay in getting to Hampton for the mornings install of it's measly three PCs. I had to forsake them in order to fix a slip printer at Sandringham that the library IT Support Coordinator and incorrectly installed the day before.
Eventually Hampton was finished and I could traipse back to Brighton to commence operation image in the training room. I had barely begun ordering my work experience lackey to unpack the PC boxes before he was cruelly taken from me - by his mum coming to take him home. This near disaster caused me to have to pick up the slack and do the rest of the work myself!
Several network access issues later I made my way out into the public domain to inform the desk staff that they could let the public use my bookings as long as there was warning that they could be kicked off for the upgrade at any moment, only to find that Miss Amanda and Seditious Sam had taken it upon themselves to already do that - without awaiting my orders!
Anyway as the set-backs gathered I formed a clearer picture of my actual finishing time and informed the two recalcitrants of the situation only to have Miss Amanda bring down a huge curse upon my evening with the fatal words - "double that time, you always have to double IT estimates".
Having already doubled my estimate I was horrified to realise that she had now doomed me to a quadrupling of install time!
One long night in a darkened Brighton library, replete with wind-rattling doors and haunted air conditioning pipes, uninstalling and reinstalling of printers later and the new PCs were ready to go.
I zoomed home in record time to collapse into bed and make the most of my handful of hours before returning to the library for the next days early morning Strategy team and free morning tea.
As a part of that process I had a Glorious Master Plan to book out the Brighton public PCs from 6pm and install until closing time or shortly thereafter.
It was not to be however.
The first setback of the day was the delay in getting to Hampton for the mornings install of it's measly three PCs. I had to forsake them in order to fix a slip printer at Sandringham that the library IT Support Coordinator and incorrectly installed the day before.
Eventually Hampton was finished and I could traipse back to Brighton to commence operation image in the training room. I had barely begun ordering my work experience lackey to unpack the PC boxes before he was cruelly taken from me - by his mum coming to take him home. This near disaster caused me to have to pick up the slack and do the rest of the work myself!
Several network access issues later I made my way out into the public domain to inform the desk staff that they could let the public use my bookings as long as there was warning that they could be kicked off for the upgrade at any moment, only to find that Miss Amanda and Seditious Sam had taken it upon themselves to already do that - without awaiting my orders!
Anyway as the set-backs gathered I formed a clearer picture of my actual finishing time and informed the two recalcitrants of the situation only to have Miss Amanda bring down a huge curse upon my evening with the fatal words - "double that time, you always have to double IT estimates".
Having already doubled my estimate I was horrified to realise that she had now doomed me to a quadrupling of install time!
One long night in a darkened Brighton library, replete with wind-rattling doors and haunted air conditioning pipes, uninstalling and reinstalling of printers later and the new PCs were ready to go.
I zoomed home in record time to collapse into bed and make the most of my handful of hours before returning to the library for the next days early morning Strategy team and free morning tea.
... An RFID Afternoon Tea
Today, after the delivery of snazzy new printing equipment at all my branches, I headed off to an RFID demo by one of our tenderers.
The cakes for afternoon tea were particularly delicious, although Groovy Spirits did nab some of the chocolaty ones I'd earmarked for myself so I had to settle for lemony ones for thirds and fourths.
There were some inciteful questions asked by Miss Amanda and Sonja Roster Queen but I was too busy ruing the loss of all that hedgehogy goodness to take much in.
The session ended quite well with my being able to go home early.
The cakes for afternoon tea were particularly delicious, although Groovy Spirits did nab some of the chocolaty ones I'd earmarked for myself so I had to settle for lemony ones for thirds and fourths.
There were some inciteful questions asked by Miss Amanda and Sonja Roster Queen but I was too busy ruing the loss of all that hedgehogy goodness to take much in.
The session ended quite well with my being able to go home early.
... The Rest of the Week
Having run out of tagging space on my last post I've been forced to continue in a second post.
Interestingly there is now a much more helpful error message than previously.
Training Day and much more Geekery
Monday was our March all staff training day.
The morning was one long session on cultural diversity training. The highlight of this was the discovery that it may be possible to have Torchwood deported back to Leekland.
Lunch was a good pub meal which, for unknown reasons, Supervisor Grand Chief K had decided should be held in the sauna-themed room of the venue.
I stumbled through my own session of tips and tricks thanks to the power of delegation with Miss Amanda and Mr Prada shouldering most of the load. Although I did manage to make a room full of librarians gasp in excitement with my tips about manipulating reservation dates.
My fourth attendance at a Geektogether was delayed a little by the appearance of drinks after the staff training day but I got there in the end. Pirate Dave and Fantomas were my bring alongs this time, proving to the other Geeks that I had gaming Geek friends of my own - ooh the subculture status I achieved!
A reasonable nights drinking and gaming talk was had but we were all a little more reserved than the last occasion.
Terrible Tuesday (and Wednesday)
Power safety switch errors and dying video cards in crucial PCs ate most of these two days. Gaming on Tuesday night and debut of the new Public PC image at Beaumaris were marks in the plus column.
Soccer Superstar
At the end of a long day of meetings and "Hey Phill!" problems at Brighton I threw my goal scoring average into disarray by scoring twice on Thursday night. At 10 goals in 17 months my average is really starting to look good.
Executive Decisions
And finally, today was an all SPUN day with the regular garden-variety Victorian meeting hosted by Dubrovnik Hater without enough chocolate biscuits.
After the meeting our host then showed Madame President, The Professor, myself, and one other a delightful cafe in the area to have lunch at.
Following lunch there was some messing about in banks before we three of the executive entered a lock-in meeting to decide the details of the annual conference.
Interestingly there is now a much more helpful error message than previously.
ERROR
The combined length of all the labels must be at most 200 characters.
Training Day and much more Geekery
Monday was our March all staff training day.
The morning was one long session on cultural diversity training. The highlight of this was the discovery that it may be possible to have Torchwood deported back to Leekland.
Lunch was a good pub meal which, for unknown reasons, Supervisor Grand Chief K had decided should be held in the sauna-themed room of the venue.
I stumbled through my own session of tips and tricks thanks to the power of delegation with Miss Amanda and Mr Prada shouldering most of the load. Although I did manage to make a room full of librarians gasp in excitement with my tips about manipulating reservation dates.
My fourth attendance at a Geektogether was delayed a little by the appearance of drinks after the staff training day but I got there in the end. Pirate Dave and Fantomas were my bring alongs this time, proving to the other Geeks that I had gaming Geek friends of my own - ooh the subculture status I achieved!
A reasonable nights drinking and gaming talk was had but we were all a little more reserved than the last occasion.
Terrible Tuesday (and Wednesday)
Power safety switch errors and dying video cards in crucial PCs ate most of these two days. Gaming on Tuesday night and debut of the new Public PC image at Beaumaris were marks in the plus column.
Soccer Superstar
At the end of a long day of meetings and "Hey Phill!" problems at Brighton I threw my goal scoring average into disarray by scoring twice on Thursday night. At 10 goals in 17 months my average is really starting to look good.
Executive Decisions
And finally, today was an all SPUN day with the regular garden-variety Victorian meeting hosted by Dubrovnik Hater without enough chocolate biscuits.
After the meeting our host then showed Madame President, The Professor, myself, and one other a delightful cafe in the area to have lunch at.
Following lunch there was some messing about in banks before we three of the executive entered a lock-in meeting to decide the details of the annual conference.
... The Week that Was Suddenly Over
Monday - The Apprentice
My first day of being saddled with a work experience student who inexplicably was interested in Library IT. I took to heart the task of cautioning him about the detrimental effect if being immersed in LibraryLand. He was also initiated into the wonders of "Hey Phill!" problem solving for most of the day.
Tuesday - Corporate Drive By
The Apprentice started the day by asking me if I was going to start working soon, so I decided to punish him by taking him into the Council Corporate Centre IT department.
It didn't phase him.
So I took him to several of our branches in an attempt to overwhelm him with librarians and locations. He was made of sterner stuff than that and shrugged most of it off with a hmmph. So far he looked like prime IT material.
Wednesday - Road Trips, Meetings and Paperwork
The Apprentice and I traveled up and down the Seaside Road today to fix problems that were already fixed by the time we arrived at the branch. So far he was getting an excellent introduction to the life of an IT Man in LibraryLand. The next test was the IT Team meeting. The afternoon's meeting was attended by all team members and The Apprentice fitted (fat?) right in by nodding off in tandem with The Pragmatist.
After The Apprentice had gone home I stayed back at work diligently catching up on the paperwork that I was just not cruel enough to force an innocent minion to complete.
Whilst I was catching up on said paperwork, The Flibberty Gibbet, enabled by Supervisor Grand Chief K of course, made another stalking phone call. This time I was able to legitimately say I was working on RFID - it was a strange feeling, kind of itchy.
Thursday - Chocolates, Soccer and Snoozes
I was able to offload The Apprentice onto Sister Serials as a box unpacker while I attended the Service Coordinators meeting. We then spent the afternoon working out how to embiggen the print size of our slip printers and installing it on Bomber Babe's PC as a test.
The surprise of the afternoon was the box of chocolates The Apprentice gave me as a thank you for dragging him all over my little corner of LibraryLand. I shared them of course - it would have looked greedy if I'd eaten more than 80% of the box.
I rushed off to soccer delighted at being able to play in 32 degree heat for the second week running. The upside was that I scored the "last goal wins" goal by dribbling a kick over the line while we all watched on exhausted. The goal arrived right on target keeping me at a my goal every three months average. The post game recovery took a full hour but finally I was able to drag myself off home and then to ArchEnemy's for falling asleep on the couch during gaming.
Friday - SPUN and Branch Drinks
The morning was our free xmas lunch at Civica HQ preceded by the quarterly SPUN Meeting. I brought Mr Prada along as a minion to show my new stature as Mr Secretary but completely forgot to have him Fight Flibberty's minion in the pit, oh well there's always next time. I had a quick catch up over a glass of free wine with Madame President to cover where the exec was at and then headed out into the city.
After a quick drop by visit to Rugrat Twin's retail workplace I trained my way back to Sandringham.
After booting up my laptop I shut it down and we all headed off to the branch xmas drinks and dinner. It was a good evening with a cameo by Chanlib, and the evening seen out in increasingly slurred conversation with Mr Prada and Scully.
Saturday - A BBQ and Librarians Running Amok
A last minute BBQ with Fridgepower, Judgemingus, their spawn and several others left me rushing a little to make it to Miss Amanda's delightful residence for the Library Xmas Party soirée.
It was a very well attended event, with magnificent food and much joviality. I was able to meet the infamous infamous Mr Amanda, and noted the family resemblance when Little Miss Amanda called me the best customer for food trays.
The evening took a turn for the surreal later on when the Sing Star computer game was fired up. I tell you nothing compares to a 15 librarian chorus of Unchained melody - it almost killed Torchwood with hysterics (watching said fit may have been the best ten minutes of the evening).
Sunday - Legion Gathers
And finally I get to today. The clan was having a get together to celebrate several birthdays and my impending departure for Svetlanaland. No wait they weren't celebrating my leaving they were saying farewell. Handy Dad, Freeloading Mum, Legion2-4 and various partners were all there and we had a nice lunch before heading home for some much needed rest.
Hey I just found out that you can only have 200 characters of Labels on a blog post. Though the error message is confusing as it just says that you have more than 200 characters but not that it's only the labels that it cares about. I was thinking that I needed an Everything label for this post and now I had to trim out some of the less important tags.
My first day of being saddled with a work experience student who inexplicably was interested in Library IT. I took to heart the task of cautioning him about the detrimental effect if being immersed in LibraryLand. He was also initiated into the wonders of "Hey Phill!" problem solving for most of the day.
Tuesday - Corporate Drive By
The Apprentice started the day by asking me if I was going to start working soon, so I decided to punish him by taking him into the Council Corporate Centre IT department.
It didn't phase him.
So I took him to several of our branches in an attempt to overwhelm him with librarians and locations. He was made of sterner stuff than that and shrugged most of it off with a hmmph. So far he looked like prime IT material.
Wednesday - Road Trips, Meetings and Paperwork
The Apprentice and I traveled up and down the Seaside Road today to fix problems that were already fixed by the time we arrived at the branch. So far he was getting an excellent introduction to the life of an IT Man in LibraryLand. The next test was the IT Team meeting. The afternoon's meeting was attended by all team members and The Apprentice fitted (fat?) right in by nodding off in tandem with The Pragmatist.
After The Apprentice had gone home I stayed back at work diligently catching up on the paperwork that I was just not cruel enough to force an innocent minion to complete.
Whilst I was catching up on said paperwork, The Flibberty Gibbet, enabled by Supervisor Grand Chief K of course, made another stalking phone call. This time I was able to legitimately say I was working on RFID - it was a strange feeling, kind of itchy.
Thursday - Chocolates, Soccer and Snoozes
I was able to offload The Apprentice onto Sister Serials as a box unpacker while I attended the Service Coordinators meeting. We then spent the afternoon working out how to embiggen the print size of our slip printers and installing it on Bomber Babe's PC as a test.
The surprise of the afternoon was the box of chocolates The Apprentice gave me as a thank you for dragging him all over my little corner of LibraryLand. I shared them of course - it would have looked greedy if I'd eaten more than 80% of the box.
I rushed off to soccer delighted at being able to play in 32 degree heat for the second week running. The upside was that I scored the "last goal wins" goal by dribbling a kick over the line while we all watched on exhausted. The goal arrived right on target keeping me at a my goal every three months average. The post game recovery took a full hour but finally I was able to drag myself off home and then to ArchEnemy's for falling asleep on the couch during gaming.
Friday - SPUN and Branch Drinks
The morning was our free xmas lunch at Civica HQ preceded by the quarterly SPUN Meeting. I brought Mr Prada along as a minion to show my new stature as Mr Secretary but completely forgot to have him Fight Flibberty's minion in the pit, oh well there's always next time. I had a quick catch up over a glass of free wine with Madame President to cover where the exec was at and then headed out into the city.
After a quick drop by visit to Rugrat Twin's retail workplace I trained my way back to Sandringham.
After booting up my laptop I shut it down and we all headed off to the branch xmas drinks and dinner. It was a good evening with a cameo by Chanlib, and the evening seen out in increasingly slurred conversation with Mr Prada and Scully.
Saturday - A BBQ and Librarians Running Amok
A last minute BBQ with Fridgepower, Judgemingus, their spawn and several others left me rushing a little to make it to Miss Amanda's delightful residence for the Library Xmas Party soirée.
It was a very well attended event, with magnificent food and much joviality. I was able to meet the infamous infamous Mr Amanda, and noted the family resemblance when Little Miss Amanda called me the best customer for food trays.
The evening took a turn for the surreal later on when the Sing Star computer game was fired up. I tell you nothing compares to a 15 librarian chorus of Unchained melody - it almost killed Torchwood with hysterics (watching said fit may have been the best ten minutes of the evening).
Sunday - Legion Gathers
And finally I get to today. The clan was having a get together to celebrate several birthdays and my impending departure for Svetlanaland. No wait they weren't celebrating my leaving they were saying farewell. Handy Dad, Freeloading Mum, Legion2-4 and various partners were all there and we had a nice lunch before heading home for some much needed rest.
Hey I just found out that you can only have 200 characters of Labels on a blog post. Though the error message is confusing as it just says that you have more than 200 characters but not that it's only the labels that it cares about. I was thinking that I needed an Everything label for this post and now I had to trim out some of the less important tags.
... The Courier Run
Here is another caution for you all. When Miss Amanda calls you while you're on your way in to work and asks "what do you have planned for today", always say that you are fully booked. To say something like "I planned to be at Beaumaris but I'm flexible" only invites the soul-sapping activities of doing the courier run because everyone else is at customer service training.
The run itself is not too bad, even with the warm weather, hot van from being in the sun, and mildly hard physical labour. However it does mean that you'll miss the opportunity to slip into the morning tea of the aforementioned customer service training. And it's also guaranteed that when you do finally finish and begin contemplating lunch the whole internet connection will drop out and you'll be running around getting that sorted for hours before being able to drag your starved self away for a late afternoon feed.
The day can however end on a good note if you head over to BestFriendSincePrep's for a swim in his pool, some beers and a good close game of Memoir '44.
The run itself is not too bad, even with the warm weather, hot van from being in the sun, and mildly hard physical labour. However it does mean that you'll miss the opportunity to slip into the morning tea of the aforementioned customer service training. And it's also guaranteed that when you do finally finish and begin contemplating lunch the whole internet connection will drop out and you'll be running around getting that sorted for hours before being able to drag your starved self away for a late afternoon feed.
The day can however end on a good note if you head over to BestFriendSincePrep's for a swim in his pool, some beers and a good close game of Memoir '44.
... The Stealing of Wireless Go-Live Day
Today the wireless-internet-hotspot-access-point went live to the public. There is still a bit of staff training and a few signs to go up but we had several happy customers. Miss Amanda did her best Mr Prada impersonation and created most of the documentation for staff. Supervisor Grand Chief K then cunningly distracted me with free sandwiches so that they could steal all the glory and run around signing up innocent laptop-using borrowers.
All of this happened while Torchwood and I were off at a council web site team meeting. We came back all inspired to double team some changes and updates through - and may finally replace Bomber Babe's photo on the web site.
All of this happened while Torchwood and I were off at a council web site team meeting. We came back all inspired to double team some changes and updates through - and may finally replace Bomber Babe's photo on the web site.
... one Good Weekend
The weekend got off to a great start with a three hour toddler shower for Supervisor S consuming most of Friday. The evening was a farewell dinner for Rugrat Twin off to visit Japan, Europe and Svetlanaland - I am jealous.
After the dinner I got home, rewound the tape and watched The Mighty Pies win their way through to the next final - worth staying up until three to watch.
Saturday was mostly a sleep in (interrupted by the obligatory call from Sister Serials) and a trip out to the homeland to fix Freeloading Mum's internet. The evening was a poker night at Legion3's which went late into the night.
This morning, after the recovery sleep in, I doddled about the flat for a bit before heading to the cinema to use the second of the tickets I'd received for being bestest in the library before it expired next Friday. I chose Once, mostly because I'd heard it was good and there was nothing else on that caught my eye. I thought I was going to have to miss out on the film when Miss Amanda called to tell me of system troubles whilst the adds were running. I called our suppliers emergency number but nobody answered so, with little I could do, I went back into the movie.
I think I'm glad I did. For a while after coming out of the cinema I could only speak movie-poster, i.e. "Heartbreaking","Emotionally powerful".
Librarian Idol does a much better job at describing the film than I could ever do.
The power of Once was so strong that it kept our supplier from following up on the help call until after it had finished. Several back and forth calls and another 45 minutes later the problem was solved. I am not too impressed by that speed of service but several previous weekend emergencies have been dealt with almost immediately so I'll let it pass as an anomaly.
In order to recover from Once I watched Dodgeball tonight. It was exactly what I expected and all is back in balance now.
After the dinner I got home, rewound the tape and watched The Mighty Pies win their way through to the next final - worth staying up until three to watch.
Saturday was mostly a sleep in (interrupted by the obligatory call from Sister Serials) and a trip out to the homeland to fix Freeloading Mum's internet. The evening was a poker night at Legion3's which went late into the night.
This morning, after the recovery sleep in, I doddled about the flat for a bit before heading to the cinema to use the second of the tickets I'd received for being bestest in the library before it expired next Friday. I chose Once, mostly because I'd heard it was good and there was nothing else on that caught my eye. I thought I was going to have to miss out on the film when Miss Amanda called to tell me of system troubles whilst the adds were running. I called our suppliers emergency number but nobody answered so, with little I could do, I went back into the movie.
I think I'm glad I did. For a while after coming out of the cinema I could only speak movie-poster, i.e. "Heartbreaking","Emotionally powerful".
Librarian Idol does a much better job at describing the film than I could ever do.
The power of Once was so strong that it kept our supplier from following up on the help call until after it had finished. Several back and forth calls and another 45 minutes later the problem was solved. I am not too impressed by that speed of service but several previous weekend emergencies have been dealt with almost immediately so I'll let it pass as an anomaly.
In order to recover from Once I watched Dodgeball tonight. It was exactly what I expected and all is back in balance now.
... The Floorboards
(Oh and Go Live Day!)
I have been kept very busy with the ongoing renovations at the new place - and the upgrade at work. One room is floor boarded and even has some furniture sitting in there. It has ended up being a tad bouncy since Handy Dad and I put them over the carpet underlay and a layer of thin floorboard underlay. The idea was to have more of a soundproof layer but it may just put more stress on the joins.
The upgrade at work has gone relatively smoothly, although there is a crescendo of talk about the speed of the new system (patience Miss Amanda, patience), allowing me to take Go Live +1 Day off to commence the aforementioned floor boarding while Supervisor S handled the glitches of the day.
The glitch list is in constant flux as new glitches are added and others are removed but I'm happy that it's staying quite small and may even be starting to shrink.
I have been kept very busy with the ongoing renovations at the new place - and the upgrade at work. One room is floor boarded and even has some furniture sitting in there. It has ended up being a tad bouncy since Handy Dad and I put them over the carpet underlay and a layer of thin floorboard underlay. The idea was to have more of a soundproof layer but it may just put more stress on the joins.
The upgrade at work has gone relatively smoothly, although there is a crescendo of talk about the speed of the new system (patience Miss Amanda, patience), allowing me to take Go Live +1 Day off to commence the aforementioned floor boarding while Supervisor S handled the glitches of the day.
The glitch list is in constant flux as new glitches are added and others are removed but I'm happy that it's staying quite small and may even be starting to shrink.
... the Week of Free Lunches
What a long and busy week it's been.
I've spent most of it Training up on the new Library Management Software at our suppliers HQ in the city. Four days of catered lunches and far too many lollies from the bowls on each table! Supervisor S was with me all week and we had guest appearances from Mr Prada, Sonja Roster Queen, Miss Amanda, Genealogy Jane, chanlib, Vikki, Sister Serials, Ms Magpie, Devil's Advocate and a few others.
At the same time I was dealing with settlement on the current house and pre-settlement non-disclosure of upcoming costs on the new flat. It's going to be such a holiday when the property stuff is over and I can relax with the major system upgrade at work.
Thursday night's soccer was a wonderful flashback to my childhood career as the heavens opened up and we were lashed with rain for about half of the game.
The final day of training was topped of with a night of farewell drinks for Jemima from the IT Helpdesk. CC was there as was The Polster and another Canadian CC acquaintance with a J name, coincidentally drinking CC (Canadian Club). Many xx and cokes were consumed but I made it home fine and the ice in the drinks kept my hydration levels at a safe level.
In four days of Train Travel I managed to be affected by a Connex Train delay every day - the worst was 35 minutes sitting at one station on my way in to drinks last night.
I've spent most of it Training up on the new Library Management Software at our suppliers HQ in the city. Four days of catered lunches and far too many lollies from the bowls on each table! Supervisor S was with me all week and we had guest appearances from Mr Prada, Sonja Roster Queen, Miss Amanda, Genealogy Jane, chanlib, Vikki, Sister Serials, Ms Magpie, Devil's Advocate and a few others.
At the same time I was dealing with settlement on the current house and pre-settlement non-disclosure of upcoming costs on the new flat. It's going to be such a holiday when the property stuff is over and I can relax with the major system upgrade at work.
Thursday night's soccer was a wonderful flashback to my childhood career as the heavens opened up and we were lashed with rain for about half of the game.
The final day of training was topped of with a night of farewell drinks for Jemima from the IT Helpdesk. CC was there as was The Polster and another Canadian CC acquaintance with a J name, coincidentally drinking CC (Canadian Club). Many xx and cokes were consumed but I made it home fine and the ice in the drinks kept my hydration levels at a safe level.
In four days of Train Travel I managed to be affected by a Connex Train delay every day - the worst was 35 minutes sitting at one station on my way in to drinks last night.
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