... the IT man in LibraryLand
Having all but given upon the senior team making the finals - it's still mathematically possible that four teams will be disqualified! - I decided to take Hulk to her long asked for first footy match, the VFL Magpies game on Saturday.
She gleefully donned the beanie and scarf and we were off on the train, which was an exciting event on it's own.
Arriving at the ground with the game already underway we explored the stands and watched some footy although Hulk didn't show very much enthusiasm for what was happening on the ground.
She did inform me, however, the Collingwood song goes like this dad, "Good Old Collingwood Forever..." and proceeded to belt it out for all around to hear.
Later, after much running up and down the grassy hills, as we were snacking on our footy foods and the Magpies scored 2 goals in a row she did perk up with the crowd and pronounce "This is exciting dad!"
As the weather turned a little colder we ambled for home with the match continuing behind us.
Checking the score as we neared home we saw that we (the Magpie we) had won and employed our usual Yay Magpies lift into the air.
All in all a good all-round experience - although some, such as Ms Magpie, may claim that taking a four year old to the footy is far too late a starting age.
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Showing posts with label Ms Magpie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ms Magpie. Show all posts
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.
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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.
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Easter Illness
Ah the expectations of a productive Easter break go down the drain when illness strikes - this time in the form of yet another man-cold.
One believes that said man-cold was passed on by ElfBoy, lurked in my system and waited for my immune system to take a dip.
The dip itself was caused by attending the footy on Saturday with The Great Sandro and Legion2. Several hours in the hot sun and a stressful end to the game combined to make me vulnerable to the lurking pestilence. At least we won the game and I can assure Ms Magpie that my team jumper is indeed not cursed as a 1 point win over the supposed bottom team of the competition should prove.
In any case my system took a dive and I sneezed and sniffled my way through the next two days, having to discard my dreams of getting some writing done and prepping/updating my gaming materials for the Thursday night game as my fuzzy head could not contend with the required level of thinking involved.
I did, however, manage to achieve the watching of all my shows as I lay on the couch dieing and managed to be "caught up" - until last night anyway.
Of course I was better enough in time to go to work today. Sigh.
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One believes that said man-cold was passed on by ElfBoy, lurked in my system and waited for my immune system to take a dip.
The dip itself was caused by attending the footy on Saturday with The Great Sandro and Legion2. Several hours in the hot sun and a stressful end to the game combined to make me vulnerable to the lurking pestilence. At least we won the game and I can assure Ms Magpie that my team jumper is indeed not cursed as a 1 point win over the supposed bottom team of the competition should prove.
In any case my system took a dive and I sneezed and sniffled my way through the next two days, having to discard my dreams of getting some writing done and prepping/updating my gaming materials for the Thursday night game as my fuzzy head could not contend with the required level of thinking involved.
I did, however, manage to achieve the watching of all my shows as I lay on the couch dieing and managed to be "caught up" - until last night anyway.
Of course I was better enough in time to go to work today. Sigh.
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Shed Week
Shed Week was heralded in with a weekend party in honour of Agent Smith's newly constructed residence.
While transporting Legion2 and BrotherStealer to the shindig along with myself I may have become lost amongst the unfamiliar - and inadequately signposted - surrounds of the other side of the city. (Perhaps it should be other-other side, since work is already on the other side?) However it merely added to the sense of accomplishment once we did arrive.
At first the affair appeared to be merely a family one, and one did feel out of place amongst the relatives but soon the familiar faces began flowing in. There was The Valkyrie, and Amoeba, Mechwarrior Wayne, Camo Spice, Redneck Ben, Doom, The Doctor, and a most unexpected appearance from The Fungi Lady.
All in all a great night highlighted by Agent Smith and his band belting out some rock favourites in the pool room. The only downside was the good Agent outdoing my drumming prowess by also singing for several of the numbers - such five-way coordination having always been beyond my capabilities.
Early in shed week I snuck back into my home branch to try and recall what it was I had been missing these past few weeks. Alas no luck as the harassment soon drove me to spend the next few days in the IT shed at the corporate castle, ostensibly working on new PCs but actually just secluding myself from society.
Those days did allow me to finish reading The Men Who Stare at Goats which I found to be fun and interesting. It did confirm a lot of my conspiracy theories about the US military. Thanks to Badger for the birthday gift of the book.
A definite highlight of Shed Week was an Old School D&D bash, with The Viking Hat GM and others, in which stupid rules were enforced with TVHGM's usual forceful vigour. Despite all that my poor little Gnome character managed to survive and looks forward to serving his god Sumdertgud in future dungeon delving escapades.
Shed Week was wrapped up with a full day installing new PCs with my trusty sidekick Ms Magpie. Unlike my solo working style we got a lot done with minimal fuss - something it may take me some time to get used to experiencing.
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While transporting Legion2 and BrotherStealer to the shindig along with myself I may have become lost amongst the unfamiliar - and inadequately signposted - surrounds of the other side of the city. (Perhaps it should be other-other side, since work is already on the other side?) However it merely added to the sense of accomplishment once we did arrive.
At first the affair appeared to be merely a family one, and one did feel out of place amongst the relatives but soon the familiar faces began flowing in. There was The Valkyrie, and Amoeba, Mechwarrior Wayne, Camo Spice, Redneck Ben, Doom, The Doctor, and a most unexpected appearance from The Fungi Lady.
All in all a great night highlighted by Agent Smith and his band belting out some rock favourites in the pool room. The only downside was the good Agent outdoing my drumming prowess by also singing for several of the numbers - such five-way coordination having always been beyond my capabilities.
Early in shed week I snuck back into my home branch to try and recall what it was I had been missing these past few weeks. Alas no luck as the harassment soon drove me to spend the next few days in the IT shed at the corporate castle, ostensibly working on new PCs but actually just secluding myself from society.
Those days did allow me to finish reading The Men Who Stare at Goats which I found to be fun and interesting. It did confirm a lot of my conspiracy theories about the US military. Thanks to Badger for the birthday gift of the book.
A definite highlight of Shed Week was an Old School D&D bash, with The Viking Hat GM and others, in which stupid rules were enforced with TVHGM's usual forceful vigour. Despite all that my poor little Gnome character managed to survive and looks forward to serving his god Sumdertgud in future dungeon delving escapades.
Shed Week was wrapped up with a full day installing new PCs with my trusty sidekick Ms Magpie. Unlike my solo working style we got a lot done with minimal fuss - something it may take me some time to get used to experiencing.
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Phorgetful Phorties
While it may seem that a significant change in age has also caused a significant change in the ability of yours truly to remember to keep these humble Tales updated on something of a regular schedule I'm here to present evidence to the contrary.
Nothing has been forgotten from these weeks of silence - except possibly where I left the thingo, you know the whatsit.
Anyway here is a sampling of some of the many things that have kept me too busy to blog.
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Nothing has been forgotten from these weeks of silence - except possibly where I left the thingo, you know the whatsit.
Anyway here is a sampling of some of the many things that have kept me too busy to blog.
- Work of course, and far too much of it. Although I did finally receive my birthday present of my very own minion. Ms Magpie herself was lucky enough to be the recipient of the great honour.
- a lovely conference dinner with a guest appearance from Madame President over from the land of the long white sheep.
- going live with a Library Management System upgrade
- putting in a live appearance at The Viking Hat GM's latest game. Lured in by the promise of the strong leadership of Exploding Ninja Pony.
- making a brief attendance at the conference's trade show aka pen and novelty scavenger hunt. Afterwards I decided to avail myself of the shopping in the city and was then caught in the torrential downpour. There's nothing like catching the train home literally dripping water everywhere. Luckily the book I was reading was a library book so I can just say it was all wrinklified when I borrowed it.
- an expedition to the games shop to spend my librarian gifted birthday present. I now have even more of "far too many games and books", yay.
- a poker night with Dubrovnik Hater and friends in which I unfortunately cleaned up on the last hand most likely causing myself to never be invited back (since eating all the nibbles would never cause that)
- shopping in the city with The Great Sandro. Looking for my birthday present from him - Rome (the TV series, not the city) - and reminiscing about the great time he had with the librarians at my party - I did tell you he's crazy didn't I?
- last minute gaming events organised at my place by Elfboy
- a day home sick almost dying from the latest strain of man-cold - the vestiges of which are still with me to this day
- going to "our first NAB cup footy game together" with The Great Sandro and spending the whole first quarter queuing outside the, currently named, Etihad stadium to find an almost empty arena once inside - no wonder I hate that place.
- beer and board games with Badger
- Tuck's first attendance at the regular Sunday games only to have me spend several hours assuring him that, yes there are usually other people here, when everyone else decided to only make the evening.
- playing pirates with the Tuesday night gamers
- going back into the shed at work to prepare another round of new computers
- being cornered and missing out on drinks and nibbles at our new catalogue product launch
- filling my house with people for the latest of our regular card tournaments - Couch Killer was well behaved this time and no furniture was harmed
- a much delayed family birthday lunch at which Legion3 produced dirty rotten lying scales for our regular brothers weigh off - pffft 3 extra kilos!!!
- a training day with lots of food and me being under the weather with resurfacing man-cold and nasty headache. Honestly I was only able to eat two peoples worth of free lunch I was that bad off.
- a last minute gathering of geeks with great attendance, conversation and results. All thanks to The Viking Hat GM for going to the effort to organise lazy gamers into action.
- a day of setting up new computers with my trusty minion at my side
- a fortuitous game cancellation allowing me time to actually prepare for said games next occurrence
- a trip for groceries ending with my being pelted by golfball sized hailstones in the car park and once again being drenched to dripping-point - a trend I am not liking.
- and finally having to write a long and involved blog catch-up post to get you all back up to speed.
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The Longevity of Immaturity
I just finished reading Radio Free Albemuth by Phillip K ... (tee hee)... Dick!
Now if you'd been sitting beside me then you would have witnessed a reversion to my teenage self and subsequent sniggering about the Author's name, as always happens amongst Legion when we discuss this author's works of literature.
Obviously this juvenile amusement at how easily anything can become a smutty turn of phrase has stuck with me for a long time and is firmly embedded as a Pavlovian behaviour of mine that would take an almighty effort of willpower to dislodge from those habitual centres of my brain.
Thankfully I am not alone in my juvenile depravity.
Many's the time at work when Days of our Libraries, Mr Prada, and Ms Magpie will let loose with hugely snigger-worthy comments on simple innocent things uttered by other staff.
For example recently Country Girl purchased a set of blinds from The Pragmatist, and enquired of her, "How do I mount them?"
Naturally my eyebrows shot up and I raised my head to see Mr Prada eyes wide and eyebrows heading roof-wards. Of course this duplicated smuttiness multiplied upon itself and we were both in hysterics for many minutes afterwards - in fact it still brings a sniggery smirk to my face just thinking about it now.
Anyway I digress.
The Dick book itself was a reasonable read, although rather low on the weirdness one expects from a Dick. Apparently it is a first draft published posthumously but does fit in with several of other Dicks in that way that many Dicks are about the same thing.
Tackle it if you are a Dick fan, however others - such as Ubik -are better if it's going to be your first time with a Dick.
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Now if you'd been sitting beside me then you would have witnessed a reversion to my teenage self and subsequent sniggering about the Author's name, as always happens amongst Legion when we discuss this author's works of literature.
Obviously this juvenile amusement at how easily anything can become a smutty turn of phrase has stuck with me for a long time and is firmly embedded as a Pavlovian behaviour of mine that would take an almighty effort of willpower to dislodge from those habitual centres of my brain.
Thankfully I am not alone in my juvenile depravity.
Many's the time at work when Days of our Libraries, Mr Prada, and Ms Magpie will let loose with hugely snigger-worthy comments on simple innocent things uttered by other staff.
For example recently Country Girl purchased a set of blinds from The Pragmatist, and enquired of her, "How do I mount them?"
Naturally my eyebrows shot up and I raised my head to see Mr Prada eyes wide and eyebrows heading roof-wards. Of course this duplicated smuttiness multiplied upon itself and we were both in hysterics for many minutes afterwards - in fact it still brings a sniggery smirk to my face just thinking about it now.
Anyway I digress.
The Dick book itself was a reasonable read, although rather low on the weirdness one expects from a Dick. Apparently it is a first draft published posthumously but does fit in with several of other Dicks in that way that many Dicks are about the same thing.
Tackle it if you are a Dick fan, however others - such as Ubik -are better if it's going to be your first time with a Dick.
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... The Long, Long, Long, Long, Long Week
So one of our branches was undergoing a re-carpeting and installation of a new circulation desk this week.
You would think that there would be no need for an IT Man to be on site at the beginning of such an enterprise - let alone for a 6am start.
But you would be wrong.
You would also be wrong if you thought that the first day would be the only day where such an esteemed personage would be required extra early as the second day also required such supervision.
And if you also thought that early starts would entail early finishes, thereby maintaining some sort of balance then you would be wrong once more.
You would be at your wrongest if you thought the three day quote which became four and then stretched into five once the job began would not impact on the time and opportunity to restore one branch-ful of IT equipment to it's correct places and in perfect working order.
There were, however, some good things about this week that lasted forever.
In other news I have had my flowing locks pared back as part of the tarting up one must do before partaking in a Libraryland conference such as the one I shall be attending next week.
It also allows me to look my best when I am off away down South tomorrow with Redneck Ben on a drive of over an hour to attend the christening of My Guitarist's spawn.
You would be wrong if you thought this event would happen at an acceptable hour rather than 8.30am on a Sunday.
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You would think that there would be no need for an IT Man to be on site at the beginning of such an enterprise - let alone for a 6am start.
But you would be wrong.
You would also be wrong if you thought that the first day would be the only day where such an esteemed personage would be required extra early as the second day also required such supervision.
And if you also thought that early starts would entail early finishes, thereby maintaining some sort of balance then you would be wrong once more.
You would be at your wrongest if you thought the three day quote which became four and then stretched into five once the job began would not impact on the time and opportunity to restore one branch-ful of IT equipment to it's correct places and in perfect working order.
There were, however, some good things about this week that lasted forever.
- I had fellow sufferers in the form of Sonja Roster Queen and Big J.
- I was able to muscle in on many a morning tea and cakes and the final pizza lunch. All under the pretence that I'd been working all that time that I'd been present at the library.
- I received an immense amount of help from Ms Magpie in the last afternoon which helped shave hours off the time I had to stay behind with naught but cleaners for company. Without her contribution I'm sure I would have seen midnight and beyond.
- I was far too tired at Wednesday night roleplaying to notice the maliciousness with which The Viking Hat GM disposed of my character (ironically a Viking) in his latest game. Instead I attributed it to fatigue marring my judgement.
- I had the perfect excuse for a long, long, long, long, long sleep-in this morning
In other news I have had my flowing locks pared back as part of the tarting up one must do before partaking in a Libraryland conference such as the one I shall be attending next week.
It also allows me to look my best when I am off away down South tomorrow with Redneck Ben on a drive of over an hour to attend the christening of My Guitarist's spawn.
You would be wrong if you thought this event would happen at an acceptable hour rather than 8.30am on a Sunday.
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... The Ten Thousand Dollar Woman
No this post is not about me having forsaken romance and decided to purchase myself an Internet mail-order bride - surely you know I would go for the $12,000 deluxe model with the extra safety features?
The title for this post actually refers to the second of two unusual events that occurred last Tuesday whilst I was making a short visit to the local banking establishment.
The first happened as I joined the queue and the two people in front of me both took mobile phone calls in quick succession. My first thought was "it only needs my phone to go off to complete the picture of the entire queue being on their mobiles". Lo and behold, my phone rang that very second with an urgent request from Ms Magpie - the embarrassment level at joining my queue-mates was almost the equal of being forced to exclaim into one's phone "I'm on the train" whilst travelling on said public transport.
The second incident was when the woman just before me stepped up to the counter. She stated that she wanted to pay 10,000 dollars off from her credit card. She then opened her purse, pulled out a wad of notes, counted ten 100's out, returned those to her purse and plonked the remainding brick of 100 dollar notes onto the counter. Unfortunately I was called up to make my transactions by the other teller before I could observe the conclusion of her transaction.
The unusual banking activities almost put me off the completion of my reading of Genesis by Bernard Becket. This was another teen-read recommendation from The Hellenic Hoofer. And by recommendation I mean thrust into my hands during one of my infrequent visits to his home branch. It was quite an interesting examination of what it means to be conscious and if it's possible for a robot to be a conscious being.
Rounding out my mid-week hijinks was another nerd gathering organised by The Viking Hat GM as a way of trapping new players for his latest game. The Mad Magyar and others had fallen for it but I was there merely for the drink and conversation and there is absolutely no chance that I will be involved in their game next week, honest.
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The title for this post actually refers to the second of two unusual events that occurred last Tuesday whilst I was making a short visit to the local banking establishment.
The first happened as I joined the queue and the two people in front of me both took mobile phone calls in quick succession. My first thought was "it only needs my phone to go off to complete the picture of the entire queue being on their mobiles". Lo and behold, my phone rang that very second with an urgent request from Ms Magpie - the embarrassment level at joining my queue-mates was almost the equal of being forced to exclaim into one's phone "I'm on the train" whilst travelling on said public transport.
The second incident was when the woman just before me stepped up to the counter. She stated that she wanted to pay 10,000 dollars off from her credit card. She then opened her purse, pulled out a wad of notes, counted ten 100's out, returned those to her purse and plonked the remainding brick of 100 dollar notes onto the counter. Unfortunately I was called up to make my transactions by the other teller before I could observe the conclusion of her transaction.
The unusual banking activities almost put me off the completion of my reading of Genesis by Bernard Becket. This was another teen-read recommendation from The Hellenic Hoofer. And by recommendation I mean thrust into my hands during one of my infrequent visits to his home branch. It was quite an interesting examination of what it means to be conscious and if it's possible for a robot to be a conscious being.
Rounding out my mid-week hijinks was another nerd gathering organised by The Viking Hat GM as a way of trapping new players for his latest game. The Mad Magyar and others had fallen for it but I was there merely for the drink and conversation and there is absolutely no chance that I will be involved in their game next week, honest.
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... Workin' on the Desk Again
It seems an age since I was last formally slaving for the public covering the desk while some meeting took place. At least it's a long time since I blogged about it.
I was on with Supervisor Grand Chief K who was fascinated with seeing the RFID machine up close so, of course, I had to do everything - including puzzling out how to open the doors and let the borrowers in.
Eventually I worked out that we used a key to open the door and the library opened only a handful of minutes late - I don't think anybody noticed.
I had to fake my way through quite a few reference and VCE preperation queries, and other such un-fun things while SGCK played around with the RFID machine - trying to get near the machine was like trying to take The Tiger's bowl away during dinner time. Finally I did get to have a go at the machine but then Mr Prada appeared post-meeting and whisked it away from me and put it to his own nefarious uses.
With no RFID machine to play with I had to resort to fixing broken PCs in the afternoon before zooming down to Beaumaris to join their Xmas drinks and nibbles.
I was a touch late but thankfully there was plenty of un-nibbled fare. Ms Magpie and I made some work-related small talk so I feel justified in nibbling half the food on the table.
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I was on with Supervisor Grand Chief K who was fascinated with seeing the RFID machine up close so, of course, I had to do everything - including puzzling out how to open the doors and let the borrowers in.
Eventually I worked out that we used a key to open the door and the library opened only a handful of minutes late - I don't think anybody noticed.
I had to fake my way through quite a few reference and VCE preperation queries, and other such un-fun things while SGCK played around with the RFID machine - trying to get near the machine was like trying to take The Tiger's bowl away during dinner time. Finally I did get to have a go at the machine but then Mr Prada appeared post-meeting and whisked it away from me and put it to his own nefarious uses.
With no RFID machine to play with I had to resort to fixing broken PCs in the afternoon before zooming down to Beaumaris to join their Xmas drinks and nibbles.
I was a touch late but thankfully there was plenty of un-nibbled fare. Ms Magpie and I made some work-related small talk so I feel justified in nibbling half the food on the table.
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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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... RFID Tour Day
Yesterday was a day of visiting several westerly libraries to check out their RFID setup and workflows.
The first stop on the tour was a Sydenham library - a return for me after last years visit.
Wisely deciding to avoid Supervisor Grand Chief K's suspect driving I took the train to meet the group at Sydenham. It was quite a site seeing Mr Prada, Big J, Sonja Roster Queen, Groovy Spirits, Torchwood, Ms Magpie, and Devil's Advocate disembark from the bus and swarm into the library like a school of bibliographic piranhas.
After much investigation - and no morning tea - we took our lives into our own hands and boarded the bus to head on towards our next stop - Caroline Springs (or, in Torchwood parlance, Alice Springs. tsk tsk tsk oh the Welsh.)
Once there we once again swarmed through the library devouring their RFID and other IT set-ups and no morning tea - in a moment of desperation I had to buy myself a mocha at the library cafe.
It wasn't long before we were once again on the bus of death and heading for Sunshine library.
Along the way we made a short stop at this little local attraction.
Sunshine was more of the same but also included a rather unsettling moment of thinking the same thing as Torchwood when the locals replied that they hadn't done any yet to T's question about communicating with the borrowers about their new system which went live last week.
Anyway, after my eyebrows eventually came down again, Supervisor Grand Chief K announced that we were finally going for lunch. Oh, but what a cruel announcement that was. Picking a delightful little wine bar we discovered that lunch would be out of our own pocket!!
After lunch I made up a plausible reason to catch the train rather than spend any more time under the vehicle directing "skills" of SGCK.
I made my way straight home, pausing in the city only long enough for some gaming-related shopping - having the latest edition of Traveller being a requirement to put me back ahead of The Viking Hat GM in the collection stakes.
After some well-earned rest I headed out for the semi-annual soccer night out consisting of some lovely dinner and conversation at a pub along with free drinks from the match payment kitty.
The first stop on the tour was a Sydenham library - a return for me after last years visit.
Wisely deciding to avoid Supervisor Grand Chief K's suspect driving I took the train to meet the group at Sydenham. It was quite a site seeing Mr Prada, Big J, Sonja Roster Queen, Groovy Spirits, Torchwood, Ms Magpie, and Devil's Advocate disembark from the bus and swarm into the library like a school of bibliographic piranhas.
After much investigation - and no morning tea - we took our lives into our own hands and boarded the bus to head on towards our next stop - Caroline Springs (or, in Torchwood parlance, Alice Springs. tsk tsk tsk oh the Welsh.)
Once there we once again swarmed through the library devouring their RFID and other IT set-ups and no morning tea - in a moment of desperation I had to buy myself a mocha at the library cafe.
It wasn't long before we were once again on the bus of death and heading for Sunshine library.
Along the way we made a short stop at this little local attraction.
Sunshine was more of the same but also included a rather unsettling moment of thinking the same thing as Torchwood when the locals replied that they hadn't done any yet to T's question about communicating with the borrowers about their new system which went live last week.
Anyway, after my eyebrows eventually came down again, Supervisor Grand Chief K announced that we were finally going for lunch. Oh, but what a cruel announcement that was. Picking a delightful little wine bar we discovered that lunch would be out of our own pocket!!
After lunch I made up a plausible reason to catch the train rather than spend any more time under the vehicle directing "skills" of SGCK.
I made my way straight home, pausing in the city only long enough for some gaming-related shopping - having the latest edition of Traveller being a requirement to put me back ahead of The Viking Hat GM in the collection stakes.
After some well-earned rest I headed out for the semi-annual soccer night out consisting of some lovely dinner and conversation at a pub along with free drinks from the match payment kitty.
... The Cursed Jumper
So this is the story. When I play soccer on Thursday nights it's always white shirts versus coloured shirts. My Svetlanaland national soccer team shirt does nicely as my white shirt as despite its checkered pattern it is predominately white.
I decided to get myself a Collingwood jumper to wear on those occasions wen I am on the coloured shirt team since it's predominately black - plus I love the irony of a black and white shirt being coloured.
The debut of my wonderful new jumper was at soccer two Thursdays ago. Coincidence.
I donned it a second time for last Sunday's footy match. Still there are extenuating circumstances - in the history of my footy match attendance with The Great Sandro the results have been 50/50, despite ladder position, so I can accept that last week was just one of those things.
However...
Last night was ridiculous. Sure we played better generally but half of Norths goals came from turnover after stupid mistakes from Collingwood, and then there was the unbelievable bounce in the centre that goes completely in Norths favour and gifts them a goal, AND to top it all off Didak misses a simple shot from right in front that could have stolen the lead back again. I was quietly weeping at the death of my jumper-wearing dream while beside me Legion2 was noisily exploding in rage.
I am now thinking that the sweet smell of burning polyester elastane will be shortly drifting about my flat. I'm sure that even Ms Magpie, who doesn't believe in superstitious mumbo jumbo and told me to wear the jumper anyway this week, will now be clamouring for it's demise.
I can tell you for sure that I will not be wearing it while I watch the Anzac Day game this Friday.
In other news
I made a Friday night visit to LURG, the League of Unreasonable Gentlemen. For a little game of Man o' War. No wait that link was wrong try this one, damn not that one either, here's the right one. Afterwards I had a nice chat with Camo Spice and caught up with Redneck Ben for the first time in years.
I'm also in a battle to reclaim my stolen parking space at home as someone else has had the temerity to park in the space I have claimed (it's an odd echo of the situation at Sandringham with Mr Prada stealing my spot all the time) and I've had to revert to parking in the spot that I own. Except someone else has taken a fancy to that spot and my car is now a vagrant of the carpark.
I decided to get myself a Collingwood jumper to wear on those occasions wen I am on the coloured shirt team since it's predominately black - plus I love the irony of a black and white shirt being coloured.
The debut of my wonderful new jumper was at soccer two Thursdays ago. Coincidence.
I donned it a second time for last Sunday's footy match. Still there are extenuating circumstances - in the history of my footy match attendance with The Great Sandro the results have been 50/50, despite ladder position, so I can accept that last week was just one of those things.
However...
Last night was ridiculous. Sure we played better generally but half of Norths goals came from turnover after stupid mistakes from Collingwood, and then there was the unbelievable bounce in the centre that goes completely in Norths favour and gifts them a goal, AND to top it all off Didak misses a simple shot from right in front that could have stolen the lead back again. I was quietly weeping at the death of my jumper-wearing dream while beside me Legion2 was noisily exploding in rage.
I am now thinking that the sweet smell of burning polyester elastane will be shortly drifting about my flat. I'm sure that even Ms Magpie, who doesn't believe in superstitious mumbo jumbo and told me to wear the jumper anyway this week, will now be clamouring for it's demise.
I can tell you for sure that I will not be wearing it while I watch the Anzac Day game this Friday.
In other news
I made a Friday night visit to LURG, the League of Unreasonable Gentlemen. For a little game of Man o' War. No wait that link was wrong try this one, damn not that one either, here's the right one. Afterwards I had a nice chat with Camo Spice and caught up with Redneck Ben for the first time in years.
I'm also in a battle to reclaim my stolen parking space at home as someone else has had the temerity to park in the space I have claimed (it's an odd echo of the situation at Sandringham with Mr Prada stealing my spot all the time) and I've had to revert to parking in the spot that I own. Except someone else has taken a fancy to that spot and my car is now a vagrant of the carpark.
... The Big Loss
I've just watched the mighty pies give a great account of themselves and come achingly close to winning their way into another Grand Final. It was a hard fought game with a little bit of everything including a Didak special - out of the air, over his head and through the middle. I hope Ms Magpie managed to survive the nail-biting final minutes without too much trouble.
Oh well at least Scully won't be missing the team in a Grand Final when she scoots off overseas next week.
Oh and Supervisor S has left the organisation as well.
Oh well at least Scully won't be missing the team in a Grand Final when she scoots off overseas next week.
Oh and Supervisor S has left the organisation as well.
... Another Free Lunch
The first two days of the week I was back at my spiritual home branch Sandringham. Monday night I hosted CC for the return dinner and then had a nice long phone talk with Svetlana the first for a while and I didn't realise how much I missed our talks until she had to hang up on me to get me to stop talking. Tuesday was a card's only gaming night but I think ArchEnemy may have given me the cold he dragged himself out of bed with just so he could play.
Today was my regular day at Beaumaris. It was, as usual, interrupted. This time I had to go to Corp HQ for a user group meeting and a free lunch. The lunch happened at the beginning so I'm not sure why I stayed. It did have it's benefits though - as CC demo'd the helpdesk software we use I had many "oh it can do that" moments and I am going to start using it more heavily again.
After staying back late at Bea yakking with Ms Magpie and Mr Prada I dropped by JB on the way home to collect the new Tanya Donelly album. By new I mean released a year ago - which shows how long it is since I looked at her web page (if only there was some really simple syndicated way of being informed of updates to web sites).
Today was my regular day at Beaumaris. It was, as usual, interrupted. This time I had to go to Corp HQ for a user group meeting and a free lunch. The lunch happened at the beginning so I'm not sure why I stayed. It did have it's benefits though - as CC demo'd the helpdesk software we use I had many "oh it can do that" moments and I am going to start using it more heavily again.
After staying back late at Bea yakking with Ms Magpie and Mr Prada I dropped by JB on the way home to collect the new Tanya Donelly album. By new I mean released a year ago - which shows how long it is since I looked at her web page (if only there was some really simple syndicated way of being informed of updates to web sites).
... The Footy, take two
I went to the footy again yesterday and this time the pies got it right. Ignoring ladder position it was a good close back and forth game and didn't look over until halfway through the last quarter. I went with The Great Sandro again, who was unhappy this week so it's one all this year. BestFriendSincePrep was at the ground as well but he was in a corporate box with free beer and was strangely uncontactable after the game...
Ms Magpie was also supposed to be there and should be pleased with the result even though I suspect her reasons for watching athletic young men in tight shorts running around are a little less sport related than mine.
Ms Magpie was also supposed to be there and should be pleased with the result even though I suspect her reasons for watching athletic young men in tight shorts running around are a little less sport related than mine.
... the Footy
Here's a caution for you all. Going to the footy on a cold winters evening to see your team out of the game after the first 10 minutes is not good for your spirits.
One can only hope that Ms Magpie was able to keep her cool as if anything could break her new icy footy-watching calm it would be the teams performance.
On the good side I got to spend ludicrous amounts of money on donuts.
Sundays was a gaming day and we had a bumper turn out, with The Valkyrie and Pirate Dave showing up for the first time in years. Main game of the afternoon was Sword and Skulls a love child of Talisman and Monopoly (but one that actually finishes in a couple of hours).
Today was back to work and back to puzzling "why does it work on that computer but not on this one" problems - oh and the obligatory network outage just when I was nutting out a problem.
One can only hope that Ms Magpie was able to keep her cool as if anything could break her new icy footy-watching calm it would be the teams performance.
On the good side I got to spend ludicrous amounts of money on donuts.
Sundays was a gaming day and we had a bumper turn out, with The Valkyrie and Pirate Dave showing up for the first time in years. Main game of the afternoon was Sword and Skulls a love child of Talisman and Monopoly (but one that actually finishes in a couple of hours).
Today was back to work and back to puzzling "why does it work on that computer but not on this one" problems - oh and the obligatory network outage just when I was nutting out a problem.
... the Anzac Day Footy
I'm back from going to the Anzac day AFL game between Collingwood and Essendon. The boys pulled out a brave, slogging, fumbling win which should greatly help Ms Magpie to recover from recent unfortunate events.
Pies 12 goals 23(!!) behinds : 95
Dons 11 goals 13 behinds : 79
I was there with my long time ArchEnemy from Tuesdays gaming and the day was organized by a soccer buddy from council. It was a good day despite having to line up at 10 in order to get a seat in the members - I feel like I earned the win by being at the MCG for seven and a half hours!
The great Didak was back and played a consistent game so we may be starting to march towards finals again, dare I hope it.
Pies 12 goals 23(!!) behinds : 95
Dons 11 goals 13 behinds : 79
I was there with my long time ArchEnemy from Tuesdays gaming and the day was organized by a soccer buddy from council. It was a good day despite having to line up at 10 in order to get a seat in the members - I feel like I earned the win by being at the MCG for seven and a half hours!
The great Didak was back and played a consistent game so we may be starting to march towards finals again, dare I hope it.
... the Day of Settlement
After a quiet and anticipatory Easter break I've picked up the keys to my new place.
I've just returned form the first thorough look-through and measure for furniture placement. There are a few strange stains on the carpet in every room that I can only assume are from pot plant placement (although I haven't ruled out a mob hit). I'm still thinking on it but it may mean that Svetlana gets her wish and I do the whole place with floorboards instead of just the living room and hallway.
There'll be some painting involved as well and maybe some additional shelves put in - it all depends on how available Handy Dad is in the coming weeks (and how much free beer I'll have to provide).
All of this domestic busyness was only interrupted once, a call came in from Ms Magpie at Beaumaris branch to reiterate that they are still having their bizarre freezing up problem. I'm going to have to go there tomorrow and let my IT person magnetic field fix the problem without me doing anything else.
I've just returned form the first thorough look-through and measure for furniture placement. There are a few strange stains on the carpet in every room that I can only assume are from pot plant placement (although I haven't ruled out a mob hit). I'm still thinking on it but it may mean that Svetlana gets her wish and I do the whole place with floorboards instead of just the living room and hallway.
There'll be some painting involved as well and maybe some additional shelves put in - it all depends on how available Handy Dad is in the coming weeks (and how much free beer I'll have to provide).
All of this domestic busyness was only interrupted once, a call came in from Ms Magpie at Beaumaris branch to reiterate that they are still having their bizarre freezing up problem. I'm going to have to go there tomorrow and let my IT person magnetic field fix the problem without me doing anything else.
... 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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