Catching Up

So One is once again faced with having to catch up on happenings by having a catching up post which details all of One's catching up of recent times and should, hopefully, catch us all up on all things catch-upable.

We start our Tale many weekends in the past...

Suits You to Catch Up

First was the occasion of a fancy suit fitting in preparation for the incoming nuptials festival for Pirate Dave. It was an enjoyable endeavour but one does have to bak at describing it as excellent service when such terms as concealment, de-accentuate, hide, and work-around, were used so extensively during One's segment of the fitting.

Catching Up with Dromana Queen

The very next day Salsa Girl and I made a long haul drive to assist Hulk in attending a peer's birthday party. There was food and fun and also our first, and last, beach frolic of the summer, accompanied by the chatter of the teeth of many tweens that refused to exit the water.

Continuing into the next week...

Caught up by printers

One has been relieved to be entering the final stages of one's infinite printer rollout at work. However one did, after a hard days printering, find oneself caught up in a troubleshooting visit to attempt to deal with Freeloading Mum's home printer conundrum. Needless to say, an episode of madness ensued.

And the weekend...

Gardening catch up

One has gotten behind in One's maintenance of the garden and so it was that one caught up on the task by the expediency of having BestFriendSincePrep scour away the existing garden and commence a complete rebuild.

A Birthday board game to catch up on plays

For One's spawning celebrations this year I exercised the well known rule that guests must play whatever game I choose - whether they like it or not! In this case I rolled out Falling Sky a game of Caesar and the Gauls, for the first time since 2019. Pirate Dave won again - even though he had gone home and his tribe ran as a scripted opponent - so I shall be putting it away for another four years.

The gaming to dos...

Catching the Space Bug again...

The Tuesday Knights roleplaying group that meets on Wednesdays, commenced a new game that is a return to one's favourite - Traveller.

Catching a moment...

One, sadly was at a commemorative for a work associate - a fellow IT Man In LibraryLand - who passed far too early. One had bantered IT on many, many occasions over the years with him and sought advice on many a topic when in tricky IT situations. His full life story was quite a humbling experience and one can see that his family and friends will miss him dearly. Vale John.

The weekend again...

Catching the imagination...

One has long imagined reclaiming a part of one's desk from the accoutrements of working from home that have long laid claim to such prized realestate. Thus time was finally found to undertake a desk rearrangement and now the WFH things are the temporary items moved into and out of place as required. And now the gloriously revealed desktop space is finally awash with piles of gaming paraphernalia.

A quick catch of the fleetingly in town...

Circumstances aligned well enough for One to make a catch-up with Lord of the Small Fries. This was also blessed with the attendance of The Administrator, Supervisor Grand Chief K, and The Fox. Much was discussed in a throwback to our great days and it shall have to happen much more frequently.

And back at the old stomping ground...

Catching the changes

One attended an IT in libraries meeting at ones old home in Sandringham. While there One was lucky enough to catch up with Criket Cutter, Sonja Roster Queen,  Country Girl, and The Maple Maverick. One decided to head North and stomp around Brighton some as well, managing to catch Longstride L and The Historical Menace in the building.

So there you have it. Did you catch it all?

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Freedom Days

 One is pleasantly surprised to see so many celebrations of freedom these past weeks.

It is quite humbling to see what seems like the whole world turning out to celebrate one's two year anniversary of being freed from the dictatorial control of Supervisor Grand Chief K.

Yes, it's hard to describe the sense of relief one can feel when such a yoke is removed and one has to no longer kowtow to the completely unreasonable demands that actual work be done and projects be completed.

It is sad to no longer be "working" with the likes of Sister Serials, Psycho Chicken, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Maple Maverick, Lord of the Small Fries, Longstride L, Bomber Babe, LibraryBFF, Sidekick, Days of our Libraries, The Administrator, Roysgirl, Sonja Roster Queen, and Mr Prada - but they too had their incomprehensible demands that things be fixed, technology be made to work, procedures written up, and could one please stop eating all the cake in the staff kitchen.

So, here's to one's freedom, may it be everlasting!

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I Claudius

So one has finished this long saga of lies, betrayal, and power at the top corrupting even those that have the best intentions.

 I believe I Claudius the BBC series first came to my attention many a year ago when Judge Mingus mentioned it in an obviously insidious manner and it finally provoked me to commence a watching of it all over a few weeks.

When One announced that One was tackling this cultural touchstone of the late seventies The Maple Maverick was quite derisory but even he had to agree with me that i was correct that it got better after the first 3 hours.

If your interests lie in interior sets for exterior locations ala early Dr Who; stage delivery of dialogue; early career work of Brian Blessed, John Hurt, Patrick Stuart (with curly hair!), the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior, and countless others; reasonably impressive ageing makeup; lots of "I say look at that interesting thing happening off screen!"; and in particular Roman history, then you may well have an enjoyable time with the I Claudius series.
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Gettysburg aka Hairysburg

One watched this filmic rendition of the historic Civil War battle  over a number of days last week. It was a recommendation from The Maple Maverick who later confessed that he hadn't been able to make it past the second day.

Speaking of which I consider it a brave decision by the creators to have the film last about as long as the actual battle.
Of course they did try to distract from this by filling the screen with the most amazing array of facial hair variations, including Tom Berenger in the fakest beard ever.

The film used many of the actual locations and thousands of eager re-enactors, many of whom proved to be eager over-actors.

Overall it is an interesting film with some information to be learned and visuals that will amaze you.

In short: come for the History and stay for the beards!
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Packin’ Up The House

So, one has been a tad busy this past week or so packing up one’s old stomping ground in preparation for a Grand upgrading of facilities. 

Along with the likes of Mr Prada, Days of our Libraries, Country Girl, The Maple Maverick, and Sidekick, One has been dismantling technical equipment, moving furniture and uncovering dust bunnies not seen since the Jurassic (and the other half of that delicious biscuit one lost down the side of one’s old desk back in the Spring of ‘08). 

It has been quite an exercise in lifting, carrying, and cord untangling and it has proven tiring for one to direct all that frenzied activity. 

Going Solo

Of course previous weeks have also been busy as One was left to one’s own devices several weekends ago and forced to go solo with Salsa Girl and Hulk off to the sunnier Northern climes of Bendigo. 

... With Solo

The first solo occasion was marked by spending the evening with Sneaky Pete and BrotherStealer watching one’s copy of Solo which refuses to play on one’s blue ray. 

It was an enjoyable evening of of visual and gastronomic feasting. 

... with The Great Sandro

One’s next solitary activity was an expedition to that horrible stadium that is far from Marvel-lous to watch the Pies not play at all. 

Joining one in solitude were The Great Sandro and Sneaky Pete. The less said about the experience the better. 

After all that Solo activity the following weeks became a blur of work and school holidays - I am fairly sure that I attended the correct one. 

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The unread A to Z : Crowdsourcing D

One has finished a brace of titles recently, including:

Factotum - Parte the Thirde of the Monster Blood Tattoo series - 4 stars

The Road - a recommendation from The Maple Maverick after discussions of zombie survival and looking after kids - SPOILER: no zombies in The Road. 4 bleak stars

The Gods of Risk - a novella in the universe of The Expanse. A nice touch base between the 2nd and 3rd books. 4 stars - in space!


One is now considering that it is time for the next read in ones A to Z of Unread SciFi and Fantasy Authors quest.

One has progressed as far as the D and now has nothing on the to read pile that qualifies.

Ergo, I am reaching out to my network of loyal readers in order to crowd source my D - or at least a short-list of Ds.


The Rules
Titles should be in the sci-fi and fantasy realms, or speculative fiction if you prefer.

The Author's Surname should begin with the letter D, and they should be one who's wares one has not sampled before.

Here is my Author list of already read Ds from the last 8 odd years (one's inner sniggering schoolboy notes that one has read a lot of Dick books in one's life):

Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Martin Day, Guillermo del Toro,  Philip K. Dick, Thomas M. Disch, Sara Douglass

So get to it Internet, and recommend away.

Bonus points if the book is available in the work catalogue

Even more bonus points, and the win I guess, if you place your recommendation into one's hands.
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The Face of Battle by John Keegan

This recommended read came to me via The Maple Maverick who enthused at length about it before stuffing it into one's hands.

It is a non-fiction account of three historic battles, Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, which - once one gets past the lengthy "what is military history" introduction - delves into the psychology of the participants in a quite interesting way. Rather eye-opening if one has taken movies and more strategic focused military histories to be an insight into the battles themselves.
I rate it at three and a half stars - worth a read if you are interested in the subject matter.
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Anthem by Ayn Rand, and Onwards

One knocked over this little recommendation from The Maple Maverick in only a few days. It is of an ilk to such classics as 1984 and Brave New World - and shows it.

The author presents it as her anthem to ego and living for oneself in a repressive society and it is such given the over the top repression the society has devolved into. One can see great shadows of growing up in the newly communist USSR cast over the whole book along with a healthy dose of new American Red Scare.
There is not much of new substance if one has read the aforementioned other two in this genre but it's short length, easy style, and historical interest make it a reasonable read.

Speaking of great shadows I have now commenced reading the epic Song of Ice and Fire - as heavily recommended by ArchEnemy (i.e. "read it or I'll burn your house down") and sundry others.
It is quite good so far but carries the heavy weight of expectation that has been built up over the years by the many glowing accolades it has received.

At the low reading rate one has managed to achieve this past year it's going to be fingers crossed that one can finish this first massive tome before the year's out let alone the other dozen or so volumes these fantasy epics usually run to.
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... The Week with Extra Mr Prada

Nobody can say I don't listen to my legions of fans.
Due to overwhelming request today's post will have the first MR PRADA content for a while. Quite a while I see after doing the research and noting his last appearance was back in June. He must have been doing something wrong, or right, to not warrant any mentions in The Tales in all that time.

And so to business.


The Early Week
I was lucky enough to spend the early part of the week back at my desk and luxuriating in the company of MR PRADA and others at my home branch. It was an unusual experience after the last few months however, sure enough, I was soon dragged back to the other branches.


The Fresh Starts
The rest of the big things of note this week seem to be gaming related - there was some big statistics things but that is more boring than hearing MR PRADA prattle on about mapleland's superiority.

We had another great session on Tuesday with the evening seeming like a fresh new game - said freshness having nothing to do with the absence of Gavman or Pirate Dave and all to do with lower numbers making for a more free flowing game, plus without Pirate Dave punning me or Gavman stunning me with his gaming non sequiturs every 30 seconds I was much better able to run the game.

On Wednesday I suffered once more at the hands of The Viking Hat GM as he forced me to partake in another of his games and play a foppish noble yet again, although he will surely claim "the dice did it!".

Thursday gaming did an abrupt about face as we (well Fantomas and I) decided to switch from space to fantasy in order to help our newest gamer adjust to what it's all about and ensure that the gaming addiction would take properly.
I look forward to rolling out a long brewing fantasy of mine involving all present even as I mourn the loss of the space adventures.


The Maple Maverick Returns
This week did see the return of The Maple Maverick however my only real interaction with him was to bamboozle him with a new backup tape system - much like the way MR PRADA bamboozles us lesser fashionistas with his dazzling array of finery.


Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
Along the way this week I finished reading the latest, for me, book from Mr Reilly.

I was immediately struck by how much the story read like a parody of himself - similiar to the way in which MR PRADA's recent freakouts have become just a parody of the earlier installments. It was vaguely reminiscent of several of Legion4's boyhood stories of spydom almost verbatim in some cases - "some bad guys came running so I pulled out a grenade and threw it at them" - would not have looked out of place in this story.

It was also full of obvious repetition of plot elements and ridiculous cliffhanger endings to paragraphs that were contradicted at the beginnings of the paragraphs immediately following.

e.g. they fired at him with a rocket launcher that couldn't miss in the enclosed space...

Which missed by an inch as he ducked underneath the rocket.

Oh well Mr Reilly not your finest hour and somewhat tarnishing my memories of those of your older books I did enjoy.

Skyping the Svets again
I spent a raging Friday night on the internet phone to Svetlana much to her amusement that I had no partying to go to. One can't believe that she is blind to the obvious sacrifice I made of my rich social life to spend time talking to her. It's like MR PRADA and I were saying the other day in the library over a metaphorical beverage, "chix man, who can understand them?".

Speaking of my rich social life I must be off to attend Legion3's Half 70 party. I shall return bearing tales aplenty methinks.
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... The Maverik's Mad Mixer

After a long and tiring week catching up on all the work I so gleefully avoided whilst at my training last week I found myself finally able to relax at the farewell do for The Maple Maverick as he is about to forsake Libraryland for Mapleland.


I was a little late to the party and not for my usual fashionable grand entrance reasons. This time it was due to Sister Serials, ever a thorn in my side, discovering a slight flaw in my latest brilliant system tweak which made it impossible for her to complete her usual workflow. I fail to understand the issue as not having to do your job sounds like every workers dream to me. Nevertheless I soldiered on badgering away at the problem until eventually, with the call of the pub ringing in my ears I managed to decide to use the old IT standby "maybe it'll fix itself over the weekend".


Upon arrival at the venue I found out it was also yet another farewell for Adversary, who just won't stay away for good.
Anyway, The Maverick had gathered quite a mix of staff from across the branches and many tall tales and tall drinks were had before I tore myself away in order to rush home to catch the remains of the footy on tv - which, given how easily we dealt with Beeby's boys was quite the relaxing end to the week that I had been after all along.
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... The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

I finished this off this morning. It was an interesting read hampered by an awkward writing style - as I shall show in Chapter Two - and frequent lapses out of an objective viewpoint.
I found most of the ideas in the book to be quite well thought out but it did reach into the edges of hysteria in parts in an apparent attempt to show a dangerous slippery slope effect.

Chapter 2
It might be just me but, on consultation with The Maple Maverick who is widely read in all things non-fiction, I think most of us would find it damn annoying to be continually told that this and that will be shown later in the book. Okay I'll make an exception for the introduction but once you get into the text proper it is merely annoying and should not be necessary.

As to the objectivity question an editor really needs to modify quite a few the sentences as shown below:

I will refute their ridiculous arguments

Overall worth the read to find out what all the fuss was about but I'm going back to my Genre fiction.
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... A Very Library Xmas

Well the big event of yesterday was the library staff Xmas Party.

Sonja Roster Queen had foolishly offered her residence as the venue. It was a miserable day with constant downpouring rain but I was determined to get my free complimentary drink and dinner. So I made my way across town through the monsoon rains to eventually arrive on the doorstep only mildly bedraggled.

I had barely swigged my first Cointreau Kiss and started on the dips before Supervisor Grand Chief K, making a brief cameo, officially opened proceedings with a big thank you for the years work to all staff and especially the IT Man who had been working tirelessly all year.

Food was very good and a strangely cowboy hat festooned Kiwichick was quick to claim credit although I suspect food that good can only be the work of Days of our Libraries.

There are not too many crazy goings-on to report - the usual karaoke accompanied by The Administrator's fine air-guitar work featured for many hours, with a bonus Mr Prada and Days of our Libraries Bonnie Tyler duet this year. There was also the yelling contest that is the kris kringle ceremony. This years unexpected fall was Devil's Advocate's collapsing chair mime-routine, complete with unspilled champagne glass.

I spent a large part of the evening cloistered under the veranda roof keeping out of the rain with the dirty-smokers as that was the place for contemplative conversation. It has been so long since I came home with the stench of smoke upon myself that I don't begrudge anyone for the remainder of the bad old night out side effects.

I completed my night with my usual taxi duties dropping Beeby and Groovy Spirits off in quick succession before taking The Maple Maverick on the long haul back to our neck of the woods.

Oh and AntagonisticAl did absolutely nothing to be ashamed of all night.
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