... the IT man in LibraryLand
So one was able to start the day yesterday with the auspicious news that yet another marketing officer had been seen off by one's persistence. We are now at something like five or six if one wants to count temporary appointments.
It is of some concern that this one lasted so much longer than previous incarnations and I do hope that I had not begun to feel some sort of ... fondness? ... for the incumbent and therefore relented on my usual efficiency.
In any case AntagonisticAl will be but a faint memory after another month and one shall be the proud possessor of two and one half desks across the library service.
My only fear is that this is part of some long term plan of Supervisor Grand Chief K to engineer the return of Torchwood later in the year to pick up were she left off with her tormenting me with demands that I do such things as provide IT assistance as per one's position description.
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Showing posts with label Torchwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Torchwood. Show all posts
The Innocuous return of Torchwood, and Movie Night
One is at somewhat of a loss.
Friday evenings "celebratory" drinks in honour of the return visit to our shores of Torchwood went off without a single noteworthy hitch or spectacle of which to write about.
Even with Supervisor Grand Chief K at her enabling best there were no sudden spills or embarassing statements and the entire night was only fun and frivilous conversation.
Sigh. How am I supposed to satisfy my content hungry readership if things continue to go well with no unfortunate happenings?
Slightly more eventful was movie night with MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer.
We had a trio of movies that fit the "good film that at least one of us hasn't seen" criteria - Big Trouble in Little China, The Losers, Martin - thanks to Fantomas and Legion2 - although I must point out that my identical copy of Big Trouble in Little China would have been superior to Fantomas's.
As has become recent tradition Couch Killer stuck himself to me and I had to control the wriggling, squirming mass for much of the first few hours. When I taunted Vengeful Vic that I was going to steal her child she replied with glee that she had a bag packed for him in the hall and we could leave straight away, so I was forced to recant my taunt.
Since that delightful eve I have had:
.
Friday evenings "celebratory" drinks in honour of the return visit to our shores of Torchwood went off without a single noteworthy hitch or spectacle of which to write about.
Even with Supervisor Grand Chief K at her enabling best there were no sudden spills or embarassing statements and the entire night was only fun and frivilous conversation.
Sigh. How am I supposed to satisfy my content hungry readership if things continue to go well with no unfortunate happenings?
Slightly more eventful was movie night with MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer.
We had a trio of movies that fit the "good film that at least one of us hasn't seen" criteria - Big Trouble in Little China, The Losers, Martin - thanks to Fantomas and Legion2 - although I must point out that my identical copy of Big Trouble in Little China would have been superior to Fantomas's.
As has become recent tradition Couch Killer stuck himself to me and I had to control the wriggling, squirming mass for much of the first few hours. When I taunted Vengeful Vic that I was going to steal her child she replied with glee that she had a bag packed for him in the hall and we could leave straight away, so I was forced to recant my taunt.
Since that delightful eve I have had:
- an afternoon of gaming with some D-Day reenactment games of Memoir 44. Attending at the tail end was Amoeba, getting back into my good books with a very late but quite appropriate birthday present of dice and chocolate Fudge.
- yet another skipped gaming night - this one due to Torchwood, and The Administrator and Lord of the Small Fries organising a last minute dinner
- several cases of mysterious chocolate overdose
- my succumbing (? succumbation) to ElfBoy's boys cold that he has been dosing me with for the past month
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Yet another what's been going on post
So, sigh, it has gotten away from me again. It being: keeping a regular schedule of post with significant content - sure I could post a whole lot of twitteresque posts ala my 25 blogs of Xmas.
However, since I can link to it, you can see I've already done it before.
As to the happenings that have kept one away from The Tales, well I can count amongst them...
A relaxing old-school gaming Sunday which led into the week of the print system upgrade.
Not only did this so quoted "half-day job" turn out to be a full five day extravaganza, but I was also forced to skip gaming and assist AntagonisticAl at one of her festival events when there was trouble getting a laptop to present correctly. The difficulty of my investigation was enhanced considerably by the official photographer's extensive knowledge of everything. So amidst this flurry of superior advice I had to listen to many a repetition of basic IT procedure (i.e. turn it off and on) long after I was already onto the more advanced stuff like searching the help file. Suffice to say the hour was late and the thank-you-for-fixing-it champagne, pizza and cake so plentiful that I was forced to stay on for the duration of the event.
To make matters worse, just when the upgrade was coming to a near close - I say near as there are still some persistent niggly issues to be addressed - the Internet decided to disappear for most of Friday leaving me pretending to have work to do.
Having made it to this weekend last it was a pleasure to load Legion2 into the car and head out bush to attend a visit back to town by The Fungi Lady. Doom, The Doctor, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer were also present.
Sunday, however, was back into the trend of horribly drawn out happenings as I attended the Carlton Weagles game with The Great Sandro after ElfBoy conveniently caught himself a Man-Cold and was unable to join us.
In true primary-school tradition though, he made a magnificent recovery in time for some post-footy card playing with Pirate Dave enticed into attendance. Said card games all being long drawn out affairs.
In a way it was a relief to return to work this week even though I was faced with the looming spectre of lingering printer problems and a return visit to our shores of the infamous Torchwood (there will undoubtedly be more on this iniquitous occurrence after a drinking session scheduled for tomorrow night).
Gaming was once again sacrificed for other pursuits - although this time not too far removed as it was another Geektogether drinks night.
Successful events from the evening include: Legion2 making it along for the first time; Pirate Dave reaching expected levels of inebriation in record time; and myself avoiding being dragooned into another game of The Viking Hat GM.
Today made the perfect antidote for lots of work with training in the city followed by an inexpensive steak lunch with CC and The Polster before returning to work for a meeting, some frivol and then home time.
Phew that was a lot to get through. Perhaps there would be some benefit to twitterising my postings after all...
.
However, since I can link to it, you can see I've already done it before.
As to the happenings that have kept one away from The Tales, well I can count amongst them...
A relaxing old-school gaming Sunday which led into the week of the print system upgrade.
Not only did this so quoted "half-day job" turn out to be a full five day extravaganza, but I was also forced to skip gaming and assist AntagonisticAl at one of her festival events when there was trouble getting a laptop to present correctly. The difficulty of my investigation was enhanced considerably by the official photographer's extensive knowledge of everything. So amidst this flurry of superior advice I had to listen to many a repetition of basic IT procedure (i.e. turn it off and on) long after I was already onto the more advanced stuff like searching the help file. Suffice to say the hour was late and the thank-you-for-fixing-it champagne, pizza and cake so plentiful that I was forced to stay on for the duration of the event.
To make matters worse, just when the upgrade was coming to a near close - I say near as there are still some persistent niggly issues to be addressed - the Internet decided to disappear for most of Friday leaving me pretending to have work to do.
Having made it to this weekend last it was a pleasure to load Legion2 into the car and head out bush to attend a visit back to town by The Fungi Lady. Doom, The Doctor, MatrixMan, Vengeful Vic, and Couch Killer were also present.
Sunday, however, was back into the trend of horribly drawn out happenings as I attended the Carlton Weagles game with The Great Sandro after ElfBoy conveniently caught himself a Man-Cold and was unable to join us.
In true primary-school tradition though, he made a magnificent recovery in time for some post-footy card playing with Pirate Dave enticed into attendance. Said card games all being long drawn out affairs.
In a way it was a relief to return to work this week even though I was faced with the looming spectre of lingering printer problems and a return visit to our shores of the infamous Torchwood (there will undoubtedly be more on this iniquitous occurrence after a drinking session scheduled for tomorrow night).
Gaming was once again sacrificed for other pursuits - although this time not too far removed as it was another Geektogether drinks night.
Successful events from the evening include: Legion2 making it along for the first time; Pirate Dave reaching expected levels of inebriation in record time; and myself avoiding being dragooned into another game of The Viking Hat GM.
Today made the perfect antidote for lots of work with training in the city followed by an inexpensive steak lunch with CC and The Polster before returning to work for a meeting, some frivol and then home time.
Phew that was a lot to get through. Perhaps there would be some benefit to twitterising my postings after all...
.
... The Wiper Swiper
So you go to Legion2's place for the regular night of gaming. A good night is had by all and then at the tail end of the festivities you make your way to your car - parked just outside the front door in the driveway twenty metres from the road - and find the driver side mirror folded flat towards the front of the car.
You put it down to some weird joke as it does fit into the realm of things-Pirate Dave-would-do-on-his-way-out-the-door.
However, once you start driving you quickly realise that your driver side windscreen wiper is gone and on closer inspection so is half the arm that hold it in place.
It then takes you some time to fall asleep as you mind is awash with images of right-of-passage "go up the driveway and get the aerial off that car" kind of things which your cars short and stubby roof-mounted aerial thwarts leaving the wiper blade as the next best thing; or stranger bizarre revenge plots.
It all shifts from the weird to the mirk-some (mirked = mildly irked) when, after instructing another room full of 2.0ites, you find that the arm bits and rubber come with a $50 replacement cost (well $48 but I rounded up for dramatic effect.) - and they have to order the part in!
- -
Speaking of 2.0, while in the process of instructing Kiwichick and others it came to light that, despite my resolute proclamations to the contrary, I had already done del.icio.us.
Also present was AntagonisticAl, our latest marketing person. For some reason she was deeply suspicious of me and contemplating pre-emptive blog-based revenge. I suspect something about tormenting me must be in the handover notes from Torchwood or possibly inserted into the marketing position description by Supervisor Grand Chief K.
.
You put it down to some weird joke as it does fit into the realm of things-Pirate Dave-would-do-on-his-way-out-the-door.
However, once you start driving you quickly realise that your driver side windscreen wiper is gone and on closer inspection so is half the arm that hold it in place.
It then takes you some time to fall asleep as you mind is awash with images of right-of-passage "go up the driveway and get the aerial off that car" kind of things which your cars short and stubby roof-mounted aerial thwarts leaving the wiper blade as the next best thing; or stranger bizarre revenge plots.
It all shifts from the weird to the mirk-some (mirked = mildly irked) when, after instructing another room full of 2.0ites, you find that the arm bits and rubber come with a $50 replacement cost (well $48 but I rounded up for dramatic effect.) - and they have to order the part in!
- -
Speaking of 2.0, while in the process of instructing Kiwichick and others it came to light that, despite my resolute proclamations to the contrary, I had already done del.icio.us.
Also present was AntagonisticAl, our latest marketing person. For some reason she was deeply suspicious of me and contemplating pre-emptive blog-based revenge. I suspect something about tormenting me must be in the handover notes from Torchwood or possibly inserted into the marketing position description by Supervisor Grand Chief K.
.
... The Well Deserved Day Off
I don't want to be a martyr but boy have I suffered lately for this RFID project.
So to make use of some of the hundreds of extra hours I've worked over the past months I decided to take a single day off.
The first complication was cancelling my IT Team meeting - which wasn't in my calendar(not my fault, honest) - so that they wouldn't scheme against me without me there.
The next wonderful thing that happened was The Tiger deciding to wake me early because she felt the need for company while she ate the bountiful food I'd left out for her the night before. I tell you I'm looking forward to Svetlana's coming visit so I'll be able to kick her out of bed with orders to look after the little one.
This wakeup was followed by a call from Torchwood's temporary successor continuing the harassment that I'm sure Torchwood herself included in the position handover instructions.
Once my day proper had begun it was quickly spoiled by The Beaumaris Ballerina, who decided to make a Sister Serials-esque support call about - you guessed it - an RFID problem.
One of the benefits of being home was being able to fianlly have a phone conversation with Svetlana herself after a few weeks of mixed up weekend schedules.
So to make use of some of the hundreds of extra hours I've worked over the past months I decided to take a single day off.
The first complication was cancelling my IT Team meeting - which wasn't in my calendar(not my fault, honest) - so that they wouldn't scheme against me without me there.
The next wonderful thing that happened was The Tiger deciding to wake me early because she felt the need for company while she ate the bountiful food I'd left out for her the night before. I tell you I'm looking forward to Svetlana's coming visit so I'll be able to kick her out of bed with orders to look after the little one.
This wakeup was followed by a call from Torchwood's temporary successor continuing the harassment that I'm sure Torchwood herself included in the position handover instructions.
Once my day proper had begun it was quickly spoiled by The Beaumaris Ballerina, who decided to make a Sister Serials-esque support call about - you guessed it - an RFID problem.
One of the benefits of being home was being able to fianlly have a phone conversation with Svetlana herself after a few weeks of mixed up weekend schedules.
... The Days of the Machines
My last few days have been a blur of IT activity.
It started with the delivery of our new RFID kiosks. Luckily they were also delivered with techs to get them set up and working. So in between all my other wonderful problem solving escapades I have been liaising with said techs and LMS suppliers and staff and maintenance persons.
And today has been training to get staff up to speed on the machines. Of course all this talk of machines brings to mind the recent, and wonderfully Terminator-esque, "You know in the end the machines will win" gambling billboards seen around Melbourne ( viewable on Daniel Bowen's blog).
On top of all that busyness it appears several of our machines have up and walked out of the library so I've had to deal with The Law as well.
The one sweet spot of the week has been savouring my success and emplacing myself on the desk formerly known as Torchwood's.
Oh and speaking of machines, Tuesday night gaming really could have used some computer assistance to work out how to apply my simplification of the game system we are using for our new story arc. I can only surmise that the problem lies with the players as my games designing skills cannot be called into question.
It started with the delivery of our new RFID kiosks. Luckily they were also delivered with techs to get them set up and working. So in between all my other wonderful problem solving escapades I have been liaising with said techs and LMS suppliers and staff and maintenance persons.
And today has been training to get staff up to speed on the machines. Of course all this talk of machines brings to mind the recent, and wonderfully Terminator-esque, "You know in the end the machines will win" gambling billboards seen around Melbourne ( viewable on Daniel Bowen's blog).
On top of all that busyness it appears several of our machines have up and walked out of the library so I've had to deal with The Law as well.
The one sweet spot of the week has been savouring my success and emplacing myself on the desk formerly known as Torchwood's.
Oh and speaking of machines, Tuesday night gaming really could have used some computer assistance to work out how to apply my simplification of the game system we are using for our new story arc. I can only surmise that the problem lies with the players as my games designing skills cannot be called into question.
... Triumph Over Torchwood
Although I new this was coming I sat on the news until now in case it was another one of her dastardly tricks - Torchwood has left the Library Building!
Yes notch up another Marketing officer to my tally - three now. After the fight Torchwood gave me I have really honed my skills and fear that the next one doesn't stand a chance so prepare to make it four.
In any case my triumph was celebrated in style on Friday night at the "farewell" for Torchwood- poor thing, she thought it was to say goodbye to her.
My one concern in all this is that I will be painted as the bad guy when it's obvious that what we see is the culmination of a long brewed plot from Supervisor Grand Chief K in retaliation for the Literary Festival Incident.
Only SGCK could have enough pull in the immigration department to mess with Mr Torchwood's VISA enough to force The Torchwood's to return home to Leekland.
Of course SGCK as been particularly clever in her machinations as Torchwood's unfounded antagonism towards me (which I was forced to return) will ensure that I bear the brunt of everyone's blame for this.
In any case the night went well with everyone gathering at the appointed venue and having plentiful drinks. I may have strained a voice muscle making a sarcastic farewell speech without microphone assistance in the noisy venue and, unfortunately, said noise robbed my witty barbs of their power.
Towards the middle of the evening Kiwichick showed her excellent sheep herding nous and gathered a group of us together to enjoy a meal at a delightful Thai place she frequents regularly. I think she will be unable to return now that the restaurant has experienced the behaviour of Librarians off the Leash. For the dinner we employed a special code to save me any difficult Svetlana questions about having dinner with a table full of women. So, when I report back to my beloved, I was dining with: Pauly, Ross, Steven, Ji, Jim, Ronnie, and possibly some others but who bothers to remember names when you're out with the blokes. Oh yeah and I was Suzanne - my girl name i.e. the name Freeloading Mum had picked out before I turned out to be overwhelmingly rugged and manly - I know it doesn't make any sense but at that time of night you don't mess with Kiwichick logic.
We returned to the original venue to enjoy more drinks until eventually I managed to escape from Torchwood's inebriated clutches with the old "last train" excuse.
Torchwood has managed to get in a parting shot however as today I had to haul myself out to Beaumaris to do her job for her and help set up a seminar for the borrowers.
Fingers crossed that she's not sitting there at her desk when I get in tomorrow to give me her old "HaHA you fell for it" routine.
Yes notch up another Marketing officer to my tally - three now. After the fight Torchwood gave me I have really honed my skills and fear that the next one doesn't stand a chance so prepare to make it four.
In any case my triumph was celebrated in style on Friday night at the "farewell" for Torchwood- poor thing, she thought it was to say goodbye to her.
My one concern in all this is that I will be painted as the bad guy when it's obvious that what we see is the culmination of a long brewed plot from Supervisor Grand Chief K in retaliation for the Literary Festival Incident.
Only SGCK could have enough pull in the immigration department to mess with Mr Torchwood's VISA enough to force The Torchwood's to return home to Leekland.
Of course SGCK as been particularly clever in her machinations as Torchwood's unfounded antagonism towards me (which I was forced to return) will ensure that I bear the brunt of everyone's blame for this.
In any case the night went well with everyone gathering at the appointed venue and having plentiful drinks. I may have strained a voice muscle making a sarcastic farewell speech without microphone assistance in the noisy venue and, unfortunately, said noise robbed my witty barbs of their power.
Towards the middle of the evening Kiwichick showed her excellent sheep herding nous and gathered a group of us together to enjoy a meal at a delightful Thai place she frequents regularly. I think she will be unable to return now that the restaurant has experienced the behaviour of Librarians off the Leash. For the dinner we employed a special code to save me any difficult Svetlana questions about having dinner with a table full of women. So, when I report back to my beloved, I was dining with: Pauly, Ross, Steven, Ji, Jim, Ronnie, and possibly some others but who bothers to remember names when you're out with the blokes. Oh yeah and I was Suzanne - my girl name i.e. the name Freeloading Mum had picked out before I turned out to be overwhelmingly rugged and manly - I know it doesn't make any sense but at that time of night you don't mess with Kiwichick logic.
We returned to the original venue to enjoy more drinks until eventually I managed to escape from Torchwood's inebriated clutches with the old "last train" excuse.
Torchwood has managed to get in a parting shot however as today I had to haul myself out to Beaumaris to do her job for her and help set up a seminar for the borrowers.
Fingers crossed that she's not sitting there at her desk when I get in tomorrow to give me her old "HaHA you fell for it" routine.
... A Horrible Discovery
Ironically thanks to the work of ArchEnemy my attention has been brought to Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
It is the latest work, nay masterpiece, of Joss Whedon.
And it has the added bonus of making it through the anti-video net of SoccerBuddy and the fun police down at the corporate IT department.
Do yourself a favour and go view it now, I'll be waiting when you get back.
...
...
Bah, I can't be bothered waiting any longer.
It will give you a good idea of how my Thursday night gaming group's super hero game went... except without the singing... and the dialogue was probably worse... and it probably made less sense... actually it's not very much the same at all.
Anyway, other horrible things that happened this week include:
- going all the way out to BestFriendSincePrep's country mansion only to be beaten soundly at my own games
- my Tuesday gaming group deciding (eventually, oh the indecision) that Deadlands' supernatural western setting was what we'd play next
- Innocent Em beating me to the end of 2.0
- my falling for the latest ploy of Torchwood - taking me out for lunches and dinners to make me fond of her
- making a cameo appearance at Sandringham, my home branch, after being on desk at Hampton
- the return of The Bastard for the Pirate Dave birthday edition of Thursday night gaming
- having The Great Sandro over to watch the Collingwood vs Nth Melbourne game debacle
... Helliconica Spring, Mongol and Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss
I finished this off this morning after battling through nearly a month of driving to work and having virtually no lunch time - and certainly no time to read at lunch.
Anyway, I was inspired to read this by my memories of reviews in White Dwarf in the 80's (when it was a magazine and not a glossy brochure) by the great Dave Langford or David as he appears to prefer to be called nowadays.
It's a reasonable read following the low-tech inhabitants of a planet coming out of it's 500 year winter while a space station looks on and broadcasts the action back to Earth reality TV style.
It's also the first of three books so I figure the space stations minor role will become larger in the following books.
Mongol
Rugrat Twin and I saw this tonight. It was spectacular looking and slightly confusing. They also used up all the ideas for a sequel in the last 10 seconds of the film.
Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
This morning was a gathering of database obsessed librarians at which Torchwood, ably assisted by Mr Prada gave a presentation and there was morning tea.
Afterwards I hung around for a lunch with Madame President and our new treasurer before heading home for a well deserved afternoon off.
I finished this off this morning after battling through nearly a month of driving to work and having virtually no lunch time - and certainly no time to read at lunch.
Anyway, I was inspired to read this by my memories of reviews in White Dwarf in the 80's (when it was a magazine and not a glossy brochure) by the great Dave Langford or David as he appears to prefer to be called nowadays.
It's a reasonable read following the low-tech inhabitants of a planet coming out of it's 500 year winter while a space station looks on and broadcasts the action back to Earth reality TV style.
It's also the first of three books so I figure the space stations minor role will become larger in the following books.
Mongol
Rugrat Twin and I saw this tonight. It was spectacular looking and slightly confusing. They also used up all the ideas for a sequel in the last 10 seconds of the film.
Torchwood's Tiny Triumph
This morning was a gathering of database obsessed librarians at which Torchwood, ably assisted by Mr Prada gave a presentation and there was morning tea.
Afterwards I hung around for a lunch with Madame President and our new treasurer before heading home for a well deserved afternoon off.
... The Fabulous Free 50th Feast
This Thursday past was Sandringham Library's 50th birthday and it had it's birthday party in the evening.
At first I thought there may have been some sort of conspiracy to keep me away from the food as I was in meetings at Brighton all morning and then there was a mix-up that had me hanging around waiting to make Beeby into "my young apprentice" - in the work sense since he's already well down the freeloading road all on his own.
Eventually I made it to Sandy but all the anxiety about missing out on the free feed led me to almost overdo the pre-feast eating - the nibbling and scrounging from the preparation table covered with the magnificent cake-work of Days of our Libraries and Country Girl, not to mention the many horses doovers and the dippyness of Mr Prada.
So heres another caution: pace yourself on a feast day as there's nothing worse than a wasted free dinner.
Luckily my years of training and robust constitution led to a quick recovery from that horrific "I ate too quickly and there's still so much more to eat" feeling and I was able to consume with the best of them by the time the main event rolled around - it will take the knuckle bruising from repeated "you can't eat that yet" rapping a bit longer to heal though.
The opening speech was given by Supervisor Grand Chief K with no sign of Torchwood. I can only hope that this means that SGCK has had the Torchwood problem taken care of permanently.
Other highlights include:
My suspicion about a food deprivation conspirary deepened at the end of the night when the leftovers were quickly hustled out the door to go to the other branches rather than stay at the one I'd be at the next day.
At first I thought there may have been some sort of conspiracy to keep me away from the food as I was in meetings at Brighton all morning and then there was a mix-up that had me hanging around waiting to make Beeby into "my young apprentice" - in the work sense since he's already well down the freeloading road all on his own.
Eventually I made it to Sandy but all the anxiety about missing out on the free feed led me to almost overdo the pre-feast eating - the nibbling and scrounging from the preparation table covered with the magnificent cake-work of Days of our Libraries and Country Girl, not to mention the many horses doovers and the dippyness of Mr Prada.
So heres another caution: pace yourself on a feast day as there's nothing worse than a wasted free dinner.
Luckily my years of training and robust constitution led to a quick recovery from that horrific "I ate too quickly and there's still so much more to eat" feeling and I was able to consume with the best of them by the time the main event rolled around - it will take the knuckle bruising from repeated "you can't eat that yet" rapping a bit longer to heal though.
The opening speech was given by Supervisor Grand Chief K with no sign of Torchwood. I can only hope that this means that SGCK has had the Torchwood problem taken care of permanently.
Other highlights include:
- a lot of mingling with the ghosts of Sandringham librarianship past
- Kiwichick, Days and The Pragmatist sporting wonderful 50's fashion
- the return of Chanlib and Vikki;
- a dozen library staff behind the desk when borrowers came up to be served;
My suspicion about a food deprivation conspirary deepened at the end of the night when the leftovers were quickly hustled out the door to go to the other branches rather than stay at the one I'd be at the next day.
... Bowling with the Bayside Babes
note: this posting is sarcasm and nastiness reduced, as some people think that I never say anything nice.
This Friday last Mr Prada and I had the extreme luck to be out in in public ten-pin bowling with a bevy of the best Bayside has to offer. We were the envy of all around for the company we had while we lobbed spheres down the lanes.
It was all thanks to Torchwood's brilliant idea and excellent planning skills, and as a thank you for everyones work at the Literary festival. Of course, as I spent most of the festival at the corporate centre, I was just freeloading along for the night as was Sister Serials showing up only for the free drink.
There was much fun had by all with Big J's sparkling laughter a frequent backdrop, most participants striking at least once - which is important as Innocent Em said to me - "Scoring is what it's all about Phill!", Groovy Spirits, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Administrator, and Lord of the Small Fries all plugging away diligently on the aisles.
Of course I blitzed the field in the first game, despite re-injuring the knee last Thursday at soccer. My sense of honour prevailed in the second game and I stepped aside to allow others to claim the glory (there's a chance it may have been several drinks that prevailed actually now that I think about it).
We all played with a spirit of cooperation, encouragement and fair play. With the experts - Sonja Roster Queen, Days of Our Libraries and yours truly - imparting our bountiful bowling wisdom to all who asked and ensuring a much improved second game from both Big J and Kiwichick.
The food was good and Kiwichick came up with the fantastic idea of improving access to the sour cream for the wedges by smearing it all over the table.
All in all it was a grand night out and hopefully there will be many more occasions of it's ilk where I can spend an entire evening in the treasured company of those I work with.
This Friday last Mr Prada and I had the extreme luck to be out in in public ten-pin bowling with a bevy of the best Bayside has to offer. We were the envy of all around for the company we had while we lobbed spheres down the lanes.
It was all thanks to Torchwood's brilliant idea and excellent planning skills, and as a thank you for everyones work at the Literary festival. Of course, as I spent most of the festival at the corporate centre, I was just freeloading along for the night as was Sister Serials showing up only for the free drink.
There was much fun had by all with Big J's sparkling laughter a frequent backdrop, most participants striking at least once - which is important as Innocent Em said to me - "Scoring is what it's all about Phill!", Groovy Spirits, Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, The Administrator, and Lord of the Small Fries all plugging away diligently on the aisles.
Of course I blitzed the field in the first game, despite re-injuring the knee last Thursday at soccer. My sense of honour prevailed in the second game and I stepped aside to allow others to claim the glory (there's a chance it may have been several drinks that prevailed actually now that I think about it).
We all played with a spirit of cooperation, encouragement and fair play. With the experts - Sonja Roster Queen, Days of Our Libraries and yours truly - imparting our bountiful bowling wisdom to all who asked and ensuring a much improved second game from both Big J and Kiwichick.
The food was good and Kiwichick came up with the fantastic idea of improving access to the sour cream for the wedges by smearing it all over the table.
All in all it was a grand night out and hopefully there will be many more occasions of it's ilk where I can spend an entire evening in the treasured company of those I work with.
... The Night Torchwood Drove Old K Down
Well I don't like to big note myself but my suspicions about Torchwood were vindicated last night.
It was launch night for the Bayside Literary Festival - a little event that has been organised in the background while important things like new printers have been happening.
It will, however, be forever known as the night Torchwood made her grab for power.
She and Supervisor Grand Chief K were preparing for the launch when SGCK "accidentally" slipped on Torchwood's wet bathroom tiles, had the towel rack come off the wall in her hands and tore her hamstring, leaving her unable to host the evening or play football for a few months. I believe that Mr Torchwood was seen in the vicinity with a screwdriver and a bucket suspiciously empty of water shortly before the incident.
The evening itself went quite well although the nibbles didn't circulate in my direction nearly often enough and "the incident" had deprived me of my expected drinking party The Flibberty Gibbet who had gone to play nursemaid to SGCK. I had to make do with Beeby, who drank himself stupid and embarrassed us both.
Afterwards a bunch of us went for a drink or coffee at the nearby drinking establishment and, without SGCK there as an enabler, we all left and were home at a sensible hour.
Other than that my week has been consumed with all things printery and left me little time to frivel. One shining bright light has been getting the okay from the Physio to play in next weeks soccer game - which is a good thing as SGCK has stolen my injury limelight and I won't be getting any more sympathy.
It was launch night for the Bayside Literary Festival - a little event that has been organised in the background while important things like new printers have been happening.
It will, however, be forever known as the night Torchwood made her grab for power.
She and Supervisor Grand Chief K were preparing for the launch when SGCK "accidentally" slipped on Torchwood's wet bathroom tiles, had the towel rack come off the wall in her hands and tore her hamstring, leaving her unable to host the evening or play football for a few months. I believe that Mr Torchwood was seen in the vicinity with a screwdriver and a bucket suspiciously empty of water shortly before the incident.
The evening itself went quite well although the nibbles didn't circulate in my direction nearly often enough and "the incident" had deprived me of my expected drinking party The Flibberty Gibbet who had gone to play nursemaid to SGCK. I had to make do with Beeby, who drank himself stupid and embarrassed us both.
Afterwards a bunch of us went for a drink or coffee at the nearby drinking establishment and, without SGCK there as an enabler, we all left and were home at a sensible hour.
Other than that my week has been consumed with all things printery and left me little time to frivel. One shining bright light has been getting the okay from the Physio to play in next weeks soccer game - which is a good thing as SGCK has stolen my injury limelight and I won't be getting any more sympathy.
... Too Many Ten-Hour Days
This week has been a hectic mess.
After a relatively relaxing May the 4th Be With You gaming day on Sunday (in which Badger won every one of the Star Wars focused games) I dived head first into early starts and late finishes as the printer rollout went live. Well at first it went half-live and then it went live-with-problems and finally it went live-with-only-minor-glitches.
On Monday I went from branch to branch and back again setting everything up and eventually left to arrive a couple of hours late for my new game at The Viking Hat GM's where I was able to unwind for a few hours playing an upper-class twit.
Tuesday, aka Go-Live Day #1, was going smoothly until our new printing system people hit me with this doozy - "only 10,000 of your 48,000 printing accounts were brought across".
For reasons unfathomable they didn't consider it was necessary to inform me of this interesting fact until I inquired of them as to why only a fifth of our borrowers where able to access the new printing system that they'd said was ready to go live.
Suffice to say by Wednesday afternoon the missing records had been moved across to the new printing system. The extra records won't work with the new computer bookings system coming along in a few weeks - the reason they didn't import them - but I'll cross that bridge when we come to it, or maybe I'll take some annual leave.
Late Wednesday night I finished up some signage for the coin-machines and printers and toodled home to collapse.
Back bright and early Thursday I created the final signage - well final until Torchwood casts her evil marketing eye over it - and deployed across all the branches in a series of flying visits.
A most magnificent side-effect of visiting all branches was that I was able to participate in the biggest morning tea at three of them - indulging to my stomachs content in some of the best brownies, sc-own-es, cakes and slices that librarians can produce.
Sadly leaving the Beaumaris cakes behind I had to make a lightning raid on The Professor's lab, a way down South, to collect some Top Secret Stuff.
Hurtling back North I hoped to be home in time to catch a train so that I could attend a girlie film preview gifted to me by Sister Serials. Alas I was able to see the train on the crossing as I approached my domicile. This lead to me rushing to catch a connecting train to minimise my lateness. Interestingly I found that I can now jog with my injured knee.
After all of that franticness I arrived mere minutes before Rugrat Twin, also running late, only to discover that we were attending the worst organised film preview ever.
It turns out that when the exclusive preview flyer says:
Oh well. In the end we took up the venues generous offer to see another movie for free and I was spared from girlie romance. The replacement we chose was Moliere. It was an enjoyable film and a worthy replacement - although it did still have a touch of the girlie about it.
Friday morning was a relaxed morning which became a little more frantic until I managed to use the new printing system's admin program to correct a charging error - despite the system suppliers claiming it was a problem with the printers themselves. The rest of the day was a series of glitch fixing jobs before I could finally head home and relax at the end of a very long week.
Today I have: slept in, finally read some more of my latest book, taken my knee for a long walk and switched on the home computer again, to see what I missed while I was off in printer land.
Tonight I shall spend relaxing as I will be heading off to tackle Freeloading Mum's ADSL problem in the morning.
After a relatively relaxing May the 4th Be With You gaming day on Sunday (in which Badger won every one of the Star Wars focused games) I dived head first into early starts and late finishes as the printer rollout went live. Well at first it went half-live and then it went live-with-problems and finally it went live-with-only-minor-glitches.
On Monday I went from branch to branch and back again setting everything up and eventually left to arrive a couple of hours late for my new game at The Viking Hat GM's where I was able to unwind for a few hours playing an upper-class twit.
Tuesday, aka Go-Live Day #1, was going smoothly until our new printing system people hit me with this doozy - "only 10,000 of your 48,000 printing accounts were brought across".
For reasons unfathomable they didn't consider it was necessary to inform me of this interesting fact until I inquired of them as to why only a fifth of our borrowers where able to access the new printing system that they'd said was ready to go live.
Suffice to say by Wednesday afternoon the missing records had been moved across to the new printing system. The extra records won't work with the new computer bookings system coming along in a few weeks - the reason they didn't import them - but I'll cross that bridge when we come to it, or maybe I'll take some annual leave.
Late Wednesday night I finished up some signage for the coin-machines and printers and toodled home to collapse.
Back bright and early Thursday I created the final signage - well final until Torchwood casts her evil marketing eye over it - and deployed across all the branches in a series of flying visits.
A most magnificent side-effect of visiting all branches was that I was able to participate in the biggest morning tea at three of them - indulging to my stomachs content in some of the best brownies, sc-own-es, cakes and slices that librarians can produce.
Sadly leaving the Beaumaris cakes behind I had to make a lightning raid on The Professor's lab, a way down South, to collect some Top Secret Stuff.
Hurtling back North I hoped to be home in time to catch a train so that I could attend a girlie film preview gifted to me by Sister Serials. Alas I was able to see the train on the crossing as I approached my domicile. This lead to me rushing to catch a connecting train to minimise my lateness. Interestingly I found that I can now jog with my injured knee.
After all of that franticness I arrived mere minutes before Rugrat Twin, also running late, only to discover that we were attending the worst organised film preview ever.
It turns out that when the exclusive preview flyer says:
To attend the screening in your capital city, RSVP is essential. Simply email your name ... and your name will be added to the guest list ... note only successful RSVPs will be notified until capacity is reached.And your reply email says:
Thank you for your email. Two free seats will be reserved under your name...The event can still be drastically overbooked?!? Thank you Hopscotch films.
Oh well. In the end we took up the venues generous offer to see another movie for free and I was spared from girlie romance. The replacement we chose was Moliere. It was an enjoyable film and a worthy replacement - although it did still have a touch of the girlie about it.
Friday morning was a relaxed morning which became a little more frantic until I managed to use the new printing system's admin program to correct a charging error - despite the system suppliers claiming it was a problem with the printers themselves. The rest of the day was a series of glitch fixing jobs before I could finally head home and relax at the end of a very long week.
Today I have: slept in, finally read some more of my latest book, taken my knee for a long walk and switched on the home computer again, to see what I missed while I was off in printer land.
Tonight I shall spend relaxing as I will be heading off to tackle Freeloading Mum's ADSL problem in the morning.
... Another Weekly Round Up
Well it got away from me again. It being spare time of course.
I blame ElfBoy who's insistence on gaming on Monday night took away one of my regular blogging/doing stuff nights. (Although since we were playing Magic I did get an 80's child thrill out of SMSing everyone It's Another Magic Monday...)
Gaming Tuesday
Tuesday was a day at Brighton with some printer related meetings and odd jobs before actually getting home early for Tuesday night gaming. In contrast to a few weeks ago we only had three players instead of the massive seven. Much easier to handle - although with all the Libraryland meeting experience I've gained over the past few years a bunch of gaming geeks isn't really that much of a challenge. Okay I've talked about gaming enough that Supervisor Grand Chief K will have skipped over to the next paragraph in her dismissive manner, and I can safely mention that I managed to fight off the dose of flu she blatantly tried to infect me with by giving me a big hug in the workroom. Of course it was just to distract me from pointing out how Torchwood, (currently displacing me as favourite child), had failed to live up to her position description yet again - probably because she spends most of her time plotting how best to torment me in a variety of manager-condoned ways.
Wednesday at Holiday Hampton
Needing a break from it all I spent the morning hiding out at Hampton branch on it's closed day. I upgraded some computers for appearance's sake and then had to leave as the branch became surprisingly busy for a closed day with a book club and Days of our Libraries showing up to pretend to do some work emptying the book chute.
My retreat to Sandringham for some peace and quiet was mostly successful although Innocent Em was at it again - asking me to stop playing with my balls in the workroom. How am I supposed to de-stress if I can't bounce the stress ball off the wall next to my desk?
In any case it was lucky only Mr Prada overheard otherwise the smut level would have gone through the roof!
With the loss of my Monday time my shows had stacked up on video by the time Wednesday night rolled around so I spent a bit of time catching up on my tv before commencing The OpenOffice Experiment da da DA! That was meant to be dramatic. I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org (yes the .org is part of it's official name) to be the office suite that I use at home.
Colour me impressed - whatever colour that would be... hmm google is no help, maybe it's a thoughtful powder blue? Anyway I digress, OpenOffice opened all my simple word and spreadsheet files and appears to have all the functions I want and a fantastic export as pdf function. Suffice to say I fiddled about with it until late in the evening and unforgivably neglected you my loyal audience.
Corporate Thursday
My Thursday was spent at the corporate centre making preparations for the arrival of our new printers next week. I had a lunchtime break for some bus-driving practice with Supervisor Grand Chief K for reasons that you shall find out about in due course. My work afternoon was cut short by SoccerBuddy who insisted that since I was giving him a lift to the game then we had to be there for the kick-off. It was a strange experience being there when they picked sides, and in the end I had to play 70 minutes instead of my usual 40 since nobody kicked us off at 7. No wonder I didn't score.
Freeloading Friday
Now this was more like it.
Thanks to a corporate colleague leaving I had access to a morning tea and a farewell afternoon tea. The pub lunch was at my own expense unfortunately but the evening was the social club's cultural diversity happy hour including such diverse international foods as nachos and sushi - I guess we're spoiled for internationalism here in Melbourne.
Due to my dedication to work I arrived after the international beers had run out so I opted out of drinking rather than face the prospect of having to down some VBs (sorry Svetlana but the stuff is horrible).
I made it home for an evening of footy watching and, as the game slipped from our grasp, I began to regret my choice to not drink.
Saturday Pyjama Day
With nothing on my calendar I decided to spend the day in my pyjamas (read old t shirt and drawstring pants) catching up on all the little computery and housy things that had been building up over the last few busy weekends.
I did shut almost everything down for Earth Hour and tried to read by an epileptic-fit inducing candle flame - it's a wonder libraries even exist given how painful it was trying too read that way.
My very late evening was highlighted by an international call from Svetlana herself.
I blame ElfBoy who's insistence on gaming on Monday night took away one of my regular blogging/doing stuff nights. (Although since we were playing Magic I did get an 80's child thrill out of SMSing everyone It's Another Magic Monday...)
Gaming Tuesday
Tuesday was a day at Brighton with some printer related meetings and odd jobs before actually getting home early for Tuesday night gaming. In contrast to a few weeks ago we only had three players instead of the massive seven. Much easier to handle - although with all the Libraryland meeting experience I've gained over the past few years a bunch of gaming geeks isn't really that much of a challenge. Okay I've talked about gaming enough that Supervisor Grand Chief K will have skipped over to the next paragraph in her dismissive manner, and I can safely mention that I managed to fight off the dose of flu she blatantly tried to infect me with by giving me a big hug in the workroom. Of course it was just to distract me from pointing out how Torchwood, (currently displacing me as favourite child), had failed to live up to her position description yet again - probably because she spends most of her time plotting how best to torment me in a variety of manager-condoned ways.
Wednesday at Holiday Hampton
Needing a break from it all I spent the morning hiding out at Hampton branch on it's closed day. I upgraded some computers for appearance's sake and then had to leave as the branch became surprisingly busy for a closed day with a book club and Days of our Libraries showing up to pretend to do some work emptying the book chute.
My retreat to Sandringham for some peace and quiet was mostly successful although Innocent Em was at it again - asking me to stop playing with my balls in the workroom. How am I supposed to de-stress if I can't bounce the stress ball off the wall next to my desk?
In any case it was lucky only Mr Prada overheard otherwise the smut level would have gone through the roof!
With the loss of my Monday time my shows had stacked up on video by the time Wednesday night rolled around so I spent a bit of time catching up on my tv before commencing The OpenOffice Experiment da da DA! That was meant to be dramatic. I downloaded and installed OpenOffice.org (yes the .org is part of it's official name) to be the office suite that I use at home.
Colour me impressed - whatever colour that would be... hmm google is no help, maybe it's a thoughtful powder blue? Anyway I digress, OpenOffice opened all my simple word and spreadsheet files and appears to have all the functions I want and a fantastic export as pdf function. Suffice to say I fiddled about with it until late in the evening and unforgivably neglected you my loyal audience.
Corporate Thursday
My Thursday was spent at the corporate centre making preparations for the arrival of our new printers next week. I had a lunchtime break for some bus-driving practice with Supervisor Grand Chief K for reasons that you shall find out about in due course. My work afternoon was cut short by SoccerBuddy who insisted that since I was giving him a lift to the game then we had to be there for the kick-off. It was a strange experience being there when they picked sides, and in the end I had to play 70 minutes instead of my usual 40 since nobody kicked us off at 7. No wonder I didn't score.
Freeloading Friday
Now this was more like it.
Thanks to a corporate colleague leaving I had access to a morning tea and a farewell afternoon tea. The pub lunch was at my own expense unfortunately but the evening was the social club's cultural diversity happy hour including such diverse international foods as nachos and sushi - I guess we're spoiled for internationalism here in Melbourne.
Due to my dedication to work I arrived after the international beers had run out so I opted out of drinking rather than face the prospect of having to down some VBs (sorry Svetlana but the stuff is horrible).
I made it home for an evening of footy watching and, as the game slipped from our grasp, I began to regret my choice to not drink.
Saturday Pyjama Day
With nothing on my calendar I decided to spend the day in my pyjamas (read old t shirt and drawstring pants) catching up on all the little computery and housy things that had been building up over the last few busy weekends.
I did shut almost everything down for Earth Hour and tried to read by an epileptic-fit inducing candle flame - it's a wonder libraries even exist given how painful it was trying too read that way.
My very late evening was highlighted by an international call from Svetlana herself.
... Welsh Cakes!
I was somewhat surprised and disappointed this morning to discover that Torchwood's invitation to come along to cultural diversity morning tea and check out her Welsh Cakes was not nearly as salacious as it sounded.
Still said cakes were a rather tasty treat from the scone family (pronounced skoen) and as yet I'm not experiencing any poisoning effects plus they were free.
The Aussie side of cultural diversity was shown rather appropriately by Big J's buying of some lamingtons "down the shop" on the way into work.
In stark contrast to the excitement of free elevenses the rest of my past few working days has been consumed with hellish nightmare of vexing printing problems in both old and new PCs. It is as if the printers can sense their coming demise at the end of the contract and are all giving up in the final weeks.
I should have guessed at how technology would fail me this week after gaming Sunday's main attraction game of Battletech, aka Giant Fighting Robots, ended with my 'Mech collapsing under me and my replacement 'Mech overheating and freezing on the battlefield.
Mind you it was once again a case of "everyone get Phill" for reasons I am unable to fathom so having ElfBoy, Badger, Legion2, and, surprise surprise, Mechwarrior Wayne all pummeling my 'Mech didn't really help it's uptime.
Tonight I managed to forget most of the weeks stresses with a good phone talk with the much missed Svetlana, at home on a sick day after poisoning herself with something that was probably in her fridge when I was enjoying the Svetlanaland winter on my recent jaunt to the continent.
Still said cakes were a rather tasty treat from the scone family (pronounced skoen) and as yet I'm not experiencing any poisoning effects plus they were free.
The Aussie side of cultural diversity was shown rather appropriately by Big J's buying of some lamingtons "down the shop" on the way into work.
In stark contrast to the excitement of free elevenses the rest of my past few working days has been consumed with hellish nightmare of vexing printing problems in both old and new PCs. It is as if the printers can sense their coming demise at the end of the contract and are all giving up in the final weeks.
I should have guessed at how technology would fail me this week after gaming Sunday's main attraction game of Battletech, aka Giant Fighting Robots, ended with my 'Mech collapsing under me and my replacement 'Mech overheating and freezing on the battlefield.
Mind you it was once again a case of "everyone get Phill" for reasons I am unable to fathom so having ElfBoy, Badger, Legion2, and, surprise surprise, Mechwarrior Wayne all pummeling my 'Mech didn't really help it's uptime.
Tonight I managed to forget most of the weeks stresses with a good phone talk with the much missed Svetlana, at home on a sick day after poisoning herself with something that was probably in her fridge when I was enjoying the Svetlanaland winter on my recent jaunt to the continent.
... 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 Making of a Speech
I meant to post an entry yesterday but all my spare computer time has been filled with the hand-carving of my best-man speech for Legion2's wedding reception on Saturday night.
It's coming along swimmingly and, in fact, the big danger may be running over my 7-8 minute limit by 10 minutes or so.
Said hand-carving has been taking place in Google Docs which means I can say:
(246 Alternate Title: Thing #18 Web-based Apps)
and knock off another one of the 23 things (which I need to do now that 2.1 is here and there are another 23 things).
Google Docs works quite well for traveling from place to place without the need for saving files to disk or M$ Office. It's "lack" of advanced formating tools actually makes it much more productive and the absence of Petey Paperclip is it's apotheosis.
Other things keeping me busy have included such great fun as:
Prior to coming home tonight Legions2-4 and I collected our penguin costumes for Saturday night in a scheduling move maliciously designed to deny me my soccer game. Of course finding out that Legion3 was in the end able to make the 4.30 time which would have allowed me to go on to kick the round ball did wonders for my extreme sense of lose.
It's coming along swimmingly and, in fact, the big danger may be running over my 7-8 minute limit by 10 minutes or so.
Said hand-carving has been taking place in Google Docs which means I can say:
(246 Alternate Title: Thing #18 Web-based Apps)
and knock off another one of the 23 things (which I need to do now that 2.1 is here and there are another 23 things).
Google Docs works quite well for traveling from place to place without the need for saving files to disk or M$ Office. It's "lack" of advanced formating tools actually makes it much more productive and the absence of Petey Paperclip is it's apotheosis.
Other things keeping me busy have included such great fun as:
- spending many days setting up new PCs at Beaumaris branch with no help from Imposter Phil or Polish Chris at council IT since they are snowed under after CC's recent departure - apparently with all the knowledge of how IT things work
- making the mistake of visiting Brighton branch and walking away seven new jobs for the worse
- adding more Ding to our circulation PCs. A little investigation uncovered the sound file used for nigh-inaudible alerts by our LMS and it's swift change will now go on to annoy staff no end whilst ensuring they no longer miss alerts
- having to listen to unprovoked insults from the new children's librarian - "this food is for the Summer Reading Club party this afternoon and you are not to eat it Phill" and Days of our Libraries - "please tick which meal options you want on training day - and you can't tick all of them Phill". One suspects Torchwood's hand is behind it all.
Prior to coming home tonight Legions2-4 and I collected our penguin costumes for Saturday night in a scheduling move maliciously designed to deny me my soccer game. Of course finding out that Legion3 was in the end able to make the 4.30 time which would have allowed me to go on to kick the round ball did wonders for my extreme sense of lose.
... The Grab bag of Things
There's been no real focus to what I've been up to the last few days - except for being overworked of course.
Thursday's day of meetings began with a surprise visit from Supervisor S and the introduction of Mini S who limpeted to S the whole time they were visiting.
My next "meeting" of the day was my attempt to order some custom blinds for the flat since summer is rolling in and the natural light can get a bit much at times. In any case it took a good 25 to 30 minutes for the sales girl to input the order for my 5 different blinds into their computer system. I did multiple circuits of the shop admiring there many plastic plants and painful looking couches while it was all entered. The least they could have done was supply some coffee and/or cakes while I waited. I don't want to think about being the IT staff supporting the use of that application software.
This caused me to arrive late for my next meeting, which was with Torchwood, and provided more fuel for her systematic workplace bullying of me to continue.
I did finally make it to soccer only to have it not run overtime as another group kicked us off for their own session. I was forced to call Svetlana in order to de-stress and then headed of to gaming for the rest of the evening.
Friday morning was hijacked at the last minute with customer service training - which was in itself not too bad but did include homework! And people wonder why I don't have time for things like stats and 2.0.
I did manage to install new LMS clients at Beaumaris in the afternoon. This latest version is supposed to have improved speed for issues and returns - so fingers crossed that the freezing monkey will finally get off my back.
I spent a few hours of my quiet weekend afternoon wrestling my VPN into action with the help of SoccerBuddy. My remote spying from home is now enabled so I can be all ghostly and move the mouse when staff have the temerity to call me while I'm on call.
Thursday's day of meetings began with a surprise visit from Supervisor S and the introduction of Mini S who limpeted to S the whole time they were visiting.
My next "meeting" of the day was my attempt to order some custom blinds for the flat since summer is rolling in and the natural light can get a bit much at times. In any case it took a good 25 to 30 minutes for the sales girl to input the order for my 5 different blinds into their computer system. I did multiple circuits of the shop admiring there many plastic plants and painful looking couches while it was all entered. The least they could have done was supply some coffee and/or cakes while I waited. I don't want to think about being the IT staff supporting the use of that application software.
This caused me to arrive late for my next meeting, which was with Torchwood, and provided more fuel for her systematic workplace bullying of me to continue.
I did finally make it to soccer only to have it not run overtime as another group kicked us off for their own session. I was forced to call Svetlana in order to de-stress and then headed of to gaming for the rest of the evening.
Friday morning was hijacked at the last minute with customer service training - which was in itself not too bad but did include homework! And people wonder why I don't have time for things like stats and 2.0.
I did manage to install new LMS clients at Beaumaris in the afternoon. This latest version is supposed to have improved speed for issues and returns - so fingers crossed that the freezing monkey will finally get off my back.
I spent a few hours of my quiet weekend afternoon wrestling my VPN into action with the help of SoccerBuddy. My remote spying from home is now enabled so I can be all ghostly and move the mouse when staff have the temerity to call me while I'm on call.
... 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.
... Success with Wireless
All of a sudden, on Friday morning, the last steps had been made and the wireless set up was ready to go to the people stage. Which means I have to create the documentation for staff on how to sign up accounts, decide what sort of account limits/freedoms we will allow, and liaise with Torchwood the new marketing coordinator to get the message out to the public.
The last may not be strictly necessary as we had a couple of people approach the desk to find out how to connect as they'd picked up the connection once it was switched on for testing. One of them amused me as he was an expert and had done it before: "you just plug the equipment in and then print out passwords for people". On being told that we had to allow for control of bandwidth and security he scoffed that we must be doing something wrong if we can't get unlimited bandwidth.
I hope they don't get him to replace me at the library!!
The last may not be strictly necessary as we had a couple of people approach the desk to find out how to connect as they'd picked up the connection once it was switched on for testing. One of them amused me as he was an expert and had done it before: "you just plug the equipment in and then print out passwords for people". On being told that we had to allow for control of bandwidth and security he scoffed that we must be doing something wrong if we can't get unlimited bandwidth.
I hope they don't get him to replace me at the library!!
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