Its official - I am a Cube Farm Resident

I work in an office.  You know, the open plan types that are made fun of in Dilbert cartoons.  I used to have an office, but that was gutted to make way for workstations due to growth.  I actually prefer workstations because I felt like I was in a fish bowl at work in an office.  Now its all open banter across the partitions and its pretty good.

Of course the neighbouring departments are now closer as a result so the social activity and banter between my department and our neighbours HR and Payroll has increased.

Which as a result means that all birthdays are celebrated with a cake where loads of people stand around the corridors and share the cake and sing a verse or two of the Happy Birthday song.

The strange thing this morning was that I got an invite for “Birthday Cake For Liz” at 10:30.  The issue is I didn’t know who Liz was.  I accepted.  At 10:30 a cake was promptly presented in the slightly open area where cake is traditionally shared.  The boss of HR made a short speech for Liz on behalf of her birthday, we sang and then a girl who I had never seen before in my life said thanks and I shared a piece of blueberry cheesecake.

Now we disperse and I look over the cube farm around me, and I still cant see this girl “Liz”.  I feel might weird I have just celebrated the birthday of an alleged colleague I have never met and who even now I have no idea where she site.

Welcome to the work place of the New Millennium.

Going Off The Rails

How long was it until I used that pun in my subject line hey?!  Well this morning has gotten off to a bad start with firstly the car park being nearly full at Glenbrook Station and now not able to get a decent seat on the train from Glenbrook.  In times past, the carpark was less than half full and the train was a case of getting my “usual seat” by the window with a spot to hang my jacket.  Sure as the train got closer to the city it would fill up, but it is now very full at Glenbrook and I am dreading where all the people will fit when we get to Emu Plains.

Seems as though that people have sprung up all over the place and are now taking the train… I must have missed the memo from Blue Mountains Council saying that we were being inundated with refugees from Cronulla who were seeking refuge from the marauding hordes of Lebanese beach goers.

So it appears that I now need to get up earlier and get on the earlier train and see if that relieves the issue.  I don’t mind the long travel as long as I can do it in relative comfort, but since the new timetable some 6mths ago, it is getting less and less comfortable on the 7:10.

But I didn’t want to turn this post into yet another train rant… I was keen to discuss that non-event the Commonwealth Games.  I am sorry, but the media have to realise that the Games is not solely a swim meet.  I am not the biggest supporter of the Games (as you may realise) but at least we could have more info on it other than swimming?  And is it just me, but I saw a couple of our female swimmers get out of the pool yesterday and noticed that the girls were very muscular, inverted triangle shaped bodies, bulging out of their swim suits and are breaking World Records by entire seconds rather than fraction of seconds.  Now correct me if I am wrong, but if these girls were called Wei Xhou Ping and were from China, they would be castigated for “being on drugs”.  But when its an Aussie, its pats on the back all round and a rush to sign them up to media deals and other endorsements.  Maybe I am being sceptical, but really how can a record at say around the 65 second mark that has stood for some time be smashed below 64 seconds and nobody bat an eyelid?

Listening:  A massive Cure MP3 disc with a lot of 1980’s albums on it:  Boys Don’t Cry, Faith, Japanese Whispers, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Mixed Up, Pornography, The Head on the Door, The Top, Three Imaginary Boys.  A mere 8hrs of Cure-ness.

What a shitty day...

Very late posting today as I have been flat out today.  I had to pick my car up from Holden after I had to take it in (yet again) and then I was supposed to go to the physio for my back – but I realised I had mixed up the times, so instead of an 8:40am, I was scheduled to go in at 4:40pm!  Therefore, I had to cancel the appointment and head into work.

I drove in and it took me a good 2 hours!  The plus side was I got to listen to my friend Tommy Dean do the breakfast program on Mix 106.5FM.  It was good to hear Tommy on commercial radio, but MixFM!  Sheesh!  Between the ads and the traffic reports, he was clearly more funny than the two regular hosts.  The girl – Sammy Power(??) – sounded like a complete moron.

Because of the traffic, I missed the 10am Early Bird parking by seriously I kid you not 1 minute and hence my parking bill has doubled for the day.

Nice.

What a shitty day.

Well we stuffed that...

Spent this weekend locked in mortal park cricket combat with the entirely Tamil Parramatta Leagues.  In short we lost by a large margin, but we bowled and fielded excellently and yet we couldn’t bowl Parramatta out until 6pm on the Saturday and then got behind in the run chase and it was all over by 5:30pm on the Sunday.  We simply got beaten by the better team on the day and I hope to be honest that they go on and win the Grand Final next week.

We lost the toss and had to field first in overcast skies and we were well on top having them at 2/18 but then their opener went on and made 76 and their number 4 supported him very nicely and they put on about 80 for the 3^rd wicket.  We never gave up and when the break through came we ran through the middle order to have them 7/130 odd but then they put on another decent partnership of 52 for the 8^th wicket to get them to all out for 199.  In a semi, chasing 200 is a very big task.

Then on the Sunday, we got off to a horror start.  Yours truly went for 5 to have us 1/6.  Then it was 2/6 and then it was 3/7.  Not a very nice feeling.  From that point on we were way behind the 8 ball with the need to score runs but also conserving wickets.  The run rate required built up and apart from a nice 41 from Cam Imbesi, we just didn’t get firing.  All out for 105 trying to bat out for a draw… a pretty meek response.

But they played well, we went to the pub and had dinner and of course talk turns away from what might have been to next season.  Considering we got the wooden spoon last season, this was a pretty fair turnaround.  We have our club presentation night next weekend where the trophies are handed out and we get to have a few free drinks and some laughs – and that’s what its all about in the end.

Hey! I told you so!!

I mentioned just on Wednesday that I wouldn't be surprised if Howard invades not just Iran but also our Civil Liberties... well guess what, Johnny is a Lime Kettles reader!



Phone taps won't be random: Ruddock - National - smh.com.au

No Train Post Today

Spent the morning at the physio to help with my back (I have the whole right side of my thoracic spine in knots) and then drove into town.

Being Friday, all I am focused on is the weekend and hopefully a big win in the semi final tomorrow against Parramatta Leagues.  Parramatta was coming last until they beat us in the last game before Xmas and haven’t lost since.  They are a decent team (even when they were losing in Oct / Nov) and have finally gelled and have been getting results.  It will be close but we are quietly confident.

My back is fine to play; the toe is OK but does ache a little after exercise so other than that, I am raring to go.

Hope to get a big crowd down to the game – Daniel St Park Greystanes; play starts 1:30pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

Slashdot | Dungeons and Dragons Online Impressions

I am a big D&D fan/player with years of rolling the blessed d20... I have however avoided the MMORPG's other than a dalliance with Neverwinter Nights a few years back. They are very addictive games and I am happy to keep to my "hour and a bit" games of Blood Bowl.

However, D&D in the true sense online is something that I may check out. Never been into World of Warcraft, never even seen Everquest, but something with the "check for traps" feel of D&D does raise my interest.

Even if it was just a way to get my friends from table top days online together at the same time, it'd be worth it.


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