In trouble again

I must not attempt humour with the library staff

Humour is part of my nature. I can be serious, and I believe I am able to act professionally and appropriately to a situation. But I also believe innately that a little fun and frivolity can help oil the wheels of business and make work less of a chore. So I sometimes — as yesterday — fall into error in assuming that (a) a little humour in an email will help defuse tension; and (b) that other people will actually recognise the humorous remark for what it is, and not take offense.

Regrettably, it seems, there are people in this world — and it must be said that in my experience the library world seems to attract them in disproportionate numbers — who don’t get humour, who would not recognise irony in a police lineup.

So, rather than defusing tension, my message often has the opposite effect of bringing down anger, insult and abuse upon my head. Useless then to respond, in any way, either to point out the obvious flaws in their “logic” or to attempt to explain myself. Besides, I have my pride, and attempting to explain or apologise to someone who is basically  a waste of space anyway is definitely beneath me. So I am reduced to silence. A good thing, probably, but damned annoying just the same.

Day 29/365 : Food and Drink

Food on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

So, here I am again at the end of another exciting day spent at the cutting edge of computing. Or in this case, displaying the fruits of my labours, namely a web page about the library’s new Food and Drink policy. Probably about half an hour max of web page construction, but spent most of the day researching and gathering.

Something that took ages longer than it should was getting the little red circle/slash image denoting forbidden. Ended up where I should have started, by typing it using the Dingbats font (or maybe Widgets, I forget already), but I felt sure that there would be a web site full of signage goodies I could steal, so started with Google. Well, either there is no site, or I failed to find it. But I did find interesting if irrelevant stuff, which may or may not be useful later. For instance, did you know there’s an international standard covering the use of the disabled sign — the wheelchair guy? Turns out this must be displayed on a disabled toilet door facing to the right. For a directional sign, the wheelchair should be facing the direction of travel, which makes sense.

Anyway, I then needed pictures of food of various types, permitted and forbidden. This was pretty easy, aside from those sites that claim copyright over the picture of a styrofoam cup. D’uh. But after half an hour of looking at burgers and fries and pizza and noodles, I was starving, so had to go to lunch.

So, that was my day. Love my job.

You know what I hate?

I hate it when someone sends me an email consisting of an attached Word document, and when I open it, I find a half page of basically plain text. Just type it into the email message body, ffs!

And another thing: I hate it when I go to a web site, and the info I want is in a PDF file, and when I download that and open it, I find a basically plain text one page document. Just stick the content in a web page ffs!!

Seriously, stop putting additional steps in front of your users/customers/whatevers. Make it simple for them. How simple? As simple as you can.

Day 28/365 : Out to dinner

Out to dinner on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Out to dinner, because it’s Wednesday night, and that’s how we roll, even if it is 451 degrees outside. Fortunately, the restaurant — Woks Happening on Unley Road — was nicely air conditioned. Probably not sensible to have wine though — even a 2002 Serafino Cabernet Sauvignon, which was deliciously soft, fruity and mellow. With my Malaysia Curry Chicken, and the valiantly struggling air conditioning, a beer might have been the go.

The restaurant is pretty good. Nice decor (expensive looking), nice menu (reasonably priced), unusually brief for an asian food establishment, and competently made dishes, if not exactly exciting. $35/head including corkage, so not too bad, and a good spot for a quick meal – close to town if you’re heading to the theatre after.

Day 27/365 : less than meh

on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Today was one of those days. Not a bad day as such, excepting the 41C temperature with the whole oven roasted without the food payoff thing. Aside from the 10 minute walk to and from the car I was in air conditioning all day, so the weather wasn’t really a factor. And nothing terrible, or stressful, or demanding happened. Nobody was nasty, or whiny, or critical. Nothing really happened all day.

So why do I feel all meh? Or even less than meh, because the essence of meh is really an absence of any emotional response, and what I feel at the end of this day is rather pissed off, without any specific target, just a general disgruntled dissatisfaction with things, a life-is-pointless lost-my-mojo boredom with it all.

Probably should go to bed about now. Just ignore me and talk among yourselves.

Day 26/365 : Kakuro

Kakuro on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Yes, Australia Day today, so maybe I should have been doing the patriotic lamb chop on the barbie thing, but .. meh. A hot day today, plus slightly the worse for wear after last night. So a good day to veg out on the sofa in the air-con, doing not much.

Started on a book of Kakuro puzzles I got for chrissmoose — thanks Kay! This is like Sudoku only with arithmetic. They’re.. um .. challenging! Plus I had to start on the Intermediate level, because the beginners were micro-printed for some reason. But not impossible once you figure out a few things.

I still enjoy Sudoku, but it’s become more a matter of methodological procedure than an intellectual challenge, so maybe Kakuro will supplant it. Whatever, I guess it all helps to keep the brain active.

YouTube – 歯車のハート Gear’s heart

YouTube – 歯車のハート　Gear’s heart.

Why I love the interwebs, #2657

This is amazing, and beautiful. And without the internet, and all the sharing and freeness, I — and you — might never get to see such wonders. I’m guessing this is one-of-a-kind, and in a pre-internet age might be seen only on exhibition, in a museum, or maybe not at all if in a private collection. But here it is! Enjoy.

Oh, and by the way it’s made of paper! It’s by Haruki Nakamura of Paper Engineering Kamikara. Cool.

Day 25/365 : Pixelated

Pixelated on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Big birthday bash last night, celebrating the birthdays of three friends. Good night, full of Nom and lots of wine. Got home very late and a little pixelated by the wine

[This picture looks way more clever than it is. Because it was very late, and because I needed to do a 365, I used my webcam. The software is called Cheese (!) and has a number of special effects options, including one called "Dice" which does this. Add saturation and viola!]

Day 24/365 : Sinusitis

Today was one of those days. Winds from north here mean pollen, dust, whatever, to which my sinuses react, resulting in pressure in the skull, leading to pain behind the eyes, of the sort clearly visible to anyone who looks at me.

Here’s an Xray:

To quote from Wikipedia:

Paranasal sinuses are air-filled spaces, communicating with the nasal cavity, within the bones of the skull and face. … The paranasal sinuses are joined to the nasal cavity via small orifices called ostia. These become blocked easily by allergic inflammation

Score zero for Intelligent Design. Meh.

Day 23/365 : Adelaide Bloggers Meetup

on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

‘Evening all! Just back home from the first Adelaide Bloggers Meetup for 2009, organised by the beautiful, talented and all-round awesome Shai Coggins.

For those on Facebook, I posted an album of pictures from the event. For others, what are you waiting for? Facebook is free, it’s fun, and it’s harmless. Just do it.

Shai had organised a sponsor for this event — Caffe Primo at Norwood — and they really came through for us with generous discounts on food and free softdrinks and house wine. But you know what? We would have had a great time anyway. The food was good, the staff friendly, and the place turned out to be great for a large group. They gave us one looooong table which stretched the full width of the room, and we must have been a bit of a burden to the staff, but they never stopped smiling. Most restaurants fail at the large group, but Caffe Primo was great.

As always, we made a great crowd. Some new faces — including the visiting geeks in town to organise a Bar Camp — as well as old friends, everyone relaxed, introducing themselves and chatting away about blogs, the Universe and everything.

Great fun, great place, and many thanks again to Shai for getting us together.