Yesterday.

The Muppet Theatre introduced a new pension concession price ticket which went off without a hitch and everybody was happy with it. Now they are introducing a different price for matinees. The idea is almost the same as the pension ticket and it's not difficult. However, J.P. Grosse has decided to make a big thing about the matinee tickets so he can be sure it goes off without a hitch and everybody is happy with it. Not that he doubts our ability to do it. Not that we haven't just done almost exactly the same thing. Not that there was anything wrong with the very similar thing we did recently. His decision is apparently completely motivated by whim or curiosity.

What his curious whim has done is panic the office. Now anybody with any administrative responsibility is sticking their nose into anything they might be responsible for, despite years of trouble free operation without their interest. This has in turn revealed a significant shortfall in the number of people who actually know how the matinee tickets work - it's not rocket surgery, but if you do it wrong people get hurt. Eager to remedy this training need I have been assigned a woodland creature to educate in the ways of the matinee ticket - right here, right now. They could think of no better time to introduce a new actor than during a live operation involving members of the public which is being overseen by the manager.

Anyway, the new matinee ticket prices went off without a hitch and everybody was happy with it - and the woodland creature did not show up for training.  ¶ 18:16 0 comments

  No good reason.

My internet access has been patchy recently. Once the ISP just stopped providing internet service, but usually it just slows down to the point of timing out. It is stymieing some of my vacation plans. Fortunately it hasn’t happened during a transaction involving money yet. Combined with the current style of accommodation website - which offers shiny inducements on the front page but doesn't provide price information until you have started the booking process - my information superbikeway means I don't get to find out what their special offer actually is, let alone book it. Sometimes I find out there are no rooms available before I find out how much it would have cost me. Once I was asked for my credit card details before they would tell me their price. But mostly the loading icon comes to a halt over a blank page, or a mostly blank page, or the page I have just left but without the information I have just entered, or a browser error, or it doesn't come to a halt; and then I go and do something else.

First, second, third; in that order.

1. Emma-Jean has been on a scholarship in China for three weeks. She comes back tomorrow, which is super.
2. Stone Age is a good game, but it can only have up to four players.
3. I have to work on Saturday.  ¶ 20:47 1 comments

  Fey blood.

Today one computer I was using stopped working. Another one failed to complete anything it started. This one is doing things very, very slowly. It's good I don't work in a hospital or air traffic control tower.  ¶ 23:28 1 comments

  Stupid daylight saving.

I was making cool, dark progress sorting my collectible card games but now that corner of the house remains brightly sunlit and thirty degrees (Celsius) until eight o'clock at night.  ¶ 16:45 0 comments

  Better now.

Last week I was a sicky, so we didn’t play games on Tuesday. We did play my Dungeons & Dragons game on Saturday, which was nice. I tried a new way to do skill challenges which worked really well for the first encounter but failed dismally the second time. I still don’t know how to get 4th Edition to work as a game apart from combat encounters. Some people say D&D is only combat encounters but they’re just being anti; I know people have done other things with it which I would like to do too. On the other hand I could leave it up to the people who get it and just be a player. Or I could convert World’s Longest Corridor which tended to receive the same combat-oriented criticism, so it would seem admirably suited to 4th Edition.  ¶ 17:24 0 comments

  Season’s greetings.

I played (nerf) tenpin bowling with Nils and Koko on Christmas Day and drank Jimbo’s homebrew ale on Boxing Day. But it’s not been all beer and skittles. My (first) summer cold held off until December 30 to manifest. Based on my 2008 health record I predict it will be the first of two incapacitating rhinoviral illnesses before autumn. I would have plumped for three, but I suspect the third will wait until the first week of March to coincide with my twelve hour flight to London.

Also, the quality of internet provision by our internet provider has been intermittent. This may not get published; the last one didn’t.  ¶ 16:07 0 comments