Sharing is daring

Years ago, a female colleague emailed everyone in our department to say...

SUBJECT: Wishing well

BODY: There's 50c in the third loo from the left in the ladies toilets if anyone wants it.

I'm paraphrasing the message, but that was the gist. Pretty sure it was a Friday afternoon after she'd been to the pub. I thought it was funny.

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Another time, a male coworker poached by a rival outfit and leaving under a cloud emailed the entire COMPANY - including the billionaire then-owner - with a tongue-in-cheek invite to his "farewell party" at the coffee cart downstairs at 4.30pm. We later heard that the joke had seriously annoyed the higher-ups, but what could they do?

Our email system had been configured with lots of group commands for mass-messaging magazines, departments and, yes, the whole firm, so as to make sending around mundane notices about holidays, etc. easy.

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A third instance of oversharing within the same organisation saw me included in a humorous report about a debauched (to put it lightly) evening meant to go only to those involved. When someone realised I'd been emailed the piece by mistake, I was told, "Delete that. Pretend you never saw it."

I honestly wish I hadn't seen it. TMFI!

High on your own supply

At the beginning of my first year of university (failed first degree), I met these two dudes studying either Software or Electrical Engineering who were "Warhammer" fanatics. After I told them I'd never played "W/F/B", they swiftly organised a lunchtime game in a room you could book. It was us and a fourth guy. I wanna say the battle was 2v2, but maybe it just felt like that because they were teaching me the rules. While I don't recall much in the way of terrain, the miniatures were well painted and I know they pointed out some humorous customisations. It was beaut fun and I was ready to throw myself into the hobby. Except...I only saw those two dudes a couple more times (one "helped" me with a Comp Sci weekly programming task*), then they both left our uni - whether to study elsewhere or join the workforce, I don't know. Maybe they went on to manage branches of Games Workshop. They definitely had the enthusiasm.

*The tutor didn't accept his solution. Thanks for nothing, mate, haha.

Caravanserai

Residing near a shopping centre, I've observed a sizeable increase in the number of mobile homes pulling in to refuel both vehicle and humans inside. It suggests #vanlife is on the rise in Oz. In fact, I've seen so many of these nomads in the past year or two that it makes me wonder if there isn't a guidebook or website or app somewhere recommending the parking/petrol (diesel?)/eateries/supermarket at our centre. How many motorhomers are seeking adventure on the open road and how many are merely responding to the cost-of-living crisis is a discussion for another day.

Watching: "The Traitors US" S4. A return to form after S3.

T-shirt over sloppy joe

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By N/A. Something of a protest vote, this. There was so much mediocrity - not to mention downright dreck - that I ended up going with a cov depicting only Poison Ivy's symbol.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Pie N Mash" by The Skinner Brothers (UK) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyRL4edCM1Q

Commended >>> "Mangata" by Chloe Antoniotti (France), "Polaris" by Show-Go (Japan).

BEST BOOK I FINISHED THIS WEEK

Brilliant! Clever and amusing Shakespeare references, "Star Wars" references that go beyond Episode IV, and even tiny plot additions. The B&W illustrations are very good, too.

BEST DOCUFILM I WATCHED THIS WEEK

Worth it for the historical footage/photos alone. All four members of the band get to have their candid say. CC's spectacular rise was almost accidental, while its fall was inevitable.

The centre can hold, as it happens

I've mentioned before that we live near a neat little modern community centre, where we cast our vote on polling day. It also regularly hosts a mums'n'bubs club, an African church group, activities for young folks with intellectual disabilities (hope that's the acceptable term) and their carers, activities for senior citizens, and more besides. A colleague told me about a game-development jam that was held at the centre. I reckon back when proper in-person sci-fi clubs abounded, it could well have been used to stage the monthly meetings of one of those. I'm gonna assume it's the unofficial HQ of "Babylon 5" in this area ;-P

Improv tragedy

It's Tuesday and I'm thinking about the weekend. Not just because I've banned myself from consuming booze and junk food Mon-Thurs. There's a lot of primo viewing imminent...

FRIDAY

High hopes. First series was a blast. Imagine likeable celebs playing it (mostly) straight through a string of escape rooms of movie-set quality that tell an ongoing spooky story.

SATURDAY

Our city's art gallery finally reopens after FOUR YEARS of construction work. Don't get me started on how utterly pathetic it was of the council to leave the community without this vital cultural space for so long. All I can say is: The expanded and remodelled gallery better be effing special!

SUNDAY MORNING-AFTERNOON

(Shame they flubbed the apostrophe.)

SUNDAY EVENING

If I was still living in Sydney with plenty of disposable income and roughly zero responsibilities, I'd be attending the heck out of this competition.

Speaking of release dates, "Warriors Of Athena", the new Mythical Greece wargame from "Frostgrave" and "Stargrave" creator Joseph A. McCullough, should be out around Thursday, depending on your location. Amazon AU was saying today, but that's now changed to "temporarily out of stock".

Famously flat

Milano Cortina was Australia's most successful Winter Olympics. We won three gold medals, two silver and one bronze. That saw us finish in 14th place, right behind South Korea, a country I know from their news programs is obsessed with the W/O. Denmark scored a lone silver, which was actually a good result for them since they only had a single previous Winter Olympics medal! Being a Nordic nation, you might expect the Danes to do better, but along with a relatively small population (six million compared to Oz's 27 and SK's 51), they also have no mountains on which to practice many of the events. Thirdly, I suspect that, like the average Aussie, they simply care more about the Summer Games.

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BEST PIZZA PHOTO I TOOK THIS WEEK