Hmm squishy code
NOTE: This is a really. Really. Really bad idea. I drank a pint of water in the process of this, over the course of 3 minutes.
Charlie the Unicorn Drinking Game: get a drink, watch a Charlie the Unicorn video, and take a sip every time the name “Charlie” is spoken. Down your drink at the end. Collapse and go into a coma.
WHOA. Tiring work! So many clueless freshers who need help enrolling or setting up their IT account (”Do I really need one?” “Um. Yes. Unless you fancy not knowing when any of your classes are, not being able to get your results or register for your modules”).
One of the members of full time staff got a good one. Bearing in mind the Help and Enquiry desk is in the Library, Level 2 of 4, in the center - “Is the Library upstairs too?” “Um. Yes” *points at Level 2 East “Are there books in there too?”. Desker looks at the bookshelves in plain view in the East wing. ” … Yes.”
Then there’s the ones that you ask “Have you followed the instructions?” and they reply quite happily “Yes! Of course!” and then as you read them the instructions, they manage to achieve what they were trying to do. So obviously they weren’t following the instructions.
Who aren’t quite as bad as the ones who simply slap down their laptop and demand you set wireless up for them (or somesuch); who’ve not even bothered to find the instructions, let alone read them; then get indignant when I give them the documentation and tell them to go try it and if it still doesn’t work come back. Or those who get annoyed when I have to make an appointment because we’re really busy - it’s not my fault we’re really busy!
But it’s not all bad. Hilight of today was when I was quietly logging a query, and all of a sudden a rather attractive girl plonked herself down next to me and said “This uni is crap isn’t it?” “Why do you say that” I replied, neutrally. “I just tried to print to gill1 and nothing has happened and it’s eaten my money” “Oh. I’ll fix that. Try gill3 instead” “Will I still get charged?” “Nope!” “Yay. Thanks!”. Turns out gill1 did a E_GOT_BORED_AND_CRASHED overnight (the printers tend to do that) and had a 30MB queue of documents from people trying to print their timetables. After a quick call to The Ones who Can, it was sorted and we brought the printer back up again - but apparently people were still trying to print to it whilst he was clearing out the queue!
As I was leaving, one of the roamers said that a user wanted to know where cafe2 was. I said that there was no cafe2, but there was a cafe1 which was behind him. “But they printed to cafe2!” he said “Well, go check Level 1 Center in a parallel dimension and see if it’s there.”
So, that’s fresher madness. Tomorrow I have lectures from 10AM till 1PM,then a library shift from 1PM to 2PM, then another lecture 2PM till 4PM. Yes, you’re right. I’m not going to get a chance to stop for lunch. Joy.
So, I’m in the Gulbenkian with a coffee and a laptop. I took the only seat with a power point next to it, and the table next to me is occupied by Mikael Kohling, my first year Java tutor. I had to explain to a friend who came up to me, saying “Why aren’t you at work?” that I was in fact not at work because I had failed to take into account British Summer Time into my program that imports my work rota into Google calendar.
How embaressing.
Yes yes, the Lambeth Conference has been happening up at UKC, and I’ve been doing some IT support for it.
I have been working on the Help & Enquiry desk at the library. Bishops, it seems, are confusing.
We had one fellow who wanted to “send an email from here”. I explained that we didn’t give out email addresses, but he didn’t understand. He just gave me an email address that he wanted to send the email to, and expected to magically open an email account and just send it. He only wanted to send one email, he kept telling me - like that makes any difference!
I ended up pointing him at Gmail and getting him to sign up. At which point he sat at the helpdesk and started writing an email. I awkwardly asked him to go use another machine, as it looked like he was working there.
Then there was the person who wanted to get the name and addresses of some of the bishops he met. I got him logged on, at which point he started fiddling with the mouse like he’d never used one in his life. Then my replacement turned up and I ran for the hills.
One of the other helpdeskers working in the press office (which, by the way, is not “as far away from the conference as possible”, in fact it’s as close to the conference as possible. Oh and the fence isn’t 10 foot high.) got a mention in The Times Online.
So, yes. Fun times.
I mentioned a desire to make cookies in #cs earlier today, and was greeted with a slightly worrying amount of enthusiasm.
14:39 <crowbar> cookie materials are now here :)14:40 <andee> o.O 14:43 <xand> o.o 14:44 * Steve thinks Crowbar likes cooking 14:44 <steve> ...and cookies 14:44 <xand> who doesn't? 14:44 * Stotty|work likes cooking cookies 14:44 <andee> on a lighter note, my debian package for lastest asterisk works14:45 <stotty|work> check it out: http://www.jstott.me.uk/recipes/chocolatechipcookies.php 14:45 <andee> as in this wont make you fat
14:45 <steve> I'd use chunks of chocolate
14:50 <crowbar> i've got a bit of cooking chocolate 14:51 <crowbar> and some white chocolate 14:51 <stotty|work> needs milk, white and dark chocolate 14:51 <steve> PERFECT 14:51 <steve> Dark is preferable 14:51 <steve> as an addition
And thus, cookies. I made a slight alteration in that I put in chocolate chips AND chocolate chunks, as well as adding some cocoa powder and a smidgen of that nice white chocolate stuffs. I’ll post my perfected alterations as soon as I’ve worked out exactly what’s best.
