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Monday, January 31, 2005

If for some reason…

You’ve been trying to call the house over the weekend, you may have been perplexed by our non-responsiveness. This has nothing to do with completed immersion in World of Warcraft – far from it. In fact the phone line suddenly stopped working on Friday evening and hasn’t come back all weekend. We’ve been completely unable to make a connection, or even get a dial tone, and calls made to the phone ring and ring until they’re too rung out to bother any longer.

Complaints were duly lodged with the proper authorities, and while we might have muttered petulantly about our severed links to Azeroth, there was no choice but to settle down to a traditional weekend of real face to face human interaction, damn it.

The penny dropped this morning when I got to work to learn that a permanent ADSL broadband connection had been established to our home some time on Friday night. This had the hilarious result of making the phone connection fuzzy and unusable, for one cannot operate analog and ADSL devices concurrently on a phone line without the intervention of a marvellous little filtering device. This handy little gadget separates the two bundles of frequencies used by the two types of devices so that they don’t muddy each other’s signals. (You may perceive, even through this dumbed-down explanation, that I’ve been doing some research and appear to have learned some basic principles of telephonic engineering).

Unhandily, the gadget in question, ordered as part of said broadband deal, must necessarily come to me through the wholly physical medium of a courier service from Sydney. This does not, except as strictly usurious rates, happen on weekends. I think you can see where this is going…

Hopefully when I get home today there will be a parcel waiting, or at least a note telling me where the parcel can be collected, after which I can apply said device to the wall socket or wherever and restore the natural flow of information to and from my home.

And then I can hook up the wireless router to the various PCs about the place, attach a drip to keep me sustained, and once again restore myself to a near-constant state of online gaming bliss.

Cricket

I haven’t done a lot of mentioning of this summer’s outdoor cricket season because I have played so very badly that it is difficult to express it in words that don’t sound precisely like “I suck”. That all changed yesterday, not-altogether-ironically with my last game of the season, when I passed a number of fairly elementary milestones that had heretofore eluded me all season:

I didn’t get out for a duck. While I have never provided more than a brief flourish of entertainment with the bat, in the past I have been reliably good for at least a couple of runs before I sky something I should have blocked, or fail to block something I should have blocked, or whatever. Yesterday I finally got my first runs off the bat, achieving a reasonably respectable 9 (and participating in two partnerships worth a total of 50 runs – I’m very good down the other end from a decent batsman…)
I got a boundary. I’m not quite sure how, but I managed to clobber (there’s no other word for the artless crossbat slog in question) a boundary straight back over the head of the exasperated bowler. Poor sod was probably rightfully wondering how I managed to get it at all after stepping so far away from my stumps, let alone middling it for four.
I didn’t get out. Normally the other thing I can be relied upon is to lose my wicket, usually doing something elementary. This time, all the batting coaching which my colleagues have thanklessly attempted to drill into me at training this year actually sunk in. I defended good balls, swatted bad balls, and didn’t offer any chances (there two very high hits which would have been sitters for better placed fielders, but they were significantly elsewhere).
I took a catch. It was a pretty good one, too, crossing to my left from deep mid on. The sort of thing that’s bread and butter at training, but which is all-too-easy to bungle in a real game. Our team’s turned dropping sitters into a real art form this season, so I was glad not to perpetuate the tradition.

We also won by a hundred runs, which was nice. We’ve lost three out of five, though, so even if we win the next match – which I will be away in Perth so will miss – I don’t think we’ll make the finals. Ah well. At least (for me) it was a good finish to the season.

3 smartarse remarks Post a Comment

3 Comments:

Unbelievable! You think you're having a bad run then you play well in cricket AND get broadband availability within the same blogspace. I put it down to you finally getting some smartarse leftwing comments about geopolitics to someblog which cares.

By Marco, at 1:55 PM

...or to the fact that now that I have (a) some form and (b) permanent broadband, I'm about to go away for three weeks and so will (a) miss the last game of the year and (b) not be able to use my zippy new connection.

It's the universe, taunting me like a bored housecat...

By Dave, at 2:09 PM

Keep those comments coming anyhow - just for good luck while you're away!

By Marco, at 2:17 PM


	Monday, January 31, 2005 If for some reason… You’ve been trying to call the house over the weekend, you may have been perplexed by our non-responsiveness. This has nothing to do with completed immersion in World of Warcraft – far from it. In fact the phone line suddenly stopped working on Friday evening and hasn’t come back all weekend. We’ve been completely unable to make a connection, or even get a dial tone, and calls made to the phone ring and ring until they’re too rung out to bother any longer. Complaints were duly lodged with the proper authorities, and while we might have muttered petulantly about our severed links to Azeroth, there was no choice but to settle down to a traditional weekend of real face to face human interaction, damn it. The penny dropped this morning when I got to work to learn that a permanent ADSL broadband connection had been established to our home some time on Friday night. This had the hilarious result of making the phone connection fuzzy and unusable, for one cannot operate analog and ADSL devices concurrently on a phone line without the intervention of a marvellous little filtering device. This handy little gadget separates the two bundles of frequencies used by the two types of devices so that they don’t muddy each other’s signals. (You may perceive, even through this dumbed-down explanation, that I’ve been doing some research and appear to have learned some basic principles of telephonic engineering). Unhandily, the gadget in question, ordered as part of said broadband deal, must necessarily come to me through the wholly physical medium of a courier service from Sydney. This does not, except as strictly usurious rates, happen on weekends. I think you can see where this is going… Hopefully when I get home today there will be a parcel waiting, or at least a note telling me where the parcel can be collected, after which I can apply said device to the wall socket or wherever and restore the natural flow of information to and from my home. And then I can hook up the wireless router to the various PCs about the place, attach a drip to keep me sustained, and once again restore myself to a near-constant state of online gaming bliss. Cricket I haven’t done a lot of mentioning of this summer’s outdoor cricket season because I have played so very badly that it is difficult to express it in words that don’t sound precisely like “I suck”. That all changed yesterday, not-altogether-ironically with my last game of the season, when I passed a number of fairly elementary milestones that had heretofore eluded me all season: I didn’t get out for a duck. While I have never provided more than a brief flourish of entertainment with the bat, in the past I have been reliably good for at least a couple of runs before I sky something I should have blocked, or fail to block something I should have blocked, or whatever. Yesterday I finally got my first runs off the bat, achieving a reasonably respectable 9 (and participating in two partnerships worth a total of 50 runs – I’m very good down the other end from a decent batsman…) I got a boundary. I’m not quite sure how, but I managed to clobber (there’s no other word for the artless crossbat slog in question) a boundary straight back over the head of the exasperated bowler. Poor sod was probably rightfully wondering how I managed to get it at all after stepping so far away from my stumps, let alone middling it for four. I didn’t get out. Normally the other thing I can be relied upon is to lose my wicket, usually doing something elementary. This time, all the batting coaching which my colleagues have thanklessly attempted to drill into me at training this year actually sunk in. I defended good balls, swatted bad balls, and didn’t offer any chances (there two very high hits which would have been sitters for better placed fielders, but they were significantly elsewhere). I took a catch. It was a pretty good one, too, crossing to my left from deep mid on. The sort of thing that’s bread and butter at training, but which is all-too-easy to bungle in a real game. Our team’s turned dropping sitters into a real art form this season, so I was glad not to perpetuate the tradition. We also won by a hundred runs, which was nice. We’ve lost three out of five, though, so even if we win the next match – which I will be away in Perth so will miss – I don’t think we’ll make the finals. Ah well. At least (for me) it was a good finish to the season. 3 smartarse remarks Post a Comment 3 Comments: Unbelievable! You think you're having a bad run then you play well in cricket AND get broadband availability within the same blogspace. I put it down to you finally getting some smartarse leftwing comments about geopolitics to someblog which cares. By Marco, at 1:55 PM ...or to the fact that now that I have (a) some form and (b) permanent broadband, I'm about to go away for three weeks and so will (a) miss the last game of the year and (b) not be able to use my zippy new connection. It's the universe, taunting me like a bored housecat... By Dave, at 2:09 PM Keep those comments coming anyhow - just for good luck while you're away! By Marco, at 2:17 PM