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the pursuit of metappiness: jubilee happy people
I have the feeling that it’s been waaay to long since I last wrote a blog post on this quest I’ve been calling the pursuit of metappiness. Yes, only a little over one week went by… Who would have known! It still seems too long considering how much has been happening around here lately!
Well, first of all, let’s not forget that this week was structured in a way that most people wouldn’t mind adopting on a permanent basis: we had 4 days off (God Bless The Queen!) and 3 work days!
Most of us did cool different things to enjoy this rare gift; here are some funny stories we’ve been telling about our Diamond Jubilee Weekends!
First of all, do you remember how good the weather was the week before the Jubilee weekend? Yes, perfect warm sunny weather during the working week! We were already tuning into summer-like mode, and then… Cold & Rain! Just to keep in mind we’re in London!
Good weather makes people smiley and happy, and we tend to enjoy those days accordingly: lighter clothing, walking around in parks, seating somewhere in the sun, or even, let’s say, planning picnics! Why not? No reason not to do it… Unless you’re in London and you’re planning them 2 weeks down the line! Tom suffered a bit with this, because he was invited to several picnics over the Jubilee Weekend, and most of them got cancelled! He managed to go to one very cool picnic, in between threatening dark clouds!
Not all of us were in London though!
Jonathan decided to head off to Kent to a nature reserve. There, he saw a couple of lighthouses, lots of sheds, a whole lot of nothing and… Wait for it… Nuclear power stations! Yes, that’s right! That’s how he used his extra weekend time! Here’s proof!
Keeley went caving. Caving, you ask? Yes! One of the things he likes most! So, last Thursday he said his goodbyes and was determined to enjoy his long weekend up in the North. He went all the way to Yorkshire Dales. Gutsy decision, making over 240 miles on a minibus over a 6 hour period. Unfortunately, he wasn’t feeling 100% during the weekend, but according to him he still got some decent caving in. We’re all extremely glad he has now recovered!
Chris and Mirona went on to have a nice family weekend in the Romania mountains, where they were received with a cool BBQ suitable for many more people than those present. They swear it was a whole cow and two pigs! But you don’t hear them complaining about the sun ;)
Back in the office, some very interesting things have happened here, too!
Everyone knows that the best ideas sometimes arise from seemingly random conversations or situations in unexpected places. We’ve all heard about Eureka and the three Bs, right?
Following an idea that Fred brought up during one of our monthly MetaBeers (and we’re left to guess where he first had it) we have bought and started a game of Diplomacy, attempting to conquer 1901’s Europe!
We made a draft to choose who would represent each of the 7 powers and after some struggling to understand the peculiar rules of the game, and much appreciation for Fred guiding us through it and compiling each round, we’re now in the midst of our first game. Some countries have already changed heads, following the first hands-on experience, and the players at the moment are:
Liam: Turkey, Duo Jonathan & Tom: England, Rita: Austria-Hungary, Chris: France, Keeley: Russia, Luke: Italy, and Fred: Germany. I’ll keep you updated on the status of the conquering!
Not everything is fun and games, and when things get tighter (like working well past beer o’clock the Friday before the Jubilee) we all need coping mechanisms. For instance, we now have purple stress balls to squeeze, instead of the juggling balls everyone took to, silently. Look how cool the real thing looks!
And to make sure everyone is comfortable and as far from the RSI spectrum as can be, the move to purple balls coincided with getting some good looking gel wrist rests! Purple, how else?
Last Thursday, during our weekly code review session, Liam took the opportunity to talk about his latest work using node.js for the very first time.
When Adam asked what Liam’s thoughts were on node.js and whether he was happy using it or not, Liam pondered and said "Yes, I am", and then briefly described what was behind his positive answer: he was happy to use use a language that works in a slightly different way to the technology we normally use, as it is interesting to see another approach.
Like a lot of things around here, that statement called on everyone’s thoughts and believes, and since each of us has strong opinions and makes heartfelt points, we dipped our toes again in the eternal debate of structured languages versus dynamic languages, and in the end? We still can’t say that node.js isn’t controversial! But then so is JavaScript, if you will, and we’re still using it daily.
So what is not controversial at MetaBroadcast? Cakes. We all like cakes. Of course, we have different preferences, but at the end of the day, if it was a cake day, it was a good day :)
Recently, we’ve tried a very good Cortina Gateau by Patisserie Valerie that looked absolutely stunning. Don’t take my word for it, check it out:
Some other day we’ve also had Bea’s of Bloomsbury Triple Chocolate Cake, which was amazing. Another one for our whitelist, which I consider publishing.
And come to think of it, Foodie Friday isn’t controversial, either. When Liam won last week, we learned he had never had Korean, and was keen on tasting some. So we decided on trying Kimchee and we were all quite happy with our choices, although most of us did not have any… kimchee.
For now, this it! But do come back: our pursuit of metappiness continues full speed and you won’t be disappointed by my next instalment. And if you would like to be a part of this, there are two immediate things you could do: check our openings here, and take the opportunity to meet us this Wednesday June 13th for MetaBeers @ The Enterprise.
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