Mental Meanderings
Well I know it’s been a while since I’ve been active on this here site of mine, but I’ve been working hard for a change!
And while at work, I have been using the godforsaken Visio by Microsoft to draw schematic diagrams of some really random things. Whilst working on one of these drawings I went to one of the bosses and, unsurprisingly, had a bit of a whinge.
“Well,” he said “if you really get that fed-up, we do have a professional draftsman on staff who is available.”
Being a sometimes-lateral, always-absurd thinker, I found myself considering the possibility that they had a professional draughtsman on staff, and wound up with two possibilities:
The Professional Draughts Player
Imagine that, any time you needed a break from work you could just pop down and see him/her for a quick, challenging game of draughts. If you were stuck on a problem, you could sit and talk to him/her about it, whilst stimulating your brain and competitive nature. I think this makes a good alternative to chess, because a game of draughts doesn’t take nearly as long, and it really isn’t as tactical as chess. Plus I was never any good at chess…
The Professional Draughtsman
Next stop on my creative crusade was the (admittedly slightly more ridiculous) possibility of the company mistakenly hiring an actual draughts piece. I was humoured by the supposition that sitting somewhere in an office in the depths of the building was a large disk-shaped draughts piece, which wandered into work every morning with a suitcase and a swipe card. Everyone thinks that he’s somewhat quiet, and odd that he communicates only via email, but he gets the job done. That and you could always tell what sort of weekend he’d had by whether he had been ‘kinged’ or not.
I think I need to get out more.
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
For all of the North American readers out there, Will is talking about checkers. He imagines checker pieces going to work with him, which inevitably raises the question… if a checker piece can get hired at his company, how high are their standards, really?
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hmmm, I hadn’t thought about that Sach, fair point. The pun doesn’t work quite as well with checkers does it? I’m reasonably sure that my North American readership is a small minority, but thanks for clearing that up!
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:24 am
Will, are you SURE you’re ok?
x
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Unfortunately the pun doesn’t seem to work well at all when one substitutes ‘draughts’ with ‘checkers’ as I have never once heard of a ‘checkersperson,’ nevertheless it had to be said to avoid (a small amount of) confusion amongst your readership. Maybe I am your ONLY North American readership as of present, but I thought that I would try my hand at preventing the inevitable wikipedia search after reading the above article.
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:57 am
There’s nothing wrong with a cheecky wikipedia search, it enlightens the mind and soothes the soul!
I reckon a checkersperson would be someone who only wears checked shirts to work. Poor soul!
And as at today, only 2.69% of my total pageviews ever have been from North America
[editor’s note, cheecky = cheeky, for those of us like Pete who can’t accept typos!]
January 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
umm…. bit baffled by what the hell a “cheecky” is….
did a wiki search and came up blank
same with dictionary.com
however…
the first google match that came up was a link to some flash game involving cheecky girls. it was hosted by albinoblacksheep.com which leads me to the only conclusion possible….
its just another dodgy kiwi invention
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:51 pm
okay, WHO are you, and what have you done with WILL??? i’d have thought that the Will Midgley we all know (and love?) would immediately associate “draught” with beer… which incidentally Will, would make YOU a ‘Professional Draughtsman’! … that reminds me: drinking night LONG overdue!
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:01 am
Or Pete, it’s just a typo…but who knows!
LMR, I agree! As soon as I have the funds to support a drinking night, one will be called!
And I did think of draught as a beer, but thought that the ‘checkers’ angle was a little funnier. That, and most of the people in the office are ‘Professional Draughtsman’ in the beer sense! 
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Yes but I am the only one true “Professional Draughtsman!!!” I get called in whenever a big nite is needed, i work to a distinct plan for different people and their sometime suspect ability to consume alcohol. (and dodge chairs ey GeM)
I come at the simple cost of a pint and best of all i’m the biggest butt to anyones joke
You can find me in the office, you can find me at the bar, you won’t find me driving a car… matter a fact, i need it now… der der DERder Der… Dave Perry, Draughtsman Professionale (DP).”
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Excellent call on the beer-angle LMR… !
No comment regarding the chairs…
January 24th, 2007 at 10:48 am
2.69%, is it Will? For a fact? I reckon we need to give you some more drafting to do over there… if you’re really hard up, you can swing past my office. Architecture it may be, but there is plenty of it to do!
Also, I must say that upon first reading ‘draughtsman’ in your post I was expecting some comparison of different beer types, how to make beer drinking into a profession, what sort of schooling that degree may entail, etc, but was quite shocked when ‘a large disked shaped darughts piece’ wandered into your office!
LMR, you know Will too well.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Sach: thank you for clearing up the checkers thing (I too am part of that 2.69%, apparently) — I figured he meant backgammon (sp??).
LMR: good call!
January 25th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
What’s that about you throwing a “Wills View” party for all those who read your blog? Did you say you wanted everyone to meet up for beers in a pub?? Sounds like a plan wL
January 28th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
nice… a subtle change… looks better, more defined, like a younger michael jackson…