h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Jonny!

Loved the office games article, especially the bit about me (I have a slightly swelled head right now). I think I will add a link to this on my main page. I can't imagine Geeker Ball being played in an office, but I would love to see it played in a lamp store.

Congratulations on getting an entry in the guide, by the way. Always nice to see that one of us really can succeed.

Thought I'd mention that S.R.A.H. convinced me to write about another game we used to play in college. Take a look if you have a moment...

Thanks Frink!

I'm sure Geeker Ball could be adapted for the office with minimum effort, wouldn't it be a little easy in a lamp store? Not quite sure how Floor Jumping would work in an office though.

The trick in adapting Geeker Ball to the office lies in finding couches that fold up into computer desks when the boss comes round.

A mass Floor Jumping with the boss as the victim can be much more effective than strikes, sick-outs, work stoppages, etc. It would go something like this:

WORKERS: We want raises!
BOSS: Get back to work!
(Sound of workers sailing through air...)
BOSS: Ooof!
(Sound of workers unpiling off boss)
BOSS: Ok, take your raises.
WORKERS: Woo-hoo!
BOSS: Someone call a doctor.

Well, Frink, if you think I'm going to edit my page to reflect your recent change of name you've got another think coming!

Back to Geeker Ball & Floor Jumping:

Couches and comfy chairs have started making mysterious appearances around the building where I work. Unfortunately they are a little too widley dispersed for the purposes of your games. At least they are at the moment...

Well, if you don't want to change my name on your page, that's ok. No one else has either. I'm just happy to be on an actual user page. I like how you separated it so there is a link to me and to my article. Thanks again!

Too bad about the couches and comfy chairs being too far apart. They would still be good for my favorite office game - sleep until the boss gets back, and then pretend you fainted or went into a coma or something. The most creative excuse that doesn't result in a firing wins!

I'm increasingly of the opinion that nobody comes over here anyway, so the amount of fame you're likely to gain from my page is approximately zero. Well, maybe one day in the distant future someone will visit and think "I wonder if Frink is related to the mysterious TV's Frink?". Or perhaps not. I suppose I should advertise more, I thought the minimalist approach would work but all that's done is prove that it's a good job I'm not in marketing. What I really need to do is leave cryptic messages and symbols around the place, whipping everyone up into an apathetic frenzy as to what it could all mean. Then, when the time is right, reveal that all their questions will be answered if they visit the Office Games forum. Actually, I did kind of start to do that by mentioning "Floor Jumping" in a forum somewhere, unfortunately nobody rose to the bait. For now I'll just have to accept that the majority of the small number of people who come here have, in all likelyhood, only done so by following the link from your home page.

My excuse for being asleep in a comfy chair, by the way, would probably be something along the lines of, "The last thing I remember is tripping over a loose piece of carpet and crashing head-first into the wall." I'd then go on to ask for a raise to prevent me from suing.

I have been getting a fair amount of traffic recently because of the company softball team I started. Not only does it provide me with a way to easily visit others I have interacted with, but a some of the folks on the roster have put a link to me on their page. Often the link says something like, "Frink manages the company softball team," and it is unusual enough to catch the attention of strangers.

Not to plug the team or anything, but several team members have made it a habit of visiting each others pages once they were all added to mine......

My excuse for sleeping on a couch at work? I would be researching an article on comfy couches I was planning to write for H2G2. Unfortunately, my boss wouldn't know what I was talking about....

It's never unfortunate when your boss doesn't understand what the hell you're on about, they just leave you alone to get on with it so as not to show that they haven't got a clue.

Are you still recruiting for the softball team then? I know there's that link on your home page and everything, but I never like to do things through the proper channels. If I need to justify why I should have a place on the team I might as well give up now, if not I'll just say that I'd make an excellent 1st base coach (if that's what they're called. Not being an American I only have a very basic understanding of the game of softball but assume that it's just like baseball but with a bigger ball. Of course I have very little idea about baseball either so I'll just have to go further in my wild assumptions. I presume that the guy who stands by first base to remind whoever's there to run, lest they've forgotten the idea of the game, is known as the 1st base coach and that they exist in softball as well as baseball.) I'll have to think a little about my secondary skill...

Yep, still signing folks up for the team....and you are the latest! Softball is indeed very much like baseball with a bigger ball. You are now the first base coach/office game coordinator. Don't worry about your lack of knowledge - I think a large number of team members don't know what to do either (Tweek, Drake Tungsten, John-the-Gardener, and Natski would seem to be the exceptions, I think...and myself, of course. I play on an real-world company softball team)

As an added bonus to you, the new recruit, I just started a "recent update" section to my page. So not only are you on the roster, but your name appears at the top of my page with an invitation to say hi.

Now if you could hack into the H2G2 system and get some of my submitted articles accepted.....

Thanks for my place on the team, I'll just try to pick up the rules as we go along. I've stuck a link to you on my ever so imaginative home page in a pathetic attempt to advertise, I've yet to stop by any of the rest of the team yet although I've bumped into a few of them in the past.

I also made a reference to GIRR in a forum somewhere, I haven't checked to see whether anyone's posted as a result but I did read somewhere that this 'referenced researcher / page' thing is about to go public. Personally, I'll be ignoring all pleas to conform. In fact, if I ever get around to doing anything other than what I've got already I'll be making my home page look as incongruous as possible.

I also read that the "RR" part of GIRR was going to go public sometime. Personally, I hope it doesn't. It's sparking a lot of enjoyable debate. Plus, if it did go public, I'd probably have to shut down GIRR - why protest something that is free to everyone?

Then I'd have to think of something new to sign people up for.

Surely the point of protesting is to bring about change? Perhaps I'm missing something. One option, if it goes public, would be to use GIRR to convince people not to use it. Gonna Irritate Referencing Researchers. See, don't even need to change your acronym.

Very true. I like the idea of keeping it running. I'll have to keep an eye on anyone who is a member but gives in to the temptation when it is available.

This was as much another way to generate traffic for my page as it was a protest, anyway....

It seems to have been yet another success for you then! Perhaps you should suggest a new post of "Protest Editor" to the "powers that be" and then put yourself forward for it.

Hey Jonny! Remember this little forum? Well, Geeker Ball has been accepted as an official guide entry! Woo-hoo!

Hey, top work Frink! Congratulations! I'll get to work on updating the link to point to the "real thing" now (not that anyone ever comes here, as far as I can tell, but it's the principle of the thing)

Well, there were a large amount of confused and disoriented researchers to find their way to your psych chair.

That's true, I'm not quite sure how that happened. I wasn't really prepared for all that, it seems that we've finally got a word association game going in "Hidden" Surgery now, if only I knew how to interpret the responses I'm sure I'd have learnt a lot by now.