Vale Alan Ratcliffe, More Unitarians, Completing Works, Gaming and the Usual Madness.

Last Friday attended the funeral of Alan Ratcliffe, 101, at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. Just to give a sense of perspective Alan's school-teacher was the man who stopped the trains after the Kelly gang ripped up the lines. He bought his first Harley Davidson and Cheverolet in the mid-1920s and was still driving at the age of 91. An uncompromising socialist and atheist, he found no problem with being an active member of the Church for over fifty years. Nor did he ever waver in his support for voluntary euthanasia. The service, conducted by Peter Abrehart, was dignified and insightful. Some 150 people were in attendance.

Was expecting Andrew Chalmers at the Unitarians on Sunday on the topic of public versus proprietary science; for the second time he didn't show. Felt quite silly for having organised him as a speaker and once again, for having to conduct the service and give a presentation off-the-cuff. Managed to provide, on-the-fly, a presentation on the scientific method from inductivism, deductivism, and falsification, to research structures, scientific paradigms and 'anarchist science'. This Sunday coming I am on again as the presenter with the topic "Prospects for Liberal and Rationalist Islam".

Have completed, a website for motor vehicle apprenticeships, the T3 Program. Still has a couple of rough spots to iron out. On Tuesday completed CCNA 2 Prac Exam; engaging in a major catch-up for semester 3 in the following fortnight. Putting my foot down at Borderlands and have submitted network and web policies. They will comply to my benevolent network dictatorship ;-). Still going through the mountain of procedures that is my work at Naturelinks. Also, just have received confirmation that damien_wise and I are embarking on an IT publication.

Gaming over the last week has been HeroQuest and GURPS Australian Noir, both extremely enjoyable as was the films (Soylent Green and Westworld at the Astor afterwards). Mongoose Publishing almost overlooked my name as a playtester for the new upcoming edition of RuneQuest; a couple of terse emails has fixed that up. This weeked is Retrocon; come along and play. Still developing my Cyberpunk/Paranoia crossover; the systems seem to integrate very nicely. On topic, Valhalla Games is pushing the envelope when it comes to pricing.

Somalia the Libertarian bastion, falls. Livejournal bans displays of nipples (seriously, this place has gone to the dogs since Six Apart took over). The amazing survival story of Mike the Hamster