Visits and Rats, Philosophy and Politics, Gaming

caseopaya's mother is visiting; she's a rather spritely and sharp lass in her seventies and I've enjoyed her company. The rodents are a little confused why they have to spend most of the day in their cage, and caseopaya herself is finding the entire visit rather stressful. On ratty-topics, saw Ratatoullie last week; it's quite charming. Particularly impressed by the effort taken to accurately display rat movements and mannerisms.

Last Sunday gave my presentation on "Women in Philosophy and Philosophy of Women" at the Unitarian Philosophy Forum. It generated a lot of discussion and was well-received; will get a write-up as soon as possible. On Tuesday attended the Atheist Society to hear Rick Barker speak on "Bertrand Russell's Adventures on the Road to Damascus". Quite a good potted history of the philosopher-activist of whom there seems to be a modicum of renewed interest.

APEC has finished; I took the opportunity to compare current world leaders with the "great leaders" of their various States. The Age published my short letter on the matter. I wonder about the mentality of our world's leaders; it rather reminds me of a pithy remark that claudine_c once made: Why would someone want to take on a new task but not want to learn to do it well? I'm afraid I don't understand this person's motivation.". Well in the case of politics, the motivation is power.

Gaming this week consisted of D&D3e Ralia on Thursday night, and Polaris last night. Found the Thursday session especially dull, and feel pretty indifferent about the latter. Last Sunday, with a new GM, our "Norman Britain" (now in Iceland) finished most of G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King. On-topic, recently reviewed The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. Still have many games available for sale on Ebay.