Socialists, Henry George dinner, LUV, Unitarians, Tampa Rally, Gaming, Health

[tcpip]

I have recently been "handed the mantle" to manage the socialists community. Have done some basic housecleaning (removing deleted journals), changed the user info and replaced the U.S. Socialist Party logo with the more generic red flag. On a somewhat related topic, Professor Mike Young, CSIRO water expert, will be the guest speaker at the 116th annual Henry George Dinner which will be on Thursday September 7 at the Prince Patrick Hotel in Collingwood; drop a line here if you want to come along. Apropros community organisations even more so, I have been nominated by no less than four people to be the next Vice-President of Linux Users Victoria.

Early in the week, spent significant time with Rev. Derek McCullough discussing the future of ANZUA and Unitarianism. On Sunday was Reverend Peter Ferguson, a former Anglican Minister turned Unitarian who described, in no uncertain terms, "The Pathos of Christianity", concentrating (as he admitted) on all bad parts - namely, anti-semitism, defamation of women, denial of sensuality and support of unjust political systems. The philosophy class afterwards dealt with the predictions of Bertrand Russell concerning the international future, which were surprisingly accurate. It was great to see ser_pounce and wolf_in_winter present; hopefully we'll see more of them.

Attended the Tampa memorial rally on Saturday; very colourful. Julian Burnside gave a good speech (as you hope from a QC) and gave his appreciations to the activists whom, over the past several years, have slowly turned the tide on attitude of Australians to asylum seekers. It is one of those issues where the battle is between truth and ignorance - ultimately, albeit painfully for the victims, the truth will win. Afterwards spent a pleasant afternoon at the open day for the Princes Park Lawn Bowls Club, having been invited by the President a few days prior. Managed to make it back home in sufficient time for dinner with severina_242 and _zombiemonkey.

Friday night was the second session of In Nomine. Characters discovered a particular online roleplaying games is actually a tool to suck the soul from humanity (like television, natch). Sunday afternoon gaming was our Norman Britian retro AD&D game. We (mostly) completed module D2 ("Danger At Dunwater") and are arranging land rights (or rather "swamp rights") for lizardmen. Appropriately enough, this is set at Lizard Point in Cornwell.

As reported in the last journal entry, our adorable rabbit causes me hives. I have visited the local medical centre (very tasteful in old world charm, I may add) and received a number of creams, tablets and so forth to deal with this and other skin ailments. In the doctors (plural intended) considered opinion, I have crap skin that's prone to such problems.

Comments

[ser-pounce.livejournal.com]

Hey! Yes, it was great to see you again on Sunday. The talk was rather good given that I am an angry, bitter ex-Christian myself :) Not sure if we'll be there this Sunday (being Father's Day and all) but we should be there the following Sunday. YAY!

P.S. Hope your hives are better...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I understand the anger that many ex-Christians feel towards their former faith. The enormous distance between what the formal institutions practise and what they preach is beyond anything else on the planet. I hope to be get a transcript of the good Reverend's address.

Hives are improving greatly. I'm going to miss the wee rabbit tho' :(

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I'm going to miss the wee rabbit tho' :(

So am I :( *sniff* She's such a little cutie, and so cheeky