Programming, NaNoWriMo, Gaming and Social News, the Socialist Tide

[tcpip]

Not surprisingly both prior employers have contacted me asking for advice. One requested that I come back in the future saying "that your finger is really on the pulse" on what needs to be done. Er, thanks but no thanks. I still have one hefty web contract outstanding and as such I've spent quite a lot of time reviewing and rebuilding my Apache, PHP and MySQL knowledge along with installing OpenSuSE in preference to Ubuntu on my desktop - and just in time for major changes between Novell and Microsoft. Further, because it rocks, I've started programming in Free Pascal, something I haven't done for a good fifteen years.

Also simpy because I can I've joined NaNoWriMo yesterday. My novel is entitled "The Outcast Girl" and is loosely based on the Ten Thousand Islands PBeM roleplaying game I ran many months ago. In a nutshell, it's a historical and anthropological study of Malay society in the early sixteenth century, with a monomythic narrative. Two thousand words done, fourty-eight thousand to go!

Gaming this week consisted of further development in our DragonQuest world (I'm really enjoying the additional grounding in the earth sciences this is giving me), a new initiative system for AD&D that actually makes sense, Urban Arcana last Sunday where the noble PCs saved St Kilda's prostitutes from a "Jack The Ripper" demon, and Diplomacy and Carcassonne (courtesy of anthanum on Tuesday. Came second in Diplomacy, but was thoroughly thrashed in Carcassonne, which I played for the first time. The latter is really quite a brilliant production. The rules are very simple but the strategic depth is excellent. Social life included a wonderful fourtieth birthday party for splodgenoodles with culinary delights provided by tenbears and halloween drinks and zombie movies with severina_242 and _zombiemonkey

In world politics over recent months I've noticed a run of victories for various left-wing and socialist parties, including the re-election of Lula in Brazil, the re-election of the socialist president in Bulgaria, a surprise win by the Social Democrats in Austria, and even little Montenegro. The only exception is Congo where the politics are personality-based rather than ideological. Alongside all of this, the world's biggest union has just been formed. Is the world going a slight shade of red without the mass media noticing? And what will this mean for that Stern Report? It takes New Zealand newspaper to accurately display Australia's view.

Comments

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ummm... lev_lafayette?

[lokicarbis.livejournal.com]

The old purloined letter approach, eh? :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Am I supposed to do otherwise? I'm new to this nanowrimo thingy...

[lokicarbis.livejournal.com]

Do what you like, m'man - that's the beauty of NaNo :)

You should check out the Melbourne forum, though. Got us a crazy bunch there this year :)

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

it's still fiction!!! Oh my GOD!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*looks*

hmmm.. sure is a lot of activity on those forums. how do you guys get any writing done? ;-)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Hey, I engage in co-operative fiction production two-three times a week. It's not that strange.

I just don't like most of the crap that comes out of Hollywood or by pulp publishing houses.

[severina-242.livejournal.com]

Hey, either do I. I'm very selective about my reading and have been for years (which is a contrast to my childhood years where I would read anything and everything I could get my hands on).

[curufea.livejournal.com]

True.

In general the writeups for weapons in the genre books are only really for basic attacks. I have seen writeups for more advanced uses.

Such as a shield being a multipower that include a base defence, and a shieldbash attack.

Or a whip that can have the basic damage attack, a disarm attack, or an entangle.

Likewise you can define fast weapons as giving +1 speed.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

In any case, I have written some fiction in the recent past. And, according to some, it wasn't a bad first draft either...

http://www.mimesisrpg.com/pipermail/runequest4_mimesisrpg.com/2005-September/000007.html

and

http://mimesisrpg.com/pipermail/runequest4_mimesisrpg.com/2005-October/000009.html

[omnot.livejournal.com]

"unfortunately brought up in a conservative christian household so he's fucked for life really..."

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I'm not doomed. I'm not I'm not I'm not!

Ooh - I do love that cartoon. :-P

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

No you're not. Being brought up in a conservative Christian household could certainly give you a finely tuned bullshit detector for life ;-)

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

" The only exception is Congo where the politics are personality-based rather than ideological."

You forget the Conservative gains in Sweden. And the loss of left wing moment in the Ukraine.

[reddragdiva]

OHHH NO WE SHOULDN'T.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yes the Alliance of Sweden. I had forgotten about them. A week after the elections in Montenegro, so I should have counted them in the schema.

Still, a 7 seat majority shared among a shakey coalition in a 349 seat parliament is a fairly tenuous hold on power.

Ukraine? Their parliamentary elections were a lot earlier in the year.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

*sotto voce*

Of course, Mr. Diva decided that indie rock was more fun than fantasy and science fiction. That's the sort of fanzine he ended up with.

[evil-genius.livejournal.com]

Did you count spains new left leaning government aswell. They are certainly ruffling quite a few feathers as of late. Divorce, abortion, ETA. All kinds of interesting stuff happening.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've got a nice collection myself. I've got a nearly complete set of Planescape books, a complete set of 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms (with a healthy sum of 2nd Edition for reference), and quite a few early AD&D Modules (Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, etc). I'm very proud of it.

Do you play any White Wolf? We've got a nice World of Darkness campaign going. Mortal characters in 1930's Louisiana, dealing with Voodoo practitioners, Indian Burial grounds and a submerged French Colonial Cemetery.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

That's the most damaging effect of Fox News, if you ask me. They've successfully blurred the line between news and commentary, making everything seem like it's an opinion. And they've used that like a cudgel to ward off accusations of dishonesty. That's definitely seeped into the culture as a whole.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

Hey, you don't do any RPing online, do you?

nanowrimo

[casca-2u.livejournal.com]

go lev! i look forward to reading it if you decide to post parts (or all) of it up later!

Re: nanowrimo

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh, I will be putting it up. The feedback I've had so far has been quite positive, but of course I'm still on the first chapter.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Not at the moment. Indeed, I haven't experimented with any online rpging unless you count pbem and MUDs in the mid-90s

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There was a good issue of New Left Review many years ago that attacked postmodernism on a similar basis. The argument basically was that if matters of truth are considered relativistic it effectively removes the only weapon the disenfranchised have.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Planescape - now there's a setting that's a lot of fun for higher level D&D characters. I always quite liked those appendicies in the Players Handbook about the Planes of Existence. Not a bad bit of syncretic mythology on Mr. Gygax's part.

I have played a fair bit of WoD in my time and the particular game your playing sounds very good. It sounds like a southern version of Deadlands.