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]

New government? The Spanish elections were in 2004.

This said, they are doing quite well in the feather ruffling department.

(Or in the Australian venacular "Stirring the possum")

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

I haven't played much beyond D&D. Just a little WoD and even less GURPS. We've always just messed with the D&D rules to fit whatever we're playing. We do a lot of historical settings, like the English Civil War and Spanish Missionaries in the New World. That kind of thing. But I love Planescape to pieces.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

I think the response would be that however uncomfortable or impractical an idea is, that has no bearing on its legitimacy.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

I ran a game on IRC a long time ago. The setting was stationary, so players could interact with each other even if I wasn't on to lead the action, and I had a few NPCs that I played through. I eventually handed the reigns off to a friend when I had to take a factory job that drained all my energy, and when I came back a few months later, it was gone. I've never been able to get anything like it together since, so I'm always looking around for people who are doing something similar. It was a blast.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I have recently thought about composing in a single volume a list of "Unpopular Truths"

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The English Civil War is a great setting. I've written up some draft notes for a game based in that period myself. I was hoping to do it for the new edition of Basic Role Playing which Chaosium is planning to release early next year.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

On topic, you'll probably enjoy this little tale.

I'm not Gay, but my boyfriend is.
http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2006/11/03/1162340050253.html

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha and the game Hero Wars/HeroQuest (strangedave was one of the rules consultants). I've been thinking that game is particularly well suited to PBEM and seeming that I have quite a few of the supplements...

[anthanum.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to have somebody over here to play it with :)
It was a regular games night staple when I was back in Perth

[omnot.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I saw that (thoroughly snigger-worthy) story. I find it disturbing, but not surprising.

[tzunder.livejournal.com]

Do you play SPI DragonQuest? I played that more than 20 years ago in college for about two sessions and loved it. I bought a copy two years back and it didn't seem quite so fresh and lovely for me to GM but I'd love to to play it again. We are almost as far apart as two people on Earth can be, but tell me more!

As to the socialist tide, I am not a socialist anymore but I was pleased to see Vermont has elected a socialist senator as you noted.

I kind of guess I am a liberal now, social and economic, with some serious backpedalling toward regulation on the economic.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Do you play SPI DragonQuest?

Yep, but we're also including the additional colleges from the TSR edition. We're having a lot of fun with the Barbarian Kings world.

It's not quite fresh as it used to be, that's very true. But see my next post later today about some great news in that regard.

I kind of guess I am a liberal now, social and economic, with some serious backpedalling toward regulation on the economic.

As far as small businesses are concerned they can be as competitive and capitalistic. The bigger they are however the more social regulation is required.