tcpip | State Politics, Gaming, Odds and Ends

Labor wins the NSW state election; whilst the conservative Coalition didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell, I was a little surprised by how minimal the swing was. Much apparently due to the Federal governments unpopular workplace relations laws (despite being a Federal issue). On the other side of the planet, massive swing to conservative separatists in the Quebec elections, but the liberal federalists (Parti libéral du Québec) retains power, albeit with their worst ever result. The social democratic Parti Québécois came in third; leading to three-way split with each major party holding about 1/3 of the votes.

In gaming news have run two games of RuneQuest, one of Traveller: TNE, and the notorious AD&D1e module "Tomb of Horrors" since my last post. Recent reviews include Deities and Demigods (genius and idiocy in one package), Gods of Glorantha (solid content, average production), Spell Law (clear, balanced, but not beautiful) and the AD&D module In the Dungeons of the Slavelords. Oh, and remember the RPGPundit? Get a hold of these comments; Goth women are to be fucked and then mocked, and teenaged goths should be sent to therapists as punishment.

Visited

recumbenteer and partner for their Parkville housewarming; most enjoyable, must have them over dinner soon.

caseopaya is on a loose end, employment-wise (although I'm sure this will be a very temporary situation); she found a job where the pay, hours, work and people were good but the company wouldn't shell out the $6K that the agency wanted as a finders fee. Today we had an annual house inspection; the estate agents took (literally) thirty seconds. Rogue the rat hurt his foot during the week and spent a couple of days hopping around on three paws; all better now. LUV meeting next week with an emphasis on beginner's talks (new features of OpenOffice and an Introduction to DNS). Gave an introduction to philosophy talk (doc file, will convert later) at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on Sunday; was extremely well received and will be expanded to further discussion topics.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

the deep one's certainly worship Dagon (c.f., The Shadow Over Innsmouth)

Plausible but not confirmed; that would be an obvious interpretation of 'Esoteric Order of Dagon', but for all we know it could be the fishman version of 'Society of St. Vincent de Paul' ;-)

Or more seriously, things like the Hermetic/Rosicrucian orders, and indeed Buddhism, which are named after a bringer of wisdom who isn't himself a god. Looking at what they did with Hastur, more than one of these things could be true...

12% to govern in their own right, 9% to deny Labor a majority.

Yes, it's a lot, but in the last couple of years we've had Carr's resignation, a water crisis, serious public transport and healthcare problems (with major PT outages days before the election), the Cronulla riots, one minister sacked for misleading parliament, another charged with using taxpayers' money to buy drugs and child prostitutes, another MP convicted of assaulting his partner, and an assortment of lesser embarrassments. How much more ammunition could the Coalition want?

Someone recently pointed out that Debnam looks just like Frank Spencer*; now I can't help laughing whenever I see him.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Spencer

Only been in Mayan lands so far - Aztecs on Thursday! I'm really looking forward to seeing Teotihuacan near Mexico City.

As for Mayan sites, we've been trying to space them out a little. One quickly reaches ruins fatigue and they have a *lot* of them.

So far we've been to Tikal in Guatemala, Copan in Honduras, and Palenque and Tulum in Mexico/Yucatan. Tikal was by far the most amazing - sitting on a pyramid in the middle of the jungle looking at other pyramids poking above the trees.

Debnam

Spencer

Hmmm... You're right.

How much more ammunition could the Coalition want?

A competent leader? John Howard's Workplace laws not to be an electoral issue?

for all we know it could be the fishman version of 'Society of St. Vincent de Paul'

LOL! I want to see their op-shops!

You mean Phil and Dixie finally cover "Sex in D&D?!?".... Wow, that tease ran for years.

I think there actually is a P&D cameo, and there's an entire roleplaying-themed issue. (I particularly love the "Guild of NPCs" hat.)

Must. Not. Think. Of. Writing. XXXenophile. RPG.

Exactly. I blame the latter on the former, and the former at least partly on factionalism.

Not that Brogden was much better - even before the "mail-order bride" bit, he always reminded me of our school prefects - but the factionalism has a lot to do with why they didn't get a decent replacement. I don't know if O'Farrell could have managed a 10% swing, but my (mostly unsubstantiated) suspicion is that he'd have come a lot closer than Debnam, if only by having the sense to keep his mouth shut about WorkChoices.

There were actually plans to do that at one stage - one of the stories they put out was originally written for inclusion in the XXXenophile RPG. But these days they seem to be very busy with Girl Genius and Girl Genius GURPS, so I doubt we'll see it any time soon.

There was also a XXXenophile trading card game; I've never seen it, but I understand it was similar to the Girl Genius card game (non-trading).

Imagine the yearly doorknocks!

I think I decided long ago that the "please stop being a dickhead" thing never, ever worked.

I like SCM. They're good, liberal, gay-rights-supporting, peace-campaigning, social-justice-advocating people. They're also my mates. Hell, if the right job came up, I'd work for them in a shot.

wow, that goes a long way to explain the chip on his shoulder.

You're probably right; usually it is only direct experience that changes people with crazy opinions or an abusive mindset. There's delightful case of a conservative politician in Australia (Jim Cameron) who used to argue quite strongly against organ transplants... Until he needed one himself!

My first memories of the SCM was a bearded liberal hippy named Joshua wandering around handing out oranges on campus. He'd hand out a newsletter if anyone asked; it portrayed a black woman as god...

It would be like a reverse of the doorknock collection from Bad Taste!

*nods* I just discovered this... Watching a collection on ebay...

I want to and had planned to earlier in the year but then I just didnt have enough money.

but soon maybe....in the next several months kinda maybe :)

Have you signed up to my friend beeefcake's journal, I think you two would get along.

Several months? Why that's only 210 days away... I'm counting!

I'll readily befriend someone named beefcake. Do they have a friend cheesecake?

Hmmm... I responded to this days and days ago and it seems el-jay ate my post..

I was going to say something like...

Tikal was by far the most amazing - sitting on a pyramid in the middle of the jungle looking at other pyramids poking above the trees.

I had a similar experience viewing the Merapi moutain and jungle from on top of Borobudur...

Over the years there has been a lot of "level shifting" claims on issues, I am always very sceptical. Yes, the NSW ALP had a lot of baggage, but the NSW Libs have been doing very badly for years--it is apparently the first swing to them since 1988. If the NSW Libs simply weren't credible, then even a beleagured government can hold on to much of its vote.

I do think having one side in at one level helps the other at the other, but that is more a generic factor.

Besides, I would be a little suprised if a significant fraction of ALP voters didn't dislike the WorkChoices legislation and took an opportunity to express it to a pollster.

Besides, I would be a little suprised if a significant fraction of ALP voters didn't dislike the WorkChoices legislation and took an opportunity to express it to a pollster.

I suspect that even that the percentage of ALP voters who benefit from WorkChoices (e.g., white collar technical) would still vote against it.

It's important to remember that its beeefcake with the triple e, otherwise you will be friending some other wanker entirely.

I introduce him to cheesecake all the time, it doesn't last long.....

otherwise you will be friending some other wanker entirely

Got the right one. The double 'e' beefcake is not the same calibre of person at all!

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