Indonesia Journeys, ABC and Mailman, Gaming Updates

[tcpip]

This weekend booked flights to Indonesia; journey is from the 4th to 18th of August, with planned journeys throughout Bali and into central Java at the very least to visit Yogyakarta, Borobudor, and Prambanan, along with the Indonesian Unitarians (who have a different name for political reasons). Would also like to visit Komodo Island, but caseopaya doesn't like to rough it that much. Appropriately I have put up another Bahasa lesson; now that tickets are booked I should do a lot more of these with regularity. One day I should also do the same for Tetum, seeming that the dictionary I transcribed is still one of the most commonly referenced materials of its sort.

Kudos to crankynick for having a spot on the ABC's program Inside Business last week. It must have been a week for it as a couple days prior to that airing I was helping out their science program, Catalyst, and CSIRO put together some material that will be screened in a couple of months. Most "interesting" task recently at work has been dealing with email archiving issues in an older version of Mailman (which is, I hasten to add, excellent software). The initial bug, required a patch which then led to a new bug in multipart/alternative MIME, specifically, base64 encoded text/plain and text/html. There seems to be no immediate way around this with the version of Mailman we have.

RuneQuest game on Sunday saw the conclusion of the "Cradles" scenario and with that, the end of part II of this three part campaign (it's only taken a year so far). Received feedback for Rolemaster Cyradon; some minimal changes required and then it's off to print (yay!). Last Tuesday ran the regular "Fantasy Australia" D&D/Pathfinder game, for which I've been appropriating a great number of plot ideas from Dark Sun. Giving serious consideration to releasing it as an OGL product in its own right.

Comments

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Last Tuesday ran the regular "Fantasy Australia" D&D/Pathfinder game, for which I've been appropriating a great number of plot ideas from Dark Sun.

Which bits? The weird 'Elemental' stuff, the Mad Max flavour (Gladiators HO!) or the environmental bits about water? Or actual plot points, like from the novels/scenarios and all?

(er... that is the sum and substance of what I can recall about Dark Sun 1).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Mainly the plots of the scenarios; Freedom, Road to Urik etc., but modified for northwestern Australia with the flora, fauna and climate of the Würm glaciation period but with early modern settlements.

Basically, the Kimberley region is heavy woods and jungle with an epic battle for control between the Iberians and the Zeelanders with the indigenous fae getting the short end of the spear from everyone...

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

he Würm glaciation period

Beyond my ken.

Basically, the Kimberley region is heavy woods and jungle with an epic battle for control between the Iberians and the Zeelanders with the indigenous fae getting the short end of the spear from everyone...

We're post Rodina? 'cause I am confuzzed by the Iberians and the Zeelanders (dutch?).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Beyond my ken.

Basically between 10,000 and 70,000 before present. Lots of megafauna. Giant wombats, some real scary lizards and the like.

We're post Rodina? 'cause I am confuzzed by the Iberians and the Zeelanders (dutch?).

Think of the big fight that the Portuguese and the Dutch had over the Malay archipelago in the 16th and 17th centuries. Move it a bit further south. Make sandalwood genuinely magical.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Basically between 10,000 and 70,000 before present... with European seafarers?

Interesting, but strange.

Think of the big fight that the Portuguese and the Dutch had over the Malay archipelago in the 16th and 17th centuries. Move it a bit further south. Make sandalwood genuinely magical.

Sandalwood is magic,Basically between 10,000 and 70,000 before present.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Interesting, but strange.

Just the climate for that part... Würm is really just a cute little river in Bavaria, no bigger than a creek in many parts.. But it's picked up some recognition because it was the site of the last big European glaciation. Also, it's got an awesome name :)

Sandalwood is magic

That's the idea.

[blackgrrr.livejournal.com]

Würm is really just a cute little river in Bavaria, no bigger than a creek in many parts

Aha.
My pre-history extends only to Australia.... Centralian super-basin and all that.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Bahasa... mmm, fascinating...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not a bad language to pick up if one intends to visit Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on at least a semi-regular basis. :)

I have an ancient Malay textbook which has a supplementary section of Bahasa using Arabic script which was generally the case some sixty years ago and more. Between that and my 1970 University of Sydney textbook and a couple more recent publications I am getting a good sense of the development of the language as well..

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Of course, no book could teach of proper pronounciation.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

True, but some effort in that direction is better than none.

[fluffyblanket.livejournal.com]

Selamat jalan!
Louis Aragon is interesting on Malayo-Polynesian philology - in a Surrealist way of course . See "Blanche ou l'Oubli".

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Selamat jalan!

Terima kasih!

See "Blanche ou l'Oubli".

Heh.. Another good choice from my most literate friend.

I really must pay more attention to Aragon. His aesthetic and political sense are not at all too dissimilar to my own...

[direwolf23.livejournal.com]

Must be nice being so close to French Polynesia and other such pretty places. ^.^

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

French Polynesia isn't that close! Over 6,600 kilometres away - San Franscisco is roughly the same distance to Papeete...

Now New Caledonia on the other hand.. that's a mere 2,600 km..

But in my considered option... The prettiest place, at least in terms of natural environment, that's nearby is still New Zealand.