Lev Lafayette's journal

On Saturday conducted a lightning speed shop at the Victoria markets to cater to the thirty or so people who attended the Linux Users of Victoria Annual Penguin Picnic at the Yarra Bank Reserve. Good food, good geeky conversation, but had to leave early to attend a wedding for one of caseopaya's workmates at the Yan Yean Reservoir, a picturesque location and a well-conducted event, and had some a particularly delightful conversation with a former Murdoch University student who was there the same time as myself.

Gave an address to the Unitarians on Sunday, Rational Thinking and Emotional Attachments, which explored some of the contemporary work in neuropsychology which suggests that, individually, our brains actively prevent us from acknowledging mistakes through selection bias, confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance and more. There is, however, an escape route through the very recent argumentation theory of reasoning which argues individually we tend to give self-rationalisations, but in a larger, expert, and critical group, we can actually learn and develop.

There has been two game sessions since the last post. One last Thursady being the beginning of the second chapter Masks of Nyarlathotep where one of the characters (incidentally, the player is a psychiatric nurse) went permanently insane in the first thirty seconds of play; Call of Cthulhu shows its mettle once again. The second was on Sunday afternoon with a good game session of GURPS Middle-Earth run by Michael, which is linking conspiracy on top of conspiracy.

Yesterday I turned 46; as is my want I had to reminded again of the day by the ever-vigilant caseopaya, who kindly took me out to dinner. Many greetings graciously received on Facebook. As for the day itself, I'd taken off due to illness. I've had an bad reaction to a course of medications that I've been on for a few weeks which has resulted in bleeding from the nose and what is euphemistically called "flu-like symptoms". In other words, a body temperature a few degrees higher than what it should be, a pounding headache, dry throat and mouth, and a general sense of tiredness. Will be visiting the doctor today to see what can be done.

Raised some initial proposals a few days ago on talk-politics suggesting that the abolition of crime was practical and possible and very interesting discussion ensues. Gave an address on Sunday at the Unitarian Church on Malala Yousafzai which had a good turnout and good discussion. Following that convened The Philosophy Forum for Rohan McLeod's presentation on "Theories of Language and Definitions". After that played first session of a short Fantasy Craft campaign set in Middle-Earth, based around the Lake Town region. Following day was interviewed by Sydney's Radio Skid Row 88.9FM on Monday on the basis of my article on the Egyptian coup. Apparently this will be a regular short-piece on international politics, every Monday morning at 8.45am - next up apparently is Venezuela. Last night convened Linux Users of Victoria for Bernie Meade's extremely interesting presentation on 3D printing at the University of Melbourne A little further in the future, will be speaking at the Humanist Society on Thursday, 22 August on Secularism, individual rights and democracy: some difficult questions.

Since the last entry a Federal election has been called with Labor and the Coalition on level pegging on a two-party preferred basis. Murdoch's media has made it clear who they support although although many seem to understand the ulterior motives. Coalition marginal seat candidate becomes internationally famous for fumbling an interview, but perhaps just following leader, or perhaps the shadow treasurer. With so much confused bumbling it in unsurprising that the social media tool of parody has risen - and the response will simply lead to more ridicule. Finally, Dr. Joe Toscano, founding Public Officer of the Isocracy Network, will be running as a candidate.

Yesterday posted a review about the first international meeting of The Sunday Assembly on request of a co-organiser. Today, gave an address on The Successes and Failures of Contemporary Unitarian-Universalism at the Melbourne Unitarian Church which looked at the rise of religious rationalism as a positive and organisational issues as a negative. Basically, Unitarian-Universalism is well-suited as a religious ideology in a post-theological world, but poorly designed organisationally to take advantage of the same. The presentation was followed by David Miller, organiser of the Melbourne Atheist Society, the Melbourne Agnostic Society, and the Melbourne Existentialist Society (a busy guy) on "Secular Religion: Is it really a contradiction in terms?" which presented an argument not too different to that of Feurbach's; that stripped of its supernatural claims, religion represents the higher values and aspirations of human beings. These values, both the positive (truth, justice, freedom) and negative (ideology, nationality, race) become "Gods" to the subject. In on a related secular religion issue, received three booklets from the Freemason's Library in New Zealand concerning our South Pacific base. Will scan them over the next week or so, but have already done so of an old image of our hall.

Briefly attended two May Day events this week; a small one organised by the local anarcho-syndicalists that is actually held on May 1st, and a wreath-laying ceremony the following day for workplace injuries and fatalities (an issue which has particular resonance). Both were held at the Eight Hour Day monument. The evening was the Kooyong-Higgins Quiz Night for ALP candidates in two very safe Liberal seats. Was a financial success and socially enjoyable, but a long way from the advertised theme. On Isocracy-related political matters, I did the writing for a submission to the United Nations Secretary General on the Responsibility to Protect, which was followed up a few days later with an interview with Cham Shareef, an activist Damascus about the situation in Syria. Shareef makes the excellent rhetorical point that if the international community doesn't exist to protect lives, what does it exist for?

On a somewhat more local level, conducted two courses on Monday and Tuesday of this week, Introductory and Intermediate High Performance Computing Using Linux. Class sizes were down due to a University of Melbourne budgetary decision at the 11th hour, which is deliciously contradictory. They want more people to use scientific applications, so they can have more research completed quicker. But of course, to do that scientists have to be trained - they just don't use HPC systems that often. Still haven't finished the material for the advanced course, and more researchers are requesting online material as well, so my work has been cut out for me. Apropos adult and higher education and as part of the multitude of material submitted in my continuing quest for a fourth degree, my short thematic paper on Course Objectives, Flow States, and Learning Outcomes, seems to have been well-received.

It is not often that I use a Royalist phrase, but it is appropriate. From Thursday onwards it was a roller-coaster of events, starting with the call for registrations for the Introductory and Intermediate HPC and Linux courses I conduct at work. As usual, places in those are filling up very fast. Following that was the second-last Call of Cthulhu session of Horror on the Orient Express. Also semi-work related Friday included a friendly soccer match at the Old Melbourne Gaol between systems and CAS, leaving me a little sore.

Saturday was the Linux Users of Victoria Annual Penguin Picnic; I did most of the shopping for this at the last minute at the Victoria Markets, and managed to get to the excellent, and somewhat unknown, Yarra Bank Reserve in time to get things started. A great day, we gave away some copies of OpenSuSE that were on hand to visitors, including a Dja Dja Wurrung person who showed us the scarred tree of local significance. He seemed pretty impressed with the idea of Linux as well!

After the LUV meeting, chaired the annual general meeting of the Victorian Secular Lobby, which will be organising a national conference of like-minded groups, and will have a Federal focus this year. Afterwards a number of us had dinner at the Tran Tran; very good food, although when I was a little surprised when the pre-recorded "Happy Birthday" music came on and even more surprised when the subtle banana fritter arrived at the table (not safe for some workplaces); you'll keep Ant...

On Sunday gave the address on The Contribution of Unitarian-Universalists to Isocracy; very well received, with an excellent turnout - I was little worried because it was substantially longer than prior presentations, but managed to deliver a little faster than usual. In the afternoon, ran a game of Twilight 2000, where there was an organised attack on a marauder band, the theft of a helicopter by said band, the assassination of the local elected leader, the establishment of martial law, the signing of a pro-Soviet agreement, a labour and military strike, and eventually the re-establishment of the Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Krakow and Its Environs - and with one of the player-characters as nominal head of the military (no-one else was trustworthy...). After dinner at the ever delightful Iliana's went to visit hathhalla and ser_pounce to collect the rescued Noisy Miner; a welcome to Mr. Chirpy (blame ser_pounce for the name).

Last Sunday attended the Unitarian poetry service and contributed a silly selection from "Bored of the Rings", given the release of a new movie. Next week Nigel Sinnot is given a presentation on clinical depression, where I'll be taking the service. There is already quite a collection on the subject. The week after that I'll be given an address on The Contribution of Unitarian-Universalists to Isocracy, where Nigel will be taking the service. Planning ahead I've already written the address, where I blame it all on Jürgen Habermas. As part of the research I feel into a few research holes including a fascinating study on Grant Allen who wanted the Independent Labour Party to be called The Isocratic Party. After that I'd better start attending St. Michael's again, they'll be wondering where I am!

Also last Sunday started an alternate history Twilight 2000 campaign on Sunday, based on extreme results of "successful" version of the 1991 Soviet coup. As someone who spent their adolescence in a period where devastating nuclear was was more of a case of when rather than if it has brought back some interesting research topics, such as the scale of total nuclear war, nuclear winter, electromagnetic pulse, and also give passing consideration (as if it's worthwhile) on what would have happened if not contingent actions were carried out against Y2K. The second edition game system has some serious bugs, indeed significantly worse than the first, however they are not insurmountable. In particular I find that the new initiative system is means that experienced characters are just overwhelming, compared to the old method where Coolness Under Fire allowed for more tactical considerations. As for the "automatic hit, choose location" rule for surprise, well. That's an example of broken game design, and quite terrible that it wasn't picked up in playtesting.

Last Thursday gave Wordplay using the 'Fish Rain' Gloranthan scenarios from HeroQuest. As expected, the game ran extremely well and I must confess some preference for WP over HQ. On Sunday continued the now very long running RuneQuest Prax story, with the appearance of the Magus Artalen from the Strangers in Prax sourcebook. Tomorrow night will run a session of D&D3.5 for Ralis.

On Sunday gave the service for Dr. James Brown who spoke at the Unitarians on alternative energy. His approach was realistic, providing precise and contextually appropriate values for solar and wind power as well as their limitations. Afterwards ran a session for the Philosophy Forum (surprisingly very well attended) on the nature, cause and solutions to violence; the wide variation in social metrics indicating a heavy environmental rather than natural causes. It will dovetail very well with next month's discussion on Hannah Arendt. There was a degree of local context as a visitor to the Church assaulted an 83-year old congegation member a couple of weeks previous; I'm in the process of ensuring that said visitor never be allowed to step foot in the building again.

On Tuesday had two exams for my MBA; Marketing and Managing Information Systems. These are considered two of the more advanced subjects in the programme and sitting six hours of exams in one day is pretty heavy going. Nevertheless I am fairly sure I passed (probably with a Credit grade overall) and as such will be awarded a Graduate Certificate in Management. Next step is the Graduate Diploma and then the MBA itself.

Work provided health-checks for staff; for someone who is physically completely out-of-shape (let's say I fall into the very overweight category), my blood pressure is fine, my pulse-rate is fine, by cholesterol levels are fine and my blood sugars are fine. Apparently I am the rare creature, the healthy fat man. Nevertheless, I am now making some effort to rectify the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle; I have taken up fencing again at the local University club. Personally I prefer half-drunken swashbuckling in rural areas (which I used to do) to the more formal rules of competition fencing, but nevertheless it is a start back into using stabby-pointy things.

Next weekend coming caseopaya are in Sydney. We'll be staying at The Centre in Randwick, attending the ANZUUA conference, seriously for me, probably more nominally for caseopaya, although some of the agenda makes me smile and shake my head; a workshop on postmodern prayer? Well, I suppose we are a broad church. Hoping to catch up with a range of Sydney-siders many of whom I haven't seen for years. We have later Friday evening free and Monday afternoon; probably the Zoo Bar (175 Oxford St, Bondi Junction on Friday), open to suggestions for Monday afternoon.

First bit of animal news is the discovery that naked mole rats don't get cancer. An entire species of male sharks are really dickheads. Finally, two sets from Cracked (who have done the transition to the Internet so much better than Mad); the truly weird weird animals, giant versions of disgusting critters and biggest assholes in the animal world. Finally local rodents, Trouble, Mischief and Calamity, celebrate their first birthday (making them about 30 in human years) with cheesecake and chocolate sauce.

Edit. Almost forgot to mention; great equinox dinner on Wednesday night at the Mooroccan Soup Bar followed by drinks at Deco, organised by _nightflower with several guests including horngirl and alchemon. Great night, and special thanks to _nightflower_ for arranging it!

Last Tuesday went to the Melbourne Atheist Society to hear Alex McCullie talk on "Progessive Christianity: A Secular Response". Alex claimed the theoretical and practical elements of progressive Christianity is really little different to an active secular humanist with the exception that they have a sense of a personal religious experience; so in other words he didn't have much of a response to offer! This Tuesday the Melbourne University Secular Society is holding an excellent forum on The Problem of Evil, with so absolutely top quality local speakers on the subject. Next month I am presenting at the Melbourne Atheist Society on "Atheist Support for Religious Freedom?" and this Sunday coming I am speaking at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on "The Other Half: The Universalist Tradition" (the Melbourne Church, coming from an English rather than American Unitarian tradition doesn't really have much Universalist influence). Last Sunday week at the same organisation I gave the service for Denis Fitzgerald, executive director of Catholic Social Services; I cited Óscar Romero and Populorum progressio.

Lateline reported last Thursday that Australian scientists are developing a new chemotherapy treatment, using a diamond-encrusted skin patch which slowly releases drugs into the body. Yes, that is me showing Dr. Amanda Barndard from CSIRO around the VPAC machine room. Have almost finished by first MBA assignment; a 3,000 word document on how VPAC is going to provide high-performance computing services in the future (actually, not that easy given item 2 of the organisation's constitutional objectives). Next assignment, due on Wednesday, is a Financial Management analysis. Apropos to this is an excellent article gaining wider circulation on how to manage IT staff; it's all about respect (hat-tip to certifiedwaif). The analogy with medical staff was particularly well put.

Have written a piece on Leftfocus on Labor's Georgist History. Will circulate to state and federal Labor MPs to see if any of them support this founding principle of the party. Also, the same 'blog is having a debate on the age-old reform vs revolution, vanguard party vs spontaneous masses approach to social change. Writing another item at the moment which combines Lukács and Arendt which argues for "revolutionary reformism" and "vanguard masses".

Last Sunday conducted the service at the Melbourne Unitarian Church, with Baptist Minister Simon Moyle giving the address. A competent speaker, I was very impressed by his practical, here-and-now approach to Christian ethics (I suspect Tolstoy or C.S. Lewis would have liked this). I rather wish than more Christians were of his ilk. With the presence of of the RMIT Choir adding to the mix it was one of the best services I have been to in the seven years I have been a member.

Yesterday gave a presentation on collaborative technologies (pdf) at the Victorian eResearch Strategic Initiative. Annual work review afterwards was very positive with suggestion that I should take up a Graduate Certificate in Management (Technology), which of course can become a Grad Dip, then an MBA. Causing some 'wow' factor is IBM building an 80-core chip, and nanoscale chip to hold trillions of bits for billions of years.

On Sunday night caseopaya and I visited Polly's and met up with patchworkid, damien_wise, frou_frou, drzero, usekh, txxxpxx and Mr. Pxx - it was supposed to be a gathering for redcountess who was visiting from the UK! Last night dined with imajica_lj, drank cognac and watched Nazi propagandahigh art in the form of Triumph of the Will with our projector.

Have put up a a few old roleplaying games up on Ebay with more coming soon. Any requests? Because chances are I have what you're looking for.

Have had a great week at work, including writing a firewall document for Access Grid, a FAQ for the same and putting up a proposal to incorporate Livejournal/Dreamwidth technology as a collaboration tool for Australian researchers; I should also mention I have codes for DW if anyone is interested. Also last Tuesday attended Linux Users Victoria; Michael Wahren gave an excellent presentation on where Red Hat is taking virtualisation.

My alternative modernist Middle-Earth article, White Hand Rising, has been reprinted in Other Minds. Final draft (although I am sure there will be tweaks) of Rolemaster Cyradon has been submitted. F2F gaming during the week consisted of D&D3.5 Fantasy Australia on Thursday and RuneQuest on Sunday - both went very well.

Last Sunday gave the service at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. The speaker was Michael Shaik from Australians for Palestine and my opening words, reading and closing words were on-topic with his address. The address is repeated at The Isocracy Network; which is open for comment. Next week I am giving the address entitled "Sympathy for the Devil: The Use and Misuse of Metaphysical Evil", which has greatly amused devilgirly who visited during the week (she has been justifiably shilling a a great film clip.

Meanwhile I'm putting all this together as caseopaya is making her way to Royal Melbourne emergency from home because of abnormal levels of ketones. Yes, it can be fatal.. Update: Have returned from emergency. caseopaya is on an insulin drip. Although she has abnormally high sugar and ketone levels she isn't showing any other symptoms of danger. They are keeping her under observation just the same.