Lev Lafayette's journal

First week in Barcelona has reached its conclusion. On Monday night went to see 65daysofstatic at Razzmatazz. It was primarily material from their soundtrack to No Man's Sky, which I have previously reviewed on Rocknerd, but with some welcome elaborations, additions, and other material (including, for example, 'I Swallowed Hard Like I Understood' and 'Retreat! Retreat!' from The Fall of Math). The concert wasn't particularly huge, only around five hundred people or so, but 65dos put on a great show, and the live performance of the No Man's Sky soundtrack was given a new, raw, and abrasive sound from the album version. Plus the band was kind enough to chat to audience members afterwards. reddragdiva will be pleased to know that a review is pending.

I have started a Kickstarter for a new roleplaying game based on Will McLean's classic cartoon, Papers & Paychecks. The product is entirely for the RPG Review Cooperative, Inc., and nobody but the Cooperative will be receiving anything from this (well, apart from Australia Post and the printing company). It has been deliberatly launched one year after the author of the original cartoon passed away and personally I think it is a bit of a testimony to the many people who found it to a very witty contribution. The Kickstarter is going fairly well so far and I've set pretty modest targets, but I've had much less opportunity to engage in promotion that what I would like. As my first Kickstarter I would like to encourage people to take the opportunity to back this resistentialist and funny game which uses a lot of classic RPG concepts but with several new twists.

The official reason I am over here has been of course the OpenStack Summit. This is, of course, a huge deal with several thousand IT developers visiting and a huge stream of talks. OpenStack has, of course, taking a lot of the server world infrastructure by storm, although it has been less exciting in the world of traditional high performance computing. I managed to get to see several talks a day before ours which was was one of the last talks before the developer's workshops. To be honest, our talk Spartan Performance and Flexibility: An HPC-Cloud Chimera received a better response that any of the others I saw at the conference. The first question from the audience was Why isn't everyone doing this?, and it just got better from their with several major players expressing great interest in our combination of traditional HPC and cloud technologies. We all left that feeling pretty happy with the results, and certainly the University of Melbourne should as well. Next time I think we must bring NinjaDan along as well, because he certainly has been a key player in Spartan's development.

Have just completed the first draft of a new UniMelb training course on shell scripting for HPC, which frankly is quite a lot to take in for a single day, so I'll need extensive notes as well. During the weekend also gave a presentation for Linux Users of Victoria, on GnuCOBOL: A Gnu Life for an Old Workhorse, with a command summary also available. I am tempted to delve even further into this strange archiac language, if only because of my perverse enjoyment of accounting and organisational logic (horngirl may have an interest as well).

In the aesthetic realm, did a review of 65daysofstatic's, to-be-released album for the game No Man's Sky, which has a number of great pieces and is of lasting quality overall. Also on Saturday visited Brendan E., where he treated us to the comedy-zombie film Cooties which was much better than the rating suggest, and the faux documentary, The Great Martian War. Pusing the aesthetic realm into storytelling, played Eclipse Phase on Friday night albeit with some technical issues, and tried to push some plot resolution in GURPS Middle Earth on Sunday.

For the RPG Review Cooperative, have contacted the BBC over our Watership Down poll, WotC over our 4th edition Open Game License proposal, have started submitting issues of the journal to the National Library of Australia, and have set up the drivethrurpg.com store for impending publications (no items yet, of course). The next issue of RPG Review, in the "Old School Revolution", is well underway with a special interview with Ken St. Andre.

The fourth issue of the RPG Review Cooperative newsletter, Crux Australi, was released on Saturday. It includes a couple of very notable developments, the first being the establishment of a members library which has already received a significant additional donations. The other item of note was receiving an article from Lewis Pulsipher. On Sunday played a session of GURPS Middle Earth; a good mystery, a dash of magical realism, and a quick action-conflict scene to conclude.

This weekend I also penned a review of the latest studio album from Shriekback, 'Without Real Strings or Fish'. They've had several "good-average" albums over the past five years or so, but this one really hits the mark with a combination of their ethereal sounds alternating with powerful 'big band' post-punk chorus and lyrical content based around evolution and moral reasoning. It's not quite up there with their best earlier material such as Tench or Oil and Gold, but it certainly in the same ball park.

With a wry sense of aesthetics, caseopaya and I held a cheesquest event with ser_pounce and hathhalla on this publc holiday. Whilst a usual fare was on the table (Slovakian sheep's milk easter cheese, tilsit, gorgonzola, and vegan substitute), it was also necessary to have ANZAC biscuits with Turkish bread and hummus. In recognition of the Canadian forces (and our Canadian visitor), the biscuits were made with maple syrup rather than the traditional golden syrup. Afterwards we played Cards Against Humanity and watched a few episodes of the final season of Moral Orel which was a little disturbing.

Gave a lecture this afternoon at the University of Melbourne on the Edward and Spartan HPC systems as part of the postgraduate course on cluster and cloud computing; seemed to go well. The Spartan HPC/Cloud hybrid system is certainly novel, if not unique, in its architecture and it's great to have come online with students from the course to provide the initial beta-test group. UoM students will also be receiving several training instances from me in the coming weeks in the form of HPC and Cloud Computing courses.

Wednesday night went to see The Residents perform their Shadowland concert (Youtube link, of Vooruit Gent). Their lengthy avant-garde peformance art is like a punk version of Laurie Anderson - which is somewhat reminiscent of J.G. Thirlwell with a carnivalesque motifs. I like the style and I particularly liked the concert. But it does remind me that I have now four outstanding reviews for Rocknerd. Just as well there is a long weekend to see if I can through these.

Under the aegis and approval of the RPG Review Cooperative, I have started a petition to WoTC to release Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition under an Open Game License (like 3rd edition and 5th edition). This is not about whether one like 4th edition or not - but rather of equality and fairness (someone will probably make a SJW comment about it). Appropriately the third Crux Australi newsletter has been released, including mention of the weekend's gaming convention, Conquest.

Went on a river cruise on Monday with caseopaya's immediate family up the Swan River to Sandalford Winery. The cruise, meal, and wines were all pleasant enough. It was quite a scorcher but we all managed quite well. Throughout of the journey I could reminisce about times in my childhood stomping around the muddy banks of the Swan River and especially Heirisson Island (I am sure that's an alternate spelling for 'Hedgehog Island'). The real highlight of the tour was when a pod of bottlenose dolphins swam past, quite far upstream. It is unfortunately quite rare to spot these delightful inhabitants.

Whilst originally supposed to go on The Dwarf, I've just published a review of The Charlatan's album 'Modern Nature' on Rocknerd instead. Not exactly their greatest work; others thought higher of it. I am a little surprised actually that Rocknerd doesn't have a whopping big article on the death of Lemmy, who has boarded the silver machine. reddragdiva probably wants me to write it.

Also took the opportunity this week to see The Force Awakens. It was average-good as a whole, I quite liked most of the characterisation (Emo Kylo Ren really is a great parody of the weakest character) and of course the repitition of the previous basic heroic narrative. It is very derivative of earlier films (almsot to the point of being ridiculous), and has some terrible plot flaws. So I can certainly understand the more recent mixed reviews that are coming in.

As mentioned in the last post, last Saturday went to see the Underground Lovers. The review isn't up on The Dwarf yet, but for most of the gig they weren't that good, but had a complete turnaround with three songs to go. I was impressed with the support band, The Tremors. In other reviews, I written up a classic from the RPG world, Flashing Blades. It's a very good game, especially considering the author was but sixteen at the time when he wrote it. Continuing the theme, currently working on a review of Rolemaster/Fantasy Hero campaign classic Pirates and this Sunday will be running another session of 7th Sea Freiburg.

Last days of work before the break have been especially dull. I attended the LUV Beginners Workshop to hear Terry Kemp give an overview of the latest releases of SuSE Linux whilst at the same time compiled and tested the latest releases of GCC and OpenMPI for gcc, intel, and pgi compilers. New kit for the upgrade of our main HPC system has arrived which is exciting, although it will only be in the coming weeks where that is fully installed and tested. We had a small power outage (not affected the data centre of course) which led me to write up how to set the time on Slackware. The rest of the week has been mostly writing up project management templates for those who can't follow instructions in text files. It is a late (and surprising) realisation in life that many people simply can't visualise graphs and charts from pure data, or at least not with ease.

As we do every other year, went to Brendan E's for Christmas. Following an antipasto entree, I cooked up salmon steaks and placki ziemniaczane. We watched The Leggo Movie, which was cute, followed by World War Z which had a good premise but poor execution. Unfortunately by late afternoon a cold took the better of me and as I lay on the couch groaning (not unlike a zombie, actually), caseopaya bundled me into the car and took me home. I guess the tiramisu I made will have to wait. At least I am better than Suki rat whom we heard passed away a few days ago. Valedictions li'll rodent, you brought joy and amusement to many.

On Wednesday evening presented a two-hour lecture and tutorial for the CPA Young Professionals at Victoria University on GnuCash, the free and open-source accounting program. They're a good crowd, and were quite impressed with the functions available in GnuCash; I have little knowledge of commercial products of this sort, so their feedback was very welcome. In particular they liked the multicurrency and the optional automatic updates on currency values and stock prices. It was suggested that this was bridging the gap between accounting and financial services software.

The prior night I had been to see "Yes", who have been performing since 1968. In this case the concert was their early classic albums Close to the Edge and Fragile played in full. My review went up on The Dwarf a couple of days later and was followed by a compilation of Yes Trivia that I put together for Rocknerd. In other social activities, Thursday night was our regular Masks of Nyarlathotep game where the mainly European characters ventured in the inscrutable and confusing world of 1920 Shanghai.

This afternoon picked up the 10,000 DL cards for the Victorian Secular Lobby's state election campaign. In the last week we'll distribute these and have a bit of a social media campaign. In general, the election is looking good for the Labor Party. The lead will narrow in the final week, the Napthine (and Baillieu) government has been so ineffectual and confused for so long even their most ardent supporters must know their time is up. In any case, mixing Federal and State issues, one expects that a large number of people just want to the opportunity to give Abbott one on the nose. Apropos there's an impressive Youtube advertisement which shows the human side to Labor leader Daniel Andrews, and earlier in the week I wrote a retrospective on the Whitlam government for The Isocracy Network; The Power and the Passion.

Wednesday evening was visiting the Palais Theatre to see Dream Theater. I attended with a somewhat critical expectations, but found the performance very impressive. These people really are among the best living rock musicians in the world, and it shows in their ability, performance, and the overwhelming stage show. They sounded better live than studio recordings, which is certainly something you cannot say about most bands. Even if it wasn't my normal sort of music, I can very enjoy it for what it was. My review has been EDIT submitted topublished on The Dwarf and on Monday I'll be going to see Radio Birdman. I am rather enjoying this opportunity to see various international and local acts, gratis, with the status of a reviewer, even if the site in question does prefer shorter reviews and I can tend towards more elaborate rants. I do wonder whether a person who is pushing fifty really is the right person to be engaging in contemporary music reviews and criticism. I blame mickmercer and reddragdiva as inspiration for this path.

This week has seen the opportunity for two feasts, somewhat combined. It was Oktoberfest and whilst caseopaya is only interested in the sweet side of German food (despite her Rhineland-Palatinate heritage) I was more prepared to dine upon Rollmopse, Gerkinsalat (which I made), various types of Sauerkraut and, of course German beer, in addition to the Heidesand, and an enormous Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte. The second gathering was the first round of part II of cheesequest with ser_pounce and hathhalla. For the latter, I made Nova Scotia Brown Bread using Halloween molds, so we ended up with little bread-rats, skulls, ghosts and the like. Apart from engaging in this epic feast we also watched Moral Orel and played Poleconomy, a game which could really do with a second and more critical edition.

This past week started off with txxxpxx's x0th birthday party at their beautiful apartment which never fails to impress and nor does txxxpxx's organisational and catering skills, not to mention the entertaining performance of Three Fat Pirates. It was a great night and I have been reminded that I must organise a smaller gathering of such people for an exploration Willsmere, as many have not had the opportunity to properly explore the grounds of the former asylum. At the other end of the week but equally of alternative rock star sensations, caseopaya and I attended Pop Crimes : Roland S. Howard tribute, courtesy of The Dwarf. My impending review will mention the extraordinary who's-who of Australian alternative music but also note the variation in sound quality at various points during the show. With any luck the next review will be for Dream Theater.

Gaming this week started with Werewolf:The Yugoslav Wars with a journey into the heart of the Siege of Sarajevo. Research of these topics is pretty off-putting but necessary for verisimilitude. On Thursday, a couple of players were unable to attend the usual Call of Cthulhu game was cancelled and replaced by a one-off of the narrativist game, The Shab-al-Hiri Roach, which poses the question are you willing to swallow a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization? No? Even if it will get you tenure? (to which the competitive New England 1920s academics rush to agree in the affirmative). Previous reviews rate it very highly; whilst very enjoyable I will be more circumspect.

Congratulations are due to ozraptor4 for their artwork in Nature. Ubuntu has it's 10th birthday. Around the same time imajica_lj ordered a special cake, expressing some joy at recent experiences with said distribution (the fact that it said "Happy Birthday!" underneath was a beautiful coincidence).

My poor neglected LJ/DW has suffered the past several days as I have engaged in vita activa far more than this space which covers vita contemplativa. So near midnight on a Friday after a couple of wines (in vino veritas) an opportunity finally presents itself for summary and reflection, and indeed an ordering of thoughts on what is going to be a busy next several days as well. I am increasingly of the view that I am due for more holidays. But first, some rodent news. We are looking after a friend's rat, Suki. Her owner often spends time overseas so we get the care and entertainment of this cheeky creature's presence. At 2.5 years, like many female rats, she had developed a sizeable tumour, about 40g on a 340g body. Courtesy of Dr. Jack Zacks, this has been removed, with a short video of the surgery. Rodent is recovering just fine and she's just as perky as she has been in the past, despite her age.

Wednesday night went to see and review The Dead Kennedys, courtesy of The Dwarf. My review will hopefully be published on said site soon (although I notice my interview with Manchester Orchestra hasn't gone up yet either. Essentially I found the night highly positive with the Kennedys playing an excellent set, competently, and with good engagement with the audience. As a fan in my youth some thirty years ago, it was quite a buzz finally getting to see them. The Dwarf has arranged for my next review gig, The Tea Party with SuperJesus. Also on entertainment, Thursday night was Pendragon where a largely new set of player-characters engaged (and failed) in what is effectively the Lancelot-Grail cycle. The success of curing King Pellam-The Fisher King of his wound however lifts the ill-effects of the Waste Land and also ends the Enchantment of Britain. There is but one chapter to go in this epic story, the downfall of the realm. Meanwhile RPG Review 23 nears completion, and in the meantime, an Interview with Lewis Pulsipher.

Political issues are also taking some time. I have written an article on the necessity of Labor and the Greens to act, in a realpolitik sense, as if they were in a coalition rather than risk losing the upcoming state election. Apparently some people, putting aside political difference, can actually see the sense of it. Also related to the state election, tomorrow night is a meeting (FB event page) of the Victorian Secular Lobby at Trades Hall, discussing campaign strategies for this small group. Of some relevance this Sunday will be convening a meeting of The Philosophy Forum on the question of "A World Without Evil?".

Finally, I have been working through project management frameworks at work, with a simple generic template for PRINCE2 offered. Will be running another set of Linux-HPC-MPI courses next week and spent much of the past week revising content. Later in the week will be speaking at the Young Professionals CPA Discussion Group on open source software. Yes, I'm taking the open source message to accountants.