Lev Lafayette's journal

Attended a joint ALP Kew and Hawthorn branch meeting last night. Johan Scheffer gave an excellent retrospective on the last four bumbling years of LNP government before the two candidates spoke on they're travelling. Both indicated a sense that even dyed-in-the-wool LNP voters have simply had enough. These are very safe Liberal seats; and if their blue-blood heartland's are like this, one can only imagine what it is like in marginal electorates. I've just about completed the letter-boxing in my area, still after these years with a sense of wonder and sometimes horror at the enormous mansions and often rambling blocks so near to the city. I've also put my hand up for the Kooyong FEA Policy Development Officer position which is currently vacant. With prior friendly relations, attended the charming campaign launch of the Australian Sex Party at Madame Brussls. Despite their cheeky name (I have suggested that it be changed to the 'Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Party) they have very sensible policies. Party leader, Fiona Patten, made the very good point that in their brief history they've raised a number of policy proposals that have since been adopted by the major parties. Meanwhile the Victorian Secular Lobby election fundraising campaign continues with the modest success as expected.

Latest edition to the RPG Review store is a variety of fairly rare MegaTraveller material. I would delight in running this one again, especially the grim experiences portrayed in Hard Times as the high technology network falls apart. Another option of course would be run Traveller: The New Era again with its approach of space piracy and scavenging, where the Imperium is a distant memory. Nevertheless, it is now a certain thing that in a fortnight's time I'll be starting up a 7th Sea game on a fortnight, using the Freiburg campaign pack and with usekh introduced to the group. It's an odd game; not-quite-Europe in the 17th century with that somewhat clunky roll-and-keep resolution system with sorcery added in (others provide a more enthusiastic review). Freiburg itself is a weird setting; it's like the authors wanted a pseudo-libertarian experiment for the baroque age.

With the arrival of warmer weather, the opportunity to cycle to work again was increasingly enticing. So I purchased a relatively inexpensive mountain bike from Aldi. Gave a few short runs and it seemed relatively fine, took it for one serious workout and the back tyre went flat about a quarter in the journey along Yarra Blvd. Walked for an hour to the closest service station only to discover that the valve is completely broken; spent another hour walking it to work. Others have had equally bad experiences with similar products. In actual work, have engaged in yet another battle with a new release of LAMMPS which never ceases to astound me with its lack of autoconfiguration tools and have been making my way with a fine-tooth comb with the Drupal module for project management. As a basic structure it's not bad, and the nice thing about it is that it's really easy to extend and incorporate with other Drupal modules (Views in particular comes to mind).