Finally finished and sent out RPG Review issue 39, a special issue of "The Far East". Turned out to be a really text-heavy issue with nearly all the material from myself and Karl B. Still, we ended up with a good range of material in my opinion; a balance over time of various RPG games in such a setting including Bushido, GURPS China, Legend of the Five Rings, and RuneQuest Samurai, various creature builds for Dungeons and Dragons, etc., and campaign stories for Gulliver's Trading Company, the Malay archipelago, and a fantastic version of the Ainu. It is also the first time that I have published my wild hypothesis that the Indonesian Borobudor and Prambanan temple were a friendly competition between Buddhism and Hinduism - and were defeated by the animist Merapi. One day I'll explore that more seriously. Speaking of which (not an intended pun there), Duolingo has started offering Bahasa Indonesian, a language which I have learned the basics and promptly forgotten at least three times. Maybe this time it will stick.

In actual play this week ran two games because I'm that keen. The Thursday night session of Exalted introduced the second story of the journey to the far west as the mighty heroes travel into the Kingdom of Ma Chu, although a lot of the session was spent on character upgrades. On Sunday ran as session of Eclipse Phase where the PCs had to deal with a rather delusional meglomaniac named Lachiesis Robespierre Hobart who operated an armoured yacht staffed by lobotomised bikini girls with machine guns, which kept watch over a three-kilometre long humanoid being built by AGIs on the mid-Atlantic Ridge. Naturally enough, they managed to defeat the dangerous captain, save the unfortunates, and are now heading towards Belém to find new morphs (and hopefully new brains). On a different sort of gaming, visited log_reloaded and Jase on Saturday night at their new digs and had a play with their HTC Vive kit; I ended up eaten by a zombie, but that's how such things go. Never enough bullets when there's zombies around.

I've had a very busy few days workwise as well. Managed to get my journal article (with German co-authors) in to the Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal on the final day. On top of this had two training classes to run, one Introduction to Linux and HPC and the second Advanced Linux and Shell Scripting for HPC. Both of these are from 4 to 5 hours long, so it pretty well takes out the day. There is still one more class to run on Wednesday, Parallel Programming. I still have to finish my paper for the HPC Advisory Council conference in Fremantle, WA. Given that I leave on next Monday, I'd better get a move on for that. Especially considering that shortly afterwards I'm also going to be presenting at eResearchAustralasia. In the meantime we have the system from Melbourne Bioinformatics to shift and attach to Spartan. Just as well I've made a good dint on the software installs a couple of months ago.

Just returned from a two week journey in Bali and Java with caseopaya. Haven't been checking livejournal/dreamwidth so if there's some important news I've missed out on, please mention it. Meanwhile, a summary of this eventful and interesting trip..

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Having spent time there during the Independence Day I must confess more than a passing interest in the political future of the Malay archipelago: Is a unitary state really desirable? What about West Papua? A future with Malaysia? I note that prices have doubled since my last visit (except in Internet costs), but economic development is very uneven. I have made some firm friendships with the people in Semarang, which I believe will be lasting and have made some preliminary investigations with historical vulcanologists concerning a pet theory I have regarding Borobudur and Prambanan. This Sunday coming I will be giving an address at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on the Religion & Culture of the Malay Archipelago. Despite a most enjoyable journey however it's great to be home.

It was caseopaya's birthday today. Gave her a "home made" ticket which provides the bearer an all-expenses paid holiday to Yogyakarta, Bali and Komodo Island within the next 90 days. You might think I like her or something. Naturally enough, I'm going as well. In a completely different direction, in the very near future I am heading off to Dunedin for a few days to investigate purchasing some of the fine old buildings they have down there. Will need to set up a ANZ bank account in NZ etc.

Handed in the first draft of a new book for Iron Crown Enterprises. As it has already been announced by the system editor, I'm giving away no secrets by saying it's Rolemaster Cryadon, basically a synthesis of the HARP Cryadon book and Rolemaster Express. RPG Review is late as a result, but will be sent out within the next twenty-four hours.

The Australian Senate is seeking public comment on climate policy. I have made a (too) brief submission. Inspired by angel80's words on the recent spat between the Minister and the Department of Defense, I wrote to the former that he abolish his own department (and why not?). On Sunday attended the Unitarian service; guest speaker was John Stone from the Australasian Centre for the Governance & Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) at Melbourne University. Now on the organising committe for a public forum on the subject; will be arguing for "free and public" mass transit.