Lev Lafayette's journal

How have you spent the Easter break? I've spent it at the Conquest gaming convention, where four hundred nerds took over every room of the Coburg City Hall for a convention that's been running since the 1980s. Not that I did any gaming myself, as I safely esconced at the RPG Review Cooperative table with various games that members have put up for sale, which includes a majority of which is fundraising for the Isla Bell Charitable Fund. This particular run, "Gamers for Isla" is now coming to a close after an eight-week fundraising campaign which raised approximately $15000, with a bit in various pledges to come in. I must thank Andrew, Charmaine, Penny, Liz, Karl, Michael, Edward, Rade, and Tim for helping transport goods, staffing the stall, and generally providing awesome company over the three days.

A real highlight of the convention was the visits from Isla Bell's family to our group. This included her uncle, Kieran, who provided an opening speech at Conquest about who Isla was, what happened to her, and the importance of the Fund. Also present on that day was his partner who has a mutual interest in immersive technologies as a teaching tool. The following day, there was a visit from Isla's mother, Justine, and her partner, and then on the third day, a visit from her uncle, Christopher. Justine made a rather delightful Facebook reel about our fundraising efforts, and Christopher and I had a long conversation about an old mutual friend (sadly departed), Simon Millar. Michael O'Brien of the gaming company, Chaosium, donated the special-edition folio set of their most famous roleplaying game, "Call of Cthulhu", to further raise money for the Fund.

In this context, it is necessary to make a few comments about Easter. The Biblical literalism, bound too strongly and ludicrously by religious fundamentalists, is too easy to mock. The notion of "zombie Jesus" brings laughter, and even deeper, the argument that "Jesus the Lich" is even more accurate (gamers understand that one). My irreverent side derives pleasure from this as well. But what is overlooked by both the fundamentalists and the new atheists and their ilk is a metaphorical reading; that for any person of great spirit, not even the end of their life is the end of their story. Certainly, it is a critical juncture in their wider narrative, not just the closing of a chapter, but the ending of a book. But the narrative and themes of the character can continue. And this is what groups like the Isla Bell Fund charity represent: a tribute that continues a story that deserves and needs to be told. So, for all of you (myself included), go and produce great art, seek and advocate for justice and liberty, and unearth the facts of our shared existence.

A major activity in the past week has been the substantive start to the Isla Bell Charity fundraising campaign from the RPG Review Cooperative; it's mostly my efforts at this stage, but others are also getting involved in the new future. The canonical list of games for sale and description is available on the RPG Review Cooperative website. This will be updated pretty much every day. The aim was originally to raise at least $5K by the time that Conquest is held; we're well over 20% complete in pledges just after the few day, so maybe that was a bit pessimistic on my part. Further, I have already had discussions outside the Cooperative with other organisations about further potential fundraising activities.

On a related matter, I received a ticket to Knotfest from the Charitable Fund under the proviso that I had "to party as hard as Isla". Whilst a full review is being composed for Rocknerd, I can mention in advance that the festival was absolutely superb, tens of thousands of people. I was particularly impressed with "Within Temptation", "Slaughter to Prevail", and especially "Babymetal". Of course, headline act "Slipknot" themselves really put on an impressive and energetic visual show at volume. On a vastly different scale, the night previous, I went out with Carla BL to see "Buddhadatta", a Japanese Buddhist punk band (yes, you read that right) supported by all-women "Curlers" with their punk-synth, and the experimental noise of "Paul Kidney Experience". More reviews for Rocknerd! Finally, on such social events, I went out with Liza D. last night to a comedy taping show featuring Nicky Black and Jez Watts.

But that's not all! It really has been quite a diverse week. Early in the week, I had two workshops to run, "High Performance and Parallel Python" and "Regular Expressions with Linux"; the former was quite engaging, with a large turnout. Further, this weekend, I also joined a panel to discuss the future of wages and incomes in the age of automation with Adam Ford's "Future Day". Unlike other times in the past when technology has provided productivity and new job opportunities, I think current technologies are largely job replacing, and only a change in the political economy will fairly distribute the productivity gains. Finally, because I haven't mentioned it for a little while, I should say that I'm powering along in my PhD studies and am looking toward an early finish to the introductory unit in Argumentation and Critical Thinking, which I believe I have plenty of experience. The next step will be getting prior credit from my master's degree.