Lev Lafayette's journal

It appears that I have moved into end-of-year meeting mode. Just yesterday arranged for professor Clinton Fernandes, to the guest speaker at the Isocracy Network Annual General Meeting, slated for October 20 at the Kensington Town Hall (probably clashes with a LUV meeting, but timetables are tight). Clinton will be speaking on Australian foreign policy with a focus on East Timor and Witness K (not to be confused with Agent K from the film Men In Black, although correlations could be noted). For my own part I have just completed some 1700 words on an article Isocracy Profiles: Martin Luther King Jnr, which the second in this sporadic series (following Albert Einstein.

RuneQuest Gloranthan Con has had a couple of updates recently mainly behind the scenes. After a bit of poking around for my own alternative I discovered the joy of Drupal Webform and Webform Report, which has allowed me to put together a couple of pages for the auction. I can't believe that I'm selling my first print of White Bear and Red Moon form 1975, the game which launched Chaosium. Further, it will make an ideal template for the RPG Review store which has been offline since Quicksales closed its operations. I'm planning to have that at least partially in place by the end of October, as per the RPG Review Newsletter which I released yesterday.

In other gaming news went to see ser_pounce and hathhalla for our irregular day of cheeesequest and Mice & Mystics. After a year or so of play we actually finished the basic scenario, Sorrow and Remembrance, and did so with relative ease courtesy of a succession of very beneficial die rolls and the availability of some handy magics. The night previous ran a game of Exalted Journey to the Far West where the travelling band discovered that a local village had been taken over by shapeshifting demons of seduction and gluttony. Credit to funduntheupfield for recognising a key theme from the original Journey to the West. Tomorrow will be Eclipse Phase where the Sentinels have found themselves trapped in a medical facility on Earth with various robots banging on the door that want to cut their stacks out.

Courtesy of a neighbour relieving themselves of a particularly large bookcase I've spent a few hours re-arranging a good deal of the furninsings around the house in an effort to save space. Somehow, despite the fact there is an additional item in play, I've actually managed to create more space and better space, with our sizeable liquour cabinet now in the lounge room along with a display cabinet holding the fish tank and turtle tank and various indoor pot plants. The bookcase itself will be gobbling up a stack of "do not sell" RPG books which will allow some of those which are currently in boxes to join a real shelving unit. I suppose it's spring (of sorts) so the idea of a spring clean does come to mind, but it also reminds me that my love of RPGs has resulted in a collection larger than most specialist game stores.

It seems to me that justice and truth are related, even if rationally incommensurable in their content. I recently wrote an example of this relationship based on a short Internet debate this week; The Gaseous Truth in Syria. It was one of a few related experiences on the subject. On Sunday I gave an address to the local Unitarian church on Remembering Martin Luther King Jnr, where I outlined his religious origins, civil rights activities, political strategy, and his concern for economic justice. I am toying with the idea of promoting the latter as an Isocracy-initiated campaign. On that topic last night I went to see a presentation by Ed Dodson at Proposer Australia; Ed is visiting from the United States and is responsible for the School of Cooperative Individualism. It was a lengthy presentation, but gave me some good insights on how "geo-libertarian" opinions developed in the United States Georgist movement.

University House also hosted a burgundy wine tasting yesterday, with Victor Pepin from Bouchard Père et Fils. The presentation was absolutely great, the wines were good, and prices unsurprising, and tempting with the House discount. Still, it's hard to justify when one already has a hundred reasonable bottles or so in storage. Apropos such epicurean delights, for various reasons I've spent a couple of days this week working from home, and whilst the opportunity has presented itself I've found myself taking the opportunity to bake all sorts of fruit cakes, corn breads, tomato bread etc. It's quick to set up, the results are delicious, and it makes a nice change of pace over building HPC software.

I should also mention that RPG Review Issue 37 has been released. It has fewer but longer articles with own contribution being several reviews of appropriate games to the subject of 'Cosmology, Gods, and Religion'. I have a few more up my sleeve and will have to get on to those soon. It is also opportune to announce my retirement as editor of the 'zine after some ten years at the helm (bar one issue). The reins (and the reign) is now being passed to Andrei N., whom I'm sure will do an excellent job for an upcoming science fiction issue. In actual play this week I've managed to run a session of Eclipe Phase and play Megatraveller. Tonight at the Willsmere estate a neighbour has organised a boardgames night - I'll be bringing along Carcassonne, and tomorrow night is the first session of Exalted Journey to the Far West.