Lev Lafayette's journal

All good things must come to an end, and with enormous gratitude for their presence and acceptance of their departure, I've had to bid Lara farewell from her stay at The Rookery (but soon enough, I'll visit Mr Blue Sky in Darwin). During this week we caught up with some of Lara's friends for an evening at 123boom, a sort of live-action video game, and for our the anniversary of the third year of our meeting we went to Leftbank for a long lunch with paired wines and, then to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the NGV. Kusama's interest in the detailed life of plants to the erotic (and ultimately pumpkins) is really quite wondrous and appropriately a little disturbing at times. With the exception of a rubbish period when she played with abstract expressionism, her artistic life is really quite exceptional.

The weekend also included an evening in the company of Tim B., and Kitty OF, friends and family. It is well over thirty years that I've known Tim, albeit the distance between Melbourne and Sydney separates us. No time was wasted in ensuring a quality catch-up and I am personally required to reciprocate the visit. The following evening went to Justine M's birthday-cum-2nd housewarming in Thornbury, another great evening of motorcycle adventure videos and superb conversation, before making my way to Carla's birthday gathering whose second part was at a karaoke bar - excellent company, but that wasn't really my style of bar.

One matter that is outside of this active artistic and social update that I must mention is an update on the Gamers for Isla fundraising campaign. With about three weeks to go, this has exceeded the initial and modest expectations that I had set - around $5000 was my target. This was reached in 14 days, so a new target was then set at $7500, which was reached in in 28 days. So a new target was set at $10,000, and it seriously looks like that's going to be passed in the next couple of days. Sometime this week, I'll have to collect the incredible donation of six boxes of games from Simon S., many quite rare and collectable, who is deserving of great accolades for this generosity. One thing for certain; we've made a difference, and Isla's scholarship will receive the positive start that I wanted to see.

When life is busy and being lived to the full, sometimes the opportunity to record and reflect falls a bit of the wayside. As a result, the following is a rather random collection of some activities over the past few weeks, and notably missing a rather extensive discussion on "organised noise" and of course, recent political developments, both of which will have their own entries over the next few days. At this juncture, I wish to give brief reflections on eResearch Australasia 2024, the All Saints' Day cocktail party, and the next issue of RPG Review.

I've written a few notes on the eResearch Australasia conference at the Pullman Hotel in Albert Park. In short, several hundred people in attendance, lots of high-quality content, plenty of opportunity to network, and my presentation on Spartan was very well-received. Since then, I also took the opportunity to bring together attendees from UniMelb for a bit of a debrief session and compiled notes of interest; "many eyes make all bugs shallow". I am still working on an abstract for the eResearch New Zealand conference for next year and also putting my mind to the THETA conference in Perth next year.

The weekend after eResearch, Luna and I hosted an "All Saints' Day Cocktail Party" for former residents and friends of two households in Stawell Street, Burnley and Rushall Crescent, North Fitzroy, from the 1990s and early 2000s. It was really quite a wonderful night to bring people together, and I really enjoyed playing the role of cocktail waiter. A special highlight was the opportunity to catch up with one Fiona C., whom I hadn't seen since Stawell St. We certainly had a lot to say to one another, but after almost thirty years, we still only scratched the surface. For entertainment purposes, I put together a setlist which we ran through a least a few times.

The next issue of RPG Review is already underway. Whilst the release date is December, we are already collecting content for this special double issue, dedicated to fifty years of "Dungeons & Dragons", a rather important popular cultural phenomenon. Of special note is the fact that our interview subject will be none other than Frank Mentzer, who is most notable as the author of the "BECMI" (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortal) boxed editions of the game, which would sell in the millions and be translated into eleven languages. That's kind of a big deal, really. Mind you, our online 'zine has had some astounding interview subjects in the past, and we had over five thousand unique visitors to our site last month with the release of the last issue of RPG Review. So perhaps we're a bit of a cultural phenomenon in our right.

It is always a joy to have close interstate visitors come to town, but sometimes the circumstances aren't ideal. In particular, I feel for my dear Darwin friend, Lara D., who at the end our holiday in Bali received news of her grandmother's passing as she was at the airport. Such events can bring close friends and family together, which has certainly been the case in this instance. Lara is not one to let a visit to Melbourne occur without adventures in her style however, and on Sunday night we and Anton went to the beautiful "Lightscape" event at the Botanic Gardens, whilst on Tuesday night we all met members of the immediate family and friends at the Simon's Peiking Duck restaurant, named after the famous former owner Simon Lay. Despite the circumstances, it was quite a delight to spend time in their company. Thursday afternoon was the funeral itself, held at St Scholastica's Catholic Church. As has been observed as one gets older they go to more funerals than weddings, and whilst everyone dies many of my friends have chosen to be unmarried (including the broader sense of civil union ceremonies, etc). It must be said am more familiar with secular funerals as well, which are inevitably more about the person. But I was thoroughly charmed with the Polish components of the services, and the closing song "Goralu, czy nie żal" a story of leaving the Tatra mountain range, where Lara's grandmother was born.

For less sombre reasons, I have been blessed with a visit from my dear friend from Adelaide, Paula DA. Neither of us will tire of how we first met, on a protest bus trip to the Woomera Detention Centre for asylum seekers in 2001. We discovered very quickly that we had similar interests (e.g., history from a worker's perspective, anarcho-syndicalism, Unitarianism), and were of a like mind, disposition, and humour of such matters and, as a result, we have been firm friends ever since. It was also a great opportunity to whip up something special for my regular Friday evening dinner party which was attended by myself, Paula, Erica H., and Dom J., and which I plied people with Italo-Franco food (air-fried gnocchi with a light tomato salsa, pot de crème au chocolat, etc) which all worked out pretty well. Erica, also a good friend of Paula's, has enjoyed her company as well, and today Erica and I ventured to see the "The Art of Banksy" exhibition, which included several videos and a very impressive collection of static pieces. Of course, we are both overfond of rodents which is always a draw-card, but apart from this stylistic inclusion, one must be impressed with the darkly humourous insight, humanist subject matter, and dedication to just causes displayed by this artist. I found the video referring to the Syrian civil war (rather, the war on civilians), for example, to be very moving.

With a temporary respite from the rigors of full-time and full-time study, I engaged in a very social weekend. On Friday night I hosted an "Elder Perth Migrants Dinner" with Liana F., Julie A., Erica H., James N., Simon S., and Justine Mc (not a Perth migrant). Dinner consisted of "Pasifika Gnocchi", including various sweet potatoes from the region, and an "Australian mess" (an Eton mess on a pavlova). For entertainment, I constructed an appropriate playlist of our favourites from 1977 to 1994, taking us back to the days of the Red Parrot and The Firm, with a couple of fairly obscure Perth bands (And An A, Accelerated Men) being included. Whilst far from all the "Perth goth migrants" that I know in this city, it was pretty much the capacity I could fit around this dining table and certainly acts as inspiration for further events. It was certainly a very animated evening and I think we finally finished up around 3 am.

The following day was the RPG Review Cooperative Annual General Meeting at The Rose Hotel (not on Rose Street) with Andrew D., Charmaine D., Penny D., Liz B., Karl B., Rodney B., Michael C., Tim R., and Andrew Mc with Jay P., Adrian S., and Andrew P online). It was a good year for the Cooperative with improvements in membership, finances, and activities, even if our flagship webzine had only a single issue in the year. There was an excellent discussion about the use of AI-generated material in publications; we've decided to accept it as long it is credited as such. Afterward, I visited Brendan E., with Kerrie H. arriving later, and watched a few episodes of the WWII drama "The Liberator", based on the extraordinary journey of the 157th Infantry Regiment in Italy and beyond. After that, had dinner with Anthony L, Robin M, Sara, and Matthew W., where there was a fair bit of discussion around the recent fire at the See Yup Temple.

For Sunday, the big event was the Melbourne Drone Orchestra at the Mission to Seafarers. The building has been an oddity that I've observed for more than twenty years, so it was quite an adventure to step inside this old-world and quirky Spanish mission-styled building. The Drone Orchestra event was held in the Nora Dome, originally a gymnasium for sailors, and with the shape providing superb acoustics. The event itself consisted of some experimental-industrial musicians, including my dear friend Carla L. who played a combination of bass and theremin. Other musicians turned it up a notch and by the end, there were people performing drums and sax, and even drums, guitar, and vocals simultaneously. The evening also witnessed the opportunity to catch up with folk musician Penelope S., whom I haven't seen in many years, and also Liana F., who invited me along in the first place. At the end of the evening a few of us (Erica H., Sophie P., Shane decamped to The Rookery for late-night kir royale cocktails and discussion about Australian arthouse films.

I am now down to the final week of editing the 15000-word research project for my Master's in Climate Change Science and Policy, following that and a short presentation on the topic, that will be the conclusion of that degree, although I strongly suspect what is the beginning of a lifetime of further study and activity on the subject, starting with the initial subject of my research project; climate change impacts, adaption, and financing for Pacific developing nations. As much as climate change mitigation is absolutely necessary to prevent future impacts, some impacts are and will occur regardless - hence the need for adaptation. For the Pacific, we are talking about nations that have contributed very little to greenhouse gas emissions (both in absolute and per capita terms), but will feel the brunt of its effects; the moral principle of torts should apply.

In my working life, I have two impending HPC-related trips interstate pending in the next two weeks. The first is a visit to Sydney for Supercomputing Asia, where I have a presentation to give as part of the international HPC Certification Forum and a poster on HPC training metrics and usage. Apparently, if you train people, they submit many more jobs - who knew? Two weeks after that, and with an interesting dovetail with my studies, I'll be spending a week in Townsville conducting training workshops at the Australian Institute for Marine Science; it's been almost ten years since I've visited said people and it's pleasing to see that some of the staff are still there!

Even with all this on the agenda, I have had some opportunities for social occasions. Liana F., and I caught some the Triennial exhibition that's on at the NGV, which makes me want to go again, and for Invasion Day we went to Connection at Lume; our third visit to said exhibition. On Wednesday night I received an impromptu ticket to see the Pet Shop Boys' movie "Dreamworld" with Robbie K, which I observed featured quite a demographic of men of a certain age and greater than zero on the Kinsey Scale, and on Tuesday night caught up Nathan B., who is visiting from interstate with a lovely collection of old and true friends at Naked for Satan. For someone who is finishing a master's project I've had zero evenings this week when I've been in my own company; possibly not the most sensible decision, but I'm rather glad that I did manage all this.

Late last week I took a couple of days off work (they keep telling me to reduce my outstanding leave) to go on an Avatar Mountain business planning session with Anthony L., and Robin M., at the RACV Country Club in Healesville. We explored a number of the immediate environmental issues facing Pacific island states as well as longer-term projects, noting how the latter seems to have some fairly interesting players engaging in what appears to be a bit of a land grab under the supposed marketing of environmental protection. But of course, imperialism has always pretended that it was for the benefit of the colonised. The resort itself was of very good quality and in pretty nice surroundings; the bed came with its own tribble, and I was pleased to be woken by a baby magpie on the balcony. The following day was the AGM of the ACFS, where Anthony and Robin stepped down from their many years of service as president and secretary, respectively, and I had the opportunity to give a presentation on last year's conference in Suzhou, but also extend discussion to the much wider issue of China and the global climate which generated a lot of interest. I took the opportunity to suggest that the "Two Mountains Theory" of environmental protection coupled with economic development, also needed to be extended to a "Two Roads Theory" for international trade and infrastructure.

Outside of such formal activities, on Friday night Liana F., took me out to the "Motley Bauhaus Burlesque". The style was more arthouse burlesque, as fitting the venue and clientele, although I must say that the MC's outfit of an almost square-shouldered suit jacket, ruffle shirt, and giant red beret was getting pretty close to the classic Bauhaus clothing style and their sense of performance. The following night Julie A., who has just finished her psychology degree and was feeling in a celebratory mood, invited us out to Creature Bar, which has a good sense of horror-movie aesthetic and plenty of board games. We ended up playing Scrabble over a couple of wines; Liana, whose life has been associated with this game (her mother was a state champion), managed to score more than both Julie and I put together. Tonight Erica H., visited for dinner and a quiet evening of "Star Trek: Enterprise", which we have been slowly working through together. Although it is a bit of a middling series and story, and terribly socially anachronistic, one cannot help but be impressed by Jolene Blalock's performance and style as the Vulcan science office, T'Pol.

This evening I finished my final essay for Climate Change Mitigation-Environmental Issues (a strangely combined paper), where I concentrated on climate justice issues in the Pacific. The day previous I finished the final essay for International Climate Change Policy, where I wrote about China, Russia, international tensions, and international relations theory. The day previous I sat the final exam for paleoclimatology, and earlier in the week I finished the final essay on Climate Impacts and Adaption, where I wrote on the issue of food security in China. Due to an awful cold that knocked me flat for a few days I do not think some of my work on any of these is at my highest possible standard, but I'm hoping it's certainly good enough to carry me through for a B+ average so I can do the final trimester's research dissertation. Oh, and I have lazily topped the Duolingo Diamond League again.

Despite the aforementioned illness, I did have a number of social events this week. Careful planning meant that I was able to sleep deeply during the day and night, whilst in the evenings rugging up and going out without over-exerting myself. This included a debrief dinner of my recent visit to the PRC with Anthony L. and Robin M. at Gasthaus on Queen, an Austrian restaurant where I managed to practice my much-neglected knowledge of German. The following night, having purchased tickets in advance many months ago, I went with Robbie K. and Des J. to see The Sparks, a band whom I hadn't seen for some 22 years since they were last in town, and have been performing since 1966! (Someone has a video up already, good work). That event was also with Robbie at The Corner Hotel and they've picked up enough support over the years here to play at The Palais instead this time.

The following night Liana came over for a visit and dinner and celebratory drinks before we headed off to a Fringe Festival event, an "Adults Only Magic Show", which did have some very clever tricks and was more on the light-hearted bawdy rather than erotic side (if one must know). On the PT trip there we ran into excessivepurple, whom I hadn't seen for almost twenty years, a very pleasant surprise. After the show, Liana and I were talking about old Murdoch University courses and she mentioned how she would love to go through some of her old course readings in screen studies and drama. I mentioned that I had quite a collection of these books and, following an fossick through my collection, Liana discovered her old "Drama: East and West" course reader from over thirty years ago (it still had her name in the front cover). There really is some excellent writing in that old book by the course co-ordinator, David George, and it's a bit of a shame that there's no online references to it. It seems that in some ways my own home has become an archive of knowledge produced decades ago.

The last three days have been spent almost entirely at Conquest, Melbourne's Easter weekend gaming convention that has been running for some thirty years or so. The RPG Review Cooperative had a stall, where our members have the opportunity to sell their old games to an enthusiastic public and, as has been the case with other conventions, there were plenty of people and plenty of enthusiasm. This was a great opportunity to engage in old conversations with like-minded friends on the finer points of game design, and various publications, and catch up (albeit often briefly) with some old friends. For what it's worth, proceeds from my sales from this event are directed toward Effective Altriusm who note that the most effective donations you can give to save and extend lives are for anti-malarial and vitamin supplements for children in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the evenings of this weekend, I made my way to two comedy events. Saturday night Liana F and I went to see "Comedy Zone" at Trades Hall which provided several excellent presentations of which Alexandra Hudson's curious observations of the world from a person with cerebral palsy was a personal favourite. The evening previous I went out with Erica H., to see yet again, that rather famous upwards-punching stirrer FriendlyJordies as he described his recent experiences in the High Court for defamation. There's a rather good youtube video of the story that led up to the show which is thoroughly recommended. As political comedy the topics of substance of are no laughing matter; the fact that it's presented to illustrate absurdity and incredulity through irreverence is quite a successful formula.

Prior to this weekend, I managed to get a few words in regarding politics; the first was the article on Australia's truly ludicrous decision to spend $368bn on submarines. My article, "A Subservient Decision" outlines the awful opportunity costs and tragic ineffectiveness of this very poor decision. Further, last Tuesday, I was interviewed by John A., on Sydney's Radio Skid Row's "Roving Spotlight" on the topic of Hannah Arendt's approach to truth in politics and the structural causes for totalitarianism. When I get time this coming week I'll also put finger-to-keyboard about the proposed constitutional change for an indigenous voice to parliament; in the meantime, I am watching the LNP continue to drift further out-of-touch with public opinion and prosaic facts on the matter.

In an attempt to be social and get into the spirit of the month, I hosted a "Mad as Mad March Hare Hatter's Tea Party", which was attended by Wesa C., Rob and Angela L., Nitul D., with Maggie S. and Erica H., joining in later on. It featured readings from m ancient and well-loved copy of "Alice in Wonderland etc", including "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party" (of course) and "The Caucus Race" (for our visiting politician). Courtesy of Erica, there was even some Alice In Wonderland-themed tea, and Nitul added to the collection with a truly excellent Tassie Devil brand. Foodstuffs by yours truly were in the style of an English tea party - savoury pikelets with salmon, sandwiches (cucumber or egg salad, with cream cheese, white bread, in thirds, no crusts of course), and Rob plied us with his Rookwood Absinthe until we were all off with the fairies. Almost needless to say, an excellent afternoon of a wide-ranging conversation, and again Angela left me slack-jawed with her ability to recite with error veritable of Shakespeare.

The Tea Party was the conclusion of a couple of other social events I had been to over the weekend; the night previous I attended a vaudeville show (cabaret, music, comedy, stunts, burlesque) at Speakeasy HQ with Liana F., which really was thoroughly entertaining. We were quite keen on seeing the burlesque, but I think the comedy won us over - both of us have reasons to need a bit of a laugh and the combinations of absurd prejudices and puns were delightful. The evening previously I briefly visited the opening night of "Radical Utopia" at the RMIT Gallery, which was about Melbourne in the 1980s - as a semi-regular visitor at the time, the idea rather intrigued me, but it was neither particularly utopian nor radical - although they did have a Sinclair Spectrum on display which, in my opinion, was radical and utopian. A computer you could carry in your pocket! In 1985 that really was quite an amazing thing to do. Who would have thought that we'd all be doing it now?

A good portion of the past few days has been in exam preparation for the short exam for "The Behaving Brain" at Auckland University. I passed it pretty well and my overall grade for the course was pretty reasonable too. But of all the papers in the degree, this one piqued my interest the least. Effectively a cognitive psychology paper, there was far too much on illusions, an entire week on taste perception for marketing, and not enough on neurology. Still, as the penultimate paper in this degree, I just have "Social Processes" (effectively social psychology) to go, and then I'm done, all in time (with some overlap) for the next degree in climate change science, which is now all sorted - my units for this upcoming trimester are: Physical Basis of Climate Change. Carbon Pricing Mechanisms, Political Ecology of Conservation, and Environmental and Planning Law, which is a good illustration of the multi-disciplinary nature of the degree.

One thing which "The Behaving Brain" did cover, a little, at the end of the paper was "positive psychology", which basically argues that psychology concentrates far too much on the clinical and reparative and not enough on optimal functioning and growth. Yale University offers a ten-week course on "The Science of Well-Being" which I'm currently halfway through, and it isn't too bad at all covering many of the main "miswantings" that people have in their life regarding the pursuit of happiness; I am not terribly surprised to discover that most of them I undertake already, but still it is good to spend structured time checking this myself. Of course, the other side of the story is the realisation that because I'm already engaging in such things, perhaps this is close to as good as it gets for me! The distinction between temperament and character is an important one.

Social engagement is one of those things that positive psychology emphasises and, on that note, I must make mention of an excellent dinner I hosted a few days ago with Perth migrants and visitors; Simon, Erica, Fiona, and Natacha, the latter two visiting Melbourne-town for a bit of an art-tour. I made a hilariously titled "sexy beans" recipe, which is actually quite delicious and quick but the author's write-up does bring a chuckle. It was quite a thing for us to all reminisce of past shenanigans of more than two decades ago in The Western Lands, but this is what you get with old and true friends. Another act of positive social engagement the day was the adventure-retail therapy of op-shopping in Toorak and Hawthorn which I went with Erica (for part) and with Mel S., which is always such an absolute joy to travel in this endeavour. My memento for the day was Dr Seuss' "Star Bellied Sneetch" an excellent piece of social commentary which, of course, reminds people of a particular subculture the second verse of a certain Dead Kennedy's song: "Holiday in Cambodia" - very influential in the days of my angry youth (and still burns within).