Date: 2009-07-15 21:53 Subject: Shaky Isle Security: Public

6.6 in Fiordland, I felt that one.

Date: 2009-07-13 23:48 Subject: Other news from the weekend. Security: Public

My brother in Sydney is now engaged to be married in February. No idea yet if the wedding is planned for New Zealand, Australia, or Sweden, but a good chance that I'm not going to be able to attend Canterbury Faire.

Date: 2009-07-12 22:24 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: Frazzled

Oh so tired.

Christchurch in winter is full of bittersweet memories. The flats of my youth are but paved over malls, and even the student union building is unfamiliar. Still, seeing the photos on the wall of me from 10-15 years ago actually made me pretty happy about the way I look now.

Survivor: Dark Lord, mostly worked and most of the players had a pretty good time. Detailed wash up to follow.

Moment of the weekend, helping someone to spell the pickup line they were trying to text (the words 'delicious' and 'bored' were the two the young gentleman was having trouble with).

Date: 2009-07-08 23:08 Subject: Imaginary countries Security: Public

The NZ Defence Forces occasionally head off to Colchis to liberate it from the Musorians. Apparently the US equivalent is The Republic of Pineland.

Date: 2009-07-07 22:23 Subject: Where was I? Security: Public

Work is busy, and stressful. Last Friday was a crap day, so bad I had to stay away from alcohol and go straight to the chocolate hit. Weekend saw me fail to sleep like I wanted to.

Survivor: Dark Lord is coming together nicely for next weekend, although my mapping software has been a bit of a pain, as it and I disgaree sharply on what a rectangle should look like. Its wonderful to be able to delegate work to other enthusiastic people considering how much of a pain work has been.

In WoW, I finally finished levelling my original character to 80. Which is the last character I will do that with. No more alts for me! Anyhow, dinged 80 and spent a small virtual fortune on new gear from the auction house, which I was able to do thanks to all those hours spent flying around in circles in the game mining mineral nodes when I was unemployed in London.

The Vanity Fair article on Palin. If she is the great hope for the Republican Party, you can see why infidelity is now a requirement for any republican ticket for governor.

In Christchurch this weekend, really should find a place to sleep while I'm there.

Date: 2009-07-01 07:51 Subject: Focusing on the positive Security: Public

Work is keeping me busy, which is better than spending all day surfing the net like I was two weeks ago, especially considering how 200 odd jobs have been axed at MSD this week.

My flat is warm enough for winter, the little oil column heater does the job.

I am managing to save $1,000 per month, in addition to dumping 8% of my salary into a superannuation scheme.

The recent repackaging of Cadbury chocolate into smaller king sized bars at the same price has managed to disincentivise me from buying two of them every week, and I seem to have also cut back on the coke habit again - it had been creeping up to the 4-5 litres per week mark. Managing to stick a few more veges into the evening meal, but forcing myself to ea more fruit is still tedious.

I have two trips to Chirstchurch over the next two months. Which should be fun, and I intend to make a bit more of an effort to be out and social in Wellington too.

Date: 2009-06-28 22:24 Subject: Bolos Security: Public

More Post-Traumatic Stress: Peter Singer, the author of a new book on battlefield robotics, told LiveScience.com in May he had seen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan grow so attached to their bomb-disposal robots that, in one case, the soldier risked 160 feet of enemy machine gun fire to retrieve his little buddy, and in another, a soldier brought his robot in for repairs with tears in his eyes over the "injury" to his beloved "Scooby-Doo." Several units, he said, had given their robots promotions, Purple Hearts and even a military funeral. [LiveScience.com, 5-21-09]

Date: 2009-06-26 23:47 Subject: Time well spent? Security: Public

New contender for throne of Worst Roleplaying Game Ever Published.

Date: 2009-06-24 19:29 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: exhausted

Tonight, I figured out how to light the gas oven part of my stove, and baked a TV dinner into acquiesence.

Work is busy, which is nice.

I am planning on going to the 48 Hour Party in August. This year I am thinking of taking Fri/Mon off work, to get a bit more hang-over free time in Christchurch.

Date: 2009-06-23 18:50 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Much as I usually enjoy the rain, an extended spell of fine weather over the course of a weekend would be much appreciated.

I have been building up my pandemic supplies. This consists largely of buying extra tins of food when I am shopping, and going shopping more often rather than tiding over the gaps with takeout. To ensure that emergency stores remain for emergency use, I have been buying tins of food I do not usually eat, such as broad beans and lentils, and a tin of SPAM. This is a bit like buying dwarf bread. As long as I have it in the pantry, I will never go hungry, as I will always find something else to eat.

Finished research gaming addiction today. It did not feel like there was much published research out there. The APA is not listing it as a mental disorder, and the AMA is just asking for more research on the issue. Thankfully the concerned member of the public was not asking about avatar gender identity, otherwise finishing the introductory background reading would have taken six months. On the whole, conflating the rhetoric of drug addiction with any form of digital addiction appears deeply mistaken.

The reasons why people seem to get deeply into online games are less to do with physical addiction to the game and the pleasures it brings, but more to do with membership of a social community within the game, which then becomes a source of identity and status. This makes treatment fairly easy - just find them another activity in a community setting. I was deeply amused to find one researcher using my own analogy of 'reading addiction' to undermine the notion that spending a lot of time playing games was inherently unhealthy. So to some extent the moral panic about online ames is just another version of the old age fear of new technology and its social effects.

Sites I found useful:

Survey on teen gaming

Online Gaming Anonymous (with its own version of the 12 step program)

Reasonably balanced advice for families

And a couple of Game Studies web sites (for articles just enter 'addiction' into their search engines.

Not much research on this topic at all in NZ, the current research is focused o viole

Date: 2009-06-16 22:18 Subject: Not quite the rice surprise Security: Public

Almost seven months in the flat, and I finally make grilled cheese on toast.

Date: 2009-06-12 18:49 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Lets see now.

A year ago, I was getting ready to flee the UK, hoping to find shelter in New Zealand before the economic storm hit.

Two years ago, I was getting ready to leave New Zealand on my somewhat belated OE.

Ten years ago, I was in the second year of my Ph.D., and had redoubled my efforts to working, oh perhaps two hours a week on the damn thing.

Twenty years ago, I was a pretty shy first year at university, who could really only talk about D&D and not much else.

Thirty years ago (okay, more like 29 and a bit), two of the best things ever were combined: the Muppet Show and Star Wars.



I still laugh out loud watching the Muppet Show.

Date: 2009-06-10 17:51 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Promo trailer for Star Wars: the Old Republic, and a bit of text about the gameplay too.

Date: 2009-06-09 19:36 Subject: Bits & Bobs Security: Public

Flat inspection, pass with revisions. In particular, the incipient mold in the shower needs cleansing with great effort. But the landlord wants to stick in a heating panel, and a curtain rail to make the flat easier to heat, so all is good.

Remember Tank Man 20 years ago? Amazingly enough, no less than five people managed to take pictures of him from different places.

Be afraid, there is a remake of V in the works.

On the ethics of drinking alcohol. anarchangel23 might appreciate the references to ancient greek rituals.

The practice of buying rounds in the pub is one of the great cultural achievements of the English. It enables people with little money of their own to make generous gestures, without the risk of being ruined by them. It enables each person to distinguish himself from his neighbours and to portray his individuality in his choice of drink, and it causes affection progressively to mount in the circle of drinkers, by giving each in turn the character of a warm and hospitable friend.

Finally, why is it that every time someone runs amok with a sword in this country, that its a samurai sword they use? Is there something about the oriental nature of the sword, that sends people completely round the bend? Why does nobody teach them to use straight bits of steel and *thrust* dammnit, like the Romans did! At least in the UK you still get the odd mysterious swordsman aiding the authorities from time to time.

Date: 2009-06-07 20:04 Subject: At least the laundry is dry Security: Public

Tired. Feeling down.

This is mainly due to watching my 25 man WoW raid self-destruct, as the main guild organising it has had major internal drama, with some of the core raiders moving on to new guilds. Not my fault in any way, all concerned still like me and want me to group with them in-game, but its turned the Sunday afternoon raid from being a happy, energising experience, to being stressful and draining.

My own guild is making things a bit easier for me by shifting from Wed/Thurs raid nights to Mon/Thurs. This makes some part-time raiders full-time, easing our rotation burden, and hopefully giving me the odd night off after three months without a break. It has been hard for me, not knowing until raid night whether I am heals or damage. Its a bit like carrying a set of heavy armour and weapons, and a set of light armour and weapons out onto an SCA battlefield, and being told by your unit leader 5 minutes before lay on which armour set and weapons you will be using.

Flat inspection on Tuesday night. So flat is now tidy looking, although the surface cleaning can wait until tomrrow. Got fairly brutal on several cartons of MA/PhD notes - have not read them in almost 10 years, so no real need to keep them.

My manager has signaled that I will be getting a satisfactory performance review, no real pay increase, but there is a training budget. I'm not sure what to do with offers of training. Most short duration professional development courses are a waste of space for me - instead of spending $500 on the course they should just spend $50 and give me the book. I am not really interested in picking up a varsity paper - although a case could be made for getting some kind of statistic training for use in quantative research - and I definitely want to say away from doing a Master of Business Apocalypse.

Date: 2009-06-05 19:20 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Mood: sad

So, vale David Carridine. Yes, I wached you on TV in the 70s, and you were cool.

Comment in /2 on Proudmoore: "No one could kill David Carridine, he had to kill himself, he's the original Chuck Norris."

Date: 2009-06-04 23:58 Subject: Two minutes to midnight Security: Public

Iron Council down.

Date: 2009-06-01 23:02 Subject: le weekend Security: Public

I slept a lot. I worked on Survivor: Dark Lord a bit, and decided I can live with a few 'save or die' mechanics. I woundered whether I can ever derive economic benefit from my talents at game design. I played WoW some. My little baby Death Knight dinged 80. My Mage pugged 25-man Emalon and did 3.5k dps, which is good. I tried to make chicken soup flavoured rice surprise, and ended up with rice flavoured soup. A botte of port failed to survive the weekend.

Date: 2009-05-29 19:21 Subject: Hit the Beach Security: Public

Hit the Beach was a game I played a bit in the 1970s. It was owned by a friend who lived close by, so I never quite got to play it as much as I liked. This was the same friend who was the only kid in Greymouth to own a colour graphic games console. Hit the Beach is fairly rare and collectible now, but Hasbro has put a pdf scan of the rules online. Over a boardgame geek we find some nice images of the game map. Apparently it was based on an earlier game, Malefiz.

I think its awesome the rules are only one page. I find it so hard to write any ruleset that comes in under ten pages.

To a certain extent gameplay is luck dependent. You cannot progress past a beach until you roll double 6s. But the game does give you a couple of avenues to catch up with luckier players. The strategy remember, and the bit we all thought was so cool when we were eight years old, was getting to redeploy the Japanese defenders in front of whover was doing well. The other avenue, is once you get past the first beach, you can send you tokens down the track towards the other player's beach, getting them to do all the hard work while you exploit. Still not that helpful if it was one of the players on the far, far side of the map doing well.

Anyhow, its given me some ideas.

As promised, the Sekrit Projekt. Okay, its just a compenium of stats and graphs, but is consumed the last six months of my work time to a large degree - and none of that was coding - it was a mix of qualiy assurance (ummm, thats proofreading with the intent of exact cover-your-ass certitude) and the process of getting sign-off (in this case from six different managers).

And now, I shall enjoy a bottle of port, while installing Red Alert 3 on my laptop.

Date: 2009-05-28 19:57 Subject: Comic of the day Security: Public

Well, a few days ago anyway.

I really wish that I too, could go Pro.

Two good days at work in a row, and tomorrow promises to be three. If so, I will be finally able to show you my top secret project of the last six months.