In which I evangelise at length the many roleplaying podcasts to which I am addicted subscribed. There’s quite a few of them, hence the “Part 1”, and it’s probably of absolutely no interest to anyone who doesn’t roleplay as their primary social hobby, hence the cut:
July 30, 2007
My podcast library, part 1
July 25, 2007
For future reference
I’d like to have had time this week to blurt out some bloggage on a variety of subjects (see below), but work has actually kept me pretty busy during the day and during the evenings I’ve been either doing stuff or flaking out early.
Subjects upon which I might be inclined to expound include:
- Dune, which I finished reading and sort of implied I might review, but I haven’t yet.
- the last Harry Potter book, which I finished reading and probably won’t review, if only because it’s a bit difficult to discuss without spoilers, and I’m guessing that not too many people would choose to employ a strategy of staying awake ridiculously late on the weekend just to avoid the off chance of having the ending ruined for them
- I keep wanting to plug a bunch of gaming podcasts that I have been listening to obsessively this year. I know that nobody but me (and maybe two other guys of my acquaintance) cares about this stuff but the hell with it, this is my blog.
- I played Dogs in the Vineyard for the first time on Monday night and can’t pour enough superlatives on it; admittedly I had some foreknowledge of the setting and assumptions, but it runs ways more smoothly and facilitates far better roleplaying than I imagined it could. Easy to see why it’s a classic of the new wave hippie indie story games – it delivers on its promises.
- This reminds me that I still haven’t done that Burning Wheel preview I promised Clam. Time does seem to be running out to get that done before I actually play it, on Friday night.
- I seem to have stumbled into a game of Burning Empires, which is a big budget science fiction version of BW (not really, but that’s a decent enough shorthand explanation). If I review BW, I probably need to review BE as well, because it’s similar in system, but the differences are quite remarkable.
So there you are. This entry is mainly a reference for me to follow up on later when I have a bit of time.
So how are things with you?
July 18, 2007
July 11, 2007
Things seem quiet
Not much news at the moment. Joey has started to make tentative kicks, which is exciting on those rare occasions that they are externally detectable. Fi spends much of her time being extremely tired. My impression is that both phenomena are here to stay.Â
Mission Impossible (I still haven’t come up with a better name) continues to be somewhat amorphously defined and difficult to get a grip on. Owing to the big bosses not having reviewed a key document yet, things are in limbo. I go to a lot of meetings with people, most of which stray off into vague chats about the future of the agency.
Not much news from Dad either. He’s been getting antibiotics to clear up any lingering infections (such as ones relating to speargrass seeds and passing bouts of pneumonia) so the stem cell treatment hasn’t started yet. Should know a bit more about the timing after I speak to Mum today. They’re both in Townsville now, for at least a couple of months, while the treatment continues.
No games at the moment. Aww. But at least I am now reading Dune again. It’s good. I forgot about the neat bit of the Bene Gesserit seeding native populations with quasi-mystical legends about themselves as a precaution in case any of their number ever needed cult support. I love the book, though I do think that Herbert occasionally gets a little indulgent in his use of drug-trip-detachment stream-of-consciousness in some of his descriptive passages, which I think in turn led to David Lynch’s unfortunate overuse of narration for internal monologue in the movie version. Then again, the movie version has Patrick Stewart as the bard-assassin Gurney Halleck, so criticism of David Lynch is clearly misplaced and stupid.
Where was I? Oh yeah, avoiding work.
July 6, 2007
Jimbirthday!
It’s Jimbo’s birthday today. Be sure to wish him a happy day, even though I think he’s at work and will therefore probably not actually be enjoying himself as such.
July 4, 2007
Reformation of the Corporate
So after a couple of days of attending meetings and reading policy papers on how we’re reforming over the next few years, I now have a more or less rough notion of what it is that I will be expected to do in my new position. Basically it boils down to “walk around with a project timeline and politely ask people whether they are going to make their deadlines or not”.
This is likely to involve somewhat more social contact than I have previously managed in 8 years in [this small Government agency]*. But it should be good. I like to wander about and have a chat, so it will be interesting to see if doing that for a job will actually feel like a worthwhile occupation.
In news sort of just to hand, Ev’s other band, The People People, has a new song on the Triple J Unearthed charts, and it’s gotten up as far as number 3 (though it’s slipped back a bit since then). Do them a favour and go and download it and listen to it and rate it and such. It ups their chances of actually getting airplay, and maybe breaking into the big time and making squillions of dollars to blow on coke and learjets. Wowser alert: it has a rude name and a lot of that swearing that the kids admire these days. But it’s very boppy and cool, so just live with it!
* Note the highly sophisticated Googleproofing techniques!