Monday, May 31, 2010

Haiku Status Uptade - 31 May 2010

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windy street corner -
angry old woman cursing
the passing of youth
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I actually wrote this a number of years ago, but the inclement weather we've beeen experiencing brought it to mind.  A couple of days ago the wind was so bad that the rain blew in underneath your umbrella no matter which way you held it.  At an intersection I saw an old woman struggling with her own shelter - one of those ones that fold up to a size that will fit in a handbag, trying to not let it blow inside out.  This was when a car drove passed and spashed a little water toward her.  I don't think the splash reached her, but I could faintly hear the stream of obscentities she hurled after the offending Mitsubishi. 

It made me grateful I didn't have to cross to her side of the road.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Haiku Status Update - 30 May 2010

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A weekend closes
Another week opens. That's
What it's all about.
-----

Well, it's Sunday night.  I have work shirts to iron (I'm taking a few minutes out from that to write this), lunch to prepare.  Booking details to look up (for a couple of days in Melbourne in a few months). 

Slowly plowing through A Farewell to Arms (home) and The Golden Compass (travel).  My to-read pile is growing taller.  I have Generation A by Douglas Coupland to go on with next, as well as the second and third volumes of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (all three in really nice Knopf paperback editions), and The Protector's War, the second volume in S.M. Stirling's adictive alternate future series, The Change (the first novel, Dies the Fire, I devoured in about a week-and-a-half - I'm not a particularly fast reader), as well as a mountain of RPG books.  I need to defrag my week to get more reading time, otherwise I'll never catch up.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Haiku Status Update - 29 May 2010

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The sky is crying
The streets are full of tears
(Thank you, Mark Knopfler)
-----

No really, it's coming down pretty heavily, on and off.  What really annoys me is we don't see to get intermediate seasons anymore.  It just goes straight from 28°C late-summer sunshine weather to misirable damp 12°-tops rainy afternoons in the space of ten or twelve days. 

I miss the blowy, leaf-churning autumnal afternoons with shafts of brilliant sunshine piercing the high clouds, turning everything from rust and grey to gold.  I miss seeing the slow transition play out from winter coats and long boots to to sun-dresses and sandals.

But I think I miss the food most of all.  It's been so long since we had a true Autumn or Spring in Adelaide that I can't even rem,eber what we used to eat in the months between soup- and salad-weather.  But I'm sure it was delicious.
   

Friday, May 28, 2010

Tanka Status Update - 28 May 2010

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Work-week behind me,
Weekend afore. Potential
For relaxation -
High. But but likelihood higher
For cleaning, gardening... work.
-----

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Just so you know...

... I will be updating (i.e. taking down the old stuff and starting new posts) my Moby and Me project in a couple of weeks, I hope. I'm currently pressing through A Farewell to Arms, and it's rewarding, but it's a slog. When I'm done with that I'll start reading/posting to Moby and Me again.

Also I will be putting new and interesting content links up on THE CONVERSATION, and maybe lifting some stuff off the old Ning forum before it gets taken down. Be patient, children. Good things come to those who wait.

***

Monday, May 24, 2010

Haiku Status Update - 24 May 2010

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It's raining again.
Why do observations always
Sound like pop lyrics?
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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Haiku Status Update - 23 May 2010


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Worked through the weekend,
Then got drunk in memory
Of Oliver Reed.
-----
 
It's a long story, but once a year a bunch of us get together for a meal and some heavy drinking to honour the passing of the truly exceptional actor, Oliver Reed.  So it's fitting that it's mostly about the heavy drinking.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Game night

Wednesday nights are Game Night. This is the night of the week I get to stop being me for a couple of hours and usually pretend to be somebody or something else (like "successful"). That's right, I'm talking about Role-Playing Games, those much maligned time-vacuums that conservative parents assume are going to turn their offspring to witchcraft and devil worship. (Much in the same way, one assumes, that participation in team sports and their attendant communal showers are going to "turn" all comers down the road to homosexuality - seriously, I wouldn't want to dance around a fire naked with ANYONE I've ever sat at the gaming table with, no exceptions).

Let me say at the outset that what I engage in is "pencil and paper" or "tabletop" RPGs. I have never LARPed, although I don't stand in judgement over those who do (I just think some of them should shower occasionally; and while we're on it, if you can manage to stay in character for the whole time you'll start to gain the same credibility as historical reenacters), and while I've tried playing electronic RPGs and MMORPGs, I enjoy the interaction and meta-gaming that you get with a group of witty and like-minded individuals, all inhabiting the same imaginary construct.

A lot of non-gamers - at least the ones who don't try to call my sexuality at the first mention of RPGs (hey, I'm not the one taking showers with the team here) or try to explain to me why my recreational activity choice is an abomination against God - ask me what's involved and what I get out of it. Some can't understand why I like playing "kids' games". When I quiz them, their own experience of games is usually limited to Monopoly, Pictionary, Cluedo or something along those lines. That's like asking what's the big deal with making Wimbledon considering you've played some handball in your lunch hour and it doesn't seem that challenging.

I think a lot of people don't "get" gaming (whether it be tabletop gaming, LARPing, online gaming or wargaming) because it is so far outside of their own experience that they can't imagine it being a pursuit for normal people. And it's true, some gamers are a little socially inept. So are some coin-collectors or professional sportspeople or accountants. Most, however, are regular folks who work straight jobs and have families and live in houses instead of tipis or geodesic domes. I've been in games with students, book editors, engineers, computer programmers, scientists, warehouse managers, pilots, project managers, writers and cooks.

I can't speak for the whole hobby, but I think that the point of commonality between myself and the other gamers I've sat at the table with is that, to a greater or lesser degree, we are all frustrated actors. Because role-playing games are all about taking on a role, i.e. a persona that may or may not exhibit similar traits to you, but isn't you, and acting out their actions in a described situation (usually one involving some kind of conflict, like chasing Nazis through 1930s Europe or piloting a tramp trader spaceship into an unknown solar system, or fighting a DRAGON in a DUNGEON. It's an escape from the mundane, and a chance to exercise your imagination. It's a pastime for the thoughtful (someone once quipped that "Fantasy Football is Dungeons & Dragons for people who, in High School, used to beat up the kids that played Dungeons & Dragons").

Playing a role-playing game gives you a chance to step outside of yourself. To react to a hypothetical situation in a way you yourself may not, and to explore the possible consequences. It gives you a chance to learn a little about yourself. And to kill orcs. I mean, what could be healthier than that?

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Haiku Status Update - 18 May 2010

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Feeling hard today;
An insensitive anvil
Under the hammer
-----

Friday, May 14, 2010

The Place-Holder

Hi. If you're reading this, I am dead. No, just kidding. If you're reading this, it means you can read, and it probably means you've got nothing better to do. Or maybe you're avoiding the housework. Like me. I was half-way through the washing up, and thought, "Hey, why don't I start another blog. Right now!"

The reason for this is I'm actually going to start withdrawing from my hereto reasonably active electronic life. In a couple of weeks I'll be shutting down my FaceBook profile (or at least minimising it - haven't quite decided yet, but I'm lening toward the cold turkey approach), and similarly in a couple of weeks Ning is going to dstart charging for service. I co-edit a fledgling discussion group called The Conversation on Ning, which began here as a weblog on Blogger. Now I'm going to be bringing it back home.

I have my reasons for this withdrawl, and later on I'll probably go into some of them. Now, while I'm abandoning the social part of the social web, I don't want to abanndon the good folk I've met over the years. This blog will be for them. If anyone is truly interested in what I've got to say, they can come here, leave me comments, check out the other blogs, and generally have a good time with as much or as litttle of online me as they like.

As I said, I'm going to reintroduce The Conversation as a blog. I'm also going to try to revive another blog project, Moby and Me. Moby and Me was a twice failed project involving me reading Moby Dick and recording my thoughts about what I read on a chapter-by-chapter basis. It was doomed to fail (twice) because I don't think I approached it with the right level of irreverance. I was an English major of the "close reading"tradition, and Moby Dick is a book that begs the reader to have fun with it (besides, I'm not an academic - if I'm not getting paid for it, why should I be thinking so hard?). Third time's a charm, right?

So this is a palce-holder and declaration of intent. The good folks at Google are willing to let me do this for free, for which I'm very grateful. Keep an eye out for more content on all three blogs, and in the mean time, take care, pat a dog or cat or rabbit or something, email someone you haven't said "Hi" to in a while, and generally try conecting with someone in a more meaningful way then "poking" or giving their status-update a thumbs up.

Now, back to the dirty dishes.