From The Morgue

Both sides in the war of information are always looking for the right key phrases to summarise their truths. If you’re aware of these tricks, you’ll likely notice the more clumsy examples of loaded terminology – the opening sentence I used, for example, is positively overloaded with subtextual premises.
A good soundbite is a key tool for spreading information. This is the world we live in, like it or not. So it pleased me when I stumbled across a nice one from the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray (who has of course been in the news of late for his criticisms of the UK’s relationship with the Uzbek regime) that expresses beautifully an analysis I agree with:
“Explain American policy in terms of freedom and democracy and you get a contradiction. Explain it in terms of oil and gas and it’s completely consistent.”
Add this one to your repertoire, people. For extra credit, learn all the arguments in support of it. (And for extra extra credit, learn the arguments *against* it…)
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I’m a complete mess at the moment. Took the day off today with an incredibly nasty headache, that now seems on the wane thankfully cross fingers touch wood. It’s been building for the last few days, and I haven’t really achieved much of anything since the weekend. Incapable of stringing creative thoughts together to write, for one thing. Dammit. I hope I’m recovered tomorrow. I better be, or there’ll be heck to pay!

Quickie because I am at work.
Alive and well and back in Blighty.
Have done important work of catching up on missed Doctor Who episodes. Note the none-too-subtle political subtext and decide that the Progressive movement isn’t a set of political values so much as a theory of power relations (Chomsky: “states are not moral agents”).
If you haven’t been receiving my emails about my travel experience, they can be found here.
Will return to regular blogging after I have finished writing this damn novel.

Here I am in Syria.
Nothing evil so far.
Hmm.

I should mention that I have articles in Signs & Portents issues 21 and 22.
Issue 21 has ‘Derailed’, an adventure for ‘Breakdown Control’ which was the campaign toolkit published in issue 15. It’s something I’m really quite proud of, and I’m still surprised they published it. There’s a subtext of real unpleasantness there. And it’s entirely unlike any other adventure I’ve ever seen in terms of what it has the characters do. Check it out!
Issue 22 has ‘Time Space Voyager’, basically Doctor Who the RPG but with the serial numbers filed off. Again, I’m proud of this one; I think it’s a solid and innovative piece of game design that solves one of the trickiest puzzles in the D20 system. Yay me.
Buy stuff by me.
exeunt, pursued by a bear

Just back from seeing Siobhann at the Ephelant House. Nice one, son! Happy chatter was had. I’m on a plane in a couple days! Eek! Exciting. Mum and Dad called to say hello as well, which was nice. And I got loads of writing done. I’m writing Ron longhand in these red notebook thingies, and I just came to the last page of book number 4. That’s page 720 or thereabouts. My rough estimate is 200 words a page. It’s getting exciting! And I need to walk away from it for a month to go travelling! Argh!
I have come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to vote in the UK election, despite being entitled to. I left it simply too late, and I’ll be off in the middle of nowhere until after polling day. Oh well. I don’t know who I’d vote for anyway. My hate of Tony Blair know no limit, but I’m still not quite sold on the Lib Dems. Hmm.
There is a Dalek on my desk at work that talks. It says things like ‘you will obey’. My boss gave it to me. ‘Exterminate the Doctor!”
Shout outs to: Muggle!
And to Karen and Nige for finally announcing the birth of their new dude!
And that’s all.

Right. Thursday I get on the plane to Egypt and the Middle East. Anyone interested in following my adventures on the road has two options:
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(2) Read the emails as they appear at the Topica site, here. This link is handily repeated in the sidebar under ‘Travel Stuff’.
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Find it for me, my winged minions.

“You travel to New Zealand with your uncle Charlie in search of the Lost Tribe of Fiordland.”

I have travel insurance.
I have physical plane tickets in my hands already.
I have sunglasses.
I even have a sore arm from the vaccinations.
I’m going to Egypt, and then Jordan, and this is the most pre-planned I have ever been for any trip ever! Fly out on the 14th. Cool.

I turn 29 at midday Saturday April 2, New Zealand time.
Last year I asked everyone to put a favourite quote in the comments, any kind of quote. A bunch of people did and it was really quite staggeringly nice. Go and look.
So, I’m asking for the same thing this year. Your birthday gift to me: a cool quote in the comments to this post. It can be from a song, or a philosopher, or a set of VCR instructions. I don’t care. Just anything that you want to put there.
This will, again, make me a happy moose.
Happy birthday, me!

It is no secret that role-playing games are an important part of my life.
There have been three big influences on my RPG life that’ve come from this part of the world.
First, GM magazine, the late-80s-early-90s independent magazine about roleplaying games. It came out of the UK and introduced me to a whole bunch of things I’d never contemplated before. The three Aliens weekends (for which I’m mildly infamous in Welly RPG circles) are directly descended from articles about freeforms and live action roleplaying that appeared in GM (and its descendent GM International).
Second, Critical Miss, the online webzine for dysfunctional roleplayers. I liked this because it was just cool, and because it was so rooted in the reality of a lot of gaming – messy, flawed, sometimes deeply frustrating. (In a sense it’s the exact opposite of the improve-your-gaming-experience Forge.)
Third, the Irish gamer crowd, specifically as represented by GameEire.com. This site and the community it represented were a key component in making me, for a time, chief agitator for a Wellington RPG community. I like to think I was one of the factors that got things moving, but the amazing stuff happening there now is all the work of a very fine bunch of people who aren’t me.
Well, I’ve had the fortune over the last year to meet key figures in all of the above. A bunch of names I recognise from GameEire – Brian and Gar to take two prominent examples – have become friends. At Gaelcon last year I met Wayne of GM and had a lovely conversation. And at Conpulsion this weekend past I met Jonny Nexus and Bubba, of Critical Miss.
Bloody marvellous.
(An honourable mention should go to the Interactive Fantasy journal, proprietor Andrew Rilstone. I’ve had too little contact with it for it to rate up there with the above three in the influence stakes, but it was pretty cool.)
(Anyway, I’ve traded pithy humour with Mr Rilstone on RPG.net so I’ve sort of ticked him off anyway.)