Having several polyamourous friends, some of whom have posted about it, I thought people might find this interesting:

Strange Ramblings on Polyamory Vaugely Inspired By A Distant Post

“Polyamory doesn’t work,” said my friend. “I’ve just seen too many of those relationships crash and burn. You just can’t make it work.”

The problem with that is, of course, the goal of polyamory. What is it? It’s pretty clear for the other side, but poly’s a little more mutable.

See, as a non-poly guy in a monogamous relationship, I have the luck of not having every sexual interaction I have be the trial for my entire relationship style. When I had, oh, fifty failed relationships before I finally latched onto my lovely wife, I didn’t have to hear about how each of those fifty crash-and-burns were proof that monogamy’s innately substandard.

Okay, so some of the people I know from Plymouth Uni (via the Exalted game I play in) want to go and see Iron Man at some point.

I'm informed from someone elses posts that it's showing throughout the eveing with 9.30 last showing.

This is a place to discuss the going to it, as people can be pointed at this post.

Assuming they promise not to eat the students, other Plymouth-ites are more than welcome to come along.

Anyone without an LJ account, probably best to sign your posts.

For some reason this quote is stuck in my head:

"Time has (almost) caught up with us, old friend"

"Has it?" [grin]

Not sure of the exact words, but it's something along those lines.

But I can't for the life of me remember where it's from. Can anyone else do so? My brain says maybe Dr Who, but I can't place where. And my internet searches have garned me little.

Identified it, it's the conversation between friendly immortals on the bridge in Highlander:

KASTAGIR: The Gathering is here. Time has almost caught us, my friend.

MACLEOD: (grinning) Has it? Do you think we should go on?

KASTAGIR: I think we should have a party.

Firstly, I need a birthday present for my brother.

He something of a geek, but not that much of a gamer. However, he rather liked the Ninja Burger game I got him for christmas (for anyone interested, it's a good game, with some intricacy, but not too hard to get into). And he's asked me for somethine else of that general nature for his birthday.

So can anyone suggest anything? Not anything too fantastically complicated, nor taking too long to run, but something fun. Stuff with slight geeky references is fine, but stuff like Munchkin, which makes extensive references to gaming culture, probably is less appropriate.

Secondly, I need an interesting character concept.

I'll shortly be playing in a nWoD game set in Plymouth in 2015, with all the players being mortals. Currently I'm lacking inspiration as to what to play. We've got a 'combat accountant' in the group, so the concepts can be slightly out there, but should be fairly reasonable.

Also, interesting if rather worrying 100 minute film on how many of our civil liberties have been eroded in the last 10 years

Am in Durham till Saturday, internettery is likely to be intermittent, though more through busy-ness than lack of opportunity.

When's everyone meeting up on Friday? My mobile number is here

Also:

The music isn't the best in that version, but you get the jokes.

It makes me feel guilty to say this, but the reason why I'm going to be finishing off my Graphic Design course is because it's more convienient to do so than not.

Over the last week or so, I've been seriously considering just going "Fuck it, I've had enough of the course, my drive for getting stuff done on it is negligible, I'm not enjoying it, I'm not going to produce a good final project at the end of it, my final degree classification or lack thereof isn't important to me, and I want to move somewhere where I can build up some kind of social life" All good reasons to call it a day.

(For any who aren't aware of why I'm having issues with the course, it's something of an 'everything all at once' issue – I've lost the second of my parents last year, had a fair bit of distraction from sorting out solicitor/selling the family home stuff, moved to living alone in a new city where I know few people after having spent half a decade living in with the same group of close friends, hit the third year of my course (meaning it's pretty tough) and my sixth consecutive year in university (which, despite people occasionally asking me if I'm going to do another course and be an eternal student has left me feeling "I've had enough of university"))

And part of me would dearly like to leave it – get some seperation from the course, be doing something else, whatever, and just not be being hasseled over something I no longer care about.

But this is one of those situations where cold, hard practicality beats the emotional 'get out' response. Because at the moment I have accommodation sorted out, and said accommodation is based around me being a student, and is in Plymouth. And at the moment I've got financial support based on me being a student. There'd be issues with both if I wanted to quit the course and get a job, be it in Plymouth, Exeter or London.

Plus, getting a job would be difficult – in London I lack accommodation until a few months time, and in Exeter or Plymouth, there'd be the issue that any job would be very short term. Sure I could look to stay in either for the longer term, but I've already sorted out London accommodation, and it's looking increasingly likely that a fair proportion of the people in Exeter that make Exeter/Devon a place I like to be will be moving away from it.

Thus, regardless of whether I get much work done or whether its any good, it makes more sense for me to stay on the course. I know I suck for complaining about the fact that I'm having to stay on a course because I'm getting money while I'm on it, and that I'm rather defeating the reasons why that financial support is there, but there is a feeling of being somewhat trapped by 'what makes good sense', as opposed to what I want to do. Plus I think I'm also feeling guilty about staying in university on 'false pretenses' – being on the course while not caring about it and not caring about the work.

The fact that I've been feeling various types of crappy since Maelstrom probably hasn't helped either. Better than I was, but still somewhat achey, and still rather lacking in appetite.

Sorry for inflicting my mewling on you, everyone, but sometimes you just need to vent, and that's what LJ is for.

Meme courtesy thessalian

Rules (adjusted, for flavour):

1. Reply to this post, and I will pick four of your icons some of your icons; probably around four, but if you've got loads of interesting ones I want to know about, I'll pick more. If your icons suck I might pick less, but I are curious blogger, thus I can probably manage four icons on almost anyone.

2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
Three and a bit. If anyone reading this meme wants to know about any of my other icons, then ask, and I shall talk about them.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee.

Bugger that, bugger him, bugger you.

Having recently gone 'fuckit, 100 userpics costs about the same as a couple of pints' a lot of the icons I've added are ones I've grabbed because they evoke moods, or can summarise a post. This straddles those two – it's a quick statement on my thoughts on a given idea, with a side order of some implied criticism of the idea generator (as opposed to "...or not", which gives the disagreement without the 'also, you suck' element).

It's one of several Icons I've got that I'm somewhat careful with using, because there is much potential for internetzDRAMA if I use 'em in the wrong place – while it's not quite as blunt as "It's not my fault you SUCK", there is the potential for people to take personal offence at it.

But then, as people frequently point out to me, I am quite a blunt person, and sometimes I do want to tell someone that they suck, or tell them that the suggested idea is so bad that I imply some criticism for even suggesting it. So, a useful weapon, but one to be used carefully.

As regards finding the icon, it's one of a bunch I've grabbed from various iconmakers, after having upgraded to 100+ icons, while I was looking for things that evoked moods or fitted situations.

Can I roll my cheesemaking skill now?

There's several sides to this icon. Firstly, it's a bunch of simple typographical icons I made when coming back and forth on the train from Plymouth, as I had a laptop with me, and Corel Photopaint on the Laptop, and a hour of time to fill. Regarding icon crafting, I tend to use Corel on my Laptop, but more often CS2 ImageReady (essentially photoshop for webstuff) on my Mac. Corel's quite good for typographical stuff, but ImageReady is the king for animated gifs.

Secondly, it's a generic silly gaming related icon, it talks about rolling silly skills, and the asking of whether you've done enough to qualify for a roll that might actually achieve something useful. I don't actually have any other generic 'this post/comment relates to gaming' icons – I've a few World of Warcraft ones, and some that are inspired by games like my Ananasi "I'm hungry", but those are not instantly recogniseable references, whereas making a skill roll is.

Thirdly, it references a particular game – the Cthulhutech game it was made on the way back from. Essentially, the GM had cut down the number of skills in the system, as there where lots of crossovers (for example, there was both 'culture' and 'ettiquette' as regards understanding social rules), and some of the changes caused some controversy/disagreement from the players on whether or not a given skill should have been retained. The lack of a need for a cheesemaking skill was raised as a "You don't need a skill for everything" point. Later, in the actual game, one of the players was making a cheese toastie for another player, while spiking it with prozac to calm the other guy down, and thus it was an issue how well he made the toastie, and how well he disguised the broken up pill within it.

Clearly a time for a cheesemaking skill roll.

Todays weather is partly FURIOUS with occasional FITS OF RAGE

A quote from Chuck Palahniuk, though I have to admit that until I just now stuck it into google, I only knew it was "probably a quote from someone". It's a fairly simple "This icon evokes/summarises the mood of the post it goes with" – it's something for saying I'm angry about whatever the issue is, without the specificness of saying that someone sucks or suchlike.

Echidna

Heh. Freeeaaaky Echidna thing. This is one of a whole bunch of icons I had on my laptop, and when I finally got around to getting it fixed (after it spending a good couple of years as a large paperweight), I'd also just increase my icon allowance. One of the things the laptop had on it (along with a lot of music I was glad to recover, having foolishly deleted it from my desktop due to space issues), was a whole bunch of icons I'd made or grabbed for the purpose of continually changing my userpic on the University forums I was posting a large amount on at the time.

One slight size adjustment, and it went on my userpic list. Quite a few of the ones that went on with it (much of the bunny icons, and most or all of the Madness Combat ones) will likely be replaced as and when I find new and interesting icons, but I think the Echidna will say, because it's random, freaky, and non-specific, which is sometimes exactly what a post needs.

Well the flu turned into a bit of a throat infection, which itself has turned into a bloody annoying backache (don't ask me how). Hopefully that'll just pass (rather than morphing) with a night of hot water bottle against it. Hands are still somewhat blackened, I'm assuming this is vaugely equivalent to a burn or a scald, and it'll go when the skin renews.

Off to Exeter tommorrow, which'll be nice – it was great to see people at Maelstrom, but since then I've largely been in my room in Plymouth feeling crappy in various ways, and not seeing people except via internets. Then again, I think that's one of the issues I'm having here in general – I see various people at specific times, but I'm still too used to being in a house of people you could bother at any reasonable (and many unreasonable) hours.

Another bright side is that I've 4 bits of mail to put in the post tommorrow, and while that's a chore, it's a good one because once they're sent off, a whole bunch of things that were hanging over me are all sorted out.

Now, for hot chocolate, hot water bottle, and bed with many alarms to wake me.

Non-Maelstrom LARPers, the below probably will interest you little. Hell, even most of the Maelstrom people won't find this relevant.

nanayena and friends are planning to bring a 4-6 strong 'proper' Tritoni group to Maelstrom next game – playing them as tribal hunters and so forth. I've asked about linking up with people on Rule7, but mostly the reaction was 'just get them to PM us' or other stuff that's harder to co-ordinate. Being a lazy bastard, I'm instead going to make this post, suggest people conduct inital discussions in the comment sections for it, and then take further discussions wherever.

It should be noted that this is a public post, and that I myself am *not* part of this Tritoni group, thus any deep dark secrets shouldn't really be discussed here. I'll be PMing/otherwise contacting all the appropriate people with links to this post, and hopefully this will work.

Me and my hands

A chat with an A&E nurse returned the opinion that I was most likely okay, and it was likely just minor and temporary effects of the cold. Was given the option to stay and see a doctor (with the slight guilt trip/warning about how long the next person in line had been waiting, but decided that the Nurse most likely knew what she was talking about, and went home. A bit of self diagnosis suggests I've probably got some kind of flu or somesuch as well, which explains the "My brain needs defragmenting" feel on the last day of 'strom, which has only partly been cured by 14 hours of sleep.

Still somewhat cold, annoyed to discover that the room heater I've had no need of until now appears not to work. Have resorted to wearing normal clothes + dressing gown + trenchcoat + robe, and new bandanna around the colder of my hands (slowing typing somewhat). Amused to discover that the reason I thought I had bad circulation (getting cold hands and feet easily) is actually a sign of good circulation, as my body is protecting my core. Not sure how my semi-frequent head-rushes figure into that though.

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Maelstrom was good, though not great for me. I got lots of little things done, but relatively less big things.

Good things:

• New Eidolon rules


• Clarification of some religion stuff


• Creating my usual huddle of ref's debating some difficult question I've proposed for an extended period


• Finally finding a tricorn that fits me


• New gloves and bandanna!


• One native utterly correctly RPing their relationship with their eidolons by loading up on dutch courage before going to talk to the eidolons


• Tontom getting the next event


• Beating down an insufficiently respectful mortal.


• Having several people fail to recognise me in various guises


• Making more friends & contacts


• Joining in the killing of someone I actually recognised


• Bloodstained notes


• Debating which mutilation effect would be appropriate if a certain character fucks up again


• Another busy event

Bad things:

• The cold. Initially only vaguely annoying, but shut my brain down on the last day


• Wanting some OC socialising on one of the evenings, failing to find it and instead ending up time-ish for anouther hour or so.


• The ref discussion I caused leading to me missing one of the scraps I'd really loved to have join


• Other peoples OC relationship issues being annoying


• The busy-ness and the feeling that I can't really stop, slow down or relax – I walked away from watching both the sumo and the fireworks due to the fact that my character would have little interest in such.

In other news, I'm now very interested in tracking down some larp safe claws, preferably somewhat impressive, preferably not hideoously highly priced. Anyone got any suggestions?

Time now for bed. Should've hunted down some forms today, but was feeling craaaaap, so I'll dp that tommorrow/

Back from Maelstrom. Alive. Good game, but not really a great game for me.

Rather less achey and 'my mind is shutting down' than yesterday after long sleep and a shower. However, my hands are looking a bit off colour at the moment, and feeling a bit weird, so after talking to the NHS direct nurse I'm off to the hospital.

Will post fuller review of all the above when I get back.

"MethodIzaz is a unique photography experience. Subjects are unaware of the exact moment they will be photographed and of the photographer's identity. Instead, the subject is photographed completely naturally, living life as normal. "

Essentially you tell them your routine, they take a picture of you when you don't know that they're going to do so, so it's natural and unposed. Alas, New York only.

Killing Time, is back. Far snappier and more interesting show this time, about a website that tells you crazy cocktails you can put together using whatever you have in the house.

Thirty odd free tracks of somewhat whimsical music from someone called Tom Wilby. Found via Warren Ellis' 4am.

Particularly ones with at least some link to the geek subculture.

Author Arthur C. Clarke dies

I can't say I've read much of his stuff, but I've read some, and much of what I've enjoyed reading is built on what he wrote.

Plus he wrote "Sufficiently advanced technology is industinguishable from magic", a statement which is becoming increasingly true.

I would post the full text of the "I'm not going to post on Friday", but I wouldn't be posting on Friday anyway, as I'll be running around a field giving people religious experiences.

I do however think it's making a reasonable point, so I'll instead link to the post you can copypasta and has links to why it's being done.

Voiceless phonecalls - a collar thing that picks up the neural messages from your brain to your throat, allowing you to 'talk' without ever moving your muscles. It works on speech recognition, i.e. "that looks like he's trying to say 'buttsex' so we'll have our speech synthesiser say that", so it's reliant on the software's ability to interpret. At the moment, the software is apparently about as good as speech recognition was a few years ago, i.e. not very. But given time this could be very cool. Another interesting, if slightly creepy, use for it is when you ponder about something and say something to yourself without actually opening your mouth or whatever, it could do a google search on that, giving you the information you were after. Interesting in that it's a somwhat transhumanist situation of instant knowledge the moment you wonder about something, but creepy as there's the question of what level of sub-vocalisation this thing will pick up. Via Warren Ellis

Phone/wristwatch/PDA/min-ilaptop/fashion accessory – again it's something we won't be seeing particularly immediately, but it may not be that far away. Via oakthorne

I so need a pair of these – glasses that you identify your stuff to, then they keep track of it using a digital camera that records as you go about your daily life. if you've shown it a particular book and mislaid the book, it can show you an image of the last time that book was recorded by it. Via freddiefraggles

Multi-touch is getting closer Via Digg.

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( Life, death and dice – discussion of death in RPGs, cut for the uninterested )

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Pimp some good music at me!

I've got an eMusic account, as I wanted to use their '50 free tracks when you join' thing to get the entire discography of a band I rather like, and I've stuck with them as it's not too expensive, lets me slowly expand my music library (having been feeling I knew it all too well previous to this), and means I'm actually supporting the music of the bands that need it more - the smaller/indie acts.

And tommorrow my downloads for the month are refreshed, giving me 30 songs to download. If there's some artist/song you think I should hear, see if they have it (they've got a lot of indie stuff, but less of the mainstream), and tell me what it is any why I should listen to it. I may or may not get it this month, as I'm currently already tempted by some stuff from VAST and Wet Spots, but if I like it then I'll add it to my list of stuff to get in the coming months.

No new ad-free accounts without paying for them

They seem to be claiming that three options were to complicated for users

Ugh. Suddenly exporting myself onto wordpress and using either something to doublepost or syndicating the RSS feed is lot more tempting.

Green card lottery – a random ad link I accidently clicked on on another page. This just seems strange to me – there are a lot of people with a need to get to a new country, a lot of people with skills who want to get there, and a lot of people whose life would be greatly improved by, and who would improve the country. Yet, they're letting in a bunch of people based on dumb luck. Why?

Fallout (the computer game) pictures – they look pretty damn cool. Reasonably big pictures, so may take a moment to load. Beautiful in the way that only post apocalyptic scenes of destruction can be

Sam and Max TV series DVD and Comic. Wow, that's pretty cool. Also some other nifty stuff on that site, but those two are the main things. Via karohemd

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White Wolf want you to graduate your game, i.e. give up D&D for exalted. Now, I thought this was amusing, and a fun idea – they're giving out graduation certificates, posters and suchlike. Sure some people will get annoyed by this, but hey. And I think Exalted is better than D&D, and will be better than D&D 4th ed when that arrives. And I think giving away a core book for free is a great way to get more people interested in that game, and gaming in general.

Then I read the requirement – you have to give them a copy of D&D 3.5 to get your Exalted 2nd Ed. Now I think that's a really bad idea. Sure, they'll still get interest, sure it ties in with the other gimmick, sure there are probably some people with a D&D 3.5 book they read then realised they thought it sucked, but didn't want to splash out on a new book. But it's no longer a 'free' book, you're having to give stuff up for it. And also, while there are some people willing to give up their 3.5 because they're going to get 4th ed, I'm guessing there are also a lot of people holding onto their 3.5 books, just in case it turns out that 4th ed sucks. I know that had there been a similar promotion for old World of Darkness core books when the new world of darkness was approaching, I wouldn't have gone for it, even if the book I'd get in return looked really good; I'd want to hold onto the old books in case the new game sucked (as it did), and either way so I can play the old game – I'm a confirmed Exalted fan, and I'm likely to get a copy of 4th Ed D&D.

Two quick caveats – from the cyncial PoV, you can use this to take advantage of the fact that even a new copy of 3.5 costs less than Exalted 2nd, therefore it's a way to save money. Which isn't neccessarily a bad idea, but the thing still tastes sour to me, especially since they'll likely be throwing those 2,500 copies of D&D away. Oh, and it's America and Canada to any UK types wanting to take advantage of it.

Which brings me to a question – how many people are system monogamous? I used to be, or only very occasionally straying, to the World of Darkness, but I'm currently playing in 3 different systems, and am prepared to play in most, providing the system is at least reasonable. But are there still great bastions of "We play only one game?"

Anyway, back to the links.

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Bionic eye anyone? (2nd link has more info on it). Via Digg.

Not so free education – more issues with faith schools.

You want me to swear allegiance? I might be willing to do so, I'm not sure off the top of my head. You want to get children to swear allegiance? Fuck that. It should be the act of a consenting adult, not the rote repetition of a child told to do something.