Blip! Here we are ...
It's quiet, cool, and still outside but already quite sunny. John came over last night and we ate a pleasant knock up dinner outside, watched some old anime, and saw the new year in. This morning I wasn't wishing to be up his early but there you go. Off to Rob's parent's place today as there will be gaming. Hi Ho!

Games Day Aftermath
Yesterday was a Rob & Leece Games day over at Rob's parents place. At peak we had around 11 people. I playes 3 games of "Mag-Blast", a game of "Age of Mythology", a game of "Vinci", and a game of "6 Nimmt" ( or mad cow as I prefer to call it ).

I won the 5 player "Mag-Blast" and came second on one of the 4 player games. Not too bad. I think a good day was had by all.

Today I'm off down to Fremantle to see one of my old wargaming buddies, Bruce, who is having a fight with cancer. The jury is still out on the lomg term result of this one.

Burswood Cinema
We accompanied Sally to watch Howl's Moving Castle last night. The english translation wasn't bad but it would have helped if the translator had read the book so he knew what not to fool with. We got sprinkled on lightly but then the stars came out and the night was very clear. The film was, of course, excellent but there wasn't a huge turnout.

Let the bloodbath begin
I started a game of freeciv last night with Rob, Leece, Gary, Richard, and Mark. I can tell I'm lagging behind from the Demographics report *sigh*. There is never enough of anything you need, every start position is bad, and your neighbours are unfreindly, untrustworthy, or both. 8-)

Or the friendly ones are too far away to trade with.

Not so much a bang
Well, Gary is friendly enough ... just that he is bigger than I am at almost everything. 8-) Rob is also friendly ... for limited values of friendly. Rob wants you to pay for everything ... at a premium rate. *I* say it is a result of too many settlers tournaments.

Still, with no time limit on turns, the game isn't too far along yet. I just need to promote my research rate from second to first. Hah! I also need to get that wonder and that other wonder. 8-(

The Martians are gougers. :-) Still, friendly enough.

Edited by author 07-01-2006 07:19
The world is cylindrical
Or at least it is in freeciv. Gaming last night was cut short as nearly everyone wanted to go home and play freeciv. Before the diaspora we had a six player game of Mag-Blast in which I not only won but took 4 of the 5 kills to be had *preen*. The second game was more a bit shorter ... as I commented "He who lives by the quick kill dies by the quick kill".

My Sioux nation is still plodding along. Still second player in three of the demographics measure. Mordor is first in each by a big measure. 8-( I managed to snaffle Leonardo's Workshop which is one of the wonders that I wanted but I look unlikely to get the other. Especially since my production of caravans was badly hit by an ill-advised move to Republic.

I have now met all the other players and my ironclads are slowly starting to clear away the fog of war. I suspect it wont be long before things start to turn ugly. I'm really too close to Mordor. I have to hope someone else annoys or attacks him. Mark's Swedish seem a good bet for that. 8-)

Edited by author 08-01-2006 07:49
Summer is icumin in
Hot yesterday. Very hot considering how cool it hs been so far this season. And the ants have turned up on the kitchen benches. All round bad day.

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I got a call from a mate, Joe Blake, on Friday. He has got himself an electric hub-motor for his Greenspeed. I forgot to ask whether it was on the trike or bike. Joe says it cuts 25 minutes off his commute up the Darling Scarp which is not inconsiderable. He has also been getting into solar power at home and can run a basic set of services purely from solar power. He is still 10 years ahead of where I would like to be. Although I think tackling greywater recycling is a higher priority than power services.

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It is 980AD in the freeciv game. Not much happened yesterday due to various people having incompatible family commitments. The Sioux have mostly overcome their happiness problems but production is unusually low for some reason. Still I am second in Population, Settled Area, Production, and Economics. Trouble is, Mordor is ahead of my by a large measure in all those categories. I offered an exchange of shared vision to a number of people yesterday and it was amazing the degree of paranoia it generated. 8-)

And now it isn't
Back to cool again for Sunday. In fact so cool that there wasn't any point doing washing as there were doubts that it would dry. Pottered around in and out of the house. Maureen spotted a flower on the Elephants Ear Philodendron hiding behind one of the leaves.

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1240AD in freeciv. Mordor still dominates the demographics charts. Sweden is a technology whore. The Sioux have stalled. We are currently second in Economics and third in everything else except Literacy (5th) and Pollution (equal first with everyone else). We've had a big drive to increase production but frankly it isn't going anywhere. Too few workers early on and now I've run into a resource crunch. Sunday was also the day where people kept wanting me to give them my top technologies for stuff that isn't on my direct research path. Some people were verging on pestering which made me out of sorts with the other traders that maybe weren't so pushy.

As far as solar power goes, have you had a look at these guys: http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au ? They are heading into mass production this month, and about $10K will get you enough to drive your average house at an energy profit. And you get back about $6k in environmental rebates.

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In the freeciv game, meantime, I think everyone is justly scared of the evil Mordor! It will take a grand alliance to take them down - and I suspect that that will not occur until they start building something that really scares people - like the Apollo Program.
And Mars? Issac's Kingdom? We're just trying to make sure that we're just tough enough all round to not be the first target of opportunity when the shooting starts! Although it is kind of surprising that we have managed to be first in Literacy. And last or second last in almost everything else!

Still not summer
1370AD in the freeciv game. Mordor still dominates the Demographics rankings although the Martians have taken Literacy at 96% and the Canadians have Military Service (which is a minimizer). The Sioux now have 5 thirds, a second ( for Research Speed ) and a 6th for Literacy. Being scared of Mordor is good it helps players to forget about me concentrate on co-operative play against a common threat. But people won't attack until they feel they have a decisive advantage. Which they probably won't ever have.
The Sioux are still having their production problems but we have put a few more workers into the field, got a couple of factories online, and tweaked my custom CMA set to better ballance resource sharing between neighbouring citys.
There are some suprisingly small empires out there ... in particular both the Martians and the Dunedain have incompletely settled the islands they occupy. I consider my own city count to be marginal based on my experiences with "hard" computer players. More settlers guys ... before somone raises a Terra Nullus decree.

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Thanks for the link Rob ...I'll look into it. One of the recent Linux Journal mags had an article on a lunch box sized, ARM based, beowulf cluster at 2W per node ... 8-) mush more suitable for solar power that the power guzzlers I use now.

I think it's too late for more settlers, perhaps when I've stopped doing what I've doing. Oh. And there's that to do. And that. And that...

That was never Summer just then
M1n 18°C Max 21°C 14mm rain. It overcasted and drizzled all day. And some say this is Summer.

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In other news it is 1525AD in the freeciv game. The Sioux still have 5 third positions, two seconds and two fifths. I'm not last in literacy any more ... yay!

I can feel the knife approaching
The Sioux are being ganged up on. Pity really ... oh well, to much winning at Mag-Blast I suppose and now they have to get it out of their systems 8-).

Was that Summer?
Leaden skies, drizzle, warm temperatures ... only one of these things is a clue to the fact we are in the middle of summer. What I worry about is that dieback spreads fastest in these conditions. 8-(

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JAFWA had its first meeting for he year last night. Because they thought a lot of people might not be available they had an evening of first episodes of current Japanese shows. Most of the shows were write-offs from our point of view but a couple seemed to have promise. Noein is a tale involving some schoolkids and a cross dimensional strike force. Nice grapics, reasonable characters, and an interesting story line. Then there was Solty Rei. I must admit that I was suspicious of the title but I have been pleasantly suprised. The setting is a high-tech, post calamity, world and the main characters are a embittered bounty hunter and a young girl with super powers and no memory. I can't say these shows rock but they work competently and I think both are worth checking out.

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In the freeciv game it is 1605AD and the world has polarized into the friends of Sauron and the rest. In the dempgraphics chart the Sioux still have 2 firsts in Research Speed and Economics, 1 second in land area, 4 thirds in population, settled area, production, an military service, and 2 fourths in literacy and pollution. Mordor is still the dominant player and I suspect Sweden is second, Sioux are probably third and then it is a toss-up between Canada and the Martians with the Dunedain trailing along.