Unserious post is unserious
There’s too much Serious Business on my front page! Something must be done.
You should buy Machinarium; it is an awesome indie point-and-click adventure game about robots. It has really pretty art, and versions for Windows, Mac and Linux. (It’s written in flash, and the standalone flash player for Linux is really grotty, but everything worked for me after I followed some helpful instructions on the forum. Run the executable with G_SLICE=always-malloc … to prevent random segfaults, and turn off full screen mode straight away or mouse control will go wonky.) You can play a demo at the site to see if you like it. The full version is a 350MB download. It’s only $20 for at least a day’s worth of playing (if you’re the kind of person who will stay up until 4AM obsessively trying to finish it), and comes with absolutely no DRM — which I think is worth supporting.
A thought experiment
Suppose that you host a party at which you serve soup. The soup consists almost entirely of vegetables, but you add a small amount of chicken stock. During the party, a few of your guests complain that they are vegetarians, and thus find your soup unpalatable.
Assuming that you don’t have some kind of personal vendetta against vegetarians, which of these do you consider to be the more reasonable response?
A. Apologise; offer some kind of assurance that you will remember that some of your friends are vegetarians the next time you make soup.
B. Complain bitterly that the vegetarians are hurting your feelings by making you out to be some kind of horrible anti-vegetarian bigot, when you clearly didn’t intend to offend them, and when everyone knows that you have absolutely nothing against vegetarians and treat everyone equally whether they are an omnivore, herbivore or insectivore. Complain that you couldn’t possibly have been expected to remember the vegetarians, since there are so few of them. (Go off on a tangent in which you contemplate why so few vegetarians come to your parties; conclude that they must have some genetic reason to dislike you.) Complain that the vegetarians are being oversensitive — it’s just a little bit of chicken stock; it’s not like you slaughtered a cow on the table in front of them — and tell them that they should have just shut up and eaten the soup.
Show your working.
Addendum, with actual photos
After a lot of compiling, digikam is working again. Here are the photos from Conclave at Charybdis. And here are some Egyptian geese, if you like that sort of thing.
Better late than never
I’m about to upload my photos of our Dragonfire LARP, which happened only two months ago. This is still less laggy than Hodgestar’s birthday party. In order to upload the photos I am upgrading digikam, so that I can use a non-faily flickr upload plugin. In order to upgrade digikam I need to upgrade the rest of KDE from the kubuntu-backports PPA — this is currently chugging away in the background.
I have embarked on an epic sewing project — making myself and Hodgestar medieval Japanese outfits for Here Be Dragons, the annual SCA away weekend event which is about a month away. I’m making this (except with a maroon hakama because the shop had no red linen) and this kind of thing (except black, because that’s the colour of the hakama Hodgestar already has).
The nice thing about Japanese clothing is that it’s mostly a whole lot of rectangles. The only tricky part of the kimono-type garment is the collar. I think I’ve been having problems because my seams are tiny and all the instructions on the interwebs assume that you’re going to leave enormous seam allowances — so my collars are too wide and too high up on the body and need to be re-sewn. I need to test this theory out on the two very nearly finished kosode I’ve just made. The reason I’m writing a rambly blog post and not sewing right now is that V:TES players have taken over the lounge table.
After a very long wait, my kalahari.net book order arrived, and here is my loot:
- The Never Ending Sacrifice by Una McCormack — it’s a DS9 tie-in novel; don’t judge me. I first read Una McCormack’s fanfiction during one of my previous love affairs with Deep Space Nine, and her pro fiction is just as good. This is a stand-alone story about a minor canon character.
- Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Cardassia and Andor (purchased for the Cardassia half, also by Una McCormack; I’m leaving the other half for later) — also good, but (obviously) shorter.
- Kimono: Fashioning Culture by Lisa Dalby — a well-regarded reference book about the history of kimono.
- Seed to Harvest by Octavia E. Butler — a collected edition of the entire Patternist series, except for one instalment Butler really didn’t like. Haven’t read it yet.
- Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany — currently reading. It’s slow going, because of the unusual language, but I’m enjoying it.
- Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks — a fun, short zombie comic. Not much to the plot, but I really like Hicks’ art. (If she sounds familiar, it’s because she did Demonology 101.)
Recently discovered webcomics:
The upgrade has become unexpectedly exciting — I’ve hit some kind of packaging bug. I guess the photos will have to wait a bit longer. :/
How not to offend me
I am not offended by jokes about sex. I make them all the time. I can think of many women who I’m pretty sure would say the same.
There is a long-running debate about sexism within the FOSS community and the IT field in general (the most recent notable incidents are RMS’s emacs virgins joke and the infamous Ruby porn presentation, but similar issues have come up in the past).
To categorise this debate as a clash between prudish, delicate flowers who disapprove of sex and porn (and who are usually contrasted with hip, younger women who are more sex-positive), and “the guys”, who are used to talking freely about sex with other guys, is to completely miss the point.
I do not speak for all women. I’m sure that some women feel uncomfortable whenever sex is mentioned at all in a professional environment, and that some women don’t find sexist humour to be a big deal, or even personally find it funny. This is my individual take, in response to recent posts on CLUG Park.
For me, this has never been about porn or jokes about sex being inherently offensive to women. It’s about speech and behaviour which belittles or degrades women. This is often the case with jokes which some men make about sex — because, quite frankly, our society is fucked up when it comes to that particular subject. A lot of mainstream porn features rather ugly and insulting caricatures of submissive, slutty women and dominant, abusive men, and I personally would not like to have those stereotypes waved at me in the middle of a tech conference. I don’t care what gets anyone’s rocks off, but it disturbs me when people introduce their creepy porn into their normal interactions with people in a non-sexual context.
But it doesn’t have to be explicitly about sex. Jokes about women not knowing what they want, having to be cajoled into sex because they don’t really like it, being stupid, being ignorant of technology, liking pink stuff, liking chocolate, wanting their boyfriends to talk about their feelings, saying they want honesty and not really meaning it, being bad drivers, wanting chivalry and equality at the same time, being on the rag, always being attracted to jerks and never Nice Guys, wanting to trap their boyfriends into pregnancy or marriage, being welcomed in a male-dominated field or hobby because now the men can get dates, not liking comics or computers or sci-fi, not understanding things their boyfriends like, not existing (because there are no real women on the internet), being fashion-conscious, taking an hour to get ready, being gold-diggers, or just generally being mysterious and unfathomable creatures entirely unlike normal people (read: men) really piss me off.
This kind of commentary is harmful not because of the seriousness of any individual incident, but because of the cumulative effect. Some of those things may not seem like a big deal to you — they shouldn’t be, and they wouldn’t be if I only encountered those stereotypes rarely. The reason they’re in my list is that I encounter them all the time. It is impossible to read the comments on any major internet forum which is mostly frequented by men without wading hip-deep in this crap (which is why I very seldom read comments on sites like Reddit, Digg or Slashdot anymore). I used to reply to these comments. Then I stopped, because arguing with half the internet is frustrating and pointless.
(Yes, I feel the same way about stupid jokes about men being immature, having uncontrollable sexual urges, obsessing about Star Wars, obsessing about boobs, obsessing about sport, being unable to cook or do shopping or tie their own shoelaces, being hypochondriacs, not asking for directions, being unable to talk about their feelings, being promiscuous, fearing commitment, etc., etc..)
On the whole, I have observed the worst such behaviour on US-centric websites, and most of the complaints about sexism that I have encountered online were written by American women. In my limited and subjective experience I think the South Africans I know are considerably more progressive. I have found my local Linux community to be welcoming and friendly. I don’t think this is because anyone is making a special effort not to offend me.
Do you think that not being sexist means singling out women for special treatment? Sexist behaviour is what singles women out. Treating someone as your equal includes not continually telling jokes about the ways in which people like them are inferior.
ETA:
I am not going to provide a forum on this blog for blog-post-length comments from persons with whom I have no interest in entering into a dialogue, based on bitter past experience of attempting to do so. Those persons are most welcome to post their responses within their own internet spaces.
Road trip! LARPage!
I have put up selected photos from my road trip to Grahamstown and ICON with Hodgestar and drnlm.
Also, the LARP which I’m supposed to be writing right now has a playtest on Sat 1st and will run at Dragonfire on Sat 8th.
It’s a science fiction LARP set in the same universe as Appointment at Atropos. While Atropos is all about the epic inter-species politics, Charybdis is intended to be more gritty and low-level space opera: belt miners, traders and pirates other traders.
Roleplayers — let me know if you’re interested in playing in either upcoming run.
Goodbye, Cobweb
I knew her for more than a decade — Hodgestar got her a year before we met. She was a beautiful, clever and graceful cat, and we will both miss her.
To Boldly Go Where Someone Has Kind Of Gone Before
When I first heard about the new Star Trek movie, I was highly sceptical. I was concerned that after the lack of enthusiasm over Voyager and the horrible failure of Enterprise (itself a reboot attempt) most of the original franchise would be considered an unprofitable dead end. I feared that a “re-imagining” would throw most of it away, dilute the high-tech space opera elements until they were barely visible, and produce a mainstream-friendly near-future BSG-alike barely recognisable as Star Trek. But I didn’t have that much emotional investment in the original series (Picard and Sisko are my captains!), and the first reviews I heard were positive, so I was cautiously optimistic when I went to see the movie tonight.
It was wonderful — I loved every moment of it. Even the time travel managed not to be obnoxious. I don’t know what a non-Trekkie would make of it, but I don’t think fans of Star Trek will be disappointed. The remake stays close to the spirit of the original — it strips away the sixties cheese, and leaves behind the best parts. The special effects are updated, but the technology is the same. The characters are recognisably the same characters. The dialogue is good. There’s something interesting happening in every scene and there is no dead weight, but the movie does not feel rushed or badly cut. There are lots of cute little references for Trek fans to pick up on, but there’s no excessive reliance on familiarity with the canon. The main plot neatly sets the stage for a remake which can go in completely unexpected directions not limited by the original canon history: it’s the same universe, but a different timeline.
On the way back in the car Hodgestar and I discussed how a remake TV series could be sustained successfully, and do interesting new things in the Star Trek universe without straying too far away to remain Star Trek. I think the answer lies in revisiting old concepts and redoing them in ways which were previously impossible because of inadequate special effects. We can now do aliens and alien worlds properly — a remake would have the opportunity to explore alien-heavy storylines and do the visuals justice. No more bumpy-foreheaded dudes in pastel pyjamas on interchangeable dusty desert lots.
I would love a new TV series, but I’ll settle for a few more movies like this.
LARPage and other news
We ran Grove of Fallen Leaves again — outside among actual trees again for the first time since the playtest. It really makes a huge difference to the atmosphere. Thanks to Akika for providing the garden and NPCing the dryad. 
We recruited four new LARPers, who were all very good, and ended up with a strong cast. All in all, it was a pretty good running, although it got a bit cold by the end and I completely forgot to take photos (I am told that other people took photos, however).
Toothpastedealer is down here from the US, and he brought me the Black Dossier (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. 2.5). It is very cool. I also have a crapload of books (without pictures); I am currently reading Hunter’s Run (which was written by Daniel Abraham, Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin — two of my favourite writers and my favourite SF editor — and therefore cannot possibly not be awesome).
Hodgestar and I are in the middle of Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I love this show.
I think I said I would write some kind of LARP for Dragonfire. I still don’t know what it is. I am suddenly inspired to write a serious political LARP set in the D&D fantasy universe — with the assumption that alignment doesn’t exist, and that the craziest evil antics attributed to societies like the Drow and the Yuan-ti are dirty human and elven propaganda. The D&D universe is fundamentally very silly, and this is completely not what I was planning to write a LARP about earlier this year, and it is thus completely unsurprising that it’s a million times more appealing right now than my carefully planned gritty SF idea. I blame Goblins.
The Life and Times of Baby Cthulhu
Or: how not to make a large papier-mâché sculpture
I can’t remember the exact year of Baby Cthulhu’s birth, but it was probably 2002. Hodgestar and I thought that it would be neat to make a mascot for the CLAWs orientation stall. We made a frame out of thick wire, taped plastic bags to it, made a skin out of newspaper strips covered in wallpaper paste, and hurriedly painted it. And it looked something like this:
Some time later I added more volume to the head, and painted the whole thing some more. And it looked something like this:
The problem is that while the strips-and-glue papier-mâché technique is very useful in making smooth geometric shapes, it’s a bit crap when you’re trying to make a freeform sculpture. I wasn’t very happy with the results, but I didn’t have any better ideas.
Several years passed. After the CLAWroom ceased to exist and Cthulhu no longer had a home, I lugged him from flat to flat, parked him on top of cupboards, and occasionally vacuumed him and picked off peeling bits of paper. I had put so much work into him already that I didn’t have the heart to get rid of him.
Then I made a little dragon sculpture out of a commercial papier-mâché clay, and I realised what medium I should have been using in the first place. In February last year, I decided to renovate Cthulhu properly.
I made my own pulp out of shredded newspapers and wallpaper paste, and was able to use it to add a lot more volume to the sculpture. I reshaped the tentacles, moved the eyes to where an octopus actually has eyes, and created a coarse skin texture by pressing random crosshatching into the surface with a blunt knife.
Unfortunately, thick papier-mâché takes a really long time to dry, and shredding newspaper by hand is also very time-consuming. Since I left the project until the last minute (as usual), I ended up not finishing the base, and doing a rather hurried paint job. I think it was so windy that most of the spray-on lacquer blew away.
Nevertheless, I was a lot more optimistic about getting Cthulhu to look good, and I restarted the renovation at the beginning of this year. After repeatedly failing to make time to shred more newspaper, I found a cheap paper shredder, which was a real lifesaver (although I managed to jam it very thoroughly within about ten minutes of using it for the first time.)
I gave Cthulhu a bottom…
…then flipped him over and repaired the cracks…
…and left him in the sun to dry…
…before painting and varnishing him — first applying varnish with a paintbrush, and later filling in hard-to-reach places with lacquer spray.
I didn’t have time to paint and varnish the underside, but apart from that he is basically finished. This week he is once again up on campus being a fresher lure, and afterwards he’s going back on top of my cupboard, to wait patiently until the stars are right (possibly August). Now I can actually make other things out of papier-mâché; I’m thinking of weaning myself off my years-long habit slowly, perhaps by making some slightly smaller baby Cthulhus.
If you want to make your own large sculpture out of paper, I strongly recommend that you:
- Go directly to mushy papier-mâché; newspaper strips are a complete waste of time.
- Invest in a paper shredder. Seriously; just do it.
My papier-mâché recipe:
Shred newspaper. If you have a paper shredder, just cut it into strips across the grain; the strips will disintegrate easily. Put the newspaper in a bucket full of water overnight (or, if you need it more urgently, boil it on the stove in a pot you’re not planning to use for food ever again). Resist the urge to mush up the newspaper while it’s floating around in the water; it may seem easier, but you will create a suspension which is extremely difficult to drain, end up with too much water, and get glue instead of clay (if you have inadvertently made glue, add extra dry shredded newspaper to absorb the excess moisture). Remove the newspaper from the water in handfuls, squeezing out as much water as you can. In a mixing container, keep mushing up the newspaper, adding wallpaper paste and small amounts of water, until you have a mostly smooth mass which is slightly sticky and holds its shape. It should be the approximate consistency of mashed potato.
Buy someone a cow
Recent Tweets
- Quibbling over GUI toolkits is like thinking that your oven won't work unless it has the same silver finish as your fridge and toaster.
- Why do so many Linux app reviewers consider it a dreadful hardship to run a KDE app under GNOME, or vice-versa? Seriously, WTF?!
- I don't know whether this is funny or tragic. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/08/south-carolina-now-r.html (@BoingBoing)
- @Princessanie Can you get on IRC? Meet me in #clug on Atrum or #ubuntu-za on Freenode (if you're using a *buntu).
- @firstfallen S3 is pretty good. Everything else is kak with the occasional diamond poking out. Watch S3, then watch the rest while knitting.
- @chronodm Only the nick at the start of the reply is the person being replied to, as far as Twitter is concerned. So order matters.
- Kindred by Octavia Butler: a time travel story which recognises that the past was not a nice place.
- Finch by Jeff Vandermeer: bizarre, but entertaining. Is that what I said about his previous book?
- OMG, he wrote a cheesy-looking urban fantasy series under a pseudonym! It's going on my wishlist.
- The Price of Spring by Daniel Abraham: A satisfying ending to the series. Dodges some cliches. This is my new favourite fantasy writer.
