Granular nutrition

The "impossible" task of converting "Star Castle" to the Atari VCS has been achieved (ta, BS) -

http://bit.ly/IHM3xl

In a similar vein, "Zzap! 64" demigod Julian Rignall reviews a minty-fresh C64 cart (ta, PG) -

http://bit.ly/zPTgpX

Mining a rarer ore, this is the closest we may ever get to a "Blake's 7" rock opera (ta, "SFX") -

http://bit.ly/B7metal

You remind me of no-one I know

The "Yes, Prime Minister" stage play lived up to my expectations. The writers were the same, the actors were completely different, but the important thing was that the piece stayed true to the characters of Jim Hacker, Bernard and Sir Humphrey (while adding a coupla newies, most notably policy advisor Claire Sutton). With the story updated to the present day, the subject matter included concepts like Britain's position in the EU, dealing with a newly oil-rich former Soviet state, terrorism and the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the "News Of The World" phone-hacking scandal, and human trafficking. Tying everything together was the moral dilemma of whether to pander to the illegal sexual proclivities of a visiting foreign politician in order to facilitate a trillion-pound, potentially government-saving trade agreement. That may sound heavier than the polite English sitcom you remember, and I guess in hindsight it was. It didn't feel *too* heavy at the time, however, at least to anyone in our party. Injustices are never funny, but you can still find dark humour in pollies' absurd attempts to justify them from behind a comforting barrier of rhetoric. A tiny minority near us clearly disagreed - sitting stony-faced and refusing to clap at the conclusion.

World crime server

Firstly, let me say that I HATE Blogger's new interface. Why are graphic artists so fixated on increasing white space? It may be visually "clean", but what use is that if you can't locate your desired option? It's like a designer home where the coffee cups have been shoved inside a locker in the garage.

But on to beeswax...

What kind of "D&D" character would you be?

www.easydamus.com/character.html

According to this program, I'm fifth-level Elf wizard material (neutral good alignment).

I like the way it gives a full statistical breakdown at the end. And not an unnecessary drop-down menu in sight!


EDIT: Retook the quiz, choosing the obvious worst response wherever possible, and the outcome was an eighth-level Half-Orc rogue (chaotic evil). The sad thing is, he'd probably defeat my "real" character.

Non-answer

Finally received back one of several papers I've submitted thus far. Scored what I deem an acceptable 70%. Mainly lost marks for not complying with all of the faculty's rassa-frassin' formatting rules, rather than for the content or my writing. Look, Ma, I'm passing!

Have a healthy obsession with dancer/actress/comedienne Angela Trimbur at the mo'. You may have seen her busting moves among disconcerted strangers at a shopping mall and a laundromat (as shown on "Ellen"), but here she is in a music vid - bit.ly/yyD24K

Holowaste

I have just read on Facebook that "Dirk Gently", based on the bonkers-brilliant Douglas Adams novels starring the "holistic" detective of that name, will commence screening on ABC2 on Monday at 9.30pm.

If you wanna gew, baby, let's gew

An atypical w/e. Saw Yes at the State Theatre, doing their damndest with an old keyboardist and a brand-new singer. Watched Sweden's inaugural UFC extravaganza unfold through the night, winning money on Dennis Siver, who I knew would remain rock-solid after dropping to featherweight. Accidentally stumbled on the Bald Archy portraits and was tickled by the image of Julia Gillard as Joan Of Arc (alas, my stealth snap was too blurry even for Artov Farkhus). Rendezvoused with DJ, a friend since kindergarten, and his good lady K., at a Bears game at North Sydney Oval. The boys in red'n'black compete in the NSW Cup, a de facto reserve grade with some sides that casual NRL viewers wouldn't recognise - and not one but two sets of Magpies. Blew my Siver bucks on a solidarity bet on the home team. Easy come, easy gew.

"Well, I'm kind of in between ambitions at the moment"

"During the last semester over 38 copyright infringement notices were served...resulting in 33 students receiving penalties...including loss of wireless access...and fines of between $480 and $1200."

I wonder if they nabbed the joker I witnessed downloading an illegal copy of Word to his laptop (via a torrent site) during a lecture.

Teenage wasteland

There are many embarrassingly awful "D&D"-related clips on YouTube. This is not one of them -

http://bit.ly/oejRet

I know, right?

I need to buy a printer. I need to buy a printer because I can't rely on always having my university assignments ready to print when I'm at the office. I need to buy a printer because I've learnt that printing at the uni library may involve a large amount of queueing for terminals. I need to buy a printer because even the college's professional printery requires a small amount of queueing, and they only accept payment by EFTPOS. I can't fault their customer care, though - I printed a 40c job and they gave me a four-pack of Darrell Lea Easter eggs!

Popped out of my Hobbit hole for a couple of hours this afternoon to see two exhibitions at the Museum Of Sydney: "Home Front - Wartime Sydney 1939-45" and "Culture Jammers". The former should be fairly self-explanatory. It featured items like propaganda posters and ration books. There were personal recollections and period recordings, too, but it just didn't move me. The latter exhibition was about a protest group calling themselves The Lonely Station who cleverly altered a number of city billboards into political statements in the mid-noughties. Photographer Dean Sewell documented their exploits and this was essentially a collection of his ace pics, plus a video.

Campaign wrecker

"Would you draw from a real Deck Of Many Things?" asked SC. "And if so, how many cards?"

"Yes, and three!" I replied, before admitting that was almost certainly false bravado.

SC then directed me here - www.kirith.com/deck - to discover what might transpire had I the chance.

In my hypothetical encounter with the Deck, I magically gained two points to my prime ability score (INT by virtue of its least-worstness), lost 10,000 XP and was forced to pull a fourth card, earnt the undying enmity of a greater devil, but finished by having my CHA raised to 19 and suddenly becoming the owner of a keep.

I could live with those results...until the fiend caught up with me.

MTG on ABC

bit.ly/H5rIp9

(For however long that link lasts.)

Mini-epic

Lunched locally at The Montpellier Public House (formerly Balzac), where my entree was a creamy, sensationally savoury parsnip veloute with sauteed scallops and black pudding. Went for a traditional main - pork belly with cabbage, apple sauce and gravy, which was served with a skillet of carrots, silverbeet and crunchy potatoes. An unbeatable combination, really, but best to ignore the layer of butter in the bottom of the lil' pan. Dessert was steaming pot-roast figs with fresh vanilla ice-cream, which together pointed to perfectly timed preparation. Washed everything down with sparkling water and a St Peter's Ruby Red Ale that was quite decent (if pricey).