Multiman Publishing have finally produced their long-promised ASL Starter Kit: ASL Starter Kit #1 is a self-contained module which will let players start playing Advanced Squad Leader almost immediately. A liberally-illustrated rules tutorial teaches gamers ASL using a conversational style to teach the concepts of ASL.

Flumph, flumph. Flumph, flumph. Flumph, flumph.

When I walk nowadays, that sound drifts up to me from somewhere between my legs. It's my new jeans from Next, where it was impossible to get anything less floppy than "Boot Cut". It's the sound of denim flares rubbing together with every step. Last time I heard that sound, it was the Seventies......

Greg Costikyan feels - quite strongly - that games are not literature: First, it is true that many games are tightly bound to story (I've written on this subject elsewhere), but it is equally true that many games are not. No story in chess. Nor in Europa Universalis, Civilization, or Tetris, not unless you stretch the meaning of 'story' beyond reason. As I have said before, and will doubtless say many times again before I die, games are their own artform, and while analogies to other forms are sometimes useful in understanding games, it is a rank and obvious error to attempt to perceive them solely through the lens used to understand a different form such as, say, literature. To make an analogy to a wholly different form: Music is not a storytelling medium. Many musical forms are indeed tightly bound to story--opera, the musical, the ballad--but many others are not--symphonies, the classic 3 minute rock song, house. Just so with games.

I actually played games with a local group on Sunday. Yes I know the sun was shining like the first day of creation, but I was locked firmly indoors with Neil Duncan - grand old man of the postal Diplomacy hobby - and 5 other people playing boardgames. I got to play Serenissima - which I enjoyed a lot more than first time, mainly because the rules were explained to me properly, and people didn't whine whenever they got attacked - and Vinci - which suffered from less whining than it usually does in Salisbury but still had an overanalysis end-game problem.

I'm not much given to making snap judgements, but the new Blogger interface is crap! Crap! CRAP!

Contact lenses - argh! No! No! No!

It was OK while I was at home, everything under control, putting them in for an extra 2 hours every day, fine. But as soon as I got to work, I don't know if it was the extra stress, running around talking to people, peering at the computer screen etc but after an hour it was "I have to get these things out of my eyes NOW!"

I love my digital camera. I love Adobe Photoshop Gallery. And I love my broadband connection. They let me make things like this.

After a traumatic half-hour this morning being taught how to put in my trial contact lenses and take them out again, the optician said "I'll just go off for 5 minutes while you try it on your own." Within about 60 seconds I had managed to lose one. Permanently. I wondered if she would think I had lost the lense deliberately, in order to cut short the ordeal. "Don't worry" she said in a resigned voice when she came back, "this happens all the time."

Some lovely ideas on this website. I'm thinking of using one of them next time I lead Workshop worship. The Youth Ministry & Spirituality Project: Before you look through the site a few comments: Take your time. Much of the material here is grounded in years of conversation and practice by churches, youth pastors and youth. Try not to 'scan' the site. Notice when a sentence, idea or image catches your attention. Notice what attracts you as you engage this material. Take time to stop and reflect on how God might be seeking to meet you through whatever it is that interests you here. (via Jonny Baker)

From a conversation with a furniture delivery man on Wednesday.

Delivery man: This is a nice flat, very spacious.

Me: Yes, I'm really pleased with it. I've just recently moved in.

Delivery man: Yes, I thought so. I thought it looked a bit unfinished, you know, still lots of things to sort out.

I am The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis apparently (which is spooky seeing that this is one of my favourite books by my favourite writer!)

You were just looking for some decent clothes when everything changed quite dramatically. For the better or for the worse, it is still hard to tell. Now it seems like winter will never end and you feel cursed. Soon there will be an epic struggle between two forces in your life and you are very concerned about a betrayal that could turn the balance. If this makes it sound like you're re-enacting Christian theological events, that may or may not be coincidence. When in doubt, put your trust in zoo animals.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

I picked up Final Fantasy X again recently on my PS2. A few months ago I got completely killed by Seymour Guano and his horrible "aeon", and was so demoralized that I gave it up for months. I just didn't see how he could be beaten. I think part of it was the impact of the graphics - that pain spell is horrible to watch, and the underground hellfire thing, well I'm still haunted by it. But I had another go last week. Spent a good deal of time buying all the latest weapons, making sure the gang were all properly equipped and skilled up, had the right overdrive settings etc. Saved it all then walked into the hall for the big confrontation. It went like a dream. Went straight in with all 3 of Yuna's aeons, and by the time they were all dead Seymour was only a few big hits away from defeat. Most gratifying. Now I'm stuck on the stupid puzzle that comes next......

As one of my readers has asked: I am using Norton AntiVirus (only £20 and far too important to leave to freeware) and the XP firewall. Not sure how best to configure the firewall so I just left it to the defaults. Everything still works, but then the door may be wide open for the bad people too. I used to administer a corporate firewall as part of my job but all that knowledge seems to have slipped away in the intervening years.....

This is great! I've just got my wireless ADSL router working. I bought an Ebuyer (ie Origo) router and card and a connection from PlusNet. I set up the router with my laptop plugged in on Friday night - very straightforward indeed. Today I planned to put the wireless card into my PC, but it was with a sense of forboding that this was likely to be the tricky bit. 10 minutes approximately from opening the case to posting to my blog.

Better stop blogging and get AntiVirus and a firewall installed........

The 30th birthday of Dungeons and Dragons makes the front page on the BBC News website! BBC NEWS | Magazine | Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons?: In the 1980s millions of teenagers world-wide would battle dragons armed with just a few dice, paper and pens. D&D became part of youth sub-culture but as the game celebrates its 30th birthday - is anyone still playing?

BayCon last weekend was good fun. Held at a fairly run-down motel 5 miles south of Exeter, staffed by underpaid migrant workers, with crumbling windowframes and peeling decor, nevertheless it offered gaming space and fairly cheap rooms for a large number of gamers, many of whom are personally large as well. Why do geeks always tuck their T-shirts into their jeans, no matter how big the beer-gut?

Anyway, I played lots of games, losing most of them, and failing to get into the top 100 list. At a convention with about 120 attendees, that's a pretty bad performance. Enjoyed trying some new games (new to me anyway) such as San Juan, Alhambra, Medici, Attika, and Age of Mythology. Nick played a 2-day epic game of GMT's Napoleonic Wars. I was woken by him when he finally staggered into our room at 5:30am Sunday morning, only to sit in bed punching out his new copy of Attika!

My favourite discovery of the weekend was a game I had taken along with me but never played - Scarab Lords. A really excellent two-player card game by Reiner Knizia, marred only by tatty American-style production values (how come Blue Moon, another similar Knizia game, which costs about the same money and is manufactured in Europe, has about 10-times better physical quality?)

Talking of Reiner, he was there apparently, but I never saw him. So I never got the chance to do a Waynes World on him ("We are not worthy!")

Nimrods: three years old today! Ho-hum. Ever onwards, I suppose.

At last, GMT's sequel to Battle Cry is available to preorder. However, they are setting the threshold quite a bit higher than usual - they need 1250 preorders before they will commit to producing the game. Well, there's one here.

Commands & Colors: Ancients: Unlike its younger brother, Battle Cry by Hasbro/Avalon Hill, Commands & Colors: Ancients is moderately more complex and contains additional historical details without the battlefield clutter. Most scenarios will still play to a conclusion in less than an Hour.

Hmm, let's see, things I have discovered during the last week or so:

1) I am a complete lightweight. I was lured out of my flat yesterday evening by the sunshine, and wandered down to the William Cobbett where I sipped a leisurely pint. One pint. Followed by a large glass of water when I got home. And this morning I have a headache.

2) Shaun of the Dead is a wonderful film. British, very funny, exciting too, and it hasn't got Hugh Grant. The new Ster Cinema in Basingstoke is a lovely cinema, huge screens, steeply raked and very comfortable seating - BUT the sound is so loud that even ordinary dialog sounds like giants shouting. Very uncomfortable, and breaks the illusion of reality as well. Won't be going back there.

3) Axis and Allies: Europe is good fun but flawed. Went to Dave's place on Monday and played it with John. It soon became apparent that the whole game comes down to a titanic struggle between two huge stacks on the Moscow space. It is also a bit weird that the British cannot reinforce Egypt, but that can be easily fixed with a house rule. But basically the game needs completely new victory conditions.

4) It's a pain dealing with BT. I want broadband on my PC in the spare bedroom, so I called BT to get a line extension put in. The girl at the call centre agreed to send an engineer round first thing, so that I wouldn't have to take a day off. But the engineer was actually booked for a 1pm slot. Stuff them. I am going for a wireless router, and PlusNet as a provider. (They do a £19 a month contract with no access to binary newsgroups, which is good for me as it removes the temptation of all those mucky newsgroups!) I'll let you know how this works out.

5) There is some wonderful countryside near Farnham. On Good Friday I drove over to Selborne and walked a section of the Hangars Way, stopping for lunch at a wonderful Free House called the Hawkley Arms. Lovely folded chalky country with hanging woods on the steep hillsides, and secluded little valleys and villages. This is my favourite time of year, the countryside looks so beautiful, but it's almost saying "You haven't seen anything yet! Just wait till the leaves come out!"

Went (with Nick, Debs, Suzy and others) to see Polly Paulusma play at Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush last night. She's a folksy-modern singer-songwriter. Thoughtful, melancholy lyrics make a great combination with her sunny, mischievous nature. Nick - who is a creative web-designer type - was more taken with the striking visuals created by strongly coloured spots cutting across images projected onto the ornate plasterwork of the back wall. Wished I'd taken my camera in. A good evening spent soaking up much-needed nourishment from the arts.

Gosh, this is probably the first time I have ever been nominated for a Most Eligible Bachelor award!

A Media Studies student emailed me with a questionnaire about blogging. Here for posterity are my magisterial answers:

1. How long have you been a blogger?

3 years

2. What made you create your blog initially?

I was inspired by a blog called "Relapsed Catholic". I thought a weblog would be a good way of communicating with my (then) boardgaming group in Salisbury - notifying of events, writing up game sessions etc. I initially envisaged my friends contributing postings as well. It didn't work out like that - it rapidly broadened out to include other things I'm interested in, like music, Christianity, my job etc etc. It bacame mor of a personal journal I suppose.

3. When you write your blog do you write with an audience in mind?

Yes: mainly friends in the boardgaming hobby, my children, people who leave comments. Sometimes I think I'm just writing notes to myself - which would be a good enough reason for doing it. Of course I keep my eye on my stats and wonder who these 40 unique visitors a day are and why they visit!

4. In your opinion, what is a blog?

It's a journal-like website format, mediated by software which makes it very easy for the non-technical writer to post to it.

5. Would you consider your blog a form of journalism?

Some blogs certainly are: not so much news reporting, but a valuable substitute for newspaper opinion pieces and columnists. I don't consider mine to be journalism.

6. Do you think blogging is just a passing phase?

No, it's pretty firmly established now. There are plenty of people who seem to have a need to blog or read blogs.

7. What form do you think blogs will take in the next few years?

I think there will be new technologies for separating the wheat from the chaff, making it easier to navigate through the "blogsphere" and quickly find out where the latest buzz is happening.

Book Group tonight! No not the TV show, the book group in Richmond that I belong to. Things I like about my book group: We have good coffee and cake (usually) We read and chat about some great books that I would not otherwise have touched, for example, tonight we will discuss "Under the Net" by Iris Murdoch, which was surprisingly comical, and contains possibly the best pubcrawl in English literature. I am the only man there. Apart from me, the group consists entirely of lovely, intelligent young women. No really. One of whom (Helen) always cooks me supper before the book group starts. Did I mention the coffee and cakes?

More opera last night - Simon got tickets for Eugene Onegin with Welsh National Opera (and Amanda Roocroft) at Southampton Mayflower. In contrast to ENO's Rhinegold the production was superb, beautifully staged and costumed, with great acting as well as singing from the cast. I've never experienced a Tchaikovsky opera before, and it was a revelation to me. His music is so flexible and lyrical and well-paced, never descending into routine "let's get this conversation out of the way" stretches, always serving the drama and charged with emotional weight.

You remember how I have been struggling for about 3 years with a desire to play the fabled IceHouse games Zarcana/Gnostica, but am too worried about the spiritual implications of buying a Tarot deck? Well maybe Matt Arnold has provided me with a way forward:

Frustrated with playing Gnostica with a tarot deck? Can't get your friends to play because remembering what the cards mean is like doing tax returns? Is scoring a chore because the three values of cards aren't immediately distinguishable? Then download this strictly-functional-yet-stylish beginner's deck created for gnuthin' but Gnostica, which I call Tarotories. With minimalized graphics and instructions on every card, and no mature or macabre imagery, it might become the only deck you use.

They are a bit functional though - I kind of miss the "mature or macabre imagery".

Looking through the referrals stats for nimrods never ceases to amaze me. Only yesterday somebody dropped by looking for photos of World War 2 hand grenades!

In London over the weekend I noticed the posters for Shaun of the Dead billed as "A romantic comedy. With zombies." The great news is that this project was put together by the team who created Spaced - probably my favourite ever sitcom ever (whatever the moronic British public thinks.)

SLICK: The Sortable List of Icehouse's Cool Kindred has been cleaned up and purged of broken links.

Andy's Page About Homeworlds:

I really like John Cooper's Icehouse game, Homeworlds. I think it's one of the very best Icehouse games we currently have. It's elegant and exciting, it looks great on the table, it's different every time, the theme rocks, and it makes excellent use of the pyramids. One of my criteria for a perfect Icehouse game is that it offer deep strategy while using little or no equipment other than the pyramids, especially including using the table itself as a featureless gameboard. Homeworlds is a perfect Icehouse game.

Text message conversation with Dave this morning:

Dave: Hi Pete, any jobs going at your place? I fancy being a computer expert, it's easier than plastering.

Me: We're desperate for a Java programmer at the moment, can you help?

Dave: I'll be there in an hour. I've got my passport ready.

Roger Scruton in the Telegraph - Why Wagner still rings true:

The Ring was conceived as a religious festival, with the Oresteia of Aeschylus in mind. It was to unfold a world-embracing myth, through intimate human dramas. Its characters were conceived both as believable people and as symbols of universal powers. By following their fate, the audience would be led by human sympathy towards a vision of redemption, in which human beings stand higher than the gods.

To strip The Ring of its legendary atmosphere and primordial setting - in the manner of most modern productions - is to jeopardise this religious aspect of the story, and to give us only half of what it means.

I went to see Rhinegold at English National Opera on Friday. I've been looking forward to the ENO Ring for years. I've bought tickets for the whole cycle this year, I went to the staged rehearsals over the last two years, and I was eagerly awaiting the visual spectacle of the full production. And how my heart sank when the curtain rose to reveal the Rhinemaidens got up as lap-dancers in a sleazy club. As the evening wore on it was heart-breaking to watch the superb musicianship of the orchestra and cast struggling at every turn to make itself heard through the puerile nonsense of the production. Rhinegold is full of nature music - invoking mountains, rivers, caverns, sunrise and rainbows - but on stage all we could see was relentlessly urban, indoor settings, and the gods (how thought provoking!) portrayed as a family of gangsters and the Nibelungs as overalled proles.

The worst thing about this kind of pretentious bollocks is that it closes the door on newcomers. It becomes a game for insiders. We who know the operas are invited to admire the director's clever insights into Wagner's subtexts, or his witty subversion of Wagner's intentions. But for a newcomer the story is rendered unintelligible by the fact that there is very little correlation between the words that the characters are singing and the actions that they are performing on the stage. For example Rhinegold climaxed with the gods' triumphal entry into their new home Valhalla. The orchestra was describing this spine-tingling moment with electrifying skill, but what we saw on stage was a press conference, with a crowd of photographers gathered around Wotan. Oh so clever-clever, but how would a Ring first-timer make sense of all this?

Is it really any wonder that opera audiences continue to shrink and age?

Gosh I'm still pretty tired after my skiing trip. Running around with a group of 30-somethings really took it out of me. I've been sleeping at least 10 hours a night since I got back and I'm still feeling sleepy. Moreover I slightly twisted my knee in a face-planting incident last Wednesday which has left me limping, and the limp is throwing my back out leading to mild sciatica! I know it's bad form to moan about all this when it was all self-inflicted, and many of you may not have been lucky enough to go skiing at all this winter. Still, isn't a weblog an ideal place to safely park my self-pity without damaging my social life?

Game-wise, I have been continuing with a solo game of Clash of Giants (the Marne game). Last night I got to the exciting climax when the Paris garrison duly rides out and crushes the German right wing. Most gratifying. This is a great game, maybe I can persuade Dave or someone to come over for a weekend soon and play it.

I have also bought Medieval Total War this week. I know I'm behind the curve on this, but I have only just acquired a computer capable of running this game. Very impressive it is too - I've been concentrating on the battlefield game, and I'm just stunned by the tactical wargaming fun I can have with this. Similar to DBA, but you can watch the little men running around and fighting. I would have liked a slightly more detailed tactical feel to this - the emphasis is on game rather than simulation - but it is an amazing achievement. I will be very tempted by Rome Total War when it arrives though I don't usually buy new releases, preferring to wait until the price drops sub-£20....

Skiing last week was great. I don't remember ever experiencing such perfect snow conditions. My skiing abilities were, let's say, variable, but I had one golden day (Wednesday) when everything came together, the sun was shining, and I was skiing like an Austrian. Perfect.

It was an Oak Hall holiday, so that meant a big friendly group in the evenings, many of whom learned Zendo from me as the week went by. In fact I was sometimes greeted on the slopes with a cheery cry of "Hello Master!" to which I would reply "Hello disciple! I hope you are meditating upon the koans."

I also took Fluxx along which surprisingly did not go down so well. In fact Alastair, who is a keen bridge player, seemed to find one 10-minute round of Fluxx an agonizing ordeal. Come to think of it, I remember feeling the same way when I first played Fluxx years ago, but I guess I have warmed to the Looney Labs way of gaming since then.

Hmm, tempting - deluxe cardstock maps for GMT games such as Barbarossa to Berlin, Paths of Glory, and The Napoleonic Wars.

Phil was home on Monday. I took the day off and we spent much of the day playing Close Combat 3 head to head. We took it in turns to use the laptop - playing without the mouse (using the "attack nipple" instead) was a significant handicap. But this game is a classic, and this is a near-perfect 2-player wargaming experience. It's like playing Advanced Squad Leader in real-time, without all the mucking about with rules and tables. Curiously Phil, who is normally very good at this sort of thing, was finding me hard to beat. There's life in the old grognard yet!

My feet hurt. I went for a run this morning, second one this week. Only ten minutes round the park and up and down the hill, but now my feet hurt. I must get some decent running shoes I suppose. Trying to get some basic level of fitness ready for skiing next week. Here's the webcam at Hauser Kaibling, halfway down the run that ends outside Pension Ennstal where I will be staying. Looks lovely - loads of snow and lots of sunshine as well. Makes the hurting feet all worthwhile....

I put together my Shuttle box on Friday night (as a result of which I felt completely trashed ready for a demanding Saturday at Workshop!)

Delighted with the result, no problems at all during the build. The Shuttle box is very well put together and comes with very good instructions for the build. Because of the small form factor everything has to be put together in the correct order! There are nice little touches like a cabling run for the CD drive cable.

I bought 512 Mb Crucial memory, a 120Gb Seagate drive, an AMD XP 2500 Barton, a black Sony CD-RW (looks nicer than beige with the metal box) and OEM Windows XP Home, all from ebuyer.

My only mistake was to buy the retail AMD chip with a fan. The Shuttle box has its own clever heatsink arrangement so I could have saved £8 and bought the OEM version.

Mine is a Shuttle SN41G2 which includes GeForce4 graphics onboard - I've tried playing HomeWorld so far which looks great. If I already possessed a recent graphics card I could have saved money with the SN45G which is also a more recent product I think.

Crystal Caste now manufacture IceHouse pieces made from Obsidian, Hematite, Aventurine and Jasper. Up to $120 for just one stash!

Winston Churchill: If you would know a man's character, only observe how he plays a game.

James Crosfield writes:

Do you fancy going to Salute this year (24th April) I could pick you up on the way to London. I could also call at Salisbury and pick up anyone from there. Quite happy for you to advertise my Salute taxi on Nimrods.

I will order tickets and parking in advance in about three weeks time.

Drop me an email if you fancy going and would like a lift with James. I can't make it this year but had a good time when I went last year ( in spite of selling off my copies of Empires in Arms and Pacific War in the Bring and Buy at stupidly low prices.)

I am soloing Clash of Giants, the Marne scenario, at the moment. Excellent hex wargame, simple rules, big counters, ideal for gaming geezers like me. It's turn 5 and the Germans are running out of steam, and looking nervously at the huge fortified camp of Paris sitting menacingly on their right flank. The BEF have rallied, and are cautiously moving forward again from the deep south where they finally stopped running. Solo gaming, that's what I am reduced to these days. Still, I am going to Baycon with Nick this year, 15th - 18th April, where the guest list includes the legendary Reiner Knizia. Now a game of Euphrat & Tigris with the designer - that would compensate for the weeks of gaming famine!

It's years since I did this, but I've decided to build my own PC again. I've been having a lot of fun with my new digital camera, but my grotty old work laptop doesn't really cut it for processing the photos. These days there are alternatives to the beige tower for the home system builder. You can get huge perpex cases full of flashing neon lights. (Hmmm - not sure if that's me somehow.) Or one of these babies - a Shuttle barebones system, which is what I have ordered. It's a compact aluminium case with its own form factor motherboard built in. Just plug in an AMD XP2500 chip, a 120Gb Seagate Barracuda drive, and half a gig of memory, and you've got a pretty nice system for £350. Plus another £70 for Windows XP which I am buying, yes Gavin, buying as well. Only two slots but it has lots of connectivity and GeForce graphics built in. Should be pretty good for games too.......

Episode 1 of "Dunkirk" on BBC2 last night was excellent. Filmed in the same edgy handheld style as "Band of Brothers", which can deliver real emotional punch when you briefly glimpse shocking events almost out of the corner of your eye. It also used a lot of archive footage intercut with the acted scenes, which I thought might be irritating but actually was very effective and gave us scenes of large-scale chaos and destruction which would have been impossibly expensive to do any other way.

I'm still shocked and angered by the scene where British POWs were crammed into a barn by the SS then massacred with grenades. Knowing that this was a reconstruction from a first-hand account makes it worse somehow.

I also felt a vague sense of shame throughout the episode. The British Army of 1940 was such a shambles - years of disarmament and appeasement had left us totally unable to stand up to the Wehrmacht. And from what I've read of WW2 history this amateurism persisted well into 1942 - Narvik, Dunkirk, Crete, Gazala, Singapore, a miserable sequence of botched defeats, often at the hands of inferior forces.

Anyway, unmissable stuff, I'll be there again tonight for episode 2, with the VCR running too.

Someone just failed to sell a Medieval Castle on EBay!

Alan Emrich, of Totaler Krieg fame, is running an eleven week game design course at Stanford University:

Principles of Game Design is a ‘how to’ course designed to teach you the fundamental philosophies of game design and apply them in a hands-on manner using a step-by-step process that develops your ‘game design muscles.’

Talking of work, I have a new boss now who is actively getting me lots of interesting work to do. Which explains why the blog has taken a back seat recently. Blogging was a way for me to stay sane through months of under-utilization and boredom at work. So don't worry if I don't post much - it probably means I'm happy and busy in my work.

Good grief, I've just returned from a meeting where yet another departmental reorganization was announced, with more to follow. And we're still coming to terms with the fallout from the last two reorgs. As a company we seem to be reaching the point where reorganization is more or less continuous, there are never times when the structure is stable for a while until the next upheaval - it's all upheaval. Maybe I could write a trendy new management guru type book about The Liquid Company and make loads of money so I wouldn't have to work in one any more......

The flat-warming party last Saturday went really really well. Lots of people turned up. Before a party I always have this secret cold fear that no-one will come and I will finally be forced to face the truth that I've been hiding from for so long - that I've become a sad old man with no friends. But no, not yet anyway - the place was full of happy looking folk who had made the effort to come over to Farnham on a windy winter's night.

Phil and Harriet did a fantastic job of the food, they spent the whole of Saturday in a gin-fuelled haze, producing delicious nibbles for the throng.

One game was actually played, at 2am by Nick Phil and me. Nick was desperate to play a game but my collection was locked in a room where a married couple were sleeping, so the only game available was "Formula Carts". You can't get this in the shops, only one copy exists, designed and manufactured by Phil as in infant. It's a bit low in decision points, but it was an exciting race and it only took 10 minutes to complete (always a plus for any game!) I wonder how much it would fetch on eBay?

One of the last things the BBC ever does may be to publish a photo by Gavin: BBC NEWS | Magazine | In Pictures | Your pictures: Britain's cold snap

You have to scroll through 16 good photos, then you get to Gavin's.

Tempting - you can now buy Martian Chessboard Sections.

I am busy preparing for my housewarming party on Saturday (if you think you should be invited but haven't been, please let me know!). Cleaning bathroom, moving all unpacked boxes to one corner, disposing of unironed laundry, putting half-played games away, that sort of thing. Phil is preparing the food for me so I have also been working through his emailed shopping lists of mysterious ingedients - this is a bit like opening a new jigsaw puzzle, I have no idea what all these bits are for, but they look pretty.

You can never be sure how many people will turn up. If half the people who have promised to come don't turn up, there will be about 10 of us - on the other hand if half the people who have said they might turn up actually turn up there will be 40 of us, some of whom will be drinking wine from mugs and using hands for plates.

I've just been made aware of the excellent Taxonomy of Icehouse Games, which lists but also classifies IceHouse games to fit the structure proposed by David Parlett's Oxford History of Boardgames.

Stop posting for a few days and I get more visits than ever! Yesterday in particular was a bumper day. Hmmm - is this pointing to a way forward for making nimrods a more successful weblog?

I can't make it to ManorCon again this year so perhaps Baycon is an alternative, especially as the "already booked" list includes Reiner Knizia!

Gosh I'm tired this morning. Not sure why. I went to the ceramics class at Farnham Malting yesterday evening, which was great fun and also physically tiring - which you would think would make for a good night's sleep. No such luck - I spent the whole night either being pursued by people who wanted to kill me, or waking frequently from these disturbing dreams at ungodly hours. This evening I will follow a more tried and tested route to a good night's sleep - curry and beer followed by a couple of hours hunched over the Europe Engulfed board.

I visited the Alder Valley Games Society last night, on my quest to find new opponents in this area. I made my way to the Union Building in Aldershot for the second time this year, and avoided being mistaken for an ex-para this time. Found the club members crouching over tables in a large tatty hall, and introduced myself. Bit disappointed that the emphasis was very much on CCGs and roleplaying. But on the plus side, the club's Chair is not only very cute but also female. I spent the evening watching a group roll up their characters for a Call of Cthulhu campaign. Not a great spectator sport, but they were very friendly and chatted with me about the club's history etc. Apparently the first Sunday every month is a boardgame special so I will make sure I give that a try soon.

About a year ago I decided not to P500 GMT's Ardennes 44. Rats! Chris Farrell is positively glowing with enthusiasm for the game. :

One last thing, and I think the real reason why I liked this a lot: it's a great game, and by that I mean that the game confronts you with interesting choices all the time, choices that feel like you are really playing a game and not struggling against or gaming a system, as is far too often the case in these things. I played the Germans, and I always felt like I had real options. There were several legitimate strategic choices of where to attack to get the required VPs, and then lots of operational choices as you can re-route offensives to get around traffic problems or take advantage of the same in your opponent's network, allocate your strategic movement capability wisely, budget your critical corps-level artillery, maintain flexibility to take advantage of local opportunities, and decide between blasting right through now before the Americans are reinforced or trying to work around the flank.

I went to see Spirited Away last night at Farnham Maltings, the local arts centre which shows films several times a month. I liked the venue a lot - the rustic and rather tatty Great Hall has well raked seating (unlike many cinemas) so no sightline problems for short people like me. It was also great to turn up at 8 and have the film start on the dot, with no adverts or trailers!

And what a stunning film! This is my first experience of a Japanese anime movie, so I just wasn't prepared for the visual impact of this art-form. Apparently there are even better anime films around - wow, that's hard to imagine!

I've read criticisms (on IMDB) that this film doesn't have much of a story-line. Well, I suppose so, if you have been used to Hollywood type story construction (conflict, conflict, conflict, smart-ass dialogue, action set-piece every 10 minutes). It seems to me that Spirited Away follows the ancient fairy-story shape of a child finding a doorway into another world where she meets archetypal figures, converses with beautiful or terrifying spirits, and embarks on fantastic adventures. Echoes of C S Lewis, E Nesbit, Lord Dunsany, Brothers Grimm and so on back into the timeless depths of folklore.

I visited my Mum and Dad over the weekend. OK I'm used to this from other people, but I was a bit stunned to get the "So what do you actually do?" question from my own parents.

Emma, who is doing Workshop this year and is in my tutor group, is also a very talented stained glass artist. If you've just received a windfall, why not visit her website and commission a window?

I guess I anticipated I would feel like this at some point. Having ripped myself out of my existing social networks and plonked myself down in a strange town, it's all feeling a bit quiet and lonely. Visits from various offspring and nimrods have helped, and the housewarming party at the end of January should help some more. But the challenge remains, I have to get out and make a new network for myself here.

Finding a church should help, but I am treading carefully on this one. I belonged to the same little church in Salisbury for about 18 years, sticking with them through some difficult times out of a sense that loyalty and perseverance was important. Got a lot of good things out of that time, but it was also pretty isolated from what has been happening in the wider Christian world. I've only recently started reconnecting - went to my first Greenbelt (at age of 44 for goodness sakes!) last year, finished Workshop last year. So I'm dead certain I don't want to dive into another isolated little church that's not connected to the Christian mainstream.

So far I've tried:

St Thomas's, a large attractive Anglican church just around the corner. Great to see a woman officiating at communion. Largish congregation seemed to be composed of wealthy retired types (what did I expect round here?)

Farnham Baptist Church. Very much what I'm used to, only bigger, happier and clappier. Seem to be growing - they were baptising a middle-aged convert (a man!) when I visited. Not sure if more of the same is what I want?

Planning to visit:

Various "community" churches in Farnham like Jubilee, Vineyard etc.

St Saviours in Guildford which I think is a big HTB clone.

Alternative worship outfits in London, like Grace and Vaux and Holy Joes.

As you probably know, Columbia Games, famous for their block wargames, only sell their stuff from their website nowadays. Which is a bit of a bummer for us in Europe. So their current offer (until 12 Jan) of free shipping anywhere in the world is a great opportunity pick up their games at a reasonable price.

OK this blog is supposed to be about boardgaming. So here is something about my recent gaming experiences:

1) Saturday morning visited my *local* games shop five miles down the road in Aldershot, with my parents' Christmas cash burning a hole in my pocket. It was really great to browse through a game shop in person, not online. Finally settled on two pieces of Knizia Egyptiana - Amun Re and Scarab Lords. They both look very pretty and intriguing, although the quality of the components in Scarab Lords is a little flimsy and cheap compared to what we normally expect from Euro games.

2) John, Dave and Steve visited on Saturday afternoon, all the way from Salisbury. We played Zendo, which went down well. Even John, who is allergic to anything from Looney Labs, was requesting "just one more round". No idea who won. Then it was Illuminati, which I have never been a fan of, probably because I have never grasped the rules properly. So I requested an exhaustive rundown from John before we started. Sure enough I enjoyed the game a lot, and my Network even came within a hairs-breadth of winning before John's Cthulhu snatched the prize. Then I cooked dinner, and we finished with a quick game of Carcassone.

3) Since Christmas I've been slowly getting ready to play Europe Engulfed - counting counters, sticking stickers, and reading rules. This game looks absolutely gorgeous. It takes up two tables, I've got it all set up for 1939, and I'm just about ready to run through a few turns. Just need an opponent now (Dave?)

4) On Sunday attempted to visit the Alder Valley Games Society at the Union Building in Aldershot. Met a guy in the carpark who thought I was a fellow ex-para there for some kind of reunion! Do I look like an ex-para??! We spent a happy 15 minutes trying to find a way into the building. Eventually managed it, paras were there, but no game society. Maybe next week?

I investigated Guildford Ceroc club last night.

Better than Salisbury:

Warmer
Average age a lot younger
Not many wedding rings!
Licensed bar

Not as good as Salisbury:

Too warm
Dodgy sound system
Smaller dance floor
More men than women
Difficult parking
More expensive entry and drinks
Teaching at a slower pace

I had a good evening, and it was a nice friendly bunch of people. I will definitely go back next week. I guess I'm just missing the familiar faces at Salisbury Ceroc.

Freak accident in my kitchen this morning. Slamming cupboard doors --> tray rolls out of slot in cupboard --> onto island unit below --> where it smashes a red biro clean in two --> bits of biro fly across kitchen --> I spend about 10 minutes cleaning up splashes of red ink from worktops.

Moral of the story - either get a square tray, or stop slamming cupboard doors.

There's a good article in the new Games Journal about the amazing boardgame cafe scene in Korea:

Cafes are very clean, very modern-looking places, with artwork up on the walls advertising games from the past and present. Spiel de Jahres award winners, box cover art, and pictures of people playing the games adorn the walls. The cafe usually caters to one of two different groups of clientele; either students from the local colleges and universities (who prefer more sophisticated games), or office workers (who prefer much simpler games). It is not uncommon for five or six board game cafes to be on the same street, within one hundred feet of one another—and on a typical night all of them are filled to capacity!

I went to see Return of the King last night at Guildford Odeon. Comfortable seats with good sight-lines, even up against a side wall where I was. It was strange to be in a cinema that was completely full, but very quiet and attentive - not the usual munching and chattering.

I was bowled over by the film. Just as Two Towers was significantly more exciting than Fellowship of the Ring, once again Jackson lifted his game in the third movie.

I was really impressed by the pacing of the film. Yes it was long (and yes I didn't make it through without a toilet break) but there was time for the action to gather pace, time for the sense of impending doom to really develop. And time to bring it all to a close in an unhurried fashion. It reminded me of the experience of a Wagner opera, not just musically, but in the expansive way time is used to absorb you into the mythical world. It was a real shock stepping out into 21st century Guildford afterwards.

Things I really liked:

1) The mustering of Rohan, and the sense of courage struggling with despair.

2) The visualization of Minas Tirith - utterly splendid.

3) The arrival of the Riders of Rohan on the field of Pelennor was suitably spine-tingling.

4) Eowyn's fear before the battle and her confrontation with the Nazgul.

5) The Riders shouting "Death! Death!" as they charged the orcs. Connects with something deep (and rather worrying) in my heathenish Saxon roots.

Some minor quibbles:

1) Gandalf's disrespectful behaviour towards the Steward of Gondor was hard to swallow. Beating him up not just once, but twice - unforgivable rudeness!

2) The sequence of events in the Battle of Pelennor Fields was mucked about with somewhat. But not in a particularly irritating way.

3) The climactic struggle with Gollum in the Cracks of Doom was dragged out. Should have been a shockingly sudden and violent denouement. And I hated the Spielbergesque dangling over a precipice.

4) The Paths of the Dead were nowhere near scary enough. This is a problem with film ghosts in general - ghosts are scary because you see them out of the corner of your eye, or imagine you hear them behind you. You shouldn't be allowed to get a good look at them.

5) Where was Sauron's Darkness? Admittedly this would have made for a murky few hours, but the arrival of the Riders at dawn would have been even more thrilling.

6) Snogging and clapping? Group hugs?

Gavin and Phil visited over Christmas and we played a lot of Zendo. The game is really addictive and fun. It can be as simple or difficult as you please (depending on current alcohol intake) and you can play for 10 minutes or 2 hours. We found that we quickly forgot about who was winning, we got so wrapped up in the puzzle of trying to guess the Master's Rule. The small deck of example rules was very useful, but the game really came into its own when we progressed enough to start inventing our own rules.

Gosh it's quiet in the office today. Really quiet.

And it's quiet out on the Net as well. No-one is blogging much. The guns have fallen silent over at ConsimWorld. Not much incoming email either.

Looks like I shall have to do some work.....

Had a lengthy "discussion" with Phil last night about the Iraq war. This was good fun, and also reminded me how torn I still am on this issue. I don't know what I think, but I do know what I don't think. As Phil reminded me, I am a Christian, in other words someone who claims to follow Jesus Christ, who quite clearly preached and practised non-violence. Yet at the same time I am repelled or disgusted by many of the arguments currently used by the anti-war lobby, which would make it very difficult for me to throw my lot in with them without sacrificing some self-respect.

Some of the anti-war arguments in circulation at the moment which I find repellent, wilfully ignorant, or just silly:

1) All the ills of the world can be blamed on George W Bush. If we could only get rid of this man, we would immediately enter an era of international peace and justice.

2) As above, but substitute "the Americans".

3) Suicide-bombers are not held to be responsible for their own actions, if they have been "forced" into violence as the only way of expressing their political frustration.

4) Especially if the victims are Jews.

5) The ongoing threat to British or American civilians from Islamic terrorism has been exaggerated.

6) The Americans are overreacting to September 11 2001.

7) The Iraqis were better off under Saddam Hussein.

8) There is moral equivalence between terrorist acts targeting civilians, and war waged by democratic governments against military targets.

9) Our Western civilization is sick to the core, we deserve everything we get.

10) There would be no cost to renouncing the use of violence against our enemies. Everyone, including us, would be better off.

On the other hand a pacifism that I could sign up to would sound more like this:

1) Non-violence will cost us. In the short-term it may well encourage the terrorists. The price might include large-scale civilian casualties in attacks against major cities in Britain and America. Nevertheless, non-violence is a core value of Christianity and our only hope for a peaceful future, so we are willing to pay the price.

2) Justice will cost us too. Giving terror suspects a fair trial will almost certainly mean that some very dangerous men are set free to kill again. Nevertheless, justice and freedom are core values of our civilization, and we are willing to pay the price to safeguard them.

3) We will not put security above freedom. We will not sacrifice our hard-won democratic values in a search for an illusory physical safety.

4) We will find other, non-violent ways to resist those who are working to overthrow our civilization and bring in a world-wide theocratic tyranny. That search may be difficult and costly, but we will not lie down and surrender our freedoms.

5) We don't impute malicious or evil motives to our leaders who took us into the Iraq and Afghan wars. But we honestly think they were honestly mistaken.

6) The moral requirement of Jesus to act non-violently applies to all humans, including the terrorists. There is no justification for violence. The ends never justify the means.

Is there a peace movement which talks like this? I'd like to hear about it.

I was delivering a fine lecture to Phil on this subject only last night. THE RING AND THE RINGS - Wagner vs. Tolkien:

Tolkien refused to admit that his ring had anything to do with Wagner’s. “Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceased,” he said. But he certainly knew his Wagner, and made an informal study of “Die Walküre” not long before writing the novels. The idea of the omnipotent ring must have come directly from Wagner; nothing quite like it appears in the old sagas. True, the Volsunga Saga features a ring from a cursed hoard, but it possesses no executive powers. In the “Nibelungenlied” saga, there is a magic rod that could be used to rule all, but it just sits around. Wagner combined these two objects into the awful amulet that is forged by Alberich from the gold of the Rhine. When Wotan steals the ring for his own godly purposes, Alberich places a curse upon it, and in so doing he speaks of “the lord of the ring as the slave of the ring.” Such details make it hard to believe Tolkien’s disavowals. Admit it, J.R.R., you used to run around brandishing a walking stick and singing “Nothung! Nothung!” like every other besotted Oxford lad.

I received a large package in the post today which I strongly suspect ...nngh..... contains my preordered copy of GMT's game Europe Engulfed, but I do not ...nngh nnngh..... intend to open it ...nnngh c'mon you can do this..... until Christmas Day.

A comment from Phil about the new flat:

Don't get a woman in here Dad. A woman would ruin this.

It all went pretty smoothly on Friday, but even with no major hitches moving house is still a pretty stressful experience. The vendors - Kris and Julie - were marvellous. They left the place spotlessly clean, with light shades, towel holders, blinds etc all still in place. It's such a beautiful flat, two days after moving in I still wander through the rooms feeling stunned, I'm just not used to all this space and luxury. There is a little voice in my head whispering "What makes you think you deserve this?" or sometimes "What makes you think you can afford this?".

Phil turned up on Saturday and immediately christened the kitchen by producing a tasty pasta dish, and the dishwasher removed the usual sting in the tail from asking Phil to cook. He also did a great job of plumbing in the washing machine, saving me a hefty callout charge, and it hasn't even leaked yet! It always feels strange to discover that your offspring - who only yesterday was a mewling, helpless, bawling sprog - actually has some useful talents.

David Warren continues his invaluable role as a purveyor of inconvenient facts:

The capture of Saddam was the climax of three huge events in Iraq, within the space of little more than a week. Unfortunately, our liberal media did not deign to report the first two. National protests against Saddamite and Islamist terrorism had already brought countless thousands into the streets of Iraq's cities, including more than 20,000 in Baghdad defying the terrorist threat.

Then, the news broke, or rather did not break very widely, of the discovery that Mohammad Atta, the late Al Qaeda "mastermind", had spent part of the summer of 2001 in Baghdad. Western intelligence is now working on this direct link between Saddam Hussein and the attacks Atta led on 9/11/01 -- after years of trying to ignore it. Atta was trained near Baghdad by the organization of Abu Nidal (who later died himself under very suspicious circumstances).

Atta was almost certainly shown through the ropes at the Iraqi regime's Salman Pak terrorist camp -- where a passenger airplane fuselage was kept to rehearse hijacking techniques. This was mere months before he piloted a hijacked aircraft into New York's WTC; he would seem to have remained in contact with Iraqi agents in the interim.

Such details are characteristically omitted from most of our news media, not because the facts aren't newsworthy, but because they contradict, indeed completely destroy, the case said media were previously making. For in order to undermine the Bush administration's justifications for invading Iraq, those media have repeated over and over that "no links have been found between Saddam and international terrorism."

As NTL don't seem to be able to cope with my moving house, I will be saying goodbye to my NTLWorld dialup account on Friday. I've been piping all my email through Oddpost anyway for the last few months, and as a consequence enjoying a wonderfully spam-free life. So it seemed like a good time to put all my eggs in one basket and switch to my Oddpost address (peterhaslehurst@oddpost.com). Sent the "change your address book" email out to friends and family last Friday. Today, for the first time since I signed up, Oddpost is inexplicably down. No idea why or how long for.

In other words - basket dropped, eggs lying broken on the floor.

Cool! Theology Trading Cards featuring St Anthony of the Desert, Perpetua and Felicitas. They don't seem to have any rules for playing games with them, but I'm sure we could scribble some factors for orthodoxy, asceticism and saintliness on them, get out the d20s and start rolling on the martyrdom table! (via Jordon Cooper)

It was the office Christmas dinner party last night. I did my bit for gamevangelism by wrapping up Fluxx as my Secret Santa gift. I'm not sure yet who received it or whether they liked it. I'm spending today hanging around in the office kitchen hoping not to overhear something like this: "You'll never guess what idiotic present I ended up with last night!"

Over at Looney Labs there is an excellent report about an ongoing PBEM game of Homeworlds. It gives a good idea of how this intriguing space conquest game actually plays, which is useful for me as I have never been able to persuade the ignorant boardgame geeks of Salisbury to try it.

It's all too true - Pretty women scramble men's ability to assess the future: Men lose the ability to think rationally when they see beautiful women, suggests new research.

The French government is planning to crack down on religious minorities, in the name of tolerance. BBC NEWS | French headscarf ban recommended: [Mr Chirac] added: 'We cannot accept ostentatious signs of religious proselytism, whatever the religion.'

It seems to be a law of the moral universe, that whenever one value is absolutized at the expense of all others, you end up destroying the very thing you have just deified.

Greg Costikyan's blog about game design issues is consistently worth reading. Today he brings us some crystal-clear and rather counter-intuitive discussion of the role of luck in games:

At the Replay conference in 1999, Garfield said 'If I am very lucky, I can beat Kasparov at Chess.' A priori, the statement is nonsensical. Chess is a game of pure strategy, without any luck elements whatsoever. Kasparov is the world champion; I don't know how good a Chess player Garfield is, but he's clearly not anywhere near in the same league. How, then, could he win 'by luck?'

This article is noteworthy for taking a sympathetic view of evangelical spirituality - unusual for the BBC. BBC NEWS | The new weapon in crimefighting... prayer:

He is, according to canteen culture, John the Baptist. That was the nickname John Sutherland got as a young policeman. Now 33, and a remarkably young-looking inspector in the Metropolitan Police, he seems comfortable with his authority, leading a team of up to 25 officers as they respond to 999 calls - robberies, assaults, whatever the world can throw at them. In many ways he's the regulation copper, asserting that what defines him is the way he deals with everyday cases like car crashes. But he does distinguish himself by his willingness to talk about his prayers.

'I believe in the power of prayer and the person of Jesus,' he says. 'In terms of my fight against crime as a police officer, I believe we are capable of having an impact in a practical way. If you take an individual burglar, and pray for him, and he becomes a Christian, one of the net impacts of that is that he may stop burgling.'

I'm extremely busy at the moment, had a great weekend but a tiring one in Essex and London celebrating my friend Nicky's birthday and baptism, I was out last night saying goodbye to the Ceroc club, out for NTL dinner tomorrow and Bible group dinner Friday, Workshop at weekend........!! And I'm supposed to get ready for my housemove next Friday in the midst of all this.

Looney Labs are about to ship another boxed IceHouse game - IceTowers. Looks nicely presented. Like Zendo it contains a complete set of IceHouse pieces, but as an incentive to those who already own them they are in new colours. Hmmmm, tempting......

PvP is on a roll this week - Francis is running an RPG about RPG gamers.

"My gamer is going to cheat on his next roll."

"Hey! You can't do that."

"Yes I can. My gamer has the 'Palm Dice' skill and his alignment is 'Snarky'."

Chris Farrell, long-standing BoardGameGeek pundit, has an excellent new weblog - he is into wargames (especially card-driven games like Hannibal, Wilderness War etc) but equally enthusiastic about German Games. In fact very similar to my own taste in games, but he has a lot of interesting things to say about them.

With only a couple of weeks to go possibly until I leave Salisbury, our game sessions are taking on a valedictory feel. We're being nicer to one another, being nostalgic about good times in the past, and planning how we will continue to get together in the future. Last Sunday Dave, Simon and I met up at John's place where we played Euphrat & Tigris, followed by Web of Power. No quarrelling about rules or who should have won, just a genial relaxed evening. Euphrat & Tigris: Me (8) Dave (6) John (5) Simon (2). Web of Power: John followed by Simon/Dave distantly trailed by by me.

Well I needn't have worried about "Master and Commander", it was magnificent. My default attitude towards film adaptations of much-loved books is hostility. But this film really won me over. I was worried that Russell Crowe was just going to do his moody killbot routine, but he actually managed to produce a passable impersonation of a real human being. And Paul Bettany, although not small and ugly enough for Stephen Maturin, did get his pale unnerving gaze, his social awkwardness, and his ability to inspire devotion from unlikely people. Of course a film based on 20 novels has to leave many things out, but I marvelled at how much was included - the frequent boozy dinners, Jack Aubrey's heavy-handed sense of humour, his love of clambering about the rigging, the musical evenings in the great cabin, Killick's insolence and efficiency, Stephen's manic enthusiasm for natural history, his ragings at the ceaseless hurry of naval life, and his prickly hostility to authoritarianism. And the ship, the ship.....recreated in all it's beautiful , overcrowded complexity. HMS Surprise was the real star of the film.....

And I have to mention the superb soundtrack, with it's incredibly evocative use of water and wind sounds - huge windy silences as the camera soars away from the ship to take in the immensity of the twilight ocean.

Yes, I liked it. Give me a week and I will probably be back in the cinema to see it again.....

Jacob Davenport, the designer of Gnostica, has a Home Page with some interesting articles including: "Extreme Game Design", "Demoing Zendo", "Icehouse List Frequently Asked Questions" etc

Top 10 Dangers of Living in the Blog Space:

1. You think everyone cares about your opinions: They don't. They care about mine.

2. You stop having normal experiences: Every event you participate following your initial blog post will be constantly interrupted as you simultaneously live the adventure and write the corresponding blog post in your head.......

(via jonny baker)

Today is my birthday! 45 years, but I would rather not think about that.... I celebrated yesterday with a day in London, exploring the Great Court at the British Museum, happily pottering in "Playin Games" on Museum Street, where I eventually bought myself Zendo, then lunching in a wonderfully old-fashioned pub called the Sun on Arne Street, then more shopping on Long Acre, including Stanfords, and finally The Twilight of the Gods (how appropriate is that?) at the Barbican. I'm very pleased with Zendo - I've had a paper IceHouse set for a few years, but it's great to have the proper shiny colourful plastic and above all stacking set at last. Even if you don't want to play Zendo (which I do) this is a good purchase because of the rich inventory of other games which can be played with IceHouse pieces. You never know, perhaps the nice shiny stashes will help me persuade my benighted friends to give IceHouse games another try.

My son Phil has started a new weblog (again) called Phil's Brains (limited subject matter, obviously). I'm happy to post a link to it, but it's not going on my blogroll until he has shown us a few weeks of regular posting.....

I probably will go and see "Master and Commander" inspite of naysayers like those quoted below. Russell Crowe will almost certainly make a complete hash of Jack Aubrey, but I can't resist the lure of seeing life on board HMS Surprise lovingly recreated with a big Hollywood budget. And I will probably regret it, just like I did with "The Lord of the Rings" movies (the other literary love of my life). With an adaptation of a much-loved book, a 95% effort is in some ways more upsetting than a 50% would have been. "The Lord of the Rings" came so very very close to perfection, so many people put so much creativity and talent and time and money into the project - which is why it still baffles and infuriates me that they decided to muck about with the plot at critical points in a way that very nearly makes a nonsense of the whole story. For example Aragorn's encounter with Frodo at the breaking of the Fellowship, or Frodo and Sam's pointless detour to Osgiliath where they are detected by a RingWraith with no discernible consequences. Still makes me cross, but..........

I probably will go and see "Master and Commander".

How 'Master and Commander' gets Patrick O'Brian wrong. By Christopher Hitchens:

The summa of O'Brian's genius was the invention of Dr. Stephen Maturin. He is the ship's gifted surgeon, but he is also a scientist, an espionage agent for the Admiralty, a man of part Irish and part Catalan birth—and a revolutionary. He joins the British side, having earlier fought against it, because of his hatred for Bonaparte's betrayal of the principles of 1789—principles that are perfectly obscure to bluff Capt. Jack Aubrey. Any cinematic adaptation of O'Brian must stand or fall by its success in representing this figure. On this the film doesn't even fall, let alone stand. It skips the whole project.

What would O'Brian have thought of 'Commander'?:

Most writers, of course, cringe at the way their books are adapted for the screen. But O'Brian, whose series of 20 novels were the inspiration for the box-office blockbuster, would have taken 'Master and Commander' as a personal affront. He would have felt, in a deeply visceral way, that his characters -- his friends -- had been short-changed, misunderstood, misused by the moviemakers. And he along with them.

Last night I had the worst night's sleep I have had for several years. Every time I arranged myself in anything but a vertical position I was kept awake by my own violent coughing. The worst of it was, whenever I did manage to fall asleep I dreamed exclusively about the iPod. Now what does that mean? Have Apple reverse engineered the flu virus to carry marketing messages?

Harnham Free Church in Salisbury has been my Christian community for the last 18 years or so. Yesterday afternoon they laid on a farewell tea for me and for Mike and Kath Hitchings who are also planning to move away in the near future. A lot of people turned out. After sandwiches and piles of home-made cake Cliff (one of the elders) made a little speech about my contribution to HFC. This felt weird, it was a bit like attending my own funeral! Then they gave me a card and a gift of books. It was a touching occasion and I did feel a bit choked by the end.

Harnham is quite a staid church, conservative evangelical, averse to charismatic display, light on men, and quite elderly - at 44 I'm one of the youngsters! They've been through rough times in the last few years, but things are looking up at the moment, with a steady trickle of new people quietly coming to faith. I'm fairly optimistic about their future.

I've heard several times recently that divorced Christian men often feel marginalized and left out of church life. This was not my experience at Harnham. To their credit they continued to make use of me and ask me to serve in various ways, they even invited me onto the leadership team a mere year after my divorce. I'll always be grateful for their support and continued belief in me through those difficult years.

Looking back at previous entries I see that my cold started on the 4th. 13 days later and I am still waking up feeling awful, coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose. Am I ever going to get better?? Still, diseased or not I managed to beat Dave at Wilderness War on Saturday evening. We were playing the Annus Mirabilis scenario, billed as 2 or 3 hours long, which nevertheless took us two full evenings. Dave came within one point of a sudden death victory for the French at the end the first year, but I managed to slowly claw things back. A big amphibious landing at Louisburg distracted his attention from the West, and in year 3 Bradstreet finally captured Fort Duqesne after several disasters. At the same time Johnson made a lightning strike on Niagara and took the fort with the Surrender card. The French were just not able to recover from that before the winter. One thing I would have done differently in Dave's shoes would be to use the Indians for raiding. Dave didn't do any raiding - instead he used his Indians in piecemeal attacks on Bradstreet's force. This was very effective in the short-term, but threw away his Indians for any longer term use in raiding operations. This is a terrific game, just the right level of rules complexity, loads of historical flavour, and a dynamic and unscripted strategic situation. Excellent stuff.