| Holiday pics |
[27 Dec 2009|10:25am] |
Walking the dogs. Uther (10 months old) on the left, Tara (7 years old) on the right
Eating Christmas Pudding. Meredith, Noah, Mike and Hugh
A traditional Christmas Scene. Me, Noah and Hugh warms ourselves with the white heat of technology. Noah's a big fan of the Special Agent Oso website. Also, "Thomas Tank!" as he puts it.
Noah helps make Hugh's birthday cake. (Hugh's unfortunate enough to be born on the 26th. Bad planning if you ask me)
Noah's reward. Nuff said, I think.
These deer are far away. In the mist. At dawn. Prizes for identifying species and gender.
My elves prepare to strike deep into the halfling homelands. Take that, dirty hobbitses! Note that I'm wearing my Happy Birthday t-shirt. The birthday spirit did not go as far as letting Hugh actually win anything.
Uther, Tara and myself pose for the camera. Uther, spotted here chewing my fingers, is the one that keeps stealing my duvet, rolling onto his back to expose himself and then snoring. Also spotted, bottom right, is Herbert, who was mine as a child, and is now adored by Noah for periods of up to 17 seconds (double his normal attention span).
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| Games played over Christmas |
[27 Dec 2009|09:08am] |
Vinci - now out of print, this plays like a simpler, more fun version of Britannia - civilisations invade the map, expand as far as possible and then "go into decline" so that the player can bring on a new civilisation. Each civilisation has two special abilities (bonus points for capturing certain types of territory, bonuses to attack in certain ways, etc.) We thoroughly enjoyed this a few Christmas' back, and Hugh was unhappy to discover that it was out of print due to a publisher going bust.
Small World - is basically a recreation of this game in a fantasy setting from the same creator. There's a set of races/tribes and a set of attributes and these are randomly combined to give pairings (Wealthy Hobbits, Flying Orcs). Other than that it's basically the same game, with a couple of tweaks. It was very good fun, and I'd recommend it to pretty much anyone - Mum managed to pick it up in three rounds, despite having had a couple of drinks.
Bohnanza - was also great fun. A simple card game where people collect bean cards (Bohn being German for bean), swap them with others and plant them in two bean fields (with an optional third one). It's much more social than the board games we played, with constant interaction between all the players as they tried to get the cards they wanted and dispose of the ones that were blocking them (you have to play your hand in the order you got the cards). I'm actually tempted to pick this one up myself.
Caylus is a game that I feel conflicted about. You build buildings, buy favours from the king, build bits of the castle for victory points and try not to give away too many points to your competitors. I enjoy it somewhat, and I feel I have a decent grasp on the mechanics, but I've never managed to come up with any kind of decent strategy for it. It always feels tactical - lots of little advantages that scrape out a point or two, rather than something that gives me direction during the game. Which is fine, it's just not terribly satisfying. It's ranked 10th on BoardGameGeek, so clearly lots of other people disagree with me (and generally I agree with their ratings - I love the current top three.
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| Latest from Cairo |
[27 Dec 2009|10:06am] |
We had our briefing this morning.
Thereäs some good news: the Egyptians have announced that the Rafah crossing will be open for 4 days from I think the 29th; that does not include permission for international delegations, but it removes the excuse that we can't go due to poor security at the border.
On the other hand, the government has removed permits for the buses we were going to take to Rafah have been withdrawn. We may try to get other buses. Some people are heading out by public transport... there are a lot of checkpoints to get through though!
Meanwhile we are about to have an event on a bridge over the Nile, tying messages of support for Gaza to the bridge on the occasion of the anniversary of the start of the Israeli massacre of Operation Cast Lead. Just heard there's an AP photographer, so off now!
A delegation going to the Foreign Ministry today to try to persuade them to let us through. We need to be ready to leave at a moment's notice if the Egyptians decide to let us go.
The irony is not lost.
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| Separating Explosives from the Detonator |
[26 Dec 2009|05:43pm] |
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http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/12/separating_expl.html Chechen terrorists did it in 2004. I said this in an interview with then TSA head Kip Hawley in 2007:
I don't want to even think about how much C4 I can strap to my legs and walk through your magnetometers.
And what sort of magical thinking is behind the rumored TSA rule about keeping passengers seated during the last hour of flight? Do we really think the terrorist won't think of blowing up their improvised explosive devices during the first hour of flight?
For years I've been saying this:
Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.
This week, the second one worked over Detroit. Security succeeded.
EDITED TO ADD (12/26): Only one carry on? No electronics for the first hour of flight? I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks.
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| Update from Cairo |
[26 Dec 2009|09:03pm] |
I am in Cairo, posting from hotel's wireless internet. The hotel is full of fellow GFMers, as are a couple of others nearby.Went out for dinner with a bunch of them this evening.
The situation is in quite a state of flux. The Egyptian government - no doubt under heavy US and Israeli pressure - has not only publicly stated that they will not let us into Gaza (via a televised statement by President Mubarak no less), but have cancelled permission for our collective briefing tomorrow evening - all gatherings of over 6 people need government permission - and have told us not to leave Cairo.
There are currently Many Meetings going on at the moment to decide what to do. We will be given briefings in our hotels tomorrow morning. There are plans for some peaceful, non-confrontational actions in Cairo, and the organizers have not given up on getting the Egyptians to change their minds. Some folks are talking about getting public buses to Rafah* (as organized buses might be stopped.) As for me, I am waiting to see what comes out of the briefings tomorrow.
*That is, the Egyptian side of Rafah. The town (or what was once the single town) is split by the Gaza-Egypt border.
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| This small Sargasso Sea |
[26 Dec 2009|09:17am] |
While I normally find small ornaments terribly kitsch, I'm somewhat fond of these small model boats my father has. And even more fond of the way they're arranged within a spreading plant to give the effect, from a distance, of sailing a rather wild anime sea.
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| A good way to wake up |
[26 Dec 2009|08:18am] |
I'm not referring to the large, wet dog tongue that was thrust under the duvet in search of my nose.
I'm talking about the deer that I saw out the window on the way back from the bathroom.
My parents keep a set of binoculars by the upstairs bay window that points towards the nearby woods, and having spotted some small blobs I snatched them up and managed to focus in on about 8 deer (all female, so far as I could tell) grazing on the edge of the woods.
I'd been hoping I'd see them, and I'm glad they wandered into view before I head back to Scotland tomorrow.
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| Thank Goodness For ReadItLater |
[26 Dec 2009|12:37am] |
I currently have about 20 links to reviews of Avatar and Dr Who saved for perusal once I've seen them both. I've got into the habit of that lately - missing the conversations as they happen, but saving them so that I can feel better informed about things I might have missed and subtleties I might have overlooked.
I'll hopefully get caught up with Dr Who tomorrow, otherwise I'll be catching it on download when I get back to Scotland. Not sure about Avatar - Hugh fancies going to the cinema for his birthday tomorrow, and I've also got an appointment with Ed and Erin, so I'll definitely be seeing it at least once in the next week, and possibly twice. Or we might see Sherlock Holmes tomorrow, in which case I'll get my dose of topless Robert Downey Junior instead. It's Win-Win really.
Uther keeps rearranging himself on the other side of the bed. I've managed to actually claim half of it this time, but he's moved from having his head on the spare pillow to resting it on my legs, to briefly having it on the laptop keyboard (not a success for either of us) and is now curled up in a circle next to my knees/feet.
I should have been asleep a good hour ago, but I finally got a chance to catch up with Julie online. I was awoken at 6:45 by a small child shouting "Knock Knock!". I would have complained more, but he wasn't even shouting it at my door - Hugh had been woken by him and taken him to the living room, to let Meredith sleep. When he had to use the toilet Noah decided to stand outside and demand entry. I'm pretty amused by this, and I'd probably be moreso if I was more awake :->
And that's enough rambling for tonight. Five more minutes of chat with Julie, I think, and then a couple of pages of Logicomix (a present) and then sleep. I hope you had a lovely Christmas, wherever you are.
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| Fore and aft |
[25 Dec 2009|11:31pm] |
A couple of photos from our Christmas walk on Dartmoor
Meredith and Noah keep up the rear:
Mum and Hugh at the front, Noah on Hugh's shoulder, Meredith just out of sight behind Mum.
At the right the small blotches are the "wild" ponies that live on Dartmoor year round.
Mike had great fun breaking up some iced-over puddles and then throwing chunks for Uther, who got very confused when the bits he picked up vanished in his mouth.
The rest of the day was spent with Turkey Paella, a random episode of Blackadder III and then The Fall, which was remarkably pretty even on a 27" LCD (it was prettier in the cinema though).
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| A call from Palestinian Christians |
[25 Dec 2009|11:27pm] |
Thought the day would be a good time to post this (haviong not got round to at the time...)
Two weeks ago on 11 December the leaders of all the Palestinian Churches launched the "Kairos Document" (Full English text here), essentially an open letter to their fellow Christians worldwide, as well as to all Israelis and Palestinians and the international community.
In what they describe a "cry of hope in the absence of hope", the signatories call for action to end the occupation. They specifically call for Christian churches to reject distorted interpretation of the Bible that justify injustice, and instead to stand by the oppressed and work for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.
There is much more I could say about it, but it is late and you can read. Enough to say that it should be required reading for Christian churches everywhere...
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| Christmas.. and off to Gaza |
[25 Dec 2009|11:16pm] |
A very Happy Christmas to all who mark it, and peace and goodwill to all.
Heading off to Cairo in just a few hours time, where we meet for the Gaza Freedom March. Prayers appreciated for those so inclined. Also appreciated are mails/phone calls to Egyptian Embassies and Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling on them to let us into Gaza. See here for details.
Will be keeping you updated, although web access may be intermittent for the days actually in Gaza (29 Dec-2 Jan according to plan).
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| Christmas Poll |
[25 Dec 2009|04:31pm] |
Poll #1503402
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 70Christmas Meal Bread I am on the internet because... Andrew got Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii (thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bohemiancoast and drdoug for the recommendation)
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