dangermouse.net – David Morgan-Mar

Board game learning night

Today was Good Friday, but unlike most people I didn’t have a day off work. I had two ethics classes in the morning, and two in the afternoon. But in between I got to do a long walk with my wife (who had the day off work) and Scully.

After the last class I went over to a friend’s place for our fortnightly board games night. But since most of our friends were off enjoying the long weekend with their families, there were only two of us present. We used the opportunity to teach each other some complex games that we’d been stalled on learning. I taught him Root, and he taught me Spirit Island.

I also spent some in between time writing up the log of our last Dungeons & Dragons session, in preparation for the next one, scheduled in two weeks time. I divvied up the treasure and awarded experience, and most of the characters will be going up levels… or at least they will be when they get time train! At the moment they’re too busy dealing with a death curse placed on them by the God of Swords to take time out to train, so they’re going to have to defer levelling up until they (or if they) manage to avoid dying from the curse.

Australian election campaign ongoing

We’re getting towards the pointy end of the current Australian federal election campaign. Election day is Saturday 3 May, so just over 2 weeks away. It was brought more strongly into my consciousness on Tuesday when we drove over to Rose Bay.

While driving along the road to get there, I noticed that in that area there were election candidate posters attached to every single streetlight pole along the road. And also posted on many buildings and fences. it was a little surprising because it’s very different to what I’ve been seeing in the area where I live. Here there are only the odd handful of signs on people’s home fences. I walk down a street with maybe 50 houses on it, and one of them has an election sign. And there are no signs posted on any public infrastructure at all. So to go to a different part of Sydney and be accosted with hundreds of signs was a bit weird.

My electorate, which was won by an independent MP at the last election, has been abolished for this election. Residents have all been assigned to one of the three neighbouring electorates in a redistribution due to geographic population changes. The old electorate was marginal, with the independent winning by 2.9%, but my new electorate is considered a safe independent seat, with the current independent MP having won the last election by more than 10%. So I guess this seat is not being as strongly fought as some others across Sydney, possibly leading to the noticeably lower level of posters around the place.

This is a very unusual election, in that one of the most pressing issues for Australian voters is foreign policy, which usually features way down the list of relevant issues. This is caused by Donald Trump and the disintegration of the USA. Voters are worried about the economic impact of foreign trade with the USA being disrupted by Trump’s policies/actions, and about the status of our military alliance. Like Canadian politics leading up to their imminent election (28 April), we’re looking to see which prospective Prime Minister will be stronger in dealing with the USA. In fact there was a debate between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton last night, and in the ABC News article about it, the very first person mentioned in the article is… Donald Trump!

Another article on the election reports that Australian trust in the USA has fallen to very low levels, with a poll finding:

only 36 per cent of Australians expressed any degree of trust in the United States to act responsibly

And while we’re at it, I’m aware of three recent incidents where Australian travellers were stopped at the US border, detained for up to 36 hours, in one case in moved to a prison rather than just detained at the airport, and deported. Immigration lawyers are now warning Australians about the risks of travelling to the USA and advising anyone travelling there to use a burner phone, and print out bank statements and detailed itineraries to produce if demanded by US officials.

So while domestic issues such as housing affordability and inflation are on Australians’ minds heading into the election, foreign policy is playing an unusually large part this election.

Not much else to report today, it was a routine day of online classes and some time spent writing comics. I took a walk to pick up Scully from my wife’s work, as she took her in to work with her today. I got rained on along the way by a sudden shower. And I made pasta with a simple zucchini tomato sauce for dinner.

OOC stories and unreliable memories

Today I worked more on Darths & Droids story planning, getting feedback from co-writers on some of the out-of-character story arcs I brainstormed yesterday, and modifying some of them in response. I put some of them into a new strip, written and produced.

This evening I’ve run three more classes on the Memories topic. The Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm test has turned out to be pretty successful in getting kids to demonstrate false memories. Out of 9 kids so far, 6 of them said they remembered seeing the word “sleep” in a list of words that didn’t actually include that word.

It’s a little bit risky doing this over a Zoom class, because I can’t be 100% sure that none of the kids are writing down all the words, or even taking a screenshot. But if they’re doing that they’d get the question correct, so the number could potentially be even higher.

Another question I’m using is essentially the set-up for the classic 1990 Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall. I posit a future technology that could be used to create fake memories, and then ask the kids if it would be okay to use this to create pleasant memories, such as a great vacation that they didn’t really go on. Most of the kids so far have said this would be bad and unethical, but a few said it would be good and could help people be happier. So far none of them have recognised the source of the idea. One girl actually said this was an amazing idea and she wrote it down and said she’d write a story about it! I should ask her next week to share her story with me.

Otherwise I had a fairly standard day, walking Scully a couple of times. The weather is finally starting to feel more like autumn with cooler days, but apparently it’s not going to last as the forecast is back up to 30°C on the weekend!

Missed Monday and a special seaplane lunch

Wow, Monday was so busy that I didn’t even realise I forgot to post aa blog entry until my wife asked me a short time ago, “Did you post on your blog yesterday?” It wasn’t exciting-busy, it was just a lot of online ethics classes, and walking Scully, and cooking dinner, so not really much to write about. Which is maybe why I forgot it.

Today, however, we had a special day out. My wife had the day off work and we booked a restaurant for lunch. A nice one, on the harbour shore, with a view. Unfortunately the weather turned overnight and it was chilly and cloudy and windy, but not uncomfortably so from our table on the wharf.

The restaurant is the Empire Lounge, at the Sydney Seaplanes terminal in Rose Bay. This is the only seaplane terminal in Sydney Harbour and they do scenic flights over Sydney, as well as shuttle services to some locations just north of Sydney where there are fancy secluded waterside restaurants that have a seaplane wharf for guests. There are no actual destinations that the seaplanes fly to, as they’re just not practical for any destinations within range. But the site was the old terminal for Sydney’s first international airport, receiving the Empire Flying Boat service from Southport in England, which took ten days to reach Sydney.

For lunch we had some of the hummus with focaccia to start:

Then I had the pan-fried snapper (with a side of green vegetables shared with my wife, no shown):

And for dessert a baked cheesecake:

The meal was pretty good, everything tasty and delicious.

Back at home I did some story planning stuff for Darths & Droids. I tried to write a new strip, but needed to work on background material to get the story arc straight in my head first, and also look up some old strips for continuity.

This evening I had the first class in the new week’s ethics topic: Memory. I have some interesting questions about reliability of memories. I used the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm test, showing a set of words related to sleep, but not including the word “sleep”. And then hid the words after about 15 seconds and asked the kids what words they remembered. The very first word “remembered” was “sleep! I wasn’t sure how well the test would work in getting them to remember something they never even saw, but it was very successful.

On TV, I’ve started watching the new season of Black Mirror. I really like this series, but with the first new episode I got a feeling of dread, like it was giving companies ideas, kind of like the infamous Torment Nexus. … Time to watch another one!

Sunday brunch and Incognito art

This morning I got up a bit early and did my 5k run. I needed to go early because I had to cool down and have a shower and change in time to walk up the street with my wife to meet up with her mother and brother for a morning tea at a local cafe. Although I’d had quick breakfast before my run, I was hungry after the exercise and turned it into a brunch by ordering the French toast, which came loaded with maple syrup, berry compote, and melted white chocolate. My brother-in-law joined me for a substantial brunch as he hadn’t had breakfast yet, while the others had lighter snacks.

When we got home I did some comics stuff and got ready for my ethics classes, beginning from 4pm today. And I made some green curry broccoli and rice for dinner.

My wife has been making some artworks to send off for an anonymous fundraising art event, called the Incognito Art Show. Anyone can register and submit up to three pieces of original art, which are then displayed online, and selected works in a public display gallery. People can buy the art without knowing who made it, which is only revealed after purchase. You can view and buy art online if you wish, and they ship internationally, so if you’re interested you might want to check it out. The artworks aren’t viewable or buyable yet because they’re still accepting submissions, but they will go on display from 26 May and on sale from 31 May.

Pretty cool!

Roti pies and German smallgoods

After breakfast this morning I went for a 5k run.It was a bit warmer and more humid than last Saturday, but I ran a similar time, so I’m happy with that. Although I was pushing hard and thought I’d done a bit better than that.

We made a special expedition for lunch today, driving all the way to Narrabeen, in the northern beaches region of Sydney, to try a new place that has really good reviews for their pies: Roti Pies.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it turns out the pies are pretty much exactly that. The crust is made just like Indian roti, and the fillings are all various Indian curries. My wife tried the cauliflower & chick pea korma pie, while I had a butter chicken pie and a lamb achari pie. They were really delicious, and the unusual roti pie crust was amazing with the spicy and juicy fillings. They leaked a bit, and it was a bit messy, but we sat at one of the outdoor tables there and had plates to catch it all, so it was fine.

After this, we went two doors down to a gelato shop and I had scoops of apple pie and coconut, cherry, chocolate gelato. I ate it as we crossed the road to walk along the grassy patch by the lagoon there, which was nice, and gave Scully a chance to walk on the grass a bit.

On the way back to the car we passed Brot & Wurst, a German smallgoods and grocery shop. We browsed around all of the cool stuff and bought a few things: German mustard, pfeffernusse gingerbread, stroopwafels, and a bottle of gluhwein syrup for mixing with red wine to make gluhwein. That should be nice with winter on the way!

Speaking of which, the weather still seems warm, with temperatures around 26-28°C during the day still. But there are signs of autumn, with the London plane trees lining many streets starting to go brown. The Bureau of Meteorology has released the long range winter forecast, predicting it will be another very warm winter, following on the last two which were the warmest two winters on record for Sydney. This one is likely to be similar again.

For dinner tonight I made calzones: one mushroom and one spinach, which I split and my wife and I had one half of each, with a basil and oregano tomato sauce that I whipped up.

Chicken fried rice and board games night

Today is online board games with friends. My wife is also out having dinner with her friends, so I’m minding Scully at home. We went out together (me and Scully) for an early dinner before my wife left.

We walked up to the new shops area at St Leonards. I was thinking of trying the chicken place again for a kebab wrap or a burger. But next door was a Chinese place that did noodles and rice dishes. I grabbed a table outside and tied up Scully and went in to order. I tried the satay chicken fried rice. The woman behind the counter was super friendly and came out to say hi to Scully and bring her a bowl of water. The serving size was very generous and not expensive. It was nothing super special, but decent and filling and good value, so I’m happy with that.

Back home and we’re into our online games. I’ve played a couple of games of Jump Drive, then won my first ever game of Marrakech, which was nice. I’ve played this game many times and never managed to win before. I think I was lucky with the die rolls though. Then we played a game of Space Base, which I also won. And then Word Traveler. And Harmonies, which I hadn’t played before, and was really fun. I’ve seen it on the BoardGameGeek hot list and was keen to try it, and yeah, it’s great.

Other than that, not much else to report today. I worked through a few things I needed to do for Standards Australia and ISO work, including applying for funding for my trip to Berlin in June to attend the next ISO Photography meeting there. And I tidied up some random chore-type things in my inbox, dealing with tasks like tax payments and setting up two-factor authentication for a site that’s requiring it soon. All the boring stuff.

Being wary of cut grass

Not much to report about today, which was occupied with the usual online classes and comic writing.

For lunch I took Scully for a longish walk, paste the Grumpy Baker and around the harbour shore. I grabbed a spicy vegetable roll from the bakery for lunch and walked with Scully down to the grassy area by the water to eat it at the table there. But when we got there, there were gardeners cutting and trimming the grass, mostly completed.

Now, Scully loves cut grass. She loves to roll in it, getting it all over her fur, where it sticks and is nigh impossible to remove without painstakingly picking off each individual bit of grass. I’d planned to sit and eat my vege roll while letting Scully roam around and do her own thing. But now I had to keep an eagle eye on her the whole time and be prepared to run over and stop her if I saw a sign of preparing to roll in the grass.

Fortunately she behaved (mostly) and I managed to eat my lunch without ending up with a dog covered in grass.

In other news, I contacted my friend who lives in the Netherlands and told him the dates we’d be in Europe in June/July. He said he might have a spare weekend to travel on the days that we will be in Prague, and so might meet up with us there. It’s still a considerable trip for him, but in the past we’ve met up in Paris, Barcelona, and Essen, so it’s not beyond possibility that we’ll be seeing him in Prague.

Finding a place for a special lunch

On Tuesday next week my wife is taking a day off and we’re planning to have a nice lunch somewhere. Unfortunately the place we sometimes go to for such things, Otto in Woolloomooloo, isn’t open on Tuesdays. So I had to find a new place, with the constraints that it has to be open for lunch on Tuesdays, and has seating which allows dogs so that we can take Scully.

There’s a bit of a poor overlap between fancy dining places and restaurants that allow dogs. But after some searching I found the Empire Lounge, which is on a wharf in Rose Bay, a suburb on Sydney Harbour. It looks pretty nice and after confirming they’d be okay with Scully I booked us in for lunch next week.

In other food news, I took Scully for a walk this morning and decided to visit Moon Phase for a pastry. They had an Easter special: a carrot cake pastry!

It was delicious. A warm and spicy carrot cake centre, surrounded by crisp flaky pastry, topped with cream cheese icing, crunchy glazed pecans, and… some dill! I’m not sure why dill, but yeah, it worked.

Today I mostly worked on writing new Darths & Droids strips. I’m trying to build up a three-week (or more) buffer as quickly as I can, to cover my trip in June. So a day dedicated to it was sensible at this stage.

Tonight I made lentil dhal with potatoes for dinner, and had a little before my first online class started at 5pm. I’m busy teaching from 5-8pm, so I can’t eat at a normal dinner time. I had a little before to tide me over and then had another bowl afterwards.

But the good part is finishing an hour earlier than during daylight saving time!

Completely forgot about yesterday’s post

Ooops! I intended to write a blog post yesterday, but I just completely forgot. It was a busy day. I had two ethics classes starting early at 8:00 am – an hour earlier than last week because of the daylight saving change on the weekend. This also meant that my 12:00 class—that I’d temporarily shunted to Tuesdays because it didn’t give me enough time to get into university for the Data Engineering lecture—could now be moved back to 11:00 on Monday. So I had that class too. Then I had one hour to take Scully to my wife’s work and hop on a train into the city and pick up some lunch on the way before the lecture.

This was the last lecture with new material, talking about complex systems and agent-based modelling. We have two weeks off now for the mid-semester vacation and then the Easter Monday public holiday, followed by four weeks of student project work tutorials.

When I got home, I made pizza for dinner and then had two more ethics classes in the evening, which chewed up the rest of the day.

Today we had some rain and cooler weather, which was nice. I wrote my new ethics class topic, on “Brands and Trademarks”. With some interesting questions like:

Should I be able to start a business called McDonald’s:
• that does shoe repair?
• that sells pizza?
• that sells burgers?
• if my surname is McDonald?
If I do start a shoe repair shop called McDonald’s, should I be allowed to advertise it with a red and yellow sign saying “McDonald’s”?

I also made some slides to show the kids with illustrative photos of businesses with modified names, and this took a while. So it took me longer to write this class than usual, and I didn’t get around to doing much else during the day.

Scully is finished her medication for her bloody poops last week, and seems to be fully recovered, so that’s good news. There was some other test the vet did which also came back negative. So we don’t really know what the problem was – probably some sort of gastro-intestinal infection I guess.

In other news, the Australian election campaign is progressing. Prime Minster Albanese is firming up in the opinion polls, while opposition leader Dutton is falling behind. At least part of this is the “Trump factor”, with Australian voters recoiling from conservative politics due to the destructive antics of Donald Trump in the USA. Dutton was initially a few weeks ago expressing a need for some Trump-like policies, such as reducing the size of the federal government, but this has backfired badly and he’s had to backpedal and change his tune. So if anything good can come from Trump, I’m hopeful that it makes Australian voters head for a more progressive choice, n the same way it appears to be doing in Canada.