Lathany

I got back my project earlier this week. I received highest course mark result for it - 90. It's also the best mark I've been awarded for a self-designed project as part of an academic course (among other things, I wrote about the link between story-telling and roleplaying back when I was studying Homer: Poetry and Society for a mark somewhere in the 70s).

I thoroughly enjoyed doing it (I even enjoyed writing it up) and many thanks again to everyone who agreed to let me steal some hours of their time and interrogate them.

August has come and, more or less, gone. The weather picked up today but I've somehow ended up spending it indoors. Ah well, seems like a good moment for an update.

• Spring Summer Cleaning - As per usual when the duo disappear, there was cleaning and tidying of the house. I managed to tackle more or less everything I planned to, with the exception of the kitchen (although I did manage to wash the kitchen floor). It's not exactly the highlight of my holiday, but I do like (briefly) living in a clean and tidy house.
• Garden - The garden has been doing well in the cool, wettish weather; meaning I've had a fight on my hands this summer. There's still a long way to go, but I did manage to tame the flower bed by the back door. "I didn't know there was a path back there!" was bateleur's comment.
• OU - I'm waiting for my previous TMA mark to come back whilst putting off writing up my project. I've done pretty much everything except the write-up - appendices, structuring, references - but I'm running out of time, so sooner or later I'll have to get on with it. Monday, perhaps.
• Shadow Hearts 3 - I've been playing the third (or fourth if you count Koudelka) installment of the Shadow Hearts series. In many ways they've improved on the earlier versions with more fun side quests, a side-swipe at various Hollywood blockbusters and a slicker system. However, somewhere down the line they've lost the whole "plot" aspect and the atmosphere has none of the creep of the earlier episodes (particularly Koudelka and SH1, but even SH:C had some). However, it's not over yet, so there may still be some to come. Although it also seems close to the end - and a lot shorter than any of the predecessors.
• Infinity - The second mini-campaign closed with a moral dilemma; should we leave the human race to be overshadowed by a race of Guardian descendants who were far more powerful, or should we kill the girl who was/would be responsible? After much debate, she handed over the means to spread the race and thus ensure that they were not all brought up under her teachings (which all the signs pointed towards being heavily them-and-us) and there was finally agreement to let her live and look after her own industrial scale output of offspring. It was a difficult issue which split the party and it was a relief to finally come to a decision we could all back. In terms of the wider universe, there will, apparently, be at least one more mini-campaign, but that's all I know.
• From the Cellars of Xanadu - Back in the Dark Ages (late nineties) chrestomancy and I agreed to run games for each other instead of giving presents. Then nothing happened. For ages. Finally, about four years ago now (I think), chrestomancy presented me with Final Fantasy for which I chose a player list. Last summer I came up with an idea to run for him, which I've been working on in spurts ever since. It's Warhammer 40K inspired and has moved from being a long weekend game to a midi campaign. However my game is turning into the most prep-heavy thing I've ever run with weapons lists, maps, handouts galore and a D8 combat system. Thing is, I want to sort out the bulk of my notes before I start running sessions, but at this rate it'll be another decade before I start. However, I've got a player list from chrestomancy so I'm going to use it as an incentive to kick off sessions before Xmas before my GM-withdrawal symptoms get any worse.

Would you be happy to be interviewed by me as part of my Economics course project (my final assignment)?

I'm after couples¹ who both agree to be interviewed by me. I'd prefer to do this face-to-face, but would also accept various other forms of communication as I'm short on people to interview.

My project is on whether game theory can be used to describe the decision making processes of couples under neo-classical (ie. traditional) economic theories. The interviews will be asking about you and your relationship (essentially to identify it in terms of length, religion, etc) and then putting a number of scenarios (variations on the same scenario) to you and asking what you would do. I'm primarily interested in what factors you would take into account as it's decision making rather than outcome that I'm looking at.

Whilst the tutor at summer school was talking about interviews taking 60-90 minutes (this was to my whole group), I'm expecting these to be less than that, but I'll have a better idea after I run my guinea pig (aka bateleur) through my questions this evening.

Names will not be used, the whole thing will be anonymous. As it's an OU essay it won't be published anywhere either.

If you would consider taking part please either drop a comment here saying so or send me an email (the one on my user page will work if nothing else). Feel free to ask further questions, etc.

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¹ Two people involved in a romantic relationship for any length of time.

My Open University results for the first (easier) half of my Economics diploma were out today - I got a distinction.

OU Economics - It's been years since I had an exam to study for. I can safely say I haven't missed the stress and general time absorbing. The course is otherwise over and I was very pleased to discover that I had an overall distinction for the course work side. Admittedly the place I tend to crash and burn is the exam, so this is unlikely to be a mark I keep for the whole course, but it's still a nice thing. Even though it is putting more "must get a good mark" pressure on me (OK, it doesn't take much).

Films - bateleur and I have taken up Amazon's deal on film renting and, over the last couple of weeks, we have seen The Usual Suspects and Serenity. Both were good although in very different styles. I loved the unfolding mystery behind The Usual Suspects and thought it was really well done. Serenity did a good job at tying up the various mysteries left over from Firefly such as the Reavers and more about River's treatment without seeming to have been designed to do just that. I particularly liked the Reavers' stuff. The plot was decent and it made pretty good stand alone viewing as well (although it's difficult to judge as I've seen the series). I found one of the deaths fairly gratuitous though.

Cooking with Bea - Since the sandwich cake, there has been Cinnamon Meringues with Summer Fruits, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Chocolate Mousse. Much to my surprise, she wasn't a big fan of the chocolate mousse and we worked out that it was because it was made with dark chocolate (the usual kind, not the 70+ per cent kind!). I'd half-forgotten just how sweets-and-milk-chocolate children's tastes are.

More on the duo and food - In preparation towards family dinner time (not current done since the duo still arguably need more sleep than my getting home time would give them - not that they do immediately sleep when we put them up, but hey) we are now eating as a family on Saturday evenings. So far, so good. Although I don't think Ryan likes Shepherds Pie much.

Computer Games - I'm getting into Advanced Wars: Dual Strike on the DS and really enjoying it. It's very Battle Isle and the mission format is really nice as I can put it down for ages without needing to remember exactly what I was doing. I've also started Beyond Good and Evil and that too looks promising (particularly the camera stuff), but both are mostly being ignored right now in favour of revision.

Yesterday morning I crawled out of bed and stumbled into the car waving goodbye to bateleur and the twins. The plan was to pick up Frances from Little Shop of Horrors and head off to Shakespeare land.

( And very successful it was too... )

I returned Frances to Little Shop of Horrors and then headed to triskellian and smiorgan's house. bateleur had arrived ahead of me, after assigning our off-spring to a twin-loving granny. We were fed a delicious bacon and potato soup (which, in no sense, was clam chowder) and red wine (I got bateleur to memorise the label for future purchases) and headed off to Templars.

( The alcohol lake at Templars )

The post-party morning arrived too early (although, thankfully, hangoverless), but included toast with ginger preserves. Our trip home (to relieve the saintly granny) was via Tesco, and I persuaded bateleur to buy some for me. We also picked up eggs for Easter (mine was a Caramel Egg) and supplies for tea. The granny departed and chrestomancy arrived (on his motorised banana) to be lent a copy of Mourn's Gift and fed tortillas and tiramisu. Ryan spent the afternoon in the dog house, having broken the mouse for Mostly Harmless forcing bateleur out to Staines during the afternoon to buy a replacement. This had an up-side, though, I got a present - Broken Sword II.

Now the house is quiet, the babies are in bed, and I am listening to the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack again. ( Final Fantasy soundtrack comparisons - only for the obsessives )

Well, my Mostly Twinless weekend is over. However, less than six weeks left to BadgerCon !