Freja

The poor lil Pip has had a hard week end. Either her teeth are giveing her jip or she's just restless with all the energy of being brand new. What ever has been up with her, she's been a mortal terror for the last few days and Mette's patience has been wearing thin with the constant wrestling and sleepless bouncing about in her bed.

What ever is wrong with her, Freja seems happy enough about it. She's as extroverted as ever, sharing smiles and waving at me from across the room, or shaking her head (Rammstein style) to what ever music is playing. (I spent the day backing up files and recording some music for a distant friend). Today I've had a rough day (upset tummy) so I've been worn out by the constant need to pay attention. At one point, she pulled the adjustment lever clean out of my office chair (which is broken anyway)

Stakkels lil Pipski har haft en hård dag. Enten er det hendes tænder eller også har hun for meget energi. Det vides ikke hvad, men hun har været en lil monster og Mette's tålmådighed er bleven strakt til det ydest. Freja gider ikke sov og hopper rundt i sengen i stedet for.

Hvad det nu er galt med hende har ikke påvirket Freja særlig meget. Hun er lige så glad og udadvendt som normal og har smilet og vinket (hendes senest trick) til mig hele dagen. Hun har også 'danset', og rysted hoved til min musik og på et tidspunkt tog hun fat i min stol og knækkede 'dimsen' af (den som man bruger til at justere stolen). Stolen er alligvel gået i stykker for langt siden.

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Nao

In between everything else, I've been adding bits to my model ship and I've now finished the main decking and sides and all thats left is the fore and aft superstructures and the various details.

Having gotten this far I've experienced several interesting points regarding hull formation, in particular the way the stem shapes the bow. I think the model is far too 'pointed' in its bow and too 'fat' in the middle to be an accurate replica of a Nao. I put this down to the drawing I used as inspiration. It doesn't really matter though since the model, as it is now, is excellent for wargaming purposes. The fat middle of the hull means more space for elements (little figures of men) to engage each other.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

We watched this yesterday and I found it to be poor. The editting was bad, the story was just a rehash of the older stories and the acting wasn't anything to cheer about either. Half the time, the real mystery was where are we in the story?

Mette found it very annoying and we spent a lot of time (in between catering to HRH Pipski's whining requirements) figuring out just what was going on. "Why was he talking to the fire place?" Mette wanted to know.
"He's talking to Syrius Black"
"Who is Syrius Black"
"Gary Oldman"
"Gary Oldman is this film?"
"er... nope"

or

"Why has Ralph got no nose?"
"I dunno"

News from Scandinavia

Pia Kjærsgaard, at a 'peoples hearing' found herself alone when she called for Turkey's application to the EU to be cast aside. 400 members of the public, specifically chosen to represent a broad swathe of Danish society, were gathered at Christiansborg (the home of the Danish Parliment) today to listen to various politicians putting forth arguments on the EU. The majority of the audience supported Marianne Jelved and Villy Søvndal's argument that it was important, both for the EU and for Turkey that the Turkish nation, as it develops into a modern democracy maintains the option of EU membership.

Pia Kjærsgaard's reply was that Turkey was simply not a part of Europe, but a part of Asia. She described it as a corrupt nation which oppressed its minorites and whose religiously toned differences with the rest of Europe were insurmountable. She went ont; "But we mustn't kick Turkey. Increased cooperation through trade deals would be much better, also for Turkey, than EU membership. The nation should have a connection to the EU but it would be a catastrophe to let Turkey join the EU."

Villy Søvndal (Chairman of the Socialist Peoples Party) argued that if the EU closed the door on the Turks, then the undemocratic, fundamentalist forces would be strengthened. EU membership would also help solve the matter of Cypress he added. Marianne Jelved was of the opinion that since Turkey was already NATO member then it was already a European nation (She didn't say whether or not NATO membership qualifies Canada and the USA as being European). "I see no problem in that Turkey is a Muslim nation" Jelved said. "On the contrary. Turkish EU membership is the key to teaching us all to live along side each other, regardless of religion".

Helle Thorning Schmidt was also present at the 'peoples hearing' and she garnered her share of applause. Todays polls also indicate her party has risen again in the opinion of the Danes, whilst Marianne Jelved has seen a decline in popularity.

What the 'peoples hearing' re-established, was the fact that in all the Danish Parliment, there is only one party (Dansk Folkeparti) which maintains a sceptical opinion towards the EU and the question of further EU expansion. This set of affairs has been at odds with the Danish people now for close to two decades, but shows no sign of changing anytime soon.

Interestingly though, the Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, recently spoke out against the EU constitution, calling upon the rest of the EU to get over the loss of the constitution and work towards building European strength. The very next day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said she thought the EU constitution was still a viable possibility.

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Here is a translation of the Swedish Muslims demand to the Swedish government. Reading through it I note that a lot of it resembles a smoke screen. The argument that Swedish Muslims are not allowed to build mosques for example, strikes me as being pure nonesense. I'm pretty sure Sweden has the same attitude to such things as Denmark does. Any one can build any house of worship they care to (and many have) the only condition is that they pay for it themselves. 'Freedom of Religion' does not mean the majority has to subsidize minority religions, though this seems to be Mahmoud Aldebe's central argument regarding the construction of mosques in Sweden.

I realised recently that if the Muslims of Denmark really wanted their own Grand Mosque as their imams have been claiming than all they have to do is donate 500 kr ($85) each. Surely, if their faith means so much to them, then ½k isn't going to break them! A hundred million kroner would probably pay for a couple of decent mosques. Especially if they bought some old churches and converted them.

What the Swedish Muslims appear to be doing is angling to get the Swedish state to pay for their mosques and introduce some Sharia law. What I can't help but wonder is, if these peope can't even live in Sweden, which must be one of the softest, most accomidating nations on the planet, then where exactly can they live without making such demands?

In the mean time, in its ongoing drive to become the first Muslim majority city in Europe, central Malmø was witness to yet another public shoot out today.

Jan Saudek

May's featured artist is my all time favourite photographer, Jan Saudek, from the Czech Republic.
Saudek's style is a mixture of the grotesque and the sublime, using hand tinted or monochrome images to portray his own perspective on the human condition, and whilst I don't really appreciate all his work, I find his figurative work appeals both to my sense of ambience and to my baser instincts. I have two books by Saudek. One is only a Taschen I bought here in Århus but the other is a Czech book I bought at an exhibition of Saudeks photographs in Prague in 1995.
If I recall correctly, then this was also my first contact with Saudek's work and at the time I was more than a little disapointed with Prague for I had hoped to see Alphonse Mucha's 'Slav Epic' which according to my books was to be found, on display in the Czech capital, but which I found no trace of.

Finding a gallery of Saudek's photography however (and a visit to Mucha's grave) soon put me back in a good mood. Fortunately for me I still had enough money to buy one of the book's they had at the gallery. There was a second, larger and much more expensive book which I was tempted to just grab and run off with, but which I promised myself I'd buy later on. I dutifully noted its ISBN number, but later I found no match for it so I never got that second treasure.

The image of a girl which decorates my side bar is an 'homage' to Saudek I did the year after I discovered him.
Saudek (and his twin brother) share their birthday with my brother Peter.

Wikipedia: Jan Saudek

News and comment from Denmark

The past weeks political turmoil has now brought about a ‘meeting of consolidation’ between the conservatives (who are the junior partners in the government) and the nationalists (who give the government the majority it needs in parliament, but who are not actually in the government)

Of late, the relationship between the government (which is a minority, coalition government) with Dansk Folkeparti has become some what strained due to the overtures of a proposed cooperation between the existing governing parties with the Radikal Venstre (of which I’ve written in previous posts). Dansk Folkeparti have not been pleased with how this overture was publicly received by certain members of the Conservative party’s grass roots and the Conservative leader Bendt Bendtsen was obliged to invite the DF leader, Pia Kjærsgaard to a lunch to discuss how the two party’s might settle their differences. Before the lunch, Kjærsgaard made her wishes clear to the press. She wanted both a sign of respect from the Conservatives and a public admonishment of those conservatives who have voiced their opinion that the governments relationship with DF is ‘damaging’. Naturally, Bendtsen couldn’t give in to this so the two leaders later faced the press with the announcement that the conservative leaders will meet with DF’s leadership, once a month from now on. This strengthens the unofficial ties between the government and the nationalists and I don’t wonder if this is what Kjærsgaard wanted all along. This is just her latest victory in the ongoing struggle between her and Marianne Jelved.

In the mean time, Denmark is facing the domestic fall-out of the Mohammed cartoons incident with many people pondering upon the image Denmark projects of itself to the world. A media relations company called Advice has recommended Denmark should not seek to portray itself as a ‘fairy tale nation’ or the home of HC Andersen. “Drop the Little Mermaid as a national symbol” is their advice to the Danish Foreign Minister.
“Since the Muhammed crisis, this ‘namby pamby’ image of Denmark is doing us more harm than good” said Advisor Jesper Højbjerg from Advice to metroXpress (a Danish newspaper)
“It confirms that we are an introverted and selfish nation, and that’s just not too fortunate right now when there is doubt regarding Denmark’s position in the global community or our respect for other cultures and traditions”

moif: doubt?

Naser Khader, who’s organisation, the Moderate Muslims, represents a meager thousand Muslims (and close to 20,000 other Danes) is now the most popular politician in the opinion polls, but he is widely considered to be a traitor by most Muslim citizens. In the DR debate threads it is often asked why the Danes should consider Khader as any one qualified to speak on behalf of all Muslims?
I don’t know, but perhaps its because he is elected…?

In Sweden, the largest Muslim organisation has sent letters to every member of the rigsdag (Sweden’s Parliament) proposing that Muslim childen are taught in state schools by official imams, that divorce, in the case of Muslim marriages, be approved by imams, and that Islamic separate laws should be written into Sweden’s laws. Naturally these proposals have been dismissed by the Swedish government. The Muslim organisation in questions has 70,000 members. So far I haven’t seen or heard any one question why these imams should be seen as any one qualified to speak on behalf of all Swedens Muslims. (I have no idea how many Muslims there are in Sweden, but I'll bet there are many more than in Denmark)

This is my problem in a nutshell. We're constantly under the obligation not to consider Denmarks 200,000 Muslims to be a homogenous group, but rather a mass of many people from many different backgrounds. Fair enough, but if they are so, then why don't more of these Muslims unite behind their adopted nation? Why do we so often see hostile imams freely speaking on behalf of the Muslims community against our country whilst an elected politician, one who is even able to bridge the gap, is considered a traitor and subjected to death threats?

Freja, Mette & Sheev’dra

Freja has been very adventurous of late. She roams the flat huffing and puffing or making long squealing noises that sound like a wounded puppy crying for attention. Most of the time this means nothing at all but sometimes it means she’s hungry. All this roaming means I have to be extra careful to keep my eye on her because give her ten seconds and she can have a power cable in her hand or one of Mette’s sewing pins!. (Mette drops pins like pine trees drop needles)

She has also begun to roll over onto her belly in bed, which gives her the opportunity to get up onto her feet and start shouting and singing for attention (or food). This means it takes a long time to get her to fall asleep now and I’ve been shirking my responsibility and letting Mette do all the hard work… my excuse, which is almost valid, is that Pip falls asleep easier with Mette than with me since she seems to equate me with playing games and messing about and Mette with comfort and security (and food). That is not to say that I don’t try to get her to fall asleep, it’s just that I have to give up after a while and let Mette take over.

Freja har været meget eventyrlysten her på det sidst. Hun kravler rundt omkring og laver altmuligt sjov lyd. Hun stønner og puster some en gammel dampmaskin og laver højt lyd ligesom en syg hvalp. For det mest betyder det ingenting, men nogen gang kan det betyde ’giv mig mad!’
Alt dette kravleri betyder at jeg skal være ekstra opmærksomt fordi hvis hun har bare ti sekunder kan hun nu få fat i et ledning eller en af Mette’s knappe nål!

Hun har også begyndte at vende om på rykken i sengen nu og hun kan nu selv kom på ben. Dette betyder at hun nu står og råber og synger efter opmærksomhed (eller mad). Det tager et langt tid for at få hende til at fald i sovn nu og jeg har forsømt mit ansvar lidt og ladet Mette tager det hårdt arbejde... min undskyldning, som er næsten gode nok, er at Pipski falder hurtiger i sovn med Mette end med mig. Når jeg er der så gider hun ikke sov fordi hun anser mig som en man lejer med, hvorimod Mette ser hun som en der giver tryghed og ro (og med).
Det betyder ikke at jeg ikke prøver, men at jeg giver op efter en tid og lader Mette tag over.

Mette er langt bedre til at få Pip til at sov, nok fordi hun elsker at sov selv og ofte falder i sovn imens hun ligger ved siden af. Det kan jeg kun gøre om morgen. Om aften er jeg alt for rastløs til at bare ligge der... selv om nogen gang kan jeg lig og kig på Freja mens hun sover.

For resten, drømt Mette, her i morges at Maya var bleven gravid, men det er nok fordi Alison er blevet gravid.

~~~~~~~~~

So, yesterday was gaming day and it was my turn to make food. I decided to make a Fisherman’s pie (which is like a Shepard’s pie, only with fish) and add in some of the mass of ‘grubs’ Malene (an old friend) brought by. (Alison, another friend, tells me ‘grubs’ are called ‘Jerusalem Artichokes’ in English, and I’ll have to take her word for that) I also added a load of caulifower into as well.
Unfortunately it didn’t taste quite as I’d imagined. It was edible ...but not particularly good. The ‘grubs’ were just too over whelming.
Apart from that, the evening passed okay. Sheev’dra is my favourite RPG of all time (as a player) and I always have a good laugh. Since this is a new game cycle I’m experimenting with multiple Dwarf characters (the Brothers Rammstein) instead of my old Elf character (Gau Therium), who has now become too powerful to retain as a standard player. It got to the point where I was employing every one else's characters which was just boring.

The new game looks okay so far. My Dwarfs are good fighters and metal workers but incompetent at just about everything else. I like playing obtuse, or flawed characters because its more of a challenge to create a persona than to figure out what’s going on. Most RPG’s are just not that challenging so most of the time I concentrate on ambience and personality. Having four characters instead of one is an experiment to see if I can develop four distinct individuals or if they all just blend into one.

Right now I’m listening to ‘Lullaby Elegy' by Eliot Goldenthal.

Freja

Pip had a good day today (Wednesday). She went to visit her friends in Mette's Mothers group in Horsens. Unfortunately Mette didn't take the camera so no pictures. Mette reports that they all went for a walk in Horsens and had a fine time. Pip rode in a borrowed pram, sitting up and watching the world go by like a small queen. Every so often she'd made happy noises at things that caught her attention.
By the time she got home, she was completely worn out and for once couldn't finish her dinner.

Pip havde en rigtig gode dag idag (Onsdag). Hun var på besøge ved en af Mette's Mødergruppe som har flyttede til Horsens. Mette tog ikke Kamera'en med så der er ingen billede desværre, men hun kunne forælle at de tog pigerne en tur i byen og Pip sad i en lånt barnevogn som en lille dronning. Hver gang hun så noget som hun kunne lide, lavede Pip alt muligt sjove lyd. Freja var så træt da de endelig kom hjem at, for en gangs skyld, kunne hun ikke spise sin aftensmad færdig!


OBS.
Tilykke til Bettina som har vist fået arbejde i ...København? ...Malmø? ...i hvert fald, en af dem, så nu kan Peter og Bettina muligvis (næsten) flytte hjem!

You must be 'avin' a bath!

Nothing ever seems to change does it? Tony Blair came to power on the promise of getting rid of Tory ‘sleaze’ and now we see how he’s been financing his party by dubious ‘loans’. In the past we had all the sex scandals that characterized the Conservatives and now today I read that John Prescott has admitted to ‘bonking’ a secretary. I guess he ought to join Blunkett in the corner.

Perhaps worst of all is Tony's depressing trend of ignoring responsibility. He did it when he brought back Blunkett and now he's doing it again with Clarke. And is it just me, or does this recent affair not have a distinct echo of how Bush refused to accept Rumsfeld's resignation?

Ah well, thats Britain... over here its not much better. The political fall out of yesterdays Social Democrat reshuffle has begun with the critics circling Helle Thorning Schmidt like vultures. Her attempt to bring stability to her party has been widely regarded as a sign of obvious weakness. I think its becoming fairly obvious that nothing is going to save Helle Thorning Schmidt short of bloody minded tenacity and a willingness to lay about some stick on her part and since she doesn't appear to be that strong a leader, I can't see how the Social Democrats are going to be able to regain their former position of strength.

In the mean time, a nine year old Danish boy has lost his lower leg as a result of the Egyptian bombings and three other Danes are still in hospital having paid the price for their holiday in Egypt.
The EU of course doesn't want us to refer to such terrorism as 'Islamic'. The use of the word Jihad in connection with terrorism is also to be discontinued if Bruxelles has its way. The argument is that we ought not to tar all Muslims with the same brush, and thats fair enough.

What I wonder though is how the media is supposed to refer to groups like Islamic Jihad if they're not allowed to use the word Jihad in connection with terrorism? Maybe, like Hamas, we're not supposed to call them terrorists at all...?

Ship types.

These are the types I am primarily interested in, due to historical and gaming reasons:

Snekke
The Viking longship is perhaps the most famous ship type in history but they didn’t really exist as a single type of ship, but rather an entire family of very different craft. Snekke were the smallest of those that would traditionally be regarded as a ‘longship’. A typical Snekke might have a length of 17 metres, a width of 2.5 metres and a draught of only 0.5 metres. It would carry a crew of about 25 men.
Wikipedia: Longship
The disaster of the Ormen Friske.
Viking ship classes

Drage (or Drekkar)
The ‘dragon ships’ of Nordic legend. For a long time, there was some debate as to whether these giants actually existed, but now, Roskilde Vikingship museum has actually built one; Havhingsten (Sea Stallion). These ships were the battleships of their day, with lengths from 30 metres upwards. Some were said to be as long as fifty metres.
Illustration
Havhingsten (just look at the way she rises from the sea)

Knarr
This is the trading variant of the Viking longship and I’d imagine, probably the most common. Sometimes I wonder if there was always such a big difference between how Knarr and Snekke were used given that the Vikings were probably raiders or traders depending on circumstances, but whether or not Knarr were sometimes used for raiding, they were certainly built for trading. They were from 9 to 18 metres long and built fat and wide in order to hold as much cargo as possible.
The Skuldelev ships
Finds and replicas
Illustration

Cog
This is a ship type from the high medieval period, used especially by the Hanseatic League as a trading vessel in the northern European sea’s and all across Europe and in the Crusades as a troop carrier. Very few examples have survived and not much is known about the various types of cog that must have existed. The best-preserved Cog is the Bremen wreck, which measures 23.27 metre long, 7.62 metre wide, and 7.02 metre high to the top of the capstan on the castle deck. She holds 160 m³.
The Bremen Cog
The Cog
Images of a model Cog

Carrack/Nao
The European Carrack is a fifteenth century vessel and essentially a far more advanced vessel than the others in the list. It resembles the Cog, but has some significant differences. Its bow is blunt, it doesn’t have a clinker hull and it has a more comprehensive cabin arrangement (Indeed I’m not sure Cogs had cabins at all). Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria was a carrack measuring 18 metres in length.
The Carrack.
Wikipedia: Carrack
Wikipedia: Santa Maria

Dhow
This is an Arabic ship type that most probably derives its design from Asian ship types. It has lateen sails, comes in a variety of sizes and shapes and in some forms is still used today. Historically, Dhows were used for trade and fishing, but I have read of them being adapted for fighting purposes.
Dhow
The history & construction of the Dhow
Illustration

These aren't the only ship types I'm interested in. I'm also quite partial to the vessels of the Napoleonic period as well as the early ACW Ironclads, but I have no plans to build any models of thes elatter types. The Napoleonic ships in particular would be huge, extremely complex models with little scope for any gaming possibilities... at least not int he classic 28mm skirmish scale. At some point in the future, I'd love to try my hand at naval wargaming in 1/300 or 1/1200 scale

Freja

The Pip has had a turbulent two days. Her tooth seems to be coming along just fine, but her drooling and whining are now chronic. She’s also got the urge to wander about rather than play with her toys so she’s difficult to keep track off.



Pip’en har haft et besværligt to dage. Hendes tand kommer fint hen, men hun savler og pyler så det basker. Hun er også begyndt at vandre rundt i lejligheden og vil meget heller på odagelse end at lege med hendes legetøj. Det er lidt hsvært at hold styr på hende for hun kan komme meget hurtigeromkring end man regner med.I dag fik hun noget fisk Moster Malene tog med til aftens mad.

(Vores telefon er ud af drift igen!)

Well, I’m still online… but for how long? I’ve now backed up just about everything I had stored on the computer… I need to get some more disks though. It’s amazing how much stuff you can squeeze on to a hard drive with only 20 Gb. Now I’m not sorry I don’t have a bigger one! …a bigger hard drive that is.

News from Denmark and updates on previous posts

Naser Khader (now officially the most popular politician in Denmark) was taken to hospital from the Folketing (parliament) today after feeling dizzy and having a pain in his left arm. As yet details are sketchy, but he was able to walk down to the ambulance so it doesn’t sound like a heart attack. The poor guy’s been under a lot of stress of late so here’s wishing him all the best!

Denmark turned down the chance to imprison Charles Taylor. Yay!

Helle Thorning Schmidt has moved her cabinet around, replacing her old ally, the party spokesperson Lotte Bundsgaard with a former competitor. I’m not sure what this means yet, but it looks like the Socialists might be shedding some weight to get into fighting form. Bundsgaard has been extremely loyal to Helle Thorning Schmidt in the last period and its curious that she should get the push. It looks like Helle isn’t getting her own way…

Computer problems.

I may be absent from the internet in the next few days. I have a lot of virus problems now with no less than eight suspicious progammes asking me (via my firewall) for permission to access the internet after start up.

Posting problems.

I don’t know what’s up with this site today, but I’ve had a lot of trouble posting. Unfortunately I closed down my firewall because I thought it might be the cause and now that’s giving me problems as well!

I see a new editting icon has been added though so no doubt this was the culprit all along!

Model ship

Last night, just before I went to bed, I suddenly realised there is a huge design flaw in the Nao model. It was such a big problem that I’ve had to pull the model apart and restart it. The flaw lay with the stern, which I had designed tapering like a Viking ship, but which ought to be flat, like a carrack. I sort of knew this, but I was expecting to make the planks to conform to the rudder and as the ship got higher above the ‘water line’ then so the super structure would be formed.

Looking at my old Billing boats catalogue though I saw the image of the Santa Maria’s stern and perceived that the flat back of these ships was much more pronounced, and lower in relation to the water line than I’d realised. This meant I had to remove all the planking and the back three ribs to make way for a new ship form I also decided the bow was way to sharp for the period. Almost every image of a carrack I’ve seen in the last week has had a more or less upright curving stem and not the long forward jutting stem I’d made which better fitted a cog, or maybe a dhow.The problem is the image I’ve been using as inspiration, doesn’t have a clear view of either the bow or the stern so I was left to my own imagination. The ship model was also getting way to long and this was becoming more apparent as the body took shape. By reducing the bow I’m effectively shortening the model by 7cm.

Planetfall

A Sci Fi role playing game idea, possibly to follow Ringworld 5 (and/or Rocketman 3)

The concept of the game is very simple. Three to five individuals are awoken aboard a star ship. They have no memory, and no identity but they know how to use armour and weapons. Waking up from stasis they find themselves in a hatching chamber, surrounded by thousands of empty tanks. Instinctively they find themselves moving to a debarkation chamber where heavy power-armoured suits and weapons line the walls. Quickly donning the power-armour and arming themselves they enter a waiting drop ship and are strapped in by automatic padding systems that cocoon them against the g stresses of planet fall.

The game begins at this point

Each player has the choice from the beginning as to which gender they are playing, but beyond this, all the characters are the same, they don’t even choose their names since they only have numbers to begin with.
Humanoid, they have very pale skin, no hair and obvious signs of regeneering (Black tracings beneath the skin, amplified muscles, sub conscious training on an instinctive level). Each character has a range of standard skills and one specialist combat skill (heavy weapons, demolition, communications, medical) and standard equipment according to their specialist skill. The players do not choose what the characters specialist skill is. The dice decide for them.
The rules are either OVZ Sci Fi Skirmish or Traveller (depending on how technical the players want to get)

The purpose of the game would be sheer survival. The planet below is a hostile war torn environment, and the drop-ship has no means of returning to orbit. Combat could be a major but risky component of the game, since once a character died; the player would only be able to rejoin the game with a potential hostile planet dweller.

Planetfall could be played as a skirmish combat game which would change the dynamic away from long term survival to short term mayhem, but given the problems we’ve had with table top sci fi games (weapons and scanners are often over-powered for the table top scale) I’d not really be interested in this. I like the idea of a short role-playing campaign based on ignorant characters trying to survive for a set amount of games.

News and comment from Denmark: Racism in the political debate

The shift to the right continues as the latest polls, taken from the 18th to the 22nd of April, show an increase for the Radikal Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti, mostly at the expense of the Social Democrat parties.
The poll also indicates voter satisfaction with the idea of a VKR government (both governing parties have already dismissed the notion). A VKR coalition would see a government formed between the existing governing conservative parties and the Radikal Venstre (generally regarded as being left of centre), which would actually move the power in the opposite direction to the national trend.

In the mean time, things have moved on. Dansk Folkeparti has refused to participate in any plan to give more money towards accommodating those children of immigrants who’s applications to enter Denmark have been turned down but who refuse to leave. This matter has become the current point of debate between the Radikal Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti which makes me wonder at why the two socialist parties and the two governing parties are largely silent in this matter. The ideological struggle in Danish politics seems to have been usurped by two women; Marianne Jelved and Pia Kjærsgaard… at least in the public arena.
What’s odd about this is not that two women should be so prominent, but rather that the third female leader in Danish politics (and who still controls the largest share in the polls) Helle Thorning Schmidt is largely absent. The virtual absence of any male leaders in this debate is also note worthy, especially since men head the government.

One of the more noticeable aspects of the current debate revolves around accusations of racism. Marianne Jelved, responding to DF’s refusal to back the idea of paying more money to improve the life of children stuck in Danish internment camps told the TV journalists that Pia Kjærsgaard’s motivation was simple racism. She even went so far as to accuse Kjærsgaard of not wanting to pay for the children because they had ‘brown skin’.

I’ve seen the same debate playing out in Belgium, Holland and the UK in recent months as well. Yesterday on Radio 4’s 'Any questions' programme, a labour politico referred to the BNP as ‘scum’.

For my own part, I am irritated with Jelved. It is of course in her best interests to portray her opponents in the worst possible light and that’s what she’s doing, but in so doing she is also ignoring the valid concerns of a large proportion of the electorate who surely feel that they must vote for the nationalists because no one else is undertaking to protect their best interests! The fact that so many people now feel they must vote for Pia Kjærsgaard is not a sign of rising racism (though I’m sure racism exists in all people to some extent or other) but rather that more and more people feel they cannot vote for politicians, like Jelved, who simply ignore their fears in favour of a personal political ideology and who call the electorate ‘racist’ for being concerned with the state Denmark is now in.

Its worth noting that in accusimg Kjærsgaard of racism, Jelved ignores the small detail that most of those children trapped in internment camps are only in that prediciment because the previous government, of which Jelved was a minister, didn't deal with the problem of so many immigrants coming into Denmark from Yugoslavia when they first arrived. Jelved would like to deflect attention from her share in the responsibility for these people and she's doing so in a display of moral idignantion that leaves her exposed as a hypocrite.

I personally will probably never vote for Dansk Folkeparti. I’d think I’d actually consider voting for the Radikal Venstre if some one other than Marianne Jelved headed it. As things stand as they are now though I’m mostly inclined to vote for the Prime Minister since he is just about the only politician who appears to have both feet on the ground and has reasonable approach to the problems we’re facing.

Fat Britannia

I thought this was amusing.

England is a nation of "overweight, alcopop-swilling, sex-and-celebrity obsessed television addicts", according to a travel guide. The latest edition of the Rough Guide to England also warns potential visitors that the hearts of many towns "consist of identikit retail zones".
But it praises the nation of "animal loving, tea-drinking charity donors who thrive on irony and Radio 4".
Tourist body Enjoy England has criticised the book as "unhelpful". In particular, Enjoy England, whose role is to attract visitors, attacked the book for saying that talking to strangers, especially in London, "can be seen as tantamount to physical assault".

That sounds about right to me. When we lived in Rochester, Mette and I used to refer to London as ‘Freak City’. A trip to London was a trip into the most disturbed, dirty place I’ve ever encountered (outside of Poland). Returning home after a few hours in London we’d be pulling out black boogers for the next 24 hours.

And yes, Radio 4 rules!

Mette, Malene and the moifling

Yesterday, Freja and Mette went out to Malene’s place. Mette didn’t take the camera, so no pictures I’m afraid. Malene lives out in the countryside, near Rosenholm Castle, and its said to be beautiful. I’ve actually never been there yet, but I will as soon as the weather gets sunnier. I spent most of the day puttering around the flat, making models and listening to the BBC. I ventured out onto the roof top terrace with a cup of tea at one point, but it was still a might chilly.
Afterwards they all came back and here and we ate dinner together. Freja had red cheeks and was completely worn out. Once she’d fallen asleep we three sat and talked until two in the morning, which was just, like the old days living at Skernvej.
This morning we are all knackered as a result. It’s now 13:18 and Mette has gone back to bed.

Og så lidt mere ‘gebrocken Dansk’.
I gar var pigerne ud ved Malene men Mette tog ikke kameren med så der er ingen billede desværre. Malene bor ud ved Rosenholm slot og det skulle være meget smuk der ud. Jeg har ikke set det endnu men når det gode vejr kommer skal jeg nok kom derud og besøge dem. Jeg brugt det mest af dagen igar med at drive den af. På et tidspunkt var jeg ud på terracen med en kop the men det var ikke særligt varmt.
Pigerne kom tilbage for at spise og Freja havde knald rød kinder. Hun var ret så træt så hun faldt hurtigt i sovn og der efter sad vi tre og så video film and snakkede helt indtil klokken to. Det var rigtig hyggeligt og var ligesom de ’gode gammel dage’ på Skernvej.I dag er vi allesammen lidt udkørt. Klokken er 13:25 nu og Mette og Freja sover begge to. Der er lidt fred i hytten, for en kort stund endnu.

Model ships

In this image, compared to the figures at the top, you can clearly see the overall size of the Nao at water level. The actual surface area's of the ship will be even bigger as the fore and aft super structures are added.
At the top of the picture is the Knarr (Viking trader) which is being finished. I'm finishing the holds which are designed to have the options of adding cargo or horses depending on the purpose of the vessel.
I think I'm going to have to build at least one more large ship and one more medium sized ship (like the knarr) if I am to have a decent sized ship battle. I don't think I'll build another ship quite as big as this one though.
I can imagine 2 v 2 players with each player controlling a vessel.

Freja

Pipski has had a hard day today. Her new tooth is giving her a lot jip and she’s apt to kick up a fuss over nothing. Also, she was writhing about in her new bed and got her leg trapped between the bars. This didn’t go down well at all and she kicked up such a screaming that I thought something serious had happened. Once I’d freed her from her awkward position and dried her eyes (she’s so cute even when she’s crying) we played ups-a-daisy on the sofa until Mette came home.
She also spent an hour sleeping out on the terrace today. The weather is warm enough and she slept well, despite the fire brigade.

Jeg er elendigt til at skriv på Dansk, men Jeg ved godt at nogle af jer ikke læser Engelske særlig godt, så nu giver jeg det et forsøg:

Pipski musen har haft en hard dag i dag. Hendes tand har været til besvær og hun har været ret så pylret. Oven i det, kom hun i klemme i tremmeren på hendes nye seng så hendes ben sad fast. Hun skreg så højt at jeg troede det var noget rigtig slemt og skyndt mig derind men hun var bare vred over at ikke kunne befri sig selv. Mette var ikke hjem, så Pipski og jeg lejet på sofa’en imens.
Hun har også sovet undenfor i en times tid. Vejret er varmt nok og hun sov på trods af brandbilerne.
Freja er begyndte at være mere socialt med Mette nu. Hun vil helst trøstes af Mor, og kaste sig i Mette’s favne og giver en slags ’sug kys’ for at vise sine føleser. Den har jeg ikke fået endnu, men jeg få også mange flere smil og lyd.

News and comment from Denmark

A big political 'hot potato' at the moment seems to be immigration (surprise surprise). Recently there are have been numerous stories in the media regarding immigrant children who have spent years living in immigration camps, in some cases upwards of a decade or more. The political sides are drawn up in their usual constellation with the socialists inclined to be lenient to these immigrants whilst the government is pointing out that most of these people have been denied in their requests to live in Denmark and are only in the immigration camps because they refuse to leave. The Danish police have stated that they intend to physically remove 111 Kosovo Albanians who have all refused to leave Denmark despite being turned down by the udlændingstyrelsen (the body which decides to stays and who leaves) The Kosovo Albanians, by way of their lawyer have stated, they cannot be sent home, because they are all too sick to leave.
There is nothing about this case that separates Denmark from the other small EU nations. We’re now all experiencing the strain on our country's of mass immigration that appears to a desire of the larger nations. In Belgium for example, they currently have eleven churches and a mosque under occupation by immigrants refusing to leave.


The other big 'hot potato' is the Radikal Venstre’s overture of a possible political union with the governing party’s. Bendt Bendtsen, who is foreman of the conservative party, has turned down the idea put forward by Marianne Jelved. ”We fundamentally disagree with the Radikale on a number of key issues” he is quoted as saying on the DR news site “and with the statements they are making, there is no way we can join together in a union. Not as long as I am party chairman”.
Marianne Jelved, interviewed on TV, blamed the nationalist Danske Folkeparti. (She always blames her misfortunes on DF)


Apparently Madonna is coming to Denmark. Normally I wouldn’t pay much attention to this, but today I read on the BBC that tickets for her concerts in the UK are selling from £80 to £160.
In the past I’ve listened to some of Madonna’s music with pleasure, but I have noted that she is not aging gracefully. Her latest work, whilst conforming to her usual recipe for success, is the most artificial offering yet. Frankly, I am not certain any concert is worth a ticket of £160 and I certainly wouldn’t pay that much to see Madonna’s retro disco performance.
According to the BBC, 1% of the worlds recording artists are now taking 56% of all concert revenue’s.
I think that, right now, the only concerts I could even be bothered to attend at all, would be if either Rammstein, or Jeff Wayne came to Århus.

Singing to self...

Bewahret einander vor Herzeleid
denn kurz ist die Zeit die ihr beisammen seid
Denn wenn euch auch viele Jahre vereinen
einst werden sie wie Minuten euch scheinen

Too right!

Just sitting here with the headphones on, listening to my favourite bunch of Germans. Its 02:35 and I'm off to bed soon. I've reached another dead end now. I need more nut wood for the Nao model. I need to add another four 'ribs' to the base of the model in order to give the ship the support it needs to hold the hull in place. Here is an image of the model so far, with the knarr model and the usual Norman officer figure for comparison.

Moo

From a BBC article regarding Swiss efforts to increase tourism:

A swarthy mountaineer gives a steamy look, while Mr Switzerland 2005 gently milks a cow's udders and a voice asks:

"Ladies, why don't you spend this summer in Switzerland, where men focus less on football and more on you?"

Is it just me, or is comparing possible women tourists to a cow such a good way to encourage tourism?

Am currently listening to 'The Snow Maiden' by Rimsky Korsakov and gluing bits of nut wood together... I need more wood!

News from Denmark

Denmark has withdrawn from the MGP contest. Despite originally having been the creators of the competition as a children’s alternative to the Eurovision Song Contest, the Danes, along with the Swedes and the Norwegians, have withdrawn from the European, citing a lack of control as a problem.
The Scandinavians were unable to convince other countries of the need for rules prohibiting child performers from baring their bellies or wearing short skirts and too much makeup. The three countries also hoped to institute a new point system, so only finalists found out their placement and total score. The idea was this would prevent children from feeling their songs were worthless.
'We don't think it's a pleasant experience for an eight-year-old to find out that their song didn't receive any points,' said Lars Grarup, programme director for Danish state TV station DR.

Denmark has been put forward as a possible candidate for the detention of Liberian warlord and ex president, Charles Taylor. Quite why Denmark should take on this responsibility when nations such as Holland and Sweden have already said no, is beyond me, but according to our foreign minister, Per Stig Møller, We are but awaiting an official request from the UN.
Naturally the nationalist Danish People’s Party is dead against having Taylor sit his time in a Danish prison whilst the Socialist People’s Party is all in favour. Personally I’d let his own people deal with him. I don’t agree with the SF that global responsibilities means we owe the world to act as a home for people like Taylor.

In Denmark, the priests have a union (just everyone has a union or a society in Denmark). The Priests Union has put forward for priests to have Sundays off work, just like other people. Its not that long ago a priest put forward the idea that Denmark’s churches be closed on Saturdays and people could get married on Fridays instead.The whole thing sounds like just another adjustment to The Machine to me. Denmark is rapidly becoming a nation run on purely economic considerations with even the once mighty church now reduced to the role of being just one more cog amongst so many others.

Models

I’m stuck for now with the inn because I’ve run out of roofing parts. So whilst I’m making new tile segments (with plaster in a latex mould) I’ve started on my next ship model, the Nao and ‘laid down' the keel and made her stem-post. The keel itself measures 374mm, but with the stem and stern I think the ship may reach 450mm. This translates roughly to a real life vessel, some 30 metres long, which is probably a deal greater than a real Nao would be. By comparison, Columbus’s Santa Maria was a puny 18 metres long (70ft), which would translate, in 28mm scale to a model roughly 270mm long. Image.

The reason why the model is so large though is because my war gaming figures are based on 23mm circular bases that translates to the fighting area of the individual element. This base makes the figure clumsy around models, so everything has to be adapted to fit the bases. Getting the models to fit the figures and still retain a realistic scale is 50% of the process.

Freja

Pipskimus has invented a new way to express her dissatisfaction; she pulls a grumpy face, (see the first image) then starts snorting and breathing heavily through her nose. Its not certain how bad tempered she is, because sometimes this leads to a screaming out burst, but other times she starts blowing raspberries and bubbles or even ‘grinning’ (hard to do when you only have one tiny little tooth). The second image is just one of those funny pictures you some times get when you catch people ‘off guard’.

A good news, bad news kind of day

It started with the bad news that two of our friends have separated. Theirs was the last wedding I attended and I never suspected it would end so in love they were. I hope they find happiness, whether together or separately.
The good news is, a certain other friend who shall remain anonymous until she makes her news official, is pregnant! Needless to say, this news was a surprise, but it put things into perspective and the more I think about it, the happier I become. Yay! Another baby! I’m surrounded by the lil monsters and loving it.

Freja and Easter

The lil Pip, having spent the last few days at her grandparents, is now home again. Her little tooth is now clearly visible when she cries... and she's been crying a lot since she got back! It looks like Pipski has reached the age of seperation angst because she kicks up a fuss every time Mette has to leave the room. Both girls are fast asleep now, both are well worn out.
Mette took a lot of other pictures but unfortunately, she hasn't quite gotten used to the digital camera yet... Here are a few of the better images from Pips first Easter:

Mortal Engines.

A steam punk series by Philip Reeves, available until the 27th on the BBC 7 listen again function.
Originally I thought this was only a four part series but it turns out its fourteen parts.


Model ship.

I’ve now decided to make one of these:

It resembles a cog enough to pass for one, it has a certain charm, and although it isn't a dhow, I can't see that I can use a dhow for anything, where as this, with its decidedly European shape is more likely to be useful in a game or two...

I'll still be making a dhow though... sooner or later!

The Medieval Machine

The Medieval Machine
By Jean Gimpel.

Although this book is from 1976, it still has a certain relevancy in how one might perceive the high middle ages of the medieval period. Gimpel describes what he likes to refer to as a ‘medieval industrial revolution’ by paying particular attention to wind and water mills, the productive assets of the Cistercian order and how these effected society, and clockwork. His argument is that the medieval person both lived in a society that was full of working machinery and regarded technological innovation as being something to aspire to. According to Gimpel, this period ended when the Catholic Church and spiritualism overcame reason and intellect (though he does point out that the same church was also responsible for the blossoming of technological innovation that preceded 1277). He goes on to advance a theory that powerful nations go through boom and bust periods and that Europe as a whole has seen three technological high points in the last thousand years. These being, his ‘medieval industrial revolution’, the Italian Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution of common perception.

The irony of this is that many historians today are moving away from the idea of the Italian Renaissance as being an era of any sort at all. Its been pointed out that the great names of the Renaissance were not quite the cultural giants and innovative characters they’ve been made out to be. Gimpel himself touches on this theory several times when he advances the idea that the Renaissance was not built on a foundation of ignorance and superstition in the middle ages and that pre 1277 Europe was not ignorant of the cultural treasures of the classical world.

It’s all a bit ephemeral though. Gimpel’s argument seems okay at first, but he doesn’t really prove his point regarding the common perceptions of the time. If the medieval population were living in a technologically innovative time, or an industrial revolution, were they even aware of it? Gimpel’s says they did but he never offers anything to prove so.
For my part, I can’t see how mills and monastery’s make an industrial revolution. Gimpel also adds the fabric industry, clockwork and architecture into the mix, but again, these seem like seeds to me and not the whole tree. If this was a revolution, then it was a very quite one and if mills and monasteries make for ‘industry’, then I suppose the theory works.

I liked the book, but considering its title I missed the absent machinery. I had hoped there would be more written about obscure medieval machines, and how these were invented and used, but Gimpel pays more attention to the society in which the few machines he describes existed.
4/5

Models

I have too many modelling projects!
I’m building this model inn (working on the last main element now) and I still have the first town house to complete (the second one is finished… just about) also the second tower is still in parts, I have ten fortified castle/city wall elements to be completed, a block house planned …and a smithy. I also have several wagons and chariots in construction and plans for a siege tower.

On top of these I have several semi finished naval models, including an almost completed knarr (Viking trader) (mine’s only missing a few details, I'll post an image later on) two fishing boats (only needing masts) and a ‘Lorien boat’.
I have undecided plans to build more naval models, including another knarr a Viking type long-ship and a Bremen cog. This ought to give us several possibilities for small-scale naval skirmish games…

And today I realised I’d love to build an Arab style ship like the one Tim Severin built back in the early nineteen eighty’ (see image) only maybe a bit more advanced, say with an upper deck… Like this perhaps, only with less rigging and details to get in the way of the game.

Such a vessel is normally called a dhow. They come in many shapes and sizes, but the one I'm interested in building is based on the ship I saw in the animated film, 'Simbad', which looks similar to the corsair ships featured in Peter Jacksons mediocre adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. The 'Sinbad' ship seemed to be a fantastical hybrid of a dhow with the sails of a Chinese junk.


Sinbad. Legend of the Seven Sea's

I love animation. One of the reasons why is because I like figuring out how they did it, but beyond that there is also a pleasure in seeing the skill of the artists involved. In this regard, ‘Sinbad’ delivered pure pleasure since it was technically very well done. The drawings and colouring were excellent and although I thought they relied a little too much on c.g.i. they managed, for the most part to blend the digital (as in computers) with the digital (as in fingers)

Where the film fails is in the cultural department. ‘Sinbad’ the actual figure from Arabian stories (and possible history) is absent. DreamWorks have made their own version of the story much as Disney has been doing for years) and in some way I felt a bit cheated by this. The story of Sinbad is a pretty good one and didn’t need to be completely rewritten.

The secret to writing a long blog entry on this server appears to be to use an external file first and then copy the text!

Freja and Good Friday.

Peter and Bettina came by around 10:30 and there is no doubt that Freja likes her Uncle Peter! She stayed awake most of the day and was on her best behaviour, charming and playing games and making her funny monster noises much to Peters amusement.

Around 17:00 we drove out to my parents and had dinner with them. Its been a while since I was last out there and things have certainly changed since most of the tree’s are now gone and those that are left have yet to grow new leaves so the place looked pretty windswept and desolate. My Dad’s workshop however looks to be ever more comfortable and his little traction engine is coming along slowly but surely. As usual my Dad was infatuated with Pip and we all sat around the dinner table like so many chimpanzees overjoyed at a new arrival to the group. Whenever Freja made a noise, it was immediately copied by at least two adults. Freja tried ice cream for the first time and liked it so much she made a swipe at my Dad’s plate.



I was in a funny mood and laughing merrily at the smallest thing. My throat is still sore so my laughter was almost inaudible (I sound a bit like Nigel).

Peter brought news from København and Malmø in Sweden where he and Bettina have an idea to move so as to be closer to Denmark. The advantages of living in Germany are becoming fewer and further between and Sweden looks to be a cheaper alternative than moving back to Denmark, which Peter is reluctant to do due to the extreme costs of owning a large Land Rover in Denmark (Peter is a hardcore LR enthusiast) Alas, their first day in Malmø, some body slashed one of their tires, so thats hardly a good omen. Peter reckoned it might be because the car is wearing German plates though. Apparently Germans aren't that popular in Sweden, though I've never that before.

Today I am alone. Mette and Pipski have gone north to visit the in-laws in Ålborg. There is to be a festive lunch tomorrow but I am too ill and worn out from yesterday to attend so I have stayed at home to listen to Rammstein, build my inn model and wallow in the comfort of my own company. (Had Kristian been back from Holland I think I would have attended regardless of how I felt though)



OBS.
Peter, Jeg fandt ud af i dag at jeg har ikke taget et eneste billeder af Bettina med hendes ny hår. Kan du ikke sende en til mig når du sender billederne fra København!

Freja

...is getting her first tooth!
I noticed it today as she was wailing when her dinner was finished (what an appetite!) At the moment its just a tiny white spot on her lower gum, but perhaps this explains why she's been a bit apt to cry for no apparent reason in the last few days...?

Otherwise, she had a pretty good day today. The 13th of April is her eighth month birthday. Usually I take a portrait photo of her on the 13th, but this time I'm putting it of until tomorrow when her Uncle Peter comes a visiting. It will only be the second time she's met Uncle Peter and Auntie Bettina (They live in Germany)

This evening little Andrea (15 months) from downstairs came by with her parents for hot cholocate and fresh baked buns. Pipski was in her ace. She loves company and Andrea's parents are really nice people. Unfortunately Andrea was a bit scared of me but thats okay. I can be a bit scary sometimes.


Right now I'm listening to the Rammstein collection Oleg 'dusted up' for me and looking forward to seeing my lil brother tomorrow.

News from Denmark:

The state of the opposition.

The struggle towards obscurity continues in the Social democraterne as former Health Minister Torben Lund now speaks out against Helle Thorning Schmidt. Calling her ‘power hungry’ and ‘Desperate’ he laments her leadership to Ekstra Bladet (a Danish daily newspaper).
“The latest proposals from the party demonstrate just how desperate the leadership is,” Lund says. “I simply can’t understand how she can get away with such attention seeking and unbelievable nonsense.”

Lund, it should be noted was a member of the former Social democrat government and as such was in power alongside the Radikal Venstre, under the leadership of Marianne Jelved. Also, Lund, though he is still a member of the SD, admits to no longer voting for them…

In the mean time Helle Thorning Schmidt’s popularity continues to plummet with the polls indicating a 4.6% loss for Social demokraterne. One poll, conducted at the beginning even put the SD at barely 19%, the lowest score for the party in 103 years.

Vilstrups poll from the 31st March puts the balance thus:
The government coalition parties:
Venstre: 26.4%
Konservative: 10.5%

The nationalist opposition:
Danske Folkeparti: 15%

The socialist Opposition:
Social democraterne: 22%
Radikal Venstre: 11.7%
Socialistisk Folkeparti: 9%
Enhedslisten: 3%

The last election by comparison.

Ringworld 5.7

My friends and I have a usual gaming night on Thursdays but we also move them about to fit in the schedule. This week was meant to be ‘C’thain’ (a fantasy game run by Tracey) but became the latest instalment of my game ‘Ringworld’ instead. ‘Ringworld’ is a low-tech sci fi game I originally designed around the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by JRR Tolkien. This came about when I read that Tolkien was responsible for the modern perception of trolls, elves and dwarves, which had always existed in mythology but which are now perceived by a post Tolkien perception.

This bothered me, because I’d always felt I had a good imagination that didn’t need to rely on other people’s ideas. (I hadn’t been to art school and learned that all ‘art’ is really intellectual theft at that point)
So I set about to create a role-playing game, about the same central idea as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but as told by my imagination. What I came up with is a game based around the concept of a planet, called Hykon II, where powerful aliens called the E’drach (standing in for Eru Iluvatar) have ‘re-geneered’ the native creatures of the planet with the purpose of creating slave races for various purposes.

All good so far, except the game takes place some 15,000 years after the E’drach have abandoned the planet, leaving behind a few scattered ruins of their infrastructure… and a few intelligent, genetically manipulated species have survived to fill the void.

There are seven known species of alien life form existing on the planet (no Hobbits for me!). Each fills a niche in the grand scheme of things and each have special traits that have kept them from going extinct. Some are small and technical and others are large and robust. The game revolves around the search for a lost artefact of great power (hence the name Ringworld) though no one really knows what the ring is. I should add that I hadn't read Larry Nivens excellent novel when I created the game.

There have been four previous Ringworld campaigns and they’ve all but one revolved around the quest for ‘the ring’. So far the current game is going well. I’ve used various ideas’ I stole from ‘Lost’ to try to create a sense of the unknown. To some degree this has been hampered by the players ignorance of the game though. After all, it’s easy to play a Hobbit when you know exactly what a Hobbit is, but very hard to play an Alfin when you’ve little idea who or what an Alfin is.
On the other hand its not hard to generate a sense of the unknown when every one is partly blinded by ignorance.

All four players were present for tonight’s session.


Meanwhile, in moif world...

Poor Mette is still feeling low and I also have a sore throat (again!) Pipski seems to be okay though she woke me up about six times during the night, and Mette woke me a few times as well seeing to Pipski.
I’m not happy about Mette. Her belly is sore and she complains about being cold all the time. This is the same set of symptoms as she had two weeks ago and I’m not convinced that it isn’t the same thing. I wish she’d see a doctor but there are few people as stubborn about doctors as the Kjølby girls!

Right now its 01:12, I’m listening to the soundtrack to ‘War of the Worlds’ by John Williams as I write and I’m off to bed in about ten minutes. I’ll do the players write up of the game tomorrow… if I get time.

Blockhouse

Recommended listening on BBC radio 7

Mortal Engines.

A four part, steam punk series by Philip Reeves, available all week (until Sunday 16th) on the BBC 7 listen again function. Part three is tomorrow.


Blockhouse.

I'm thinking of making a blockhouse model next. Initially its for Oleg's Sheev'dra game, where it would be a Dwarven fortification. So far all I have is the base plan (15x15cm) and a simple sketch. I've seen a guy over at Terragenesis who made the roof with paper tiles instead of the plaster I'm using now from Hirst. Its a lot faster and it looks excellent. He used regular inks dilluted with alcohol, apparently to make the evaporation process faster. Verra interesting.


OBS.

Kristian, Mette kan ikke ringe lige for tiden fordi telefonen er ud a drift. Hun ringer til dig snart.

Freja

The little Pipski girl had another fantastic day because she had two friends over to visit this morning. Mette’s little mother group came by and they all had cake and coffee whilst I played with the girls on the floor. Pip demonstrated her new crawling skills, to universal delight and her two small friends, though they couldn’t quite crawl yet, were both lively and sweet and both showing off a first tooth. Pip is the youngest but she is about the same size as them and seems very long limbed. I have a feeling she’s going to be quite tall.

It was a pleasant day and Pip was in a splendid mood. Once her guests had departed again we played with some building blocks. I made small structures and Pip knocked them down whilst making Godzilla noises.
All good days come to an end though and this one really tired poor lil Thunderpants. Mette is in the bedoom for the second time and trying to get her to fall asleep. I already tried and failed and now I’m hiding inside my headphones listening to a Cd of music inspired by ‘The War of the Worlds’.

Mette is still feeling a bit worn down but her temperature is normal again. Tomorrow is a gaming day and I hope she’s okay. At least she won’t have to make food or anything as its Oleg’s turn. If she was feeling any worse I’d cancel but she says she’s okay.

Naser Khader

Poor Naser. He’s one of our most popular ‘New Danes’. Moderate, articulate and not given to religious hysteria. He’s the foreman of the newly founded Moderate Muslim Society and he is an elected member of the Folketing (Parliment) of the Radikal Venstre and there is even a chance he may be Minister of immigration after the next election, though I certainly won’t be voting for that party as long as its under the perverted leadership of Marianne Jelved!

Unfortunately, this sterling example of successful integration is so hated by the Muslim community in Denmark he is now routinely called ‘The Traitor’. He has had to endure no end of verbal abuse and even death threats, not only to himself but also to his family. Here are two articles that deal with the recent trials of this democratic Muslim.

DeMos: Interview with Naser Khader.
DeMos: Khader: We are facing an incognizable enemy from within

“Even on a website as harmless as that I am smeared massively, even by school-children. And that’s my point, that we are dealing with extremist Imams who defer from encouraging violence and terror. But when Abu Laban e.g. says that I am a rat - why does he say that, why doesn’t he say that I am a pig? It’s because rats are exterminated. An Imam in the south of Jutland said that those who hate Naser Khader will go to paradise. The Imams do not directly encourage violence and terror - but when they focus their hate on a single person, it can have serious consequences. The same thing happened to Van Gogh"

Denmark is currently in the grip of a raging debate concerning this ‘new’ element of religiously motivated political ambition. Opposing the forces of moderation as representated by Khader we have the vile, contemptuous cleric; Abu Laban and his side-kick Ahmed Akkari. If ever I saw a Laurel and Hardy act of terrorist sympathy, it was these two. Why Abu Laban in particular is allowed to remain in Denmark is a complete mystery to me.

The only other Muslim cleric in the public eye is the Dane Abdul Wahid Petersen. I can't figure him out at all. He seems pretty easy going, but I have no sense of understanding for any religion that causes people to change their names to fit into an Arabic perception and given his past, I'm not sure he is a person qualified to speak on behalf of others.
Apart from these three there are a wide range of lesser characters, all imams and clerics, waiting in the wings for what ever comes next.

It's a lot of weight on poor Naser's shoulders if you ask me!

Gifts from distant lands

Yesterday a small packet of Jamaica Blue Mountain (from Budo) arrived at my door and this morning came an unexpected Cd (from OB1) from New Zealand so now I am listening to Bic Runga and sipping the finest coffee in the world. It’s a bitter pleasure to be a moif these days!
Having now heard of Bic Runga I know what to send back to New Zealand… and with a bit of luck it will prove both novel and entertaining! I already know what to send to Budo! Hee hee hee.

Bic Runga is certainly different to Rammstein. She reminds me a little of Mazzy star, which is always good.

Trying to figure out html...

Two groups comparable in intelligence, identical in race, not grossly different in social origin, earning about the same incomes, who do not communicate at all, and have so little in common that instead of going from Burlington House or South Kensington [Londons shrines to science] to Chelsea [her home of the arts] one might have crossed an ocean... because after a few thousand Atlantic miles one found Greenwich Village talking precisely the same language as Chelsea and both having about as much in communication with M.I.T. as though scientists spoke Tibetan.

- C.P. Snow

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The greatest homage the Middle Ages offered the architect-engineer was to represent the Almighty, in thirteenth and fourteenth century miniatures, as an architect-engineer Himself, measuring the universe with a large compass. It is as if today, in a film on the Almighty, God were to be represented programming a computer.

-Jean Gimpel

Mette, Moster Malene & Freja

Pipski had another fantastic day when her favourite ‘Aunt’ came by and she got to show off her new crawling skills. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy making ‘monster noises’ with Pip and glowing with pride at my daughter’s newfound mobility. Never mind, here is another image from yesterday:

Alas, whilst showing off her button pressing skills, Pip puked on the electronic snail toy and when Malene washed it, she inadvertently got water into the sound mechanism, so now; instead of a cheerful ditty it plays a strange techno squeal. This didn’t faze Pip though and she kept on pressing the button regardless.
Unfortunately, Mette has started to feel a bit ill again. Ever since Pip was born, she’s had odd turns of illness, which begin as a prickling sensation in the lower back and chills and quickly develop into a high temperature. This is the second bout in as many weeks. She says the feeling is similar to the breast infection she had just after Pip was born and which plagued her for the first month of breast-feeding. We have no idea what causes it.


Lost.

We watched episode 15.
Its starting to look like the whole island is not only riddled with underground bunkers but that the 'Others' are frauds. Maybe this theory is on the right track.

28mm scale ‘Inn’.

This is my current modeling project for skirmish wargaming and so far I’ve spent about 330 kr ($54) on it. When its finished it will be a three level building; ground, first and attic. It will have a stable/storage space (depending on gaming requirements) a main building and a single wing. The base measures 34 x 24cm and the building will stand at circa 20cm. The idea is to have a building small enough to be a terrain feature but large enough to host a skirmish game within it. Also, the building should be able to double as an inn or a large merchant's house.

The above sketch is a concept based on this building from the Gammel By museum here in Århus.

Floor plan. Floor plan 2.
First floor. First floor 2.
Main building attic. Main building roof.
Perspective front. Perspective rear.

Currently, the roof of the main building is finished and I'm working on building the attic of the wing.



The Northern Crusades
By Eric Christiansen

This is a contemporary look at all the various crusades which were waged in the Baltic and northern European regions. It begins in the mid 1100's with the German and Danish crusades against the Celtic people of Northern Germany (called the Wends) and moves, chronologically through the Baltic and Finnish crusades to finally end with the ongoing struggles of the German order of Teutonic knights against the Russians and Poles. This book is said to be the best single source detailing the northern crusades and its a pretty decent read, if a little dry in places. Christiansen does a good job though and the whole sequence of campaigns falls neatly into place, along side the other great events of Crusadng history.

Beer.

Although I don’t drink the stuff, I do take a passing interest in it since it’s been one of the staples of the European diet for a very long time. Also, my gaming friends are all into ‘speciality’ beers so over the last few years I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of interesting bottle shapes. At one point I tried to understand which beers were the good ones but my efforts at acquiring new beers (when it was my turn to make food) were so ill fated that I soon gave up. According to DR today, the interest for new beers is a nation wide trend and no less than 30 new ‘micro breweries’ are expected to start business this year. Maybe the age of Carlsberg’s domination of the Danish beer culture is finally coming to an end? One can only hope so. Maybe we’ll get extra lucky and see and end to Arla whilst we’re at it!?

King Kong.

dir. Peter Jackson.

In short, I didn't like it. It started out with some promise. The ambience of the period was convincing and the details were well thought through. I liked the SS Venture in particular and my favourite character was the captain... how can you not like a guy who has thirty Thomsen SMG's stashed under his bunk?
Things started to go down hill once the crew had landed on the island though. As soon as the first villagers made their appearance I was thinking 'Moria goblins' and once these opened the sluce gates on their liquid fire falls the impression was fixed.

The film was too long. The dinosaur scenes were just horrible and the 'bug hole' was plain ridiculous... though it was technically well done. I liked Serkis's death in particular. That made my flesh crawl. The biggest problem I had with the whole film was it was too close to the LOTR trilogy. There were too many times when I thought, 'I've seen that before'.

Mette was almost falling asleep by the time Kong reached New York and even I was beginning to get a very sore tail by the time the biplanes turned up. I love two seater biplanes however so I perked up a bit at that point.
I wonder why American fighters of that period always seem to have yellow wings... ?
I'll have to look that up.

Freja.

Freja

It’s been a good day for lil Pipskimus. She’s starting to get over her sore throat now and all that remains is a slight rattle in her voice every so often and the ubiquitous running nose. Naturally she has celebrated her recovery by discovering a new range of hilarious ‘monster noises’. These started yesterday as I was listening to Kate Bush and singing along n my broken voice (I’ve been infected again)
Pipski was sitting on the living room floor, regarding me, when suddenly she launched into a series of high-pitched growls. Mette and I fell about laughing to which we were rewarded with her trademark, open-mouthed smile. I love that face!


Today Mette noticed Pip making ‘angry growls & gestures’ when ever she wasn’t getting her way during feeding. She pointed this out to me and sure enough, Freja makes a sort of clenched fist gesture with both hands as she makes a short, indignant ‘bark’. It looks just like Beavis (& Butthead) when he’s losing it and sort of reminds me of Little My from the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. I’m really looking forward to reading Moomintroll to Pip when she’s old enough to understand them.

News, and comment from Denmark:

1. An ice tea brand called C-ice, which contains cannabis, has been examined by the Fødevarestyrelsen (Food Safety Board) but there is a slight problem. The amount of cannabis present is so small that it defies detection so the authorities can’t decide whether or not to charge the makers of C-ice for selling drugs, or for false advertising.


2. According to the newspaper Berlingske Søndag, Denmark has one of the highest proportions of psychologists per capita, in the world. According to the Amtsrådsforeningen (Regional Council Advisory Society) Last year the number of Danes referred to psychological treatment by the State Health Insurance System’s benefit agreement was 38,500 people, which is a rise of 11% over 2004. The private sector is not far behind either with figures indicating a rise of 20% more cases being referred over the last two years. Professor Bobby Zachariae of Århus Universitet has pointed out that the focus in recent years has been to reduce the stress levels by examining the working environment. This, he says, will reduce the amount of sick days making us all more effective workers and reducing the financial burden on the companies who have to pay for absent employees.

In the mean time, Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen has announced he feels the Danish people have come to a greater awareness of personal responsibility. “In ever increasing numbers, people today say they must take a greater part in the responsibility for their lives. The state is not responsible for everything.” He might be right, but at the same time, and in an unrelated interview, Professor Bo Jacobsen of the Sociological Institute, of Københavns Universitet has pointed out that Danes have gradually lost the urge to help each other. “We have gotten out of the habit of helping each other out and lost sight of the understanding that life is made up of suffering just as much as happiness. We don’t really allow each other to be in crisis, neither in private or at work, but prefer to call in a ‘repair person’.”

Århus Kommune (City Council) offered me further psychological treatment, but I declined their offer since I’m not sure I need any further help. I saw a Psychologist in 2002/3 and she was a great help for me in dealing with the death of my friend Føns.

Incidentally, it was Føns’s birthday three days ago. She would have been 34 I think. It’s been five years since she died now and the pain has dimmed to a small distant ache. She was the first woman I fell in love with.
I wrote a short poem about her death a few years ago.

Føns

Why am I still alive?
And the answer is a long monosyllable shadow, stretched across my floor, darkening the sun.
The loss of all things, illusion and reality, the heavy tread of angels
And where are you now, what became of our smiles, those stolen minutes of secret fun?
Can you hear that? That’s the tearing apart of you and I inside my heart.
A million or so seconds ago, in dark water, cold and colder, as salty as my tears.
What am I going to do now I’ll never see you again?
Without hope, without you, who can save me from my fears?
In premonition, I sought, I didn’t hear anything but the echoes in my head
The memories of days when we lay side by side, talking to the ceiling, just you and I.
I’m sorry the voice said, there was an accident, Annette Føns is dead.