Thankyou and Goodbye, Mr Gygax.

Co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, passed away this week leaving an extraordinary legacy. When he and his friends got together at his house one autumn afternoon in 1972, a whole new hobby was born – the role-playing game. This humble genesis was the nudge that sent the rock rolling and soon enough, millions were getting together to fling their many-side dice, laugh, scream, carry-on and have a hell of a lot of fun.

While you may never have played a pen-and-paper role playing game, you would have played something born of its influence no doubt. Zork, Zelda, Ultima, Warcraft… they all share the same origins.

So let’s all send Gary off with our infinite thanks and perhaps poor some mead out for our fallen comrade.

Penny Arcade say it all here.

Not in Myola, unfortunately.

We got back from our annual trip away two Saturdays ago. That’s right – back on the 23rd. Not exactly current news but I’ve been busy. Busy dividing my time between getting back into the Swing of Things and desperately trying to figure out a way of preserving the “holiday lifestyle” indefinitely.

We had a really great time. Joining our family unit Voltron-style with that of very good friends of ours – we eschewed modern conveniences and entertainments (meaning I didn’t play World of Warcraft) to spend a week in a holiday house at Myola.

A conversation I had half-a-dozen times in the week before we went away:

Somebody: So where are you going?
Me: Myola.
Somebody: Huh?
Me: Jervis Bay.
Somebody: Oh! Nice!

Myola’s great. There’s NOTHING there except a really nice beach and a couple of shops. The lack of stuff forcing you to slooow down and just relax a bit.

I did a fair bit of reading, I’m pleased to say. I managed to finish the book Olympos by Dan Simmons and start two others. The Terror – also by Dan – and Magician by Raymond E. Feist – something I’ve been meaning to read for years.

We went to the beach a few times, which the kids loved and explored the area a bit. The Naval and Air Museum was particularly cool. Also, thanks to the proximity of the Naval firing range, you can lie in bed in the mornings and listen to the distant rumbles of shells exploding. Rather soothing, actually.

The house we stayed in was really nice, but the layout was a problem. It was rather open-plan – particularly upstairs which meant Alanah was sleeping in a bed at the top of the main internal stairs and Sean was in a baby-containment device in our room which had a sloping ceiling that I kept banging my head on.

It was all worth it, though, and as mentioned earlier I’m trying really hard to figure out a way of living like that permanently. So far… nothing.

The landlords of the house we rented lived in the house behind so we talked to them a bit. When I told the owner of my problem she told me that her husband works as a software designer (ooh! similar to me!) and that he leaves the house at 6:15 every morning to get the train to Wollongong (crap!).

Oh well. At least I get to play World of Warcraft, even if I DO have to deal with “real world responsibilities” during the day.