thedeadone.net » Ireland

Obligatory post on the Irish Election: Change

Mark Cunningham — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:23:41 +0000

Yesterday I vote in the Irish elections. Today (and tomorrow I think) they’re counting the votes. I’ve been sort of avoiding the live courage, but it’s pretty inescapable. It’s on TV (which is on the shops), it’s filling my intertube feeds. Instead I focused on doing stuff with the kids, playing football with my 3yo son in the morning and then taking my 6yo daughter to her pony riding lessons in the evening. Afterwards, on impulse, I suggested taking the stabilisers off her bike for the first time. My arm is wrecked from holding her saddle while she tried to keep balanced. And then when my wife came back from the shops with my son, and so the kids and myself spend the remaining light climbing trees and running around on the grass with my son’s hysterical laughter.

I normally try to avoid talking or writing about politics, mostly because I feel I don’t know enough or that I haven’t thought deeply about it. (A quirk of being an engineer is that you are more aware of what you don’t know, then what you do). But I think this time, it is worth speaking about, even if it’s just to say, I have thought about it. And I was torn about my vote this time. I didn’t vote the Fianna Fail last time and certainly not this time. I put my first preferences to Labour. I’m not liking their policies on tax (I’d be hit by it) but they are more liberal in their other policies such as, the can of worms that is, abortion and also equal marriage rights for gays. The Fine Gael seem to be going backwards on these issues.

This year we, as a family, have started to feel the pinch. Both my wife and myself work full time, we’re got college degree’s behind us, ten years professional careers. But yet, we’re starting to accumulate a debt, one we can’t just shake off. We’re certainly not in danger yet, our mortgage is still paid on time. But the reasons for this are rooted in the politics, the disastrous decisions of the previous government, a government I had voted against last time.

The result, as far as I can tell so far, looks like what was predicated before the vote. The idea that Enda Kenny will be Taoiseach just because he didn’t make any mistakes during the election campaign, just feels off-putting. It’s obvious I’m not entirely happy about the result so far, I wanted more change. But the important thing is that it’s a change. A reminder that being in government shouldn’t be taken for granted.

I don’t think our debt is going to disappear when the new government shake their magic wand at the IMF or that things are going to get easier. I suspect things will get harder to be honest.

I’m still cooling off from running around chasing the kids outside. They are quiet now watching some DVD on the TV. Dinner is on as I’m typing away on my blog. No matter what the rest of the result is, the government has changed. That’s something.

Is it really coming to the end of Table top roleplaying?

Mark Cunningham — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:45:36 +0000

I love table top gaming (and I assume roleplaying here), ever since my friends introduce me to it with game of White Wolf’s Werewolf: the Apocalypse, back somewhere in the 90s (I think). I’ve tried LARPs and I’ve even tried roleplaying online, but table top, with friends or even at a convention has always been more engaging for me.

It’s like playing the Wii. You can play games by yourself, but if you play with your friends it’s truly memorable.

Anyway, I came across this article via @fredhicks on twitter: The Designer Monologues » Blog Archive » Tabletopocalypse Now.

It’s not a matter of debate though. Anyone who has paid attention over the past two decades has seen the undeniable shrinking. There are far fewer dedicated speciality stores any more (current estimates place total numbers in the US at somewhere in the low-to-mid 2000s, according to ICV2, Diamond/Alliance distributors, and others). Fewer stores means fewer orders, as well as fewer social centers for the tabletop gaming community. Sales numbers are massively down from the 90s, much less the numbers seen during the ‘d20 explosion’ of the early 2000s.

I’ve seen clubs close (or merge with computer game clubs) and shelves in shops shrink. Yet Gaelcon starts this evening here in Ireland, it’s the biggest gaming con in Ireland. I haven’t gone in a few years (mostly due to awkward scheduling, and sadly it’s the same this year), but the excitement among Irish gamers is pretty evident if you go by twitter. I think table top gaming will take a long time to die, but it’s being on that path for a long time already.

More Irish were sold as slaves than Africans?

Mark Cunningham — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:03:53 +0000

Or more exactly “that from 1600 to 1699, far more Irish were
sold as slaves than Africans”. This is the claim from this article.

Reading the article, there is a certain amount of sense there but I can’t verify any of the facts or info on it as I’m not a big history buff. If it is true, how did I miss this in my Irish history class in school? Why is it something that’s ignored by modern Irish culture? It would seem to me to be a greater tragedy than the potato famine.

The Irish slaves, apparently, even got treated worse than other slaves because they were cheaper and Catholic:

Although the Africans and Irish were housed together and were the property of the planter owners, the Africans received much better treatment, food and housing. In the British West Indies the planters routinely tortured white slaves for any infraction. Owners would hang Irish slaves by their hands and set their hands or feet afire as a means of punishment. To end this barbarity, Colonel William Brayne wrote to English authorities in 1656 urging the importation of Negro slaves on the grounds that, “as the planters would have to pay much more for them, they would have an interest in preserving their lives, which was wanting in the case of (Irish)….” many of whom, he charged, were killed by overwork and cruel treatment. African Negroes cost generally about 20 to 50 pounds Sterling, compared to 900 pounds of cotton (about 5 pounds Sterling) for an Irish. They were also more durable in the hot climate, and caused fewer problems. The biggest bonus with the Africans though, was they were NOT Catholic, and any heathen pagan was better than an Irish Papist.

Is this bullshit, “bad history” (ala “bad science”) so to speak, or is this true?

thedeadone.net » Ireland

Obligatory post on the Irish Election: Change

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