Exterminate?

Some thoughts on moral actions and Daleks - provoked by watching the latest episode last night (and brandnewgun) and then copied to my journal, as her entry is friends-only.
( Spoilers if you didn't see the episode )

Kickstart

I've been having motivation problems writing anything. Feel free to prod me on the subject of your choice...

Questions will be answered anonymously, unless you give me permission to out you.

[Poll #486078]

Some answers - part one - Where my love of games comes from.

My love of games started with my parents, who introduced me to board games (Snakes & Ladders, Draughts, Reversi, Chess, Monopoly and Risk spring immediately to mind), which I played fairly frequently as a child.  We also played card games a lot - Whist and Rummy being the most common ones - with excursions into Bridge when I got a little older (I'm far too excitable a Bridge player, with a tendency to overbid).

Somewhere around the age of 9  I saw an advert on the back of a comic for The Awful Green Things From Outer Space which, although I never managed to actually track down and play a copy, led me to my local games shop, where I bought a copy of Dungeons and Dragons (from the look of the pictures on this page the 8th-11th printing).  I had _no_ idea what was going on, having never even heard of roleplaying games before, but I knew that whatever it was was extremely exciting.  Luckily about a year later I encountered someone else who _had_ played before and could tell me how you actually _played_ this marvel I'd discovered (Roman Serafinowski was his name - I'm astounded I can still remember it).  I distinctly remember the thrill of visiting him - travelling by train by myself for the first time ever - and gaming in his room halfway up a block of flats (the first time I'd ever been in a flat too).

Anyway, I progressed from there, still sticking with D&D, but picking up more bits and pieces until I had a fair stack of rules-books and modules for it, running games for the next 7-odd years until I left for university - always for my two brothers and a few friends of theirs (not having any gaming friends of my own at that point).  At which point I went to university, wheremy world exploded.  Suddenly I had quite a few friends who gamed (in fact, damn near all of them, as I'd colonised the gaming group).  My second year was when Vampire was first released, and there was a game running on a constant basis, _at least_ 8 hours a day for the next 9 months.  People dropped out of it to go to lectures or (occasionally) work on essays, but it was always there, with a rotating group of players.

That group also introduced me to Cthulhu, Mage, Kult, Ars Magica, Warhammer and a host of other RPGs, as well as a variety of boardgames.  And it's still the bits and pieces of that gaming group I play with (as well as my brother Hugh, thus taking me back to my near-original gaming group), as I'm now based a mere 30 miles away from there.

Wow.  You have _no_ idea how wierd it was remembering the feeling when I first read a D&D manual.

Questions part 2 - misc

1) fire_sermon - email me and I'll get it back to you.  You have _no_ idea how guilty I feel!

2) I can't recommend a general source of information on how to start a software project - but I can recommend that you read Joel on Software and Lean Software Development.  The important thing to do is make sure that you communicate and that you're all pulling in (a) the same direction and (b) the right direction.

3) I've never trimmed my pubic hair, nor do I know that any of my male friends do.  I'm tempted to run a poll though.

4) Briefs.  I don't feel 'supported' by boxers and I'm very sensitive to texture, so I doubt that commando would be much fun.

5) I use the 'Unearthed' style, because it's nice and simple.  I like a certain cleanliness in a style, largely because I value the words over their surroundings.  Which isn't to say I'm not damned impressed by some of the styles I've seen - I just prefer simplicity for everyday reading.

6) No, I don't think you're nuts.  I do worry that you take on faaar too much because it's not enough for you to be quietly successful - you have to be amazing, all the time.

7) My favourite programming language is currently C# - although I wish I was using the latest version of Visual Studio as 2003 has quirks that have been ironed out in the later version. However, I retain a fondness for Visual Foxpro, purely because interpreted languages are very nice to prototype databases with, and it was extremey fast to work with. Oh, and Prolog, because like Regular Expressions it's extremely powerful, provided you know _exactly_ what you're doing with it.

Questions 3 - Fixing Hitch-Hiker's

The question is "Why didn't the Hitch-hikers movie work?" and the answer is 'structure' and 'adherence to Douglas Adams'
( Spoilers. Duh! )

Pubes!

This is following a question in this morning's poll. I'm mostly interested in the male response, but what the heck.

[Poll #486418]

NB: I'm asking about 'right now' - to get a feel for what people's general state is. A lot of people have gbeen bored with a razor at some point, but how many of you actually keep yourself groomed?

Sleep

Right - still got a couple of questions to answer - if you want to add yours do it here.

But for now I'm going to collapse.  Thanks for all the inspiration!