Save the Whales

There is a big thing going on atm about the Japanese heading off to catch/kill whales for "scientific study". Greenpeace have mounted a big campaign to try and stop them. Their website is here. And one of the things they are doing is tracking a particular wahale. They have started an on-line name-voting competition for the whale which is here which has lots of sensible names and nice names etc. Except they also included Mister Smarty Pants as one of the options. Of course the internet world has gone with this name and it's ahead by 72% as seen here on their results page :)

You should all go and vote for Mister Smarty Pants... and have a look around their website, it's rather good.

26th November to 2nd December 2008

Karen’s Calendar

Coming up this week:

Monday 26th November

Tuesday 27th November

• America Club: weekly roleplaying club night at Auckland University City Campus. See their club website for more information. www.theamericaclub.net.nz Meetings have moved to Commerce A Building tonight.

• Auckland German Board Games club meeting. Mt Albert Baptist, 732 New North Rd. Regular board games each 2nd, 4th, 5th Tuesday of the month. 7pm to 11pm.

Wednesday 28th November

• America Club: weekly board games club night at Auckland University City Campus. Meeting is in Commerce A Building tonight.

• Auckland University Medieval Guild: weekly club meeting at Auckland University City Campus. All welcome. http://stdionysius.sca.org.nz/
Not sure of the venue, email me for details.

• BloodBowl Federation weekly gaming night. 6pm at Queen's Head Bar & Restaurant, 396 Queen Street, CBD.

Thursday 29th November

• Italian Dance workshops. Check here http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~katherpat/schedule.htm for more information. (note day has moved)

• 29th Nov to 2nd Dec (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

Friday 30th November

• Venue for the Damned weekly DJ gigs at Oblivion Room. http://www.mukuna.co.nz/auckland/cbd/oblivion.htm

• (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm


Saturday 1st December

• (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

• Requiem: Larp based in the White Wolf Universe, set in Auckland. Runs 1st Sat of the month. Venue: Auckland University City Campus – Architecture Building Second Floor. For more details contact Lorraine on AKRequiem@gmail.com

• Underpants on the Outside, a comic book/sci-fi swap meet/event. Grey Lynn Library Hall. http://www.myspace.com/underpants_on_the_outside
$5 adult $2 child entry fee. Heaps of stalls, door prizes.

Sunday 2nd December

• Auckland City Guard Gaming Club: weekly Sunday meeting, at Freemans Bay Community Hall. From 1pm to 5pm. A range of wargames and board games being played including Warhammer Fantasy, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine and Hordes. Cost $3 members/$5 non-members. www.cityguard.co.nz
Christmas CityGuard gaming day. Includes Orkland Cup (Fantasy 2000pt tournament, Apocalypse 40K games, Warmachine/Hordes tournament and more)

• Auckland Wargaming Club: The AWC meets every 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month except the first Sunday in January. Meetings commence at 10am and run until 4pm. Meetings at the Scout Hall at Pollard Park in Balmoral. http://awc.wargaming.info/

• (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

• Weekly Auckland Farmers Market Plus. From 10am to 4pm.
http://www.aucklandfarmersmarket.co.nz/index.html

Happening All Month - November

• NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/

• Movember – changing the face of men’s health.
http://www.movember.com/nz/home/

Things coming up this month – December

13 Movie Release The Seeker The Dark is Rising (group movie outing)

Things coming up later in the year

January 2008

12/13 GizzyCon (Gisborne)
19/20 Kapcon XVII: Random Encounters. Wellington Roleplaying Convention http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/index.html
(includes special Sanctuary Larp http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/larp.html )
26/28 Great Lake Medieval Festival (Taupo) Jousting, medieval festival and camp.
http://www.jousting.org.nz/news.html

February 2008
1-6 SCA Canterbury Faire (Christchurch)
1/2/3 Great Lake Tourney, Spa Park, Taupo. www.taupojoust.com
9/10 BattleCry 2008 (mixture of gaming tournaments) (Auckland)
9/10 Valley Con 2008 (Lower Hutt) Hutt Miniatures Wargaming Club
16/17 Over the Top 2008 (Hamiton) Warhammer, 40K and LotR tournaments.

March 2008
7-9 Serenity Larp http://www.diatribe.co.nz/viewforum.php?f=65
15-16 Maelstrom VI (Wellington) 40K event
21 to 26 Conjunction, NZ National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention
http://conjunction.sf.org.nz/index.php

May 2008
SCA Crown Tournament, Darton. (Wellington)

July 2008
3 to 6 GenCon (Brisbane, Australia) Uber gaming convention http://www.genconoz.com/

Finding another event calendar

Interesting. I just found a website eventfinderfor NZ. Cool. I didn't know it existed. Of course there are no entries for wargaming, roleplaying, board games etc so I'll have to fix that quickly :) and just submitted my first event. There is 1 entry for medieval stuff... which is the Jousting event in Jan, but no SCA stuff. This will also have to be fixed.

I finished my 2.0 web discovery things on Thursday... yay. And when I got to work on Sat my mp3 player was in the internal mail bag... I haven't decided yet whether I'll wrap it up and pop it under our tree for me to reopen at Christmas or not... Not like I'll get time to play with it until then anyway... busy busy.

(NZ Gaming Convention) BattleCry (Auckland) 8/9/10th February 2008

BattleCry
Weekend of the 8th, 9th and 10th February 2008

Freemans Bay Community Hall (same place as last time)
52 Hepburn Road, Freemans Bay, Auckland.

Weekend cost: $30
One Day cost: $20
(included in the Weekend and One Day costs are the Larp and Sat night Board Games)
Friday night Larp only or Sat night Board Games only: $5
If you pre-register and prepay before 28th January for the weekend or one day events, you get a $5 discount*
(*no discount for the Larp or Sat night $5 charge)

Tournaments available: (all 2 day unless indicated)
40K (1850pt)
25mm DBMM Doubles Medieval/Ancients
Victory at Sea
6mm Moderns
Warmachine/Hordes
Babylon 5 “A Call to Arms” miniatures**
Beach Bloodbowl (Sat daytime and evening only)
Magic the Gathering CCG (Sat only)
Vampire the eternal struggle(Jyhad) CCG
Legend of the 5 Rings CCG (Sun only)
Roleplaying (a huge range of games including RPGA sanctioned games, various systems and free-form system-less games)
Board Games evening (Sat night)
Diplomacy (New Zealand Championships) 3 sessions (Sat am, Sat night, Sun am)
Munchkin (Sat night only)

Other events include:
Friday night Larp at Freeman’s Bay Community Hall
Demonstration games throughout the weekend for people to join in and try out. These include Operation WW2 (Operation Overlord), Diplomacy, Babylon 5, Flames of War and numerous board games.
Sunday lunchtime paper sword battle with Alfs Imperial Army
Sunday night Pizza dinner and prize giving
Raffles and spot prizes.
Shop stalls during the weekend

There are heaps of prizes up for grabs. Check out our list of sponsors on our website.

Free door loot bags for everyone who attends with all sorts of goodies inside.
BattleCry Tshirts will be available for $25 each. Tshirt photo’s will be up on the website soon.
Special BattleCry Dice for sale. We have sets of 10xD6 dice for sale at $10 a set, these feature our BattleCry logo on the 1 side.

If you are interested in helping in any way, shape or form, please let me know. We will be needing help setting up, packing down, stuffing loot bags, sourcing goodies, advertising etc. If anyone knows of other clubs, shops, gaming places that might be interested in being involved that haven’t had me talk to them already, please let me know asap. Also if there are any other NZ events who would like to advertise for free through our loot bags, please email me.

Keep an eye on the America website here www.theamerica club.net.nz/battlecry2008 for weekly updated info or email me on info@theamericaclub.net.nz

Regards,
Karen

** The Babylon 5 organisers have spare army sets that can be borrowed for this event if people wish to try out the game. Email me for contact details.

#23 (week 9) reflections

Reflections on how the whole "23 things to learn about 2.0". Hmmm, I think I had a wee advantage in that I use the computer every day to do alot of things on the net, so I wasn't scared of having a go and was in a familiar medium. Some of the activities I could already do, but going through the tutorials was useful as it condensed my knowledge and in a few cases filled in some blanks. Often while using the net you will come across something new and blunder through it and this was a bit more structured.

It has given me another few mediums to reach people in the hobbies I support and promote. I've been able to put my calendar out there for more people to see and that has been interesting. Signing up for more things however has sucked up way more of my time. I now have way too many things to check each day/week which makes for needing lists to remember what needs to be checked. *shrugs*

I can see this being useful for people who don't use computers and the net alot. As it will give people a snippet look at the huge range of things that are out there. And if you have people coming into your site wanting to use these on the computers, and then they get stuck and come asking for help, it will be helpful to know what they are on about.

That's about all I can think of atm.

#22 (Week 9) ebooks

I've created yet another account to something I might remember to use. I watched the "Introduction to NetLibrary, which was eaily explained. I've been going through our list of ebooks and I find the collection of titles rather boring. Nothing really takes my fancy. I can see the use of all the non-fiction, but if I was to use it I'd be wanting popular fiction I can listen to, and I think I saw about 20 plus about another 25 kids books and that was it. The classics fictional material like Shakespeares works with the full e-book and then the Cliff Notes e-book would be useful if you were studying those books. (note to self-remember to show to local high school teacher who brings classes in). And there are a few kids fiction books and biographies about famous people, but how is an e-book of an Anatomy colouring book going to work without the pictures to colour in?

Sadly I'm a visual learner, I like to see what I'm reading. And the whole touching the pages, smelling the pages, handling the book is all part of the experience. But I will be interested to keep an eye on what else gets added. There was 1 (The good, the bad and the undead) which completely doesn't go with any of the other 772 books which is a fantastic novel. If there were others like that I may download them to listen to.

#21 (week 9) Podcasts

Podcasting is an audio version of YouTube. Anyone and anything can be put on the net, about anything... people can rave, argue, discuss, read etc and you listen to the clip rather than watch it. I use podcast.com to look for people's clips to do with all things Whedon. He's the creator of Serenity, Firefly, Buffy and Angel, and I am a huge fan. I also organise the Auckland end of the "Can't Stop the Serenity" world wide fundraising event.

Here is the blog of "Sending a Wave" who put together several podcasts about the event. http://sendingawave.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

Here is the rss feed to one of the clips from our last event in June this year.
http://www.futilityradio.com/sawlist.xml (It's in my links down the right hand side) and you would be wanting to listen to episode #19.

I tried having these just as links but for some reason they disappear off the post.

#20 (week 9) discover Youtube

Doh, for this I need to explore Youtube and post a link or embed a youtube clip... which I did a few weeks ago. Doh! Never mind. Here is another one which I am especially proud of, as it was at BattleCry. BattleCry is a big gaming event I organise once a year in Auckland. And we made it to Nightline, and this clip is now on YouTube because it has a girl gamer... a vary rare thing indeed :) (I am in a shot when I'm wandering around in the background)

19th to 25th November 2008

Karen’s Calendar

Coming up this week:

Monday 19th November

• Cinema Nocturne: Weekly movie nights are on hold for the holidays.

Tuesday 20th November

• America Club: weekly roleplaying club night at Auckland University City Campus. See their club website for more information. www.theamericaclub.net.nz Meetings have moved to Commerce A Building tonight.

Wednesday 21st November

• America Club: weekly board games club night at Auckland University City Campus. Meeting is in Commerce A Building tonight.

• Auckland University Medieval Guild: weekly club meeting at Auckland University City Campus. All welcome. http://stdionysius.sca.org.nz/
Not sure of the venue, email me for details.

• BloodBowl Federation weekly gaming night. 6pm at Queen's Head Bar & Restaurant, 396 Queen Street, CBD.

Thursday 22nd November

• Italian Dance workshops. Check here http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~katherpat/schedule.htm for more information. (note day has moved)

Friday 23rd November

• Venue for the Damned weekly DJ gigs at Oblivion Room. http://www.mukuna.co.nz/auckland/cbd/oblivion.htm

Saturday 24th November

• Slipping Tongue and guests Gig. Oblivion Bar, Auckland. $10, 10pm onwards
http://www.myspace.com/slippingtongue

Sunday 25th November

• Auckland City Guard Gaming Club: weekly Sunday meeting, at Freemans Bay Community Hall. From 1pm to 5pm. A range of wargames and board games being played including Warhammer Fantasy, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine and Hordes. Cost $3 members/$5 non-members. www.cityguard.co.nz

• Northshore Wargaming Club: meet the 2nd, 4th and 5th Sunday of the month. Meet in the Forrest Hill Scout Hall in Becroft Park on Becroft Drive. Meetings are from around 10:30am to 5:00pm. http://www.geocities.com/northshore_wargames/index.html

• Weekly Auckland Farmers Market Plus. From 10am to 4pm.
http://www.aucklandfarmersmarket.co.nz/index.html

• White Ribbon Day, Show you’re against violence towards women.
www.whiteribbon.org.nz

• Auckland Santa Parade, CBD

Happening All Month

• NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/

• Movember – changing the face of men’s health.
http://www.movember.com/nz/home/

Things coming up this month – November

29th Nov - 2nd December (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

Things coming up later in the year

December
1 Sat Underpants on the Outside, a comic book/sci-fi event. Grey Lynn Library Hall.
2 Sun Special Christmas CityGuard gaming day. Includes Orkland Cup (Fantasy 2000pt tournament, Apocalypse 40K games, Warmachine/Hordes tournament and more)
13 Movie Release The Seeker The Dark is Rising (group movie outing)

January 2008

12/13 GizzyCon (Gisborne)
19/20 Kapcon XVII: Random Encounters. Wellington Roleplaying Convention http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/index.html
(includes special Sanctuary Larp http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/larp.html )

February 2008
1-6 SCA Canterbury Faire (Christchurch)
1/2/3 Great Lake Tourney, Spa Park, Taupo. www.taupojoust.com
9/10 BattleCry 2008 (mixture of gaming tournaments) (Auckland)
16/17 Over the Top 2008 (Hamiton) Warhammer, 40K and LotR tournaments.

March 2008
7-9 Serenity Larp http://www.diatribe.co.nz/viewforum.php?f=65
15-16 Maelstrom VI (Wellington) 40K event
21 to 26 Conjunction, NZ National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention
http://conjunction.sf.org.nz/index.php

May 2008
SCA Crown Tournament, Darton. (Wellington)

July 2008
3 to 6 GenCon (Brisbane, Australia) Uber gaming convention http://www.genconoz.com/

#18 (Week 8) Using Zoho Writer (imported from Zoho Writer)

#18 (Week 8) Using Zoho Writer.

 

Hmm, useful. This means instead of emailing myself notes or writing things on bits of paper to do later I can have a running list of things I need to do and can alter it where ever I am. This is cool as I have an everending battle with bits of paper.

 

I like the fact I can publish straight to the blog too. I will have to dig further and see if I can use this to post straight to email as well. This way I could use it for my calendar and just have one neverending post I just change each week instead of the cuting and pasting I do now. Also means I can add events to it as I see them instead of a bit of paper with a note, incase I lose them. Cool!

 

So, now I've gone back to do the one I missed. Not many now :)

miss a few #19 (Week 8). Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I need time to do the 2 I've missed so I'll work on those on my days off.

However, checking out the list of Web 2.0 Awards is easy as there is one there that instantly lends itself to the events I organise. The Cocktail Builder site. Pop in your ingredients and it gives you many options of what to make with them. Awesome :) CocktailBuilder

#17 (week 7) Playing with PBWiki

Quick note, went to the favourites, added a book to the favourite books list. Well, it was a whole series... I'm an Anne McCaffrey fan... and I also added a new page called Favourite Recipes. I started the list with my all time favourite Lasagne, Garfield's favourite as well.

#16 (Week 7) Wiki's and their uses in libraries

I really like the youtube clips that Commoncraft make. Very simple and easy to understand. I can see lots of uses for wiki-type set-ups in libraries, especially where people can add book reviews and the the like. I can also see it needing someone checking it regularly to make sure people are not abusing it, by changing bits.

One of the features on one of the sites was they had grouped things according to topic and then listed all relevant library resources, including magazines, articles and reports which are sometimes hard to locate. They also listed relevant websites and other on-line resources, which was very handy. If you had a group of people who came in regularly wanting similiar information you could quickly build up an area on a wiki which would help people find relevant and up-to-date information, not just the books on the shelves.

For me and the things the homework kids ask, having wiki pages on the regular (every year we study this)topics would be useful. And each time it's used newer material could be added, old stuff removed, and the kids could help with locating some of this material. I know we have the homework machine on our site, but sometimes it's not relevant to what our local schools are after. Having something that could be regularly updated and tweaked would be useful. But a lot of work and something that time would have to be set aside for on a regular basis.

I did find out there is a free language learning website called MangoLanguages on one of the sites, which is cool. I would really like to learn something but whenever I get books out I run out of time, or I don't have the right equipment to run things. I'm just popping it here so I don't forget where the site is :)

#15 (Week 6) On Libraries 2.0 and Web 2.0

Rightio, I read through the OCOL newsletter and the Five Perspectives mentioned. I've had a think and the one thing that really comes to mind for me in all this is the kids. Yeah, odd I know but it all talks about how information is changing and how we as librarians need to meet the change, and adapt to where are customers are and what they want. For me this has bigger issues. It means we need to be more kid orientated too. Apart from the fact they are the customers of the future, they learn and adapt to technology way faster than us oldies. And if we want them to be customers of the future, we need to keep up with them now.

For me this means that the web itself needs to start thinking in terms of how they present their work when it's aimed at the younger generation. More and more kids are using the net for research, and mostly they find adult aimed material. Even on the so called "kids" sites, a lot of it is still high end high school/University levels and not the 7 year old.

It got me thinking about whether there is a kids wikipedia and I did some googling and low and behold there is a few things like this. One is Wikipedia for Schools and someone is working on a Kidipedia but that's still in development. And then there is Kidopedia which is up and running. I'm actually intrigued by these and will need some time to search these a bit more. I would like to find a suitable one for my afterschool kids to use. As they ask for contributions we could almost see if the kids themselves want to help. Afterall they are who it is intended for.

So for me, 2.0 is all about adapting fast, and trying to keep up with the kids I work with every day. And making sure that what we do will meet their study needs.

15th November Courage Day - The Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Courage Day – The Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Every 15th of November throughout the world, PEN (the international writers' organisation which champions freedom of expression) holds events to mark the International Day of the Imprisoned Writer.

The New Zealand Society of Authors which incorporates PEN honours this event as Courage Day, named jointly after James Courage, a novelist and poet whose novel A way of love was banned because he dared to express homosexuality in his writing prior to the setting up of the Indecent Publications Tribunal in 1964, and his grandmother Sarah Courage whose book describing colonial life in New Zealand was burned by neighbours who resented comments she made about them.

This year we are commemorating the 42 writers who lost their lives since Courage Day 2006 as well as the 1000’s of writers, editors, broadcasters and journalists worldwide whose lives are endangered for speaking out against repressive regimes and human rights injustices.

Three writers will feature in our Courage Day events - journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose work won her the description of “Russia’s lost moral consciousness” and whose murder in October 2006, made headlines worldwide. Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink was shot dead in January 2007 outside his office, after being convicted of "insulting the Turkish identity" after writing about a mass murder committed ninety years ago. And, Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed 10 years ago along with eight others for campaigning against the devastation of the Niger Delta by international oil companies.

PEN is also asking for letters of support for five writers imprisoned for expressing their views –

Cuba - Normando Hernández González - a journalist imprisoned under crackdown on dissidents in 2003 and since held under dire conditions;

Gambia - Fatou Jaw Manneh - a journalist on trial and facing a heavy sentence on charges of sedition for her articles criticising the Gambian president.

Iran - Yaghoub Yadali - a novelist given a one year sentence for his fictional characterisation of the ethnic minority of which he is himself a member;

Uzbekistan - Jamshid Karimov - a journalist who has covered human rights abuses, and wrote critical articles and who has been held in psychiatric detention for over a year.

Yemen - Abdel Karim Al-Khaiweni - former editor of the online publication Al-Shoura who has been under threat since June 2007 for his writings and continued harassment by the military.

For more information on these cases or the NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) go to the contacts section of Author's Website and email the Executive Director Liz Allen.

Weekly Calendar 12th to 18th November

Karen’s Calendar

(This is a work in progress, so any feedback is appreciated. If anyone has other events information that I can put in the calendar, please let me know. I also have a Blog where I’ve been posting the Calendar there with a growing set of links to the clubs mentioned on the calendar. http://www.karens-auckland-calendar.blogspot.com/ Ignore the random course work I have to post)

Coming up this week:

Monday 12th November

• Cinema Nocturne: Weekly movie nights, Arts 209, Firefly episodes, doors open 6:30pm, start 7pm.

Tuesday 13th November

• America Club: weekly roleplaying club night at Auckland University City Campus. See their club website for more information. www.theamericaclub.net.nz Meetings have moved to Ground zero and HSB902 tonight.

Wednesday 14th November

• America Club: weekly board games club night at Auckland University City Campus. Meeting is in Ground Zero tonight.

• Auckland University Medieval Guild: weekly club meeting at Auckland University City Campus. All welcome. http://stdionysius.sca.org.nz/
Ground Zero. 7pm to 9pm.

• BloodBowl Federation weekly gaming night. 6pm at Queen's Head Bar & Restaurant, 396 Queen Street, CBD.

• 14th to the 18th MLHNZ Spring Camp http://www.livinghistory.org.nz/spring_camp_07.html

Thursday 15th November

• Italian Dance workshops. Check here http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~katherpat/schedule.htm for more information. (note day has moved)

Friday 16th November

• Venue for the Damned weekly DJ gigs at Oblivion Room. http://www.mukuna.co.nz/auckland/cbd/oblivion.htm

Saturday 17th November

• 17th/18th Rally Point 33 (Hamilton) Wargaming event

Sunday 18th November

• Star Trek Convention. Meet Q and Ensign Harry Kim. www.pulpexpo.com

• Auckland City Guard Gaming Club: weekly Sunday meeting, at Freemans Bay Community Hall. From 1pm to 5pm. A range of wargames and board games being played including Warhammer Fantasy, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine and Hordes. Cost $3 members/$5 non-members. www.cityguard.co.nz

• Auckland Wargaming Club: The AWC meets every 1st and 3rd Sunday of each month except the first Sunday in January. Meetings commence at 10am and run until 4pm. Meetings at the Scout Hall at Pollard Park in Balmoral. http://awc.wargaming.info/

• Weekly Auckland Farmers Market Plus. From 10am to 4pm.
http://www.aucklandfarmersmarket.co.nz/index.html

Happening All Month

• 15 Sept to 18 Nov Exhibition at Ak Museum – Loli-Pop
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/405/loli-pop

• NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/

• Movember – changing the face of men’s health.
http://www.movember.com/nz/home/

Things coming up this month – November

29th Nov - 2nd December (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

Things coming up later in the year

December
1 Sat Underpants on the Outside, a comic book/sci-fi event. Grey Lynn Library Hall.
13 Movie Release The Seeker The Dark is Rising (group movie outing)

January 2008

12/13 GizzyCon (Gisborne)
19/20 Kapcon XVII: Random Encounters. Wellington Roleplaying Convention http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/index.html
(includes special Sanctuary Larp http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/larp.html )

February 2008
1-6 SCA Canterbury Faire (Christchurch)
1/2/3 Great Lake Tourney, Spa Park, Taupo. www.taupojoust.com
9/10 BattleCry 2008 (mixture of gaming tournaments) (Auckland)
16/17 Over the Top 2008 (Hamiton) Warhammer, 40K and LotR tournaments.

March 2008
7-9 Serenity Larp http://www.diatribe.co.nz/viewforum.php?f=65

May 2008
SCA Crown Tournament, Darton. (Wellington)

July 2008
3 to 6 GenCon (Brisbane, Australia) Uber gaming convention http://www.genconoz.com/

#14 (Week 6) Technorati stuff

So I have had a play around with Technorati and I have created an account to claim my blog. Funnily enough the other day I was doing a google search for something and up popped my blog on my search :) Very weird.

Anyway, I am supposed to claim this post so here is the link to my Technorati stuff.

Technorati Profile

Weekly Calendar 5th to 11th

Karen’s Calendar

(This is a work in progress, so any feedback is appreciated. If anyone has other events information that I can put in the calendar, please let me know. I also have a Blog where I’ve been posting the Calendar there with a growing set of links to the clubs mentioned on the calendar. http://www.karens-auckland-calendar.blogspot.com/ Ignore the random course work I have to post)

Coming up this week:

Monday 5th November

• Cinema Nocturne: Weekly movie nights, Arts 209, Firefly episode 2 and 3, doors open 6:30pm, start 7pm.

Tuesday 6th November

• America Club: weekly roleplaying club night at Auckland University City Campus. See their club website for more information. www.theamericaclub.net.nz Meeting will be back on the Lower Common Room tonight.

Wednesday 7th November

• America Club: weekly board games club night at Auckland University City Campus. Meeting is in Ground Zero tonight.

• Auckland University Medieval Guild: weekly club meeting at Auckland University City Campus. All welcome. http://stdionysius.sca.org.nz/
Ground Zero. 7pm to 9pm.

• BloodBowl Federation weekly gaming night. 6pm at Queen's Head Bar & Restaurant, 396 Queen Street, CBD.

• 14th Annual Watties Can Film Festival. Check here for which films are showing.
http://www.skycitycinemas.co.nz/?Control=sites/Village/CansFest#Content

Thursday 8th November

• Italian Dance workshops. Check here http://shell.world-net.co.nz/~katherpat/schedule.htm for more information. (note day has moved)

Friday 9th November

• Venue for the Damned weekly DJ gigs at Oblivion Room. http://www.mukuna.co.nz/auckland/cbd/oblivion.htm

• NZLarps Ravenholme: Montague vs. Capulet (Auckland) Fri to Sun event.
http://www.diatribe.co.nz/viewtopic.php?t=1830

Saturday 10th November

• Larp: OWBN (One World By Night) (Regular once a month larp)
Place: Western Districts fast draw club (38 Rua rd, Glen Eden, on the corner of Rua Rd, Tomo St, and Croyden Rd just behind the small group of shops there)
7pm until 10pmish. Anyone interested in joining a game with a lot of history and growing playerbase would be advised to contact Chris at thronodor@hotmail.com or Kirsten at jadikel@hotmail.com

Sunday 11th November

• Auckland City Guard Gaming Club: weekly Sunday meeting, at Freemans Bay Community Hall. From 1pm to 5pm. A range of wargames and board games being played including Warhammer Fantasy, 40K, Flames of War, Warmachine and Hordes. Cost $3 members/$5 non-members. www.cityguard.co.nz

• Northshore Wargaming Club: meet the 2nd, 4th and 5th Sunday of the month. Meet in the Forrest Hill Scout Hall in Becroft Park on Becroft Drive. Meetings are from around 10:30am to 5:00pm. http://www.geocities.com/northshore_wargames/index.html

• Weekly Auckland Farmers Market Plus. From 10am to 4pm.
http://www.aucklandfarmersmarket.co.nz/index.html

Happening All Month

• 15 Sept to 18 Nov Exhibition at Ak Museum – Loli-Pop
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/405/loli-pop

• NaNoWriMo http://www.nanowrimo.org/

• Movember – changing the face of men’s health.
http://www.movember.com/nz/home/

Things coming up this month – November

14-18 MLHNZ Spring Camp
18 Sun Star Trek Convention. Meet Q and Ensign Harry Kim. www.pulpexpo.com
17/18 Rally Point 33 (Hamilton) Wargaming event
29th Nov - 2nd December (SCA) St Catherine's Faire camp (Auckland) http://ildhafn.sca.org/stcaths.htm

Things coming up later in the year

December
1 Sat Underpants on the Outside, a comic book/sci-fi event. Grey Lynn Library Hall.
13 Movie Release The Seeker The Dark is Rising (group movie outing)

January 2008

12/13 GizzyCon (Gisborne)
19/20 Kapcon XVII: Random Encounters. Wellington Roleplaying Convention http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/index.html
(includes special Sanctuary Larp http://kapcon.rpg.net.nz/kapconXVII/larp.html )

February 2008
1-6 SCA Canterbury Faire (Christchurch)
1/2/3 Great Lake Tourney, Spa Park, Taupo. www.taupojoust.com
9/10 BattleCry 2008 (mixture of gaming tournaments) (Auckland)
16/17 Over the Top 2008 (Hamiton) Warhammer, 40K and LotR tournaments.

March 2008
7-9 Serenity Larp http://www.diatribe.co.nz/viewforum.php?f=65

May 2008
SCA Crown Tournament, Darton. (Wellington)

July 2008
3 to 6 GenCon (Brisbane, Australia) Uber gaming convention http://www.genconoz.com/

#13 (Week 6) Part 2

So, I made a del.icio.us account. But as I am using a work computer I wasn't able to install the buttons. However, there is a function to "Post" your links to your list, so I have started a list of movie theatres which are in Auckland. Here it is.

#13 (Week 6) Del.icio.us stuff

Tagging is useful. Being able to give things you use on the net words that you relate to, helps you refind things. Often sites have some very odd search words attached to them, and are missing others. As I am always on the internet looking for stuff, this would be rather useful. My favourites folders are huge.

So far today I've read through the beginners guide link, the habits link, watched the youtube clip (which was way more useful than the weblinks) and had a nosey round the site.

I went to the PLCMCL2 site and looked at a couple of links. Although I do library stuff it isn't what I usually search for on the computer. It's either homework questions (like the history of spatula's) or gaming stuff (looking for things to improve my games or clubs to link with).

The things of most interest were the things along the right hand side, the listed links under various headings. The FlickrFunTools will need more exploring. The RSSCalendar looks fantastic, especially since I am already doing something similiar. When I have some time I will be looking into those a bit more.

#12 (week 5) Rollyo search lists

I've spent the last week exploring Rollyo. It's useful in that you can record all the similiar websites under one heading. It's a bit like your favourites list on your own internet browser. It's advantage is that you can view it where ever you are, at home or at work. So that's useful. The first search list I've done is of Roleplaying helpers, websites I find useful for information, ideas and new stuff for my roleplaying games.