or 'I have the most awesome friends'. My birthday was last thursday, so I'm now thirty-something years old. But I feel young, because my friends gave me a gift certificate to Indie Press Revolution. And now I'm flipping thorugh their online catalogue trying hard to choose what games to order.

So far the list looks like this:

• In a Wicked Age (The concept thrills me, I want to know what's inside) 
• Donjon (Seems like a lot of fun) 
• Bliss Stage (A lot of talk about this one, although I'm not very familiar with it) 
• Cold City (Another one I don't know too well by reputation) 
• Hot War (Like Cold City) 
• Dogs in the Vineyard (entry by Vellu, I think I should read this game just to know what it is about)

If you have any other suggestions or want to tell me more about some of the games already listed, that would probably help me choose. Thanks.

As in theatres where real people perform on a stage. That's how I've felt for a long time now. Both the psychological science fiction stories and the galaxy destroying time-warping speculative black hole physics stuff, too. Imagine how cool it would be.

The thing is, most of the theatre world isn't into sci-fi or they just outright feel like sci-fi is not for the real stage. The day I first realized this was when I got feedback for my dramaturgy assignment from my professor in the applied drama classes. I had dramatized William Gibson's Hinterlands. She noted that she hadn't ever thought about dramatizing science fiction nor had anyone else dramatized a piece of sci-fi as an assignment. She also seemed to be surprised by the themes explored in the piece, as if serious theme exploration in science fiction was something she did not know existed. And she probably didn't know such a thing existed as well.

I think that many works of science fiction would prosper on stage. The scale of some of Alastair Reynolds' visions combined with the presence of actors to convey the effect of those massive-scale events is something I dream about frequently. Other works, such as William Gibson's newer novels and Ballard's Super-Cannes, for example, would serve as ideal vessels for exploring the values in contemporary society and its future outlook. And the strength of putting it on stage in theatre would be to ground it in human experience provided with the actors present in the same space as the audience.

This was today's sermon. Go in peace, my brothers and sisters.

New plans, projects and games are a definite sign of Autumn. And, as I've hooked up with people for two potential new rpg games, taken up board gaming (El Grande session yesterday) and the movie club is starting again, it's clear to me that we've heading onwards after a rainy Summer. Now I just need to take up knitting and boatcarving to fulfill my heart's desires.

For me the New Year's resolutions have been a thing of the past for a while now - I think that people make more promises to themselves after the Summer. Students promise to rack up credits in a way they've never done, holiday spenders and drifters promise to become well-earning pension-saving citizens again etc. I promise to take up social and sporting activities again after a free-flowing Summer.

I'm looking for (preferably Finnish-speaking) role-players in the Helsinki area to game with me in the Finnish version of this article .