Interests

Since my undergraduate days, I've been interested in history, especially Byzantine Constantinople. I very much enjoy the works of Lord Norwich, and would travel to Venice or Istanbul any time.

Sid Meier's Civilization, now at version 4 (Alpha Centauri briefly augmented) has provided me with a decade of a variety of Civilization addictions, though not to the extent of eclipsing M.U.L.E. - surely the finest multi-player strategy game ever.There's a nice story about it at Salon.com.

I'm delighted that my sons play cricket, and can't imagine why anyone would think a drawn test is boring. Musically, I abandoned pretensions of taste with an interest in Triple J, and from thence a slippery slope to TISM. However, I do like some modern esoterica, such as Rachid Taha and Garbage.

I'm vastly amused by Dave Barry, Calvin and Hobbes and Doonesbury . I've been enjoying Dilbert, and Alex more so now that I know they're documentaries. I'm an admirer of the late Idries Shah, the prose of Paulo Coelho and the poetry of Rumi .I've enjoyed the paintings of the late Mati Klarwein, Edward Burne-Jones, and Salvador Dali.