Going Dutch

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/301

Apparently, we just had the first three-person civil union in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, pretty much all google can produce is foreign language pages (dutch) and extreme-right-wing rants than they told us so (double dutch), all apparently from a single source somewhere.

If it works, I presume they'd have to:

You designate next-of-kin order, or people fight it out like multiple parents/siblings.
You have a 'primary' who gets benefits you only get one of.
Two people have to be primary for children.
Spousal employment perks, etc, will be decided in nasty case law battles
Wills would be useful.
Etc.

But I couldn't actually find any information, just "Polygamy, woo!" or "Polygamy, yuk[1]!". Does anyone know more?

PS. Thanks to Naath for bringing this to our attention. And apologies for saying it'd never happen.

[1] Lower mammals *were* mentioned as the new 'worst possible bottom of the slope' :)

Geek Pizza

After FF a few of us went off to geek pizza; very aptly named :) Most people way underformalise "do we want pudding" and "have we all paid the right amount", we err slightly but consistently on the other side. But I assume it goes smoother without people who don't normally go.

Certainly "n garlic breads" is the correct approach in a pizza restaurant, a la "n popadums" in an indian, as opposed to "Oh, is it my turn already? Um, um, um, what's everyone else having?" As we were leaving, the waitress asked if we'd left the money, and on learning a card had been used, said "Oh *eyebrows* you normally pay with cash."

I recon that then, my life was not sitcom, but webcomic. Much conversation fitted the "Story, more story, punchline" or "Remark, witty remark, punchline" format.

I'm not sure what medium I should prefer. For instance, in sitcoms/soap-operas (it seems to be somewhere in the middle) you can be fairly sure that everyone, regardless, will have much the same standard of living. And if don't have any major changes for a month will spontaneously be run over, have an affair, be arrested, graduate, or something.

In a webcomic, pretty much anything could be happening so long as there's a stream of punchlines. I could even estimate time by them, and arrange for things to happen on or off camera. Eg. prevent plot by supplying much punchlines and visual panoramas, or vice versa.

Post-pizza we talked about spherical geometry. My mind can still cope with maths problems, but lots of the knowledge has leaked out. I do still enjoy limbering up, though; programming, even abstractly, isn't quite the same. I should do *something* mathematical, but I don't know what.

Then we played egg-cup whist. Estimation whist. [52/n] cards each, make secret bid for number of tricks expected (by placing coins under an egg cup). Score one pt per trick made, plus 10 for a correct guess. Before the round, the total number of tricks bid is announced by counting the *remaining* coins. In retrospect, it's probably not particularly better than playing either announcing-each-bid (sequentially or together) or not-announcing-at-all, depending which style you prefer.

But the 10/1 ratio seemed about right insofar as the leading players approximately tied with different numbers of correct guesses. I did badly, but I enjoyed it I think with practice I can do that sort of game.

And then I can be a game webcomic, a la Order of the Stick or Absurd Notions, which would be cool!