Lev Lafayette's journal

I was born in Invercargill, New Zealand and forcibly given up for adoption. Kidnapped shortly after birth, I was raised in an orphanage run by the Sisters of Mercy and by a paranoid-schizophrenic step mother in Perth, Western Australia.

Completing high school of "independent means", I attended Murdoch University from 1986 to 1993. During my time there I was an active member of the Student Guild and was elected vice-president three times in succession against candidates backed by the major political parties. I also started a genre fiction club (the Murdoch Alternative Reality Society) which continues to this day, and wrote a roleplaying supplement (Rolemaster Companion VI). My undergraduate degree is in Politics, Philosophy and Sociology (with honours equivalent to a magna cum laude in U.S. universities).

In 1994 I moved to Melbourne, Australia, and started a PhD entitled "A Social Theory of the Internet". I was employed by various members of the Victorian Parliament from 1997-2002 in a range of administrative, advocacy and technical roles. In 2001 I started the group Labor for Refugees which became a major non-factional and interstate lobby group within the ALP to end mandatory detention and temporary protection visas; in 2008 both these objectives were achieved.

In 2002 I visited East Timor for their Presidential elections as the only UN Observer nominated by an Australian political party and later that year I returned to take up the role of the Information and Communications Technology Advisor for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for the Democratic Republic of East Timor. I have a reference from Jose Ramos-Horta on my work there. Upon my return to Australia I transcribed Cliff Morris' English-Tetun dictionary for the public domain.

I am employed by the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing where I am a systems administrator working with high-performance scientific supercomputers and ensure ISO-standards compliance; I recently completed (July 2011) a Masters in Business Administration, specialising in Technology Management, at the Chifley Business School. I have since continued my studies with a Graduate Certificate in Project Management (2012) (along with PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification), followed by a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary and Adult Education, at Murdoch University, and have just started a Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Policy at the University of London.

In 2008 I contributed most of three chapters for the Rolemaster Classic supplement Campaign Law. I have completed a political study of Dr. Jim Cairns, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia which is due for publication this year along with a roleplaying system based on "historical fantasy". I also spend some time reviewing gaming products at RPG.Net and science fiction and fantasy literature for Ticonderoga.

I regularly give presentations or conduct the service at the Melbourne Unitarian Church. I am also a past president of Prosper Australia, a taxation reform group, the Public OfficerPresident for Linux Users Victoria.

I have been described as similar to Johnny Cash's Man in Black; and not on account of the dominant colour of clothing I wear. I live at Willsmere, which I guess makes me an ex-asylum resident.

When I was in early teens and had a propensity to mixing metaphors I decided to apply an edict to myself "keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground and you'll be a giant among men". It seemed to combine practical idealism with ton bion lampron poleisthai.

"You seem like you leave a trail of healing wherever your path takes you, like a benevolent tornado." - amazinggoatgirl on Livejournal.