Sitting on the side off a building logging for general entertainment. I'm currently sittin inside a niche in the wall leachig net from the builing above me, sunglasses perched on my nose and a black leather-jacket on. Beside me are a gang of skaters doing flips down a staircase. In front of me an empty playground... I couldn't feel more like the 90's if I tried...
Speaking of the 90's I was talked into picking up an old laptop when I was at an antique-store the other day, more specifically a TRS-80 Model 100. An amazing little gizmo I'm using for a prop in a few months, and right now I'm using it to revive my old BASIC skills, Highlights include a built-in 300baud Modem, but my favorite part about it is that it runs on 4 AA batteries. I've named it "Zigfried"
I was fiddling around on various sites dedicated to the M-100 (apparently it has quite a fan following, and I stumbled across an FAQ published by the japanese producers of the same machine (it was known as Kyocera in Japan). In it I found what must be the best question I've ever seen in a hardware FAQ, ever... Wedged between the fairly innocent questions :
"Q. My Kyocera used to remember files when I turned it off. Now it doesn't. What can I do?" and "Q. What's the good of a print formatter if I can't hook up a printer?"
was the question:
"Q. How can I run my Kyocera for six weeks in the desert without all those AA batteries?"
...
In the desert...
for 6 weeks...
Anyway, my favorite part of the answer is
"For emergencies, take along a couple of wires with alligator clips and run it off the 6 volt battery in your camp lantern"
The things people used their computers for in the old days... Oh well, at least I know what I can do now, if I ever need to bring a laptop with a storage capacity of 11 pages of text with me for desert-blogging... I'm still considering wether I should mod it, or keep it in vintage casing, I'll post pics if I do any interesting modding though.
Lastly I want to tell everyone to go see Dr. Horrible's Sing-along-Blog. ... Seriously, go, now. Blog is over, what are you waiting for? Also, buy the DVD when it comes out.
I'm stuck in Limbo these days, struggling in a sort of void, looking for something to latch onto.
I just can't seem to get passionate about anything, probably because a lot of my anchors seem to be slipping on the firmament. All my commitments for the summer are over, the one LARP I was attending has passed, and ARCON has just ended... My girlfriend is still on vacation and my exames are long-since over. I guess this sudden lack of commitment has me lost in a funk.
Oh well, something will come along soon enough, I just have to wait it out.
ARCON, The annual Oslo gaming convention is just over and in my opinion it was the best one in years, not only did I, and a lot of the old-timers, have a lot of fun, but it's been ages since last time I saw so many fresh faces. I've already been quoted as having stated that the balacne between traditional and independent games was better then it has been for a long tome, and I stand by that. For a few years now Arcon has been gaining a profile as a testing ground for a lot of the fresh Norwegian PRGs, mostly produced within the Norwegian society of game-creators (sounds more pretentious in english :p) a group created in Oslo for exchange of ideas and to help people get their games tuned and tested. Don't get me wrong I like the thought that independent games get exposure and I can understand perfectly well that the "old-timers" of the gaming community want to host new games that interest them, but that is in no way going to stop me from complaining about it. Another amazing thing about the con was the theme, namely the new norwegian RPG "Itras By" (City of Itra) (the page is only in Norwegian sadly...) which is a ready wonderful read, and I can't recommend it enough. I may write more on it later, now though I'll focus on some of my personal High-points during the con.
Friday:
Kita and I arrived early friday morning in full Futurist get-up (Futurists are a from of radical scientists and followers in Itras By, performing acts of terror against the Machine-god and his followers, the symbol of the old technology and conservatism) to much amusement for the crowd waiting in line to register. very few recognized us, with good reason, as you can see in the picture below. The Con kicked off for us with me GM'ing a game of classic, 1st ed. Dungeons and dragons. It was full of zombies, orcs, traps, polished stone tunnels and 20x20ft square rooms. It's the probably the most fun i've had with an RPG in quite a while, and it brought back a lot of fond memories for everyone involved. The end of the first day was spent in the pub, chatting with old friends, and poking a few new people who fell in at our table. Needless to say there was quite a bit of alcohol involved, and in a fit of passion, and inebriation I convinced 11 other amers to come with me to the "After-hours" gaming hut, for a late night game of Old-school Vampire. In retrospect keeping the game going unti 8:30 the second day may not have been the best idea i've had. Especially since I overslept for the Con-Larp the next day and didn't get up to the convention-halls until 14:00'ish.
Saturday:
After a few hours stretching in bed, and getting sober and awake, I finally got to try Itras By and it really gripped me, I played in a session GM'ed by one of the authors of the game, Martin Bull-Gudmundsen, and I was amazed at the innovative storytelling style the game presented, as well as a unique way of splitting up the storytelling perspectives and surrendering GM-control to the players. The Last session of the second day was a bit awkward for me, I was supposed to be in charge of the hosting of "The Amazing adventures of Baron Munchhausen" In my eyes the best storyteller game available. The problem for me was that I waas supposed to host it in the Pub. This was problematic for several reasons, 1) THe noise-level in the pub was fairly unbearable. 2) the pub was a lot smaller then anticipated, due to reconstruction of the proper basement-pub, making it impossible to find free tables for the game, and 3) The fact that someone had switched the room without informing me, and the only reason the game got hosted at all was the fact that one of the players who had signed up knows my habits, and knew to search for me in the Pub. After this bumpy start we actually did manage to get the game going, over two tables, and I'm fairly sure everyone enjoyed it, though I was hoping to be drinking during the hosting <.<>.> On the other hand i guess the three participants under 18 appreciated getting to play...
Sunday:
In many ways, this was the best day for me, I arrived too late to participate in Kobolds ate my baby like I had planned, instead getting to spend the entire day in the sun in an outfit that was perfect for it. During the day I got to do a lot of things I genuinely enjoy, but rarely get to do. For instance i managed to grab a girl I know and take her for a walk around the park areas of the Campus ( the con was hosted at Oslo University) I had sandwiches on a bench in the sun, and we even had a point where I read to a few other people form the fictional Con-newspaper. The Con culminated in an award-session, where the winners of the various board-game tournaments and other competitions where announced and prizes were handed out. and extra bonus was ofcource Kita and I winning the "Composite" category in the costuming competition (it was actually hosted the day before but the winners we purposefully not announced until the end of the con). We left with ha coffe cup each as well as yet another signed copy of Itras By, we each had one from the release party a few days before, though we greatly appreciated being described as "The two most well-dressed gentlemen of ARCON". I even managed to dodge the "post-con-blues" by having a great dinner with Kita at a friends house before going home to crash.
That was the play-by play... I'm going to try to squeeze out a proper assessment and a few personal opinions on the con later, as well as a few more pictures... Right now I just want to get something up, so here you are:
Me (right) and Kita (left) in our award-winning outfits, photo by Zatharee, Final edit by Kita...
I like to belive there is one, and after 4 failed attempts to write an apology-post for not updating, I've decided to say "Frack that" and pretend nothing happened. To that effect i've started writing backdated posts which i'll upload in a single batch when they're done, ad just pretend they've always been there...
The days seem to be melting into each other this month, for some unknown reason, probably because I've somehow ended up in a state of balance, where i worry less about things. This offcource makes reading my blog even less amusing then me stumbling into a relationship. I'll try to find a way to amuse my readers regardless, all 4 of you.
I recently made a terrible discovery, there is a place in Oslo, where I can buy beer in buckets. What's worse is that the buckets reduce the price of beer to roughly 40% of the normal pub price. I made this startling discovery a few weeks ago, after a series of events landed me a free luncheon consisting of Lobster and Champagne (due to family circumstances, I'll elaborate later) Anyway this, combined with the warmness, and sunniness of the day made me hunger for more alcohol, and I swiftly gathered a group for this purpose.
We made our way up to Cheteu Neuf, the place I had heard served these "beerbuckets" to test the rumours. Now, I feel I have to clarify that the beer is not, to some slight dissapointment, pooured directly into the buckets and sett on the table, rather what you get is a bucket wih 5 bottles of chilled beer in a bucket filled with ice-cubes. An amazing innovation, which gives me new faith in mankinds struggle to better himself and his lot.
After a few hours of this, and about 5 bottles each, one of my comrades recieved word that a freind of hours hed recently (that very day) Come into a bit of money, seven figures of money to be excact. Naturally it seemed natural to invite him to share his wealth with us, less fortunate and share in the glorious discovery we had made. About half an hour later he showed up with the money for ludicrous amounts of beer and allso, to much jeering and public entertainment his ounger sister, and the sport of the evening turned to propositioning her, to his great dissmay... It has to be mentioned theat this sister is 16 and that this adds massive amounts of entertainment to the propositioning.
Eventiuly she left the table for greener, and possibly younger, pastures and we were left, 4 rowdy young men and a woman "of our aquaintance" who is on her way to Svalbard at the time of writing (more on that later as well).
This story has no real morale, other then large quantities of beer makes onee popular with bartenders. Also that quiet summerdays can still hold new discoveries.
Now, the first world shattering post out of the way i can move on to interesting weirdness in the world of academics. No! Don't run of yet! I have Jokes!
Lately it seems that my academic sources have been conspiring to make my world confusing, and giving me an incredible supply of interesting anecdotes, which, due to low monetary funds, I cannot take with me to the pub.
The latest in this long series of events assaulted me while I was reading an article on the Informants of Moltke Moe. Now A bit of backstory is needed here to avoid peoples head exploding... Moltke Moe was the son of Jørgen Moe. Those of you of the scandinavian persuasion will have goten some sense of what this means, for any foreigner in the audience I can add that Jørgen Moe along with Peder Christian Asbjørnsen published folktales. Imagine them as the Norwegian brothers Grimm, only with longer walks.
Now, Moltke Moe followed in the footsteps of his father and gathered tales from a little far-away land of make-believe called Bø, somewhere around the middle of Norway, and the Informants in question were the people wh told hm the stories he later published.
There, that wasn't so painful, now was it?
Now, on to the funny bit. In the 1970s Bjarne Hodne (noted norwegian folklorist) Published an article about these informants, where he gives a bit of Backstory to each of them, as far as he was able to find any at all, there were dung-eating peasants in a small town in Norway, and that's about as small as towns get.
One of these entries stands out from the rest. It's about a woman called Liv Bratterud and in it is quoted from a book published in 1918, an entry about how she got control of her farm from he husband Einar Slaatedalen, who is the real star of this narrative.
The entry reads thusly:
"[Han] fekk ho [og] Kaupte 800 pottur brennevin med ein gång og drakk upp. Han skaut etter svogeren sin og kom paa tukthuse. So stal han etter han o m ut att, og so skaate han på huse eingong til. so var han blitalande og velverd, og daa han kom og møtte arrestforvararen, sa'n "eg æ liksom dei som ikkje skjens fe aa kommaigjen dær eg har våre før" sa'n[...]"
Now for the translation, this man, Einar apparently right after he got married went out and bought 800 pottur of Spirits,which he then consumed. Now what a pottur is I've yet to find out, whatever they are, and my historian-friends a have suggested anything from 3 deciliters to almost a Liter, this man managed to drink 800 of them. Seemingly in one sitting. He then goes on to shoot his father in law. Now I might now be the most rugged drinker, though I can hold my own, but somewhere between 240 and 800 liters of Spirits?? I can't even imagine you could drink that much water and survive... much less shoot your father-in-law.
Of cource he was arrested for this and thrown in jail. after which he went on to get caught stealing and being arrested and thrown in jail again, with the words "Well, I'm not the kind on man who minds going back somewhere I've already been..."
Clearly the Norwegians of the 1870s were made of something very different from what their made of now.
Huh, this ended up a lot longer then intended, oh well, I leave you now to pretend to be working, also, check out the "google-search of the day" in the sidebar, suffice it to say, your god-given-grant to have sex with a hamburger might be at stake...
I find myself everyday now with an irrepressible urge to share the absurdities I find with the world at large or at least with any unsuspecting passer-by I can find (So far my professors seem to have suffered the brunt of it).
In my mind this can only mean one thing, time to jump, both legs first, back into the blogesphere.
It's been a while since my last one died doe to computer troubles in wales after a rather daring feat of bingeing and sitting on a beach in a storm last February.
This Time though I hope to be able to keep it up for a while, and I cheated and got into blogspot to save on hosting.
Thus I give you: the Sound of Silence v2.5 (or something)
