Sunday 20 August 2000

Pic of the day: My home away from home.

Dear NULL,,

Got a new height of moron spam e-mail. It was, fittingly, addressed to "Dear NULL,,". I did not read much further. But you know, there are days when that address feels quite descriptive. Tonight, as every night so far since I arrived, I had some weirder than life dream.

In my dream, we were a largely innocent, peace-loving people threatened by a global disaster. The leaders were preparing a giant ark, a spaceship that would take us away until times got better in the world. I was a young boy growing up in the shadow of this ark. (There may have been other arks - this one was only large enough for a city.) We were exploring the wilderness and delighting in the beauty of the rare flowers and such. There was some research project going on that was supposed to give the new generation a very special ability, which we would need when we returned after the destruction.

The filling of the ark was a fairly leasurely process, and some of the youngsters took their own sweet time to get in. But the wise leaders had calculated with this, and so we were ready just in time. We were also given a paper with cryptic instructions, each of us. Only when we were inside, did we learn the thing that gave our instructions meaning: Each of us would have the ability to transform into one (but only one) animal. We would be stuck with the first animal we transformed into, and likely we would only be able to become an animal that suited our personality. After a while, it became clear that my animal was ... a porcupine.

It did not seem a long time we were in space; but when we returned, the world was healed and repopulated. A new, more barbaric mankind had filled the world. We were to blend with them, and I and my friends were to take a job at a factory. We found the strict regulations and the suspicion among people to be very strange, and it was hard to remember the customs of this modern people. I also had a personal problem: My change into porcupine tended to stop halfway, so that I instead became a porcupine-man: My usual size, roughly humanoid in shape, but with contorted features and covered with large sharp spikes. As usual, the dream just ended unresolved.

***

Back on Earth, we ate a late breakfast. For my part, a glass of yoghurt. My digestion was still not too happy. I was, however, with the advent of the Great Earth Mother and her sister the clothes designer. The G.E.M is a really fascinating personality. It may after all be that as much as her outer beauty that has interested me. Though she may be needlessly reserved at times.

After a relaxed day at home, GEM joined us for a dinner at Big Horn Steakhouse in Oslo. The place was decorated in a harry way, and offered horse meat for those in need of that. We however had tender beefs. The food tasted great. Having only had two cups of yoghurt during the day, I ventured to eat some of the meat and most of the maize and potatoes and sauce. I knew my digestion would probably not be too happy with anything more than a third cup of yoghurt, but again, you do strange things for people you love. And since it had been a time, there was always the hope that it wouldn't actually hurt me.

***

After we came home, SW and Cutie and I saw a video movie, a romantic comedy I think. It sure looked like it to me. It was about some girl who had got this guy to a hospital and told that she was his fiancee, in order to not get kicked out before she knew how he was doing. And his family loved her; particularly his brother. Things just got weirder from there. Cute.

But of course, unlike the movie, real life romance is not likely to have a happy end. Though what do I know? I may be a superman in database programming; but in matters of the heart, I'm still a ... NULL.