Monday 14 December 1998
Pic of the day: Screenshot from Daggerfall, showing almost the entire
home of my current character, the High Paparazzo. Despite the bold
title, not an affluent character by any means. (In fact, the tiny
little house was bought mainly from borrowed money.) I seem to
have a problem keeping fantasy and reality apart ... I tend to bring
some of my own traits into my fantasy settings. Such as beeing poor,
weak and with an interest for magic. :)
In fact, thinking back, I guess I more or less created the central
concept of roleplaying games on my own when I was small (and weak, and
poor, etc). There was no mention of such things in my home or anywhere
around, the closest was the Norwegian fairy tales, which tended to center
on trolls and the like. I remember being a small boy hopping around
on the broken stones while my mind was living in a world of fantasy
where I would grow stronger for each monster I overcame, and meet new
and stronger monsters all the time. I even daydreamt about going into
long deep caverns to rescue people. (And I hate darkness in general
and caverns in particular.) So when I ca 20 years later discovered
roleplaying games, I recognized the key concepts immediately.
I also realized that they symbolized the human condition, or at least
for some of us. The real monsters, of course, are within ourselves.
As are the dark caves.
In other news: Went to work a bit late, spent the day making a new program
work, and came home late. Fell asleep in my chair in front of the computer
while trying to play Daggerfall. Chocolate tends to make me very sleepy.
And sleeping a couple of hours less than I should each night helps too.
I went to bed immediately after I (barely) woke up, but I didn't fall
asleep again. Instead I spent 20 minutes in a trancelike state of
very limited awareness, with no dreams and no thoughts. That sure
felt good. I should buy myself a sofa to spend the evenings on,
but the apartment is already full almost to the rafters.
Visit the Diary Farm for the diaries I've put out to pasture until they
buy the farm:
November 1998