Saturday 18 December 1999

Pic of the day: Fun with food!

OK, so I am not rich, famous and sexy. But then again, two out of three ain't all that bad, and I may still win the lottery ...

Yes, I am easily amused. I am also easily satisfied. I can read about the newest great invention and think it is fascinating, without feeling the burning need inside to have it NOW. Whether it is the newest MP3 player, a fast and comfortable electric car, or a surefire technique for inducing multiple whole body orgasms. Being as I am already happy, how much improvement could anything really bring?

This does not mean that I don't still get new stuff. Just that I am casual about it. Right now while I am writing, my new download manager program (ReGet) is busy fetching Star Office 5.1, the freeee office suite that competes with and is reasonably compatible with MicroSoft Office. It is now distributed at no cost from Sun Microsystems, probably to spite their arch-rival Microsoft. They plan to revamp the product into a web-centered thing, which will probably leave it useless to me as we Norwegians cannot afford to stay online at all times. But I understand that the current version will work nicely offline. I hope to come back with a report later.

(While writing the above, I was accidentally disconnected through no action of my own, after about half an hour of downloading. This was why I got ReGet in the first place, and it resumed like a charm. ReGet is free, but you are "encouraged" to pay for it anyway after 30 days. The border between freeware and shareware seems to be blurring. But chances are that within 30 days I will have finished loading the office suite. It is pretty big, but not that big!)

Another thing that amazes me is the legal, free MP3 music files on places such as MP3.com. (Actually, MP3.com is the only place I've seen with more than one artist's MP3 files. There may be others, but I have barely scratched the surface of this one site yet.) I mean, giving away music for free? I can see how a garage band would do that with their latest tekkkno mix. But some of the stuff is absolutely professional quality. I see that some of them also sell CD's. My ears may not be hi-fi enough to care, but I guess there are others who just cannot be satisfied with MP3. :)

Lately I have downloaded a few good old Christmas carols. -For some reason, this makes me think of Carol of Suizide Blonde. Not that there is anything christmassy about her, really, it's just that it is funny to say "Christmas Carol", just like "Christmas Magnus". Of course there is also the more generic Chrismas Eve, but no Christmas Adam (unless one counts the main character, perhaps).

This may be the same as easily amused, I am not sure. But I am not easily bored. Work can do that, I admit. Sometimes I fall asleep at work, though only for a couple of minutes. I get way too little sleep normally, because there are so many fun things to do. E-mail and newsgroups and IRC, where I can interact with other people (or the fantasy images they project instead of themselves, if they are too fearful and insecure to be honest). Information hunting in online encyclopaedia and virtual papers. And when offline, there is always a computer game ... I love building empires or cities or even individual persons, like in a role playing game. The fun is in the building.

Another form of building is the writing of novels, none of which I finish. This seems to have happened to my ongoing project too, the Thaumaturge. It is temporarily put in the background while I'm drawing up a plot summary and some details for a simpler, more youthful story. I lack a good title for it, so I just call it "weird" for now. It's kind of like something inbetween Harry Potter and Thomas Covenant, if that tells you anything. Actually it is not too Potter-ish, as it has lots of stuff that I've used before in other misbegotten stories. The Blackwood from "Light of the Black Forest", the Bloodwood from "Land of Secrets", the Bonewood from "Mirroriana", the magic crystals from "Varia's Worlds". All of them good ideas that never quite got finished. Neither will this one, but it's fun while it lasts.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I've still not come too far in the first book. This is because I read it mainly on the bus. At home I have too many other fun things to do, and at work I have too many non-fun things to do. (And some quite funny ones too.) Hopefully I can get to read through both of the books on the train.

Yes people! Only 4 days left and I am there! If all goes well. It is hard to believe that it is this close. Wooohooo! Christmas holiday! So it is just a long weekend. I wish it were longer. You all know I'd like to hang around with the most fascinating grrl I've ever met, in particular. The food isn't too bad either. :) But even if I had to subsist on bread and carrots, I'd be more than happy to talk with her and shop with her and generally bask in her glorious presence. (No sex, of course. You know me, people.) She has some pretty funny relatives too. The midwife for instance, who I dared not look at much of the time when I was younger and more horny. I feel better now, a big thank you to all who pray for my continued chastity. Know that you are doing the world a favor.

(I'd love to write more about prayer, or "middle class voodoo" as its detractors call it, but this is way too long already.)