Saturday 19 February 2000

Pic of the day: The young trees are bent by the winter, but not broken.

I had this long dream tonight, even though I woke up at about normal working hours. In the dream, I was nagged to travel to southern Germany for a job-related conference. (Actually it was about mobile phones, which is not in any way related to my current job. The whole dream was permeated by mobile phones.) On arriving in some nameless city in southern Germany, I happened on a confrontation between students and police at the harbor. The students wanted to protect the waterfront from being used for big buildings, the whole site was already halfway a building site. Without further consideration, I jumped to the aid of the students. We pelted the police with stones until they had to retreat.
Surprisingly, it turned out that several of the students were Norwegian, like I am, and I proposed we go attend the mobile phone expo. However, at this point my mobile phone beeped me with a message, informing me that the three first days of the 4-day conference were cancelled, and my employer wanted me to return to Norway. Now my new friends for some reason were returning to Norway too, so off we went.
However, I felt compelled to go back and check something, and so I missed the boat and became separated from them. There were mobile phones beeping everywhere while I tried to concentrate on teleporting home. And then I woke up. I had forgotten to turn off the alarm clock for the weekend.

Normally I don't go to work on Saturdays. But this weekend I had to send a file. We waited as long as possible, but it must be there by Monday. So it was either today or tomorrow. That's OK, I needed to buy some yoghurt anyway. Except I bought it in town. I still haven't paid for that plastic bag, then.

I was tempted to make another quick small dinner with boiling water and prepacked food. It is simple, it is fun, and it is reasonably tasty. On the other hand, I don't regret waiting till I got home and cooked my own pasta & cheese meal. My standard weekend fare. :)

There are lots of good food, but much of it puts my digestion in hyperdrive. Most all manner of fruit and vegetables, which would otherwise have been pretty high on my favorite list. Chocolate, of course, and cola and juice. Too much yoghurt isn't a good idea either. On the bright side, there is always pasta and stuff. And I can eat almost any normal food (except perhaps citrus) if I only eat it in very small quantities. Then again, do I look like I eat in very small quantities? :)

After dinner, I played Daggerfall again, and wrote some more fanfic. This time from the perspective of an Argonian, a reptile humanoid. In particular, his bewilderment at meeting people without tails.

I've long had a healthy interest in tails. It so happens that humans, like the great apes of Africa, lack tails completely. The monkeys of South America, on the other hand, have long prehensile tails, and seem to do well enough with them. (Or at least they did before humans started to erase the rain forest.) Now, the American monkeys were never quite as bright as their African and Asian counterparts, but this need not stem from the tail. So what if the American monkeys had been chosen to serve as prototype for an intelligent species, instead of the eastern apes?

For convenience, I shall ignore the theological implications. What other effects would a tailed life have? I guess that depends on the size and shape of the tail. A long prehensile tail like many American monkeys have, would certainly leave its mark on society in many ways. (For one thing, chairs would probably be different...)

In the world of Tamriel (where the game Daggerfall is also set) there are two tailed races: The slightly feline Khajjiit have long prehensile tails, while the somewhat crocodile-like Argonians have a thick, strong tail. So far the Elder Scrolls games lack controls to use these, but more games are in the build queue, so one can always hope. And in the meantime, there is always imagination.

Though on a day like today, I shall readily admit that Real Life beats Daggerfall hands down on graphics. Now if only the save option works as documented ...