Tuesday 25 July 2000

Pic of the day: Yes, it is that time of the year again. Time for the branches to bear fruit. Even those on rocky ground and by the roadside.

When 1 is too much

I listened once again to DeLillos' song about throwing away all the papers. While I didn't do that, I sent to their doom a stack of computer gaming magazines from 1994, with rave reviews of Ultima VII: Pagan, and The Elder Scrolls: Arena. Still don't have the heart to throw away those magazines where I wrote myself, but the others ... I guess 1994 is not likely to come back, whatever I do.

Did I throw away the largish stack of magazines because I listened to that song? Or did I listen to the song because I wanted to throw away the magazines? Even I cannot say for sure. Man, I can't believe all the junk I have lying around here. And that's not even counting the furniture. I'm sure I could get something better than that chair there if I looked in some dumpsters...

And what to do with 100+ computer games? There was a time when I used to buy a couple of those every month. I think some of them are on 5.25 inch floppies. No idea if they are still readable, even if you have the floppy drives that fit. I guess I could build a computer game museum. Or throw them away. Or let them survive me and leave the decision to my heirs, whoever that might be.

And the comic books. These have been growing, albeit at a slower pace, up until now. I bought one yesterday, in fact. Many of these I could actually get rid of: There is a comic book shop in town that sells used comics. It even buys them back at 1/4 price if they are reasonably sellable. But I am reluctant to rid myself of them. It's not that I don't basically remember them all, but they do hold some affection value. And they may actually have some economic value in the future, too. Yes, collectors are paying quite a bit for old comic books. So if I should have the good fortune of living to a ripe old age, some of these books may actually be valuable. Though I'm not sure which ones. I think I have the complete run of X-men Norwegian translations that were released on Semic. And without drool (or worse) on the pictures of Storm. That's going to be a rare one.

***

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. Yesterday I passed by Løkka, the classic clothes shop, and there was a sale on stuff like Marlboro Classics and Hugo Boss and stuff and stuff. And there was that absolutely cute Marlboro tee shirt. I know I have too much clothes as is, but T-shirts are fairly rare. I think I had three before, and now 4. If I take it home from work, that is. It is still lying there, in its bag.

On the brighteous side, I haven't heard back from the shop of angels, whose name I am not planning to divulge because I don't want to blow their cover. Angels are secret agents, you know. You can't just hang them out on the Internet. Anyway, I'm not sure all of them are angels there. But I've found that if I really need some electric things, I can go there and they will have a sale on that particular thing, usually, or at least sell it at a quite reasonable price. If there is something I just want but don't really need, they will typically not have it at all, or avoid me until I leave the shop, or frankly tell me that I ought not to buy it. It is very peculiar. Which is why I was so shocked when I bought this stereo there in spring. I knew in my heart of hearts that it wasn't God's will that I should buy that stereo, so why did they sell it to me?

But not a word about the RAM I ordered a month ago. They got my phone number at work and my phone number at home. I've been there later for other reasons, too. Not a word. If/when I actually need it, I guess they will have it.

***

Wonder if I really will need SideKick Plus in the future? Who knows - my 286 lost control of its hard disk plug in card a few weeks ago, on which Windows 3.1 was installed. So now I only have the C disk, and the floppies (one 1.2MB and one 720KB) and DR-DOS. Sidekick suddenly came in very handy. I had a floppy (original, no pirate stuff) lying around. You never know when you need it!

And Byte, the computer magazine, from 1988 through 1991: They prop up my bookshelf. I could not throw them awya without more or less dismantling the thing. Lots of work. That is, if I could even see more than the top of those magazines over the stacks of floppies, CD's, zip drive, game boxes and defunct mice.

Am I a manly man or what!?

And scientific magazines ... destroying them would be like burning books! A flashback to the dark ages, and the Vandals looting and pillaging the decadent Roman cities. Even though we now know that AIDS does not come from too much semen (good guess though), and it's not very likely that we will have a manned expedition to Mars in 2005. Definitely the Soviet Union will not be part of it.

And I already mentioned my pitiful attempts at novel writing, the other day. A few binders, but luckily I've mostly written on floppies the last few years. And now on the Internet. I uploaded a couple more chapters yesterday. Nothing to write home about, really. If it is literally true that we shall account for every unnecessary word on Judgement Day, it's gonna be a long day. I'm really gonna need a good lawyer.

But right now, I need to upload this entry and hope that it might be good for something. If nothing else, it should make some people feel better about the state of their own living space. :)