Thursday 5 July 2001

Pic of the day: Screenshot from Transport Tycoon, which also operates on the principle that what's good for business is good for the town, and the other way around. (Hey, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a way to illustrate these things?)

Trade days

Today is Trade Day in Kristiansand, the city where I work. It is a day where the shops sell for cheap the stuff they would not otherwise get paid for at all. The city is teeming with people, most of them women, buying stuff they probably won't use.

I did not participate in the madness this year. I still have a few bags of unused clothes lying at my office which I have bought (mainly last year) but have not yet taken home. Yes, I am so ashamed. But at least I have taken the hint now. Sort of.

It probably helps too that I no longer feel interested in rubbing up against lots of strange women. (And you don't get them much stranger than this in peacetime.)

***

Well, as strangeness goes, the Quart festival probably beats Trade Day soundly. And it is even at the same time - it is going on this week. It is a rock music festival with a moderate level of drug abuse and a vague anti-christian profile. But I repeat myself - I already said it was a rock festival. This evening I hear features the black metal band Mayhem, famous for their extreme hate of christianity and their insane behavior, such as throwing mutilated pig heads from the scene and cutting themselves with a knife. (OK, I think only one of them have cut himself so far.)

I remember from the Old Testament how the prophets of Baal cut themselves too. Perhaps these boys have heard that story too, or perhaps it's just some automatic result of hating God. God knows. I'm glad to have nothing to do with either Baal or Black Metal. But the local merchants have embraced the festival with joy and money. Evidently it does bring some business to town. And if I may say something, I think in the long run Mammon (money) is a more dangerous competitor to God than either Baal or his current successors.

Certainly this has been true in my life. I am not a collector of money, but the things I can buy for money have time after time led me on a merry chase. Fad after fad, as I tried on for size one form of entertainment after another. The happiness gained from worldly goods have turned out to be fleeting, though. Well, except for the computers. :)

I think computers, typewriters, musical instruments and such things are in a separate class. They are tools to express ourselves. And I believe more firmly with every passing year that happiness must come from within.

***

My right hand (and wrist) is still not healed. It seems that both typing and mousing hurts it, typing most. But these are the things I do. They are the tools of my trade, and of my heart. That is quite a dilemma.

Tonight, for instance, I was looking into Borland Delphi, the programming environment and Pascal code builder. Looks interesting. I used to be a programmer, once. It was who I was, in a way. Well, slightly lower in priority than my religion, at least in theory. But I guess I can confess by now that I sometimes would sit at christian meetings and suddenly have revelations in the computer language manual rather than the Bible. But that was when I was young and in love with programming.

Oh yes, I thought I was good. I thought I was special. I guess I was, but then it ended. I looked at Borland Delphi now, and I guess I could learn to use it. Whatever that would be good for. But my hand started to hurt so much I just had to cut it out. Strange that it would hurt more from building a sample application in Delphi than fighting Daedra in Daggerfall. I guess it is because I am more tense when programming. Guess that means I'm not likely to take up that trade again...