Saturday 22 June 2002

Pic of the day: The invisible Doggie is not visible in the picture. (Which, incidentally, is a screenshot from Morrowind, much reduced in size.)

Sleep and daydreams

I slept more than 8 hours this night, which is quite unusual for me. I don't suffer from insomnia as such, I just don't fall asleep early. (Or if I do, I am vulnerable to waking up early in the night in a state of physical and mental turmoil, kinda like a nightmare only not sleeping.) The past week has seen too little sleep each day, and I was happy to recover it today, even if it meant sleeping in till almost noon. The dreams I dreamt were fairly unremarkable, even though there was some magic. I think I repeated at least two of the dreams, too, so for that matter it was OK to wake up. The dreams were rather boring the second time around.

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Even though I don't recall dreaming about it, a short story larvae was hatched in my brain when I got up, and it continued to grow and molt for a while. It was really too limited to become a novel, and it did not really fit in any of the ones I am working on (for very limited values of working). I think it would be cool in a short story, though. Too bad I did not specialize that way – I could actually finish some of those, if I just knew how.

The scenario is a typical cookie-cutter, thirteen in a dozen, light fantasy story. The (young male) main character has been whisked away from a modern world to a magic fantasy world, as males sometimes are. And as usual when someone from another world pops up, there is some prophesy about saving the world / continent / kingdom. There always is; prophets seem to like alien visitors. (Anyway, why are people in fantasy worlds usually like medieval Europeans except that they bathe? Wouldn't it be cool if they had eyestalks and tentacles? Of course, that would kinda play down the romance part, I guess.)

Oh yes, the boy meets girl part. That's the bulk of this story. It explores in more detail the part where the unwitting hero travels off through the wilderness with the cute female supporting character. The possibilities are endless, especially when the cute girl happens to have an invisible friend called Doggie who travels along with them ...

Normally I would already have written much of the story. But normally is gone, presumably forever. This is about as much as I can write in one evening. Add a couple e-mails, and my hand is spent for one day. Another thing I never suspected when I was young. Just like I did not know that, when I earned enough to eat as much as I wanted, I would no longer be able to. If I reach the Viagra age, I expect unmarried women to start coming on to me... ^_^

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Oh, and since some of you simply couldn't care less about my stillborn fiction, here's a totally nifty link to a small utility that lets you install downloads into The Sims without touching the dread Folders and such technical stuff. Simply go to your favorite Sim boutique and download new clothes for your Sims, or new furniture, carpets, even heads. When your browser asks you where to save them, just put them on the desktop. After you've finished, start Sim File Maid and just drag & drop them all on her lawn. She will sort them into the folders where they belong, and when you open The Sims they will be there. It sure looks like a great idea. Sims File Maid.