Friday 10 March 2000
Well, in national news, it's all about the change of government here in Norway. As I foretold a while ago in my entry "Jens ascending", the Labor shadow Premier did not stay long in the shadow. Enlisting the aid of Labor's arch-rival, the conservatives, he toppled the tiny Centrum coalition. The conservatives seems somehow to have imagined that the Centrum parties would take up an offer to create a broader government, but instead the prize fell to Jens Stoltenberg, the New Man. Watch out, this is not a guy to take lightly. Women adore him, and businessmen trust him. That's a suspicious combination at the best of times ... :)
In more personal news, I got the USB 250 MB Iomega Zip drive to work without a hiccup on the new work PC. It happens to have two USB ports, and detected the Zip the moment I plugged it in. (You can plug in and out USB units while the PC is running.) It installed the drivers and was utterly helpful. So now I have access to e-mail once a day, as long as I manage to get to town. I intend to do so tomorrow too, even if it is Saturday. Then, if all goes well, I hope to walk over to where SuperWoman lives, and we can go shopping.
I remained at work till half past eight in the evening today. Not to work, of course. Even the thought of work makes me tired. No, to play The Sims on the bright new computer. It's not like it costs the workplace anything to have me play there. Sadly I could not play on with my three singles that I created at home (no backup before crash). Instead I created a couple. Like in married couple.
I had expected double trouble, to be honest. An added level of challenge. But surprisingly it is easier in some ways. One of them can fix a large meal for both while the other takes a needed bath - with the singles I had to do the things one at a time, and make small meals unless there were guest (or the flies would come). Most noticeably, the singles tend to get lonely and start moping after three days or so without company. The couple, after some initial prodding from the creator, keep each other happy without even trying. They talk at the breakfast table, and when they play chess together in the evening. And if various tasks have kept them apart long enough that the Social need stat starts to dip, one of them will spontaneously try to hug the other.
So much for realism. And I tried to model them behaviorally on two people that I know pretty well, none of which are married at the moment. Ahem. Enough about that.
Today was payday, and I paid a stack of bills. Hey, someone's got to do it. It's a bit scary, but I think I am starting to think like a Sim. "Ooh, bills! I must pay them." "Ooh, trash! I must pick it up." "Ooh, paper! I must recycle it." Object oriented living. Next thing you know, I may do my dishes before they grow algae.
Visit the Diary Farm for the older diaries I've put out to pasture.