Friday 17 March 2000

Pic of the day: Not only did I get a new monitor. I have also managed to attach my digicam to the serial port, because I can now use the PS/2 mouse, which fits in right under the monitor cord but the old monitor cord had to be bent just so to work at all and blocked the PS/2 mouse port so I had to use a serial mouse which used the serial port that the cam should use. Phew.

My heart may be strong, after all, perhaps. But my arms certainly are not. I barely managed to carry that computer monitor to the office the day I bought it, and on Thursday my arms still hurt. I decided to take a taxi home - even if I had been allowed to take it on the bus, I cannot imagine carrying it all the way home. So in the evening, I called for a cab to come up outside the workplace. The fun was about to start.

The taxi driver was a foreigner. Now, as they say: "I am not a racist, but ..." In this case, I am not a racist but he did spoke poorly the Norwegian. Then again, how much do you have to speak to drive a taxi? The taxameter was clearly visible from the passenger seat, after all. I told him where we were going, he replied something similar, and off we went. As of yet, I was not aware that this would be a diary event.

I asked him to drive the highway, as it is faster than the coast road, albeit a little longer. (Have you people noticed that certain words, such as "albeit" and "methinks" are now used almost only on the Net? In the future, Net English may become a dialect of its own. But a whole new language? Methinks not.) We had not come far along the highway, however, when we were forced to slow down and then stop. Some big machines were doing unspeakable things to the road in front of us. For ca a quarter of an hour we stood there with no idea of when the road might be opened again. The cabbie was quite a bit more excited about it than I, and I silently prayed that he not let his southern temperament hit the gas pedal when we got the chance to continue. I am happy to say that my prayers were heard. Then again, we had cars in front of us almost all of the way, who drove fast enough that we could not easily pass them but slow enough to stay on the road. Angels can take many guises, I hear.

As we came closer to home, I noticed that he took a different road than I would have done, but I did not comment on it since it was just a bit longer. But then he drove ahead on a road that did not lead where I should. I told him so. He then insisted that I had said another place in the same area. They both end in "skogen" (-wood), though one has 4 letters before that and the other has 11. I guess speaking the native language might have helped after all. So we got an extra trip, and it cost me even more in addition to the roadblock. But at least I got my greed object home without another hospital visit.

The monitor is delicious, crisp and clear. It is a dramatic improvement on the old one, and presumably healthier too ... it does not crackle with static on the front when I turn it on, at least. And it is nice to be able to see the color red again. The downside is that with such a nice monitor, I halfway expect the PC to be up to the same standard. But it is still the same old 486. Oh well. Enjoy what you have, not what you don't. :)

After playing Civ2 - Mars scenarion - I predictably became very sleepy and went to bed at 23 (11PM). I woke up shortly before 7, which is more sleep than I've had in over a week at least. Hey, it is more sleep than I usually have even on weekends. Not that I did not need it. Even so, I was tired when I woke up, because I had just dreamt a long and intense dream. I dreamt that I was in college, and so were several of my coworkers. But it was not just a college, it was a prison, and the teachers were aliens in disguise. (Then again, are they not always?) :)

As I dressed, I noticed that I had to tighten the belt a notch. My stomach seems to be flatter again, though no washboard by any stretch of the imagination. At least not in its relaxed state. :) Still, it made me think. Pieces seemed to fall together, revealing a pattern. The suddenly reduced need for sleep, the ability to climb longer stairs without resting, the flattening of stomach ... it's all physical signs of male infatuation. Falling in love, as they call it.

But that's just a coincidence, unless I have fallen in love with The Sims. I wish I could say it had to do with the recent appearance of SuperWoman. She certainly deserves it, even if it would be wildly one-side. I can hardly imagine a more interesting human than her. But I already love her in a different way, a slow and strong undercurrent of sympathy. It's not like I feel a very strong need to hold her close and kiss her, or something.
Then again, I don't do that with The Sims either.