Saturday 2 March 2002

Pic of the day: The new, improved snow camouflage picture. No cut and paste this time either.

Snow camouflage 2

If today's picture indicates that I have been somewhat bored, this is skirting the truth. I don't bore easily - hardly at all if healthy - but this is largely due to me jumping on any idea that looks interesting, like a kitten in a yarn factory.

I was somewhat dismayed to see that it's been 3 years since that misbegotten snow camouflage picture. Not so much because I want this to be a frequent occurence, but because I was pretty sure it was a year ago, tops two. I remember it quite well. I did not remember that it was in my first year as an online diarist. Is this chronicling of my life really so recent? Evidently so. Well, onward to further chronicling.

***

My Dark Age of Camelot account has been locked for a couple days. My program crashed while I was logged in to a server (Kay) but before I got to choose a character. Evidently the automatic logoff does not work then, because every time I try to log on, I am told that I am already logged on. I have sent a mail, but no reply has come forth. I suspect this will continue until the server is rebooted for some reason, presumably when the next patch comes up.

Now this is the perfect excuse to finally try out the European version of the program. Since I live in Europe, I should not only meet more locals, but best of all, experience less lag. I went to town and bought the CD with the European version. (The two are not interchangeable, but only the introductory screens seem to be changed.) Luckily it was quite a bit cheaper (here in Norway) than the American version.

While in town, I bought the groceries for the weekend. I skipped ice cream, something I vaguely regretted later. I think it would have been good for my stomach. Then again, I may be wrong. Anyway, I also bought myself a hamburger. Oscar Hawaii, with maize (corn) and ananas. Quite tasty. I used to buy those off and on in the past, but it is months at least now since last time. If time flies as fast as it now seems, it could easily be a year.

The problem with burgers and such is that they stay in the stomach for a long time, filling it up. This eventually brought back my acid reflux (the medical condition, not the hilarious but irregular webcomic.) I somewhat belatedly discovered later in the evening that turning your upper body upside down is not a good hobby to combine with acid reflux. If you consider trying that, don't. Ouch.

Incidentally, the newest research indicates that carbohydrates rather than fat trigger acid reflux. That is such a shame, because otherwise carbs are your friends. Besides, I like carbs. But stuff that just lingers on and on in the stomach is not good either, in my experience. Ironically, fast food tends to do just that.

***

DAoC Europe was a big disappointment. I think the most I stayed on before losing my connection was between 2 and 4 minutes. In populated areas of the game, the time slot was less than five seconds. The only thing I could do in such places was to run away.

I tried with both Telenor and Tiscali as ISP. Tiscali might be marginally better, but only marginally. For some reason, a traceroute of the connections showed that they both led me on a merry chase through around 20 servers (several of these internal to the ISP) and with a ping time of ca 150 ms for each. The net result was that the modem kept blinking with incoming data for quite a while after I was logged off the game. *pout* You'd think there would be less lag when I log on a European game than an American one, when I actually live in Europe!

Disenchanted with the game, I decided to flex my 1337 (elite) sneak skillz in the Real World. This would be a good time, since Real World is currently in black & white, mostly white. Furthermore, the biting cold wind should keep the weekend carousers indoors for a change. This is advisable when you do photo sessions in populated areas. (Suburbs, I guess you would call it here, though it is less densely populated than most of those.) The snowfall has been quite moderate, so only in a few spots have the snow ploughs thrown up sufficiently snow along the roadside to make it worthwhile. In fact, the only place I found was at a crossroads between 3 of the house-lined roads.

I'm quite happy with the result. A big improvement on the 1999 event. The blue-gray shading looks just more snowy and natural than the grayscale. And I look far more landscapy and inconspicious.

To forestall any questions: The picture was once again taken by my trusty timer, with no assistance from random bystanders. No cut and paste has been employed in the making of this picture. No shounen-ai please. Have a cool weekend.