Sunday 21 November 1999

Pic of the day: "Spank me baby one more time!" It's spanking day at the werewolf club in the dungeons outside Westwall, Tulune. (Screenshot from the roleplaying game Daggerfall.)

For my non-Daggerfool readers: The in-crowd at alt.games.daggerfall has these last weeks been augmented by "The Goddess formerly known as Warrior Goddess Athena", an individual with an unusually high spanking awareness and a healthy dose of humor. (Not that that it was an overly sad place beforehand.) So in honor of TGfkaWGA, I decided to put up this somewhat unusual screenshot.

I don't really identify with or even fully understand the whole SM community. While a bit of playful humiliation can be fun enough, I cringe at the idea of inflicting pain unless strictly necessary. I guess this could have to do with my own childhood, in which most pain was inflicted by enemies, not friends. On the other hand, I have heard that this part of one's identity is established fairly early in life. What do I know? Wake me when some American researcher discovers "what might be a genetic disposition for spanking".

Actually that's not quite as sick as it sounds. And it's also more likely to be American, if my theories are correct. I have already learned that some people have a higher optimal level of sensory stimuli. That is to say, they thrive on loud noises, sharp lights, burning tastes and strong smells. And I guess this could extend to the nerve endings on their skin too. If these stress-lovers are born risk-takers, then it figures that a lot of them went overseas to a more intense life in the (then) barbaric "New World". I seem to find proof of this in the American films I have seen ... Lots of shouting and shooting and blinking lights.

Perhaps needless to say, I'm on the opposite end of the scales. A nearly ideal day for me is lazing around in my pajamas all day, discussing the psychology of Superman on Usenet and frequently looking for new mail, in between eating yoghurt and cuddling my pillows for an hour or two. Though at my most adventurous, I do go kick some werewolf backside in the magickal lands of Daggerfall. :)

As for the e-mail, I have established a new account at itlandm@netcom.no and it seems to work. I still have the old account, though, so there is no need to rush to call the technician and change your settings. The transition away from the soon-to-be Swedish ISP is a very gradual one, even glacial. But at least if one fails, there's always the option of trying another.

English is a strange language - not that my native Norwegian is not - and sometimes things look strange when I read them. "Discussing the psychology of Superman on Usenet"? I can't offhand remember seeing Superman take part in any Usenet groups (though Kal-El is a rather frequent flyer on rec.arts.comics groups). On the other hand, the less ambigious "discussing on Usenet the psychology of Superman" sounds stilted. (It also sounds ridiculous, but then the whole theme is.) I also decided to rewrite the portion about hunting werewolves in my pajamas. It could, I suspect, be taken to mean something entirely different from what I intended. No, there are no werewolves in my pajamas, though I can look pretty hairy some days...

Yes, while we're at it, I tend to use "pretty" as a modifier pretty often. I absolutely love it. I might even say "pretty ugly". Interestingly, the opposite construction exists in Norwegian. I've observed the word "styggpen", which literally translates uglypretty. But in this case, ugly is the modifier and pretty is the actual adjective. Another even more negative amplifier was "døds-", as in "dødsgøy", deadly fun. My favorite was "dødsfett", deadly phat. It reminded me of saturated fatty acids, who were thought to be the reason for heart attacks. (That was the year after cholesterole, I think, or was it two years after? This year it is bacteria in the blood, if memory serves. But overweight people are still more likely to suffer a stroke.)

I can see the demand for faster Internet access for people who download lots of stuff. Even compressed stuff like MP3 (legal ones, of course!) take half an hour or two to download on 28800 bps. I caved in and downloaded two christmas songs and an ambient from MP3.com. Now playing Infinite Reality by "Not Applicable". (Where do they make up names like that?) Anyway, that's the ambient one. You don't get much more ambient than this track, I'd say.

But the download time was not wasted, even for a poor Scandinavian who has to pay per minute for Internet access. I used the online time to sift through several entries worth of thought experiment. (Yes, I confess, mailing me is one of the surest ways to make me read your message to mankind. And, in case it really is that good, recommend it.)
Oh, and if God didn't think breastfeeding was a good idea, He could easily have made us reptiles.

If my journal became very popular - I mean by journal standards, not like Jerry Springer or Ricky Lake - then I too could have a message board tacked on, like the big cool journals have. And then I too could post a question at the end of my entry each day. Like this:

"What would happen to spanking if humans had a long gripping tail?"