Sunday 3 September 2000

Pic of the day: The harvest is over.

Complain, complain

"Complain, complain! That's all you've done,
ever since we lost!
If it's not the Crucifixion,
then it's the Holocaust!"
"May Christ have mercy on your soul
for making such a joke
amid these hearts that burn like coal,
and the flesh that rose like smoke!"

Leonard Cohen, The Captain

I was writing my entry for today, heaping whine upon whine: I got sick while cooking my tiny dinner, the neighbor's pet has made a habit of crapping in the front yard, I don't feel too well and poor me. You know, the usual.

And then I deleted it. I'm over 40 years old, of course I have problems. It's downhill from here, enjoy the ride!

***

But first, tonight's dream.

In my dream, I was in America, living with a young witch and her father who was also a witch. Somehow I had accidentally been teleported to that continent and now I tried to learn enough about witchcraft to get back home. It seems that I was quite a good student, but there were all sorts of strange things happening to delay me ... missing spellbooks, spells that left me hanging in the air; and of course my host family had somewhat other priorities than I, and delayed the whole thing. (Incidentally, the spellbooks looked like coloring books for kids.)

Only when I woke up did I recognize that the dream was a parody on my novel in progress, Gwalawala. Oh, and there are 3 new chapters up, in which we learn to know some of the supporting cast better.

To be honest, I did not know all of this stuff when I started writing. Far from it, I had only a rough plot. For instance, I did not know why the village Healer was so cold and aloof when I first described her as such. Nor had I the slightest idea who the mother of the young enchantress was. These things have largely become known to me as the characters have explained it. Weird and a little disturbing, huh?

***

I got up rather late and looked out. The air was swirling with white fluff. No, it's not winter already in Norway. Certainly not on the south coast where I live. Instead, some local plants had found the day fitting to release their tiny seeds supported by a parachute of soft white threads. Why couldn't they do that on a day with a really strong breeze, so the fluff be carried far away? Now it was just drifting back and forth on the air outside, patiently waiting to enter my nose and mouth if I ventured outdoors.

But of course I went outdoors anyway. Took a fairly long walk. A little bit too long, I guess. You'd think I could walk longer now that I'm slightly lighter. Oh well. Got a few photos, like the one above.

Updated my Daggerfall page with this summer's character. Hasn't updated in months! There isn't much new in the Daggerfall scene these days. The next RPG in the series, Morrowind, is supposedly coming in some months. It will probably take more time than they thought, as usual, and will probably be full of bugs, as usual. Luckily I can still play Daggerfall, the best RPG ever. (In my humble opinion.) Though it has lost out to The Sims this year, for me.

Joined the alt.games.the-sims newsgroup yesterday, and been catching up. Funny how the alt.* groups tend to attract the dimmer part of the online populace. I guess it's like call-in radio programs: The fools always have something to say about everything. (Yeah, I know how this reflects on me and my journal, thank you very much.)

E-pal hasn't updated her journal since she got some bug (pneumonia?). Hope she's still alive. Strange now I think about it, how many journallers are either chronically sick, or insane. And those who are not, are usually worried, or at least angry. Hmm. Yeah, sounds like humans to me too.