Mother of all Updates

Another nice day at a cafe, this time in Kristansand, Norway. I am sitting at Laura's, a coffee place owned by a New Yorker (I think) that I have been a patron of for the last decade or so. It is a rally nice place, the coffee a bit on the expensive side but not very and so worth it. Especially because my brother paid, hihi. I just finished the Rookie and it was amazing. I wasn't breathing for the last two episodes or so, and I can't wait for the sequel. Oddly enough it is one of those books I don't think I would've picked up in a bookstore or at a library, but since I was in a audio book limbo after Billi and Tee Morris and JC Hutchins had been pimping Scott's work I decided to give it a try. I am gland I did.

Now it is ten or so in the morning. My mom had a meeting she had to go to me and my brother joined her. I need some new underwear and stuff before going back to Smith. I am leaving the country in a week, and leaving home a day before that. Then the plan is to visit Clair until Sunday, and get back to campus, and one week of intensive physics training. When will I learn that my cockiness will destroy me? Anyway, my advisor wanted me back for a week of physics training. Will be fun, I also have talked to one of the teachers of the compsci department and he was interested in being my minor advisor, we are going to have a chat when I get back, and I have figured out what classes I need to take for my major. I have done that once already, but I think I'll do it again tomorrow when I am on my way to IKEA. Yes, I am going to the wonder that is IKEA tomorrow. And after that I have one more day f work. My employer asked me and it is an extra 450 NOK for 4 hours of work. That is about 75 USD. Have I ever mentioned that I love the high wages in this country? Well now I have.

Now I am at a different cafe, it is a bakery. My brother and I just had lunch with my mom. I am listening to 7th Son, chapter 13 and 14. It came out a few days ago, but due to my Rookie marathon I didn't get arounds to until now. It just get better and better and more and more cliffhanger like. And then it was on to music. Currently Nightwish's remake of Phantom of the Opera, live from end of an era. I also found the sixth Bone, which I have been collecting for years. Thankfully my sister did not get her hands on my Bone collection. My Sandman collection disappeared to her place, I started collecting the two about the same time, and it was I who introduced her to it. At that time she lived at our place so she and I decided that instead of both of buying all the books we would sort of share the collection. And then while I was in Flekke the collection moved with her and now she refuses that we ever shared it. And now that I want mine back since I am pissed at her about that, she just avoids the question. I think the first four were mine but since I am only sure about the first three it is only those I have asked to get back. Now my brother have agreed to just take them with him next time he is there. I know it is a small thing to be pissed about, but honestly, you don't steal from your siblings.
Now that we are on the topic of my sister; the spawn. I am oddly looking forward to the little meatball will come. Maybe because it is a small human I can influence and help shape. And best of all, it won't be my resposibility to get up late at night to feed the meatball. Really I am getting the good end of the deal here. I actually like kids when I don't have to be around them 24/7 and keeping them happy is someone else's problem. In a few years I'll be that cool aunt you only see a few times a year, but who drags you around doing cool stuffs. I will have a little GiT (geek in training) under my tutorship. I swear the little meatball will be brought to larps as soon as it's mother allows it. We think it will be a girl but we are not sure. So me and mom and I have keept all the clothing we have bought/made in neutral colors, yellow, green and browns.

And suddenly I got the urge to play Slow-mo-ball. Slow-mo-ball is a game developed in Solgløtt, it is the larper version on a game called troll/goblin ball from some computer game. There are a few simple rules. 1, the ball have to be 'alive' (we use a teddybear or stuffed fish). 2, you get 4 points to put in strength or speed, giving us three types of player characters: ent/troll (strength 3, speed 1), human/ork (2,2) and hobbit/goblin (1,3). If someone with a higher strength than you try to take the ball from you, you have to give it up. Makes sense, heh? This is another of those games where you end up with a big pile, but for some reason it is oddly peacefull. That might have something to do with that we are just a big bunch of friends doing it together.

I brought a new notebook. I don't know how long this one is going to last, I have had it for 14 months, mostly it just contains blogposts, but also rpg stuff and story plots that I have come up with when I diodn't have a computer with me. It also holds the original goals in life list, which I guess I should update soon. I'll start the revised version of Time, there is 26 pages laft but this post have taken 7 so far and I have no clue how long Time is going to be. As I ahve said I have the plot already, but teh thing about this plot is that it can either take forever or no time at all. The story is set to only take about 5 minutes of story time, but the last time I wrote this story I filled 8 A4 pages. And I was writing under time pressure, I don't remember how long it was but I think I spent one and a half to two hours on it. I really should try to find my old school essays, yes, Time was a mid year exam piece of work. I had fun with them and I actually do like working under time pressure. That is one of the reasons I want to do NaNoWriMo, but the problem is coming up with an idea that will interest me enough to write 50 k words. I have problems getting plast 4000-5000 words. Which in itself is pretty odd because I am covinced I have done close to 50 k words on material related to the Seattle Shadowrun campaign and probably half that on the Hong Kong campaign. And that is without even thinking about it. I think it has to do with that my creativity seems to feed off other's. It is completely different telling a story when you get input and new direction from others. Take the Hong Kong campaign for example. I am the GM and because we are only doing background and a spin off there is only one player and two PCs. The rest of the crowd is all mine. So far we have 12 fully characterised good NPCs and 5 bad guys + 7 of their goons all fleshed out. And the scene is set for a ton more should I need more. I am currently working on fleshing out one more NPC because the player wants to run scenes with this guy. That is a good character crowd for any novel. Why can't I do the same for my writing? Maybe it is because I love to make this shit up to throw at my vict..players. I also love doing research for my games. Only for the HK game I have looked up drifting, the megacorps, HK maps, common cantonese words, an amazing numer of chinese names, stuff about Shaolin and probably tons of other stuff I don't remember right now. I really do love fleshing out my world with random facts. Like one of my characters in named Tsuchiya, the character is a racing car driver, now I dare you to look that name up. And remember that this is set 63 years in teh future.

I'm at work, last day of the year. There was supposed to be a thing today but the rain stopped it. Might be just as well, I am not too fond of religious gatherings, which was what it was supposed to be. I don't mind people going to to them, it is going to them myself I mind.
Yesterday the family went to IKEA. I got what I need and more than that. I started listening to Infection by Scott Sigler on the way there. I like this book as well, don't know why, but Sigler's story telling fits me. I think I'll relisten to the Rookie on the way to Smith. Hopefully I'll get the football better since it is my second time hearing it. And now there is a car of Danes coming. Wonder if they'll come inside. They'll be the first guests of the day and possibly the last of the season.
But no. They drove on. Surpringly many do. The museum is not that big, but I love this house. It is odd but because I spent 6 weeks here every summer for the last 4 years, now the place almost feels like it is mine. I prefer the kitchen most of all the house. It is 150 years older than the rest. And you can sense it, it's cool. And the entire room is full of old anti spirit stuff, Odin's crosses and the like.

The coat is almost done, I'll attach the buckles when I get home. It looks amazing and I really like the look. I am really a coat person. I got plans for at least two more coats, and one I want to buy, that would be an oilskin coat for riding, like they have in Australia. Those would come in handy in the rainy summer, like we have in Norway.
Now half the time is over, I just had a bunch of people, and a visit from my employer. I actually like talking about the place here. I have so much random knowledge about this place. Like that there is an old king burried here and that an old master thief is from this area. As I said random fun knowledge. I love learning, everything and anything. Except for chemestry. Don't like it. On the other hand I want to learn Scottish Gaelic. Yep, and I am intending to become an engineer. It is odd but most people here ask the ever present "So, what do you study?" "Engineering." "Oh, what kind of engineering?" "Robotics engineering." at which point I either get a 'good luck', 'what..' or just a blank stare. Is it really that hard to imagine me as an robotics/neuro engineer? Okeey, maybe after I have just given half an hour to an hour talk on local history and everyday life in 1850-1925 that sounds like it comes from a lecture hall, I guess they except to hear that I study history or something else that would be logical with my work.

My mom just came over with a cup of coffee. Nothing warms you up like a cup of hot coffee, when you are wearing too little on a rainy cold august day in a house with no power. Not that I ever need a reason to drink coffee. I am bringing good coffee with me. Seems a bit like bringing coal to New Castle, to bring coffee to Smith, but I have yet to find good coffee in the US. My uncle says the only good coffee place in the USA and that is somewhere in Lousianna. I am not sure, all I know is that what they serve as coffee in the Campus Center Cafe is just brown water and all the other coffee places in NoHo are just ok. Not wow, just ok. And I miss having a stove so I can make coffee the proper way, in a mocca. Instead I have to get by a french press. Well it works and if I have good ground coffee, it is rather good.

Ok, this have taken forever. I started this post on thursday. Which means I have been working on this for 5 days now. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my long rambling.