Diary archive, November 2003
Tuesday, November 25th, 2003
The sword class today was nice. Last week I missed the beginners' course class, and it was good to do very basic exercises.
The most common faults today, which I noticed myself: too long steps, feet crossed, and using the right hand to wave the sword instead of left one. Still, it seems that I'm progressing, which feels good. At least two classes a week is a must, let's hope the other people on the beginners' course begin to come to basic level classes.
DVD is a very nice thing. I noticed that again today, when I tried to watch a Kiss VHS tape (Called "Kiss my ass", although it says "Kiss my a**" on the cover. Nice librarians had put the right title on their systems, though.) and had to quit about 30 seconds to the first song: the sound quality was abysmal. My AV system is not by any means good, but the sound from the tape was very muffled and the picture had much interference. No more VHS tapes for me, especially not from the library.
Now I should probably go to sleep (I'm writing this at ten o'clock in the evening) as tomorrow there is volleyball at eight. I need to be in the bus at seven, so I have to wake up even earlier than normal. The sword class made me feel awake, so I don't know when I will get to bed.
Monday, November 24th, 2003
I got the script for generating these pages working on Sunday. This is still hand-written entry, as it has still some glitches and I should write a good stylesheet for it. Perhaps next weekend, and it should be done before December.
Other problems: talked about my thesis with the instructor. The thesis has been delayed for very much too long, and now I should just write the bloody thing.
One problem with that is that the simulation of the datastream of Planck again is refusing to work, or more specifically, to link. There is a Fourier transform library packaged with the simulation and it makes library files which don't seem to provide some objects. Well, I can just fall back to an earlier version of the simulation, and get back to the current one when time permits. I'll do that tomorrow, if I can't get the simulation to compile this evening.
I bought a Finnish computer game magazine today, to see what kind of new games there are. I ordered a new computer, and now I'm wondering what kind of games I could play with it. The main purpose of the computer isn't gaming (yeah, right :), but my current computer is breaking down, and I need a new one just for writing and perhaps for photo stuff.
But the games: It seems that there are a couple of new games I might want to buy. Silent Storm seemed quite nice and interesting. It is a fantasy WWII tactical turn-based game. I played such games years ago, never was any good, but they were fun still. Also, Neverwinter Nights might be fun, even though it is a bit older game.
The old computer has done a good job: Mirva brought it with her when we moved together six years ago, and I have upgraded it bit by bit. The only original pieces left are the case and the cd-rom drive. The main board was bought used in 1998, and now it seems to be breaking up, I'm having trouble with booting. Still, I won't throw this one away, it still boots to MS-DOS with a boot diskette, and I have many old games which I haven't been able to get to work with newer systems.
Today I got some ideas for my AD&D game, and I should probably write them down. If they want a treasure map, they will get one...
Friday, November 21st, 2003
Week's other sword class. It was very nice, although a bit strenous, and I couldn't do second drill at all after the first attack. I did that just fine (though slowly) with Topi on Monday, but today was just horrible.
I got informed that I didn't get in a new rpg campaign. No news there, there were a lot of people wanting to play and all, but what made me feel sad was that I felt quite angry that I wasn't chosen. No reason to feel angry, there have been very few games this fall on the Alter Ego lists, and the GM had reasons for his choices, he wants to GM for people he hasn't gamed with. I just feel so immature when I get such reactions. No, head not working well.
Owning a sauna is very nice. I used to say that I don't want a sauna in my apartment, I don't use so often and it takes away valuable real estate in the apartment. Nowadays it seems that we have enough room even with the sauna and all, and this week I have used the sauna twice. Today I called home when I started my journey home from the salle, and the sauna was warm when I got here. Very nice.
Thursday, November 20th, 2003
First session of my AD&D game (in Finnish only). Gamemastering was quite nice after a long break. The players seemed to enjoy it, too, even though one character died (she was raised).
Wednesday, November 19th, 2003
My Fair Lady yesterday was nice. Not spectacular, and the change of language from English to Swedish made it blander than the original: there are no such class differences between Swedish-speaking people here, or at least the language separation is not so great.
Still, an enjoyable experience, even though the leg room was too small. If you think you like musicals in Swedish, by all means go and see it at Svenska teatern.
Today there were a couple of birthday celebrations in a couple of bars. I went to the first one (Tane's) and got stuck playing the MAD boardgame. We called it quits after almost two hours of play - the object of the game is to lose all your money, and by the time we quit, we had accumulated more money than we started with and the game was beginning to repeat itself. First time I actually played the game, can't say I missed much when I was younger.
Sitting in a bar chatting with friends was very nice, I should do that more often, even though the beer was quite expensive there - 5 euros for a 0.4 liter pint and 6 euros for half a liter. The staff seemed a bit annoyed as we didn't order drinks very often.
Then I just went home, missing the other party. Congrats to Orava and Nig, still.
Living here at Harmonia (Harmony) is very nice, it is always nice to get home. This might be the thrill of a new thing, but it seems to me that this is a good arrangement. :)
Sunday, November 16th, 2003
Today I finally decided not to write the script generating the diary, yet. Seems that I can't concentrate enough to write a useful script... So, instead I just made the whole thing into an HTML file and upload it to the web server. The diary still needs a nice background, for now it uses the same picture as the main page.
Most of the day went to creating the first adventure for the AD&D game. Funny how difficult it is to write down enough of the information to have a good game, even though there seems to be plenty of ideas and plots. I decided to write down notes in a notebook and then decipher them during the game. This has usually been a good strategy, but this time I should make a real web page and update it after the game sessions.
Hm, it seems that no player character in the campaign has a name yet. Well, I have to force the players to make up names in the beginning of the first session. This is not so big a problem, as the game will begin as "You all have met in a pub, and are in a pub right now. There is a man giving you a mission..." In other words, not a very serious game.
Also, I decided to put this public today.
Friday, November 14th, 2003
I just noticed today that out of the four days next week that have sword classes, I have booked three for other activities. On Tuesday we are going to watch a Swedish version of My Fair Lady, on Thursday is my AD&D campaign and I play volleyball on Fridays. Seems that the volleyball is the thing to go, even though it is quite fun, and there I see people I wouldn't see otherwise.
The fencing is a very good thing: I noticed there how bad condition I'm in. I cycled a lot during the summer, but after it became too cold I haven't exercised much at all. The volleyball helps, but one time a week is clearly not enough.
It seems that I am always too tired, even while I try to sleep at least 7-8 hours each night. It's too hard to go to bed early enough, and some nights I just roll around. Perhaps completing the thesis would help. Also knowing whether I have a job next might relieve the stress.
Later, at 00:20
Yes, too little sleep. Just woke from a three-hour nap with Mirva. Options now are to stay up till tired or go to bed to sleep.Sunday, November 9th, 2003
Father's day in Finland. We are going to my parent's with Mirva and her parents to eat something. It should be nice, and we see our parents a bit less often than would be nice.
The housewarming party went very well on Friday. There were a lot of people, nobody knew everybody and much fan was had. Also, the drinking Uno game (with Gold Strike liquor) was very fun, even while I didn't get to drink much. (Maybe that makes me a winner, though.)
Yesterday I held a presentation on life outside the Earth. This was to a group of friends, who have a thing where every two months somebody talks about something he or she knows. I did okay, but the presentation was still quite unstructured and I forgot things. At least everybody seemed to listen and they talked about it afterwards, with very good comments.
The food afterwards was good, too.
After that we got home and watched some Monty Python before going to sleep. And slept for a bit longer than we had in mind - we should leave in an hour, and there are things I wanted to do this morning. Also, I am going to work for tonight, to make observations, so I won't be home today anymore.
Also, I should probably write the script to make the web pages out of this file, it shouldn't take too long but still it takes some time. Perhaps between the observations tonight...
Friday, November 7th, 2003
Today we will have our housewarming party. I am a bit anxious as we invited people from different circles, and last time we did it (with Mirva when we moved to Kannelmäki) the different groups of people didn't mix very well, which was a shame. Let's hope it will be better this time.
I'm skipping the volleyball today, which is a shame, as I'm in need of some excercise, and the volleyball is usually very nice. Last two weeks I have been quite sleeping there, though.
The sword course could continue, I'm itching for it.
Wednesday, November 5th, 2003
The beginner's course at the School of European Swordsmanship started yesterday. I started it third time this year. Let's hope I can this time finish it too. It was quite fun, even while there were a lot of people in the class and it was divided into two.
Today I got new glasses. The old ones were quite old, I got them in 1996 while in the Army, and they were almost broken for a long while, so it was no wonder they broke for good three weeks ago. The new ones look different, and feel a bit strange, too.