Once upon a time, I was a little girl in the midst of a lot of crazy boys who loved gadgets and electronics. Having been the first among the lot to own an Amiga 500, I was accepted rather easily even though I was of the female persuasion. I wasn't kidding myself even then; I knew they were after my games, not my friendship. Still, I had a few close male friends and we hung out all the time.

At some point during our early teens, we became interested in other things related to computers, not just games. This was pretty much pre-internet, so don't say 'porn!' even though we all know that's the whole point of setting up a lot of personal computers in a network. No, we were interested in the demo scene, the programming, the graphics, the music. Actually, I am kidding myself. I still did that to get to the games. One of my closest friends and I started our own group. We were in awe of groups like Cryptoburners, Razor 1911, Anarchy, Crusaders, Absence etc., and had seen a lot of demos and intros that they and hundreds of others had made. I had my own little notebook with the addresses of a lot of them. We were going to blend in, no problem.

Naturally, we needed a cool name. Being quite inept when it came to English still, our best bet was to just make sure there were some X's or Z's thrown in for good measure. So we settled on Gritz as our group name. I honestly did not know what 'grits' meant back then, but we thought it looked cool. Also, it was pretty easy to spell using only straight lines, which was what we would need to do in our AWESOME demos.

My friend went a little overboard with the X-and-Z theory and named himself Azz. We DID know what 'ass' meant. Now, why on Io I called myself Leoban, I will never know.

So we were ready to take over the demo scene. All we needed was some programming skills and artistic talent. Unfortunately I couldn't do much, but at least 'Azz' was pretty good with a pencil (his school books were filled with drawings). Then we got to know 'the Animal' (his real name escapes me), who said he could teach me some coding. We were both very serious. I realised pretty quickly his method of teaching basically involved my learning long routines by heart without knowing what they meant. Luckily I am blessed with a very good memory for that sort of thing, but it meant my coding was, should we say limited?

Back at home the only way I could pick up things from there on, was to fiddle with programs others had made, tedious work involving changing one thing at a time, then assemble/compile and run to see what that had changed. Needless to say, I would never become a world class programmer that way, but let me tell you: I learnt a lot about computers! (I tried my hand at easier programming languages, too, like BASIC and my personal favourite AMOS (in which I even made a short game; great fun)).

Still, around this time I found that it was actually quite a lot of fun experimenting with Soundtracker, Noisetracker and, later, Protracker (and even OctaMED), where I could make horrible music only I liked listening to. I am not delusional; it's quite bad, most of it, but I discovered years later that I wasn't half bad as long as I had the right programs and, most of all, enough RAM and a decent sampler. Besides, even Jean Michel Jarre's first few albums are rather on the ridiculous side (yes, I keep reminding myself of that, so perhaps I am a bit delusional after all).

Gritz eventually fell apart, basically because we had absolutely nothing to show for ourselves, and because we used our meetings mostly to play computer games anyway. I started my own group after a while, which was even more pointless, as it consisted of only one member. Well, I'm lying. It had three members, but they were all me, really. I just thought it looked a bit pathetic if the same person covered all three main functions. Especially considering how bad I was at all three. At least this way the blame could be shared. Outwardly.

To be frank, I suppose that group never dissolved. Following the proper demo scene code, the group had both a 'Dr.' something and a 'Mr.' something. We specialised in making compilation disks (I was heavily addicted to DiskMaster and loved it when I finally figured out how to make my own startup menus), and I always put some new music on top of the text menus to show off my skills...I probably shouldn't have. I also specialised in ruining my own disks with the Saddam virus, but that's a tale for another day.

My Amiga was covered in post-it notes listing all the Protracker commands, and I was very prolific in my music-making; making a tune a day in periods. My parents probably thought I was doing more sinister things upstairs, but all I did was sitting hunched over my computer, fag in hand, hooked up to the stereo where I heard half the tune in one ear and a different half in the other. It was all great fun and it all sounded rather bad. I have always been hung up in rhythms, though, so I usually started out with the bass drum, snares and hi-hats, then built a song from there. If I weren't pleased with the rhythm, I threw the whole thing away. It also made me aware of tempos and most of all I became a fan of breakbeats.

Well, all good things apparently must come to an end, and I cut down on the music-making quite rapidly when I became a proud PC owner in '98. In 2005 my Amiga was discovered, presumed dead, as I was packing my stuff for The Big Move to the UK, and was quietly put to definite sleep by my dad. I didn't want to know. It took about two months before I wanted to find a new one on eBay, so I guess a part of me will always consider the Amiga to be the best part of my youth.

Labels: computers, personal

People basically don't have anything better to do than wasting time on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn and other such sites, apparently.

Jonathan Ross tweeted a picture of his lunch. Using TweetDeck I get updates every minute, and this one was clearly sent only seconds before my program checked for any new items. I clicked on the photo. I was the 4th viewer. I reloaded. It now had 27 views. I got a call, which took about three minutes to solve. The picture now had more than 1,100 views.

And yesterday everyone seemed to be commenting only upon Britain's Got Talent. Actually, the celebs were worse than the "mere mortals", who actually seemed to get out of the house for the evening; the well-knowns were cheerfully tweeting about every single act whereas the unknowns remained fairly quiet or actually managed to tweet about other stuff. Like being drunk, listening to rubbish music and updating their news feed.

It's highly entertaining, though, and the perfect way to surf the web for new stuff! It's like having an army of webcrawlers working for you, so that you can spend your time doing other things until they come up with something worth looking at.

It may draw you in, though. I woke up during the night (due to drinking an orange smoothie right before going to bed) and simply had to tweet about my semi-nightmare (my family stealing all of my Greg Proops cassettes) from my iPhone.

Maaarvellous.

Labels: computers, personal, technology, time wasting

Apparently, one of the net's most persistent rumours isn't true after all. Damn.

Labels: computers, technology

Today has been a weird day. I came back home late last night after a long weekend at my parents' in Norway, and basically went to bed straight away, at around 1:30. Five hours later I woke up and eventually got up to face a new day. Someone had promised me that TODAY would DEFINITELY be the day when City Link would get a fucking grip.

So after a shower I went online to track my package. It had been sent back to the seller on the 12th. I was furious and typed an angry email to the seller, who shortly after promised me the world and gave me the choice between getting a refund and getting a replacement. I postponed my decision and watched an episode of Doctor Who instead.

After a phone conversation with my mum (yes, I did arrive safely, and so did all the crisps I had bought,) my mobile rang. The lucky buyer of my old telly wanted to know if I would be home a few hours later. Since I was foreseeing enough to plan my holiday in such a way I would have a spare day after my visit to Norway, I had no plans, so we made an agreement.

Then someone popped up on our intercom screen, stating they had a parcel for me. Since I wasn't expecting anything, I was sure it would be for my flatmate, and let him in. When he finally arrived at my door (after a prolonged trial and error in the lift, slowly figuring out which floor we live on,) I realised he was carrying The Long Lost Item Of Much Despair And Gnashing Of Teeth. I said "but it's confirmed as having been sent back to the seller three days ago!" He couldn't explain that.

Anyway, TLLIOMDAGOT (AKA "my new bedroom telly") is finally in da house. I celebrated by watching an episode of Waking the Dead (yum,) before feeling restless and wanting to re-install Windows 98 onto my computer. This turned out to be a BIG mistake. I had completely forgotten that I now operate with a sole SATA hard drive, which isn't even supported in that ancient operating system, and everything went haywire. So I have spent the past six hours (minus one hour for Waking the Dead again) reconfiguring my desktop through the tried and tested Let's See What This Does, As It Cannot Possibly Make Things Any Worse method, which, after all, had got me into the mess in the first place. Let's just say I was very happy I could go online with my trusty laptop computer when all I got on my desktop one was a "Missing Operating System" error, LOL!

Must remember to make backups of the system more often, just in case.

So I wasted half of today on stupid things (although I did learn a few new things about computers.) Back to work tomorrow, but luckily it's half a shift only, so I'll actually have the whole weekend off, yay!

Labels: computers, online shopping, technology, TV

The perfect virus.

Well, I guess I'm off to the cinema. Wish me luck.

Labels: computers, technology, time wasting

Wow, that sounds harsh. But it was in my email inbox this morning, so I'm sure it's a hot topic and an increasing problem around the world, on par with all those guys and dolls apparently lacking in the penis size department. If I'd replied to all of those through the years, I am sure I...uhmm...STILL wouldn't have grown a penis by now, actually. But, of course, anything to satisfy those needy but sarcastic "the size doesn't matter" girls these people obviously keep meeting everywhere they go on their flashing escapades.

OMG.

Yesterday I voluntarily sat down to watch both Anne Robinson, Harry Hill and Paul Merton. Something has gone horribly wrong somewhere. OK, so the Mrs. Robinson thing was Outtake TV, which is semi-funny, and Harry Hill's TV Burp is actually rather humourous (but would have been so much better without that frighteningly annoying git), and Thank God You're Here isn't half bad. Still! I feel I'm starting to emulate my Saturday evenings back in Norway, when I actually sat down to watch the Saturday entertainment on the state channel every bloody week...and liked it.

I found my old websites yesterday, put away somewhere on my hard drive. There was some funny shit in there I am going to share with you (I am fond of recycling all sorts of things), but most of the best bits were in Norwegian, so if you don't know the language...well, you'd better start learning it quite quickly!

Earlier today I read the letters to the editor in The Stage from last Thursday and must say I agree with MJ Daniels, who says about La cage aux folles that "to write off all the performances that have gone before the official opening/press night is an insult to all the performers who have worked so hard"--especially considering it took six weeks of performances before the actual press night and of the three performances I have been to, the best ones were prior to that night. Kudos to the cast and crew for even keeping the production going, after all the misfortune it suffered in the beginning few months!

Labels: comedy, computers, humour, musicals, Norway, personal, philip quast, theatre, time wasting, TV

Relations to Dr. No uncertain.

Started the day by waking up. I like to start my days that way. It's 6:40, I'm thinking "who turned on the radio", then contemplating hitting the snooze for a minute, before turning on the telly instead to watch the CBS News which I taped an hour earlier. The radio is still blaring in the background. Well, perhaps not blaring as much as humming quietly along.

Twenty minutes later I am up-to-date on the current situation in the US and join the BBC newsroom crew for a couple of minutes before battling through the cold air all the way (a whopping two metres or so) to my bathroom. Yes, that is indeed one of the few upsides of our flat; we have a bathroom each. Nice. This also prevents the usual tension which occurs when two naturally lazy people start rowing over whose turn it is to clean the bath, as we now just don't do it and are happy with that. :p

Anyway, more mundane activities later, including my version of standing, sitting, bending, AKA trying to get a seat on the tube, I arrive at work fifteen minutes before I have to be logged in and ready for verbal abuse from desperate (and often sad) losers (in all senses of the word, by the way). I copy 2 GB worth of music onto my work station. I am looking at a looong day with almost nothing to do (for a change) and come armed to the teeth.

Thanks to Aug I finally found an easy way to download and keep YouTube videos (although the program itself keeps giving me error messages, but ignoring them works like a charm), so I'm afraid I spent yet another evening watching nothing but Greg Proops videos both on the telly and online (or rather offline, after a while), completely forgetting both the Russell Brand and the Jonathan Ross shows. Tsk, tsk. Luckily, these days, when the controllers have to fill 24 hours worth of slots every day, programmes tend to be repeated.

So, anyway, here I am, at work with a teeny weeny bit of my music collection brought with me, keeping an eye on the phone just in case someone with no social life needs my help understanding something which is already covered in our Help and FAQ sections. I know, they are the basis of my payslip, but after having worked in customer services for a number of years it still hasn't ceased to amaze me how many dumbasses there are out there.

For the record, I am really GOOD at my job, since I am professional (how annoying, Girls Aloud's Biology has started making me smirk) and don't actually sound off at the customers in any way (except for when they say outright that I am stupid...I'm afraid that makes me tick, but in the two cases this has occured, I've made them apologise to me, haha--imagine someone raising their eyebrow at you, saying a very calm "exCUSE me?"; you would realise your error too)--and that's why I vent here. :-)

I actually stopped by to link to this story, though. No point in reading it if you don't know the Harry Potter universe.

OK, discussion: Pro-lifers, would they consider it murder if someone who has had several miscarriages yet continues to become pregnant (and lose the foetuses)?

Labels: computers, current affairs, greg proops, music, personal, technology, work

I am currently listening through my songs. Since I switched from WinAmp to Windows Media Player (blame Nullsoft for not offering a working version of WinAmp for my Vista x64 OS, and now it's too late), I have to rate all my tunes so that I know/remember which ones I like best. I think it may take some time, considering I have more than 21K of them. Ouch.

Anyway, at present only a handful of songs have got five out of five stars, and Back to Paradise by .38 Special is one of them. I first heard it on the soundtrack for that brilliant/dumb film Revenge of the Nerds II, thought it was great and it's stuck with me ever since.

Other songs with five stars are Lady Madonna (The Beatles), Celebrity (Barenaked Ladies), We are All on Drugs (Weezer), and of course Sometimes (Erasure). I am currently listening to Miles Davis but have drunk way too much coffee today to be in the right mood for a five-star-rating for his Kind of Blue album.

Finally got to listen to a couple of interviews with Proopdog just now, after hoarding them all week. I spent the entire day waiting for the fucking morons working for CityLink, and they never turned up. This is the third time for this delivery that they've claimed to have tried to deliver the item when in fact they couldn't possibly have been anywhere near our doorbell. This is not the first time this is happening. In fact, it's the fourth time since we moved here that they have LIED about trying to deliver the item because they couldn't be arsed to scrape together their two semi-working particles of grey matter and try to get the simple intercom whatchamacallit system functioning.

From now on I am officially boycotting any company refusing to use other delivery companies (which could prove tricky, but I have already stopped using favourites dabs.com because of this, and the principle is most important to me). CityLink can go screw themselves. If they could ever figure out how to do it, of course, but trust them to mess that up too.

The parcel wasn't even for me! Grr...

In other news, I managed to trawl through heaps of episode guides for Whose Line is it Anyway? today in order to catalogue those I had taped. Must keep track, otherwise I will end up having lots of duplicates on my PVR's hard drive. And not to worry, I am of course only keeping them until the DVD's are out...sometime next century or summat. (Fingers crossed that by then I won't care, haha!)

(A quick trip to Play.com shows me the gift vouchers I bought for a couple of people on the 24th of December weren't delivered until the 26th! I do apologise. They said they would be delivered straight away. Bastids.)

Well, the episode of Mock the Week from 2006 featuring The Proopsmeister is on Dave in about an hour (sometimes I am lucky), so I'd better go and prepare. Uhmm...doing what, exactly, I don't know. Certainly not having another cup of coffee! I'll be bouncing off the walls if I do. Hmm...pizza, perhaps? Left over from yesterday. There's nothing like cold pizza. Except for hot pizza. And other food that I like.

Labels: comedy, computers, erasure, food, greg proops, music, online shopping, personal, TV

I know some of you received this from me earlier today, but it was just too good not to share with the rest of the world (yes, the whole world is reading my blog, you see) (I did not come up with this, of course):

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the
road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -- but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Labels: computers, humour, technology, time wasting

I'm guessing pretty stupid.

Personally, I have managed to delete 99% of my Alan Rickman photos, collected through the last six years, during the last hard drive move. So if anyone has any photo of him that is a must-have, I would appreciate a link, because I can't be bothered to go looking for them all over again. It's really quite amazing how I have managed to do this, and there must have been more than a thousand photos altogether, just disappearing.

Still, leaves a lot more space for other things, and luckily my two most important collections are still intact. ;-) However, having more pictures of Jonathan Ross than of Alan Rickman is slightly disturbing.

No, my Wossy collection is not one of the most important ones. :D

And don't you just love Onion?

Labels: Alan Rickman, computers, humour, personal, technology

On Tuesday we went to our first (of, hopefully, many) film quiz(zes) at the local cinema. It was good fun, even though we drank way too much (I had Diet Coke, since I was going to work the next day and am such a prude). We won the first round. Well, we would have, but then the quizmaster forgot us during the tie-break and gave the victory to somebody else even though we had the closest answer to his question. The guys next to us loudly exclaimed that we were the actual winners, causing us great embarrassing and apparently this "gesture" seemed to suggest we should help them through the next six rounds. We ended up with a Will Hunter action doll from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Anyway, the evening was well spent (even though I did miss Julian Clary on BBC2) and the next even better. On Wednesday we went out for dinner after work and then on to see the highly acclaimed Boeing Boeing at the Comedy Theatre. That was well worth the money! I would recommend it to anyone who has the least bit of knack for comedy. Michelle Gomez was absurdly brilliant, the rest of the cast (minus Tamzin Outhwaite, who was just not as good as the others, sorry to say) were top class and we laughed a lot. I laughed out loud more than I usually do, but then again I really love the odd farce.

Today I got the anticipated recordings of Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway, 2004) and Man of La Mancha (Broadway, 2002/2003) and have listened to both already. Great music when tidying up. And the tidying up was needed, especially since I have figured out I should move my computer to where it doesn't overheat all the time. I have been pushing it too hard, poor thing.

Labels: computers, film, julian clary, musicals, personal, roger allam, theatre

In case you thought he was. It's a common theme, really, people keep moaning about Microsoft's firm grip on the computer market, but let's face it, without Microsoft we would probably have been a lot worse off. And to prove it, let me show you how smart and how much of a visionary Bill Gates really is. I dare you to read this interesting interview from 1993. Go on, you know you want to.

Labels: computers, technology

It has been proven.

Labels: computers, gaming, science

Using last year's template and then adding and removing as I see fit:

Coolest Villain of the year
Bill Nighy for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Funniest Sex Swap Film of the year
She's the Man

Best Hasselhoff Moment of the year
His being slapped around in Click

Most Embarrassing Yet Funny Film Moment of the year
Jean Reno doing interpretive dance in The Pink Panther. Worth the whole film!

Best Steve Carell Film of the year
Dead heat between Over the Hedge and Little Miss Sunshine

Indie Album of the year
The Killers: Sam's Town

Musical Album of the year
The 2006 London Revival Cast: Evita

Album of the year
Pet Shop Boys: Fundamental

Funniest New Series
The Class, Warner Bros. (US)

Strangest Series Cancellation of the year
Day Break, Touchstone/ABC (US)

Most Disappointing Comedy Series of the year
Twenty Good Years, Warner Bros. (US)

Favourite Comedy Series Character of the year
(Much like the previous two years:) Anne from Little Britain, BBC (UK)

Favourite Comedy Series Sketch of the year
Numberwang from That Mitchell and Webb Look

Best Cliffhanger of the year
The series finale of Green Wing

Most Anticipated Film of the year
X-Men: The Last Stand

Most Anticipated Film for everyone else, it seemed
The Da Vinci Code

Most Anticipated Game of the year
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Best Game of the year
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

British Film of the year
Snow Cake (UK/Canadian)

Best Play or Musical of the year
Evita, Adelphi Theatre (surprised?)

Would Have Most Wanted to See
Idina Menzel in Wicked, Apollo Victoria Theatre

Most Anticipated Book of the year
Per Egil Hegge: Harald V

Funniest Book of the year
Julian Clary: A Young Man's Passage

Most Annoying Yet Strangely Catchy Song of the year
Lily Allen: Smile

Worst Idea of the year
Having yet another round of Big Brother. Enough, already.

Best Moment of the year
16 August, finally getting Philip Quast's autograph

Labels: Alan Rickman, bill nighy, comedy, computers, evita, film, gaming, julian clary, lists, literature, music, musicals, philip quast, tamsin greig, theatre, TV

What a nice way to start Christmas. First my debit card is being declined everywhere despite having "lots" of money in the account, leaving me with very little money for the holidays, and then I wake up on my first day off to a very sore throat which eventually leads me to believe I have a cold. So, after three feverish days with coughing and sneezing and general unwell-being, I am back at work and my head feels like a complete vacuum. At least the sore throat is gone. Well, the throat is still there, but it doesn't hurt anymore. Yesterday was fun, in an irate way. The lift, once again out of order (having been so for five days already had prepared me for an interesting day), did not help me the least as I went to go grocery shopping for Christmas. Wearing my rucksack filled with goods from the local supermarket, I began the ascension to the 10th floor, my throat threatening me with a lawsuit if I went past third floor and my sweat glands not sure what to do about my fever. But I made it in the end and almost collapsed on the floor before getting a grip and put the food into the fridge.

Forgot buying onions, of course, so will have to stop by a shop today as well. And I thought I'd planned every minute detail.

Also forgot to tell you that I went to see The Holiday, which was surprisingly good (it starring Jude Law and all - his appearance quite often ruins the whole film for me, but not this time), and the other day we watched the whole first series of Waiting for God in one go. I've missed that series, it seems. Also, Daniel Hill never appears in anything (but silly commercials).

And I built myself a brand new computer the other day. Shh, don't tell anyone. It even works...ish. It would have worked so much better if I'd actually had the newest version of Windows. So now I am eagerly awaiting the announced 30 January release of Windows Vista. Hopefully I will be able to afford it. Since I received a very surprising Christmas bonus at work (surprising in that I didn't expect one), I think that should be possible. Until then I will have to play a very nice-looking Oblivion with no sound; all the other new games I have won't work as I have no drivers for my Windows version. Haha, must remember to read the fine print.

Actually, I am just amazed I managed to build the darn thing. It took me a lot longer than first expected (and a few extra trips up and down the ten flights of stairs with my sore throat in order to buy tools from Maplin), but at 21:20 I plugged it in and hoped for the best. And the bloody thing actually worked. The graphics are quite stunning and this is definitely a computer which will last at least a couple of years, considering the fact that it is compatible with the not-yet-released DirectX 10, and also I managed to buy a motherboard which can take at least one major upgrade before I have to buy a new one.

So apparently Playstation 3 will not enter my house in a long while. Wii will, however, at least I believe it will.

I no longer have a computer on which to play my old games, though. Will have to look into that. I kept the old parts, of course, and should be able to build a Windows 98 machine from those, when I have the space (which will only happen by magic in the flat where I live at present - good thing Harry Potter is still around).

Looking forward to Christmas lunch. Have stocked up on all sorts of goodies and am expecting a one-woman-feast, apparently. The sad part is, I'll probably finish everything within 30 minutes after having spent a good five hours preparing it. Oh, well. A vely melly Chlistmas to you all, though, no matter how and whether you actually celebrate it or not.

Labels: Christmas, computers, daniel hill, film, food, gaming, illness, TV

Blasted microchip manufacturers. And blasted game developers. I really, really want to buy a new, top-notch computer but of course I do not have the money for it. And in order to get any of the mouth-watering new games to work, you need a state-of-the-art machine. Bastids. This means I will actually have to make do with the 300+ games I already have! The nerve. ;-)

Labels: computers, gaming, technology

I stole it from Heather, who stole it from Carly.

45 of the most random things you probably never needed to know about someone.

What's your name spelled backwards?
Dlivgni. Just about as difficult to pronounce as the other way.

What did you do last night?
Made a bacon and mushroom omelette while doing the dishes, then watched The 4400, Extras (which was exceptionally painful to watch last night), That Mitchell and Webb Look (must love Numberwang) and Mock the Week.

The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
The pilot of Twenty Good Years.

Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?
Ermm...no...should I have?

Last time you swam in a pool?
When I was about 12, 13.

What are you wearing?
Underwear and socks, shoes, a pair of Levi's that definitely has seen better days, a black jumper and a few rings.

Type of music you dislike most?
Possibly "experimental music", like wind chimes or such things.

Are you registered to vote?
In Norway: Of course. In the UK: Not allowed.

Do you have cable?
I have lots of cables. None of them give me any extra channels, though. I do have Freeview, does that count?

What kind of computer do you use?
Whatever comes my way at work, and at home I have a customised desktop from 2002 and an Acer Aspire 1694WMLi laptop.

Ever made a prank phone call?
Ooh yeah. Long ago now, though.

You like anyone right now?
"Like", as in...?

Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?
Weeeeeeee...vertigo. No thanks.

Furthest place you ever traveled?
New York, New York.

What's your favorite comic strip?
Nemi and of course The Far Side.

Do you know all the words to your national anthem?
All the words of the first verse and then a couple of lines from some of the others.

Shower, morning or night?
Morning, as getting up in the middle of the night to shower would be silly. ;)

Best movie you've seen in the past month?
The Departed, I think. Nope, change that to Little Miss Sunshine, of course.

Best movie in the last year?
Possibly The Sentinel? I have no idea--I watch (too) many films.

Favorite pizza toppings?
Satay chicken, cashew nuts, lots of cheese.

Chips or popcorn?
Crisps.

What cell phone provider do you have?
O2.

Have you ever smoked peanut shells?
Why would I do that?

Have you ever been in a beauty pageant?
See the previous answer.

Orange Juice or apple?
Orange juice. Freshly squeezed.

Who were the last people you sat at lunch with?
The people who happen to be around as I eat, but we don't actually eat together.

Who is your longest friend and how long?
Among those who still speak to me? Anita, I suppose! (Hei, hei!)

When's the last time you've eaten a home grown tomato?
Many moons ago.

Have you ever won a trophy?
Lots upon lots, for ballroom dancing.

Favorite arcade game?
This will be very difficult for you to understand, but I have never, ever played a real arcade game. I have played a few converted and emulated ones, though, and my favourite would then be Arkanoid or anything like that. Poing, especially, from the Amiga days.

Ever ordered from an infomercial?
Nope.

Sprite or 7-UP?
Definitely Sprite. 7-Up tastes flat.

Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work?
No.

Last thing you bought at the pharmacy?
The usual; nasal spray.

Ever thrown up in public?
Yep. In London, in fact. Also many moons ago. It had nothing to do with the homegrown tomato, though.

Would you prefer being a millionaire or finding true love?
The One And True Love would suit me fine, thank you very much.

Do you believe in love at first sight?
Believe in it? Even if I haven't really experienced it, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be true for others.

SPONGEBOB OR JIMMY NEUTRON?
Yugi-Oh!

Did you have long hair as a young kid?
Only that kind of a semi-long type that was popular in the eighties. Whenever my hair grows to a certain length, it looks as if I'm trying to impersonate a chow-chow.

What message is on your voicemail machine?
Nothing, I think, but then again we hardly ever check it.

Where would you like to go right now?
To my Happy Place?

What is the name of your pet(s)?
I don't have any. I have lots of pet peeves, though.

What kind of back pack do you have, and what's in it?
Black JanSport, bought for my NYC trip and it has been with me ever since. At the moment there's an empty thermos in there, together with my Gameboy, some loose papers, a few carrier bags, my wallet, my mobile (can't be bothered to turn it on), a pen and lots of little pieces of paper.

What do you think about most?
How to make myself happy.

Labels: computers, film, gaming, humour, personal, TV

I was a bit grumpy yesterday because I couldn't go to the West End Live event in Leicester Square. However, I then checked which performances were going to be there, and it turned out to be ok after all.

Something which is harder to swallow, though, is that I will also be working when the parade during the EuroPride gets underway. This is just annoying. Last year EuroPride was in Oslo, and I had just moved here so I couldn't attend. This year, it's over here and I will be working until after the last speeches have been made. Grrr! Then again...I do get paid for this job and can actually pay my rent and bills and still have a little left over for food and entertainment (well, when the local cinema charges two pounds for the latest films on Mondays, most people can afford going to the cinema from time to time). Nothing left for my credit cards and Norwegian loan, though, har har!

No, wait, that's supposed to be a negative thing.

We were interrupted here earlier today as the fire alarm went. I was of course on the phone at that exact moment, and in the beginning we just thought it was a test (they test the alarm once a week, minimum), especially since it happened at eleven sharp. So I continued talking to the customer on the phone, but when the alarm persisted and then became more agitated, I had to take his number and get out of here. For some reason, even though I had it in my hand, I did not bring my bag with me. We never found out what caused the alarm and were let back in after about fifteen minutes. There is extensive refurbishment work going on here, though, so that could be it.

Earlier this week was equally exciting at home, as my computer did not work after having been unplugged in wait of the terrible thunderstorms that never came (touch wood, they'd better not pop up right now). I left it until the next day (things are usually more scary in the dark) and then tried turning it back on. I don't know what made me think things would be any different at that point, but still... Well, the bloody thing wouldn't work. Thinking I'd ruined the cord, I tried another one. Still no luck. That's when I discovered the red button. Never, ever touch a red button, we all know that, right? Well, I did anyway. And then it said 'poof!' and there was smoke and my first thought was 'shit, we don't have a fire extinguisher!' The smoke lasted for about three seconds and then there was only the smell left, so I opened the window and went to take a shower instead. I quickly made it downtown to buy a new power supply unit, thinking it muct have been the fuse. When I later came back and installed the new unit, I actually red what the red button said... '110V'. As we use 220V in the UK, this was a pretty stupid move. Well, at least I tried. The new power supply unit works perfectly well, by the way, and by some miracle the rest of the computer is unscathed.

Well, it's time for lunch and some football. I need to make some money. I'm aiming for another ticket for Evita.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: computers, evita, musicals, personal, sport, technology, theatre

No updates lately, I'm afraid, but basically it's too difficult to update when I don't have any connection to the internet. Our future broadband provider had better hurry up. I have, however, managed to get online through magic...or rather some unsecured wireless network. Let's just hope they're not clever enough to steal any of my passwords...they're obviously not computer literate enough to secure their own network, so chances are I'm safe.

I have to admit I bought myself a laptop last week and thus have been busy playing The Sims 2 the way it was meant to be played. Ahem. Well, what is one supposed to do when one finishes the new Harry Potter book within fifteen hours of having bought it? You tell me. The other night I actually dreamt that the seventh book was released because J.K. didn't want to see her fans turning into nailbiting zombies (can zombies do anything at all?). Unfortunately I believed it to have happened for another few seconds after I woke up and started planning on paying WH Smith a visit. But no.

Another dream I had was that a huge, blue hare kept pestering the neighbourhood with its massmurderous way of life. It was, however, very polite and didn't climb over fences or knock down doors or anything. This saved me as well as my dogs, as we were on the other side of the fence when we spotted it (eating all the rabbits that had mysteriously started grazing by the road), and managed to get indoors before it had gone through the gate and pushed the doorbell. We didn't open the door, of course. But later that day I decided to join the underground hare resistance, led by Tamsin Greig, together with much of today's British comedy elite. The politeness rule didn't apply there, however, so the hare quickly decimated the resistance until there were just a few of us left. The tunnel system that the resistance had built was enormous and we could easily get lost. I ended up in a caravan park somewhere, where I believe Ewan McGregor led a second resistance. By this time I was exhausted from having run away from the blue hare and basically just woke up. Oh dear.

Well, I'd better just log off before my neighbour does. Ta ta for now!

Current track: Nada.

Labels: computers, dreams, gaming, literature, personal, tamsin greig, technology

I'm moving house at the moment and that means I have a lot of tidying up to do. I'm very attached to memories, but this time around I've decided to be very firm and throw away most things that I haven't used for years. That actually includes my old Amiga 500!!! My apologies to classic gamers out there, but read a bit further to understand my decision: Mouse. Nest. Pee. I wouldn't risk turning on the old bugger only to be fried. There are plenty of emulators out there. So my trusty Friend, AKA Mike Amiga (yes, I named it) (I was nine) (excuses, excuses), whose input devices hardly work anymore, will have to die. The same goes for my old typewriter. Let's face it, if I would want to go back to "the good old days" I would much rather choose a manual typewriter, not the electrical one I've got. Might as well use a computer then.

So, the mouse, who was also named (Kåre) (not by me), turned up to frighten me in the middle of the tidying up and after that I hardly touched anything before my companion had checked everything. Twice. I'm such a wuss. I mean, I'm used to gerbils and hamsters, for god's sake, and Kåre was very cute, but I guess the surprise factor got to me. Anyway, he'd had the most wonderful time partying amongst most of my things, so I basically rescued what I could and threw away all the rest. What a clever little creature, shortening the time I used for tidying up so well!

No matter, I did find quite a lot of old memories. Photos. Postcards. Letters. Upon letters. I was an avid letter writer until I discovered the 'Net. A few years after that, too. But then it all died out. I found letters just now from people I couldn't remember ever having written to. I had penfriends all over the world. I was probably the one who ended the friendship in most cases, by not replying all of a sudden. Very me.

I also found my old wallets, which brings me to the point du jour. (Speaking of points; what the hell went on during the Eurovision Song Contest? Ooh, the less said, the better, I suppose.) My oldest wallet, which I believe I was given by a classmate back in year two, when I was popular (that didn't last, LOL, when they found out how weird I was), is white (-ish) and has lots of writing on it. On one side you can more or less clearly see the following, astounding, names: Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Ralph Macchio, Prince, Andy Bell (singer, Erasure)...so far, so good. Then, after a bit of squinting and turning of the wallet, I can make out Twisted Sister being written there. But then...Nigel Havers, Peter Coyote, Eric Idle, Michael York (really? Can't remember that), Michael Palin and Dustin Hoffman. Now, the latter two plus Nigel I still like quite a lot, but not "like that". I remember my old diary had Tom Cruise and Paul Newman written side by side on the cover. I have to admit I put Tom's name there to balance things out, because I've never fancied him. LOL! Ah, the memories...

Labels: computers, dustin hoffman, erasure, michael palin, music, personal, TV