Everything!

School is quite awesome at the moment, almost can't be called school though - it's such a variety of different fun things. Like writing and analyzing stories, concepts and developing strange new ideas - and everything is allowed! How brilliant is that?

Leveldesign is also fun, and the project will turn out great, seriously! I am sure of it. At least now that we know a little more about the procedure of creating a game. Geeh. That really helps, you know!

It is pouring down outside, and it's quite cold. Thought I would lead you on to a beautiful classic. It will never stop to amaze me, this song. And not only that, but it's true, too! Don't you think?

I Love My Man by Bent

You all have a beautiful day!

This is a Portuguese hydrant. I thought it looked punk.

And I am listening to a Portuguese rock album right now, Polexia. It's weird, cos it's in Portuguese, but it's quite good.

Next time, I'm going to

trim Ulla like this:

Delightful game

I have spent the last couple of days playing SimCity Civilization which I bought for a shameless price at Game. It looked rather poor to be honest, but I was very nostalgic about the entire SimCity concept, and seeing it was so cheap - I could just try ut out to see if it was any good.

Now, the game isn't very balanced at all. To progress you can't really build the city of your dreams. There will always be elements that destroy the image of your creative spree, in fact I'm almost insulted at how "restricted" it feels when not playing in "free play" mode. Most claims are reasonable, like the city needs electricity and prosperity, but that creativity, authority and spirituality are all equally mandatory is annoying. Because all these different "needs" work as a currency system. Some buildings cost a certain amount of authority, but gains you prosperity - for example.

The general happiness of your SimCitizens is also very important to keep a healthy city, so if you allow one of the "currencies" to grow too far, you will obviously drop down on other, and such cause unhappiness.

Not that it's a problem, the game isn't very difficult, and the different themes for venues, workplaces and homes are awesome. The skyscrapers look beautiful at night time, and you are able to create at least moderately stylish cities without "being unbalanced". *SnorT*

I like it. If I'd bought it full price it might've been different. But in essence it's nice, and I want to keep playing all the time, completely immerse and forget about space and time around me. Which is a quality this game still have, despite of not being the ancient original game.

And I just saw the Zelda: Twilight Princess trailer again, and now I just want to run downstairs and plug my Wii in. Iiih!!

900 - Letter to Singapore

Dear Sigrid

I wouldn't say a lot has happened since you left. It has after all only been two days. But truthfully it kind of feels like a long time. Maybe because we've known about it and thought about it for such a long time it was if you already belonged in Singapore. Though of course, you do belong here, too. The weather's been rather gloomy, we're all slowly getting ill. Torstein is, Hamre and me, too. So the house is now just filled with snot, and dog's hair. Hamre, Torstein and Mum are driving down to Sweden tomorrow to take over our new summerhouse. They are bringing so much stuff with them that they've rented a van. We're all quite looking forward to seeing it and spending time together there. If the dogs knew what was going on, they'd be psyched too.

As for school we are already working on a case project in teams. Preparing a complete high conceptual design for a browser-based computergame in relation to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. We have this one German guy in the group, he's good fun, but his ideas are pretty far out most of the time. And the introduction to the project was rather poor - so the teams are running about, frustrated and confused about what we are actually supposed to be doing. And there's a lot of formalities and paperwork that is time consuming, but most of it is fun to do, and some time in the future of the project we'll be pleased to have all that documentation. ... I hope.

Ulla is getting her hair cut today, it's necessary actually. And tomorrow night there'll be this huuge party at Betong for the entire school. Though I am not sure too many will show up. I wonder if anybody know it's happening, that's usually were we go wrong. Forgetting to hand out the invitations. But oh well.

We miss you and we think of you all the time, we'll all come visit sometime too, and then we'll bring you Norwegian necessities. And you have to take me to the botanical gardens because we didn't get a good look at the bonsai tree garden!

With love, Tora.

Here is a picture of you, doing what you do best - be fascinated and soulful on something really weird. Like this magnificent castle in Portugal you are here studying the map of. Too bad it came out blurry!

Oh, and this is, incidentally my post number 900! Whoha.

Tuesday morning

Oh myy. If this lesson on Scrum gets any more interesting, we all might just exh-plode. Yesterday I bought Snow Patrol's "new" album (newest would be more appropriate, or most recent, obviously), that means "A Hundred Million Suns". And of course - Arctic Monkeys' "Humbug", which is actually still new. Though sadly, not as indie as I would ideally like it.

But then, I can't really win every time.

I'll have a good listen through, and then I'll tell you what I think. Not like you have a choice.

My sister went to Singapore today, or she is leaving today, that would be more accurate. I am truly happy for her because she's worked so hard all her life (she still does) and if anyone deserves such great career opportunities, it must be her. However it's really heart-breaking to be witnessing a couple like Sigrid and Axel being split across the globe once more. They don't deserve that.

My throat is all sore, so I had a Strepsils cough lozenge, but it really tasted awful, and it didn't make my throat any better either. I'd like some warm soup or some tea or perhaps some blackcurrant toddy. Today the forecast said rain. A perfect day to listen to "Pulling Our Weight" by Radio Department.

Here is a picture of dogs. They are Rottweillers. Meow. How cute is that? I want to be one too

Na'da

It's a countdown for November going on in my mind, as per usual. Because then it will be NaNoWriMo again, and this year I am so full of ideas I have no clue how to battle them all into just 50,000 words. Whii!!!

School is starting on Monday, and that is super-exciting too. This post is about nothing in particular unfortunately, as I really don't have anything of interest to share with you.
Maybe some pictures?




From various places in Portugal, last November