I here have the ultimate proof that autumn has arrived:


(I don't much like the noise in the sky, so tested to get rid of it, and it worked out OK).

If you wonder why the site was 'down' earlier, it's because it was moved to a server with PHP 5. Nothing to worry about at all -- I did not grow fangs and started attacking things.

"I am the Mushroom Lord! Obey me! Or you will be greatly punished on the Day of Doom!"

I thought I'd have to tell you a terrible secret that I just found out: Not everyone knows how to use a toothbrush to start a fire.

Kind of scary, isn't it? What exactly do they teach people in school these days?

The last four days, I've been working (on thesis stuff) until 17:00. I've tried to start at 10:00, and might eventually start earlier. But the thing is...

It's kind of weird. I'm looking forward to Friday. Because Friday suddenly means something again. The last two years or so it haven't meant anything -- it was just another day. Now it means that two days following it I don't have to work at all.

It's kind of like the sense of freedom at 17:00... which is also weird. Makes me remember how it was years ago.

But the sense of freedom isn't quite alone. There's also the sligthly panicky feeling that when I get home, I got time to eat, and do some spare time stuff for a few hours. Then it all starts over again. Every single day. Except weekends, but they end too, very soon after they've started. And then the week starts all over again.

All of this is of course how it's for most people... only lots of them have more stuff to deal with when they come home. It's a wonder the human world runs.

In other news I'm pretty tired.

In an effort to get my thesis work going, I've set up an log for it here. Reasons behind it are available in the Week 3, Day 1 post which I don't link because I don't have a good link-to-entry thing yet.

Anyway, if I don't update that log once a day, it means I'm probably wasting tax money and building up debt for no reason. If I do update it, I might still be wasting tax money, but at least I'm doing something for them.

Part of the idea is that if you doesn't have any real motivation, you can make what you do or not do public, and you can make the real motivation not shaming yourself.

I realize that I doesn't cover what the actual thesis is about... not here, and not in the thesis log. So I'll mention it.

It's basically to design and implement a scripting language specialized for game scripting. It's supposed to have solutions for the normal problems, like networking and so. The language closest to the idea would be UnrealScript. However, UnrealScript costs lots of monies, and it's pretty tied to the UnrealEngine.

Hmm, it sounds better in my other description.

Just noticed that my slog turned three years old some 16 days ago. Yeah, I'm quick on the uptake!

So, hurrah! hurrah! etc.

I now have a thesis to work on. For 20 weeks. It's scary. It will be the biggest serious thing I have ever done.

Just thinking of working on a single thing all workdays for such a long time is almost panicky. But I suppose I will manage. I always have before, even when things seemed bad.

But if you think about it... it's not really a comfort, is it? If everything has worked out for you in the past, and you have no experience with serious setbacks, would you not dread that some day things won't work out, and you'll be unprepared for it?

Ok, so maybe I'm just depressing people now. But it's kind of real. To think that one day your capabilities will not be enough for something that matters.

So, anyway, I got a thesis. Yay! That means that if I don't screw up, I'll have papers that proves I can write exams and some other stuff. This is good if you want to work, because it makes it easier to get a job and higher salary.

Yay...? So. By finishing studies, you're rewarded with work. So you'll spend the next 40 years of your life working eight hours a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year (this is the standard in Sweden, I assume it's more in, say, USA).

So worries aside, it's good to know there's things to look forward to when (if?) I succeed.

Ok, so rather than thinking right now, I'm writing. Or not really instead. At the same time is more like it. The problem is of course I don't type has fast as I think so it's hard to follow some things... because I'm too slow. Or too fast. There's .. discrepancies? Right.

So... to not make it too obvious I'm writing I'm not watching, but keep my eyes closed. That helps a little. But doesn't solve the speed-problem. Only the other problem I haven't mentioned yet. I'm not sure what to call it. The "oh, I'm writing"-problem. Being preoccupied by the fact that one is writing, that it isn't perfect and seeing all those stupid letters in the way. Letters are for building words, but they doesn't really help. They're the needed tool, not the real thing. So when writing with eyes closed, the letters doesn't interfere... you just think words and words are what's comes out. Rather like talking or thinking.

So anyway. There's actually more problems. I know it sounded like if there were just two, but the problems really just keeps stacking up. It's kind of weird isn't it? Well, so the problem is that when you really suddenly come to think about something, you can't write it. Because you're probably walking around, or lying in the bed, or standing in the shower. Or just sitting there. And actually get around to write it disrupts the thoughts, and trying to rewrite exactly what you thought, that doesn't really work. So what you do is.. nothing. You just think, and amuse yourself, and give it the thought "oh this would have been so great were it written down"... but of course it isn't written down, and never likely will be. At least not like it were really thought.

Another good thing about not watching is that other distractions are also left out. No chat windows in the background can be seen. No cheesburgerhungry cats. No weird shadows on the floor. Nothing to affect your actual thoughts other than the thoughts themself, and possible sounds and so. In fact I hear sounds now. There's music playing, which I have like always, so it's kind of just the normal background. Doesn't really affect my thoughts (that I know about). Then there's of course the sound of typing, which isn't really so nice. It's a little bit distracting, but it's better than.. say neighbors. They makes sound sometimes. That's one of the good points with music, it keeps the level of sound the neighbors need to make higher, because they need to rise above the music.

Ok, so I suddenly got a bit of a problem following my thoughts. There comes spaces where I don't know what to write... or where I wonder what word to use to describe things and stuff, that's very disruptive really. The fact that I has a blazing headache is somehow not in the way, though. Kind of weird. You wonder why that is. Maybe even the pain keeps me focused...

So, anyway, I'm not quite sure what the point of all this is. I just opened notepad, closed my eyes, and started writing. Or thinking, that's what I really tried. And I guess it worked kind of ok. Yeah, well, I'm going to catch some sleep now.

Oh, and another thing. Eyes closed is good when it hurts to look at things (because of light.. yeah, kind of related to the headache.. got the flu or something?)

I today, to my great horror, noticed I had no ice cream! And this at a time I really felt like ice cream.

Having told my good friend Mr Hat Caller, and asked if he knew how this could be, he -- also no doubt in horror -- told me that he had the very same problem. He had no ice cream either.

With this information, there's no doubt that this is a very serious and rising problem. It's quite possible that within months you will also be out of ice cream (are you not already).

And who lets this happen? Who brings this great evil and horror upon its people? Why, the government, of course! No doubt they even plotted it. Made plans so that only those with special privileges would have access to ice cream. And then they would rule the working-class with an iron fist.

Is that what we want for this country? To fall back into atavistic and slave like traditions? "No!" I dearly hope you say. And there's still hope, there's still some light ahead. If only you all do the only thing that could possible be done to stop this.

You must select me as Prime Minister. Only then is the future safe from this horror.

Join the Campaign for Equal Rights of Ice Cream for Everyone Today! and promote me as your saviour.

Happy Humbugday to everyone.

What's that you say? You didn't know it was the International Humbugday today? Well, you do now. So happy Humbugday.

Also beware of the rumours that Humbugday is Dec 21. Those rumours are clearly humbug.

What manner of mushroom looking UFO is this? Or UO?

Stupid butter knife.

Ignorance of ignorance is the worst kind of ignorance. It's ignorance so bad it transcends mere ignorance and becomes grave stupidity.

I think the above, which I made up some night, is beautiful. And possibly true as well.

So maybe I'm weird, but so what?

Someone thought it would be a good idea to list the ten first songs that come up on shuffle on his playlist, and then challenge some other people to do the same.

Someone else thought it would be a good idea to challenge me to do it. I did not really share this view, but I did it anyway.

Just a little background info: My current playlist contains whatever songs I've thought was good enough at some point during the last ten years. The only way a song is removed is if I get really annoyed with it. Most songs I don't like very much I just skip when it comes up.

It's quite possible that I would remove something like 50% of all songs from the list if I were to go through it critically. However, for the sake of this challenge, no songs has been skipped or censored, so what follows is really the next ten songs that turned up. Of these, I would have skipped 2-5, depending on mode.

918. Vangelis - Conquest of Paradise (title soundtrack of movie of almost same name, I think)
570. Moby - Natural blues (not exactly my favorite Moby song)
829. Wal - The last kuusnepa (really old .mod, from some cracktro)
470. JosSs - Purple Illusion
328. Estrayk - Her 2 (from The Her Collection, musicdisk from Paradox. I prefer Her 7)
964. Wizardry (dunno the author of this one of the thousands of Wizardry remixes, just an old .mod)
670. pk - Sound of Silence (from the Assembly 2005 Instrumental music competition)
813. testrauschen feat floyd logic - my home is my spaceship (nice ambient)
416. Ivory - The Quest
917. Vangelis - Conquest Of Paradise (yes, same song, slightly different version (2 min shorter), from another CD)

Numbers are of course numbers on playlist.

Also, you may relax, as I'm not going to challenge anyone else to do this. Not that I'm stopping anyone.

I noticed that the last entry was the 300th, which was kind of fun, so some kind of celebration would be nice, only I wouldn't know how, so instead I'm going to give you some statistics. (Everyone goes "Yay!")

Entry | Date         | deltaT
-------------------------------
 1    | 27 Aug, 2004 | -
 100  | 15 Feb, 2005 | 172
 200  | 18 Jan, 2006 | 337 
 300  |  8 Aug, 2007 | 567

Sadly, this proves, as you can see, that I have written less and less entries. (Everyone goes "Yay"?)

Did you know that a google search for "did i tell you about the herbivore man?" gives no hits?

Of course, maybe it will soon.

Several days ago the Swedish news services reported the the summer was about to be over. They were wrong.

It's gone really, really hot (which could be considered the opposite of the summer ending). Too hot. It's 30 degrees C in my apartment, and I can't really think. So I'm not very productive... not that I were before, but now I have a valid excuse to blame, so I wouldn't miss the opportunity.

So yeah, dunno what I was really going to write.

Last night the temperature outside actually managed to go down to 20 degrees at maybe 0200. Might even been lower later on, but was definitely on the rise again around 0600. At least it took lots of hour before it go to 30 degrees indoors.

I bet this is all very uninteresting. Not much else up, really, so I'll just stop boring you now. For a while.

Strong hate. Neighbours are idiots.