: Wondurfel!

It's probably about time I wrote another post. It's been two months since my last one. I just haven't really thought about the blog much lately. I've been sort of distracted by things actually happening to really think about writing about it. Which I guess is good, sort of? Although it figures that as soon as I have something to write about, I forget to write about it. =P

Well, first of all; A little over a month ago, I finally met Lisa. If you've followed my blog last year, you probably know sort of who she is as I've mentioned her a couple of times. I spent most of last year trying to get to meet her, but it never happened. There was always something that got in the way, and after a while things got a bit, well... Weird. And in November we sort of went our separate ways. A couple of months passed and on Valentine's Day I decided to send her a message. To be honest I wasn't really expecting her to answer but she did, and a couple of weeks after that we met. And, well... Whatever weirdness we had before was gone. And... It was just great. We had a really nice time with each other, and she's been visiting me a few times after that. And... Yeah. Things are good. And I'm really happy. =)

Second; I've got a kitten. Chihiro surprised me one day by being very affectionate all of a sudden. That's not like her at all, as she's a very shy and nervous cat, and rarely approaches me for anything. I knew what that meant, though, so I fixed a place for her where she could give birth. And the next morning there were kittens. I've kept one, in the hope that she will turn out less nervous and shy than Chihiro. At first it seemed it would work out... But now I'm not so sure. I don't know what it is, if it's because she's "mimicking" her mother or something, but the last couple of days she's become more cautious and nervous and keeps running away and hiding when I get close to her. I hope it doesn't stay that way, I really don't want to have two cats that are like that... =(

Third; I've sorted most of the comic collection after my uncle, and sold off quite a bit of it. The geek in me doesn't really want to sell it, but... There are two reasons why I've decided to do it anyway. The first reason is pretty simple; I don't have room for all of it. I have room for some of it, and there are some that I'm gonna keep, but I can't keep all of it. The second reason is... Well, there are a lot of gaps in the collection. Some might be because my uncle just didn't buy some of the magazines, but a lot of them are because the magazines have been ruined one way or the other. They haven't exactly been stored properly since he died. And since I don't have the resources to fill those gaps, I'd rather sell what I have to others who might need to fill theirs. And then there are some comics that I just aren't interested in. I guess that's a third reason. =P

And... Hm. That's about it for major stuff, I think? I still haven't started taking driving lessons. I keep putting it off for some reason. I guess I'm a bit nervous. Driving has always scared me, so I guess it's not a surprise. I really should get started with it soon, though. I don't really have an excuse anymore, as my economy is as stable as it can be and the roads are clear. So... Yeah.

I've sort of started being more active again. I've been walking a bit more lately, although still not anywhere as much as I used to before the winter came. I haven't really been recording it either. But I've been failing rather hard lately when it comes to what and how often I eat and all that stuff. I don't know why. I need to get a grip on that again. And I will. Because damnit, I'm not gonna fall back into my old life. That's just not gonna happen.

: Rearranging the LAN-space.

I had a LAN this weekend, for a couple of friends of mine, Terje and Rune, that had their birthdays during the last week. Well, that's the excuse we used anyway, not that we really need one to have a LAN, but hey. Not gonna say much about it, except that it was awesome as always. If you need proof, here's a video from this weekend, created by Yrjan. Enjoy.

After everyone had left on Sunday, another friend of mine, Thor, who unfortunately wasn't able to attend the LAN, stopped by with a present for me; A TV. I spent the rest of the evening wondering how to put it in a spot where it would actually be useful, and not just a huge paperweight. Long story short; I failed. At about 1:30am I decided that the best way to make it useful was to rearrange my living room. So I did. The next 3-4 hours I spent moving stuff around and setting my computer and network equipment back up. I guess that in total, there's not that much difference here. It's really just the two "back corners" that have switched places. Everything close to the exit is in the exact same place as it was, and the table and couches in the middle hasn't really moved either. It makes a huge difference, though. And I got a very nice position for the TV.

TV placed in a spot where everyone can see it!

Not much difference, except that it's "backwards".

The network equipment is also in a better place compared to where people will be sitting, I think. I am the one who'll always be farthest away from it, and I'm already hooked up and my cables have been taped down. So, no more need for insanely long cables. I've also added more extension cables that I had laying around (I've no idea where I've gotten all of them from), so it's easier for people to set up right away when they get here. At the moment the other corner-desk (which you can't see in these pictures) is a bit buried under stuff again, but I'll clear that out before the next LAN.

: Bursts and breaks. And YouTube.

About two weeks ago I had a sudden burst of energy. I was done dealing with my wisdom tooth, my new computer was finally up and running, I had began doing something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time, making gaming videos, and I just generally felt re-energized. Then about a week ago I had a break caused by something completely unrelated to anything that I was doing at the time, and something that I didn't think I'd have to worry about for quite a while; Money. I'm not gonna go into details about it, but in short; Due to an error in communication somewhere, the type of financial aid I'm supposed to get was stopped in the middle of December, and since then I have only gotten some temporary aid from NAV that is barely a third of what I should have gotten. This was not related to my tax return, it was pure coincidence that it happened at almost the same time. 

I haven't really suffered much directly from it, because of my tax return and the temporary aid from NAV, but this was not supposed to happen, it shouldn't have happened, and it feels like, in the long term, an opportunity to make some progress in my life (in this case, getting a driver's license) has been pushed back. Back when this happened I was told it was just a minor error and should be fixed pretty quickly. But the longer it's been, the more it has chipped away at my driver's license money, and it's been significantly reduced at this point. I definitely do not have enough to finish it at this point. Of course there's still the hope that I'll get a similar tax return again. But that is not a guaranteed thing, and I had really hoped to get as much as possible done on what I had.

It wasn't until today that I found out what had happened, and I was assured that my financial aid would be resumed as soon as possible, maybe as soon as after the weekend, but I have no idea if I'll get back any of the money I've lost during the last month and a half. I was also told today that this won't happen again, that when my financial aid is resumed there are only two things that can take it away again; Either getting a job, or getting on disability. Until either of those things happen (or I win the lottery and become a millionaire, I guess) I shouldn't have to worry about this anymore. I hope that's true. I am so tired of money problems, particularly when it's due to someone else's error.  I envy people who are able to work and have jobs that keep them independent. Well, as independent as you can be, at least.

Well, enough about that.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been making and uploading some gaming videos over on my YouTube channel. I'm still learning how to best do this, and I have no prior experience talking into a microphone when there's no one on the other end while I'm playing games, so the quality of my commentary isn't that good yet. But I hope to keep doing it and make something of it down the road. When I had my "burst of energy" I made a lot of videos in a few days, and I uploaded at least one video a day for a week. So head on over to my channel if you want to check that out. There will be more soon, but at the moment I still don't feel too good, and I'm finally playing through Skyrim for the first time, which is not the kind of game I want to record.

: 2012 - Looking Back | 2013 - Looking Forward

Looking Back

2012 was a weird year for me. It started off with something I had hoped I never had to do, which was breaking up with someone I was still very much in love with. It's actually one year ago tomorrow. I still wish it hadn't happened, but there's not much I can do about it now. And, as I've said before, it was probably for the best. At least now we're still friends, something we might not have been if we had kept on trying.

A couple of months later I started talking seriously with another girl, and spent the next 6+ months trying to make something happen there. 6+ months of disappointment and bad choices. No matter what I tried, something always came in the way, and a couple of months ago she decided that it wasn't really worth it. Or, as she said, it would be better for me to find someone who had time for me. Which I guess is true. 

I'm still looking.

In February we went down to the Netherlands to celebrate Ronald's birthday and Aldert's marriage anniversary. And in September, a bunch of them came to Norway to visit us in Hemsedal. Fun times, both times. I feel like every time I spend time with them I get a slightly better grasp of the Dutch language, at least I understand it a bit better. I'm still far off from being able to speak it, and I just can't learn it on my own. There has been some talk about me going down there for a while, to stay there for a few weeks and learn the language that way, but it's not really a top priority for anyone at the moment, unfortunately.

In April, I think it was, I had a big "falling out" (the problem was mostly on my part, really) with someone I'd had a very close relationship with for a long time, someone that I think knows me better than most people do, and I had to do something else that I never really wanted to do; Remove someone completely from my life. However, when someone has been such a big part of your life (without actually being a part of my life), it's hard to really forget about them. And I've often caught myself thinking about her. I've recently started talking to her a bit again, but due to our complicated past, I feel like I can't let her back into my life in the same way as before.

I've lost quite a lot of weight this year. Although, considering it's been an entire year, it's not really that much. And I still have a long way to go. But whatever. My weight has for the most part slowly but steadily gone down. And particularly after I got the elliptical trainer. I'm not really sure what my weight was a year ago, 'cause I didn't have a scale back then, but I think it was about 135kg. I'm now down to about 122kg. So about 13kg in a year, that's not too bad. Unfortunately, the last couple of months have been absolutely horrible for my motivation and energy, so I haven't really worked out at all. I probably could've been below 120 by now. Oh well.

After I broke up with my ex I decided I wasn't gonna go back to my old self, I wasn't gonna become a shut-in again like I was before. I don't really remember anymore what my plan actually was, but the point of it was to get out more and spend more time with friends. I'm sorry to say that I haven't really followed up on that. I don't really know why. It just never happened. I guess part of it is because I don't have any way of getting around on my own. And I've never really been the kind of guy that goes anywhere without there being a special occasion anyway... So, yeah. I want to change that, I just don't know how.

On major thing that has changed since this time last year, is my apartment  A year ago it was filled with all kinds of stuff and trash, it was a complete chaos. In a way there's still a bit to do, but compared to back then it's infinitely better. Unfortunately it seems I won't get that help cleaning my apartment properly that I was promised for most of 2012. For some reason it was impossible for social services to dig up someone who could do it for me, which I find really odd. And I don't really know what has happened to the whole deal now. It would've been so nice to get this fixed, to have my apartment cleaned properly by someone who knows what they're doing, but... It seems it's not gonna happen.

And that's all the significant things I can remember about 2012 right now.

Looking Forward

I don't really have any plans for 2013. Well, except for one. I was lucky enough to get enough money to start working on my driver's license, so I'm gonna do that soon. Not sure when, but I'm gonna go down and talk to someone some day soon. I just want to get some other stuff sorted out first, if I can. Other than that, I don't really know what I want to do this year. I can't even think of anything significant that's relevant to me that'll happen this year. So... Yeah. But I guess having one plan is better than none. Everything else is just "business as usual"; Keeping up with the changed lifestyle and getting back to working out. Hopefully lose another 12kg, or more.

Right now, though, I'm not gonna do anything. Yesterday I had my last wisdom tooth pulled, and area around was seriously infected, so it still hurts quite a bit. It was also really stuck in there, so the dentist had to really use his might to get it out, which means it's also really sore. Painkillers work, fortunately, and it's a lot more manageable than before it was pulled, but it still wears me out pretty fast. Eating and drinking is a bit awkward too, as I want to disturb the healing as little as possible. So for now I'm gonna care about nothing, and probably go sleep a bit. 

See ya.