: 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.