Bondeopprør

Wednesday 19 November 2008

New blog

So, I decided to make another blog. More specifically, a playlog for when I GM RPGs (GameMaster, RolePlaying Games).

Find it at rpg.razumny.no

Monday 10 November 2008

HexCon - a great adventure

Friday morning at eight o'clock I met four friends of mine to go to HexCon, the annual games con in Trondheim. This was my first HexCon, and a grat adventure. As I had planned this trip as a bit of a outreach project, I had said I'd host two rounds of RPG's.

We arrived in Trondheim just before two in the afternoon, met up with a friend and quickly decided food was the way to go, and as we had some time to spare before we went to the con, we found a nice, cheap chinese place with loads of tasty food.

That done, we found a bus, and went further on our way towards the con. On the bus we met two other friends, and many con-participants joined the bus on its way. Arrival at the location of the con and registration taken care of we went to the communal sleeping area (read: the gym hall of the school where the con was held), I quickly grabbed the padded bag as a bed for me and two companions.

First round of gaming entailed me hosting my first of two gaming sessions, a session of the Norwegian RPG Itras By. Among the players was one of the two authors of the game, Ole Peder. It was fun, and I found a lot of tips (as well as received plenty of constructive critique) for a rewrite.

The second session saw me playing an 18th level bard, Elton John, together with a monk, David Beckham (football is a monk weapon), a magician (David Copperfield) and a priest (His holiness, the pope). Together we defeated the evil that was Bill Gates. Elton John got the killing strike, caught on flame and became a flaming homosexual. All this in a rally fun game of D&D 3.5.

After a half a night or so of sleep, session three followed with a session of the amazingly funny game Munchkin RPG. The fourth session saw me playing another game of Itras by, after which the con dinner was held. The night session of the saturday saw me playing the Knight Stannum, of the court of Summer, in my first ever live RPG session.

A fuller nights sleep later saw me hosting my last game, a session of 3:16 - Carnage Among the Stars. After packing, we had some time to while away, and sat down for a game of Duck! Duck! GO!.

The con ended roughly at two, and as our train back to Oslo didn't leave until eleven at night, we went with a lot of other people to the post-con gathering at Trondheim's Egon restaurant. Of course, being gamers, we played some more, whiling away the last hours that remained until our train.

An amazing weekend of gaming, and I met a lot of new people.

Thursday 6 November 2008

Off again

So, tomorrow I'm off, this time to Trondheim for Hexcon. I'll be playing roleplaying games pretty exclusively, which is a new thing for me at a games con. Still, it'll be good.

I'll be going up with five others, taking the train.

Also, I feel quoting "Crimson tide" is warranted:

Go 'Bama, roll tide!

Friday 24 October 2008

Update your computer now!

I rarely post stuff here that originates and/or belongs in the TechBlog. This is an exception, and I think it's warranted:

Microsoft has released Security Bulletin MS08-059, along with a hotfix for the problem detailed. There are already exploits in the wild to take advantage of the hotfix.

What I ask is simply this: Update your computer. Run Windows Update, and update your computer.

Here's the bulletin from Microsoft:
Bulletin Identifier - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-059
Bulletin Title - Vulnerability in Host Integration Server RPC Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (956695)
Executive Summary - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Host Integration Server. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted Remote Procedure Call (RPC) request to an affected system. Customers who follow best practices and configure the SNA RPC service account to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than customers who configure the SNA RPC service account to have administrative user rights.
Maximum Severity Rating - Critical
Impact of Vulnerability - Remote Code Execution
Detection - Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer can detect whether your computer system requires this update. The update may require a restart.

Sunday 19 October 2008

A very good day

I first saw the light of ... well, maybe not day, but at least fluorescent lamps on the third monday in October of the year 1983. Since then I have seen and done many things, with many more still to come. 25 birthdays have come and passed, but none as magnificently as this year.

Even though I use my cellphone actively, the day of my 25th birthday saw much more use than usual. As did my Facebook wall. As for celebrations, I'd been to stressed out at work to plan anything whatsoever. Luckily my girlfriend had started planning a year in advance, and the result was that ten of my friends gathered at my parent's place to celebrate my birthday with me.

I felt so rich and blessed surrounded by my friends, sitting at a table, drinking and eating and talking together.

A great big thank you to all of you who came, and a great big thank you to everyone who wished me a happy day.

It was, to paraphrase Ol' Blue Eyes, a very good day.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Bondeopprør


Bondeopprør
Originally uploaded by razumny
Apparently, farmers are insurrecting, though I don't know when, so presumably they're ready to rise up at any time...

Anyway...

Driving through Hjartdal from Seljord towards Notodden, you pass this sign, stating that 2km to the east there is a farmer insurrection. I've always wanted to get a snap of it, and now I have!

Thursday 4 September 2008

New month, a new concert.

It seems like I've attended at least one concert per month over the course of the last years, which isn't too far from the truth when I come to think of it.

I've been lucky enough to see many of my favorite artists, such as Metallica, Leonard Cohen and R.E.M., who I saw last night. Great concert, and an amazing light show.

Sunday 27 July 2008

Sagene Kirke


Sagene Kirke
Originally uploaded by razumny
Here's the first pic I posted to Flickr that is taken with my shiny new D80. It's taken a couple of days after I got it, only minutes after I left home.

I am especially happy with it due to the difficult lighting conditions.

The D80 is an amazing tool of photography, and I can see a lot of the features coming in handy.

My two next wants for photography are a new lens, the Nikon 18-70 mm one, a beautiful, tight piece of machinery, and a flash, probably the Nikon SB 600.

Thursday 24 July 2008

New toy

My parents returned from the U.S. yesterday, and at my request they'd visited a shop called 42nd street photo in New York where they'd got me a new toy, namely a new DSLR camera house, the Nikon D80. First impressions are amazing, it's got the Nikon touch and feel, and seems a very sturdy and well-built camera. I'll try it out, and I am looking forward to two things, first having a new toy, and second having the possibility to carry two SLR cameras when I go photowandering!

Sunday 20 July 2008

A Vacation to remember

This summer my girlfriend and I have driven around Norway, nearly 2000 kilometres, to visit three cities, Trondheim, Ålesund and Bergen, all of which are places where friends and family of ours live.

Many hours on the road, and many happy memories later, we are now back in Oslo. One of the best things about the trip was Metallica.

Metallica's only concert in Scandinavia this year was in Bergen, at Koengen. An hours' worth of refreshing the box office website paid off in one of the most amazing pieces of musical fun I have experienced.

Metallica is a vibrant band that simply oozes of energy and fun. Great stuff!

Tuesday 17 June 2008

Norwegian Wood - Madrugada Live

I finally had the opportunity of seeing Madrugada live, though sadly without Robert Burås (RIP). Norwegian Wood was a great experience, and I am looking forward to both Øyafestivalen and next years' Norwegian Wood. They also played a great version of "Majesty" from their album "Grit". Find the video here.

Monday 16 June 2008

The comic that changed my view on comics

I've been reading comic books for ages; I can't remember when I started, but I sure haven't stopped, a fact to which one of my shelves at home bears testament.

A few years ago, when I was a freshman in senior high school, I discovered a comic book that would change my outlook on comics. Well, I say comic, but really, it was a graphic novel.

The graphic novel in question was called "Death: the high cost of living", and is written by Neil Gaiman. It tells the story of how Death spends a day every century or so as a human.

The way it changed my outlook was this: it made me realize that comics doesn't have to be funny, they can be dead (sic!) serious pieces of heavy literature, and they can broach important and at times touchy subjects.

Ever since, I've loved Neil Gaiman's authorship, and I still pick out my own copy of Death every now and again, in order to remind myself what it was fascinated me.

Oslo Live - WTF???

The city of Oslo has decided to freaking take over the rutting Quart-festival, that recently had to announce it was bankrupt, and wasn't going to happen.

The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reports this tonight.

Now, my question is: WHY??? Oslo already has two festivals of the kind; Norwegian Wood last weekend, and the Øyafestivalen in August. Not to mention Musikkens dag Oslo and Granittrock that are free festivals.

Sunday 15 June 2008

What's this? an update? Whoa...

Since it's very nearly been two months since my last post, I thought it was time to write a little.

Since I wrote here last, I've seen not only Gavin deGraw, but also a lovely canadian singer-songwriter called Hayley Sales. I also decided to attend the Norwegian Wood-festival, where I saw Rufus Wainwright and Madrugada. All great fun.

I'v also been playing around a bit with URL-forwarding, meaning that my blogs now are known as http://bloggen.razumny.no (this'un) and http://blog.razumny.no (the technical'un).

I've also kept up with my self-imposed thrice weekly posting schedule, and I've got four weeks' worth of posts written up.

I've bought a bike, a very cool Merida Cruiser, which I had to return for repairs the next day, as the crank wasn't properly fixed.

Also, my couch has arrived! It looks great and is just as comfy as I hoped.

I am planning to post more here in time to come, and I think I'll start to cover subjects such as books, music, movies and so on.

That's all for now

See ya!

Wednesday 16 April 2008

What's been happenin'...

I've not posted here for a while, which has a few reasons...

  1. I've had a lot to do at work
  2. I'm painting my new apartment
  3. I've been producing a lot of content for my tech blog
  4. I've been trying to spend some time with my friends
  5. I've been reviewing stuff for ITPro and X6
  6. My job had a kick-off party
I've settled on a thrice-a-week update schedule for my tech blog, which, for now at least, seems to be working well. I've got my next four posts all written up, and feel pretty confident I'll be able to keep it up for a while at least...

If you want to get steadier, but shorter, updates about what's happening in my life, go to my Twitter page.

That's all for now, have fun y'all

Friday 4 April 2008

One and a half wall basecoated

Using up my dad's old leftovers of Jotaplast paint, I've basecoated one and a half wall in my living room. I got another 20 liters of paint yesterday, so painting should be well on its way very soon.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

One small step...

For their 75th anniversary, Motorola had a poster created showing the 31260 words in the transcript from the Apollo 11 moonlanding.

This poster is now available as a pdf, and it is in vector format, so you can zoom in as much as you want, or even print it yourself!

Find it here.

Let's go Murphys

Yesterday I took my girlfriend to the venue Sentrum Scene in downtown Oslo to see Boston-Irish punk rockers Dropkick Murphys. These guys are great showmen, and the entire audience joined the band to sing songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Wild Rover" on the top of their voices.

A great concert, and a great time.

Monday 31 March 2008

Teh Concertedness

I've got the world's greatest girlfriend!!!

In addition to the aforementioned concerts, she has bought tickets to not one, but two concerts I want to go to; Gavin deGraw and Leonard Cohen (Leonard effing Cohen, how amazing is that? He hasn't been to Norway to play a concert for over ten years!!!), making the lineup as follows:

  • Band: Dropkick Murphys
  • Location: Sentrum Scene/Oslo
  • Date: April 1st
  • Band: the Misfits
  • Location: Betong/Oslo
  • Date: April 29th
  • Band: Gavin deGraw
  • Location: Sentrum Scene/Oslo
  • Date: June 3rd
  • Band: Leonard Cohen
  • Location: Bislet Stadion/Oslo
  • Date: July 1st
  • Band: Metallica
  • Location: Koengen/Bergen
  • Date: July 16th
  • Band: Iron Maiden
  • Location: Valle Hovin/Oslo
  • Date: July 24th
  • Band: R. E. M.
  • Location: Ullevaal Stadion/Oslo
  • Date: September 3rd

The year of concerts eh?

The cuddly blog is up!

Having turned my other blog into a technical, serious blog, I need a blog for just about everything else as well, so here it is!

I'll post more stuff here as we go along, but this is what there is for now!