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A Dane living in The Netherlands |
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Monday, October 28, 2002
I've been robbed. Late last night I got a call from a friend, who told me there are several items stolen from my apartment in Copenhagen - laptop, CDs etc. There was no immidiate signs of forced entry. It's only the second time in my life this happens, but it's still scary every time...bad mood today! Gotta look through my insurances, and see if they can help... --- My ShadowKnight Ogre, Zaxuna (Rallos Zek Server) must be the first avatar in EverQuest who has performed an oral service of sexual character. For that she received 1 pp (platinum piece), so I'm thinking of creating a button with: "/shout For a fun time call Big Sexy Mama at 555-213 OGRE". I guess this would be the first record of prostitution in Norrath. 
--- Had a nice evening with my friend Mads on Messenger yesterday evening. Talking with him always makes me smile. He's a very nice guy, and we know each other from University. This picture is a composition of various screenshots I took from his Webcam. The background is of course MSN Messenger (h)(f)(h)(k) 
*** - | posted by Tommy on 10:41 AM ---ooo--- Friday, October 25, 2002 ...and this is Ruth taken on the Trapholt Museum during a course she took in danish language on Askov Højskole. 
*** - | posted by Tommy on 1:29 PM ---ooo--- I realise I am living in a little time bubble - because of the language challenge I experience, I have no way of understanding the news. Furthermore, I've never been used to use online news resources. The two things together mean that yesterday Ruth, an online friend of mine, had to tell me about the hostage situation in Moscow - I'm quite horrified that people can do things like this. I have seen it over and over again in my 33 year long life, but I'm just as terrified whenever it happens...maybe I'm naïve?! I took a look at the danish newspaper Politiken where I also read they should have captured the Washington sniper. Maybe Politiken will grant me a longlife subsription for mentioning them here, for I could really use it...I hate feeling left out from what's going on in the world! --- Ruth also showed me how to gain access to the three extra danish letter: æ,ø and å by altering the language under the keyboard setting in Windows. Now I got a little icon, so I quickly can swap between danish end english keyboard. How convenient...and how hidden that feature was! *** - | posted by Tommy on 9:55 AM ---ooo--- It occur to me, that I might have to put more emphasis on looks in EQ than I actually thought. Two incidents I experienced would suggest this: 1. Yesterday a Vah Shir (a race in EQ that looks like big cats) entered one of the rooms in HHK, of some reason looking bigger, carrying a HUGE weapon. The immidiate response was that everybody wanted to group with him - simply because he looked cool/impressive/powerful. I - as the leader of the group in the WR (Warrior Room) asked him, if he was looking for a group, but his response was a 'no'...much to a surprise for my fellow group members. 2. My second character Zaxaa (Lvl. 13 gnome Magician on Vazaelle Server) always gets funny and sometimes sexist remarks from the fellow players, but mostly others think she's darn cute. That's why I can manipulate almost anyone into doing almost anything for me. Once I actually got a Wizard to port to a city; just to buy me a spell I couldn't find myself. When he handed it over, he told me it was for free because I was so beautiful (!!!) --- By the way - I'm quitting the thought of getting a Dustcryer's Crystal Ball for now. The NPC (Non-Person Character) who drops it is simply too strong for me right now...but maybe in a couple of weeks. I could bye it, but they sell the item for around 700 pp (platinum pieces), which is A LOT for my poor enchanter! *** - | posted by Tommy on 12:38 AM ---ooo--- Thursday, October 24, 2002 I want a Dustcryer's Crystal Ball! 
*** - | posted by Tommy on 12:31 AM ---ooo--- I wonder if my merits in EQ should go in green or red...(now I changed it all into yellow). Well, today I leveled (finally) to 33 with my male Erudite enchanter, Zaxyen (Vazaelle Server). I am in High Hold Keep givving goblins a hard time. During my time there I've been in several groups, and I have been reckoned as one of the better leaders of groups. But today I had to quit (!) for the first time - I was in a group where everybody tried to lead all the time. I might say the leading a group doesn't require much normally - he/she is the one who is allowed to invited people in or kick them out of the group. In High Hold Keep (HHK) there's a little more to it though. The leader has to keep track of a waiting list for people who want to join the group. This is arisen from the fact that there's only room for three groups (a 6 persons), so lists can be long... Back to my group today - two players shouted for new members, invited whoever they felt like, and ran in and out the group for their alternate characters...which made it REALLY hard for me to keep track of anything. As leading also means inviting it came to a few discussion about who was invited when, and even my own group members yelled at me for not inviting what the group needed - but that's just how it is in HHK. You follow the 'rules' of the zone! No discussion - just play it fair! It all ended with me giving over the leadership to a poor 'green' player, who had no idea what he got himself into (sorry to Obigekonobi, that's what I think his name is). What happened next was the two players screaming to get leadership, and that's where I decided to camp (log out). I can't wait to move on, which I might do tomorrow - I'm planning on taking a sightseeing in The Commonlands, where I only have been once - then on to Lavastorm Mountains and finally do some levelling in Sol A (aka. Solusek's Eye). *** - | posted by Tommy on 12:22 AM ---ooo--- Wednesday, October 23, 2002 My thesis is comming along slowly, but OK...the work title is now "Social interactions in EverQuest", and it is supposed to deal with the different playertypes in EQ. My inspiration is Richard Bartles article: "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDs", where he deals with the different types of players in a MUD (Multi User Domain/Dungeon). His work is without question important, and is recognized as the first of it's kind, but...when I read it the first time, I couldn't help wondering if playerkilling (PK'ing) really is a definite playertype. I see it more as a behavior applicable to the other types. Explorers, socialisers and achievers all shows variations of imposing (playerkilling), and that is what I want to show - for starters. Looking at the table of interactions between the four types in Bartles study, it will collapse if I remove the imposers - so I have a great deal of mapping in EQ to do before i can establish a new diagram...if that's what I want to do... I'm SO greatful, that my advisor - Susana Tosca - supports me on this subject, since it will take some time before I have anything intelligent to say... These days I'm working my way through Jonas Heide Smiths thesis: "The Architectures of Trust" (pdf file), which should give me some clues to coorperation in the digital media. (At least he has HUGE list of litterature). Note to myself: Remember to make notes after each entry in the litt. list what they are about, and why I have them there. *** - | posted by Tommy on 2:14 PM ---ooo--- OK - now I've changed some of the template settings - altering colors to my own personal taste (yes, I love green) - which made me aware of my rusty HTML knowledge, and will move on to tell a little about my whereabouts in this country. I now live in Leeuwarden with my boyfriend, Richard. I met him online in the summer of '01, and after a lot of chats and phoning, we just had to meet, and now we plan on buying a dishwasher. Time flies, and I'm amazed that I got to this point in my life :-) Living in Leeuwarden is nice and the town is beautiful. But my biggest challenge is the dutch language. A lot do speak english, but are either too stubborn or too insecure to show me. Yesterday I decided to get a bank account, so I called one the largest banks in The Netherlands. After getting through the phone menu (in dutch), I finally got to talk to a living person, which in dutch answered my request with a "talk to your local department". Luckily I do understand a little dutch, but I got really furious about being treated like that - so Postbank...please be a little nicer to english speaking persons. I just want a bankaccount!!! *** - | posted by Tommy on 1:26 PM ---ooo--- It's now been a month and a half since I started my thesis with the work title: "Social Interactions/Playertypes in EverQuest". I couldn't get anything done in Copenhagen, so now I'm here in Leeuwarden at my boyfriends place, trying to get something done :-) My plan for this blog is to divide it in two - one for professional purposes, and one for private purposes. I do experience a lot up here in the northern part of the Netherlands, and I would hate myself for forgetting these first steps in trying to accomodate in a new culture (though not that different from Denmark), so this is where I am...new to thesis writing, new to dutch living, and new to blogging. My future post will be like this: My thesis entries will appear like this (#005500), my personal entries will appear in this color(#660000), and things from EQ in this color(#CC9900). *** - | posted by Tommy on 12:13 PM ---ooo--- |
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