Archive for October, 2008
Autumn 2008
Sindre is so excited
by my gift 
After my vacation early September in Spain, it was head on starting my second semester of my Master’s degree of computer science at the University of Oslo. Last semester I was on sick leave because of my Cochlea Implant-operation. It was both good to have something to do again, but it was tough to start studying again. Next to studies, I’m making graphics to computer games at Pong, a student union at the University of Oslo (Read my post here about Pong).
It’s a lake outside our home!
Weather was fine enough (as expected from living in Norway) except some days with extreme rain and thunder. The rain water flows down from Pilestredet/Bislett and fills up at the crossroad outside where Sindre lives, forming a lake. It’s fun watching people stepping in knee-deep water, the cars plowing their way and the tram having problems turning the intersection tracks under all the water.
I’m about to butcher a cake with Kim and Kristina
As October drew closer, so did my 25th birthday. Sindre made me a chocolate cake the day before, and then Kim & Kristina made me another chocolate cake at the end of the week. Thank god I love chocolate cake, we had chocolate cake remains for weeks! xD Following the “tradition” as of Kim and me the last few years, we put on silly childish party stuff while enjoying our freshly baked chocolate cake. 
Because I’ve practically lived with Sindre since June, we decided to “officially” move in together. At the end of November, I’m moving my stuff out of my dear apartment over the last few years and into Sindre’s apartment.
Magda-Lill, me and Janne
Four deaf people I (partly) know all celebrated 25 years this year joined in together and rented a whole pub for a night, celebrating 100 years. At October 24th, the Roxy bar in Oslo was filled with over a hundred specifically invited people, all deaf or hard of hearing. A friend of mine, Magda-Lill, who I went to primary school with and I met among others people we knew from our old school.
It’s snowing in October!
And so, the last days of October in Oslo was covered with snow. The winter is truly coming >.< Dammit!
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Unofficial sequel to Broken Sword II
Screenshot from
Broken Sword 2.5
When Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror (PC) was published in 1997, some german fans of the Broken Sword game series got the idea of making an unofficial sequel. They named themselves mindFactory and it took them no less than 8 years to develop and finish the game. Their unofficial sequel was released for free on September 28th and is called Broken Sword 2.5 (downloadable at their site). The game is a classic 2D point-and-click adventure game, following the steps of the first two Broken Sword games. The game has german voices, but luckily comes with english subtitles. The story takes place between The Smoking mirror and before the next official game, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, which was released in 2003.
Being interested in game development and game design I found it interesting to see what some “just some fans” could come up with. They have developed a complete game with great graphics (similar to the earliest Broken Sword games) and a great functional story. Definitely worth a try if you enjoy traditional point-and-click adventure games and don’t mind listening to german voices.
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Pong (gamemaking at UiO)
Pong, gamemaking at the University of Oslo
This semester, to my joy, Ping (Program, Information- and Networks-technological Group), a student union at the faculty of Informatics at the University of Oslo decided they wanted to gather students to create computer games. Cleverly, they named this group Pong. (It’s clever because Ping Pong is recognized as the very first (successfull) computer game ever created).
Some of Pong’s members.
Can you find me?
We gather once in the week at Ping’s premises, are randomly split into groups and have three weeks to come up with a game concept and create a computer game out of it. After three weeks, we are randomly split into new groups for another game. The games are programmed using the library Allegro in the programming language C. Most of us are informatics students, with expertise in different areas; programming, artmaking and sound engineering. I signed up for artmaking.
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50 reasons to date a geek
Being a geek myself, and having dated geeks, I really enjoyed reading 50 reasons to date a geek. 
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Game nostalgia: Oxyd
When I was just a little child, (luckily) my family was eager in buying personal computers in its early years. Many saturdays mornings was spent sitting in front of the computer in the living room, still wearing pajamas and poking around in MS-DOS and later on Windows 3.1. Yes, I was a geek already at the age 6, and I loved exploring the seemingly unlimited possibilities with new technology. Because I have a stern and harsh (German) father who wouldn’t have his kids waste their time playing silly computer games, there were only a few games available (because he could never find them! 
) Our old computer had Snake and Space Invaders, both in only 16 colors, playing on MS-DOS. So it was no surprise I was in awe when a friend of mine showed me Oxyd for the very first time. It was monochrome (black and white) but I was still amazed by the detailed graphics. My friend had the shareware-version of Oxyd on a floppy disc, and I remember I begged and begged and nagged to borrow it so I could install it on my family’s computer.
The original
monochrome Oxyd
The gameplay of Oxyd is simple. You control a marble with your mouse, and to solve a level you need to “open” boxes (touch them) and match all pairs of matching patterns. It’s like Memory. When you touch a specific type of box with your marble, the eventually previously opened box are closed if the pattern doesn’t match. If you successfully make a matching pair, they stay there until you have matched all pairs on the level. When you advance in level, there are different obstacles (some of them you can move around), larger landscapes, enemies, different kind of floors and puzzles you need to solve. Since the entire game is based on using only your mouse, you’ll need a steady hand and a good mouse!
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Jim Carrey imitating Caruso from CSI Miami
I’m actually just testing a new plugin that displays (and plays) youtube videos directly in the blog.
Jim Carrey making an excellent imitation of David Caruso from CSI Miami!
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Cutest game ever!
Screenshot from Winterbells
Go play Winterbells online.
Control a (cute) bunny and get as high as you can by jumping upwards on falling winter bells! Great time killer while winter approaches.
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My Tweets
Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please be so kind and #ff ollow this lovely girl from #Oslo, Norway. @acorncappelen2 weeks ago
@EXDE601E @googlereader thanks for telling! went a little crazy for a moment. @ifttt it is then1 month ago