Sweet dreams

Most people think they have interesting dreams, but truth be told they don't and even the best of us is rubbish at retelling them. I've been fascinated by dreams for the longest of times. With a very good reason. Mine always plays out like a structured cinematic story. Unfortunately these are a fleeting events and easily forgotten figments of my imagination, that evaporates the moment I open my eyes. I have gained some control over them though and can force myself to wake up long enough to record pieces onto my phone. Even if they are very fragmented. The fun thing with dreams telling a story is that in never bored. Unfortunately it makes interpreting them rather difficult, even when keeping a dream journal. To put my point into perspective.

"Nuclear blast, badly survive turn into mutant, with cyber eye. We took out the gut with the rocket pack, whom was stopping the payload in the train. Got turned into a glowing at night one along with many others. We pretend to be normal when other people nearby. I get introduced to local leader in red. The other mutants knocks me out. Kill the leader and skins him. Then dress me up in his skin to become an imposter. This maze me a lot more durable and gave me a healing factor. Turning me into the post apocalyptic version of a socially awkward terminator. Whom the ex girlfriend of the rocket pack hero accidentally falls in love with. "

This is a shoddy, rough and mostly unedited draft of a dream I had recently. There is a cause and effect, a beginnig, a middle and an end. Though I did abruptly end the event. The interesting thing is that I could see more of I immediately went back to sleep. Regardless I plan to turn these snippets into plot elements in my stories one way or another. Too bad that most people will never listen and that I'm still quite bad at orally retelling a story, non the less I carry on with my plan.

As for the idea of analyzing the dream, I like a good story and lovely ladies and saw a cyanide and happiness sketch before bed. A hilariously awesome yet profoundly disturbing show, a true staple of internet entertainment.

On another note, October is coming and thusly it's time to prepare for inktober. Where I have a list with a word to draw every day.

Boxes with lootl

Boxes containing loot is a main stay in gaming, most adventures and in exploitation in general. I love loot, treasure and the chance I'd finding that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. However loot boxes in expensive full price games is not a very good thing. Seriously, people defend the practice? It like complaining about the plague, then hug the victim. Or something along the line of that. Regardless, a box players pay for with real money that contains a set of random items is gambling, raffle is a slightly less negative word. After all you do get a product, even if it's worthless junk. Unlike the classical one armed bandit, which will in most cases just take the money. At least a machine with a spinning wheel has an enforceable age limit. A game such as Overwatch has none what so ever, since the computer screen offer a lot of anonymity and the system will assume it's whomever owns the card that performed the transaction.

Regardless loot boxes is gambling, especially when I can get duplicates, something Overwatch fixed at least. Essentially young people and children will be exploited by the companies. Which will gladly make me and everyone else an addict, after all we want that sweet, sweet booty. The brain does this funny thing where we simply want more and more, until we want, then keep going. Luckily for me I do not have the patience for gambling and luck based mechanics. Then again, I'll gleefully indulge a good story from start to finish.

Before I ramble on too much. If I pay money for a box with random reward it's gambling. In a product sold to children, whom might end doing anything to get money to gamble away on virtual goods. Which might be bottom barrel trash.

A usual EA screwed up the system by exploiting it too much and now ruins it for all of us inspiring game developers. Loot boxes is a brillant way to earn money on any product I might sell. Just change skin color and I can increase the chance of getting cheap duplicates. Probably a better idea then my sinister plan of putting up a vending machine by a mall,  claim it's for charity and watch people gamble all their hard earned cash untill they sell their house and have to file for bankruptcy. But then Norway had to make it complicated, increase age to 18 and make the old insert coin system illegal.

Zaceron

Game concept ideas

Three random game ideas I share for free, since I will never use them and most game developers simply scoff at these ideas, yet they have merits. One thing in quite capable of is to make a sensible setting. Enjoy.

Men turns into monsters and in the beginning everyone has cellular phones with power. Which keeps dying one by one, as the batteries runs dry. The protagonist has an app that tracks nearby signals as dots on a radar. Thus the difficulty ramps up every day, when a phone dies. Which also makes it an integral part of finding survivors, since they would quite much like to keep their phones charged. To throw players for a loop, include a monster that holds a charge, that shows up on the sensor.

A reality show that covers an apocalyptic scenario. Picture this; USA had a catastrophe of biblical proportions, one disaster so bad that most of the country behind its protective border wall is now a desolate wasteland. The clue however is that the rest of the world and the continent is just fine. The American survivors only think the world has ended. Thusly it was a joint Medici project that decided to keep them in the shadows, while capitalizing on their predicament. By having invisible drones and cameras all over. It's the one unscripted reality show, where anything can happen, as man struggle to survive in the world that's left behind. A glorious idea indeed.

Lastly a driving simulator to teach car handling and traffic scenario. It takes place in a tranquil street with an intersection and various scenarios. The clue however is that it uses as many realistic physics as possible. Such as deformation of the vehicle and rag doll reactions. I simply love how it feels to drive in Gran Turismo, but I hate the bumper car feel whenever I hit something. The idea is to teach responsibility, careful driving and consequences in a controlled scenario, whilst giving the player the ability to have fun.

Something most educational games fails to do. There are only two such game series I recall that ever succeeded at this venue. Typing of the dead, where each enemy has a word in front and when that word is typed correctly the zombie die.

The other game is Oregon Trail, where you to travel across America in a oxen pulled wagon, with the family along for the ride.

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Cosplay plans and so much more

Practical plans, probable plans, perfect plans being planned and practiced. I could probably put in more phrases that starts with p, but m I've had my fun.

Essentially I'm a man with a plan, several in fact, thus I feel that I must inform whom ever follows me about them. It feels ingenious to not to that.

https://youtu.be/Gu1piP2jE5U

Firstly I'm dabbling with archery, since I at long last got my replacement arrows. I have a fairly decent long bow, that's just about powerful enough to hit a target about 50 meters away, which depends entirely on my technique and strenght. So far I miss a lot and you're more than welcome to follow my process on YouTube. After all I do try to record every session. I also use it as a tool to practice editing, manual focus and setting up cinematic shots. If nothing else I can hit the broadside of a barn and fire one arrow roughly every three seconds it seems.
However my target leaves a lot to be desired, not to mention the arrow eating environment surrounding the straw bunt. Because that is exactly what it is, long grass I got from the other side of the  road, I wrapped in rope and twisted into a spiral.


My second plan is to craft a magic staff, the kind which is seen in the awesome game dragons dogma. This magical foci is a long gnarly staff, with a hand on top,  covered in red veins, with a shiny crystal in the palm. I will mostly be using foam for that.





Thirdly I will make myself a red mage costume. The most awesome looking and possible most iconic Final Fantasy archetype out there. Dressed in red, with a snazzy feathered hat, wielding both rapier and wand with ease. The style will also fit within the parameters set by a larp I'm participating in. Where I will be the ghost of a dead 1800 Swedish noble.



My forth plan is to finish Wu Kong, yes I'm still working on it and just finished the tail. Which I hand knitted from furry  brown yarn and forced a metal wire into.  As usual I find much of the minor materials online, since I live far from town and very few of any local business within Norway sells what I seek.


My fifth plan is to write a book that takes place within a game I've designed and one that covers the eventsn of a magical school. Instead of it being from the angle of a starry eyed students, it will be seen from a teachers perspective. Not even I know how the plot will go, but I have started to write it. Which is by far more healthy than skimming the internet all day. Plus it gives me a break from my enthusiastic way of absorbing games all day and is by far better than YouTube drama.

A sixth plan is taking shape as well. I will compose a song about a conspiracy. But that is all the details I will divulge.

As usual I have a perverted patron for more lewd works of art and if you need anything drawn, be it a fantasy, twitch panels, a logo or a thumb nail. Just give me a heads up, I'm a professional artist after all.

Sins of a father

Curses I got distracted again. There has just been so busy tearing my lot down, in order to build up a fantastic garden on behest of my new neighbors. My father is a good lesson in how a brilliant plan turns to carp, when you halfass it and then proceed to make excuses about time and money. If you have the time to start a building project, you have the time to finish it. Especially when it will generate the money needed. Then again that seems to be his modus operandi, go overboard and never pull trough. Which brings me to the sickeningly hot summer we've got here in land of the nords. I like Sun, I like bading, but it is a terrible temperature to work under. Blistering hot sun, with the sweat running down my face full time, lovely. The hot weather unfortunately make the environment into a fire hazard, where a tiny spark can cause a firestorm.
Regardless, I've been busy with tearing down an dingy old hut, plank by plank and dumping the content into a container. The structure was originally intended to be a chicken coup and for a while it was. We had at least fifteen of them, five ducks and nine noisy peacocks. Until a pesky mink got to them and all slaughtered the whole lot aside from the peacocks whom got released into the wild. Where they was free to annoy everyone with their nasal screams. I have no idea what bird shrieks are called, because it is not chirping. I was not a witness to the massacre though, I was still in China at that point in time. Then again it was interesting to hear what they had to say when I got back. Because I had a wonderful time, unlike my unfaithful father whom knocked up an ex druggie whilst being married. Ingesting times indeed. Anyhow, the building is going down and that takes time and energy I rather use on props and finishing my cosplay. After all, that is my plan. The structure was made of anything he could get his grubby hands on, any plank would do. Therefore I had to bring a sledgehammer, crowbar and a circular saw to the demolition party. I should record more of these things I suppose.

Zaceron

Better NERF it

Better NERF it, both kids and adults enjoy practically harmless foam darts. If not, it's because they've yet to try one. I have never paid a dine in my life for one and now I have an armory of at least thirty ones. Some consider them a waste of space and resources. I see it as a business adventure, two Mondays this summer I was hired to host a small NERF war for around fifteen trigger happy kids.

If you have no idea what a NERF gun is. Either do an internet search or read my short explanation. Because redundant, redundancy is how I roll.

Its a spring loaded or electronic plastic gun that fires small harmless foam darts at low speeds and at stupidly short ranges. They also comes with a slew of useless accessories. The guns ranges from revolvers to rifles and many, many weird ones in between. Its perfectly safe and simple to use and due to being brightly coloured, they will not trigger the police. Unless your neighbor is a total and utterly social reject. Every neighborhood has one of those pesky people, full of hate and spite. Whom gladly spoil everyone's fun, because they are anger and bitter.

I took over responsibility for a cosplay club known as black, because fun with acronyms. Anyhow, earlier this year we had to pack up and move to a new and improved location. Thusly I took over responsibility to store the armory at my place. The previous person who had the club used a big part of the budget to buy a big bulk of NERF guns. The company behind the product line has some very odd ones that's for sure.

NERF guns can be nodded to heck and back, painted, decorated and customized in any imaginable way. Usually it's possible to dismantle them also. I gleefully threw away the junk parts and the problematic extension pieces through. As an example, here is my Warhammer 40k bolt pistol. Which can still shoot and look snazzy at the same time.

Never the less, my plan is to host various events and rent my services to various arrangements. Such as bachelor parties. Hell even the county employees enjoy it every now and then, when they host an office party.

So yeah, two happy  hours of chaos. Split the children into two groups send them to each side of the map and watch the team death match unfold. To spice it up, when shot, you retreat and count to fifteen. Some would say this is a terrible idea. What I say is, it works and everyone gets behind it. After all two hours is a very, very short time and it's an easy rule to follow.
Ironically and annoyingly enough, there was one accident, a child shot another one by accident in the eye at close range when we were done. All fun and games until someone loses an eye.

Carrying a big bag of guns is an interesting experience for sure, have a good one.

Zaceron

Places to see in Bergen

Bring one, bring two and maybe three, because excitement awaits. Take a pleasant ride with Bergen bicycle tours. A most interesting way to see the city is to ride in bike with a sofa on the back. The rickshaw also got protection from bad weather and can take you all the way up to Fløyen. A most beautiful local mountain, with an unparalleled view. Why not take a ride over to Nordnes, where there is a fantastic park, an aquarium and a place to swim as well.

Old Bergen is also a must see, a place where an old cozy street is kept intact.
The fish market is distinctively Bergen as well, where a vibrant display of fish and food is sold.

Ulriken is the tallest mountain in Bergen, however that one is not part of the cycle tour, but it's worth mentioning. The fast and smooth way to reach the roof over Bergen is to ride the cable car. Trust me 380 meters is tricky when going straight on foot. The view is worth the hassle. Just avoid days with a lot of wind, the ride might just be closed.
I worked there once and a gale will rock the ride badly. Especially side winds. Foggy days is also something to look out for. People are known to get lost there.


A minor complications, do not worry they will eventually send a rescue party.
That being said, there is a magnificent
 food serving establishment on top and a souvenir kiosk. The view from the top is also breath taking.

Waking trough the neighbor hood residing in the hill side is also an unforgettable experience. Small cocked paths takes any traveler trough a piece of history and peace of mind. The white wooden houses has remained mostly untouched. It's one of the calm places in town.

Someone went against the white house norm and painted their house pink. Needless to say, they got roasted on an open fire.

Drage fjellet (dragon mountain.) Is less known amongst travelers, but the hill as a big bountiful park to the east. A small cathedral in the middle and a cloister like building to the west and more cozy houses. The botanical garden is up there as well. A big lot with plants from all over the world, next to a snazzy history museum with a fine facade. The houses on the hill has an unique style with lavish details not found elsewhere.

All in all Bergen is a brilliant, beautiful town with small charming buildings, broken up by modern architecture.

Njål Sand
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