Category Archives: Rambling

I forgot to mention it in the last post, but we had a surprise party for Enoch a few weeks ago. I was a bit late since I was working and also went to buy some snacks for the party, and I ended up going to the apartment when almost everyone else were actually hiding in the backyard to surprise Enoch. When I was to go down, I was almost spotted by Enoch who was on his way up with the elevator! Luckily I figured that since the elevator was taking such a long time to arrive right after I took it, someone must be on it. So I went down to the lower floor to take the elevator from there instead. From there I could hear Enoch getting out of the elevator and Elin greeting him when he went inside the apartment. I then went down to the others, who called him up and asked him to look out of the window, to see everyone standing there!

Enoch’s birthday cakes!

We didn’t really do anything in particular at the party, just played a bit Alias and ate and chatted. Never got around to play mafia or watch any movies either. But it was fun anyhows!

During the Easter week I went to two cities. First I went to Stavanger to visit some friends there, since Anna was going there in Easter to visit Man Jai, and asked me to come join too. Most of the time I was just staying at Elisa/John/Janey/Cecilie’s house, talking and playing card games with my friends, watching TV and eating. It was nice seeing people again and chatting with them!

Then I went back to Oslo, where my parents had a birthday party for my mother with lots of their friends. Bought her a bath pillow in Stavanger as a birthday gift, since her previous one was leaking air. Ate lots of great food!

After that I went to Stockholm for the NCCC Easter (youth) camp. I enjoyed the camp and talking to my friends there, and I also met pastor Dick Lee that I went on a church internship with about ten years ago! Tried to find photos from the internship trip that I had, but I couldn’t find any, I guess I didn’t take any photos during that trip? Huh…

Random mugger in the background

Unfortunately I was kind of sick during camp so I spent a lot of time in bed instead of talking more with people… The camp is too short! By the time we got "warmed up", the camp was over… I do feel reminded about how God has answered a bunch of my prayers!

Anyhows, Portal 2 came out during Easter! I played a bit before going to Easter Camp, and finished the rest of it once I got back from the camp. It truly is an excellent game with an interesting and well-written story, even though it’s basically a puzzle game made with a first-person shooter engine! And the game is also quite short, though longer than the first Portal game. I want to try the two-player coop mode, but as far as I understood it that would require my brother (or some other person) to buy another copy of the game. Hmm, I guess I’ll check if anyone else has the game…

J. K. Simmons is hilarious as Cave Johnson in the game, who sounds pretty much like J. Jonah Jameson in Spiderman, only caring about his own goals and totally disregarding other people’s wellbeing. Wheatley is also funny and likeable, though it’s kind of sad what happens to him. I won’t spoil it for you though. You should play this game if you like puzzle solving and funny dialogue! Unless you think it’s too expensive for a short game. According to Steam, I finished the game in only 6 hours. I guess it’d be longer if I tried to get all the achievements, and also if I get around to play the co-op mode.

In other news I’ve been home from work after Easter because of being sick. Been in bed almost all the time, except when doing stuff on the computer. But I got some medicine now, so hopefully I’ll get better soon!

In the last weeks of January I managed to play through Dead Space on the iPad, Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii and Dead Space 2 on the PC, and I feel like I enjoyed all of the games. While the games might not be for everybody, and some people might find the story predictable and maybe clichéd, I think that the gameplay and way the story is told really makes these games. When playing Dead Space 2 it also felt a lot more like Bioshock (both 1 and 2) than the first Dead Space, because in Dead Space 2 you are wandering around in a lot more varied environment, instead of just on the same spaceship. Especially when walking through the apartment complex and entering peoples’ homes, seeing how they were messed up by the hostile attacks, gave some déjà vu feeling to certain locations in the Bioshock games. The intro scene in Dead Space 2 is also quite cinematic, with the main character having to run away from the enemies without any kind of weapon, and seeing them attack all the people around him.

By the way, did I mention that I bought the collector’s edition of Dead Space 2? Not because I really like to collect things, but since I enjoyed the games, I thought I’d support the game company just a little bit more. I did buy the PC version because it was cheaper than the collector’s edition for the XBox 360 (and PS3) though.

Unfortunately I hear that the expansion/DLC Dead Space 2: Severed won’t be released for the PC version, which really sucks… I hope they change their mind, but if not, I guess I’ll consider getting the XBox 360 version when Severed is released, maybe borrowing it from a friend or so if possible. (Though I don’t really know so many friends with XBox 360.)

This week I went to Venice with my brother and some other friends, it was quite fun! We mostly walked randomly around and ate pasta. We also took a gondola ride, went to watch some glassblowers work, walked past a million masks and glasses souvenir shops. Seriously, it’s like the whole city only has souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants, and only a handful normal shops for people who live there!

I wanted to try more italian gelato, I only had it once. But I got sick on Wednesday so I tried to avoid it. Oh well… I’m thinking of getting an italian ice cream recipe book and start using my ice cream machine again.

I should be sleeping more since I’m still slightly sick, so I think I’ll head to bed a bit more now. Oh yeah, I just beat Sam & Max: The Penal Zone (Season 3 Episode 1) on the iPad. It’s a funny game, but the game engine was poorly ported, so it was just too buggy! So I recommend getting it for the PC or so instead. I might buy season 2 too, which I haven’t played yet either.