Adulthood – what the hell happened?

I’ve always described myself as a kid. A boy. This is an image I’d like to keep, but over the last few years I’ve gradually grown up and started entering adulthood. This scares me, a lot. I know this is a little early to enter a mid-life crisis, but on the other hand, is it? As I’m writing this I am eighteen (and a half) years old. This is probably one fourth of my life already. I don’t expect living till I’m over 80. One fourth of my life already passed by. Only 60 more to go.

I had a terrible time the weeks before I turned eighteen. Eighteen is the year we finally get all the rights every other human gets in Norway. It is the age that defines our adulthood. I had been looking forward to being able to buy alcohol myself, but this also reminded me that I now had to take more responsibility. It sucks.

I’ve had this feeling since I was twelve. A constant fear of growing up. I remember telling my mom that I would never want to grow up. I also said that I was never going to move out of my parents’ house, something I regret now. This emotion stayed. Last year, when I was seventeen I had a part time job selling candy in a stand. I had a good time making people of all ages happy. Now this little girl and her mom was going to pay for their bag of candy. Then the mom told the girl to “give the man the money”. Man? Where did that come from? I was only seventeen for crying out loud!

I would always make fun of adults and their conversations with old friends. There were two topics they’d always talk about. “What have you been up to lately?” and the old talk about the weather. I thought it was silly that two grown ups couldn’t talk about anything slightly more interesting than the weather. And now I suffer the same curse. Every time I meet an old acquaintance I have to suffer through the same boring conversation. I could make an adjective story out of it. “Hi, [adjective] to meet you. I’m . Still doing the same old [adjective]. The weather is [adjective] today. [adjective]bye.”

If this is how it is to grow up, I don’t want to be a part of it. My nightmare from my childhood have started to become real, and I’m trapped in it. Makes me sad.

Age of Awesome

I’ve been a little occupied the last month. Not only have I had my share of exams (thankfully that’s over), but I also got the new MMORPG from the Norwegian developer, Funcom. Age of Conan is based on the Conan franchise originally created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, and later continued in countless graphical novelles over the years. Even a movie was made in 1984 featuring Arnold Swarzenegger.

The Conan franchise is an epic story about Conan the Cimmerian and his adventures in the ancient world, Hyboria. In Age of Conan, Conan have become the king of Aquelonia, the most successful country in Hyboria. Now the story is about the players, and their adventures through the magical world.

What makes Age of Conan distinguish itself from other MMORPGs is the different combat mechanics used in the game. Traditionally the genre have used a static turn-based system for their melee combat. This system should be known to everybody who have been playing any MMORPG the last ten years, or even other RPGs like the Baldur’s Gate series. Age of Conan on the other hand uses a more dynamic system where the player can avoid attacks, and attack in real time.

Putting that aside there are more awesome things to see in the game. Hyboria is an exiting world with a lot of fantastic areas to visit. Riding around on my totally awesome rhino and admiring the sights is part of what makes me want to go back to the game. Like every other MMORPG it is nice to be part of a community and stuff like that.

If you want to contact me in-game my character’s name is Gusj and I’m on the pvp server “Soulstorm”. And yes, the fantastic fanart of the game is drawn by me, on the back of an envelope. I am actually thinking of making a web comic based on the game, at least a few strips. This is some really rough drawings of my character.

Christians preparing for a possible “first contact”

There is no doubt that Christianity still has a tight grip on the world. this would probably explode though if we suddenly were contacted by extraterrestrials. Therefore Christian theologians have started to embrace the idea of alien lifeforms. The Vatican chief astronomer , Gabriel Funes, was recently interviewed in the newsletter of the Vatican Obervatory (translated here). The interview pointed out a interesting theory of both extraterrestrials and the idea of creation.

Funes is no conservative and accept the Big Bang theory, and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Scientists believe there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe, each with 100 billion stars in it. With this huge amount of space it is pretty naive to think that only one planet have developed life. Funes still believes the universe is created by God, and maybe that other sentient beings know of him. Christianity have been waiting for Jesus to reappear for nearly 2000 years now, according to Funes theories this could already have happened on the alien worlds. Therefore there is no reason to try to convert them. If they should appear and not have a religion, the Church will automatically assume they already got redemption and live under Gods grace.

These ideas may seem controversal to the Christian teachings, but it is important for the church to be open minded to this. Personally I would love to see religions explode when we finally meet aliens for the first time, but in the meantime we can all have some fun watching them struggle.

And maybe this will lead to a confrontation with space Jesus.

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Rant about exams and stuff

It is really hot outside now. And where am I? I am sitting by my computer, not only writing a blog-post, but preparing for the big exam coming up this Monday. My head could explode from all the information I am forcing into it at the moment. Or – not at this moment since I am really publishing information rather than absorbing it, but I guess it is just my way of releasing the pressure. That could be a toilet joke, not intended, but I still noticed it myself. Oh, and for your information, that tiny picture is to show off how awesome it is outside when I don’t have time to be there.

Guess this is a perfect way to spend the night of Friday the 13th. At least I can prepare for an exam rather than actually having it today. The only downside is that most of my weekend will be dedicated to this (exam, not blogging). Another upside though is that this is the last school-related thing I have to do till the end of summer.

Now the end of the vacation will be an exiting time for me. I will finally move out of my old home, and maybe get an appartment in a whole new city. Now that is something to look forward to. This summer marks the end of an era with me being a normal pupil, yup, I am starting my real studies in the autumn. It should be a life-changing point of my life. Too bad this also means I have to embrace adulthood soon. That will probably be hard since I have always been the childish type who avoid responsibility at all cost. Heck, I am blogging during my exam preparations, I have to discipline myself.

So what to do then? The obvious answer is to drink a lot of coffee, and I can really say that is the main thing keeping me going through this. I am a smalltime coffeine addict, and I am proud of it. But really, half the reason I drink the beverage is because of the amazing taste. If I just wanted coffeine I could drink “Burn” or “Battery”, or whatever the kids are on these days. Coffe for me, my true love. Tue bad it makes me have to pee every ten minutes.