On Monday I returned from The Gathering slightly tired, and slightly stressed. The day started with me waking up at 11:51am, with my train departing at 12:08pm. Luckily, Vikingskipet is very close to the train station, and my friend Chr|s was awake and offered me to drive me to the station. I arrived at the station 12:02pm, with six minutes to spare, so I was able to buy myself something to drink and eat. Nothing like a quick news stand breakfast :P.

The whole event was finished with a nice dinner served in the late hours of Sunday, which really did wonders. After a nice meal, we continued with a few speeches and patting ourselves on the back for the great job we had done during easter. The party was a success, and the people attending were mostly greatly satisfied. With the feedback we got we were really, really pleased. Of course, a dinner was not enough so we had to end the whole thing with a great party. I can promise you, there is nothing like a bunch of nerds tossing down alcohol like there is no tomorrow. There is bound to be a few events that makes you smile, and this party was no exception. But I just can’t deny that it was a good end to an eventful week. It’s been one of my best parties ever, and the people I worked with were all splendid people.

I spoke today with one of my fellow crew members, and I came to terms with something I’ve known for ages. Coming back from The Gathering and adjusting back to real life is a process, a process that can take days. Both me and her had spent most of our days doing absolutely nothing than sitting in front of our computers, one might even go as far as say we were quite indifferent to our surroundings. The whole event is quite intense on your senses, and it takes time to get back to the “real world”. I’m starting to come back well, and I think I might be able to get back out into the sun and back into town to meet people again. By all means, being in the crowd that is at the party is not in any way negative, but I got to admit that it’s rather good to just spend time with yourself after a week in the ship. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with my social antennas.

With the success of this years event, and the people I’ve met I can’t wait to do it again. A huge thanks goes out to my crew, info:desk which I was a part of. It was a pleasure and honour working with you all. And a huge hug goes out to my sitting-right-next-to-me-partner, Christine. Her smiles and being lightened up my day.

I arrived two days ago in Vikingskipet to attend a computer party as crew, and up until now it’s been really busy with lots and lots to do. Of course, organizing such a party of this size, with well over 5000 people attending there’s a lot of tasks to be done. Not only do we need to set up well over 400 Ethernet switches to make the network, but there’s also the issue of attendee security, attendee well being and information flow and organizing of event competitions. Everything is well under way, and as I write this I sit up on the tribunes looking out over the hall. It’s quite the sight, with over 5000 computer screens lighting up the horizon.

You just gotta be here to fully understand and appreciate the atmosphere and ambiance that construct the feeling of being here. But you can get a sneak peek of how it is, from directly to the left of where I am sitting currently. There’s an expression that goes along the lines of; “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but in this case it really doesn’t. Seeing as this hall is historic, even though just recently being used as a Olympic hall under the winter Olympics in 1994, it kinda adds to make the experience even grander. There’s something special with the sound that 5000 people, 5000 computers and almost just as many sound systems make. You just gotta be here to experience it for yourself.

As for the people attending, it’s all types of personalities. We’ve got people in all ages, both sexes, people from all around Norway as well as the rest of Scandinavia. But we even get more exotic attendees, as we have people from the rest of Europe and even visitors coming from all the way from the United States. The Gathering might not be the largest computer party in the world, but I can bet you that it is the one with the most atmosphere. I will try my best to keep you up to date. I wish you all the best for the rest of the Easter holidays.

As some of you may know, I’m attending as crew at a large computer party in Norway this easter called The Gathering. I just arrived after a two hour train trip, which was spent on IRC and sending off a few e-mails using my cell phone over GPRS. The party has almost 5000 people attending, and a good 200 people responsible for making the party happen. In just under 24 hours, the Vikingship will start to fill up with enthusiastic computer nerds of all ages, to attend the party for five full days. It will be a party filled with all types of different elements, that make up the computer scene as we know it.

You will have professional gaming tournaments, music competitions and the genre I love the most; demo making. For those of you that don’t know what demo coding is, I can sum it up with this definition. Think of a music video, think of computers games and 3D environments, add those two together and you have yourself a demo. A demo is a program that displays lovely graphics, stretched to the extremes of what is possible with todays technology added with catch, groovy music tracks. It’s all meant to entertain, and to amaze you of what can be done with today’s 3D accelerator cards.

Of course, an event of this size does attract quite a few people with vast computer knowledge, so the whole hall sizzles with people with good know how. For those that are interested, it’s a great chance to get to learn new stuff and to expand your social network. And this is the greatest aspect of the event itself, the chance to meet up with likely spirited people that love the same stuff that you do. And of course, with the way the internet works, you actually get to meet those people you chat with online that live too far away from you to meet on a regular basis. An event like this erases the borders that you have on a day to day basis. It’s just great to be with people that love the same stuff as you do, namely computers! It’s gonna be a great five days and I can’t wait to keep you up to date. And here’s a sneak peek of how the hall looks, just to get a feel of how it is.