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.

Is there any better way of finishing a weekend of partying than going fishing with your best friend? I don’t think so. But what pisses me off, is this; We went fishing at around 8pm, knowing that we would have a rather good chance of getting something. We get to the river, and there’s heap of activity. Myself, I’ve never seen the river sizzle with so much life. During the six hours we were there, we’ve seen at least 40 fish surfacing just to show they were there. But did we get any? No, I’m pretty sure the fish just swam right in front of us, looking at us and making fun of us. Damn bastards! The end result, what might possibly have been the last trip of the year with zero fish caught. Better luck next year is all I can say. Ah well, birthday boy. Time to get some well earned rest. And my thoughts go out to my friend Scott, I hope the hurricane Ivan dies out quickly so that he can get home to his girlfriend and spend some quality time with her. You hear that Ivan, stop being such an arse!