CounterStrike II

I don't get it, but somehow I'm very popular in CounterStrike.

As I wrote, me and half a dozen fellow students play CounterStrike on the schools LAN on occasion. I allways choose Redge as my nickname. I'm still what is referred to as a NOOB, a newbie, but somehow people seem to enjoy it when I'm playing. The other day I had one lesson at the second of three periods. I played for a period, went to class, and came back the third period. One guy remarked they had missed Redge.

That may seem not so signifacnt to most people, but being popular isn't exactly something I'm familiar with. Since first grade (that's 9th grade if you include primary school), I've been picked at more than most classmates. Things started to clear up after a few years, around the 3rd or 4th grade, especially because of a little paper I put out about ten times a year with some of my classmates. But still, I never made it to being just 'one of the guys'. in my 5th year I failed, and got placed in my current clase. There was a world of difference. While my old class had consisted of jocks, bullies and overall very pberal people, my new class was relaxed, hung-back. I already had a reputation in the school, so most of them already new me. Since then I've made some new friendships. Now all of the sudden I'm mister Popular.

I can't figure out why either. I'm still pretty bad at CS, and get shot a lot. I'm not the worst player of the group anymore, but I'm still at the bottom of the list. Regardless of this, every time I manage to make an exceptional kill (and since they are so infrequent, most of my kills are), people will be cheering Redge on. Maybe it's an unorthodox style of playing, or something to do with my school reputation. I really don't get it. But I don't have to. i think I'm just gonna enjoy being, for the first time in my live, popular...

Later,

Redge

Homework

My school has never, with the single exception of Math, been mentally challenging. This comes to show in the way I do my homework. Usualy I don't even bother, but read an interesting book or magazine in class instead.

The other day however, my Physics teacher kept telling me to do some excersises. It was really quite anoying. So, I did all the excersises for the entire semester in the weekend. You should have seen the look on my teachers face when he asked once again how far I was with my excersises, and I cassualy informed him I was done for the next few weeks.

CounterStrike

Lately I've been spending way too much time on school playing CounterStrike with my fellow students. We play it through our school LAN. I'm not exactly what you'd call "good" at it, but it's fun anyway. On the upside, whenever I make a kill, people will be cheering me on, since it happens so infrequentely. I'd play it at home, but I don't have a working registration code. And besides, it's way more fun if you only play it part of the time.

Runes (Futhark)

I've been reading up on the subject of Ancient Runes. It's Alfabet is called Futhark, after the first letters, like the word alfabet is named after alfa and beta. In order these letters are Fehu Uruz Thurisaz Ansuz Raido and Kenaz.

The Norsh considered the Rune writing to be holy, a knowledge givven to man by Odin, the chief god, who had to offer himself to the world tree of Yggdrasil to get them.

I think I'll make my own set of runes, and try some half-baked prediction of the future. The book said the best time to make new runes would be at the end of winter, so I'll wait with making them for a while... I'll report back when I make them.

New Assignement on A Call to Duty

Well, I've been reassigned to the position of EO (that's Engineering Officer) on the U.S.S. Broadsword in the Star trek RPG A Call to Duty. Feel free to look in or drop by. If you're in A Call to Duty too, or know someone who is, feel free to drop a note here.

Games

This Saturday, had you called, you'd have found me busy. I spend the afternoon playing a game of Diplomacy with some friends and classmates.

If you don't know Diplomacy (that'd be a shame), see here.

I played as Austria, and early on I allied with Russia, played by a first-timer. We picked on Turkey together, with the support of the rest of the board. Even though it was his fifth time playing Turkey, he never made it past Bulgaria before we pushed him back. In 1905 we had taken Turkey, and he was down to one fleet by holding one supply center in Russia (Russia was a beginner, as I said).

England got Skandinavia, and even made it to St. Petersburg. Together with France and some help from England, we completely destroyed Germany. France made a crucial mistake, and the retreating German forces took France. In the end it was us against England. Then Russia backstabbed me and allied with England. They won in the same (fall)turn.

After that we played a few other games, such as poker and some weird game where you make up the rules yourself. We started at 13:00 and the last ones left at 22:00. We agreed to get together some time next week for a game of D&D.

This was the first time my classmates came to my home. My mom and sister commented that bfore that they thought me the only nerd, but now they saw, as I had told them all along, that Nerds are everywhere!

Later,

Redge.

Bussiness Card

I figured out a new trick: in stead of ordering the card I designed at Vistaprint, which would cost me money, I simply saved the image. now I can place it at the bottom of my e-mails, forums, sites, etc.. And here it is:

School play - Opening scene

I'm writing a play for a schoolfestival in January. It's going to be a comedy, about a murder on our school, and two students having to solve it, like a Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes mystery. I had thought about throwing in as many stereotypes and clichés as I can: "Music and Archetypes" as title. Here's the first scene I had imagined, let me know what you think.

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We've seen a black and white movie of the killing taking place, but we didn't see the murederer. The light goes on on the podium and reveals the body lying in the center, with it's head to the audience. Music: The opening of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but in stead of the announcer announcing Emerson and Co. it tells the names of the detectives.

The detectives stroll on the stage, dressed up like the Blues Brothers, with dark sunglasses on. One is slightly tall, the other slightly short. They come up on the body. The tall one stands by while the small one comes up on the body's behind. He (seemingly) reaches in the body's ass and pulls out all kinds of things: rope, an umbrella, whatever. Each time, the tall detective shakes his head. The music works up to a climax, the small detective pulls out a piece of paper, hands it to the tall one. He takes a look, the music drops, and the tall detective says: "That's it!" The music ends with a big final chord of the brass section, the lights go out, end scene.

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Any suggestions, comments?

Sharing a Bathroom

My sister, Anna, and I, share a floor of our home, on the other side of the house from the rest of my family. On the floow is a storage space, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Or rather a toilet with a sink and a mirror.

Now the thing about my sister (aside from a million other things), is that she isn't the most hygenic person. Cleaning the toilet is mostly my chore, since she'll never do it. That isn't the worst however. She has a nack for using all the toiletpaper, and not get another roll from downstairs. We only have two toilets at home, and the other is on the other side from the house.

Besides that, she isn't a very good roommate either. She's always burrowing things from my room without asking. I'm sure you know the idea.

So anyone in Holland who wants to get a rommate: beware of Anna van der Meulen!

Enough trahing on my family. Later!

Redge

Cancer, aids, war and famine

I kno this is gonna sound harsh, and it is, but it is being realistic. People have a nack for sticking their necks in the sand when they ecounter problems they can't solve or even fathom. "Live and let live." people say. People who say that live in a romanticised dreamworld, naief of the harsh world that is nature and evolution.

Today I saw an add from Netherlands' cancer foundation. It encourages people to donate money, promising to find a cure for cancer. I saw that and thought: even if you could find a cure, why should you use it? Think about it: the Earth is overpopulated as it is, their isn't enough room, food, resources, etc.. If we were to take cancer, and it's colleges war, aids and famine away, imagine what would happen! A month or two ago, I heard a medical professor proclaim that in a century, we'll all be living to be 200. There is no way in hell we can cope with that if thousands of people din't die every day.

If at this point you want to comment on this post and tell me what an inhuman bastard I am, save yourself the trouble. If you want to debate this point of view, go ahead and sound out.

Later,

Redge

Winnie the Pooh

Today it hit me: Winnie the Pooh is a metafoor for how a child sees adults and the world. (Since I only know the Dutch names, I'll add a short desciption.)

Ioor (the donkey)
This constantly depressed animal is a very prominent part of how children see adults. Adults are boring, they don't know how to have fun. Ironically, this view isn't so far off these days. Far to many people are depressed...

Konijn (the rabit)
Stuborn, self-centered. He seems to make up the rules as he goes along. Which fits perfectly. How many times as a kid have you asked your parents: "Why is this?" or "Why is that?" or "Why can't I..." and the answer was: "Because." parents don't have good reasons for their petty rules, they just make them up to get you down.

Uil (owl)
He pretends to himself and the others to be very wise, which in fact he isn't. Keeping up appearances, and pretending to know everything. Typical!

Graver (the gofer)
Ambitious, hasty, always busy. A view that didn't come up untill the nineties, but today's parents are always busy, always working, working on their carreer. They don't have time to spare to live, and enjoy the good things in life.

Winnie and Knorretje (piglet)
These guys, best friends, repressend children. You have your two types of children, represented by these animals. Children see a whole new, big, wide world out there and they approach it in two ways: innocent, in wonder, optimistic (Winnie) or timid (piglet).

Riddle I

When I'm in an English class (in Netherlands), and once again I've already finished the work and get bored, I write riddles. I'll post them here, and anyone who knows the answer, can let the rest of the world know by posting it with the comments.

Okay, y'all ready? Here's number one:

My center moves and hits my rim,
my body shakes from low to high,
to send a signal, clear or dim.
So tell me: what am I?

Soldat

This is such a kickass game! If you're in to light, old platform games, this platform shooter is for you! It has a multiplayer option, so anyone who wants to measure his Soldat skills against mine can give me a call. So far I've played it with Jolle and Boudewijn, who are both better at it than me.

I'll let you in on a little secret: I have absolutely no reflexes. I make up for this character flaw by the fact that in tense situation and emergencies, when everyone else flips, I stay cool.

Memory Alpha

This is where I spend most of my time. Go ahead, take a look. Even if you aren't a Star Trek fan (then what are you doing here?), it's still very impressive. The notion first arose with Wikipedia, and now I have my own wiki, running on the same software: Mediawiki.

I don't know what alures me so much about this site, but I think it is because it is one of the few subjects I know just about everything about, and the concept and my work there makes me feel needed. After all, if I wasnt there to help them, Memory Alpha would probably collapse! ;)

Don't be surprised if I am going to be posting a lot about my work on this site, since it is my main concern. Of the aprox. 5 hours a day I spend on the net, at least 4 are on this site.

Not that my in depth knowledge of Star Trek is so extensive. There are people there who spend hours, pouring over wide CG shots and listing the ships present in it. people wo will study every minute detail, and can call up info on every episode ever made. My work is far more modest. I help out with correcting style, spelling and the workings of the wiki itself. The Deletion Archive, for example, was first conceived by a sysop. But since then, I have been the only user to create, use, edit, maintain, etc. this page. I guess archiving is in my nature.

Overall, I like this site and what I can do here. I like it so much, that I'm still spending time here now wen I should be doing my homework! Egads!

Later,

Redge

Welcome, Wilkom, Welkom, Wolkom, Bienvenue

Welcome to my blog! Allow me to introduce myself.

I am Redge, trekkie, nerd and philosopher exraordinair. I'm from Holland, known throughout the world for it's windmills, water, dikes, legal drugs and gay marriage. I live in the province of Friesland, which is the equivalent of Kansas, but smaller. For more info on me and what I do, check my homepage at .

If you are here, chances are you know me. I actively, regularly participate in these communities:

Memory Alpha
I often refer to this site as my 'work'. It's a wikiwiki, which means that every registered or unregistered user can edit the contents. It is a Star Trek wiki, and Star Trek happens to be one of my areas of expertise.

Federation Forum (Dutch)
It's a Dutch Star Trek forum, with a nice community behind it. I often discuss not only Star Trek, but also Philosophy, Politics, etc. here. We've had a few mishaps, and so far the board has been reset a few times, so a lot of older posts are gone forever.

A Call to Duty
This is a Star Trek RPG. I'm in the newsfleet () which uses discussionboards as communication. Other sections include PBeM and chat. For my status in this RPG, see my continued posts.

PANtheon (Dutch)
A site (also a wiki) me and some classmates are building for a Dutch competition named ThinkQuest. It's about Mythology. We are still working on a Dutch version, but if it should prove succesfull, we'll add an English version.

YoYo forum (Dutch)
A message board where I chat with said classmates. It's also used as a board for Magic the Gathering and Mafia.

Well, that's all she wrote for now. Off course I'll be adding more, interesting comments later. I humbly suggest you track this feed, because, after all, I AM interesting.