Tag fun

Play

Geir Isene 99 Comments

Had a meeting today with an interesting person. We talked business, life and philosophy. He presented an angle to “Fuck it” that changed my view on letting go – a view that is more direct, active and productive. Play is more positive. While “Fuck it” has great merit, Play is easier to adopt.

You can tell a person to “let go” of the negative emotions he creates. He can perhaps do that. Or perhaps he will struggle to figure out how. You can guide him, coach him, train him to just “give a fuck” and “chillax”. But it may take a while with some serious guidance.

Telling him to play more in life is easier to grasp, easier to do. Play is doing fun stuff that is unserious and not demand results or consequences. Ask the person what “play” is to him. Then encourage him to do more of that in his life. Voilá.

soccer

Amar Role-Playing Game: Complete system online at d6gaming.org

Geir Isene 22 Comments

Some have wondered what I have been up to the past few weeks. The answer is seen over at d6gaming.org.

It has been a massive undertaking to get the whole of the Amar RPG online – rule system, information on the Kingdom of Amar, world mythology and more.

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The whole system is now Open Source and put on a wiki so that anyone can pitch in to improve or add to the system or the world.

We welcome anyone to contribute new skills, spells, potions, rituals, magical items or any other neat and worthwhile additions.

And we welcome every nitpicking language enthusiast to correct errors in the text.

There is also a good collection of graphics included that any Game Master of any RPG system can freely use.

Go adventure!

Castle

It’s the feeling

Geir Isene 40 Comments

In my talk at HP Norway, I covered my history as a calculator enthusiast. I got my first calculator (a TI-57) when I was 13 and my first HP calculator (HP-41CX) a few years later. I started collecting as an adult, and in 2008 eighty-nine of my ninety calculators got toasted when the building where we had our offices burned to the ground.

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A couple of months before the fire, the Norwegian national TV interviewed me and showed my collection. Lots of people saw it. Shortly after the fire, the TV host Petter Skjerven came back to do a “part 2” where he asked me how I felt after the fire. We were standing in the ruins when I told him I felt great.

A couple of weeks before the fire, I had a dream where I had all HP-calculators ever made in mint condition. That saddened me – because the game was over. You see, the point about collecting the calculators, apart from actually using them, is to COLLECT – not to HAVE. So, I had 8 years of fun behind me when the fire struck. And then I had at least 8 years of fun ahead. It felt great. After that second show, people started sending me their old calculators. And now I am almost beck where I was. Except my HP-01 is hard to replace. And my HP-37E had the lowest serial number recorded. Priceless. Oh well. I started to rebuild my collection, and I have calcs now that I never had before – like the gifts I got from HP after my talk; an HP-70, an HP-25C and an HP-10. All rare items.

One important personal point I touched upon in my talk was how I am driven by feelings. The feeling for the unknown, the feeling of learning something new, of discovery, of the vast sea of interesting knowledge, the thrill of learning Einstein’s theory of relativity before I got my first calculator, the excitement of making a self-modifying program on a TI-59 that I borrowed from a friend of mine. The joy of synthetic programming on an HP-41. And the nerve wrecking feeling of reading aloud when I was in high school. The thrill of girls, of the first job, of travelling abroad, of meeting with interesting and amazing people. The emotions, the fun. This is what drives me. And collecting old calculators rejuvenates many tingling, captivating and entrancing rushes. I love it.

This a big reason why I make music, artwork, meet and talk to new people, travel, read, play, point my telescope to the stars and live life as I do. I am a feeling-junky. This is also why I blog.

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Like!

Geir Isene 176 Comments

One of my current quests has born fruits. A couple of years ago, I got the idea that it should be possible to like anything. Yes, anything. But while it may perhaps be a distant, even unreachable goal, it has shown to be a worthwhile pursuit.

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I started out with the small, everyday things. Liking the noise from the neighbor. Liking my own irritation on a bad day. Liking others’ criticism of me. Liking nasty people. The cold. The failure on a job. Unpleasant food. The pain at the dentist’s. Practice makes perfect. Or at least approaching perfect. Because it seems an everlasting quest for liking anything. And the rewards are great 🙂

Life is brighter, more fun and there is a higher harmony. The alternative is less pleasing.

Just thing about it, is there any benefit in NOT liking stuff? You might as well like it, even enjoy it – and life will be brighter from it. Enjoy. Like!