whoa!

"
Because the plot thickens every day
And the pieces of my puzzle keep crumblin' away
But I know, there's a picture beneath
"

Faith No More
Falling To Pieces
The Real Thing


Okay - backwards forwards...
Pieces of this puzzle slowly (sometimes surprisingly quickly) drift into place.
I just bought a used (half-damaged) Tablet PC off of eBay. I have been lusting after these things. It's a Motion Computing LE1600 with a cracked but supposedly fully functioning screen. Even though I rarely buy anything any more - my eBay technique is still flawless.

I talked to this guy a whole bunch about the machine. He's had it for a year and a half - dropped it within the first few months - so it's been working in this condition for over a year. The cracked screen LE1600 and the proprietary-ish optical drive that's backordered on Motion Computing's website for the next 12 weeks for less than the price of the drive and a two year warranty. My grandmother has offered to help - so I will buy all of the accessories and memory for this thing and if it lasts two years at that price I will have gotten my money's worth and then some. I will get another used LE1600 and I will have all of the memory and drives and keyboard and what not already worked out. I will have an extra extra battery (provided it lasts that long - KEN AVERY is about to head to Germany to work on making the world's batteries better - I trust KEN) and I will legally be able to sell the extra Windows XP Tablet Edition licenses and I will be used to the way the thing works and it will be probably a pretty cheap way to continue.

I will be able to take notes that actually communicate and record things as I think them. I will be able to draw circuit diagrams straight into the computer. Unlike paper notes - these notes will be fully word searchable. So when I am in my third year and need to reference something about passive filtering from the third year I won't have to search endlessly through old notebooks and notated handouts - I will be able to just type in my search word and I will find all of the references in my own handwriting and with whatever little communicating drawings or symbols I have written. I can draw my homework out on the tablet and then print it and still have an exact copy for myself. If/when I start programming in MAX/MSP again (it'll be the first software I load when I get this thing) I will be able to very quickly draw out programs. Almost just sketch them out the way I used to do into notebooks on the bus - but straight into the environment instead. Oh man - I can draw computer programs. And I can start blogging in "INK" - my own handwriting. So. Should I start a different BLOG that is about my new tablet computing experiences? There are a lot of tablet blogs out there. But I think it might be different enough that I should keep my "new NORWAY experience" blog and my "new TABLET experience" blog separate. Okay. I will try to do that once it gets here. I will cross post this I guess.

To draw and write as I have since crayon filled youth - but on a computer. I love. Hmm. This will be the one thing I will have that Norwegian's will be jealous of. They'll be perplexed by many things but jealous of not much. Maybe also of my frisbee stamina and verve and my unkempt beard - but that's it.

I also told the seller BGTREEFROG that once I am able I will design a chirpy little synthstrument and call it the TREE FROG because I am so psyched. I will probably end up forgetting and being a liar on that one but maybe not. Synthstrument is a dumb word.

Also - yes - I have booked the second flight-leg of my travel (~$56) and know that my bike will cost less than $60 all told to get to Trondheim. I will stay in Oslo for roughly a night and a day and will stop by a bike shop to buy a very hefty lock (I hope they carry very hefty locks - Kryptonite NY chain I am thinking) and a new helmet (maybe).

I have transferred more than $14K into 81K NOK in a student holding account.
I have applied for my student residence permit (about a month later than I should have).
I have learned that there are 25-30000 students in Trondheim and that 90% of them use bicycles as their main transport - AWESOME!!!

I still haven't looked up average or minimum Norwegian wage. Okay I just looked and there is no mandated min.wage just lots of union agreements. That might mean I can find work that I am allowed to have but will pay pretty low - which is much better than not really being able to find/secure work. Something I just read hints at a "minimum wage" around 90 NOK per hour - that's something like $15.12 (1 NOK~=.168USD - wait - nope - the Kroner took a small jump in the last few days - I got a better deal on my money transfer than I thought - nice - so 1 Krone (kroner is plural?)) =.1715USD so 90NOK ~= $15.43. So. If I need roughly 81,400 NOK/yr to stay (I just have to refill my accounts to that much so if I spend less I don't need to make that much) - but... imaging that if I spend everything they think I will need to spend (and maybe this first year I will....) I will need to find 81400/90= or 900+ hours of work.. which comes to like 22 40 hour weeks or hmm. This is all completely speculative... I will need to find work - I am happy to wash dishes or just bust my ass lifting and carrying heavy things or whatever - I don't know for sure that this whole 6 year plan is sustainable (stupid buzzword).

"Normal working hours are mandated by law and limited to 37½ hours per week."
Lazy bastards. Which I really don't mean. So. 904/37.5=24+ full weeks of work - I am allowed 20hrs/wk during the school year. Yeah - reasonable people.
Reasonable, mostly blond people. Blah numbers. Money. TABLET!!!

That was longer than I intended. This thing still can't get the correct Trondheim time without my help.

Nice when parts of a plan come together.
I hope the Royal Norwegian Consulate General isn't taking tomorrow off.
They have to get my residence permit application processed.
The end.