On the road (Anna)

Dragonbane Diary
Friday-Friday, October 21st-28th, 2005
Turku-Sodankylä-Turku, Finland

I started from home in Turku, Finland, on Thursday. It would be a long trip, I knew, but still I left all the packing till the last minute. Can't help that, I had to cleardraw some pictures before leaving.

Arrived in Tampere, saw my friends, and met with Porkkana who was going to drive with Mikko to Sodankylä. Already on Friday we left to Jämsänkoski where Porkkana lives. I had no better way to spend my time, so I tediously went through the patterns in detail. I had no quarrel with the vector graphic or the marvelous work Heiko did changing the pics into home printable form, but I had a bone or two to pick about the grading. It's alright, we'll fix them with Heiko. A long way home.

A long way home
We started towards northern Finland at six am. On sunday morning. Early, and I didn't sleap all that well. It was pretty much compensated 'cause I like traveling, and I really don't mind sitting in the car. Napped, listened to the guys trying to be witty and endlessly tried to search for a radio station that we could actually listen to.

The weather got colder and slipperier the more we got towards Aska, Sodankylä. Still we made it there safely quite early in the evening. Sauna, a beer or two, and sleep, at last. Changing the climate really helps. Some conversations I had with Timo pretty much cleared my thoughts about the team situation and work still to be done.

Monday, I started writing it down. Still looking for textile designers or available graphics. I hope someone will come forward. Later in the week I've been writing e-mails, that don't get any answers, and talking on the phone. Meetings, something I could live without. Don't get me wrong, I love meeting my own people and wondering how to get stuff done. After two hours they get overwhelming though ... But having four meetings in one day with strange people is a bit too much for me.

Rovaniemi youth people, took us very positively, I have a very positive feeling of that.

By Friday in Sodankylä, I still haven't met a reindeer. Would really like to meet one.

Magic, but still insufficient technology
If you wanna see magic, try watching two linux geeks getting a crashed server up. Seriously, those things are like hebrew to me. Still the technology was insufficiently advanced, and very much distinguishable from magic. We spent from midnight till 5 am in the as erverroom and in IRC until everyone was too tired to continue. Luckily the situation was fixed during Thursday.

I can't read my DB mail on the road. Now I have filled my service providers e-mails inbox in a week, and after that it just stopped working. They have _slight_ problems every now and again. Should change the service provider maybe. I feel unconnected from the real world, and I'm concerned that I will miss something important. (I'm a news addict.)

People, fresh blood but mainly asking for favors
Dragonbane needs a tower? I heard there was an extra one available, but unfortunately it was sold. Esa promised to keep his eyes open.

Server is down, Timo needs good linux person. I asked for one and he agreed to help. Hopefully they'll get the server up and sunning soon. We need a font made? I'll meet with friend next week.
I hope he'll find it interesting.

Back again – or is it?
Friday night, a flight to Helsinki. Night train to Turku. A larp on Saturday morning till Sunday. An exellent party in Porvoo, I'm still trying to find a way to get there. A friend of mine invited me to Hämeenlinna. I might go, there are some school people I should meet about dragonbane issues. Should I stop at home in the meanwhile?

Anna Nummi
Costume team leader