Sisu

Going to visit Tiina was a blast because we watched a Finnish movie called “Sisu,” then proceeded to play Skyrim until the wee hours. Or at least, it seemed pretty late when I finally dropped off. Going to Tiina’s farm is the ultimate getaway from my quirky Baltimore City life.

I also had some Erath pinot noir that reminded me so much of Oregon that I was home in a single sip, and I told her that. I’ve been to Erath, stood in the soil. It was a fabulous toast to my early thirties. I’m not normally a drinker, but if something interesting is being served I’ll have some. It’s just deciding whether I’m going to have a headache or not. Most of the time, I am fine being headache free. But when I drink it’s a different story. It works as fast as dark chocolate in bringing on a migraine, but I haven’t stopped eating that, either.

It was really fun playing Skyrim as a group, because we all knew little things about the game. We made a tank build named “Morc the Orc,” and proceeded to smash and bash our way across Tamriel. I’m fairly certain we only did the main quest before I fell asleep, and then Tiina’s son started watching YouTube. I hope I am invited back for The Thieves Guild and The Dark Brotherhood.

I don’t even own a computer capable of running Skyrim right now. My Windows laptop is hosed and won’t even power up. I’m sure it’s under warranty, because I know I would not have wanted to pay another almost-grand for a new one. The only thing I might do is get a cheap Mac, because I need Helvetica and it wouldn’t hurt to have a desktop that will integrate easily with all my other devices. It’s nice that there’s iMessage for the desktop. I probably would use my phone a quarter to never.

Because of my iPad and Apple Watch, I barely use it now.

The only thing I can’t do yet is dual boot my Mac with Windows. The drivers haven’t come out for the M chip. You have to install Windows for ARM in a virtual machine. It’s called a “no thanks.”

So, I probably just need to get an Intel Mac off eBay. I surf the web and write stuff. A decked out Intel Mac will do that no problem.

My dad put a Mac back in his kitchen so I could sit there and write or search the web while he cooks. I decided I like Macs now.

With a large enough hard drive on the Intel Mac, I could triple boot it. That’s the best of all worlds. Just be operating system agnostic because they’re all different strokes for different folks. Sometimes I’m just in a Linux geek kind of mood.

Mico and I were just talking shit about Linux and having a great time. We were talking about using Skyrim mods on Proton (Steam for Linux) and they said, “it works… Sometimes.” I said that should be linux’s whole motto if you want to install something even sort of exotic.

It forces you into system administrator grump talk. It’s very effective to be grumpy with a machine. Only the printer can smell fear.

I still can’t stop thinking about Sisu and how beautiful it was. The cinematography was just incredible, and the storyline was very exciting.

There’s even a dog in Finnish John Wick.

I got up at my usual 0530 and was greeted to sunrise arriving as I pulled into my driveway. Because I was at Tiina’s, it was an hour and a half home (wow, no traffic makes a difference…. It took two and a half hours yesterday). I stopped at 7-Eleven for a Coke Zero and a Five Hour Energy. It is wearing off, so I’m drinking my normal Dunkin latte as a pick me up. I got no sleep last night except for the little nap I took after wine.

Red wine naps are delicious, and it takes about half a glass before I get sleepy.

I wish I could have stayed longer at Tiina’s because we would have had a good time no matter what we did for breakfast. I could have whipped up something. Next time. Pepper did such a great job with the venison steaks that I have my work cut out for me trying to impress her.

Everything just feels so comfortable there. It’s being enveloped with good friends that feel like family because we just sat around and did nothing, just relaxing together and talking about our favorite game….. Well, it’s my favorite game, anyway.

It looks a lot like Sisu, frankly.