Wednesday, October 17

This morning was like winter: cold and dark and wet. I got up early and left Naa asleep.

I spent the morning with the Content Management System group, who have begun their final project. My role for the next two weeks is to sit there waiting to be asked random questions and then try to answer them. This morning the questions were relatively sane and relatively simple.

Now I am sitting on the floor in the comfort zone opposite the staff room. My eyes and back are aching and I don’t want to look at a screen for an hour.

This afternoon I will continue work with Maija in Virtual Worlds Research, experimenting with non-player characters. By the time I leave for home I will have one that wakes up, walks around in any of eight directions, comes to you, and disappears as a result of voice commands. I will also have worked out how to make a tribe of robots that flock. I will be happy.

Just before I leave Naa will phone me to say that she is goingto Kamppi when tennis finishes, because Irma’s father has had four teeth removed, the bleeding won’t stop, and they have gone to hospital in an ambulance. I will phone Irma’s mother and offer to help. It will turn out that Susanne and Arto are at the hospital, and my help is not needed.

Instead I will return home to deal with the increasingly angry cat.