ST NEWS VISIT ~ESHER.FIL~ 'We don't know life; how do we know what dead is ?' Confucius THE CREATION OF ST NEWS by Slimer ---------------------------------- (or how to have fun in the swimmingpool) It's incredible hot at the moment of writing and my monitor seems to be suffering a lot. The blasted thing is juggling with my vision every now and then. If I must believe the manual it can operate till 40 degrees celcius max. Lets take a look at the thermometer, it reads 31 degrees. If we add the heat that is produced by the device itself to it, we could get around 45 degrees. Time to open the window and get the fan even closer to the monitor. God, when will it get cooler..... There it goes again, damn ! Back after switching the monitor off/on, lets hope that the thing stays stable now. Take notes Highscreen ! Several months ago I found a disk in the mailbox containing questions for an interview. Ofcourse I was flattered to get interviewed by the big Richard K. of ST NEWS. We had already some contact by sending letters and mags back and forth. So he called and we talked a bit, he asked if I would like to witness the assembly of ST NEWS. Ofcourse I replied, would love too, and after we hung up I was danching through the room in total ecstasy ! Okay, okay that's a bit exaggerated. The deadline of ST NEWS was set on saturday 23 July 1994. There was a small problem however and that was transportation so I told Richard that would I bring our coder along. *Blast* the monitor is f@cked up again..... Richard needed a certain program routine, so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, so he agreed. A few weeks later 23 July came around and we left for Utrecht. I needed to get to Steenwijk first by taking the bus to Heerenveen and the train to Steenwijk. After I arrived at the station I got picked up by Bonus. We drove off in his car and after an one hour drive we finally approaced Utrecht. We needed to find a map of the city first. Lucky for us we found one after a while. It was very hot that day and the heatindicator on the dashboard almost reached a critical level. We managed to find the right address much quicker than we've expected. It turned out to be a flat and ofcourse Richard was living at the highest story. So I rang the doorbell and we entered the flat(the previous sentence is almost sounding logical). After climbing many stairs we managed to make it to the fourth floor where Richard his apartment was situated. The door was already open and we entered with a light fear not knowing what we would find behind it. There we saw this dude who introduced himself as Richard Karsmakers, followed by a girl who called herself Miranda. She must be his girlfriend as the name was mentioned many times in previous ST NEWS issue's. Anyway, after the introduction part it was time to unload the car and climb all those stairs again. Richard had already started the real-time article which probably can be found also in this magazine. The 'real-time' computer was a Mega ST 2 standing in the livingroom. At the table beside the Mega 2 was another table with a Falcon on it. This Falcon must have the smallest spacebar ever (as it was missing). An other thing that attracted my attention was the enormous amount of mostly Heavy Metal CDs hanging in boxes on the wall. Richard didn't struck me like a heavy metal fan at first glance. Anyway Bonus unpacked his Falcon and soon three computers where buzzing side by side. We talked and exchanged some softy stuff that afternoon. Meanwhile Richard was working on the last bits of ST NEWS 9.2 ! At the end of the afternoon he ordered some pizzas which we consumed with much relish. That evening we sat on the balcony and talked about all kind of subjects. We had a nice view on the city and we saw the famous Domm (somekind of churchtower). At the end of the evening we played 'Super Sprint' (an old racing game from the ST). Miranda managed to beat me and Bonus by using the keyboard(!) which was ofcourse very frustrating. That night me and Bonus only got a few hours of sleep because it was very hot. I had bought a thin sleepingbag before I left for Utrecht but it was no use. The next morning we were waked with loud Metal as Sodom was distorting the airwaves. We all took a quick shower that morning after a sweaty night. The morning was mostly filled with coping and typing. Richard managed to finish ST NEWS after breakfast and started making copies of it. He asked us if we would like to go swimming that afternoon. So after most of the coping and typing was done, we left for a swim in the subtropical swimmingparadise of Utrecht. It was great fun, especially the waterslide was great ! You also could sit and relax in a bubblebath or get carried away by a simulated current in the water. Simply great. After swimming we went back to the apartment. Richard left to get some fries and other unhealty stuff. It's a fact that junkfood is the best !! The end of our visit was nearing, so we wrapped up the final bits and pieces. Last things where exchanged and some last words typed. We packed our bags and equipment and loaded them in the car. Miranda was waving us good-bye from the balcony as we shaked Richard's hand. Saying good-bye is always hard (snif)..... In the car back home we concluded that we had a good time and that Richard was an okay guy. There are people who claim otherwise but they must be proven wrong ! The journey back was swift as we travelled with high speed towards Steenwijk. Bonus dropped me off at the station, the train was already visible in the distance. A couple of minutes later I was on my way back to Heerenveen. The trip only took about 12 minutes or so. In Heerenveen I could also enter the bus in record time everything seemed to go smoothly (a bit to smooth) ! When arrived in Drachten, I discovered that my bike had a flat tire. The first thought was that some arsehole had pierced it with a knife. You can imagine my angre as I walked home...... Back home I plundered the refrigerator and poured several litres of lemonade down my troath. Haaaahhh *BURP* (Sorry). Then it was time to check out the damage on the tire. Thank god, it was a very small hole that probably was made by a natural cause. The tire was fixed in no time. That evening I unpacked my stuff and checked out the stuff that I took back from my visit to Richard, followed by good night rest....... ~RED.PAL~