The government of China accepted the new measurement of the Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Until 11 November 1999, Everest was officially 8848 meters high, but after some GPS [Global Positioning System] evaluations, a National Geographic Society expedition announced that the mountain had grown 2 meters higher, since 1954, when scientists working for the government of India reported the "old" measure.

Everest is not only growing higher, but also going northeast @ a rate of 6 cm / year. Basic plate tectonics :)

It is not easy to live in schizophrenia. One time I have to be a regular human, the next hour I go to Baldur's Gate [BG] to take care of a group of adventurers, each stronger than myself, capable of swording me to dust in a just few movements.

I keep my Baldur's Gate spirit alive, although the last few days made it very hard for me to dive in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Still I was in it for some hours, and - in total - my party has 42 days of fighting. Remember that time in BG is 4 times faster than in real life, or even faster, if you choose to rest. For example, a 8 hours sleep in a noble room is a common rest technique that will happen in just 2 seconds of our "real life" chrono...

Unfortunately for the party, I am so very much unexperienced, that I still don't know what to do with nearly 12 scrolls of magic that one of my fellows keeps in the bag. I think I should reform my party to have a mage, but then no mages seem available...

During the last 20 BG days, there were some achievements that deserve to be highlighted:

- Nashkel mines are up & running, after me killing Mulahey, who first thought I was sent by Tazok to kill him, as Tazok was not satisfied with his performance on bringing the shadows to the mines. It was not that hard to release the mines, although ore still doesn't flow to the northeast, because of bandits. The release of Nashkel starts the 3rd chapter of the adventure.

- I killed a few Great Basilisks, which are huge reptiles that are worth thousands of experience points. They are extremely hard to kill, at least for a relatively unexperienced party, but they are a great fight and will probably rise your heroes' stats. For example, thanks to the help of a friendly Ogre, the party killed 4 Basilisks and everyone went up a level.

- Khark is still too strong for the party. I faced him once and managed to escape. It would have been certain death.

- My thiefs are great on finding and dismounting traps! That is the only way to enter the deepest level of the Nashkel mines, but will be of supreme importance in later stages of your adventure.

Baldur's Gate is really great, although kind of tedious when you are trying to kill adversaries too strong. As I am. The problem is that, for example, after killing one Basilisk, the party is hurt and must rest for many hours, in order to heal. Healing all your people after a big fight, usually takes an entire day, that is, 3 sleeping rounds of 8 hours. Plus, it is only worth resting in noble or royal rooms. Alternatives may cost less but simply are not effective.

I have been using Microsoft Excel lately and found some functions that I think do not work as they should. More on that, soon.