One of ET's most likable characters has returned, Quakecon champion Holz has rejoined idle all be it just for two weeks! Holz left the world of ET back in September to venture into the Estonian army, following in the footsteps of Galahad and Gazeta. You might still have to wait a year or two until Night goes into the army, but by then holz will back full time for the Estonian ET side!
image: holz
I caught up with Holz for a lifestyle interview as he goes from Wolfenstein to training for going into Enemy Teritory!

Have you learnt any secret army tactics to help idle?

To be honest, no. I thought it would be cool like in ET, with medics and panzerfausts but they use different weapons now even in Estonia! I have learnt to stay calm under pressure though, something that I always sucked at in ET, so maybe now I wont break under the pressure?

What is your day to day routine in the army, or is that classified?

Well, its quite routine actually! You wake up at 6am, have your morning training and then you eat at the same time every day. At 8 AM you have classes and training and learning about army stuff all the way until 5PM. We're then given one hour free time in which to have fun and also clean our quarters. Then we have evening registration to check we didnt run (roll call) away or something like that, after that you HAVE to watch the news. After that the whole company have to go in one place standing in a row (lineup), listening to one guy talk and then he puts us to bed at 10 PM. But it changes some times, one week we had to stay the whole time in the woods and in tents and then one week in the quarters then another week in the woods and it kept rotating every other week, the more time goes by the more time you spent training rather than learning with more extreme things.

Whats the most 'extreme thing' you get to do?

Well, I dunno if its really extreme! Maybe its training during the night in the woods, it was so dark and we had to navigate our way around the rivers and the location. I kept running into barb wire because it was a military zone, I could see it, it wasn’t much but it was annoying. I of course get to fire a gun (AK-4) at targets on a firing range, actually I was pretty good. We had 15 exams that we had to pass, one of which was the firing exam and we had to hit 8 targets to pass the firing exam and I hit 11 out of 12, so I've still got better accuracy than urtier! The final exam was walking 45 KM with your backpack on (has all the equipment in it), it took 2 days and it was so tiring.

What type of shape are you in now?

I was in horrible shape before, we had a physical test and I was horrible there. 2 months later we had to do another one and I was still below the average. In the fitness exam the first time I got 85 out of 300 and by the second time I got 215 which is still a low score, but I was really happy to have the improvement. I don’t care, the first one was pathetic. I am happy that now I am in good shape, without the army I wouldn’t have gotten myself into shape so I'm glad that now I'm fit again.

So they haven’t made you quit smoking in the army?

No! I only smoke 4 a day in the army, but those 4 are so good I look forward to them. But when we were in the woods, I went through a pack a day because there wasn’t much to do each day.

Has being in the army changed your plans for the future?

I think not, because I didn’t really have many plans anyway! I dropped many plans because I knew I had to go to the army and was planning for it I guess, cause I knew I'd lose one year of my life to army. Unless you want to be professional army guy, you don’t really change anything by being in the army. Its just one year of experience and one year of vacation from regular routine life.

So you still want to be a fireman?

LOL? No, where did you get that from. To be honest, I don’t know what I want to do and I never have done. I would like to travel and do those type of things, but I really don’t know. I liked traveling with Idle to Dallas and to Holland alot, so it is something I would like to do in the future, but really I dont have any plans.

How did it feel to lose your hair?

The army shaved it to zero, but just before I went to the army I cut my hair myself so I didnt care much. Was kinda funny when everyone had their hair shaved, then you couldnt tell anyone apart, especially when they were in uniform.

How does it feel to be missing sHgopen and Crossfire Lan 2?

I don’t really care about missing the lans, I care about missing the traveling! I don’t get to travel much...come on I'm Estonian! So I sure miss traveling to places where I meet new people. I thought about it in the army, what do I miss from being free? And one of the things I miss is travel

What are the other things you miss whilst you're in the army?

The general freedom! The first two and a half months I didn’t get out at all, I miss the general ability and company of friends to hang out with them and so on. The routine got annoying and it repeated on and on, 7 days a week, every week. You had to do this and that, sleep at this time, eat at that time and the routine was the same the whole time.

Will we see you on ETTV in the next two weeks?

No, I'm going back on the second of January so I'm not gonna play at Christmas or new year. Maybe sometime next week, but I really doubt that I'm gonna play. After I am done with army? Maybe I'll play if there are some lans to go to, but it all depends on the lans. I wont play just for the fun, it takes so much time even for lans. I'm not sure if it is worth it.

So after the army will you be come a real lifer?

If I'm lucky yeah, time will tell I'll say. When I'm done I will be ready for real life by then, but still, the time will say.


Good luck to holz with the rest of his stay in the army!