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Let's get ready to ramble!

Saturday, July 28, 2007 4:54:55 PM

Welcome to my humble abode.
Please make yourself comfortable - and stay as long as you like

OMG! WTF, NRK? LOL!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 10:10:09 AM

news, fun, norway

And so we have left Christmas and New Years behind us (as we've now entered February, is it too late for me to hope you all had a good time?

). A time when many of us like to relax and not think about work. Not too much anyway.
It seems that was the case at the Norwegian national broadcasting company, NRK, too.

On the evening news on December 28th, there was an item addressing eye treatment for the elderly. Somebody at NRK had thought that having an eye chart behind the news presenters would illustrate the piece perfectly.
And I agree. It would. Had it been a standard eye chart, perhaps. Instead, the editorial team had picked another, somewhat inconvenient, chart...

If you can't see it, it says - from top to bottom:
O
MG
WTF
STFU
PWN3D
URAN00B
LMAOROTF
KTHXBYE:P
It's tempting to carefully imply that perhaps somebody at NRK would need an eye treatment of their own

17 comments

The burning of the Yule goat

Friday, December 2, 2011 4:34:51 PM

news, sweden

And it's Christmas time again. The air is starting to get full of anticipation and stress while the streets are decorated with all kinds of Christmas decorations. Perhaps a whiff of newly baked Christmas cookies or chestnuts roasting passes by in the air.
Except if you're in the Swedish town of Gävle, that is, in which case the whiff in the air will most like be that of a burnt down straw goat.

Just in time for the first advent Sunday in 1966, the first giant Yule goat made of straw was erected in the city square in Gävle. The goat stood there as a Christmas feeling booster up until midnight on New Year's Eve, when it burned down.
This didn't stop the city of Gävle, so in time for next advent, a new goat was erected. This one, and the one erected the year after, stood tall for the entire Christmas period.
By now, the erecting of a Yule goat had become tradition in Gävle, probably giving joy to the inhabitants of the city. However, the goat in 1969 suffered the same fate as the very first one. On New Year's Eve, it was burnt down.
The next year, the goat only survived for a few hours. It seemed a new tradition was born despite different ways to protect it (flame repellent and guards for example).

Since the beginning, the proud Yule goat of Gävle has been burnt down, hit by a car, kicked to pieces or destroyed in other ways approximately every other year.
Last year it survived, but today we got the news… In the wee hours of the morning, the goat had been burnt down again.

RIP Yule goat. We'll see you again next year!

24 comments

Ramblings!

Monday, November 28, 2011 3:15:41 PM

random, photo, me, everyday life

So, I took some time off from everything. Nice battery charger, I must say. Not very exciting, but nice and restful.
And when the nice, sunny days outnumber the rainy ones - well, that's me happy!

So much so, I could even appreciate the beauty in a typical late-autumn foggish day in the woods after I came back to Norway...

And - other happenings through selected smilies.

Got a new, very much longed for and well overdue, laptop. Now, on to the other things on my list of things in the household that has pretty much their best-before-date and really should be replaced (take notes, Santa!): fridge/freezer, dishwasher, kitchen table + chairs, living room table and last, but definitely not least, bed.

Speaking of bed, I can't seem to manage to sleep past nine o'clock in the weekends anymore. It's really getting ridiculous how I always wake up at almost exactly that time. Sometimes five minutes before, or ten minutes after, but almost always at nine sharp. And I don't feel well rested when I wake up either.
The girls at work tell me that it's age related and that they've had it like that for ages (which, I suppose, makes it wrong to call them girls). So, I guess it's official - I'm old. Next weekend I might try melatonin before going to bed to see if it helps (and I miraculously get younger).

Christmas is settled. This year, it's back to Sweden to celebrate with dad. Last year was the first time ever I spent Christmas in Norway and although it was nice and all, I noticed that I really like Swedish Christmas food better.
Although I suspect it will get a bit boring on Christmas Eve, I am actually looking forward to going this year. I don't feel stressed about it, but I'm sure that will come as time comes closer.

Speaking of Christmas, I haven't got a single present sorted yet. Last year, most of them were taken care of on the autumn vacation in Morocco but since this year's autumn trip wasn't as exciting, I didn't get anything to anybody. Oh well, I do have some ideas - at least that's something.

Excited about getting a new colleague. Not that I'm not sad about seeing another one go, but to be completely honest - I couldn't work with her. Really like her personally, but when it comes to working... hell no! I think it'll be a whole different workday - in a good way.

I love how it's December in a couple of days, and I'm still wearing my autumn jacket! No snow, no frost, no ice. Not yet, anyway. People are starting to mope about how they long for snow, but I'm happy with the weather as is. Yes, it is gloomy but I think I can handle that better than heaps of snow and ice.

I have a good feeling about actually being able to pick up blogging again. Although it might not exactly happen this side of New Years, I'm getting there.

But - before I do - as always there is plenty of stuff to check out on my watch list first...
See you around!

27 comments

Vikings and their ships

Monday, September 5, 2011 11:30:48 AM

norway, photo, oslo, history

Norwegians are proud people. They are especially proud of their heritage, and their viking heritage in particular.
In Norway, the period between ca AD 800 - 1066 (end marked by the failed Norwegian attack at Stamford Bridge) is called the Viking age. This was the golden age of the vikings, during which they headed for their voyages around the world.

Norwegian vikings mainly travelled west, raiding places like England, Ireland and Iceland, and the Norwegian Leiv Eiriksson is by many seen as the first European to discover North America.
However, the viking's voyages were not only for plundering and invasions. The vikings seem to have been excellent craftsmen and traders as well and their modern day reputation is a bit unfair. (No, they didn't use horned helmets or drink from human skulls either.)

In order to be able to set out on these, often long, voyages, they needed good vessels. Luckily, people living along the coast had highly developed skills when it came to building boats. One particular type of vessel stands out when you think about vikings - the longship.
The longship is a symmetrical, shallow, narrow and light wooden boat with both a mast and oars, perfect for high speed and shallow waters.

In Oslo, we have a viking ship museum housing the wrecks of three longships and other archaeological finds from the era. Unfortunately, there aren't very many items left from the time, but the exhibition includes sledges, horse carts, jewelry, weapons, even some textile and other household items.

Currently, the museum is situated on the Bygdøy peninsula (that also houses quite a few other museums of national and cultural interest) but five years ago, a proposition to move the ships closer to the city center was risen. There has been a lot of debates going on about this, as the ships are very fragile and could break during transport.
Of course, you can't help thinking about how these ships once conquered huge waters and tough battles yet now they could break if moved a short way on land...
They still haven't decided what the future of the ships will be yet, so if you're in Oslo antyime soon I'd advise you to go visit these ships. You never know how long they'll be around!
And if you're not coming here, let me give you a few glimpses from the museum...

The Oseberg ship. One of the best preserved.

The Tune ship. Not as well preserved...

Remember the mention of the vikings as craftsmen? For instance, they adorned their ships (and other items) with carved figure heads. Some of them were meant to scare their enemies...

...some were perhaps a carving of the owner of the boat, or a chief.

Others again were cute:

And look at this little fellow!

Among the artifacts they have found are shoes! Look at these! Timeless - that model could still be worn today.

Thank you for taking the virtual tour, and welcome to a real one!

31 comments

OK

Friday, July 22, 2011 3:56:33 PM

Some of you may have heard the news about the bombing in Oslo today.
This is just a short note to let you know that I'm ok. Thankfully.

The bomb went off just before 3:30 pm. I usually get off at 3 pm on Fridays, but today I had some stuff to finish as it's the last day before vacation. I felt a blast at the office, the window sort of bended inwards, but I thought that it was either lightning or perhaps a truck that had rammed the building.
I had some shopping to do and, working in the city centre, I headed downtown. On my way, I noticed the fire alarm ringing at a nearby hotel, but thought nothing of it. Then I noticed glass splinters everywhere. Shops were sealed off, and I started thinking perhaps that wasn't lightning anyway.
As I came closer (one block) to where the bomb had gone off only 10-15 minutes earlier, I understood that it was best to get home. ASAP.
There was glass splinters everywhere. Whole facades of buildings were damaged. The smoke was thick, and there was a smell of sulphur (or something) in the air. I saw people with bloody bandages around their heads, and total chaos everywhere.
So... I made it home. And most of the people I know are counted for.

bbc
cnn

55 comments

Vacappetizer

Tuesday, July 12, 2011 1:33:58 PM

norway, photo, travel, me

It's been quiet from my end lately, and that's for a (good?) reason.
See, I've just returned from a mini-vaca. Nothing fancy schmancy, but a trip up to the coastal place in the mid west.
According to Google maps driving time from here to there is a bit over seven hours, but if you include stops it's fair to say that it takes a more or less a whole day. (Or at least a couple of hours extra, making a whole day go away on driving.) That's pretty boring, so this time, a stopover was planned en route.

On the way up north, the road crosses a mountain area called "Dovre". Those of you who know your Grieg will know that this is where you can find the hall of the mountain king:

Although I wasn't particularly eager to meet him, the plan was to go for a little hike in the mountain. The weather looked pretty much ok to begin with, but I packed rainwear anyway, knowing that you never know.
That's good knowledge to have, as it turned out...

(The white wall there is fog, quickly heading towards us.)
But if we were to try to escape the fog, the option was climbing down here. (The grey line is a road.)

Back through the fog it was then.

I had a track application running during the hike - I thought it could be fun to see the course on the map later.

The green line is elevation. I was rather surprised to see it was about 150 metres stopping at an altitude of 1300 metres. (I wasn't as surprised seeing the blue line (showing my so called speed) pointing the other way.)

With hiking and outdoorsy life done, the rest of the week was spent relaxing as much as possible. The weather was up and down, but there was some really nice time that could be had outdoors.

Now it's back to work for a couple of weeks. Just enough time to work up an appetite for the next vacation...

30 comments

I miss the statuses!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011 11:26:22 AM

me, everyday life

I didn't think I would miss it, but I do.
It's not statuses in general I miss. If it was that, I could just simply log into Facebook more often and drown in them...

No, it's the lack of being able to read your MyO statuses, as well as being able to communicate my own to you I miss. I think.
Therefore, I have made a short list of what might have been statuses from me from the last ~~weeks~~ months.
As a bonus they almost sort of sum up some of what has been going on, or rather has not been going on, on my end lately too.

They are in no particular order (except for the last one

).

* I'd give my left arm to play with Def Leppard.
* Weather: good. Wine: good. So is life.

* Why does my news icon keep telling me there are two more news items than there really is? And why can't I edit it?

* Celebrating Norway's national day at Oslo's geographical zero point. Turned out to be in the middle of the woods. Not many flags, bunads and marching bands here

* Current bugging: Excessive use of exclamation points and question marks. No matter how much you want to know, it looks stupid!!! Ok??? (Exception: full stops can be used no limit...)
* :martini:
* Me? Participating in the world's largest relay race? Ummm...

* Stupid zombifying medicine!

* I want a house.
* Some days will be hell and others will be heaven // still, in a week there always will be seven.
* Gah! Pollen is coming! ACHOOO!
* Long weekend is here. I am not. #travel

Ahhhh! It really felt good getting all those trapped statuses out!
Try it yourselves!

70 comments

Yum or ow?

Thursday, April 28, 2011 8:53:28 AM

sign, photo, fun, travel

I realized I had forgotten to show you something I came across on my summer vacation last year.
This should have been included in the post Vacation (part two) - if I had only remembered it.
But hey - better late than never!

As we were heading for the leaning tower, we passed a most interesting sign:

Proof that karma exists: when I had laughed, pointed at the sign and taken my picture, I tripped as I was walking away.

After having been to the tower, we passed this place again and decided to find out weather it was Yum! or Ow!
It was Yum!

43 comments

Printers, patience and productivity

Friday, April 8, 2011 3:01:02 PM

everyday life, random

We have this new printing system at work. It's sort of a joint print queue for everybody in the office, meaning that you can go to any printer and fetch your papers. You just press your username on the printer's screen to see what you have in the queue, choose what you want to print and off it goes.

Sure, that sounds good and all, but the thing is that these printers are so slow...

For instance - if I have printed out five seperate documents, it needs to think really hard and reset the paper tray between each and every one. You can almost hear the little guy who works inside the machine walking around slowly with a cup of coffee in one hand, and one of your documents in the other, heading for the paper feed...

The printer closest to my office is located in the office supplies room so whilst waiting, I often look around if there's something new or fun I could use in my office. Of course, there never is.
But one day, I saw something I still haven't really figured out. This something is called "Ink colour as tail plug". Ok, so the word "ink" and the shape indicates this has something to do with pens, but it also says "retractable balls" on the package! What kind of pen is that?

Anyway, on this particular day, I had quite a few prints working their way through the system. I was really bored and, being among office supplies, I found a black marker...