Nap failure

I've been so tired basically every day this week ... my own fault, because I've been going to bed too late and thus sleeping too little. Today I've been just longing to sleep, all day. So when I got home from work this afternoon, I decided to go lie in the sun for a while, read some and try to take a nap. Well, I tried ...

I did get some reading done. I didn't feel too good, though. Partly from the tiredness. But also the sun was so hot that it made me feel headachey and almost a little sick. After a while I tried for that nap. And I almost managed to get to sleep, even in the light ... but then ...

But then, Kampen Janitsjar suddenly showed up from out of nowhere and held a mini concert on the lawn outside my building! :-o WTF??

I have no idea what they were doing here.

They sounded fantastic as they always do. But they are not nap-conducive to their surroundings.

Mer moro med bensinprisene, del 4

Debatten ruller videre! Jeg bare må slenge inn noen flere gullkorn her, det vil ingen ende ta. Dette fortjener å bevares for ettertiden.

En person mente at økning i bensinpris ikke er noen krise, for så mye bensin bruker man tross alt ikke, og her har dere regnestykket, skrev han ... sånn omtrent. Han tok utgangspunkt i seg selv som bruker én tank i måneden. En annen person ble 'Forbannet' og svarte ham slik:

Din kommentar forklarer nettopp hvorfor noen ikke er i stand til å forstå at noen virkelig har behov for å bruke bilen. Jeg bruker ca 5-7 tanker i mnd, og tanken rommer 60 liter, og nei, jeg har ikke noe bensinsluk til bil. En enkel caddy 2008 mod, varebil, som bruker ca 0,4-0,5 på mila. La vi bruke ditt regnestykke, altså 250,- i mnd som følge av dyrere bensin/diesel. Så kan vi gange dette opp med 6 = 1.500,- x 12 = 18.000,- Så sier du sikkert: " hva med å bruke bilen mindre?" hmmm. godt spm, men det innebærer at jeg må skifte jobb, ettersom dette er kjøring til og fra jobb. Annen jobb? veldig lite alterativer der jeg bur. Nei det er på tide å stikke fingeren i jorda. Som valgt politiker må en vere i stand til å sette seg inn i situasjonen til andre en seg selv.

Han fikk følgende kongesvar fra en som kaller seg 'Bengt', som forøvrig har lagt inn flere gode inlegg i denne debatten. Jeg er så enig med ham!!

Hadde vært topp om denne økningen i bensinpris kunne få deg til å endre transportvanene dine. Om du virkelig har så lang vei til jobb så er det på tide å gjøre noe med det. Hva med jobbe én dag mindre og heller litt lengre de andre dagene? Eller du kan selvsagt flytte nærmere en jobb. Du kan jo til og med gå ned 100.000 i lønn og fremdeles komme positivt ut av det hvis du kan gå til den nye jobben. Din tiltaksløshet bryr meg ikke.

C. Nordtvedt, en person med en fungerende hjerne, skriver under overskriften Bensinprisen er der den skal være:

For det første er det slik at om man korrigerer for kjøpekraft, så vil man se at Norge har den nest billigste bensinprisen i Europa. For det andre så er det slik at om vi sammenligner dagens bensinpris men den vi hadde for ti år siden, og tar høyde for den generelle lønnsøkningen i samfunnet, vil vi også se at bensinprisen er om lag tre prosent lavere i dag enn hva det var for ti år siden.
Altså, til tross for hva mange tror fordi antallet kroner per liter når du skal fylle opp tanken har blitt høyere, utgjør drivstoffutgiftene en mindre del av månedslønnen/årslønnen din i dag, enn hva tilfellet var for noen år siden. Faktisk har utviklingen av de norske bensinprisene fra 1998 til 2005 vært mer beskjeden enn prisstigningen i mange andre land.
Anbefaler alle å ta et oppgjør med bensinmytene.

Til slutt en virkelig sannhet, fra 'trippelf':

Ikkje snakk om ekstreme priser
før bensinen koster det samme som en bussbillett.

Something to look forward to ...

In ten minutes I'm off to see Street Kings. It'll only be the second time I've seen it. (But it won't be the last. ;-)

I enjoyed it the first time; no way did it deserve the mediocre reviews it got in this country. We'll see how I like it now, when I already know the story. Well, it doesn't matter really, as long as Keanu's in it, I'm game.

Oy vey ...

;-)

Later:

Well, it's not his best, but it's all in all pretty good. As in, not too bad. :-) You've got to take it for what it is. It's not a very deep story ... it's entertaining, and I guess it may be relatively realistic in that life in the LAPD is probably pretty shitty at times. I think Keanu does a pretty good job in this. Not his best work, but far from his worst. IMO Street Kings is a movie that's worth seeing if you like that type of movie (or if you just like Keanu ;-) or Forest Whitaker). It'll entertain you while you're watching it, but it probably won't make any really lasting impression.

Unless of course you plan to watch it fifteen times ...

;-)

Anéa liked it too, she thought it was entertaining ... despite, alas, the rotten subtitling. That sucked. But it wasn't a total loss - it ended up quite inspiring us ...

Mer moro med bensinprisene, del 3

Den mest fornuftige personen i debatten var en viss 'Menga'. Han/hun hadde veldig mye bra å si. Skulle gjerne tatt ham i hånda. :-) Det er så deilig å høre noen som faktisk er fornuftig og klarer å få vist det i et sånt surrete tulleforum som db.no dessverre stort sett er.

Jeg fatter ikke hvor dere kommer fra alle dere som virker sjokkert over at politikere forsøker å redusere visse typer forbruk. Har dere levd i en hule?
Det er et ubestridelig faktum at forbruket må ned (hvis man da har som mål å bevare kloden).
Jeg tror noe av problemet til mange av de sutrende, bensinkåte posterne er at dere er forvirret. At dere forveksler forbruk med livskvalitet. For meg er livet herlig hvis jeg kan fø meg selv og ha tid og mulighet til å fluefiske iblant. Hvis dere hadde blitt lykkelige av å kjøre bil og røyke blodprins til huden var nikotingul, ja da hadde ikke velgerne og de folkevalgte i FrP vært en gjeng sinte, furtende grinebitere med kun egne egoistiske behov på agendaen.

'The Kris' delte følgende lille hverdagsbilde med oss, og fulgte opp med gode argumenter for å se virkeligheten i øynene. Fremragende. :-)

Jobber i butikk, og det som alltid lyser opp dagen min (eller ettermiddagen riktignok) er folk som står i kassa og kjøper 3+ pakker røyk samtidig som de klager over priser på ditt og datt og hvor dårlig råd de har.
Enkelt eksempel.
Har du tatt en oversikt over hva du kan spare inn på? Kjøpe litt first price der det ikke er så farlig med kvaliteten, ikke kjøpe røyk, bruke sykkel istedenfor bil når mulig, evt. buss.
Lista er milelang, men få personer enten innser det ikke eller VIL IKKE innse det.
Og du kan si "Men vi bor jo i NORGE! Et av verdens rikeste land!
Vel her er en jævlig stygg sannhet; Det er ikke statens ansvar å gi deg penger til alt du vil ha, vi får allerede utrolig mye tilbake fra staten (sykehus f.eks.), og vil du ha mer så må du (evt. samboer/ektefelle) få dere en bedre jobb eller bedre betalt i jobben din,
Er du ansatt i staten ser jeg ironien i akkurat det :p

'Menga' svarte:

Gode poenger. Poenget er at mange anser det som en menneskerett å kunne unne seg 60 røyk om dagen og å kunne kjøre alle avstander utendørs med bil. Dette er ofte de samme menneskene som vil ha kraftig reduserte avgifter på alle varer de overforbruker OG som klager på sykehuskø når de ligger med selvpåført KOLS og lungekreft. Dette er ikke akkurat mennesker jeg unner stor innflytelse i de store samfunnsspørsmål.

Til slutt en mann med et ordentlig navn - Stig Eriksen! Han er en misantrop, men han har nok ganske så rett.

Jeg er helt enig med Menga at dette handler om større ting en at man ønsker å kjøre til og fra postkassen sin så mye man vil.
Forbruket av fossilt brennstoff er skadelig for miljøet og bør reduseres betraktelig, og raskt.
Når det er sagt... Denne saken handler faktisk bare om at på tross av at folk er urovekkende glade i å klage på staten og oljeselskapene, så er det bare for å få høre sin egen stemme, eller se sine ord på nett.
Skal man tro resultatene av dette forskningsprosjektet, og for min del synes jeg det virker sannsynlig det de har kommet frem til, så kommer vi alle til å være lykkelig i våre biler, og bare forlange litt ekstra i lønnsforhandlingene ved neste korsvei.
(Av en eller annen merkelig grunn så har flere her inne en vrangforestilling om at høyresiden i norsk politikk vil gi de nærmest gratis drivstoff. Hvordan de har fått det til er umulig å si, men jeg mener at jeg leste noe om utdanningsnivået til et parti på høyresiden sin velgermasse som kan forklare dette.)

Sånn! Nå er i hvert fall noen gullkorn bevart for ettertiden. :-)

Mer moro med bensinprisene, del 2

En fyr som ironisk nok kaller seg 'Real' skriver dette, som vitner om en innsikt i saker og ting som vel kanskje springer ut av et personlig ønske om hvordan verden burde være heller enn en overdreven opptatthet av realitetene ...

Når man setter lekepolitikere til å styre et land som Norge, så går det på denne måten her. De har jo rett og slett ikke filla peiling.
Hørte også vår lekestatsminister på radio, der han forsvarte de høyere avgiftene overfor opposisjonen. Makan til vissvass, og den samme kjatringa all over again... "skal vi få råd til eldreomsorg, barnehager og skoler..." FAEN, det er jo nettopp de tingene som går til helvete her i landet.
Et demokrati er heller ikke et demokrati før det fungerer som et demokrati.

Heldigvis fikk han svar på tiltale av 'Klunk', som tydeligvis har forstått litt mer av hvordan ting og tang faktisk henger sammen.

Hva er du egentlig sinna på? Må være noe mer enn regjeringa. Demokratiet i Norge fungerer sånn at regjeringa får flertall i stortinget for statsbudgettet. Ingen andre partier enn FrP vil senke bensinavgifta. Hva slags demokrati er det egentlig du tenker på? Et der alt du liker blir til virkelighet? Jeg foreslår "Age of Conan", så støtter du attpåtil enn viktig næring (som FrP var imot å støtte oppunder)!

Humor har han også. Jeg er sjarmert. :-)

Mer moro med bensinprisene, del 1

Dagbladet har en artikkel i dag om at forskere mener at nordmenn ikke kommer til å slutte å kjøre bil på nåværende nivå før bensinprisen er oppe i 25 kroner. De har åpnet artikkelen for debatt og ikke overraskende har det rent inn med innlegg i voldsomt tempo. En meget underholdende diskusjon har det blitt. ;-) Jeg må bare dele noen av innleggene med ettertiden ... og eventuelt med halvinteresserte lesere som ikke orker å tvinge seg gjennom hele greia. ;-)

En person som kaller seg Bjarte har kommet frem til følgende analyse av 'grunnen til at folk har dårlig råd'. Jeg er dypt imponert, jeg tror aldri jeg har lest en så innsiktsfull analyse av den samfunnsøkonomiske utviklingen i Norge de siste 20 år noen gang. Fantastisk. Han skriver:

- Kristin Halvorsen
- SV
- AP
- Jens Stoltenberg
- Regjeringen
- Staten

Wow, sier jeg bare!!

'Fidelbag' har noe veldig fornuftig å si til dette. Jeg er så enig så enig. Folk klager over matprisene, og allikevel kaster vi tusenvis av tonn med mat her i landet hvert år. Det er trist at mine medborgere virkelig er så teite som de tydeligvis må være.

Fjollete innlegg! Hvem har dårlig råd? Se på alle de hysteriske folka som det kryr av i kjøpesentrene. De løper rundt og handler inn en masse unødige ting som de ikke trenger. Det gjør de bare for å føle seg så vellykket. Det kalles å kjøpe seg lykke.
Nei, sett heller opp drivstoffavgiftene og tving folk over på offentlige kommunikasjonsmidler - særlig i rushtiden.

'Hedde' skrev følgende, og jeg tror hun, evt. han, har veldig rett i dette. Men det er selvfølgelig noe 'folk flest' (argh!) ikke gjerne ønsker å innrømme.

Jobber med en polakk som forteller at i Polen koster bensinen ca 9 kr literen. Samtidig er gjennomsnittlig brutto årslønn ca 7000 kr pr mnd. Regnet om til norske forhold ville bensinen da kostet nesten 40 kr literen om vi hadde hatt samme kjøpekraft. Hva ville skjedd da? Det ville blitt verdens ende for alle nordmenn. Fremskrittspartiet ville fått flertall på stortinget etter første valg. For være helt ærlig så DRITER jeg oppi hva bensinen koster, jeg kjører uansett. De som klager mest over bensinprisen er de som nettopp har kjøpt seg en ny 50 tommer flatskjerm og som reiser til syden to ganger i året.
Hvorfor klager nordmenn så mye? Vi bor i en fredelig krok av verden, forskånet for krig og naturkatastrofer. Vi har mye penger, gratis helsestell og gratis utdanning. Jeg tror de som klager mest egentlig er misfornøyd med seg selv.......

Og selvsagt har denne 'Dta' fullstendig rett i sitt lille paradoks:

Ok: Vann på flaske til over kr 40.- per liter på bensinstasjonen, et produkt alle i Norge kan skaffe 100% gratis
Ikke bra: bensin på den samme stasjonen som er lagd av råolje henta fra havets bunn som aldri kan reproduseres til kr 15.-
Pussig - veldig pussig

Akkurat det der har jeg stussa litt på selv til tider.

Dag Solstad er en stor dust.

Det er vel egentlig det jeg har å si om den saken.

Hvor navlebeskuende selvsentrert er det egentlig mulig å bli, liksom.

Hadde ikke forventet å høre meg selv si dette, men Vebjørn Selbekk, jeg støtter deg.

An update on my grandmother.

I'm not sure whether I have good news or bad news.

She is still with us and her condition is now completely stable. (As stable as you can get after a stroke at 91, anyway.) But she's far from healthy. And she's in an old folks' home needing help with everything - exactly what she never wanted. My mother came home on Sunday, I was there when she arrived ... she was upset, which is hardly to be wondered at. Not a quivering mess in any way, though. In a relatively good mood, all things considered, but obviously with something weighing on her. She was so happy to see me ... she cried a bit when I hugged her ... and her mood sort of went up and down through the evening. It's a difficult time for her. For all of us, but for her especially. It's her mommy. :-(

Apparently my grandmother is strangely optimistic; she seems to think that with some training and exercise she'll be pretty much back to her old self and will be able to go back home and carry on as usual. That's good IMO, that she's optimistic. But it's pretty far from reality, or so my mother says. Her eyesight has been damaged, she has trouble seeing well enough to eat, and she has trouble sitting up straight, she keeps leaning to one side ... so clearly there's been some damage done by this stroke. I feel so bad for her. She thinks she'll be able to recover pretty well. But my mother doesn't. To the point that coming back home this time she'd brought some things from my grandmother's house with her. Plants, mainly. She gave me two cacti that my grandmother's had for years. She said that there's no reason that the plants shouldn't live for a while longer. :-(

It's so sad to think that we've already started emptying out my grandmother's house. My mother is sure that she'll never live in it again. I hate that thought. But what can I do.

This coming weekend we're going up there to visit her. My parents and me. We'll be staying in the empty house :-( and visiting her in the home. I both want to go and don't want to go. I want to see her, but not like that ... :-(

And the Secret, which we'd hoped was starting to make its way out of its dark little dungeon at long last, is of course as securely under lock and key as ever. Talk about people creating problems for themselves ...

If you don't have any problems in your life ...

... you can certainly create some by going to an internet forum and forcing yourself to read a long list of posts by a person you think is completely annoying and has nothing sensible to say. Yes, some people really do do this. (Read the thread and see if you can spot the person with the perfect, trouble free life.) I really have to wonder how it's possible that the English language has no word for fritidsproblemer ... because sometimes I soo need to use it.

Maybe I need to start keeping a list somewhere of BookCrossers whose posts I make it a rule not to read. Well, it's early days still. So far it's really just the resident crazy fundie Xian troll, and this new one I added today, whose posts have annoyed me many times in the past anyway, so my heart is not quite broken. But today's argument was a very good example of the old saying that arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics ... even if you win, you're still retarded. (I mean, 'It's not true that all Russians are racists because I work with four Russians and only one of them is a little bit racist'. What? Well, if one person in the UK knows three Russian citizens who aren't racists, then of course that does indeed negate all the brutal racist violence that has become endemic to Russian society and the rising levels in hate crime. I guess it is all just bad press after all. Gag me with a spoon.)

[Mr Putin, please don't have me assassinated. I voted for Believe seven times on Saturday.]

I'm sure I do come across as a callous, heartless machine creature to those I engage in conversations with online, but even my feelings can be a little bit hurt when someone calls me a 'rabid dog'. So I said she was a bitch and walked away from it. Yes, folks, that's about as mature as I get. Don't like it - get the fuck outta my face.

To make this charming day even better, I got a call from company head office in Trondheim to complain that there's something wrong with my accounts from week 19. What is this sum here of minus 17,500 NOK? That looks like an error. YES, it is an error, I know it is because I put the error there. As I have explained at least four times already, this error arises when I am forced to allow my coworkers to make cash withdrawals using our bank terminal, which is not set up for this. Trust me, I don't want to let them do that, because I KNOW that it will create an error in the accounts. Have I told my department manager this? Yes, as I also mentioned the four previous times that we had this conversation, I have, but he thinks it's so convenient to have basically an ATM machine in the building (and on his way out of it >;-), so let's just let head office have that little worry. ARGH.

I wonder how many weeks till I have to explain the same thing again.

But now the whole lot of them can go hang!! I'm off to meet two of my friends (I have some!! :-o) for the best hot chocolate in town at the fancy Library Bar in Hotel Bristol.

Vrag naj vzame!! :-D

Er det noe vi nordmenn virkelig kan ...

... så er det å syte over bensinprisene. Jeg blir kvalm. Nå er det en eller annen idiot som har startet en boikott overfor Shell og Statoil (smart å boikotte et selskap som ikke engang finnes mer). Hvor tett i nøtta skal man egentlig være for å tro at en slik aksjon overhodet kan ha mulighet for å ha noen slags effekt??

Et par bloggere med fornuftige ting å si om saken:

Sigve Indregard skriver meget sindig og klokt om boikotten og om bensinprisene mer generelt. Skulle virkelig ønske at flere var like reflekterte som ham. Mange flere.

Og på Latterlig! har man som meg gitt seg over av toskeskapen som denne boikotten er et utslag av og heller gitt seg på de mer tekniske sider ved saken. Genialt.

Med disse to linkene på plass orker jeg ikke å skrive mer om dette, men konstaterer bare at boikotten som ethvert barn kunne ha gjettet selvsagt ikke virker.

Et passende innlegg på en dag som denne - 100 år siden det ble funnet olje i Persia.

Give me a break ... !!

An article in Dagbladet online today about the Swedish media's reaction to the Swedish entry's 18th place in the ESC final last night. The newspaper Expressen blames, first and foremost, Norway for the bad result, saying that we have 'betrayed' them by 'only' giving them 7 points. They 'ought' to have gotten at least 10 for their piece of shit song.

OMG, GET OVER YOURSELVES ... !!! :-o

First of all, this song shouldn't even have been in the final, because number one, it wasn't the song the Swedish people wanted to send (it was the jury votes that made Hero the winner; Sanna Nielsen was the one the voters wanted and with her Empty Room she would definitely have done better than Perrelli) and number two, it didn't get the votes it needed from Europe in the semi, it only snuck in as the jury groups' wildcard. So Perrelli and her entourage + supporters should just have been grateful to be in Belgrade at all, because strictly speaking they had no business being there in the first place.

The Swedes have been some of the worst to whine about the bloc voting the Eastern Europeans are all engaging in. But now when the Scandinavian bloc voting didn't work out to their advantage, all they can do is whine about how there isn't enough bloc voting going on here!! The much-touted 'Nordic alliance' was just a mirage, Expressen's ESC commentator claims. Well, yeah, it is a mirage if they thought it was an alliance in support of Sweden regardless of the song involved!

The commentator, Andreas Häggström, thinks that Norway ought to give Sweden 'ten points as a minimum'. WTF?? This is a democratic vote, the TV audiences at home vote in whatever way they will! Should we set aside the televote and reserve the 10-pointer for Sweden every year? Is he advocating blatant cheating? This has got to be the dumbest ESC-related statement I've heard this year (and I've heard some doozies ...).

Norway gave 12 points to Denmark, 8 to Iceland and 7 to Sweden. How is that a 'betrayal'? Even with the extra five (!!) points from us Perrelli would still be languishing in 18th place. Even with every single Nordic 12-pointer I don't think she would have made it any higher than 14th. So how is it even possible to be whining about this?? If Sweden wants to win through bloc voting - which is strange, since they appear to loathe bloc voting so much when it helps other nations to win - then they should just throw in the towel right now, because the simple fact is that no Nordic country has enough neighbors to make that possible.

The answer's obvious. Send some better songs!! Hero is a piece of shit and no one ought to be surprised that it didn't get anywhere. Fortunately, the majority of Expressen's own readers seem to agree. This really is a prime example of an 'aviskrig' ('newspaper war'). An argument that doesn't really exist other than in the articles describing it.

The Swedes need to make up their minds. Either bloc voting is bad and borders on cheating, or it's a good thing and we should all be happy it exists. It really cannot be cheating when 'they' do it, and natural and even desirable when we do it. That is just not right. (In fact it's almost as bad as when people claim we need to kick the Easterners out and return to the good old days when the contest was just for us 'real Europeans'. :-o) Let's just look reality in the face: Europe is tired of the same old ABBA ripoffs that Sweden keeps sending year after year. It worked in the past, but it doesn't work anymore. Just deal with it and get up to speed.

Because that's almost the saddest thing of all. We all know that Sweden can do so much better. The national contest in Sweden is generally on a much higher level than the Norwegian one. It was that way this year too. When that's the case, and Norway still manages to get to 5th place with Sweden far behind in the dust at 18th ... that's when it's time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Good luck next year, Sweden. I know you can do it ... if you really try. :-)

Jeg må le ... :-)

Dagbla' på nett har åpna for debatt på en artikkel om finalen. En tulling skriver om vinnerlåta under overskriften 'Motbydelig' (jeg har ikke rettet på skrivefeil):
Tidenenes mest jævlige vinnerlåt. Her var det ikke talent, her var det ikke melodi, og den fyren burde ikke vunnet en sang konkuranse, han burde ha feid salen etterpå.
Og resten av top 5 var pauseinnslaget fra pornofilm messen i Las Vegas.
Nå må vi se å dele denne konkuransen i gamle EVF land og nye. Vi kan ikke fortsette å pøse penger inn i en konkuranse hvor Balkansk og Slavisk kultur og diplomati får lov til å holde på med dette. EVF var ille nok før, så nå må vi følge Italia, Luxenburg og nå også Østerrike og komme oss ut av dette.

Haha, jeg må le!! Hvorfor i alle dager ser sånne folk på MGP?? :-D

Han har fått et kongesvar fra en eller annen:
Lag en bedre låt da. Folk har stemt, så sitt ved din mening og hold kjeft.
Konkurransen blir avgjort på en demokratisk måte.
Hvis du ikke takler at Norge kommer på 5. plass så LA VÆR Å SE PÅ MGP.
Du kan gå og feie salen selv.

Haha! :-D

(Hva er forresten et 'EVF-land'?)

The voting begins ...

[These will be my ongoing comments as the results are revealed, little by little.]

12 points to Russia from Ukraine, what a surprise ... ;-)

Looks like a showdown between Russia and Greece. Go Russia!! Come on, Europe!!

I'm surprised that Bosnia & Herzegovina are doing so badly. :-(

But Sweden is seriously bombing. Balm to my soul. >:-)

Our commentator this year is so boring. It's her first year and she's doing a lousy job IMO. She's repeating herself and is just ... dull. Apparently she's been told by NRK to be 'neutral' or something. Bad choice. Come back, Jostein Pedersen ... !!

Russia's winning, yay!!! I knew it!! Happy happy ... ! :-D

Sweden gave us their 12 points! OMG!! Nå står ikke verden til påske, as we say round these parts. ;-)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: MOSCOW 2009!!! :-D

Russia will crush Sweden like a bug and we'll meet in Moscow in 2009!! :-D

Happy happy, joy joy!! :-D

That's all, folks!!

The voting is on. :-) I've voted seven times for Russia and three times for Croatia. My duty as a citizen is done.

I wish there was an option of giving an entry a minus vote, I would have done that for Sweden and Latvia. Blech.

The voting will be really exciting tonight, because there's no clear favorite, no one who's obviously 'ahead of the field'.

My father sent me his predictions by SMS (he's watching it at home alone as my mother is still at my grandmother's house):
'Germany worst, Spain funniest, Georgia best show, Norway best song, Ukraine will win!' :-)

The intermission show is pretty good. Fun ... and very Serbian. My Serbian friend and his Norwegian wife are dancing as I type this. :-)

Serbia, Russia, Norway

Serbia:
Shades of Molitva and of Nocturne ...
This is a good song, another one that's been growing on me.
She has a wonderful voice and it's a beautiful song. But it's too much like last year's winner for my money.
They will definitely do well, but I don't think it's original enough to go all the way.

Russia:
Yees ... !!! My favorite! Go Russia!!
Dima is a little too intense, he needs to talk to somebody. ;-)
The presentation is very Soviet :-D but I like it.
A serious contender!! Go Russia! I like this song more and more every time I hear it.
Will definitely do extremely well. May well win.
Should win. ;-)

Norway:
A good song, performed well by a singer with a good voice who really knows how to use her voice as well. (There's something to be learned from that - Czech Republic, I'm looking at you ...)
This is a good song although the lyrics are a little embarrassing at times (obviously written by a fifteen year old). And the presentation is good, it's simple and tasteful.
I think we have pretty good chances this year.

Azerbaijan, Greece, Spain

Azerbaijan:
It's almost impressive - to manage to be both vulgar and unoriginal and sing badly at the same time.
I like this song less and less every time I hear it.
This is where some of those Serbian snipers would have come in handy - where are they when we need them??

Greece:
Another potential winner. Though I hope they won't win as this is far too much like My Number One.
Not very original, but incredibly catchy.
Not a very good voice, and the performance is pretty tasteless. Tacky is the word I'm looking for. Stop importing Americans to this contest right now!!
They'll do well. But, well ... I'm not impressed with the presentation.

Spain:
Excellent ... !!
This is fun. I have a Chilean and a Serbian dancing in front of me right now. :-D This is really cool - best Spanish entry for years.
I think they may do well. But it would have been good if the audience had seen it before, that would have built up the expectations and gotten people more psyched up about it.
Good luck to Spain! They deserve it this year. :-)

Georgia, Ukraine, France

Georgia:
This song is either very catchy or very repetitive.
Not one of my personal favorites, but it's probably going to do pretty well.
The presentation would have been better if it hadn't been so obvious.

Ukraine:
The song is almost the same as Sweden's, so since it has much more charm and spirit I hope it will steal all of Sweden's votes. >:-)
The presentation is almost the same as Armenia's ... for my money the Armenian song is better. But this will do very well. Another potential winner.

France:
ROTFL!!! OMG, fantastic!!!!
12 points for humor!! Brilliant!!
One of the best presentations of the night. Certainly the cleverest. :-)
France deserves to do so well this year. I so hope they will.
But they would have benefited from being heard more than once.
France should do better this year than they have for a long time.

Latvia, Sweden, Denmark

Latvia:
Boo hiss!!
This is just crap. I can understand why some intoxicated people may vote for this ;-) but it really is ... amateurish, not on the level of the rest of these entries ... or most of them, anyway. ;-)
It must be sad for their choreographer to see this.
It's mindboggling that this made it to the final.
Blech!!

Sweden:
They are trying to use that gimmick of theirs, but fortunately the camera people haven't understood what they're trying to do and ruin it for them. Tee-hee. :-)
Charlotte is awful, the performance is awful and the song is awful! They are all robots and the song is a soulless monster. ARGH!! Don't vote for this, Europe!!

Denmark:
I do like his outfit.
He has a good voice and a good stage presence.
This is a pretty good entry, but I don't think it's got what it takes.
Good luck, Denmark, but I don't see this very high on the list.

Iceland, Turkey, Portugal

Iceland:
This is a sort of good party tune, a good beat and catchy as far as it goes. But it sounds kind of old, like something from the late 90s. Not very original. Very standard. And same with the presentation.
And what's with that hair, and the costumes ... I know this is the ESC, but aren't there some limits to how gay these things can be?! ;-)
They shouldn't get very far with this. It's just totally standard and so ten years ago.

Turkey:
This is good!! One of the best entries from Turkey ever, IMO. The presentation is good, not that creative perhaps but it suits the song very well. I like this a lot - I don't think it has any chances of winning, but the Turks can certainly hold their heads up this year. A good entry.

Portugal:
This song gets better and better every time I hear it. First time around I thought it was pretty boring, but it has soo grown on me. This is the fourth time I'm hearing it today and I think it's a beautiful ballad. And she's fantastic!! What a voice and what a performance. Good luck, Portugal!!! They deserve to do soo well this year and I think they will too. :-)

Finland, Croatia, Poland

Finland:
I like this song ... and serious kudos for singing in Finnish. Finnish is a good language for this type of music. ;-)
I was really surprised when this song made it through from the final, but it is really pretty good.
Their performance is better tonight than it was on Tuesday.

Croatia:
Awww ... !!
This song is just so lovely. Absolutely beautiful. I love it. :-)
That old guy is really just too adorable. The dancer is beautiful and dances very well (I love it that she's barefoot!).
I love this song, I think it's actually my favorite. I'll have to vote for this as well as for Russia. ;-)
12 points for charm ... !!

Poland:
OMG, look at her teeth ... !! I think I need sunglasses. :-o
V. unbecoming dress. Her hips are just too wide for that type of dress.
It's an OK ballad, but IMO it's pretty boring. I don't see the charm in this. Especially coming right after Croatia, I really don't see it.

Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Israel

Armenia:
Excellent!!
This is a potential winner, definitely. Yerevan 2009?? :-)
Very well presented. Although she did sound a little out of breath towards the end there. :-)
Nice dress and she certainly knows how to shake her ... fringe.
V. good all round.

Bosnia & Herzegovina:
One of my favorites.
Original and creative, and great presentation.
I hope they do very well, they deserve to. I have high hopes for them this year.

Israel:
His voice keeps getting better every time I hear it. And the presentation is striking.
But I think the song is boring. I suppose they may do well, but I hope it won't. It's too standard ... there are a number of more original and entertaining songs in the lineup this year.

Romania, United Kingdom, Albania, Germany

Romania:
A song that gets better every time I hear it. Though it would have been better with just him, she kind of ruins the song a little bit for me.
She's changed her dress, a silver dress, what a surprise!! :-D
A good song. They'll do well.

United Kingdom:
A perfectly alright song, and the singer's really good. Good stage presence, good voice, puts a lot of effort into it, and I love the light effects. :-) But they'll do badly - because this song is 20 years old. Stock/Aitken/Waterman could have produced this in 1988. This poor guy is totally wasted on this song. A shame, actually.

Albania:
A good song! She's sweet and she has a really good voice, and the song is a beautiful ballad. It won't take much to make this Albania's best result ever, they've never placed higher than 16th. They deserve to do well with this IMO. A lovely entry.

Germany:
Blech.
These women look like drag queens at a distance.
Awful costumes. Awful presentation.
The song itself isn't that bad, the entry could have been much better. But hopefully they will do badly with this.

The show is on ... !!! :-D

It's started ... !!

Amazing opening act!! A rocked up disco version of Molitva, totally gay :-D ... awesome!! Fantastic, I'm loving it.

An excellent opening to what I'm sure will be a fantastic show. :-)

Seven hours and counting ... !!

Not long now ... !! :-D

I'll venture a few guesses, I've had some more time to think it over now. :-) Let's see.

If Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Armenia or Norway win, I will not be surprised.

If Sweden wins, I will not be surprised, but I will be sad. :-(

If Croatia or Bosnia (or Portugal ... ?? :-o) wins, I will be a little surprised, but happy. :-)

If any other country than these wins, I will be surprised. In some cases very surprised.

If Latvia wins (yeah, right) I will be FURIOUS.

These IMO deserve to do well, apart from the above:
Albania
Romania
Turkey
France
Serbia

These IMO do not deserve to do well, apart from the above:
Germany
United Kingdom
Poland
Iceland
Denmark

If I were to get everything my own way :-) I would want Russia as the winner, Latvia at rock bottom with zero points, Sweden not much above them (but they will do well though, sob) and excellent results for Bosnia, Croatia and France. Other than that, let the points fall where they will. :-)

The latter three I think deserve a lot of recognition for making such a great effort this year. France has really made a serious effort, their song is very good and it's so great to see such an unusual entry. I wish them the best of luck with their entry. Bosnia & Herzegovina deserve serious points for originality and creativity. And Croatia deserve points for the same things, and also for just having hands down the most charming entry of all this year. Maybe they should just win the whole thing?? :-) I would be thrilled for them if that happened. They have never won before, and they have never deserved it more than now. :-)

The night before ...

... the big day ... :-)

I am so excited, this is like Christmas to me. :-) Almost better than Christmas. ESC final night is definitely one of the highlights of the year for me. If only I had a life, maybe I would have more important things to think about ... but there you go. In Norwegian, we have a saying: you don't get any more fun than you make yourself ...

I'll be watching the show at a couple of friends' house with, let's see, we'll be six or seven people. Oh, it'll be so much fun, I can't wait. :-) Who will walk away with the honor & glory?? My guess is it'll come down to a fight between East and West - either Russia or Ukraine on the one hand, or Norway or Sweden, on the other. I'm rooting for Russia, but I'll be happy with any of these four except Sweden. That song ... 'nuff said. Anything but that. Vote for Russia ... !!!!

(The dark horse this year is Bosnia. The best of luck to them. I'd be thrilled to see them win, too.)

I was talking to my friend Anea earlier today, about the contest (she's a big fan too) and about the debate on the BookCrossing forum that she checked out a couple days ago. She has a theory about why the debate got so heated at first, when I slammed the Irish entry - why certain members reacted as they did and why I don't understand their reaction. I think she's right. The point she made was that those people who got so upset with me don't care about the contest. They only care about the song, because it's a matter of national pride for them. Whereas I, on the other hand, care rather passionately about the contest ;-) but I don't care much about the songs, as such. My 'opponents' or whatever want the Irish song to win, for the sole reason that it is the Irish song and they are Irish. (Substitute whatever nationality comes to mind here.) I however don't want the Norwegian song to win just because it's the Norwegian song. I want a country to win that really deserves it, by having an excellent entry. Let's suspend disbelief to the extreme for a moment and say Norway had won last year - OMG, I would have been so ashamed!! :-o But for some people, the quality of the entry is irrelevant, as long as 'their' song does well that's all that matters.

I guess that's just an attitude that I don't understand. Maybe I'm just not nationalistic enough. ;-) For my money, all of Europe are my friends on Eurovision night, and may the best song win!!!

The results are in!!

Ukraine. Of course. As if there was ever any doubt. ;-)

Croatia. Yes!!!

Albania. Oh, that's so nice for them. I thought they might. :-)

Iceland. What?!? WTF??
I so did not expect that.

Georgia. But that was less unexpected. ;-)

Denmark. WTF again?? Surprised, again.

Sweden. Nooo ... !!! :-(

Latvia. WHAT?????
Europe, you disappoint me ... !!! >:-(

Turkey. Yeah, I thought so. :-)

Portugal. Not entirely surprising.

Malta, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Portugal

Malta:
Finally a nice outfit again ... or pretty nice, anyway. Didn't notice the boots at first.
A really good voice and a professional, confident singer ... pretty good presentation ... and a catchy, upbeat song.
But. It gets really annoying really quickly.
I can feel my blood pressure rising as I watch this ...

Cyprus:
And we're back to the hideous gowns ...
Ouch, she changed, and now it's almost even worse! :-o
This song is catchy and sort of has many elements that one ought to like, but I don't like it anyway. It seems very calculated to me. Kind of heartless, like the Swedish song.
I don't think this will get to the final.

FYR Macedonia:
This song is just really boring IMO, there's nothing to it that makes it stand out in any way. And nothing much that's special about the presentation either.
I don't have much to say about this. It's just completely standard issue all the way.
I hope it doesn't get through, it doesn't deserve it.

Portugal:
A better presentation that in their national final. Rather striking.
Maybe overly theatrical for my taste. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
She has a very good voice and this is a beautiful ballad. And the similarities to last year's winner have been toned down a lot. So now I'm starting to think they may not be so off the mark with this. :-)
No chance of winning, I don't think, but may get to the final, I won't be surprised if they do.

Bulgaria, Denmark, Georgia, Hungary

Bulgaria:
This is seriously cool. I love that they've gone out on a limb with a new genre like this. And the song is really good.
I like this a lot and I think they have a chance of doing really well this year. I hope and believe we'll see this on Saturday.
Regardless of the results, this song will be playing constantly all over Sunny Beach all summer ... ;-)

Denmark:
Hm, they've changed the opening ... so that it doesn't sound so much like that other song. Imagine that.
Meh, again. It's catchy and all that, but it doesn't do much for me personally. And I'm not convinced that it will for many others, either.
The presentation seems rather oldfashioned to me. Not sure this will appeal to a lot of people.

Georgia:
When the singer is blind, you'd think someone would offer to help her pick out a dress ...
A good voice, and her heart is certainly in it.
The song is not at all bad - if only I couldn't understand the lyrics, it would be so much better.
Not digging this presentation though ... starting to get a bit too obvious for my taste.
Maybe, maybe not. I think it can go either way for this song.

Hungary:
A wonderful voice.
Less wonderful outfit ...
And I wish I couldn't understand the lyrics! It's a lovely melody. The more I hear it, the better I like it. If Poland could get through, this certainly should make it too.
OK presentation, except her dress or whatever that thing is that she's wearing.

Czech Republic, Belarus, Latvia, Croatia

The Czech Republic:
What was that I was saying on Tuesday about backing singers who look like hookers ... ?
Oh, what a voice she has. She's a singer professionally? :-o Don't quit your day job ...
Bad song, bad performance, bad singer.
No chance.

Belarus:
I'm curious to see this presentation!
Pretty cool ... I like the star globes ... ! :-)
The song is genuinely catchy, it's a good song IMO. Belarus are getting to be a force to be reckoned with in the ESC. But they cannot and must not win!
They will get to the final, I will be extremely surprised if they don't.

Latvia:
What complete and utter crap.
They can't sing very well. They look like idiots. And the song is just, in a word, STUPID.
This is like a bunch of amateurs dressed up to entertain children at some birthday party.
They look like they're starting to lose their enthusiasm for their own entry now ...
Oh, please just give it up ...

Croatia:
Oh, I love that old guy ... !! He is so cool, and it's so cool of them to have him in the act. :-)
And this song is just beautiful. Lovely. :-)
They've got to get to the final, I can't imagine they won't.
A good presentation. Fun and simple. :-)
I dig that old geezer ... !!! :-D

Ukraine, Lithuania, Albania, Switzerland

Ukraine:
This is a shoe-in. Dodgy lyrics and not the best diction, but hey, English is difficult. :-) Seriously cool presentation. This song doesn't start off too well but it gets better very quickly. Me like ... and the rest of Europe will no doubt like it too.

Lithuania:
BURN ... !!!!!!!!
This is the one song in this year's contest that I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone at all can see anything in. Or hear. All the other shitty entries, Ireland, Latvia, even Estonia, and, yes, Sweden, I can see how people may like something about them. They don't do anything for me, but I have no problem accepting that others may. But this? Seriously: This guy's mother must be ashamed to see this. This is so far beyond bad that I have no words to describe it.

Albania:
A lovely ballad, with some elements of rock. Their best ever, definitely. She has a wonderful voice. This is a good entry, well presented. This definitely has a chance for a slot in the finals. I think it's a song that may appeal to a lot of different demographics (argh, that word) in the audience.
Good luck, Albania! They deserve to do well this year.

Switzerland:
Even better than I remembered!! A great presentation! :-) Wow! :-)
They should definitely be in the final. Good song, good singer, good presentation, what more can we ask for. And certainly he got them going in the Arena.
I'm optimistic about Switzerland. :-)

Iceland, Sweden, Turkey

Iceland:
Meh.
The song is OK as far as it goes, but it's just so absolutely nothing special. Can't imagine we'll be seeing this on Saturday. It's a good party song, but it's oldfashioned. It's a kind of song that just isn't sent to the ESC anymore, normally. Maybe ten years ago this would have done well, but that was then and this is now.

Sweden:
Fortunately they've been given the worst possible slot ...

Out of the light, like a star, like a hero
Love will survive
Taking the fight is the life of a hero
Staying alive

WHAT does any of this mean???? It means NOTHING!!! It's like this is being sung by a person who doesn't know the language she's singing in. It is so utterly devoid of any semblance of meaning. The last phrase in this chorus is 'staying alive' ONLY because 'alive' rhymes with 'survive'. That is the ONLY reason. I am offended by these lyrics. Humans have brains and cognitive capacities, why deny this??
She looks SO AWFUL ... !
Yep, they're doing the b/w thing. But it doesn't work as well here as it did in the national final. It isn't that clear here that that's what they're doing.
She really is made entirely out of plastic. Everything she does is just rehearsed, mechanical. This is so awful. How can this possibly be a favorite?!?
Charlotte Perrelli's own personal hero is her mom. Oh, gag me with a spoon.

Turkey:
Serious kudos for singing in Turkish!!
Yeah, this is good!! Turkish rock! They definitely need to be there on Saturday. I think I would vote for them if I could.
I think this song is cool, it really does rock :-) and they are professionals on stage. Much better than the weirdness Turkey normally sends. V. good!!

Semi final number two!

Dare I venture a guess tonight ... ?

I am certainly 100% completely & utterly sure of the fate of one entry tonight. There is no way in hell that Lithuania will be able to get anywhere whatsoever with that steaming turd of a song they have sent. Sorry, 'song'. No way. Burn!!

I also hope & believe that the Latvian song will not be heard again. And I can't believe the Czechs have any chances.

I am completely sure that Ukraine will get to the final.

Who else will make it through to Saturday?

Croatia and Bulgaria, I hope very much. I think their chances are really good.
Turkey, I wouldn't be surprised.
Maybe Albania for the first time ever, if the viewers want to see a pretty young thing. :-)
Belarus, deservedly, I guess I must admit, but unfortunately.
Malta. Why not. A quick song and a pretty good singer. Depends on the presentation. (I'm talking to you, Slovenia.)
Hungary, sure. The audiences went for a boring ballad on Tuesday, so why not. (This one is better than the Polish one, IMO.)
Switzerland would deserve it this year, if they present the song well.
Maybe Georgia. Depends on the presentation. The song is full of cliches, but sometimes people really dig cliches. :-)
Sweden, I fear!! NOOOO ... !!! The song is worthless. It has nothing. And the singer looks like a plastic drag queen doll. For my money it shouldn't even be there, but I fear the worst.

And the others? Iceland? Nah. Denmark - I hope not, their song is such a ripoff. Cyprus, probably not. And I'd guess not Macedonia either (hope that's not just wishful thinking :-).

Portugal I really don't know. I wouldn't vote for it. But maybe it has something. I can't really tell. :-)

On with the show!!

'Her sitter tre norske kvinner fengslet' ...

... eller tre norske idioter som det også gjerne kalles.

Er det MULIG å være så utrolig teit som disse tre har vært. Det er sånne ting man ikke tror kan skje lenger, fordi alle normalt begavede mennesker lærte på 80-tallet at sånne stunt ikke lar seg gjennomføre av amatører.

'Åh, vi ante ikke noe om at det var kokain i bagene, skjønner ikke hvordan det kan ha skjedd, noen helt andre må ha lagt det der ...'

Er jeg slem, eller hva skal man kalle dette her??

Ja, selvsagt er det en teoretisk mulighet for at dette er tilfeldigheter og sammenblandinger og disse folka er helt uskyldige. Men hva er egentlig oddsene for at når man kjøper seg noen ekstra bagger på markedet så ender man opp med noen som ved et rent sammentreff inneholder 23 kilo kokain i falske bunner.

Er ikke 23 kilo av de aller fleste substanser ganske tungt og plasskrevende? Er man ikke veldig nøye på vekta når man må kjøpe ekstra bagasje for å få med seg alt man har shoppa hjem på flyet? Er det bare meg, eller høres dette faktisk temmelig merksnodig ut ... ?


OPPDATERING kl. 13:07.

Det viser seg at all kokainen lå i bare én koffert. I en falsk bunn i én av koffertene, skriver Dagbladet.

Hvordan i alle dager er det mulig å liksom ikke merke at du har 23 kilo for mye i kofferten din?? Er disse jentene vektløftersker eller hva er dette for noen damer?!

Denne historien virker stadig mer usannsynlig ...

Good news, I suppose.

I talked to my mother on the phone a few hours ago. My grandmother is doing better, she is definitely stable now. My mother will be coming back home tomorrow night. She's been really torn about when to go back. But today my grandmother got a place in ... basically in an old folks' home. :-( She'll get her settled in there tomorrow and then come home. So I guess that's good, but ...

Apparently my grandmother has no problems right now with going to this place. So if she's OK with it, then I guess I have to be OK with it too. But it's so sad to think of her empty house ... :-(

But in genuinely good news: The book was still there. :-)

I am called to the hunt ... !!

For a book! :-)

BookCrosser zimort has been to Oslo today, s/he's been to the Official BookCrossing Zone I run in a café downtown. Picked up a couple of books and released some. I got emails about the books s/he was planning to release two days ago ... and one of them is a book I'd really love to read. So after work today I'm off on a hunt, to see if my luck will hold and the book will still be there.

Fingers crossed!

Here we go ...

Greece! I knew it! :-)

Romania. OK. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I would not have voted for them myself. (And didn't. ;-)

Bosnia & Herzegovina. Of course!!

Finland?! What??
OK, surprised now ... !! :-o

RUSSIA!!! Yes!!!

Israel. Noo! That boring song. Blech.

Azerbaijan. OK. Happy for them, it's their first time. :-)

Armenia. I knew it. :-)

Poland. Another pretty boring song. I don't quite get it. But it's not a bad entry.

Norway. Congratulations, Mira and Maria! :-) Good for them. I can't imagine we have any chance of winning, but it's fun to be in the final, anyway. :-)

The voting is about to begin ...

OK, my best guess for the final, in no particular order:

Definitely:
Russia :-)
Greece
Armenia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Montenegro

Maybe:
Slovenia
The Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Moldova

I admit I'm being a little optimistic with the three Western countries on the maybe list. ;-) And not sure where to put Romania and Azerbaijan in all this ...

Finland, Romania, Russia, Greece

Finland:
I like this song, but come on! This is exactly what they did two years ago, just without the masks. I don't think we'll be seeing this on Saturday. I don't think audiences want this now. And the presentation is boring. Raise your hand anyone who has not seen this dozens of times before ... ?
It's great that they're singing in Finnish, I really appreciate that. But I don't think this will get anywhere.

Romania:
A pretty ballad, but what else is new?
They both have good voices, I'll give them that, but ...
I kept waiting for something to happen to make this song special. It's a good song, a strong ballad, but again, I don't see where the hook is that will make this stand out above the rest.
Romania's one of the ESC greats in recent years. They're favorites this year too, but I'm really not sure.
Maybe.

Russia:
Yees ... !! My favorite this year. :-) Go Russia ... !!!
They will get a shitload of votes because Dima Bilan is Dima Bilan.
And he certainly does believe. :-D Psycho intensity, much?
Oh look, he's doing a Sandie Shaw ... !! LOL!
Yes, nothing says 'I have faith' better than a tame Olympic ice skating champion ... :-D
This is another song that's really growing on me. I dig it. I believe!! :-D
No question about it, Russia's in the final.

Greece:
Hey, it's Britney Spears five years ago ... ;-)
Now that is odd - I remember her voice as being better in the video ... ;-)
It's working pretty well anyway. An insanely catchy song will get you far. And here comes the ethnic vibe ... :-D
Personally I don't dig the presentation, but that's me. Many will no doubt like it.
I'm sure that Greece will be part of the show on Saturday too.

A great ending to the show so far. :-)

Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Armenia, the Netherlands

Andorra:
Is it catchy, or is it annoying?
It's certainly is a beat that sticks in your mind very quickly ...
But nil points for presentation! She looked so pretty in the video! What have they done with her? What on earth is that thing on her head??
Sorry, Andorra. I thought you might qualify this year ... but no, you won't.

Bosnia & Herzegovina:
LOL!! How come I can't stand those other gag entries, but I dig this?? :-)
This isn't a gag entry on the same level as those others, though - this is based on a rhyme for children, and like so many such rhymes it definitely has something undefinable. This song keeps getting better and better the more I hear it.
The presentation is weird, but it works.
Bosnia, you're in!!

Armenia:
Now here's an entry we should be keeping our eye on. No question, Sirusho will be on stage on Saturday. No doubt in my mind. I'll be seriously surprised if she's not.
A really good song, professionally performed and a good presentation.

The Netherlands:
This is good!!
I already like this song a lot. It has so many great elements. And she's wonderful. :-) Good presentation, I dig her dress.
The Netherlands have serious chances this year. I think a lot of Easterners will go for this ... and quite a few in the West too, though probably younger people mostly.
This is a really good entry. Me like. :-)

Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Ireland

Slovenia:
Hope everything goes as it should, she's been having problems with her cage in rehearsals ... :-D
I like this song. The song itself should definitely be finals material. But the presentation is weird. What is the red thread in this supposed to be? If there's a story here, I'm totally missing it ...
But as the lady says, to hell with it! :-D I'm almost sure we'll be seeing this on Saturday.

Norway:
Love can be hard sometimes
Yes, it can catch you off guard like bad crimes
This is what is known in my language as an 'emergency rhyme' ...
Ballads are always risky. But at least our performer can actually really sing. I love that she's not totally skinny like so many of these songstresses are (not just in the ESC but generally). Her performance is better here than it was in our national final where she smiled way too much. A pretty good presentation ... although it would perhaps have been better if she'd done it completely by herself like Malta's Chiara did three years ago.
It's a pretty good song. I'd say we've got a chance - let's say fifty-fifty. Supposedly Maria & Mira, the composer, are super popular down there after these two weeks ... but they always say that. ;-)
Regardless of how this goes, we can hold our heads up this year. This is not a bad song. I'm gratified to see this after how we embarrassed ourselves last year.

Poland:
Another ballad - not so good for Poland. And this singer isn't quite as good, and the song a little more boring. The Easterners may like this, they like 'big' ballads ... and some in the West may like it too, I suppose. It's basically standard pop. I think it's too standard to get very far. My guess would be that we won't be hearing this on Saturday. I may be wrong, but I really don't see where the hook is that will make people remember this.

Ireland:
Certainly not a good thing that the song is being booed before it starts. Used to be that no one got booed at all, that wasn't done in the ESC. Was it Macedonia who started that in 2005? I know he got booed (which he deserved, and his daddy too) and that was sort of unheard of then. Anyway:
Presentation: they've recreated the video, basically, so like Azerbaijan, not too many points for creativity. Visual effects as annoying as the beat of the song.
I don't like this. I think it's crap. This, Estonia, Latvia - gags. Me no like. I seriously hope, and believe, that this won't be heard of after tonight. But it may, perhaps. I don't discount it entirely ... because people are, famously, idiots.
We'll see in an hour! :-)

Moldova, San Marino, Belgium, Azerbaijan

Moldova:
Great to see another new style of music. Good singer, I like her voice. The song is nice, a good melody. Definitely has charm. They may do well, and may not. The song itself is good, but maybe too untraditionally ESC.
And the presentation was ... not good.

San Marino:
Angry rock my shiny metal ass. Whiny emo pop, more like.
I do realize that San Marino is a very small country, but surely they could have found at least one person with a better singing voice than this?
Bo-ring!! I stand by my assertion that this doesn't stand a chance.

Belgium:
I like this song. And I love her dress!! :-D
What this song has going for it is that people will definitely remember it. Instant earworm, a chorus that anyone can get, immediately. And great presentation.
I really don't know how this will go down with the voting audiences BUT I definitely think they have a fighting chance.
A lot of ESC nostalgia vibes in this entry. A lot. :-)

Azerbaijan:
This is one of the entries I'm most interested in seeing the presentation of. (Argh, lousy sentence.)
OK ...
I'm not sure if it's money they have less of than the Belarusians, or creativity ... But they're certainly doing their best with what they have.
I like this song. But as to how it will do ... I think that depends on whether young people or middle-aged ones are voting. ;-)
My opinion: They should not have tried to recreate the video, they should have done something totally different. But the song is good. They definitely have a chance for a spot in the final.

Montenegro, Israel, Estonia

Montenegro:
The song sounds better than I expected. Better than in the video. He's got stage presence. I didn't think much of their chances when I'd just seen the video, but now they're sounding good. They've got a good shot at a place in the final.
His backing dancers look like hookers though. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Israel:
A striking opening. People will remember that. Unfortunate starting slot, but good presentation.
The song is still boring though. I SO don't understand how this can be a favorite.
I hope this doesn't make the cut.

Estonia:
Piece of shit.
The guys can't sing for shit and they look like idiots. Again the backing dancers look like ... OK, not hookers. Strippers. The beat of the song is incredibly annoying.
It certainly is a gag entry - as in, gag me with a spoon.
I hope intensely that this doesn't make it (although it may, and I won't be entirely surprised if that happens) because I never want to hear this 'song' again.

Ha ha! The Estonians got booed!! :-D

Semi final number one!

I am absolutely certain of three songs out of the nineteen.

Greece and Russia - definitely in the final.
San Marino - definitely not.

I'm pretty sure these will get through:
Bosnia
Armenia
Slovenia

I don't have high hopes for these, don't think we'll be seeing them on Saturday, but you never know:
Israel
Finland
Andorra
Poland

The rest I don't know. We'll see in 2 hours. :-)

Our delegation are pretty much convinced we'll make it. But they're always sure of that. ;-) They said the same thing last year when it would have been obvious to a deaf guy with blindfolds on that we didn't have a chance.

Go Russia!!

Good news! :-)

I got a text message from my father a couple of hours ago. My grandmother is better today. Yay!

I guess it's maybe selfish, but still.

I know she dreads the idea of becoming a patient/resident in a nursing home ... she wants to be able to live on her own and take care of herself as she always has ... and I don't want that 'dependent' situation for her either. I know it's not what she wants. So I absolutely don't want that.

But at the same time I want her to live for as long as possible. So ... conflicted, and selfish. :-(

Plus the fact that the whole situation is complicated by the fact that in my family, we have a Secret ... which must not come out, for some incomprehensible reason that I have never been able to understand, but which will come out as soon as we have an obituary to write and a funeral to plan. So when that happens and we're in that situation (I hope it never comes to that, but of course I know that it will) everything will be so much worse than it already is. Basically because of something totally stupid that should never have been a problem in the first place.

People suck sometimes.

But my grandma's doing better, so I'm happy anyway. :-)

Sigh ...

I hope someone with something to say will comment on one of my blog posts one day.

Someone who actually has better things to do than to read blogs that bore and annoy them only to be able to tell the owner of the blog to 'get a life'.

When I'm reading things online, discussions and things like that, I often wonder whether people read through their comments before they post them. I normally always do. I don't think everyone else does, though. That's the impression I get.

If I did want to get a life (which I don't think I do), is this where I should go?

OMG, totally sidetracked by that site. Look at it. They can't spell 'inspiration'! Bwahahahaha!!!

:-D

Relatively good news, I guess ...

My mother is at the hospital with my grandmother now, she's been there most of the day, I've talked to her several times. She seems to be holding up pretty well. My grandmother's doing a little better. She's not well, but she was better today than she was yesterday. That's what I want to hear, I guess.

Noen ganger blir jeg altså så provosert ...

... over bare små filleting. Dette er et virkelig stjerneeksempel. 'Grevlingbarn'?? De reddet 'grevlingbarn'?? Unnskyld meg, men hva i HÆLVETE er 'grevlingbarn' for noe???

JA, jeg er rar i hodet mitt, men jeg blir altså så forbanna når jeg leser sånt som dette. Man ser for eksempel iddioter på dyrenett.no som skriver i annonsene sine at 'nå har rotta mi fått barn' og lignende stupiditeter ... men da er det jo snakk om nedsnødde tullinger som ikke kan skrive skikkelig norsk engang. Når journalister i landets største aviser gjør det, da blir jeg faktisk bekymra. (VG gjorde akkurat det samme. Men i oppfølgingsartikkelen klarte de da i hvert fall å få det til riktig.)

Mennesker er de eneste som får barn!! Dyr får unger. I mange tilfeller finnes det også mer spesifikke ord - for eksempel får hunder, ulver og grevlinger (blant andre) valper. Det er altså så forskrudd å begynne å blande sammen disse begrepene. Nesten litt skremmende når folk gjør det. Da 'grevlingbarn'-artikkelen var på forsiden av VG på nett tidligere i dag var det en artikkel litt lenger ned om at tusenvis av barn er døde i Kina, etter jordskjelvet. Det er jo aldeles grusomt. Men ikke så ille hvis det bare er rottebarn!! Og hvordan skal man kunne vite hva det dreier seg om hvis alt skal være 'barn' og dyrs avkom ikke skal skilles fra våre??

Bare så ingen tar feil: jeg mener absolutt at dyr også har og bør ha rettigheter. Faktisk langt flere enn hva de har i dag. Men denne typen av begrepsforvirring tjener absolutt ingenting til.

Kjell Kristian Rike er død.

Så trist. :-( For en sjeldens gangs skyld passer det faktisk å si at en legende har gått i graven. Hvordan hadde den norske TV-sporten sett ut uten ham?? Ikke at jeg bryr meg nevneverdig om sport, men allikevel. Han var virkelig en av de helt store. Og han burde ha vært blant oss lenge ennå - han var jo bare 63 år gammel. Faren min er to år eldre. :-(

Han kommer i hvert fall til å bli husket i all overskuelig fremtid. Han er en del av den norske kulturarven i det 20. århundret.

Hvil i fred og takk for alt, antar jeg. :-(

SERBIA: Jelena Tomasevic featuring Bora Dugic - Oro

The guy who wrote this song is the same guy who will be hosting the show for Serbian TV. What happens if Serbia wins? Will he present the trophy to himself?

(For those who may not know it: the person/s actually competing in this contest is not the singer/s, but the composer/s of the song. Although that is not often made clear.)

I have to wonder about how smart it is to send an emotionally charged ballad the year after one has won with an emotionally charged ballad. Because traditionally the audience tends to want something different, and the winning song is usually something different from what has won in recent years. Plus of course it's statistically more difficult to win with a ballad than with an uptempo number.

But I'm sure there are many in Serbia's neighboring countries (and elsewhere, although perhaps to a lesser degree) who will think that this is absolutely beautiful. So they will get many votes from that. And it is beautiful. And she's pretty and she has a good voice. (Gorgeous dress, also. :-) I'm sure Serbia will do well again this year. But, well ...

Personally I just feel that Molitva was a much better song, with a much stronger melody line. They deserved to win last year. I don't think they do this year. I think this is a step down, so to speak, from last year's entry. It's a little boring.

And in any case, I don't want them to win, anyway, because I never want the host country to win. There should be a rule against it. :-) Both for the ESC itself and for the host country's national broadcasting company, it is much much better to keep the contest on the move. :-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vP42KN6_Ss

SPAIN 2008: Rodolfo Chikilicuatre - Baila el Chiki Chiki

Seriously not sure what to say about this.

It's a song that could be a lot of fun in a disco setting if you got everyone dancing around like idiots and so on. But then you start thinking that maybe he's taking it totally seriously, and then you get a little frightened.

This song is this year's Dancing Lasha tumbai.

This is like a, I don't know ... like something someone made at home and put on youtube and everyone started watching it and it became a cult underground hit. A phenomenon, which no one could really explain.

It's not quality music, but it does have something. But I don't know what that is that it has.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMie8aJZ4ZE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mBEXL9UgM

FRANCE 2008: Sebastién Tellier - Divine

Gasp ... !! The French, competing in English!! What IS the world coming to?!? :-D

The video for this song is brilliant, fantastic. I dig it. Probably the best video this year, hands down. Unfortunately there is no way they'll be able to reproduce it on stage. It'll be very interesting to see what they'll do with this.

I like this song. It's a new style for the contest, it's original, the guy's obviously a professional. I don't think it'll do well though. Unfortunately. It's too, what's the word, experimental? Too low-key, certainly. One must look in vain for a real chorus.

This is quality music for my money, but I'm not sure it'll have the chance to attract a lot of votes. Although I wish it would.

It's probably actually not a good thing for the Big Four that they don't have to compete for their places in the final. Because this is a song that would benefit a lot from being heard by the audience more than once.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz58Hw9hldw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh_b8Q39Bj0

GERMANY: No Angels - Disappear

How sad ... !!

I like this song a lot. It's a really good song. It has lots of potential. But it's being performed SOO badly!! They can't sing! :-o Why oh why have they been allowed to perform ... ??

This group won the German 'Popstars' at one point, about five years ago I think ... and were a huge hit, but then they split up, and now they've gotten together again to 'sing' this entry. Unfortunately, seeing them makes it obvious that they have no interest whatsoever in appearing as a group again. They have NO chemistry together, there is no energy.

This is really too bad as the entry could have been SO much better.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxYUj9AvhaE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_sDMDWq9EE

UNITED KINGDOM: Andy Abraham - Even If

Ah, the Eternal Second ...

At least they don't have to worry about the bitterness of ending up in 2nd place yet again ...

This is so old-fashioned!! It's not in itself a bad song. Just rather bland. But it sounds so old! It sounds like something Stock/Aitken/Waterman could have produced in 1988. Are they trying for nostalgia ... ??

He's a pretty good singer, he could have done so much better with a better song. And he's pretty goodlooking, that can't ever hurt. ;-) I think the UK may do better with this than they have in recent years, since Westerners may like it, but it may be too anonymous to make much of an impression on audiences.

Unfortunately for the UK, they have drawn almost the worst starting slot imaginable - they're starting second. Which may cripple their entry's chances before it even gets on stage. :-(


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXV1PuD4Kc

PORTUGAL 2008: Vania Fernandes - Senhora do mar

One must give Portugal some credit for just trying for SO LONG ... !! without getting anywhere.

But they get no credit for basically stealing last year's winning entry AND its choreography as well! Hello! Just as well that the song is nowhere near as good ...

The singer is really putting her all into it, I mean, she is totally working it. But it just doesn't seem to be getting through to the audience, does it? She is sort of ... overly sincere. They're trying too hard. Well, they have reason, they've tried more times than anyone else without ever winning. I want to vote for them, I want them to come up with a fantastic entry so they can win some time!! But since they're in the 2nd semi I couldn't vote for them even if I wanted to ... which is no hardship because although I kind of think this song has potential, it just isn't good enough.

Don't give up, Portugal ... !! Do what Turkey did in 2003 and you can make it too ... !!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZZxgHxYrw&NR=1

FYR MACEDONIA: Tamara, Vrcak & Adrijan - Let Me Love You

This is the kind of song that would go down well in a disco on Sunny Beach or somewhere like that. It doesn't have much personality, it's boring. I don't think this will get through to the final.

The singer's good, but that's about it. (And their stylist must have been asleep on the job.) Uninspired boyband-style pop, nothing much to recommend it.

Nothing either way, really. Better luck next time.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=RzcqGsCAQeM

CYPRUS: Evdokia Kadi - Femme Fatale

Here's another believer in the school of thought that says, if the audience just grasps the import of the title, then you're halfway there. ;-)

It'll be interesting to see how Cyprus will do now that they're being deprived of their surefire 12-pointer (Greece is in the 1st semi, Cyprus in the 2nd).

This is a song that kind of draws you into its rhythm despite yourself. I don't like it much. It's like the Swedish song in that it doesn't really have heart. And I'm not sure I like the sort of insinuating 'Eastern' beat which apparently has been attempted ... intended to suck up to the Easterners, no doubt.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=95-enkFbnPc


Kebabpizza slivovitsa, anyone. ..? ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRlGrhrItjw

MALTA: Morena - Vodka

This song is not about vodka. 'Vodka' on the contrary is a code being used by the characters in the song, who are spies. :-)

Someone must be hoping for some votes from Russia ... ; -) ... perhaps the only country who is more desperate than Malta to win.

This song sounds good at first, but then it gets annoying. It's just too much. She's a good singer, but she needs a better song. I'm afraid Malta won't be getting as far as they hope this year ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeO0J_VlnQ8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wXVf3iBGhI

HUNGARY 2008: Csezy - Candlelight

Oh, Hungary!! I dig Hungary. :-)

They are rather ambivalent about the contest- participated for some years and then dropped out for what, seven years ... then made a fantastic comeback in Kyiv. They should have won IMO. That song was so beautiful. Then they didn't enter the next year, don't know why, maybe they were disappointed that Forogj, világ! hadn't won. But the next year, another great comeback, with last year's blues which was brilliant too. This year ... meh.

This is a beautiful ballad, ie, yawn. It's very slow and kind of soporific. She has a lovely voice, but that's not enough to save this entry. It's too boring, it has no hook whatsoever.

A little sad, because I know Hungary can do soo much better.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s0Q-O5gHgE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fle828ozk3I

GEORGIA: Diana Gurtskaya - Peace Will Come

This singer is blind ... unusual, but she's not the first blind performer in ESC history.

Pretty girl, OK voice. Song is OK but compared to their entry last year, which was fantastic, I don't think it's very special.

Clichéd title and lyrics, but a lot of the viewers won't understand much English, so that's maybe not such a big deal. The chorus is kind of catchy.

Weird video. She's super styled with a fancy dress and there are these sad war ravaged kids in the intercut footage.

May do well or may fall through the metaphorical cracks.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyqKJmbD1kY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmhOsx4Y6Ek

DENMARK: Simon Mathew - All Night Long

Excuse me, isn't this song a total ripoff?? Isn't this Kool and the Gang or something??

Written by the same people who wrote 'Talking to You'.

This song is incredibly catchy and will no doubt get votes on that. And he can sing, sure. The song has a great beat and the chorus is really good ... but didn't someone else already write this song years ago??

I just don't like it that I already know this song from somewhere, I cannot see past that feeling to the real merits of this song, whatever they may be. Only original songs are allowed in this contest. There's always some plagiarism, of course. But this is extreme, isn't it?? Or did I just dream that ... ?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVwbUYDuQCQ

BULGARIA: Deep Zone & Balthazar - DJ, Take Me Away

This is a song that I thought I'd hate when I heard about it. But when I actually heard it, on the contrary, I loved it. And from Bulgaria! This is their fourth year in the contest. Their debut 2005 was absolutely pathetic, and 2006 not much better. But then last year they seemed to have started figuring it out. And this is brilliant!! Nocturne for the 21st century! :-D

This is going to be a huge hit in discos around Europe this summer.

Another example of how so many different genres are being presented in the contest these days. I normally don't like this style of music, but I love this song. And I think it's great that they're trying something new and not going the safe route. Kudos.

BUT how they will do in the contest depends to a huge extent on how the song is presented on stage. May be a difficult song to do much with live. I'm very curious to see what they'll do.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=KYxMa4rV--0


http://youtube.com/watch?v=Grp9rkIdctI

CROATIA 2008: Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents - Romanca

Awww ... !

I love this!! This is like Croatia's best ever!! Fantastic that they're singing in Croatian, gotta mention that.

This is a song that is partly rap :-D performed by a 75 year old guy. The oldest contestant this year, actually ever. He's adorable. :-( The non-rap parts of the song are beautifully melodious, very charming. And the video is so fantastic! All this footage of lovely Zagreb, some of it really old.

One of my absolute favorites this year. I hope they will do extremely well. They may not, but I soo hope so!! Wonderful!!

The Finns will probably like this a lot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbjPfG7-Db8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4QXxtGJAT0

Well, I talked to her ...

... and she didn't sound good. The nurse I talked to at first wanted to know when I'd last talked to her and then warned me that she wasn't quite herself. And she did sound rather slow and strange. And she wasn't sure what day it was, she wanted to know if I was at work, which of course I'm not, it's a Sunday. :-(

She did know who I was immediately, though. And she told me that my cousin was there yesterday, she remembered to mention that. Apparently she forgot it when she talked to my mother before. My mother is upset, she's going to drive up there this afternoon or tomorrow. I almost wish I was going too ... although I really don't want to see my grandmother in the hospital like that, it'd be so sad. I do want to see her, but not like that. That's how I'm feeling, though I know it's pretty selfish.

I'm not at all optimistic right now. But at least I got to talk to her, and tell her I love her and that I'm thinking of her. And she was happy to hear from me. Now I'm really just hoping ... :-(

Bad news! :-(

My grandmother's gotten worse. :-( I talked to my mother just now and she says she's been getting worse over the past day and a half or so. She talked to her herself and she didn't sound good. A relative of ours who works at the hospital will check in and then let us know. I tried calling myself, but I only got a nurse - she said I should call back a little later, because 'she's just thrown up'. :-(

It's a little later now, I'm calling back ...

Constitution Day, 2008 ... and how!

What a day it's been. What a cold and uncomfortable day! :-D When I woke up this morning, there was snow in the air. :-o We spent the about five hours out of doors that we were going to, but went to Plan B when it came time to eat - didn't have a picnic in one of the king's fields as we had planned, but went to my friend Anne Ida's apartment to fix our meal instead. The sun was coming out by then, but it was still too cold to eat out of doors.

Despite the weather, a good time was had by all. :-)

Are Irish people stupid or do they just not care?

Check this out:

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/5/5347954/104

I slammed the Irish turkey song on the BookCrossing forums - not any worse than I've also slammed a number of other songs - and the response from ... I think three :-D irate Irishmen is to slam me in return.

When you're discussing the ESC with a Norwegian, and the only way you feel you can score a point is by personal attacks ... that is really just sad.

Pay attention, people, I'm from Norway!! Nil points, anyone?? Hello? Norway nil points ... ?


EDITED TO ADD: I have nothing against Ireland or Irish people. I do not believe that Irish people are unusually stupid on average. The title of this post is intended sarcastically. Read the fucking thread.

(If you really needed to read this disclaimer ... Please, talk to someone. [Not me.])

This is a test ...

Yeah, this is a test, I'm going to try to see if I can manage to post a picture here.

If I do: this is a picture of one of my turtles (my favorite, if truth be told :-) basking under their heat lamp. This is probably my favorite picture of him ever. Talk about catching some rays ... ! :-D He is extremely energetic and active, so when he finally does get up there to bask he has to be really efficient about it ... ! ;-)

Herman is a Chinemys reevesii, 4 1/2 years old. I've had him for a little over two years. He loves to eat, begs constantly for food, is very curious and totally fearless. :-)

Good news :-)

I talked to my mother on the phone again today. She's talked to the hospital and to my grandmother. Good news. :-) The doctors are positive, apparently; she has had a tiny blood clot that just 'passed through' as they called it, but there are no aftereffects. And she feels good, she's perfectly herself again now. Yes!! :-)

Fortunately, she will be able to stay in the hospital through the weekend, till Monday. Tomorrow is our national day, Constitution Day, and my mother was worried that they would want to send as many patients as possible home. And we all want her to not have to go home and be there alone on May 17th of all days. (Her sister lives nearby but she has had some kind of episode too - the day before yesterday! So no help there, unfortunately.) But she won't have to. :-)

Good news!! :-)

Books I've read in 2008 - May

The Marriage of Likeness by John Boswell
How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization by Cathy Crimmins
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
The Sewing Circle by Axel Madsen
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (audio)
Between the Acts by Jeffrey Weeks & Kevin Porter, eds.
Spoon River Antologien [sic] by Edgar Lee Masters
Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
Amuse Bouche by Anthony Bidulka
Hvem fulgte Doruntine hjem? by Ismail Kadare
Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Odjuret by Roslund & Hellström

Books I've read in 2008 - April

The Mabinogion
Mannen utan öde by Imre Kertesz
Land Under England by Joseph O'Neill
Presidentens val by Anne Holt (audio)
Foreign Devil by Wang Ping
The Case of Mary Bell by Gitta Sereny
Gay Cinematherapy by Jason Bergund & Beverly West
Affinity by Sarah Waters
Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb
Med kaldt blod by Truman Capote
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Federal Fag by Fred Hunter
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Deep by Peter Benchley