Malmö 2013 - Random thoughts III

My thoughts on this year's entries from the Big Five and our gracious host.

Malmö 2013 - Random thoughts II

My thoughts on the entries in this year's second semi-final.

Malmö 2013 - Random thoughts I

My thoughts on the entries in this year's first semi-final.

Before the big day

Some thoughts on the six entries we will only see in tomorrow's final, the Big Five and our host.

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Tomorrow's review

My thoughts on the second semi, ie, tomorrow night. :-)

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It begins ... !!

Tomorrow's the day ... !! Well, actually Saturday's the day, the big day, but you know what I mean. I'm pretty psyched about tomorrow too. :-) I know it doesn't seem like it, since I've been neglecting the blog so horrendously that I haven't even written up my usual ESC reviews this year. It's a disgrace, I know. :-( I blame Pinterest. But of course I have been following the build up to these increasingly suspicious couple of weeks in Baku, and since there's no time to write 42 blog posts by tomorrow, I've made a video instead.

Actually it ended up being two videos, since my new camera does some weird things sometimes and I can't get Any Video Converter to work with me right now. Oh well. These are my thoughts for tomorrow.

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It has begun ...

Obviously, on the trip to Peru, I took a million gadzillion pictures and videos. Did I mention that already? Well, I used my camera a lot. More than on any previous vacation ... which I might say about every trip I go on, actually. ;-) For this trip I actually even got a new camera. More about that later. Of course I'm planning to make lots of videos with all the material I have now, and in fact, I have already started. The first six videos are already up on my Youtube channel. I'll be the first to admit that the first ones aren't very interesting. I'm making and uploading them chronologically so to start with it's not all that. But I've got some good stuff coming up, I promise. Especially from Galápagos. Obviously. :-) Keep an eye on my channel if you're interested. I'll probably post my favorites here too. Lava lizards and giant turtles coming up, eventually ... ;-)

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Lucky Octavia Spencer

Anyone who's seen The Help - and if you haven't, you should - will remember Octavia Spencer, who brought to life the irrepressible Minny Jackson. She's from Montgomery, Alabama, but moved to LA some years ago to pursue a career in the movies. I'm sure she's had several OMG/WTF moments since then, but this is totally the coolest one she'll ever have. ;-)



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Dandylion in concert

I mentioned a certain concert I went to the other day ... ? Now you can see part of it on my Youtube channel. The rest of it is coming up over the next week or so. Enjoy. :-) Isn't she great - you can't even tell she had a pretty bad cold. :-)



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Yeah, or ...

... 'Fuck, I forgot The Matrix.' o_O

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Eat a dead horse

Why yes, says Sparta, I rather think I will!



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Elephant birthday

I've mentioned the baby elephants in Sydney's Taronga Zoo before ... one of them is the miracle baby who survived an almost impossible birth about a year and a half ago. They have one calf who is older as well, plus one younger. The former was the first elephant to ever be born in Australia, on July 4th, 2009, exactly three years to the day after the herd arrived in their new home. His name is Luk Chai, and he weighed 96 kilos as a newborn - at age two, this month, he's grown to over 800 kilos. :-D His father, Gung, whom he apparently bears a strong resemblance to, is well on his way to four metric tons, so Luk Chai still has some growing to do. o_O Check out this video showing the birthday boy with his family ... look at him with his cousin, Pathi Harn - the miracle baby - they are just so wonderful together. :-)

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Nobody likes the dentist

I have to go to the dentist in about a week and a half, I have a cavity. Brr. Not looking forward to that. But hey, nobody likes the dentist. Not even ocelots ... !!



It's really true that you learn something new every day. Up until I read this entry at ZooBorns, I had no idea that ocelots are native to the US as well. I'd always thought that they were only found in South America. So yeah, keep your eyes open. Especially when your conjunctivitis is well on its way to clearing up. :-)

'The Boy Next Door'

I'm sure nobody remembers this, but a few months ago I had a book on one of my Books I've Read lists that was a debut novel by a Zimbabwean author. The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini. This book was really impressive considering it was by a debuting author. I would never have guessed that if I hadn't known it. It's a really wonderful literary work. I came across it accidentally when I read a special on new African literature in a newspaper this winter. I immediately wanted to read it and reserved it at the library the first chance I got. Yeah, that one too. :-) I love the library website. :-)

Anyway ... it's a great book and I really recommend it. It even inspired me to write to the author - she has a contact form on her website, which is here. I just sent a short email telling her that I had just read her book and I'd enjoyed it tremendously. She wrote me back, which was really nice of her. I didn't write anything that needed a response, but she still took the time to write and say thank you; I appreciate that. She genuinely deserved every word of praise I wrote. :-)

Some more of my thoughts on the book are in this video. I really recommend it. The book, obviously. ;-)

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One In A Million

Aren't we all. Some maybe more than others? For some reason I really like this song. Not because of the topic of this video ;-) but just in general. Can't say why, I just really like it. :-)



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Nature weird and cute

So many things wrong with this that I hardly know where to start. But at the same time it's almost unbearably cute. Ouch, my head ...



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One more day ... !!

I can hardly wait ... !! :-D

Tomorrow at nine, be there or be square. :-) I will of course be blogging the whole thing live. Fingers crossed for Serbia and Hungary ... and us. :-)

For those who haven't managed to read all my endless reviews, here's an easier way. My overview of all the entries in video form. Enjoy. ;-)


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Oslo Reptilpark

As I've mentioned before - on several occasions :-) - we don't have any real zoo here in Oslo, but we do have a reptile zoo, Oslo Reptilpark. It's a great place and something not to be missed if you visit the city. They have lots of fascinating animals (and the displays are often rotated so that if you visit several times you will not be seeing all the same animals) and displays made with lots of care and attention to detail. The only reason to stay away from the place may be if you suffer from herpetophobia ... although IMO that's only all the more reason to visit, since seeing these beautiful creatures under controlled conditions is the best way to start getting rid of your fear. :-) This is a video from my most recent visit, in December 2010. It was the winter meeting of the Herpetological Society. What better place for our meetings. :-)



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Salamanders!

I got a really cool Postcrossing card the other day ... a card from Germany showing a fire salamander, Salamandra salamandra. (I have reptiles and amphibians listed among my interests on my profile. :-) An absolutely gorgeous photo. Almost the coolest thing about it is what the sender wrote to me - that she has salamanders like these living in her garden ... !! omg WANT ... !! :-o She says that although they aren't too common where she lives, she still sees them often, because there's a ... colony, or whatever, in her garden. I am SO JEALOUS ... !!

We don't have this species of salamander in Norway - unsurprisingly - we only have great crested newt, Triturus cristatus, and smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris. Wonderful animals too of course, but they rather pale in comparison with the amazing fire salamanders. Literally. :-)

More in the same vein: If you like salamanders, then take a look at this video I made with footage I've shot over the past few years, showing various salamanders. I love saying salamander, it's a brilliant word! Salamander!! :-D



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More turtle fury

I posted some pictures of an angry Raphael a few weeks ago ... and then some more the day before yesterday. As you may recall. :-) He is just so cute when he's angry. Now here he is again - this time in moving pictures! :-D I mentioned that he gets angry with inanimate objects sometimes, like the camera ... which he is seen here attacking. Aww, what a cutie. ;-)



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