Flea market season is on!!

Flea market season is basically fall and spring in this country. There's very little activity in the winter, which I presume is due to the weather, and extremely little in the summer, because the majority of flea markets in Norway are hosted by elementary schools, and thus will take place in the school year. And of course it's hardly ideal to have a flea market when a significant portion of the customer base can be assumed to be out of the country or at least out of the city. Oslo is, unsurprisingly, the flea market capital of the country :-) ... but I'm hearing good things about other cities too. I've just never had the chance to visit any out of town flea market. Oh, and when I say Oslo, it's not just the city itself, but also its immediate hinterland; most notably the two wealthy municipalities Bærum and Asker. Lots of great flea markets in Bærum; I grew up there, so I know. ;-)

Here's today's total non-surprise: I LOVE flea markets!! :-D Flea markets absolutely totally rock. Some people get the chance to give their old stuff away instead of just throwing it out, other people get the chance to buy stuff they need/want/like at a great price, and the money goes to a very good cause. (Schools normally host flea markets to benefit their marching band/choir/sports team ... so the money you spend go directly towards something very wholesome that the local children participate in. :-) And because there are so many people in this country these days (and especially in this part of the country) who have more money than they know what to do with, a lot of really nice and newish/new/brand new stuff gets given away. The Salvation Army in this country get clothes in their collection bins that are designer-type clothes with the labels still on them. :-o So you can actually really make a bargain. And of course there's always the great entertainment value in just wandering around and looking at the crowds ... and of course, checking out the merchandise and trying to imagine the kind of interior design setting the more outlandish items may have belonged in. Fun for the whole family. :-)

Anyway ... I will no doubt be going to a number of flea markets this fall, and I plan to post some shortish review type things of each here. One post per f.m. :-) This will just be my own thoughts & opinions, from my POV - I look primarily for books, either to read and BookCross, or just to 'Cross. Sometimes to keep if I find a real gem. I also normally look through most of the rest of what's on offer - furniture, kitchenware, knickknacks etc ... clothes I normally steer away from as I tend to hardly ever find anything I like and I have too many clothes anyway. (Sshh ... ! you can't have too many books!!) So keep in mind where I'm coming from; a flea market I like may not be good for you if you're not looking for the same things as me, and vice versa.

What's the point of doing this - well, some of my readers may be interested, I don't know. :-) Mainly though these school flea markets are a regular thing, each school will normally have a flea market once or twice a year. And I'm having a hard time remembering, except for a few cases, which I've been to that have been great, or good, or so-so, or lousy, what were the price levels, etc. So this will be a help to me to try to figure out which are worth revisiting the next time they come around (it's as good as impossible to get to them all, especially when, like me, one doesn't drive).

Hopefully this may be interesting to others as well, but I'm not holding my breath. ;-)

Books I've read in 2008 - September

How I Became Stupid by Martin Page
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
A Small Book of Grave Humour
The Missing Reel by Christopher Rawlence
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
Nynorsk vinteridrott by Bengt Göran Markebom
Dune by Frank Herbert
Skuld by Karin Alvtegen
Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
Out of Egypt by André Aciman
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
De tre musketerer, volume two, by Alexandre Dumas

Integreringen lenge leve! :-D

Folk sier at innvandrerne her i byen ikke integrerer seg. Men det er en sannhet med modifikasjoner. En del er helt ghettoifisert, eller hva man skal kalle det, det er helt klart. Men en del andre er så godt integrert at man nesten kan lure på om det ikke begynner å bli for mye av det gode ... :-D

På vei til t-banen etter jobb i går gikk jeg forbi to unge norsk-pakistanske menn som snakket sammen. Jeg pleier å gå over en parkeringsplass som hører til en bygning hvor det ligger en bilforhandler og en slags taxisentralting ... kan selvfølgelig gå på gangveien ved siden av, men da tror jeg det tar opptil et halvt minutt lenger. Så det er jo bare dumt. Det er ofte folk utenfor denne bygningen ... på parkeringsplassen og på benkene utenfor den ene inngangen ... siden det er bare bil i bygget er det nesten alltid bare menn, og siden det er drosjesentral eller hva det er så er det veldig mye innvandrere. ;-) Hallo, sånn er det jo. :-) I går sto det altså to unge norsk-pakistanske menn der, og de snakket, ikke uventet, om bil. Jeg fikk ikke med meg mye av samtalen - jeg bare skyndte meg forbi, jeg skulle møte noen venner og var egentlig litt seint ute som det var - men jeg hørte at den ene av dem sa det følgende til den andre. Det handlet altså om en bil:

Rødt interiør, vettu. Er jo harry som bare faen.

ROTFL!!! You will be assimilated ... !!! :-D

Begrepsforvirring?

De fleste har vel fått med seg oppstusset rundt bryllupet til Lars Lillo-Stenberg og Andrine Sæther, og dekningen Se&Hør ga dette. Det er mange som har skrevet om det og jeg tenkte egentlig at jeg ikke skulle gidde. Men så sa Per Edgar Kokkvold noe ganske bortreist på Dagsrevyen i går ... og da ombestemte jeg meg litt. (Hadde forøvrig ventet meg noe bedre av ham.)

Først et par andre poenger. S&H er en ren søppelblekke som ikke burde ha livets rett. Det er en av de aller tristeste tingene ved Norge som nasjon at dette er det bladet i landet som selger nest best. (Nest etter Donald Duck & Co, tror jeg i hvert fall.) Det at de prøver å forsvare seg med at de som del av medieverdenen må få lov til å rapportere om ting som har allmenn interesse ... det blir jeg rett og slett nesten kvalm av. JA, det er viktig at media får undersøke og rapportere om ting som har samfunnsmessig betydning. Men det har jo INGENTING med S&H å gjøre. INGENTING de trykker har noen som helst samfunnsmessig betydning eller allmenn interesse. Det er en ren løgn at det argumentet de prøver å bruke har noen gyldighet for dem.

S&H ønsket å 'omtale' bryllupet til Lillo-Stenberg og Sæther. Det er en ærlig sak og det kunne ingen ha hindret dem i. Men bildene har ingenting med 'omtale' å gjøre. De kunne helt fint ha 'omtalt' bryllupet uten bilder. De ville da ha solgt litt mindre av dritten sin, noe som selvsagt er et problem for dem, altså S&H. Men dét er da faen skjære meg ikke noen sak for rettsvesenet.

De spurte om lov til å ta bilder. De fikk nei. De gjorde det allikevel. Det er virkelig trist når folk som åpenbart ikke eier verken folkeskikk eller normalt vett i skallen også avslører at de heller ikke eier anstendighet. Og så tjener de pokker meg penger på det attpåtil.

Og nå: til poenget. Kokkvold sier at det er riktig at S&H ikke ble felt i Høyesterett, fordi 'et bryllup er et offentlig anliggende'. Eller hvordan han nå formulerte det, det var i alle fall det der han mente. Jeg vil faktisk påstå at Per Edgar Kokkvold, journalist, redaktør, generalsekretær i Norsk Presseforbund, tok feil.

En ekteskapsinngåelse er et offentlig anliggende.
Et bryllup er en privatsak.

De to tingene er ikke det samme.

Things Only Idiots Believe, Part Six.

Barack Obama is a Muslim.

And he wants to 'islamify' America.

I mean ... enough said already.

People who believe this are, I'm pretty sure, generally the same who think they're referring to the US when they say 'America'. Hence my choice of words above.

And they should really learn not to be so ... trusting.

Happy Birthday to Keanu Reeves!!

James, if you read this: no, I'm not posting this to be mean to you specifically. :P

Keanu Reeves is 44 years old today. And, creepily enough, looking much better than he did 20 years ago. IMHO, of course. I hope he's having a good birthday ... and that he won't be spending it alone like he did his ... 39th, or whenever it was. There's nothing wrong with having a nice restaurant dinner on your own, but doing it on your birthday is a little bit sad. Det må det være lov å si, Arne.

The year ahead looks pretty good for Keanu with two new movies coming out, both of them sounding pretty good to both audiences and critics - The Day the Earth Stood Still with Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee with Robin Wright Penn, Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin and Winona Ryder. He's also - rumor has it - finally branching out from just acting, as his production company seems to be starting on its first project these days. Kudos. :-) Not gonna speculate on his personal life, but go China. ;-) So here's hoping for not just a great birthday but a great year too.

But most of all, of course, this is a fantastic occasion for me to post a whole bunch of Keanupics! So brace yourselves, any & all Y chromosome sufferers out there ... I am woman, hear me roar! (Or more precisely 'watch me drool' but I don't want to creep anyone out or anything.)

Biden vs Palin

OK, so let's face it, one of these ... oops, I almost wrote 'guys' ... people is going to be US president at some point. Because if Obama gets elected, he'll be shot, and if McCain gets elected, he'll keel over from a heart attack or some other ailment commonly associated with old age and feebleness.

Before slamming me for saying that, please read the disclaimer in the top right hand corner.

So considering that, how can there possibly be any kind of contest? How can this election even be vaguely in dispute? I mean, that is like ... such a total no-brainer that even people with no brains should be able to understand that this is no choice at all, this is like being asked to decide whether you want to receive as a gift a million dollars or a dime. Joe Biden - google him yourselves! - or this woman. And after all that whining about Obama being too young and too inexperienced. WTF?

It must be because she's perceived to have 'the right values'. (Although personally, anyone who claims that (hypothetical scenario) she would force her 13 year old daughter to carry to term a child resulting from rape has some pretty screwed up values IMO.) Only in America ... !! Abortion rights, gay rights and 'evolutionism' vs creationism are all totally irrelevant things that have no real impact on anyone's real lives. Anyone letting those issues decide something as incredibly important as this election deserves to be screwed.

Anyway. The issues & values thing must be what McSame is banking on. Cause otherwise this whole thing is totally incomprehensible. But won't those issues & values voters be put off by the inappropriateness of a woman outside the home doing such manly work? Thus causing McSame to basically shoot himself in the foot? We can only hope.

Personally though, politics aside, there's no way in hell I would ever even consider voting for a person who claims to be an adult and still manages to name her kids (or kids/grandkid, whatever) Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. I've said it before and I'll say it again: what IS wrong with people.