Saturday, July 31, 2010

Books I've read in 2010 - July

Superfreakonomics by Levitt/Dubner
Höstoffer by Måns Kallentoft
Mr Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood AUDIO
Sailing to Byzantium by WB Yeats (a Penguin 60)
Overtalelse by Jane Austen AUDIO
This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas
Musketerene tyve år etter, volume two by Alexandre Dumas
In the Walled Gardens by Anahita Firouz
Irrganger by Arnaldur Indridasson AUDIO
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
A Material Girl by Kate Hubbard
1222 by Anne Holt AUDIO
Havoc, In Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett
Pippa Lees hemmelige liv by Rebecca Miller AUDIO
The Crime Studio by Steve Aylett

11 printed books
5 audiobooks

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I'm in Ireland!!

Yay! :-) I've been here since Sunday and have had an absolutely fantastic time so far. :-) I've seen so many fantastic things. Here are a few pictures.
Newgrange

Monasterboice

Kilkenny Castle

Castledermot Friary

Kilmainham prison

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Back home ... !

... for about twelve hours, but still. Nice to see the turtles again. :-) The little guys were of course happy to see me - Herman mostly, Henrik was really lazy and had to be coaxed off their little floating bark island to come say hello :-D - but Raphael surprised me, he's less standoffish than I'd expected. So, yay. :-)

It was seriously weird to get back to the city though ... at around 6pm I got down to the Railway Square subway station to get a line 2 train home, and it was so weird to think that just eight hours earlier I had been up in the mountains ... so incredibly different, like two different worlds. And in another twelve hours or so I will be in Ireland. :-) Kind of hard to wrap my head around it ... :-D

Of course I took a million pictures while I was away. OK, not a million, but a couple of thousand. Yeah, seriously. o_O Here are some of the good ones, with explanations where necessary.

Linnaéa borealis. A great year for them this year, they're everywhere. They were my grandmother's favorite flower, they always make me think of her.

One of the goat kids spending the summer at the shieling this year. Don't ask what happens to them when the summer's over ...

We had a little bit of rain, but mostly sun.

A frog I met while hiking to Wild Man's Valley. Is this fellow gorgeous or what. :-)

Lom stave church (late 1170s).

Oh, the scenery ... !!!

In Ireland I will have internet access, apparently, or so Paz says, at least. :-) So more photos coming up soon, presumably. More, but different. :-)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Quote of the Week

Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, controls people, deludes people.
Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney

Friday, July 16, 2010

From total stress ...

... to tranquility. Friday will be soo stressful, I feel my shoulders tense up just thinking about it. But once we get in the car, I can relax ... and then in a few hours, total peace and quiet. Ah. :-)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Summertime ...

... and the living is easy ... or at least it will be in about 24 hours. :-) I've been working all summer so far - quite a bit of overtime too, since we've had people off on vacation constantly for like a month - but now it's my turn to get some r&r. So ... another boring post like yesterday's, I'm afraid, but what are you gonna do. I've been crazy busy getting ready for my trip to the mountains, which I'm leaving for tomorrow afternoon. So ... I guess maybe a few updates may pop up in my absence, but nothing much, till I get back. :-)

Have a great week! :-)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

YAY!!

My new computer arrived ... !! :-D Yay and hooray. I kind of miss using the old one already - although of course it's standing right here, so I can use it if I want to :-) - but this is a huge improvement, I have to say. Even if the old one hadn't been broken. First and foremost though I am so glad that it arrived before I go on vacation ... which will be Friday afternoon. It would have been just my luck if it had arrived on Friday night. ;-)

Yay. :-)

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Happy 5th to Postcrossing!!

In about 35 minutes, anyway. :-) Postcrossing.com was launched on July 14th, 2005 - on the site they have the exact anniversary listed as 12:30am Norwegian time. Congratulations to them!! I'm sure he'll never read this, but I want to say thank you and major kudos to the man with the idea, Paulo Magalhães. It must be amazing to see something you've created grow and thrive like this and connect people all over the world. 3 postcards arrive to their destinations every single minute of the day thanks to the Postcrossing project.

Yay for Postcrossing! It really works, you should try it too. :-) In honor of the day, here are some of the coolest cards I've gotten. So far. ;-)

Monday, July 12, 2010

When, oh when ...

... will my new computer arrive?? I so need it. More things going wrong with the old one every day. :-(

In other news, there's a thunderstorm, so the TV's blacked out and I'm missing half the True Blood rerun (that I have on DVD in any case, yeah yeah). But I love thunderstorms ... at least when I can be indoors. ;-) I just love being inside late at night and listening to the rain drumming on the roof. :-) Raphael did something totally cute today ... it scared the shit out of him but was really funny to me. I didn't get it on camera, alas. But I have a few other pictures.

I'm rereading Persuasion (a Norwegian audio edition that is so fantastically read by Petronella Barker) and of course that makes me think about The Lake House. I want to watch The Lake House again. Aw.

In closing: Do you want to laugh at homeopaths? Then check out xkcd, here. :-D

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Antitheism funny

Something I came across at Aftenposten's online debate section, Debate Central, in the 'other religious debates' forum. There are a couple of theists over there - far fewer than on American sites, but still some - who always pop up with the same lame arguments over and over. In this thread one of them mentioned a time that he went with some friends to do some door to door preaching. This apparently touched a nerve with a guy in the opposite camp. He posted a long reply which is so hilarious that I just have to copy it here. It made me laugh out loud, literally. What a great guy. :-D Sorry that it's in Norwegian, but, well, it is what it is. Babelfish can help you, I guess. If you read Norwegian, then prepare to be entertained ... ;-)

Jeg ser at noen allerede har nevnt noe om dette, men du har hittil bare ignorert dem, og jeg vil gjerne ha et ordentlig svar for dette er noe som har irritert meg i årevis, og spesielt etter at jeg flytta ut på landsbygda i Hedmark.

Med hvilken rett er det dere trenger dere på andre mennesker i deres hjem for å påtvinge disse det dere måtte lide av av vrangforestillinger og mentale kortslutninger?
Hvor er respekten for andre mennesker og deres privatliv siden dere gjør dette uavlatelig?

Jeg har opplevd at folk fra Jehovas vitner - selvsagt ubedt - med den største selvfølgelighet kjør bil rett inn på MIN gårdsplass, og ut velter både to og tre personer (en gang var det faktisk fire!) som overhodet ikke bryr seg filla om jeg ikke vil ha dem her.
Og når de først har kommet seg inn på gårdsplassen er det så å si umulig å få dem vekk herfra. Jeg har en del dyr og dette er kjærkomment å spasere rundt og vrøvle ivei om mens de venter på den rette anledning til å fyre løs fra hofta med noen lamme og innøvde setninger fra bibelen, og "om jeg noengang har tenkt over disse tingene".
Nei, jeg har aldri tenkt over disse tingene, jeg er heller ingen ubetalt guide i en offentlig dyrehage.
Jeg er nemlig hjemme hos meg sjæl på min egen eiendom, og det jeg trenger aller minst er en bøling hjernevaska støllinger som kommer og forstyrrer meg for å snakke om ting som bryr meg helt nederst på ryggen.
Det er stadig vekk både voksne og barn som kommer og spør om de kan få komme inn og hilse på dyra mine, og selvsagt får de lov til det og så lenge de ønsker, men jeg vil ha meg frabedt at dyra skal brukes som et skalkeskjul for å snakke om Jesus.

Jeg har aldri i hele mitt liv oppsøkt Jehovas vitner, Fildelfia eller hva-de-nå-måtte-kalle-seg av kristne retninger. Ikke i deres forsamlingslokaler og enda mindre i deres private hjem.
Jeg har heller aldri invitert en eneste kjeft fra verken Jehovas vitner eller andre ondsinnete kristne avarter til å komme og bable til meg om ting jeg ikke er det spøtt interessert i. Men likevel tropper dere fra Jehovas vitner, og enkelte andre, med ujevne mellomrom opp, presser dere inn til meg og plager, ja faktisk PLAGER, meg med tanketomt og innlært vrøvl, og om jeg kan bidra med noen kroner til dette eller hint. Jehovas vitner er spesielt flinke til å dele ut trykksaker og etterpå komme med regla om "de koster jo litt å trykke, så om jeg vil...."

Nei, jeg vil ikke det!
Jeg forlanger at dere holder dere borte fra MIN eiendom og MITT hus. Dere har ikke noe her å gjøre!

Når skal dere opptre med normal folkeskikk og ikke trenge dere på og forstyrre folk som ikke vil forstyrres?

Does this guy rock or what. :-D

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Shopping and the amazing Internet

I've done a little shopping today *cough* ... some things for Swap-Bot, some postcards, some crafty things ... and my monthly purchase at Tronsmo. I buy something there every month - my contribution to keeping the best bookstore in the country around as long as possible. You should do the same! :-) I found some fantastic postcards there, and a book of cartoons that I've been meaning to get for like three years. Hugleikur Dagsson, the funniest man in Iceland. But should you really be laughing at this?

Oh shit, the mayor's coming! Helen, hide the retard!
I have a name.

Why are you getting a divorce?
Because your father's a necrophiliac.
I can't help it.

I also put in a couple of hours at Friends, and of course I had to pick up a few things there too. I always shop every time I work there, I can't help it. Just a little chocolate ... and ooh, that tea looks really good ... and I'm almost out of sugar and look at this gorgeous bag! Ekcetra. Today I also picked up one earring. We'd gotten a new shipment of jewellery from Pernille Bülow's Unique and Fair series that I unpacked, priced and tagged ... one of the pairs of earrings was one short. Since I only have one ear pierced this seemed pretty perfect for me, so I bought it. It's so pretty too. And the bead's made from recycled glass. :-)

Now here's an example of what is so great about the Internet. Of course since we sell this jewellery line at Friends, you know it's fair trade. But this company has taken it one step further, beyond just getting their fair trade certification. My earring was made by a woman who is three years older than me; her name is Augustina and she is a single mother with two daughters. She doesn't have a lot of education herself, but thanks to what she earns making this jewellery she's able to send both her girls to school. You can see some pictures of her here. Isn't that just amazing? :-)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Quote of the Week

I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.
Arthur C. Clarke

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Momo eller kampen om tiden

Remember this? KAS and I went to see the play this afternoon. It was really good, I was impressed. They did a lot with very simple means. I really liked a lot of their solutions. KAS still doesn't get the appeal of the story though, although she enjoyed the play. :-) It was great, I'm so glad I got to see it. If you get the chance, you go see it too! It'll run for another week, through July 15th. :-) But if you aren't able to go, here's a pictorial rendition. :-)

The orphan girl Momo arrives at the ruined amphitheatre on the outskirts of the city and decides to live there. She quickly makes friends, who feel their lives so much improved because of her friendship and company.

Momo and Beppo the street sweeper listen to Guido the storyteller make up a fairytale.

Niccóla the hairdresser is approached by an agent of the Timesavings Bank ...

... and is persuaded to open an account with them.

The Men in Grey do their nefarious business, stealing time from more and more people in the city.

Momo meets Lola the Living Doll, one of the many fancy new toys the children in the city are given to keep them busy when their parents have no time for them.

But Momo isn't impressed.

One of the Men in Grey shows up at the amphitheatre to try to get to Momo ... but instead it's she who gets to him, and he spills all the Bank's secrets.

In the meantime, everyone in the city is changing more and more. The children only care about their new toys.

Nothing Momo tries can stop what's happening ... but then Cassiopeia the turtle turns up, and takes Momo with her along the strangest paths.

A tribunal at the Bank decrees the worst possible fate for the agent who betrayed its secrets.

Cassiopeia takes Momo to the Nowhere House ...

... while the Men in Grey search for her at the amphitheatre and hatch an evil scheme to stop her from destroying all their plans.

Momo meets Master Time ...

... who shows her the Hour Flowers, the source of all human time.

Back in the city, Guido has become a celebrity like he always dreamed.

But he is completely at the mercy of the Men in Grey.

Beppo has searched everywhere for Momo and in desperation he takes his story to the authorities.

But they say he's crazy and against his will he's placed in an asylum.

Finally, Momo returns home. But all her friends are gone.

She tries to see Nino at his successful restaurant, but he's far too busy to have time for her.

She manages to find Guido, but even he is too busy, with all his new commitments.

Momo is all alone and desperately lonely. She has even lost Cassiopeia.

The Men in Grey see their chance, and approach her with an offer they think she can't refuse.

But she will never give in to them. Cassiopeia returns and Momo decides that they have to go back to Master Time for help.

The Men in Grey try to follow, but they can never enter the Nowhere House. They lay siege to it instead.

Master Time reveals the entire conspiracy to Momo and Cassiopeia.

She knows of a way the Men in Grey can be stopped, but she can't do it herself - she needs help from someone who can move freely in the outside world. Will Momo help? Yes!!

She takes the battle to the Men in Grey ... !

And is victorious!! The time thieves are defeated!

All the stolen time is released back into the world.

Momo is finally reunited with Beppo and Guido and all her other friends. Things go back to the way they should be and everyone in the city is happy again. :-)