And now for something completely different.

TGIF!!

Am I bubbling over with energy - no. Definitely not. So today's post will not be long and it will not be insightful *cough* and it will not deal with anything vaguely important. Just a very funny video for those who feel like watching one.

This is a clip from a Norwegian comedy show, but don't worry, it's in English. I mean, those of you who read this and don't understand Norwegian. Don't worry. It's in English because it's about the Danish language and how it's so incomprehensible, and ... oh, I don't have the energy to explain it all. I spent all my chattiness today on some nice customers that I do like a lot and on an 'anonymous' commenter here on the blog who is the reason why I've switched on that moderating thing again temporarily. Basically, written Norwegian and written Danish are almost the same thing. Long story. But when we open our mouths and start talking it's a different story. Danes sound to Norwegian ears as if they have their mouths full of something ... we like to say that Danish isn't really a language, it's a throat disease. This skit makes fun of that. But this is also a real problem, in that Danish is in fact beginning to collapse in on itself and is becoming increasingly incomprehensible even to native speakers. It's a real problem ... but fortunately it's not my problem. :-) Here's the video, enjoy! Have a great weekend!!

Picture of the month - January 2009

Today's post: the result of a brilliant idea I had either very late last night or very early this morning. The chain of events is blurred in my mind. Doesn't matter anyway. Here's my big idea. I take a lot of pictures. Because ... playing around with cameras is fun. :-) This past month, since I've been on Flickr, I've become even more interested in it. Starting now, every month I will post my one favorite photo out of every picture I've taken in the previous month. I'm not saying these will be my best pictures. A lot of them probably will, but that's not the point. The point is that they'll be the ones I like the best. For whatever reason. I may not even be able to tell you why I like them exactly. That's the case with my selection for January. I can't really tell you why, but I'm just so happy with this shot. :-)

I took it as we were standing in line to get into Rockefeller for the Katzenjammer concert on January 23rd. Rockefeller Music Club ... and we were almost first in line, so we were standing almost underneath the marquee. There was a wind blowing and the city lights in the sky. :-)

Click to enlarge, why don't you. :-)

Rant warning: People are idiots

OK, so, expect no enjoyment from today's post. I'm going to rant about how people are idiots and how it sucks when they show up and annoy me at work. So read on at your own risk. >:-(

At around noon today one of the biggest idiots I know walked in the door at work. That in itself is enough to annoy me since this guy is such a compulsive chatterbox that whenever I see him I know I'm at serious risk of wasting 20-30-40 minutes on basically nothing when I have so many other things to do. And small talk isn't just small talk ... sometimes it's interesting and entertaining, and sometimes it's BORING and completely inane. Guess which category this guy belongs to ...

We have a long back story with this person, he used to be the buyer for a big customer of ours. Well, he still has the same job, but the company he works for has been bought out and their production unit shipped out of the country so they don't buy much anymore. Good ... !! because that means we don't have to see this guy twice a week, or more, like we did before. He comes by very rarely these days. But today was one of these dreaded occasions. He wanted to speak to O., a coworker whose job title I'm really not sure of in English. I'll have to look into that. But he basically keeps the whole operation running smoothly ... or tries to, at least. It's a big job. Murphy's law and all that. Before Christmas the idiot I'm ranting about bought some stuff on the side, not for the company, and there was some mixup with the order so that he paid for something he didn't get and was supposed to get it later but still hasn't gotten it after three months or whatever. Gasp! So he came in complaining, and with a bunch of printouts in his hand, saying that O. is completely hopeless, never emails him back, blah blah ... and he said a bunch of totally unfair things like how O. has a fancy title now but that's no good when he never does anything, he never does what he's supposed to, etc. This got me totally annoyed because I know for a fact how much O. works and let me tell you, he works extremely hard. He is so dedicated to his job and he does so much - but no, he isn't perfect and he doesn't do everything in the whole world - he's only human, people make mistakes, sheesh. But saying he does nothing is a total lie and I won't let people say things like that. So I said actually, he works very hard, but he has a lot on his plate. Can I help [boot you out the door]? He started yapping about this order of his and how he had to talk to O. ... where was he, why wasn't he there, was he at lunch or something? YES, he was, just like he's ALWAYS at lunch around noon, and this fucking idiot always shows up at lunchtime!!! He never gets it through his thick skull that he needs to show up at some other time if he wants to be sure that people won't be at lunch!! Growl ... !!

So after talking this over for a little while I decide that I will just have to pull O. out of lunch to get him to take care of this now (it's a simple problem to solve and would have been solved long ago if only this guy wasn't such an idiot) so we can just get it over with. So he comes down and they talk for a while and straighten the problem out. I'm not involved in this, they walk around a bit and I'm at my not-quite-desk making some phone calls. Then they come back, having figured the problem out - and just FYI, when people leave the store they have to walk by me. And now the idiot felt like, apparently, he should include me in the conversation. Maybe he thinks that I enjoy talking to him? Can anyone really be that stupid?? Anyway. He starts to tell what he apparently thinks is a funny joke. He asks have we heard that the White House has a new name now? OK, so, I know things about this guy that mean that I know what kind of joke this is going to be. I try to ignore it. But this is a tactic that does not work with this guy. So he goes on to deliver the punchline. Which is, guess what. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. o_O

Now, O. isn't much of a reader, so he doesn't get this reference and he says so. I for my part am just about blowing a fuse. I mean, WTF?? What is wrong with people?? Now the idiot wants to explain his piece of shit joke so he says - and get this, he's ignorant too - he starts saying that years ago, this author wrote some books about Uncle Tom's cabin and Tom Sawyer and so on. WTF?? I really feel like I'm about to explode ... and say something really seriously rude ... so I just snap out, Now that's just completely wrong! Mr Idiot Man wants to know what I mean. I say that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mark Twain wrote the books about Tom Sawyer and they have nothing to do with each other. The idiot says Oh, is that so ... or something meaningless like that. At this point O. managed to steer the conversation onto something completely different and they went outside to look at something to do with the entrance area. And after that he left and I didn't see him again. Today ... >:-( Anyway.

WTF is wrong with people?? Why do ignorant shitheads like this ... I don't know, have the right to vote?? I don't want to give the wrong impression, I do know how to treat a customer, I'm good at customer service ... seriously, I really am ... but I'm not under any obligation to listen to any & every shitty line that some pathetic bigot feels like spewing at me. And - aside from the fact that Obama is the new American president who won the election by taking the high road and deserves some respect just for that - I will not sit down and listen to any black or brown or yellow or whatever person being called a Negro slave (or a monkey, which this guy has also referred to black people as, on more than one occasion) and just listen and not speak up. And especially when it's coming from someone who is an avowed racist and literally a Nazi!! I'm totally serious, this guy actively tried to start a Nazi political party here in Norway back in the 80s. I'm not joking. He couldn't drum up enough interest in the project so it never got off the ground. >:-) But that's beside the point. I am not sitting there listening to some Nazi shithead tell me racist jokes and just taking it. I was so fucking mad today ... !!! Good thing O. got him out of there when he did, because seriously ... !

And just so you won't think it's all me: I was telling our secretary about this later, we were standing by the coffee machine talking when our boss walked by on his way to the men's room. As he passed us he said, Having a meeting? :-) I replied that we weren't, that I just needed to blow off some steam about a customer. Hearing this, he said, Oh yeah? Is it [company name]? LOL! You betcha! :-)

Oh, and also: when I explained the joke to O. later he was totally shocked and said he supported me 100%. We both agree that if we never see that guy again, it'll be one billion years too soon. Oy vey.

So ... low point of my day, no question. Of my week, I hope. After work I went downtown to the BookCrossing meetup, had a lovely time there with Findabair and sota48 ... and then to the Cinematheque to see Billy Wilder's The Front Page. So overall it was a pretty good day. But I seriously don't know what's wrong with people. :-(

Herman so hungry ... !!!

If that twolegs doesn't give me some food soon, I'll ... I'll have to ... I'll eat my feeding tub!!!

NOM NOM NOM NOM ... !!

My calendar wall, February 2009

New month, new pictures. Look at that adorable dog. :-) There's still something missing from the wall though - my Keanucalendar - I am so slow ... ! I didn't get around to ordering it in time for it to arrive before the new month started. It'll be here for the March picture, I promise ...

... but in the meantime, just the fact that I don't have a Keanucalendar doesn't mean that I don't have a Keanupic to share. Of course. ;-)

Happy Monday!!

Resolutions 2009: January review

So - one month gone by, and how have I done with my vaunted New Year's resolutions? You may recall that I had quite a few of them. ;-) Not to toot my own horn, or anything, but I'd say that I've done pretty well so far. Here, I'll show you. :-)

I was supposed to send out a letter or a card at least once a week. Done! Admittedly, I haven't really sent any letters as such. Not what I would call letters. Just postcards and double cards. But it's better than nothing. Certainly a vast improvement on my efforts in 2008. :-) Pretty soon a real letter will be going out ... ! and James, it'll have your name on it!

Look at the gorgeous cards I've been sending ... I bought them at Tronsmo and I plan to send out every single one this year. :-)

The box:

I was supposed to do something creative. Make something, or whatever. I haven't made anything, but I have written something ... and had fun with it along with my writers' group. I am head of the group, apparently :-) and I made it our assignment for the January meeting to write one or more nanotale. It was fun, it really was ... I will definitely be writing more of these ... and I even started a separate blog for them. It's here if you want to take a look.

I was going to do something new, try something I'd never done before. I did that. :-) I kind of did one thing and a half, because the first thing was a matter of definition. :-) I went to a performance of Die Fledermaus at the still relatively new Opera House here in Oslo - it was the first time I'd seen a real performance there, but I'm not sure it counts, because I have been to the old Opera House, several times. So this wasn't really new, as such. :-) I went with my friend CH and her parents; they got tickets cheap for all of us since the bank they work for (her father's retired though) are one of the Opera's biggest sponsors. It was fun, although to be honest I had a hard time following the plot. If it hadn't been for those little subtitle thingys they've got on the front of the seats, I would have been totally lost. :-D But it was fun. :-)

This is CH and me on the 'top floor' of the ... what ... the top mezzanine? Or whatever they call it. We went out there in the intermission to see if we could figure out the plot by putting all our heads together. :-D

It's a pretty big place. A fantastic stage.

So, although this was kind of a new thing, I couldn't really let it count as my new experience for January. I had to figure out something else. :-) Something completely different - making marshmallows from scratch!! :-D I got this idea because I just totally randomly came across a recipe on a blog somewhere. I don't remember where now. I was just surfing around and came across it. You can get the recipe for yourself, here. I suggested to Anne Ida that we try to make some and she was game - thank you for being a sport! :-) We couldn't find all the ingredients, so we had to be a bit inventive, and as we were going along we made some mistakes in measuring and what have you ... but the results came out fantastically well. Seriously. Texture, color and taste - professional level. I kid you not. We were really impressed with ourselves. :-) The interesting thing here is that I don't actually like marshmallows. :-D But it was fun to try! And we figure that come December we can make up a much bigger batch and give our friends boxes of homemade marshmallows. :-D So some of you should consider yourselves warned ... ;-)

We took lots of pictures while we were messing about with the sugar and pots and pans ... Anne Ida made this great collage out of some of them. I stole it from her blog, shame on me. Click to enlarge it if you want to see every glorious detail. :-D I can really recommend trying this, it was lots of fun and the results were wonderful. :-)

OK, next ... I was supposed to try one new dinner recipe per month. I did that yesterday. ;-) Hey, it was still January. I made the deadline. :-) KAS and I made - at my suggestion! - a chicken jambalaya with lots of vegetables last night. It turned out absolutely delicious, if I do say so myself. I'll definitely be making this again ... and that's exactly my plan, to teach myself or to develop more recipes that I can make for dinner and that I really will make for dinner. I feel like I need more variation in my cooking, such as it is. This was a good start. This is a great recipe to cook up a huge batch of and freeze in portions. That makes it even better IMO. :-)

Various ingredients ... who says I never eat vegetables voluntarily??

Serve with rice. :-)

What next ... I was going to wild release one BookCrossing book every week. And I totally have! Five books so far this year. Jane Austen, Edgar Allan Poe, Fay Weldon, etc ... at the Opera House, Oslo Central Station, the Holberg statue downtown, Tveita mall, etc ... I've been such a good BookCrosser this month! :-D

I was going to read at least one book from the list of 1001 Book You Must Read Before You Die ... I have read one, The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. It was OK, nothing special IMO. Just not my type of book. I could appreciate technically that it was a good book, well written and so on, but it just didn't touch me. Quality literature, but it didn't do it for me.

I've been quite diligently updating my LiveJournal; well, compared to last year, anyway. I've been adding updates once a week; contents of varying meaningfulness ... but at least I'm making an effort. :-)

I was going to blog about Oslo, show off the city ... I've definitely done that, twice over in fact. I've posted about the Stock Exchange that I visited in September and also a bunch of pictures of Youngstorget square downtown. I've got a couple more posts already lined up for February ... I've been out taking pictures a couple of times and I have some good ones ready to post. :-)

The one thing I haven't done is to mail off a book to some foreign country. :-( I've been totally forgetting about it till it was too late ... for this month, anyway. I'll try to send two this month, to make up for it.

All in all I have to say I think I've done good ... !! :-D Fingers crossed for February ... ! :-)

Quote of the Week

The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.
Delos B. McKown