More Hot Cellular bullshit

That is the lowest of the lowest of the LOWEST!
Now you're offering rewards for being a smoker?

Wait... maybe the reward is if you stop smoking?
Little positive thinking here...
I click the link to check out my theory.
Then I get this:


Because of your geographic location we are unable to process your request at this time.
You are being redirected to a site that better suits your needs.


Being Norwegian hurts sometimes... They send me the ads but they never want to give me the stuff.. *sigh*.

Then I've been redirected. And I get this:


Dream of being a millionaire? Earn more money sitting at home!


I read a few lines and their rhetoric sucks. I'd give you the link but I'd rather not promote their business.

What is this? They're all so eager for us all to kill ourselves? People, smokers all over the world, please, please don't fall for things like this. It's hard to stop but what does it really give you? And what might it cause instead?

Oh the insanity...

I'm insane! I'm insane!

Look:
ooooo

Random comments

• I haven't seen a cloud in over a week.


• My sister wants a guinea pig.


• I'm reading Asterix and Obelix out loud in French.


• Wearing eyeshadow makes me tired.


• I put up the curtains in one window yesterday.
  Today I put up the curtains in the other window.


• I need a new background for my desktop.
Any suggestions?

"When I grow up..."

In the car today my sister announced:

"When I grow up I have to have a job, and then I'm gonna be a pet store!"

My sister, ladies and gentlemen...

#%€@¤£$

You

brainless, dazed, deficient, dense, dim, dodo, doltish, dopy, dotterel, dull, dumb, dummy, foolish, futile, gullible, half-baked, half-witted, idiotic, ill-advised, imbecilic, inane, indiscreet, insensate, irrelevant, irresponsible, laughable, loser, ludicrous, meaningless, mindless, moronic, naive, nonsensical, obtuse, pointless, puerile, rash, senseless, short-sighted, simple, simple-minded, slow, sluggish, stolid, stupefied, thick, thickheaded, trivial, unintelligent, unthinking, witless

people!


Hmm? Oh yeah, I did a search for 'stupid' on Thesaurus.com

Things you should know (??)

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
(and it's sticky too!)

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
(I knew it! ketchup is good for everything!)

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before!
(can this really be true??)

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples!
(an apple a day keeps the cardiologist away... and you thought this was just a randomly chosen nick)

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
(I thought it said 'peeing' the second time I read it...)


All the funny things that come in your mail...

Military Instructions

A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what is left of your unit.
- Army's magazine of preventive maintenance.

Aim towards the Enemy.
- Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher

Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground.
- USAF Ammo Troop

It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.
- U.S. Air Force Manual

You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me.
- U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt.

Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.
- Unknown Marine Recruit


any my two favourites from this chain mail:

When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.
- U.S. Marine Corps

Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammunition.
- Infantry Journal

Module 12: Human Nature and Cultural Diversity

1.) Some 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, most anthropologists
believe we humans were all _________________.

A)African
B)Asian
C)European
D)Norwegian


D!!! Go social psychology!


From 'Exploring Social Psychology' by David G. Myers

(it's really A but don't tell anyone)

Module 13: Gender, Genes, and Culture

"Women can be fascinated by a four-hour movie with subtitles wherein the entire plot consists of a man and a woman yearning to have, but never actually having a relationship. Men HATE that. Men can take maybe 45 seconds of yearning, and they want everybody to get naked. Followed by a car chase. A movie called 'Naked People in Car Chases' would do really well among men."
- Dave Barry

From my 'Exploring Social Psychology'
text book by David G. Myers.

Easter skiing in the valley.

A ten minute drive from our house we find this - a picture perfect place where we go skiing. In summer we drive up here to go for a walk - a long walk - in the mountains, during winter there's snow everywhere.



I ski once a year and this is where I do it.


I hate skiing. I do. I suck at it. I don't want to get out of my bed, put on lots of clothes and walk around in the snow all day, worrying about going downhill cuz I know I'll hit something; a person, a tree or simply trip over my own skis.

Nowhere to go but forwards.

But when we get there it's not half-bad anyway. The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. It's always like this - I hate skiing until I actually get there. And I'm well aware of it - I told my parents I won't like it until I get the skis on my feet, then I love it. It's always like that. I just hate getting ready, that's all.

One of the places we go hiking in summer.

I hate hiking too. Until I start walking. I love being outside, you just always need to prepare to be outside. You need to prepare for everything, unless you do like Hobbes in the last post. A lot of the time it doesn't take much to be happy. I'm happy when I'm outside. But often it takes two tractors and a bulldozer to get me out there.

A cabin / hut / little house on the 'seter'.

I've tried to explain the Norwegian concept of 'seter' before... Basically they were places where someone in the farmer's family, usually women - a 'budeie' - stayed during summer, or went during the day to milk the cows. Now they're used as places where people build small cabins and go to get away from home for a weekend, or stay longer during summer.

Another 'seter'.

We went past four 'seter's on this trip: Hjortedalssetra (Deer Valley Seter), Storesetra (The Big Seter) Bruasetra (Seter of The Bridge) and Grendasetra (Grenda Seter - a 'grend' is a small area of a town). Where you live in the town - which farm your land used to belong to - decides where your family has or can have its cabin.

A lot of snow - a roof and a chimney.

We went past a cabin with ski tracks on the roof. There's usually a lot of snow this time of year and some places can be hard to get to. You can't get up here with a car or even a tractor - you ski!

Taking a break - bring cocoa.

We sat down and had lunch, afterwards my dad said the children were to go play while my mum and he had coffee - that's how it had always been. So my sis (who is 11) and I grabbed the things we sat on (plastic something or other) which we put in plastic shopping bags, and went up a hill. And another hill. Takes a while when you sink down a foot or two every step you take. You don't walk on snow, you walk in snow. Then we sat down on our plastic covered plastic and tried to see how fast we could get back down. After a few times, the snow had gotten hard and we went fast, even got a jump in there and we went uuuuppp-we-go-and-thud! down again.

Looking back as we're going down.

Our behinds soaking wet and our shoes full of snow (at least mine were) we put the skis back on and started the journey back down. I didn't crash even once! I probably look like a Dane when I start out (they really don't ski), but then Norwegians aren't born with skis on their feet for nothing. I think I managed pretty well.

The first thing I asked my dad when we got back where we started?

"Wanna go again?"

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

People are weird... II

There was more to this story.

There was no man selling books. The woman made it up.

The police says the woman was hurt, but they don't know how it happened. They call it a 'personal tragedy'.

The police also says it's important "to let people know that there is no need to worry if someone comes to your house wanting to sell something. At least we have no reason to believe they will fire a gun at you."


The two things that surprised me;
a) someone wants to sell books and they shoot you?
b) you've been shot in the leg and you go to bed?

are not quite as surprising anymore since;

a) no one selling anything shot anyone
b) she had her reasons not to tell anyone

A personal tragedy...

Do you know this picture?

I think I found it in a Google search a couple days ago. When I clicked for the original version, there was something else on the page and this picture was nowhere to be found. I just have the little version shown in the search results and I'm trying to figure out what it is, where it's from.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

People are weird...

You're a 58-year old woman. You live in Norway, close to Bergen. You're at home when someone rings your doorbell, you go to open the door. There's a man there, mid 20s, wanting to sell you some books. You talk for a couple of minutes and you decide you don't want to buy anything. He pulls out a gun and shoots you in the leg.

What do you do?

You go to bed. Your husband/son finds you two hours later, calls the police and an ambulance. They send a helicopter, you are transported to the hospital where you go into surgery.


Erm... This happened today and I can't do anything but say I am mildly shocked because;
a) someone wants to sell books and they shoot you?
b) you've been shot in the leg and you go to bed?

There must be something more to this story...

How old are you?

My sister and I were out in the driveway playing basketball when the little girl next door and another girl went past on their bikes. I asked my sister how old the girl (our neighbour) is and she said "4...5...maybe 3". Then the two little girls came up to our lawn, going "Hello! Hello!". My sister asked "Hey, how many years are you?" The girl said "Four!". Her friend (another neighbour's granddaughter, visiting for Easter) said "I'm this many!" and held up her hand.

Didn't make us much wiser though.
She was wearing a mitten.

Implicit Association Test

I've been reading a bit in my Exploring Social Psychology book by David Myers the past days. After reading each Module, sort of like a short chapter, there are exercises we can do on a cd. I took the Implicit Attitudes Test that may show whether I really feel about things the way I think I feel about them, or whether I, for example, prefer whites to blacks, men to women, while claiming otherwise.

• The first test told me this:
  
  Results: Slight preference for African American
  
  Along with 6% of the more than one million people who have taken this test (this is a real test used for psychological research), I have a slight automatic preference for black people.
  
  If your test results showed a preference for a certain
  group, you may have a hidden, or unconscious, bias
  in favor of that group. The results of more than one
  million tests suggest that most people have unconscious
  biases. For example, nearly two out of three white
  Americans show a moderate or strong bias toward,
  or preference for, whites, as do nearly half of all black
  Americans.

• The second test then told me this:
  
  Results: Moderate association between Male and Career
  
  The same as 15% of the others who took this test. I'm not surprised. A little disappointed maybe, but not surprised.
  
  The gender IAT often reveals an automatic, or
  unconscious, association of female with family and male
  with career. These associations are consistent with
  traditional gender stereotypes that a woman's place is in
  the home rather than the workplace (and vice-versa for men).

So 6% and 15%... I'm not like most people.
Then again, I'm not American.

Wanna see how you do? Understandingprejudice.org
I'd do it if I were you.

Auburn

Auburn = (chestnut) brown

Says my sister's English-Norwegian/Norwegian-English dictionary, after I translated "(kastanje)brun" into "(chestnut) brown".

Auburn is brown. A shade of brown. Here is a chestnut.



This looks kinda red to me. But at least it's not orange!


My sister's dictionary has cartoons in it. Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. No fair. I've been reading in the dictionary (yes it's a hobby, reading dictionaries) and these cartoons are nothing like any other Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip I have ever seen. All the others have been horrible big things, colours here and there, big pictures where you don't figure out which one to read first. These are great though, three or four little squares, maybe this is how they were to begin with...


Here's a pumpkin.

Fashion from Lisbon

Nipples are in this year

A while ago I posted something on Galliano's fashion show in Paris.
This weekend designers presented their Autumn/Winter 2005 stuff in Lisbon and I noticed a few things I'd like to share;

Strategically placed flowers by Jose Antonio Tente
(kinda cute, but when do you wear it?)
See-through knight-like thing by Lidija Kolovrat
(a little exposed?)
Purple dress by Nuno Baltazar
(I love this picture! ...except for the fur...)
Photo that cold pass for art, creation by Nuno Baltazar
(although I saw some nicer blue shoes on here..)
. by Katty Xiomara
(need I say anything?)

Fashion can be fun but... I think I'll stick with this cool new shop I found - cheap and fun is the way to go. At least I can afford to cover up properly - would get a little cold walking around like that here, don't you think?

Health Insurance anyone?

From: Health Card USA
Subject: Affordable Health Care has Arrived



I just found this in my Hotmail Junk E-mail Inbox. I was talking about this with my mum the other day - she's had a couple operations on her arm and I was wondering how our system really works, what does she have to pay?

It works like this: You have a card 'worth' about 250 USD (1,500 NOK). When you go to the doctor or the hospital, you have to pay a certain amount, and they put that on your card. My mum has gone to the hospital twice and had two operations - she has to pay some of the tickets to go there, and a 250 NOK fee at the hospital. They write that down on her card. I asked her what happens when she has spent all the 1,500 NOK on her card, when she has paid that much for her tickets, hospital visits, operations, medication. What happens when there's no more 'space' left on her card?

Then everything is free. You should not spend more than 250 USD a year for your health care. The state takes care of the rest. And as if that's not enough, if you have children under the age of 16, their medication and hospital visits are put on your card and count towards your 'maximum spending limit' of 250 USD. What happens if you have a disease and you need medication, but you can't afford it? Well... that just can't happen here.

"So what about health insurance?" I asked my mum. "Well.. I don't know.. do we have something called health insurance?" "I don't know." "I don't think there is something called health insurance.."

I checked it out and found that the biggest insurance companies simply don't have something called 'Health Insurance' or anything like it. However, I did read that some people (2.2%) have got some kind of health insurance, it was a big news article from a year ago, focusing on why people felt they needed it, and I tracked down one company that sells it, and this is what it covers;

• Critical disease - if you get a serious disease (one of 16), they pay you a certain amount of money
• International Hospital Insurance - you get to choose where you want to be treated abroad (if you choose the 'full coverage' type of insurance)
• Scandinavian Hospital Insurance - you get to choose where in Scandinavia you want to be treated

So yeah... extra money if you get seriously ill, or the right to be treated abroad. That's what the health insurance (Vital Forsikring) I could find, covers. I assume they also pay if you decide to go to a private hospital.

But I think it says a lot about how well off we are, how our system works, when insurance companies don't offer health insurance and people don't know what it is, this thing that is so necessary in other countries. I remember watching or reading something, and from time to time there's always someone who mentiones something about insurance, and a typical illustration of how poor and 'careless' a young student might be, is that he or she doesn't even have health insurance!

Well... I don't have it either. I don't need it. And not because I won't get sick. But because if I do get sick, getting treatment, operations, medication, isn't something I should have to worry about. That's what our government does for us. What does your government do for you?

Ice outside

I wanted to play basketball today. But there's so much ice on the ground in the driveway, I decided to go out and see what I could do to get it off. No one seemed to like my idea of putting hot water on there; the temperature drops well below the freezing point in the evening and therefore it wouldn't have been a good idea. I rounded up my siblings and we went into the garage to find whatever would get ice off stone.

The ice was really thick some places and thin others; we got some off but when the sun went down it didn't seem like it had worked at all. Not like we thought we'd get it all off in just an hour or so, I just get these ideas sometimes... My sister and I used brooms to get the snow and ice away so we could see how much was left. We found a footprint, a weird one, my sister went into the hallway and threw shoes outside, I checked to see if they were the ones that had made the weird print. We felt like archeologists for a few minutes - archeologists trying to hit each other with shoes. We never did find the right ones though...

Just three more days till spring is supposed to be here - can you believe it? It's March! The winter is almost over. Spring... flowers, leaves, grass! I can't wait!

It's amazing how tired just being here makes me - I didn't get up until lunch time today, although I spent quite a while in bed between waking up and getting up, just dreaming... It's not even midnight now and I'm exhausted! Maybe it's because I can't sit still when I'm here.

I should be reading, two months till exams, but I just can't concentrate - for some reason my mind is anywhere but here. If you want to be with someone but the distance between you makes it impossible, it's always good to have dreams.

Our slogan: Hug Norway!

I've been told I should hug the people I care about.

Yesterday I hugged my brother, my mum looked confused and my brother, after recovering from the initial shock, said 'she probably hasn't done that since she was four..'.

Today I hugged my sister. She hugged me back, doing her best to break a couple of my ribs. Then I hugged my brother, who asked if they've been giving me some sort of weird therapy in my psyhcology classes. I told him it's important to hug people, he suggested that if I was going to go out and start hugging people, I would have to give them shock therapy afterwards. I told him I'm studying social behaviour, even have the book with me. I think he's worried what they're doing to me.


See?? We really don't hug! I'm doing my best to change that but I'm gonna need some help. I need your help. So whenever you see a Norwegian: hug! Together we can change the world!

Finns

How do you know a Finn wants to talk to you?

They stare at your shoes instead of their own.

-Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission, in a the Norwegian talk show 'Først og Sist'.

Cute little description.
They keep even more to themselves than we do!

Sis is in the bathroom

My sister locked me in the bathroom,
I picked the lock with the tweezers.

Then she wanted to be locked in the bathroom
and now she's trying to pick the lock with the tweezers.

I left her to it - hopefully she'll be out by dinner time.


I just got home for Easter last night.
Have you seen my kitten?
Click and enlarge.

You never know... 'Anything' just happened

I should have written this a while ago...

The thing is.... I believe I'm in love.

Yup. That's right. And with a guy! Who would ever have thought??

He sent me an email six months ago and we finally met last Wednesday. If you want the whole story, here it is:

He said he was coming to Norway in February, spending a few weeks here for work. What is Norway like? Tell me about the people, how do they feel towards Americans? I talked, he listened. Then he talked and I listened. And we kept talking and listening to each other pretty much until February came.

Last Wednesday I flew to Trondheim after finally having got to book the tickets, planes, hotel, when does that bus leave?? The bus left alright, only I wasn't on it. And no, I wasn't late, it was late and I called a cab. Anyway, I got there. I was told I could check in early but when I came, I couldn't. So I spent a couple of hours walking around the city before going back to the hotel.

The girl at the front desk said some Americans had been there looking for me and could that be correct? Yeah, it was... They had gone to the pub and she thought they were still there. I went up to my room and suddenly I got all nervous. Then I got a little bit more nervous. I thought I'd go down to the pub and was on my way when I noticed that the doors of the other floors were locked; could these be the right stairs? I went up one floor and suddenly heard someone knock on a door. I don't know why but I just felt it was someone knocking on my door and since I was on that floor, I looked to see if someone was there.

And there he was - funny haircut and all - standing outside my door. Michael, the guy I'd been talking to for such a long time, and he was real!

We went down to the pub and I met his friends, seven of them. They were the funniest, smartest, nicest bunch of guys I've ever met. It was an interesting day - we spent it walking around Trondheim, seeing the sights, looking for restaurants that had turned into 7-Elevens. It was a great day. I didn't want to go to sleep that night.

And the next morning he left and now I miss him. I'm always in control of my feelings, I can tell myself how to feel but I just catch myself thinking "I wish he were here right now, that he could see this and know what my world is like". I can't control all of my feelings anymore. And that feels great.



I don't know when I'll get to see you again, but I hope it will be soon. I should have written this days ago but I just didn't know how to. I miss you. And now you're real, I'm 'allowed' to feel what I'm feeling, it's ok and it's not silly anymore. Surreal maybe, but not silly.



And that's the story... There was so much more, moments, images, words I'll never forget... Great couple of days. Cute city. Cute guy.

Simply gorgeous!

Help!

Please pick one.

Bachelorprogram i administrasjon og organisasjonsvitskap
Bachelorprogram i antikke studiar
Bachelorprogram i anvend geofysikk
Bachelorprogram i arbeids- og organisasjonspsykologi
Bachelorprogram i arbeidslivsstudiar
Bachelorprogram i biologi
Bachelorprogram i estetiske fag
Bachelorprogram i Europastudiar
Bachelorprogram i faste jords fysikk
Bachelorprogram i film- og TV-produksjon
Bachelorprogram i fysikk
Bachelorprogram i geografi
Bachelorprogram i geologi
Bachelorprogram i havbruksbiologi
Bachelorprogram i helsefremmande arbeid
Bachelorprogram i historie og kulturfag
Bachelorprogram i human ernæring
Bachelorprogram i idéfag
Bachelorprogram i informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi (IKT)
Bachelorprogram i informasjonsvitenskap
Bachelorprogram i informatikk
Bachelorprogram i informatikk-matematikk-økonomi
Bachelorprogram i integrert kystsoneforvaltning
Bachelorprogram i journalistikk
Bachelorprogram i kjemi
Bachelorprogram i kommunikasjonsteknologi og nye medium
Bachelorprogram i kulturformidling
Bachelorprogram i kvinne- og kjønnsstudiar
Bachelorprogram i litteraturstudiar
Bachelorprogram i matematikk
Bachelorprogram i matematikk og statistikk
Bachelorprogram i medievitskap
Bachelorprogram i medievitskap med spesialisering i praktisk fjernsynsproduksjon
Bachelorprogram i mellomalderstudiar
Bachelorprogram i meteorologi og oseanografi
Bachelorprogram i midtaustenkunnskap
Bachelorprogram i miljø- og ressursfag
Bachelorprogram i moderne kunst og estetikk
Bachelorprogram i molekylærbiologi
Bachelorprogram i musikk
Bachelorprogram i nye medier
Bachelorprogram i offentlig organisering og leiing
Bachelorprogram i pedagogikk
Bachelorprogram i petroleumsteknologi
Bachelorprogram i politisk økonomi
Bachelorprogram i prosessteknologi
Bachelorprogram i retorikk
Bachelorprogram i samfunnsøkonomi
Bachelorprogram i sammenliknende politikk
Bachelorprogram i sosialantropologi
Bachelorprogram i sosiologi
Bachelorprogram i språk
Bachelorprogram i språk og informasjon
Bachelorprogram i tannpleie
Bachelorprogram i utviklingsstudier
Bachelorprogram i visuell kultur
Bachelorstudium i geofag
Bachelorstudium i matematikk og naturvitenskap
Bachelorstudium i olje og gass
Påbyggjing i økonomi og administrasjon

We love the professor

Today I spent eight straight hours in a concert hall like thing listening to lectures. Since we can't use your Student Centre anymore, we have to go to Grieghallen, where they've placed chairs in rows in this big hall. Which is where we have our lectures now. It's not very practical.

Six hours into it we were all half asleep. We'd done four hours of social psycholoy and two of cognitive psychology already and the cognition professor was funny but now as funny as before. Or maybe we were just tired.

Then biology-psychology was up. We usually have this dreadfully boring Swedish guy but he wasn't there today. This old man was sitting on the edge of the stage before the lecture started. We all sat down, ready for two more hours. He must have been 75 but his voice sounded like he was 45 and his words made him seem 25 if it hadn't been for the slightly distinguished tone in his voice and some words he used.

We were all cracking up with laughter five minutes into it and more or less laughed throughout the first 45 minutes. He talked about stress and attention and just before the break he said that it's all about staying awake and he had to keep us awake, whether it was to provoke us, make us laugh or whatever else. That way we might remember something and not walk out and want to forget about it. I'm sure there were several of us who nearly fell off our chairs - I don't usually laugh that hard but he had some amazing comments you'd never expect to hear coming from a retired professor.

One of his comments was about this psychologist who lived in Canada and worked at the Université de Montreal. He didn't speak English very well and it didn't really matter because in Montreal they speak French, and if you do speak English you shut up about it.

This psychologist had done some research and realized the word 'stress' was one of few English words that were accepted in French. He then changed the meanings of the words 'stress' and 'strain' so that suddenly people who read his stuff meant something completely different by it than other psychologists - "as you would say in English" (the professor said in Norwegian), "he fucked it up."

We love him! I hope he'll be back sometime.

Hot Cellular Christians

These two landed in my inbox a few days ago:








Now, my first reaction was; "you have got to be kidding me!". But now that I've thought about it, it actually makes sense. Religion is everywhere and we're all arguing about it. It would make sense to know right away just how religious your date is so that you won't end up in a terrible fight when you tell your girl she can't talk to men she's not related to, or you tell your man he has to wear a Kippah to the synagogue.

We should have dating services for Jews and Mulims aswell, not to mention Hindus and Buddhists. This one is for Christians, I'm not Christian so I won't have any use for it, but there might be others out there who will. I wonder if you have to tell them if you are a Catholic or Lutheran or if you belong to the Angelican church (forgive me for errors, as I said, it's not my religion).

The second ad also makes sense. You wouldn't want your Christian money to end up in the hands of a Jew or a Muslim would you? Who knows what they would do with it. Muslims aren't supposed to pay interest, their religion forbids it, could that be your concern? It does not, however, say that only Christians can apply, it only says 'Money Lending Based on Christian Prinsiples'. What are Christian principles within the money lending business? We'll give you money now then we'll take yours later? Do to others what you want others to do to you?

A good idea for those who are Christian. Maybe we'll all just convert to Christianity so that we can date all those wonderful people in the first ad and get all the money from the second ad. We sure don't want to be left out and Christians do seem to get around. With fancy ads from Hot Cellular Deals and everything.

Oh no, not again

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

It's bloody 2:30 in the morning and someone is smoking in their room.
Either that or they've decided to test the alarm.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

What if there's a fire? Should I go outside?
I can hear the doooos in my left ear and the aaas in my right ear.

Dooooaaadooooaaadooooaaadooooaaa

This is painful.

Compass

I have a compass that I got when I left France almost nine months ago. It's messed up when I try and sit here and figure out what's north and south cuz of the computer. So I go to the other side of the room and try. I want to figure out for once where is north, south, east and west. I hold the compass and see alright, that's north. I've got a piece of paper that tells me how many degrees I have to turn to find out where places are seen from Bergen.

I put the compass on the floor to be able to look at the paper at the same time as keeping the compass straight. To my surprise I see that on the floor, north has moved 60 degrees to the west. I try this again. And again. A change in elevation of five feet changes north between 30 and 60 degrees. Is it just me or does this seem silly?

Smoke = fire !

It really was a fire. Big one too. Four buildings down the hill on the other side of the bridge were damaged and it took two hours to get control of the flames. 25 people were evacuated and went to the city hall, then those who needed it were offered to stay at a hotel. No one got hurt and today they've been moving cars so that they wouldn't be hit by bricks and things falling from the houses.

All the things you'd miss if you were sleeping at 4am...

Smoke = fire ?

Suddenly a whole lot of smoke appeared on the other side of the bridge, behind the church somewhere, about the same place the smoke comes from when a ship is leaving. But there's a whole lot of it and it stays much longer than any ship plus it's too late for any ship to leave isn't it?

And an ambulance and two fire trucks came with blue lights from this side of the bridge, which is weird since the fire station is on the other side. Hopefully it's nothing bad, smoke is white though, isn't smoke from fires dark? Sure is a whole lot of it.

I think I need a hobby.
Or a bed.

Ice in Inzell

Finally! Norwegian ice skaters are back! Even Wetten (who I'd never heard of) got the gold medal in the world championship in speed skating in Inzell today. The Dutch got the silver while another Norwegian got bronze. What's going on? I thought we sucked these days??

Also, allow me to add a comment that is very unlike me, but look at this picture of the gold medal winner, the article titled "A 22 year old dream", and you'll see why I'll want to point out the fact that he is simply ga-ga gorgeous!

Asking Jeeves

Trying to find out how many people are killed in the US every year, I asked Jeeves a well meaning though perhaps badly phrased

"how many are killed in the US every year?"

The results on the first page included one

"14 year old asian girl getting tied up and fucked by 4 men "

and an address I have no intentions of posting.


I am speechless...

Not that that ever lasts long. What on earth... What... How... But...

Jeez.......

This is the world we don't want to know exists. This is the only kind of world I would ever want to pretend doesn't exist. But it does. And we can't close our eyes.


Also got some more results

"how to avoid being killed by your doctor" which I found to be.... interesting.


And the one that made me laugh so hard I thought I'd wake my neighbours:

The Worst of British
- Technical support helpline calls
- Insurance claims
- Complains to the council

check em out, you won't regret it
also check out the FBIs top 20 unusual deaths, that's how I got to that page

Sky News reports

SMELLY HUSBAND DUMPED

An Iranian woman is trying to divorce her husband - because he has not washed for a year.

The 36-year-old woman said her husband used to be one of cleanest persons she knew when they got married eight years ago.

But his personal hygiene has now gone to pot - and he does not even wash his face in the morning.

"My husband says he does not like water and does not want to take a shower... He doesn't even wash his face when he wakes up in the morning," the woman was quoted as saying in court by the state-run Iran newspaper.

"He (used to spend) hours taking showers three times a day and washed his hands every few minutes," said the woman, identified as Mina.

"But he suddenly changed... Now nobody, including me, my children and his colleagues, can stand him."

It is very difficult for women to divorce their husbands in Iran.

They normally have to prove that their husbands have sexually or physically abused them or are drug addicts.


Sky News

Long time ago in Bethlehem...

Did you know there were 21 places called Bethlehem in the United States? Well... there are.

Another rape?

Yet another girl has been raped here. This time it was on 'the hill', the area around the Uni that would have been our campus if we had one. A few months ago a 19 year old student was raped by a man she met on the bridge (yes, that bridge) and a couple days before, or after, a woman was attacked by a different man. He ripped her blouse but she was screaming and a guy came running and got the man off her, by then he was already lying on top of her on the ground.

This time it was a 24 year old woman who was pulled into the toilets at the HF-faculty (History and Philosophy). No one seems to be quite sure if it was a 'rape' or a 'sexual assault' or something in between, the girl has left the city and hasn't reported it, but the police has started their own investigations.

I don't know what's going on but I know I don't like it.
Is this what living in the city is supposed to be like?
Scary either way.

Death penalty - two posts in one

High court: Juvenile death penalty unconstitutional. (CNN.com)


Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty for Youths Unconstitutional. (FoxNews.com)


US bans death penalty for juveniles. (Ananova.com)


High Court Ends Death Penalty for Youths. (NYPost.com)


La Cour suprême des Etats-Unis a aboli la peine de mort à l'encontre des mineurs. (LeMonde.fr)


JUVENILE EXECUTION BAN (Sky.com)


Höchstes US-Gericht verbietet Todesstrafe für Jugendliche. (Spiegel.de)


El Supremo deEE UU anula la pena de muerte para los menores. (ElPais.es)


Forbyr henrettelser av barn. (Adressa.no)



About bloody time!
I don't like the death penalty. I don't agree with it. It's not ok to kill no matter how you do it. I don't think you can have laws that say you can't kill, but if you do, then we can kill you. The law should be the same for everyone - even the state, government, the president or whoever. You might say killers go to prison and live comfortably, get an education and then they might get out and lead a good life.

Do I think a murderer can change? Depends what kind of person he or she is. Someone who kills children "just because I can"... some people just don't feel guilt. They don't understand why they shouldn't do it and I'm not talking about being... what's the correct term here... mentally challenged? Is that a term? I'm not talking about that, with some people there's just something in their brain that doesn't connect - they don't understand that this is bad. Like some people can't feel heat or cold. Something isn't like it should be.

They're dangerous to society. But should we kill them? I know that if someone I knew and love were killed, I might have changed my mind. But then I would let my emotions judge and that usually isn't very smart. Maybe that would be a better way though... Let the family of the victim do what they want to the killer for an hour. Or better yet, let's do to the killer what he/she did to his/her victim(s). Or isn't that what we're doing now?

I think someone who is capable of killing must somehow be capable of justifying it to themselves. There are lots of reasons why people kill and I don't know what is worse. To plan it and do it then get rid of the body and all evidence or just randomly pick someone on the street. I've always thought the second is worse, you don't have a reason. But do you have a reason just because you plan it?

Looking for something on the Supreme Court's decision I came across the page murdervictims.com. On a link I found this passage (don't read if you're feeling nauseaus);


"For the next hour or so, these beautiful, innocent young girls were subjected to the most brutal gang rapes that most of the investigating officers had ever encountered. The confessions of the gang members that were used at trial indicated that there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any one time and that the girls were repeatedly raped orally, anally and vaginally for the entire hour. One of the gang members later said during the brag session that by the time he got to one of the girls, "she was loose and sloppy." One of the boys boasted of having 'virgin blood' on him."


Now... I just have to repeat this sentence;

"there was never less than 2 men on each of the girls at any time and that the girls were repeatadly raped (...) for the entire hour".

This is when I wanna puke (and I don't do that a lot). There were six of them, five were sentenced to death. The sixth was 14 years old. He wasn't there for the murders, he was sent away because he was "too little to watch". The girls were 14 and 16. Too young to watch but not too young to die.


So what's the answer? What's the solution that should be written and read and printed and learned? There isn't one. You won't stop crime by punishing. Not in our society. Do people not kill anymore because they fear getting caught? I don't know, do they? If only people, all people, could realize everybody has the same right to life then it wouldn't be a problem. If only...

Send em all to Mars. Beam me up, Scotty!

Galliano

The pictures you don't want to miss of the clothes you might (not) want to wear.
Trust me, you want to see these.

Autumn coloured dress (pretty dress but...)
An oops dress (love the lipstick!)

If you still haven't looked, you should.
Would you wear this?
Was it intentional?

Are there ever any coincidences in fashion shows in Paris?
I'm just asking...

Internet marriage?

Man is internet bigamist

A Chinese woman has sued her husband for bigamy after he married another woman on the internet.

Lin, from Harbin city, Heilongjiang province, noticed her husband, Zhang, spending an increased amount of time on the internet.

After becoming suspicious she discovered that he had 'married' another woman on the Internet and even had a virtual child.

Lin sued her husband for bigamy and was granted a divorce.

The judge turned down her plea for emotional damage, since the marriage was not legal.

ananova.com



I'm sorry sweetie... I meant to tell you... I've been internet engaged. Never tied the knot but it's been close. Was for the best, it would have ended in a terribly untying...

Mail

This landed in my inbox today;


A man and his wife, now in their 60's, were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. On their special day a good fairy came to them and said that because they had been such a devoted couple she would grant each of them a very special wish. The wife wished for a trip around the world with her husband. Whoosh! Immediately she had airline/cruise tickets in her hands. The man wished for a female companion 30 years younger.. Whoosh...immediately he turned ninety!!!

Gotta love that fairy!