For the Birds by Pixar- cutest short film ever

Bergen goodbye

Yesterday I packed up my umbrellas, threw out my rubber boots and left Bergen for the last time.

The city decided to give me its very best send off - what is more Bergen than days on end of pouring rain? It followed us through the night, all the way home, and doesn't seem to be leaving any time soon.

Five years is a long time...

Too much information!

A lot of people complain about their Facebook-friends constantly updating their statuses with useless information. "Going to have dinner"... "Just had dinner"... "Watching a movie" - I know, who needs that right?

Fortunately I don't have too many of those. What I do have, however, is an aunt. Almost. She's my uncle's wife, 41 years young and kinda all over the place. Today she posted her quiz results from the test
"Where should you have SEX?";

On the bus
You know how to get around, traveling doesn't have to be boring! Spontaneity (and perhaps untamed horniness?) is a word which describes you well!

I like it when people are open and honest, but isn't this just a little too much information to share with your entire network of friends (not to mention your whole family.. including your 18 year old son)?

Then again, the test did make me curious... where should I have sex?

On a trampoline
A bouncy person like you whould enjoy the bounce of the trampoline! With the right rhytm and songs this could get pretty hot!

Now that's a thought...
(and no, I did not post that on Facebook!)
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Visiting Work

I stopped by (ex)work before leaving Bergen. Some of the girls are still there, some have moved on.

One of my former colleagues had left. She'd met a guy online and moved to another part of the country.

I started wondering... hadn't she been married? But it wasn't until I left that I remembered she'd been living with a guy I'd met a lot of times. They had a couple of teenage kids together.

I would never in a million years have thought she was the kinda person who would do something like that. Of course, I don't know what has happened the year I've been gone.

Still, I am beyond shocked right now... (and really really wishing I'd have remembered it earlier so I could have gotten the whole background story from the girls!)


Maybe those people are right - the internet is a dangerous place!

Confession

I have a confession to make.

I've had an ulterior motive with a few of my posts the last year. The thing is, there's someone out there I've wanted to talk to, and this was the only way I really knew how to.

Right now I'm tired of waiting, and it's now or never. This guy knows who he is and I'm telling him - either you tell me what you're thinking, or I'm letting this thing go.

Chances are I'm making an ass of myself here, but I'm old enough not to care, and smart enough not to let it matter.


Here we go. It's all or nothing.

New Flatmate

She's a little tall, pretty thin, bushy hair, kinda cute and six years younger than me. (When did I get this old??)

She doesn't say much, I'm guessing confidence comes with age and apparently I'm old enough to intimidate the younger ones. Guess it gotta be a little scary, being a new student in a new city. When I moved here we were all new so that wasn't really an issue.

She seemed nice (from the six words she spoke) so hopefully things will work out with the two guys.

Wonder who will move into my room next week...

The Music and the People

Two tents, one grand piano, a motor cycle camp and horseshoes; that's a festival in a little town. I had fun, I think everybody did, and it's great that someone decides to arrange something like that.

I met a lot of people I didn't know, people I've heard of but never met, and people I've seen all my life but still don't know who are. It's a small town so everybody knows each other in one way or another - you either recognize someone but don't know their name, or the other way around.

I talked to a guy I knew as a kid (or so my parents tell me) who said he knew me as a kid too (or so his parents tell him). And another who claimed to be married while simultaneously doing his best to grab my butt and thigh for the better part of an hour, before trying to invite himself back to my [parents'] place.

At least people from my class are easy to remember (and keep their hands to themselves). Half of them I haven't seen since we finished high school six years ago and most of us left town. Others I run into almost every time I'm home. In one way you'd never have thought that many years have passed; some people are exactly the same. Others are different. You don't know who has become the angry drunk, who is a different person behind your back, and who is quieter than you remembered (or perhaps just didn't really want to talk to you).

It was fun, more people should know about this.. Maybe next year!

Guys!

I usually prefer having guys as flat mates. Guys tend to make less of a mess than girls, and they're easier to talk to. And they take way less time in the bathroom!

Then I come back here a week after the others. I share a bathroom with one guy, which was never a problem. Last night I went to brush my teeth and what did I see...

The toilet bowl is covered in shit. Literally covered. Going way up the back side of the bowl. How do you even hit that spot?? And how does it stick?

In only ten days alone, no one to see what goes on in the bathroom, he managed to do that. It has never looked anything like that when I'm around. Ever. Makes you wonder what toilets the world over look like when the women are away...

Politics on the bus

On the bus to Bergen the guy behind me was talking on the phone and seemed to be involved with the political party Høyre, which is a conservative party on the right side in Norwegian politics.

I don't agree with too many of Høyres policies, I think I was born on the left side and have no intention of leaving. Then again, not all of those voting for this party are rich, have rich parents, and only care about lowering taxes for the wealthy and cutting in social services.

Maybe this guy was different from the majority in the party. There has to be nice people who care about everyone and not just put their own money before everything, right? Of course there are! They don't all just rely on rich parents, it would be too naive to think all of them, even this guy, are like the stereotype.

Then, from behind me a voice filters through my thoughts like a ray of sunshine, just a single ray, shining through the clouds on a rainy day;


"Dad said he would buy me an apartment in Bergen now."


Riiight...

Car alarms again

Can anyone think of a good reason why someone would turn on their car alarm in the quietest little town around? The most dangerous thing that could happen to a car here would be... a cat crept under it. Oh no!

Still, they turn the alarm on. It goes off. For a full three minutes. The people come outside, turn it off, go inside. It starts again. This happens four times.

One thing is people are trying to sleep! (ok so I'm not one of them...)
Another is - why do they even bother turning it on?

I just don't get how it could possibly make sense for them to do that...

Dilemma, part 3

... or not.

My barely 16 year old sister, after three days of high school, got offered a place at another school two and a half hours away.

She's moving this weekend and seemed a little shocked at the thought I might not go with her. Not quite sure when it'll be yet.

I can't believe she's growing up so fast! What's the point of staying here when no one is around? Time to move again?

Results : Age difference

Quite a few people voted for this one, and it's clear that 3-5 years between partners is the most common of these alternatives.

Admittedly, the category 15+ covers a much larger age range than 6-9 or 10-15; still, it is a little surprising to see that so many people have had a partner more than 15 years their senior. I guess that is more common the older you get.

Dilemma, part 2

I decided to stay a few more days, to go to the music festival thingy and
see what happens.

Bergen will just have to wait a few more days!

Dare I hope it won't rain?
(please don't let me have jinxed it right now...)

Dilemma

I'm supposed to go back to Bergen on Thursday.
Saturday there's this.. I'm not sure what to call it.. this small, very local, music festival in town

The entertainment seems to consist of our dorky neighbour playing the piano, which he seems to do pretty well. (In his defense he was only dorky because he was my best friend's older brother growing up and, well, he was pretty dorky.)

It would be fun to go, to meet people and just hang out.

But I'm supposed to go back to Bergen, sort things out, get my stuff ready to be moved out of the apartment.


So what do I do? Postpone going back to Bergen, or skip the thingy and pass on meeting people?

Pros and cons, anyone?

Getting outta town

Going back to Bergen in a few days to pack the rest of my stuff and bring it all home.

I'm looking forward to spending a week in the city, although I did get bored with it in the end, I did live there for five years. It'll be strange to leave.


As for right now, I just wish something exciting would happen. But I guess life doesn't really get more exciting than you make it yourself. What to do, what to do... :)

...here we go again...

I'm feeling I'm a little too old to get yelled at.

...then again, I'm probably also too old to occupy a room which looks like it was hit by a tornado two months ago and never got cleared.

I take my mother's fury over the state of my sister's room to be partly due to the state of mine.

...and the downstairs living room...


Anybody got a spare room?

Satori says...

"The difference between you and me apples, is that people like me would endure any manner of torture to avoid a planet full of people like you."

The election is a month away and nothing makes people bitchier than others having different views on what's best for the world and the people in it.

Swine Flu : 3 ways to avoid it

Malaysia - masturbation
Avoiding masturbation and homosexual activities reduces the risk of contracting the virus, according to a Dr. Palaniappan. This because these activities cause friction, which in the body becomes an acid. According to news agency Bernama, the doctor emphasised that "normal sexual union between members of the opposite sex was absolutely safe."

Israel - flying rabbis
Contrary to Malaysia, various forms of blowing is encouraged in Israel. Rabbis engage in praying, blowing in ram horns and flying across Israel to prevent deaths in the country. The rabbis are convinced this will have stopped the epidemic and that the danger is over.

Egypt - slaughter all pigs
It's as simple as it sounds. Slaughter all pigs in the country and the virus will stop spreading between people. It might seem to have worked though - the only confirmed death from swine flu among Egyptian citizens is a 25 year old woman - in Saudia Arabia. I doubt if they have many pigs there.


...and finally, an explanation of how and why the virus came about in the first place;

The Netherlands - the Jews?
According to a Israeli newspaper (ahem...), Dutch journalist Desiree Rover claimed that the bird flu, which is related to the swine flu, is a conspiracy dating back to when the Khazars in the Caucasus converted to Judaism 1200 years ago. These days the descendants are "praying to another god; Lucifer, Satan", and the goal of the conspiracy is to reduce to world's population.


Who knows - maybe they're all right. The one from Malaysia does seem to solve the problem with the one from the Netherlands though...

Suu Kyi in House Arrest

The media reports that Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Price laureate and opposition leader in Burma, has been sentenced to 18 months of house arrest after helping an American man who swam two miles across a lake to her house in the beginning of May.

Sui Kyi was supposed to be set free May 27th, having spent 14 of the past 20 years imprisoned, being considered an enemy of the military junta in the country. Now she has been found guilty in violating the terms of her house arrest.

64 year old Suu Kyi was first sentenced to three years of hard labour. Suddenly reporters were invited into the court room to witness the greatness of Than Shwe, the leader of the junta, who had changed the sentence of three years into 18 months of house arrest.

This, of course, conveniently prevents Suu Kyi from participating in the Burmese elections in 2010.


Rarely has the line been drawn so clearly between good and evil, right and wrong in politics. Unlike Iran where they recently held elections and imprisoned the opposition after the votes had been cast, Burma avoids arguments over the results by simply imprisoning the opposition before the election takes place.

Maybe we should do the same in Norway in preparation for the election next month - if nothing else it would cut the lies in half...

Forgotten Memories

We went to a football match today, the lil town's football team played the one from 20 years ago. Before the second half, my sister and I moved away from the crowd and over to the other side of the field.

After a little while a man walks up to us. He says hi to me, asks how I am and what I'm doing these days. Nothing unusual there... except I'm not sure who this man is. He seems to know me and after a couple minutes I recognized him as our science teacher from my first year in high school. He killed some rabbits so we could look at their hearts and lungs.

But that was eight years ago. I was one of over a hundred kids he taught each year. If he remembers every single kid I'm seriously impressed. Especially if he remembered me - even I wouldn't have remembered me back then. I was easy to miss. Easy to ignore. But for some reason he still remembered me.


I know I remember people who never knew who I was, but over the years I've realized there are people out there who for one reason or another seem to remember me too. I wonder... who are all those people I've forgotten through the years? Who lives on in my memories, while I have vanished from theirs? And whose memories am I still a part of?


“We do not remember days, we remember moments.
The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.”

Cesare Pavese

Along came global warming...

November 7th 1993
Lumberton, North Carolina

[...] a small A-frame cottage sitting right on the water, surrounded by fir and birch trees. The weather was near perfect. Indian summer, later than it ever ought to come. Global warming marches on.

James Patterson, Along Came a Spider

If global warming was a fact 16 years ago, why has it taken people and politicians so long to react? If it was already something everybody knew had been going on for a while, something casually mentioned in a novel like that, how come nobody seemed to care?

It's raining bugs!

This is friggin weird...

Several times today when I've been in my room I've heard a soft thud!

Looking around to see what it was, I find a bug on the floor, the bed, the desk, anywhere.

They seem to climb around in the ceiling, then suddenly fall down.

It's raining bugs!

Sweden?

After a slightly messed up and rainy July it's been rather boring just staying in town. So how about a road trip? Just a few days and not far across the border, but it's better than sitting around here.

Sweden's a cute country, and I haven't been for a while. For some reason it always seems to be sunny over there... We're only staying a few days, coming back for the weekend. The annual fair in town (if you can call it that) starts Friday and I haven't been the past three years or so. Might be fun, hoping to see some old friends.


Unfortunately, there's been another death in the family, my father's cousin this time. He was in Sweden with his wife when he went for a walk and never came back. Like my uncle three weeks ago, he just died for no apparent reason. Unexpected deaths, although they can shorten the pain, they only seem to bury it deeper inside you...