Kjell Kristian Rike

12.07.1944 - 19.05.2008

One of Norway's two best sports commentators passed away today. Whether you watch skiing, or other sports, or nothing at all, if you're Norwegian - you've still heard his voice hundreds of times. The Olympics, World Championships, and biathlon during winter was not as much fun if a certain two guys, Kjell Kristian Rike and Jon Herwig Carlsen, weren't commentating.

There are some voices that strike you, and this is one of them. That deep, grandfatherly voice weighed up perfectly with Carlsen's sometimes childish optimism - "they will win, they're only two minutes behind with one kilometer to go!", countered with "well, we'll see..". Last winter they didn't commentate the regular skiing and it somehow wasn't that interesting. It took me a few minutes each time to find out why it wasn't fun, what was missing. It was those two guys, and somehow it wasn't the same. I found myself migrating to biathlon instead.

Personally, what I'm feeling right now is "Noooooo! I'll never want to watch winter sports again! What's the point?" It's like a big part of it has just disappeared. I grew up hearing his voice when the tv was on during weekends, before I was old enough to know what it was all about. It was like the 'pings' during the Saturday football matches from England - whenever I hear those sounds, it takes me right back. I'm three years old again, on the floor playing while my dad is watching tv. Waiting for the evening to come, so I can watch cartoons and eat my candy.

I'll truly miss his voice, and the energy between those two partners. I have a feeling next winter won't be the same.

Salmon Sausages

Norwegian company Mills have just launced salmon sausages. They also make salmon burgers and a couple other things. 65% of the contents are actually salmon, which makes me wonder what the remaining 35% are....

Now... my being a sucker for whatever is new, tastes good and is seemingly good for you, I just had to try these things out.

The sausages are supposed to taste just like regular sausages. Just like the burgers are supposed to taste like regular burgers. According to my boyfriend, they actually do taste like regular sausages. According to me, they smell like:


"Not necessarily samon, but fish smell as in "now we've been out rowing in a tiny boat for four hours wearing our wellies and getting soaked. We've caught some big fish and now it's around midnight, we're going home to cook fish and 'fresh liver'.""


In other words, salmon sausages might smell slightly odd to you, but to me they smell like summers when I was a kid. It really is true that there is nothing that takes you back as much as smell. Whether it is flowers, the ocean... or, for me, the smell of freshly caught fish.

Fact or Fiction: Corporate Clouds

A US entrepreneur has come up with a way to create foam clouds shaped like corporate logos that will float up to 20,000ft into the air.

The 4ft shapes, made from tiny soapy bubbles filled with helium, can travel for 30 miles before evaporating into thin air, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Francisco Guerra, whose company, Snowmasters Inc, makes machines that churn out fake snow for Hollywood films, is the man behind "Flogos".

He has developed a machine which can manipulate the bubbles into any shape and pump them into the sky at a rate of one every 15 seconds.

The concept has already attracted attention from The Walt Disney Co and Mr Guerra has been commissioned to send clouds shaped like Mickey Mouse into the sky above Disney World in Florida.

Mr Guerra said: "Flogos are a revolutionary way to market products, services and events. It's a shock factor when you look up and there's a logo over your head.

"They will fly for miles, they are durable so they last a while. The secret is our formulation and equipment. We're able to keep the cloud together for a long time."

He insists the Flogos are environmentally safe because they are made from just water, air, helium and a soapy agent.

ananova.com

Yeah that soapy agent sounds real environmentally friendly... This is, in fact, a fact. They do make, and sell, soapy flying logos.

More videos at YouTube

Footballing Fish

A Californian man has trained his pet goldfish to play football, basketball and even limbo dance under a bar.

Comet the goldfish can also play fetch with a hoop, slalom around a series of poles and push a rugby ball over a set of posts.

Dr Dean Pomerleau, 41, from Los Angeles, used a training technique called positive reinforcement to train two-year-old common goldfish Comet to carry out the tricks.

He said: "There is mounting evidence that fish are more intelligent than people give them credit for.

"With the correct tools and the basic promise of a food reward, fish can very quickly learn complex tricks - like the limbo, slalom or playing fetch.

"Now people in the market for a dog might want to consider a fish instead."

Positive reinforcement is a training technique where the fish is rewarded with food when he successfully completes a task.

More videos at YouTube

Dr Pomerleau added: "We've used techniques that we've customised for pet fish, but are based on those used to train dolphins and other marine mammals."

He has teamed up with pet product firm R2 Solutions to design a special kit to help people train their fish. It features goal posts, slalom poles and tunnels, as well as an instructional DVD.

The R2 Fish School kit is available from online retailer Amazon for around £16.

ananova.com

Pamela, DXD Models

kjendis.no

Those are the longest legs I've ever seen!

> Black is finally in fashion at Vogue <

Visuelt 08

I love it!

Who's to say they'd come to the humans first? Animals outnumber us by far, there's no particular reason they wouldn't be the first they'd seek out.

As they say about dogs - who's really the boss, the one who craps on the street or the one who picks up after him?

From Visuelt 08 via Dagbladet.no

My TV just sighed!

It's on, but in PC mode, just waiting for me to pull a window over there, give it something to do. And then it sighed!

First once, then a few more times. Now it sounds like it snores about once a minute.

I'm thinking it's just tired of waiting, but that answer seems just a little too obvious...

What could possibly cause my TV to snore?

Happy b'day Baby sis

My baby sis is 15 years old today!

And it's so sad!

She'll always be my baby sis, but 15 is such huge difference from 14. I mean, she's already had a boyfriend (and dumped him) - what they did as bf-gf, I don't know. She's old enough to have a bf, but still young enough to ask me "How do you know you're boyfriend-girlfriend? How can you really tell?"

At 14 I've got every right and reason to be overprotective. When she's 15, it's borderline adult (well, sorta). In a year she'll be allowed to have sex (nonononono!). Which means in many ways society thinks she'll want to have sex. If she's anything she'll like me she'll want to - and boys will expect her to want to (her bf was 18 - what do you think his mind was on?).


Alright, I'll stop telling you all about her personal life. She'd kill me if she knew, but hopefully she never will... or maybe when she gets a little older.


I'll never stop feeling protective of her though. She's my baby sis. She's always wanted to be a big sister and just like I don't know what it's like to be the youngest, she'll never know what it's like to be the older one, to watch your nine year younger sister grow up. Maybe if we were closer in age it would be easier, but I wouldn't trade this for anything.

I do remember what it was being that age though, but we're so different - she does things I only thought of doing, so I'm not entirely sure what she's up to... We're very similar in one way though - we're both responsible and smart, neither naive nor cynical. Not that we do everything right, we just have a pragmatic view of the world. My brother is exactly the same - I guess our parents did good :)


Happy b'day sis - I hope you haven't found this blog yet but give it a couple years and I'm sure you'll find anything you want :)

The Blood Bank

My blood has been approved!

Just after Christmas I finally got around to registering with the Blood Bank. The way it works in Bergen is you get registered on their page, they send you a notice and give you come in to have your blood tested.

I did that in February. I went to the hospital, got a little lost in all the corridors but eventually found my way there. You have to fill out a form every time with questions such as;
- "Have you had a new sexual partner in the past six months?"
(six month quarantine)
- Have you had a tattoo done since last time?
(six month quarantine)
- Have you been in the UK for more than 12 months in the period between 1980-1996?
(you are excluded and will not be able to give blood. ever.)


Then I had a talk with a friendly guy who kept looked for my pulse. He couldn't find it and proceeded to ask me if I was sure I had one. Eventually he found it and when he was convinced I was really alive, he measured my blood pressure - which is high. Apparently not too high though.

I was brought into another room where I was put in a big chair tilted back. The nurses weren't exactly friendly (will it kill you to sound more like a nurse and less like the head mistress from "Mathilda"?). There was a tiny pin prick and my blood flowed out. They put some in each of five or six test tubes, and that was it. I barely felt a thing and asked if "surely it has to hurt more when I'm actually giving blood, and not just being here for the test?"

She reassured(?) me that next time they'd use a much bigger needle. Oh yay...

I was told to wait about two months until the results came through, then I'd find out if I'd been approved. I just wondered what would happen if I wasn't - if my blood wasn't good enough to give to bleeding, dying people. Would they give me new blood? Replace it with good, approved blood? Anything?


But I've been approved! I'm healthy, my blood is healthy and I'm going back next week to give blood that will actually be inside another human being a few days later. I'll help someone. I just hope I get rid of this cold, because you're supposed to wait 7 days after you've had one.

And I can't wait to find out what blood type I have! What sucks is I'm going to Uganda in August and after that there's at least 12 months quarantine, after which I might not be in Bergen any more. Which in turn means I'll have to start this all over again. But at least 450ml of my blood might help a little and I'll be in the system.


It's such a little thing to do. It might hurt a little, it might be uncomfortable and take a bit of time. But my body will adjust and produce more blood, and I can help a person who really needs it.

I'd encourage you all to give it a go. All you have to do is look up your local hospital or blood bank. Give them a call, check out their web page. Get registered and help someone who needs it. Who knows, chances are you or a loved one will be injured and need surgery. And then it won't matter how many surgeons you have if they don't have enough blood to keep you alive.


By giving blood, you can help save lives.

The Friendly Swede

I just got the best email from a Swede, offering to send me chocolate. Not just any chocolate, THE chocolate. If you knew me, you'd know that ranks pretty high among the best things anyone could ever do.

I replied, but forgot to tell him how his email made me laugh and feel all fuzzy and warm inside, so I'll put it on here instead and maybe he'll see it. It's so nice when people are nice! Offer to send me chocolate? Who does that, right?

Oh, and I needed to sound all Swedish reading it - the only way I can read Swedish is when I read it in Swedish - with the proper pronunciation - (and I have a cold so my voice is all sexy today too - that's the only good thing about having a cold). The language looks very different from Norwegian but sounds similar (whereas Danish looks very similar but sounds completely different).

Anyway, Swedish Guy, thank you. I needed that laugh today :)