What you lookin' fo?

"When you find what you have been looking for, does it mean that what you find is what you were looking for?"
- Jay

There's a brainsqueezer for you.

Three cheers!

It started out as a normal Tuesday morning. But then something happened. I walked downstairs to put my jacket on only to notice that the entire first floor of our house was pitch black. So I reached for the light switch and turned on the lights and continued about my business as normal. Then I reached for my backpack and noticed that the lights were out again. So I turned them on again and realized someone was sleeping on the sofa in a little bundle. I was later to find out that it is sofa-guy that has come all the way from Australia to bring us Christmas. His name is Noel. Three cheers for Noel!


After the confusion I noticed that I was late for the bus but regardless decided to make my way to the bus-stop. And the bus was late too so I actully made it. BRING IT ON I say, the day can't get any better! And the best thing about it is that Jostein was on the same bus as me and we got to talking about my glasses that have gone missing. He told me to buy a pair from Shell and said that he did that once and they worked pretty well. After returning home after an exhusting day of working down in the coal mines I heard a little call from Jostein's room. He handed me the glasses that he had bought and said to use them for as long as needed. Three cheers for Jostein!

Oh deary me

Yes, poor me. This is one of those days that I should have started by sleeping in as long as necessary and getting up slowly, maybe even in the afternoon to engage in some light shopping and other entertainment. No thesis work. None what so ever. But as I have made myself a schedule concerning thesis stuff, I do have a feeling that I should follow it as best I can. And also the doctor wanted to check my eye sight this morning, very early.

The optician said that I can actually see pretty well, its only off by a tiny bit in both near and far sight. And he also said that I see so well that I can't get contacts. But I still should wear glasses at all times. No fair. What is making me dispair is the fact that I have to wait 2 weeks for them to come from where ever they make them, probably Cambodia or Thailand. So me and my almost-ok sight are sitting here and trying to figure out what hurts the least: staring at the computer screen or staring at a book? I can tell you that both are rather painful, so if you have any ideas on what I can do for the next couple of weeks that doesn't concern either of the above, just let me know. Maybe I should start my christmas holiday early this year?

Snapshots

Celebrity snapshots from Hugin's Report 23/11/2006

The stars of the night: the jammin' duett from the US

Singer posing with fan

Fans waiting for rap performance

Rap artist posing with fan

Croud enjoying entertainment

So long trustworthy friends

I thought it had happened already in Bergen in April but I was wrong. And extremely happy to notice I was mistaken. But sadly enough it happened yesterday and it seems pretty final this time. I have lost my glasses. I bought them in Tel Aviv from some Argentinian immigrants. And it said 'freedom' on them. But freedom for who though? Israel? From the mighty claws of the Palestinians? Freedom from the ironclad fist of the Palestinian Authorty?

Anyhow, buying new ones in Norway would be the stupidest thing ever since I'm going to Finland in like a month. Its just too expensive, hence not an option. I was thinking about getting a pair from Shell, you know the plastic reading glasses that old men wear. Preferably with a strap that goes around my neck to catch them if they fall. I've gone from nerdy reader to cool breazer, but my eyes hurt.

Let's party like it's ya birthday

Oh wait, we don't even have to pretent, it is actually Rachels birthday. We're heading for an early morning surprise birthday breakfast to Jimmi's in just a while, she has no clue that there's a bunch of us coming! And as there are many people who just can't make it out of bed this early in the morning, we will also extend the celebration to last all day. Or we're rather skipping the day and continuing at night. Cheap beer at Meijeriet, 15th anniversary or something of Blå Rock and Hugin's Report in Driv. Hugin's Report means lots of random people getting up on stage to perform. Rach and Scott are singing a duett. Oh yeah!

analyze and interpret -- what?

I am in the library, ploughing through the last interviews that are waiting impatiently to be transcribed and processed further. Whatever that means. To be able to understand that, I am also trying to read a massive book about interpreting the tapes. Anyway, these two guys from the first year came in here to borrow some books and as they were leaving, one of them said "enjoy your reading!" He said it like it was a casual "see you later" or "take care".

It sounds so simple. That's why we started with this masters degree program in the first place right? To read and learn about new and exciting things. When did reading become the necessary evil? I know not all our reading is so inspiring, we had to read about critical realism last year for crying out loud. YAWN!! Sorry to all the Bhaskar fans out there.. So I have decided to fight the slight indifference towards my thesis that I have started feeling after coming back from Thailand. What I have to do is turn my focus from the future to the present. Right, there we go. No more thinking about all the fascinating internships and jobs that I imagine before me. Time to start enjoying my unclear tapes and books about analyzing data! Here I go, no stopping me now =D

Angels and Demons

Here's a little story from somewhere far out in rural Thailand:

During the tsunami, there were many fishing boats out in the ocean. Two of the most notorious ones were pointed out to me. The first one is called the "demon" or the "red devil" by the locals. The wave carried it kilometers inland and it ploughed its way through the village of Nam Khem destroying houses and killing over a hundred people in its path, including its entire crew.

The other one is most commonly referred to as the "blue angel". It too surfed through Nam Khem, but this many ton boat didn't destroy anything on its path, helped save two people that were hanging onto it, saved the man onboard and stopped after it had pierced the roof of the first house it touched by a couple of centimeters.

It was crazy seeing these massive boats just laying there, so far from the sea. A pretty effective way to visualize the strength of the 11 meter wave and its smaller friends.

Riddle

What goes mumblemumblejadiajadimumbleblaaablablaaa and says "I hope you got all that!" ?

Well, as some of you may know from personal experience, the answer to the riddle of the day is "a tape that needs transcribing"



Yessir, this one guy I interviewed was drunk and an other guy had his "office" on the street with tuktuk's and motorbikes racing by all the time. And these two guys that I interviewed had a construction sight next to their room *looooong sigh* I guess this is all a part of the learning process?

Cannibalism

Just have to share this e-mail I got today. My boss' secretary wrote to us saying that work is off because Matts is sick. And this man that works with us in the sensorisk panel just responded to the e-mail by saying: "Da var da vel ikke han vi skulle smaka på!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Indeed.

You feelin' blue?

The clouds are hanging low in Tromsö today. Maybe this is actually a great day to go and enjoy Blå Måndag at Blå Rock. Even though I don't feel blue at all. Talking about the blues, there's this cool young Brittish rapper that made a song about the 9/11 attack. It's called "Post 9/11 Blues", go check it out if you're up for listening to some funky yet sarcastic criticism on the issue.


This young chap, Rizwan Ahmed, also starrs in a documantary/movie that y'all should really see. Its called "Road to Guantanamo" and its about these three guys from Tipton England who get sent to Guantanamo on, not even false charges, but no charges what so ever. The three guys that were actually taken there and kept in Guantanamo for just over 2 years narrate the movie. The director is Michael Winterbottom and some other dude, so get ready for a fabulous piece of cinematographic work. Gloomy, depressing, unbelievable and yet so powerful and beautiful. Its like a series of unfortunate events that lead these guys to a place so inhumane that it shouldn't exist in the first place. I liked the part where Donald Rumsfeld says that the conditions in Guantanamo live up to the regulations laid down by the Geneva Convention, to the most part. Way to go Donald, I'm glad they fired your inadequate ass.

End of an Era

Yes, this feels like the end of an era. Even though it is disguised as just a normal handing in of an exam paper. But it does mark something, it is our last exam EVER to be handed in. After that, all we will have left of our thriving academic journeys is a lonesome tidious semester of reading and analysing and transcribing and analysing and writing and erasing and and copypasting and deleting. And writing. But we do have to take some time to enjoy our final days as students and do the thing all of us do oh so well, take breaks and drink coffee.

Brain malfunction

Why is it so stuffy and hot here in the reading room? Is it all this academia that is strangling the air particles and leaving us gasping for air? Why am I writing a meaningless blog entry about something like this? Maybe its the same academia that's getting to my brain cells and sufforcating them one by one until I have not one single clear thought in my head. I should have studied to be a car mechanic. Or maybe a speed ice skater.

Testosteroni

Our house is officially filling up with testosterone. Ida moved out a couple of days ago and Jostein moved in today so that makes us.. wait let me think.. well, 5 - 2 if you want to put it in football terms. Anders, Andre, Stian, Scott and Jostein are filling the air with macho protein shake vibes and the toilets with man hair and shaving foam. Me and my comrade Maaike are the only ones keeping the level of man hormone down, its hard work I tell you! And Maaike is leaving before Christmas.. Oh well, maybe I should crank up my feminine level and wear a skirt some day or something. If you can't join them, beat them! (Huh?)

Donkey's Bridge

The story of the Tower of Babel is a facinating one, so much so that someone decided to make a big Hollywood movie out of it. Now, this movie "Babel" was on its way up to Tromsö for a prepremiere that we were all really looking forward to. But like the building of the tower itself, the mission turned out to be impossible.



I see the connection here: the Tower of Babel was supposed to reach the heavens but then something went wrong and the people building it were left with different languages and were scattered all around. The "Babel" was supposed to reach Tromsö but then something went wrong and all the people waiting for it were left mumbling in their own languages and wondering around Tromsö. Well, in Finland we would call that connection a donkey's bridge, which means that it's a little far fetched. Aaanyway, luckily Hollywood has provided us with a subsitute movie called "The Devil Wears Prada" that will bring us all together again to speak the one and only true language, English.

Strikk og Drikk or Drikk og Strikk

As we are aging faster than we might even realize, we have decided to take precautions ahead of time, just so we know what to do when the time comes for real. When I say "we" I mean me and some cool hip young student friends of mine. And when I say "time" I mean the times when we are all sitting in a rocking chair in some old folks home with a set of grey hair and massive wollen socks.

We like to call it: Strikk og Drikk (knit and drink) på fredag kveld

I have decided to start knitting a sweater and my drink for the day will be sherry. I presume that's what I'll be drinking when I'm really really old. I'll post a picture of how far I get on Friday, probably not too far though if I'm sipping on the sherry all evenng=)