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Thursday, 8 March 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Reality Check 18th Century Style
While researching for a comic I'm making for the street magazine Megafon, I came across some rather beautiful quotes from Samuel Johnson, which I for one would do good to contemplate every once in a while. Thought I'd just share some of them today. Enjoy!
"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind; and ... he, who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing, but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove."
"Every man may grow rich by contracting his wishes, and by quiet acquiescence in what has been given him, supply the absence of more."
"The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it."
"We see every day the unexpected death of our friends and our enemies, we see new graves hourly opened for men older and younger than our selves, for the cautious and the careless, the dissolute and the temperate, for men who like us were providing to enjoy or improve hours now irreversibly cut off: we see all this, and yet, instead of living, let year glide after year in preparations to live."
Samuel Johnson, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1772
Picture from here
"The fountain of content must spring up in the mind; and ... he, who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing, but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove."
"Every man may grow rich by contracting his wishes, and by quiet acquiescence in what has been given him, supply the absence of more."
"The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it."
"We see every day the unexpected death of our friends and our enemies, we see new graves hourly opened for men older and younger than our selves, for the cautious and the careless, the dissolute and the temperate, for men who like us were providing to enjoy or improve hours now irreversibly cut off: we see all this, and yet, instead of living, let year glide after year in preparations to live."
Monday, 13 February 2012
Treasures From London
I went to London. I shopped.
We all know my husband is the most knowlegable and sensible person on the planet, and now it turns out he is the most amazing and generous one as well. Last Tuesday, for my birthday, he produced plane tickets to London, and on Thursday I was whisked away for a long weekend of shopping, friends and fun! I stayed with my friend Anna, and we met up with our friend Ellie for wine and catch-up. I was worried I'd shopped too much and would have to pay overweight when going home, but as it turned out I could in fact have bought 5 kilos more of stuff, so I'll just have to go back soon to make up for that. Anyhow, here are my little treasures! (And no, I didn't buy any clothes)
Nice stuff from the Benefit shop in Shoreditch.
Nappy from Beauty and the Bib, Greenwich Village.
Yeah, I know they're Tesco ones, but they're still delicious. (Because you don't go to London without buying your favourite biscuits in the whole wide world no matter what your New Year's resolution is)
This was my birthday present from my friend Ellie! Napkins, tissues, fairy cake cases and lovely party bunting!
1st present for husband: Cock o' the Walk, a "very malty beer" according to the stall keeper in Borough Market.
A lovely notebook from Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road.
Great coffee (whole beans) from Monmouth Coffee Company at Borough Market.
Cute espresso cups from an equally cute little shop on Colombia Road, Shoreditch.
"Keep calm and carry on"-pisstake mug from Nauticalia in Greenwich Village.
My friend Anna has a pitch at a Hackney market, and was given these tote bags to give to her customers. I got one too!
Lovely calendar for 2012.
Little Moomin books from the gallery shop at Tate Modern.
Another note book from Paperchase, perfect for writing down all my recipes.
Perry pear cider, 2nd present for hubby.
Cute little purse for my pounds from Accessorize at Gatwick airport.
Postcards galore! Some are from the gallery shop at Tate Modern, the rest are from Paperchase.
More postcards - the "sew it yourself" one is made by Anna's brother Martin.
Cool bibs for my son! From Beauty and the Bib.
A lunch box and flask for kindergarten! My son will be the coolest kid in town with these, bought at Beauty and the Bib and Urban Outfitters.
Delicious tea from Harrod's at Gatwick airport.
Beautiful mobile from the same shop I got the espresso cups.
Now I just need to buy a heap of frames from IKEA so those lovely postcards can go on the wall! Thank you, hubby, for my amazing 30th birthday present!
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Go Shawty, It's My Birthday!
Hooray for me! Now I can finally say I'm a woman in her 30s, married to a twenty-something man. I've been looking forward to that!
30! Dang, I'd better start behaving.
30! Dang, I'd better start behaving.
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Mandatory Year Review
These are up on so many blogs these days, so I figured I'd do a year review too so I could be cool like them. Plus they're fun to do, and make me sound interesting. Bonus!
2011 YEAR REVIEW
1. What did you do in 2011 that you've never done before? So. Many. Things. I could start off by saying "giving birth", but I'm afraid that will be repeated so many times in this review that it'll get boring, so instead I'll say "write a book". Because I did. Not a very good one, but still, a 50,000 word document is nicely tucked away in my NaNoWriMo folder on my laptop.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? To be honest with you, I can't remember what resolutions I had for 2011. I remember saying to someone "yeah I was planning on becoming a mom, and then ... being a mom." So I kept those. And I've already written a blog post about my resolutions for 2012.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Apart from the obvious (me), there were five women who are either good friends or close relatives (and I count cousins as "close") who had babies in 2011.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my grandmother. It was very sad, because she died only a month before my son was born, so she never got to see him. On the other hand, she was 92 and ready for death.
5. What countries did you visit? Spain! Bloody lovely.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn't have in 2011? Proper sleeeeep.
7. What date(s) from 2011 will you remember and why? The reasons are obvious, but I'll never forget my son's birthday and the date of his welcome party.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I'm not going to write "give birth". I'm NOT. So I'll go with the career category instead - I had one of my comics published in a very popular comics magazine in Norway, Pondus. My brain really is blank for most of 2011 (see question 6), so there might be something I've missed.
9. What was your biggest failure? That I didn't turn out the fit, healthy, outdoorsy mum I envisaged when I got pregnant. I blame pelvic girdle pain and double-sided knee tendonitis (I had my very last physio therapist session today, yay!), and absolutely disgusting weather.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A couple of colds. Also, see previous question.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Oooh man, there are so many things! Which should I choose? The Mountain Buggy Terrain stroller? My new hiking boots? My new telephone? No, I'll go for the camera. I'm not a photographer but with a camera this good and my awesome Photoshop skills, I can get away with not taking my kid to a horribly expensive photo studio.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My entire village, and people in the neighbouring villages too, when everyone joined forces and gave a young couple a new place to live. They had their firstborn, a daughter, on Christmas Eve and two days later their house burned to the ground, and they lost everything they owned. Thankfully they were still in hospital, including the dad, so no-one got hurt. When they came home from the hospital they had a temporary house to live in, clothes for themselves, baby equipment, toiletries, food, even a Christmas tree - and enough baby clothes to start their own shop. It was so horrible - and so amazing. I take my hat off!
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? I'm not the kind of person who tell names like that, so even if there are several that spring to mind, I'll keep them to myself. Oh, except Statnett. Don't ask. Just read about it.
14. Where did most of your money go? Baby clothes, baby equipment, baby food, baby this, baby that. Babies are expensives! But still better than computers.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Do you need to ask? Hint: starts with a 'b'. Ends with a 'aby'.
16. What songs will always remind you of 2011? My son's lullaby. (You'll need Spotify to listen)
17. Compared to this time last year you are ... about 15 kilos lighter.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Sleeping. Sleeeping. It really is underestimated.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Play "Farm Frenzy 2" on my mobile.
20. Did you fall in love in 2011? Yes. With my baby boy. Totally head over heels. Amazing. I'll write a blog post one day about how your own child is the most perfect child in the world and how all other babies look a little weird when you're full of post-pregnancy-hormones. Because it's totally true.
21. How many one-night stands? Haha, this question is redundant! Now and forever. I'm not that kind of person, plus I'm married.
22. What was your favourite tv program? Well, I don't have a tv, but my husband and I did enjoy "Ikke gjør dette hjemme" on NRK nett-tv, which translates to "Don't do this at home", in which two guys have fun trying to destroy a house in as many different ways as possible. Setting fire to a pan of boiling oil did the trick in the end.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't this time last year? No, I don't think so. But 'hate' is a strong word. I prefer 'dislike'.
24. What was the best book you read? The first in the Hunger Games series. It really is the best one of the trilogy. The other two are good reads as well, but they depend so much on that first one, on the fact that you already love the characters. Sorry, Divergent, but it just so happened I read both books in one year, and I liked Hunger Games best.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? That children's songs can be sweet and beautiful, not just silly and embarassing. And that what classifies as children's music is sort of in the eye (or ear!) of the beholder.
26. What did you want and get? I got pretty much everything I wanted, and then some! It was truly a year of generosity all round.
27. What was your favourite film of the year? I didn't get to see many films, and I think I only went to the cinema once. So I'll put that - the last film of the Harry Potter series.
28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Uhm ... dang, what did I do? I can't remember! Oh, what was it ... yep, my brain had left me already then. But I was 29. Old age clearly is getting to me. Dementia, here I come.
29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Having that dang bathroom ready for when the baby arrived. But as he arrived 2 (3) weeks early and the tilers were so friggin' slow, we had to make do with a changing table in the kitchen. Eww. Oh, and you know, being the fit, healthy outdoorsy mum that I went on about in question 9.
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Tent.
31. What kept you sane? My husband.
32. What celebrity/public figure did you fancy? I suppose it's a merit to my husband's hotness that I can't think of any!
33. What political issue stirred you the most? See question 13. Oh, and the neverending "it wasn't my fault for raping that woman, because she had a short skirt on"-bullshit that some men still think is okay. Big issue of debate in Norway in 2011, hope it will continue to be so in 2012.
34. Who did you miss? My grandmother. I got to see pretty much everyone else as they came to meet the baby.
35. Who was the best new person you met? My neighbours Magda and Janusz!
36. Tell us a valuable lesson you learned in 2011. Always keep backup of all your photos somewhere else than in your house. See question 12.
37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: I don't think anyone's written a song that can sum up 2011 for me! Describe a mother's love for her newborn accurately so that everyone can understand, and I'll quote that.
So there you have it! How was YOUR year?
2011 YEAR REVIEW
1. What did you do in 2011 that you've never done before? So. Many. Things. I could start off by saying "giving birth", but I'm afraid that will be repeated so many times in this review that it'll get boring, so instead I'll say "write a book". Because I did. Not a very good one, but still, a 50,000 word document is nicely tucked away in my NaNoWriMo folder on my laptop.
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? To be honest with you, I can't remember what resolutions I had for 2011. I remember saying to someone "yeah I was planning on becoming a mom, and then ... being a mom." So I kept those. And I've already written a blog post about my resolutions for 2012.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Apart from the obvious (me), there were five women who are either good friends or close relatives (and I count cousins as "close") who had babies in 2011.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my grandmother. It was very sad, because she died only a month before my son was born, so she never got to see him. On the other hand, she was 92 and ready for death.
5. What countries did you visit? Spain! Bloody lovely.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn't have in 2011? Proper sleeeeep.
7. What date(s) from 2011 will you remember and why? The reasons are obvious, but I'll never forget my son's birthday and the date of his welcome party.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I'm not going to write "give birth". I'm NOT. So I'll go with the career category instead - I had one of my comics published in a very popular comics magazine in Norway, Pondus. My brain really is blank for most of 2011 (see question 6), so there might be something I've missed.
9. What was your biggest failure? That I didn't turn out the fit, healthy, outdoorsy mum I envisaged when I got pregnant. I blame pelvic girdle pain and double-sided knee tendonitis (I had my very last physio therapist session today, yay!), and absolutely disgusting weather.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A couple of colds. Also, see previous question.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Oooh man, there are so many things! Which should I choose? The Mountain Buggy Terrain stroller? My new hiking boots? My new telephone? No, I'll go for the camera. I'm not a photographer but with a camera this good and my awesome Photoshop skills, I can get away with not taking my kid to a horribly expensive photo studio.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My entire village, and people in the neighbouring villages too, when everyone joined forces and gave a young couple a new place to live. They had their firstborn, a daughter, on Christmas Eve and two days later their house burned to the ground, and they lost everything they owned. Thankfully they were still in hospital, including the dad, so no-one got hurt. When they came home from the hospital they had a temporary house to live in, clothes for themselves, baby equipment, toiletries, food, even a Christmas tree - and enough baby clothes to start their own shop. It was so horrible - and so amazing. I take my hat off!
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? I'm not the kind of person who tell names like that, so even if there are several that spring to mind, I'll keep them to myself. Oh, except Statnett. Don't ask. Just read about it.
14. Where did most of your money go? Baby clothes, baby equipment, baby food, baby this, baby that. Babies are expensives! But still better than computers.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Do you need to ask? Hint: starts with a 'b'. Ends with a 'aby'.
16. What songs will always remind you of 2011? My son's lullaby. (You'll need Spotify to listen)
17. Compared to this time last year you are ... about 15 kilos lighter.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Sleeping. Sleeeping. It really is underestimated.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Play "Farm Frenzy 2" on my mobile.
20. Did you fall in love in 2011? Yes. With my baby boy. Totally head over heels. Amazing. I'll write a blog post one day about how your own child is the most perfect child in the world and how all other babies look a little weird when you're full of post-pregnancy-hormones. Because it's totally true.
21. How many one-night stands? Haha, this question is redundant! Now and forever. I'm not that kind of person, plus I'm married.
22. What was your favourite tv program? Well, I don't have a tv, but my husband and I did enjoy "Ikke gjør dette hjemme" on NRK nett-tv, which translates to "Don't do this at home", in which two guys have fun trying to destroy a house in as many different ways as possible. Setting fire to a pan of boiling oil did the trick in the end.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't this time last year? No, I don't think so. But 'hate' is a strong word. I prefer 'dislike'.
24. What was the best book you read? The first in the Hunger Games series. It really is the best one of the trilogy. The other two are good reads as well, but they depend so much on that first one, on the fact that you already love the characters. Sorry, Divergent, but it just so happened I read both books in one year, and I liked Hunger Games best.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery? That children's songs can be sweet and beautiful, not just silly and embarassing. And that what classifies as children's music is sort of in the eye (or ear!) of the beholder.
26. What did you want and get? I got pretty much everything I wanted, and then some! It was truly a year of generosity all round.
27. What was your favourite film of the year? I didn't get to see many films, and I think I only went to the cinema once. So I'll put that - the last film of the Harry Potter series.
28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Uhm ... dang, what did I do? I can't remember! Oh, what was it ... yep, my brain had left me already then. But I was 29. Old age clearly is getting to me. Dementia, here I come.
29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Having that dang bathroom ready for when the baby arrived. But as he arrived 2 (3) weeks early and the tilers were so friggin' slow, we had to make do with a changing table in the kitchen. Eww. Oh, and you know, being the fit, healthy outdoorsy mum that I went on about in question 9.
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011? Tent.
31. What kept you sane? My husband.
32. What celebrity/public figure did you fancy? I suppose it's a merit to my husband's hotness that I can't think of any!
33. What political issue stirred you the most? See question 13. Oh, and the neverending "it wasn't my fault for raping that woman, because she had a short skirt on"-bullshit that some men still think is okay. Big issue of debate in Norway in 2011, hope it will continue to be so in 2012.
34. Who did you miss? My grandmother. I got to see pretty much everyone else as they came to meet the baby.
35. Who was the best new person you met? My neighbours Magda and Janusz!
36. Tell us a valuable lesson you learned in 2011. Always keep backup of all your photos somewhere else than in your house. See question 12.
37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: I don't think anyone's written a song that can sum up 2011 for me! Describe a mother's love for her newborn accurately so that everyone can understand, and I'll quote that.
So there you have it! How was YOUR year?
Sunday, 8 January 2012
First Shopping Revelation
As the modern, hi-tech and lazy person that I am, I do a lot of my shopping online. Because of this, I regularly receive clothes catalogues from a couple of companies. It's only the 8th of January, which means we're technically not even half way through winter, but true to form the new spring catalogues have arrived, full of tan, skinny people on the beach, promoting clothes in bright colours.
Even though my New Year's resolution is to not buy clothes for myself this year, I had a flip through to see what I'll miss out on.
Not much.
Which leads me to speculate. How would it be if I didn't have that New Year's resolution? Would I have found something I liked in the catalogues then? And here's a bit of shopper psychology that I made up all by myself but that I think is pretty accurate: When people have the chance to buy something, they feel they might miss out if they don't. Every year when new catalogues arrive, I dog-ear pages and cross out things that are "pretty nice" or "will be fun to wear if the weather is just right and I'm on a beach". Because I've felt I'm missing out if I choose not to buy anything, I've bought something simply for buying's sake.
Now that I'm not burdened by the opportunity to shop, I can admit to myself that, actually, none of the clothes appeal to me.
That, or it's just shitty design this year.
Lucky for me.
Even though my New Year's resolution is to not buy clothes for myself this year, I had a flip through to see what I'll miss out on.
Not much.
Which leads me to speculate. How would it be if I didn't have that New Year's resolution? Would I have found something I liked in the catalogues then? And here's a bit of shopper psychology that I made up all by myself but that I think is pretty accurate: When people have the chance to buy something, they feel they might miss out if they don't. Every year when new catalogues arrive, I dog-ear pages and cross out things that are "pretty nice" or "will be fun to wear if the weather is just right and I'm on a beach". Because I've felt I'm missing out if I choose not to buy anything, I've bought something simply for buying's sake.
Now that I'm not burdened by the opportunity to shop, I can admit to myself that, actually, none of the clothes appeal to me.
That, or it's just shitty design this year.
Lucky for me.
Saturday, 31 December 2011
New Year's Resolutions
Well bing bong diddly dong, it's New Year's Eve! Time to make some ridicolously overambitious resolutions! I have two for 2012, and I intend to keep them. Here they are:
Explanation:
I live in a society where consumption is not limited to food but also includes all other commodities, luxuries and indulgences known to man. In Norway it is not uncommon to find perfectly functioning flat-screen tvs on the skip, because their owners bought new, bigger ones. Or you might find a one year old sofa at the thrift store, simply because someone grew tired of it and wanted a new one. Or the lost/found objects box at the pub grows fuller and fuller because whoever owns the forgotten scarves and gloves can't be bothered to collect them. Only we don't think too often about the people who make all our things, and what conditions they live in. I won't go into detail about that, you can just go here instead to see how many slaves you have working for you. I have 58.
I am one of those people who buy clothes mainly because they are cheap. It goes something like this:
Me: "I need a new pair of jeans, because the old ones are worn out/don't fit me". Then I go to the shop. "Man, jeans are expensive. I'll have to think about it for a while. Maybe I can use my old ones a little longer." Then I pass by the sales rack. "Ooo, look at this jumper! It's quite nice! And it's 30% off. I'll get it." Then I buy a jumper I don't really need, instead of the pair of jeans I actually need, and if I'd just saved the money from those 5 tops that were cheap, I would have had enough money for those jeans anyway.
So basically I want to jump-start my common shopping-sense, learn to make do with what I have (which is, I should say, a modest amount of clothes, at least in these parts of the world), redesigning old things and saving some money on top of it all.
Exceptions:
*Clothes for my son. This is obvious. He is 9 months, he needs new clothes on a regular basis.
*One pair of spring/summer shoes. I have a single pair of trainers. That's IT. I kid you not. I bought them in New York in 2008.
*One pair of autumn/winter shoes. This is not strictly necessairy, but I only have hiking boots to use in the winter. So I will only buy these if I find a pair I really like.
*Necessairy underwear. I've stocked up but you never know.
So there you have it! There's only seven hours left of 2011, the greatest year of my life so far, and 2012 will be even better! Happy New Year!
1. I WILL NOT BUY ANY CLOTHES IN 2012
Photo from here, stencil by ConsumeHastaMorir
I live in a society where consumption is not limited to food but also includes all other commodities, luxuries and indulgences known to man. In Norway it is not uncommon to find perfectly functioning flat-screen tvs on the skip, because their owners bought new, bigger ones. Or you might find a one year old sofa at the thrift store, simply because someone grew tired of it and wanted a new one. Or the lost/found objects box at the pub grows fuller and fuller because whoever owns the forgotten scarves and gloves can't be bothered to collect them. Only we don't think too often about the people who make all our things, and what conditions they live in. I won't go into detail about that, you can just go here instead to see how many slaves you have working for you. I have 58.
I am one of those people who buy clothes mainly because they are cheap. It goes something like this:
Me: "I need a new pair of jeans, because the old ones are worn out/don't fit me". Then I go to the shop. "Man, jeans are expensive. I'll have to think about it for a while. Maybe I can use my old ones a little longer." Then I pass by the sales rack. "Ooo, look at this jumper! It's quite nice! And it's 30% off. I'll get it." Then I buy a jumper I don't really need, instead of the pair of jeans I actually need, and if I'd just saved the money from those 5 tops that were cheap, I would have had enough money for those jeans anyway.
So basically I want to jump-start my common shopping-sense, learn to make do with what I have (which is, I should say, a modest amount of clothes, at least in these parts of the world), redesigning old things and saving some money on top of it all.
Exceptions:
*Clothes for my son. This is obvious. He is 9 months, he needs new clothes on a regular basis.
*One pair of spring/summer shoes. I have a single pair of trainers. That's IT. I kid you not. I bought them in New York in 2008.
*One pair of autumn/winter shoes. This is not strictly necessairy, but I only have hiking boots to use in the winter. So I will only buy these if I find a pair I really like.
*Necessairy underwear. I've stocked up but you never know.
2. I WILL NOT BUY SWEETS/CANDY IN 2012
Explanation:
Well. Do you really need one? I want to get healthier. Sweets/candy includes soda pops, crisps/chips, cakes, biscuits and so on. I'll become a fruit freak. High on life and caffeine.
Exceptions:
*Did you see what I did in the headline up there? I said "buy". Not "eat". There is a good reason for this. I will not buy sweets myself, neither will my husband (at least so he says). But if I go to visit someone and they offer me cake/chocolate/biscuits etc, I want to be able to accept. But I won't throw myself at the bowl and wolf it down, either.
*17th of May (Norway day). Oh, come on! It's the one day of the year where eating as much ice cream as you can without vomiting is practically mandatory.
*Birthdays. CAKE!
*Hallowe'en. Because the neighbourhood kids shouldn't have to dress up for nothing.
*Christmas and Easter. But in moderation.
*Stuff I make myself. Which will eliminate most of my sweet-consumption, which is often spontaneous and due to low blood sugar. Baking takes too long to be spontaneous.
So there you have it! There's only seven hours left of 2011, the greatest year of my life so far, and 2012 will be even better! Happy New Year!
Mystery Revealed
... so it wasn't some exciting futuristic gadget or amazing secret of the universe in that mystery present. It was this:
This is a children's book that my husband loved when he was little, "Hanen Hasses frierferd". So it is in fact a present from the future AND the past.
A lovely present for Sune, though rather anticlimactic for someone with an as vivid imagination as me.
A lovely present for Sune, though rather anticlimactic for someone with an as vivid imagination as me.
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
The Magical Mystery Letter
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Today, my husband and I recieved this letter:
Not very interesting at first glance. But really, this letter is RIDDLED with mysteries. Firstly, that there was no return address. I have no idea who sent it.
Second, inside was a christmas present with no tag on it. Just a flat object in wrapping paper, no ribbon, no knowing who it's for (though it's pretty safe to suppose it's for me and/or my husband) or, again, who it's from.
But the true mystery lies in this small detail:
There. Do you see it yet? No? It says "23 DES 2011".
Today is the 21st.
I have recieved a LETTER FROM THE FUTURE.
I can only assume that I, in the next couple of days, will be contacted by space/time continuum scientists who need someone to test their new time machine, and have in fact sent this letter TO MYSELF backwards in time. I can't wait to open in on christmas eve to see what I've given myself! Aww, thanks, me! You shouldn't have!
Today, my husband and I recieved this letter:
Second, inside was a christmas present with no tag on it. Just a flat object in wrapping paper, no ribbon, no knowing who it's for (though it's pretty safe to suppose it's for me and/or my husband) or, again, who it's from.
But the true mystery lies in this small detail:
There. Do you see it yet? No? It says "23 DES 2011".
Today is the 21st.
I have recieved a LETTER FROM THE FUTURE.
I can only assume that I, in the next couple of days, will be contacted by space/time continuum scientists who need someone to test their new time machine, and have in fact sent this letter TO MYSELF backwards in time. I can't wait to open in on christmas eve to see what I've given myself! Aww, thanks, me! You shouldn't have!
Monday, 19 December 2011
Suddenly: Gingerbread!
I haven't blogged in ages. But I made this gingerbread house! That's almost the same thing. Sort of like 3D-blogging. In a very far-fetched way.
Measures 9x12x13 cm. Happy holidays!
Measures 9x12x13 cm. Happy holidays!
Sunday, 27 November 2011
NaNoWriMo WINNER!
YES!
I made it! And may I say, not too modestly, it was easier than I anticipated ... that said, my novel is of course a load of tosh, but now that I've put most of the story down in words I can start from scratch and revise the whole thing. I can't wait!
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
Team Meh
There's nothing for it. The time has come.
It's time to talk about Twilight.
Right about now, at six o'clock in the evening on the 18th of November 2011, millions of Twihard fans all over the world are in the movie theaters to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1. Some are perhaps already going for the second time, what do I know. Also, right about now, at six o'clock in the evening on the 18th of November 2011, millions of die-hard Twilight haters share a savage pleasure of taking as much mickey out of Twilight as possible via a selection of online social media.
Let's look at these two fractions separately. We'll do the haters first.
Online, there seems to be a sort of ongoing competition of who hates Twilight the most. Whether it's by making fun of the books, saying they're badly written, that Edward is a pussy for still being a virgin after 108 or so years, or how Stephenie Meyer has violated the Pure and Holy image of The Vampire by explaining the many myths behind them in a new way. Or making fun of the movies, of how bad Kristen Stewart's acting is, how Taylor Lautner's shirtlessness is hilariously over the top or that the only good thing about them is Charlie Swan's moustache.
Now, for the average internet user who good-humouredly caption the odd movie still from Twilight on Failblog, that's okay. The real problems arise when the same type of ridicule appears on arenas that usually keep a higher level of seriousness and quality, like newspapers. Even the movie reviewers in such media (albeit still online) seem to write their pieces under a mandatory understanding that "this movie sucks, but I have to write about it anyway, so let's get it over with". Example quote from www.pressfire.no, from an article written by Martin Bergesen (translated from Norwegian by me):
I mean, seriously? Demons? Whoring? That's a bit harsh. Not just a bit, either. It's really harsh. And full of speculative prejudice, too. These reviewers are people who know their job, and they get paid to do it. To sink that level of ridicule is just unprofessional.
Alright, on to the lovers.
They are, of course, equally one-track-minded. They find the books amazing, groundbreaking, life-changing. They plaster their walls with posters of a brooding Robert Pattinson or a flexing Taylor Lautner, or both. They place themselves in either "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob", fiercly defend their chosen hero on online message boards, and probably take long walks in the forests of Washington in the hopes of catching a glimpse of something sparkly. Or hairy. Or both.
This, of course, is obsession. And when you're obsessed, you tolerate no critique of your chosen object of desire, much like how a drug addict will get really angry if you take his drugs away. Seriously. I've been an obsessed teenager myself, I know how you completely lose your sense of logic.
The Twilight books are in the genre "Young Adult", which means the target group are young people between 13 and 19. Teenagers. In this case, girls. And there are many of those out there. Hoards. Sort of like zombies. Only they don't want brains, they want the pants off Robert Pattinson. Or Taylor Lautner. Or both. At the same time.
And for some reason, teenage girls are one of the generic groups of people (regardless of nationality, skin colour or religion) that most people fail to take seriously. If you made characters out of the human age groups, teenage girls would be the Dumb Blonde. Of course, teenage girls in general feel that they're much more mature and experienced in life than what their age suggests, and that their feelings are pure, sincere and not in the least affected by all the hormones currently zooming around in their bodies. Which can cause seventeen-year-olds to think that the crush they have on that pale, mysterious boy in the corner of the canteen is True Love and will Last Forever, when really they get a new crush two weeks later. All hail to Stephenie Meyer and her fellow Young Adult authors for finding this age group important, really.
My point here is that I believe many of the reviewers that heartily dismember the Twilight movies (or books) and then chop them up in little pieces with their metaphorical machete (read: keyboard) completely fail to consider the target group. Or if they do, they use it as an additional reason for why the movie is beneath them. "This is a movie for teenage girls, so automatically it sucks." And particularly because it's Twilight, that is all right. And when the reviewer is a 37 year old man (or whatever), and the movie's target group is a 16 year old girl, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
What I would really like to read is a Twilight review written by someone trying to see the movie from the target group's viewpoint.
I bet you're just dying to know what I feel about Twilight now, right? I also bet that if you're a hater, you think I'm a Twihard, and if you're a Twihard, you think I'm a hater, right?
Wrong.
I'm neither. I'm part of what I'd like to coin as "Team Meh". I've read the books. They were entertaining. In the same way that The Da Vinci Code was entertaining. Both not excellently written, but both pageturners, and both worth the read. I've seen the two first films. They were all right. I've seen much better, of course. But I've certainly seen much, MUCH worse.
(Like La Dolce Vita. I nearly died from boredom. That's a story for later.)
I've also made fun of Twilight. I made a comic about it once, but a good-natured one, as my target group for that particular comic is 8-15-year-olds.
But I genuinely don't understand the epic proportions the Twihating has taken. People who haven't even read the books or seen the movies are practically frolicking in the garden of Twihate, repeating the old jokes over and over. I certainly don't think it's appropriate to bring all that hate into professional movie reviews. Sure, write a review about how bad the films are, but make it balanced and fair. Write in a way that makes me think you're an educated person who knows quality in films, rather than a person who spends most work days scrolling around Failblog.
(To Martin Bergesen, if you should by any chance read this - nothing personal. Don't hate me. Just ... be reasonable. You would hate Stephenie Meyer and the other "demons" if they really HAD sold the game concept, so there really is no reason to hate them for NOT doing it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, right? I did laugh out loud at the video examples at the bottom of your article though. But the text in general was a tad over the top.)
It's time to talk about Twilight.
Robert Pattinson is much creapier in real life.
Photo from here
Let's look at these two fractions separately. We'll do the haters first.
A prime example of a well thought-through fail poster. Not repetitive at all.
Photo from here
Online, there seems to be a sort of ongoing competition of who hates Twilight the most. Whether it's by making fun of the books, saying they're badly written, that Edward is a pussy for still being a virgin after 108 or so years, or how Stephenie Meyer has violated the Pure and Holy image of The Vampire by explaining the many myths behind them in a new way. Or making fun of the movies, of how bad Kristen Stewart's acting is, how Taylor Lautner's shirtlessness is hilariously over the top or that the only good thing about them is Charlie Swan's moustache.
Now, for the average internet user who good-humouredly caption the odd movie still from Twilight on Failblog, that's okay. The real problems arise when the same type of ridicule appears on arenas that usually keep a higher level of seriousness and quality, like newspapers. Even the movie reviewers in such media (albeit still online) seem to write their pieces under a mandatory understanding that "this movie sucks, but I have to write about it anyway, so let's get it over with". Example quote from www.pressfire.no, from an article written by Martin Bergesen (translated from Norwegian by me):
"The only explanation for there not being a "Twilight"-game must be that Stephenie Meyer and the other demons behind "Twilight" are too distracted by raking bills in their money-garden to notice all the millions they're missing out on by not whoring out their sparkle-vampires to a games company."
(Here's the article)
(Here's the article)
Alright, on to the lovers.
Don't feed them after midnight.
Photo from here
This, of course, is obsession. And when you're obsessed, you tolerate no critique of your chosen object of desire, much like how a drug addict will get really angry if you take his drugs away. Seriously. I've been an obsessed teenager myself, I know how you completely lose your sense of logic.
The Twilight books are in the genre "Young Adult", which means the target group are young people between 13 and 19. Teenagers. In this case, girls. And there are many of those out there. Hoards. Sort of like zombies. Only they don't want brains, they want the pants off Robert Pattinson. Or Taylor Lautner. Or both. At the same time.
And for some reason, teenage girls are one of the generic groups of people (regardless of nationality, skin colour or religion) that most people fail to take seriously. If you made characters out of the human age groups, teenage girls would be the Dumb Blonde. Of course, teenage girls in general feel that they're much more mature and experienced in life than what their age suggests, and that their feelings are pure, sincere and not in the least affected by all the hormones currently zooming around in their bodies. Which can cause seventeen-year-olds to think that the crush they have on that pale, mysterious boy in the corner of the canteen is True Love and will Last Forever, when really they get a new crush two weeks later. All hail to Stephenie Meyer and her fellow Young Adult authors for finding this age group important, really.
My point here is that I believe many of the reviewers that heartily dismember the Twilight movies (or books) and then chop them up in little pieces with their metaphorical machete (read: keyboard) completely fail to consider the target group. Or if they do, they use it as an additional reason for why the movie is beneath them. "This is a movie for teenage girls, so automatically it sucks." And particularly because it's Twilight, that is all right. And when the reviewer is a 37 year old man (or whatever), and the movie's target group is a 16 year old girl, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
What I would really like to read is a Twilight review written by someone trying to see the movie from the target group's viewpoint.
I bet you're just dying to know what I feel about Twilight now, right? I also bet that if you're a hater, you think I'm a Twihard, and if you're a Twihard, you think I'm a hater, right?
Wrong.
I'm neither. I'm part of what I'd like to coin as "Team Meh". I've read the books. They were entertaining. In the same way that The Da Vinci Code was entertaining. Both not excellently written, but both pageturners, and both worth the read. I've seen the two first films. They were all right. I've seen much better, of course. But I've certainly seen much, MUCH worse.
(Like La Dolce Vita. I nearly died from boredom. That's a story for later.)
I've also made fun of Twilight. I made a comic about it once, but a good-natured one, as my target group for that particular comic is 8-15-year-olds.
But I genuinely don't understand the epic proportions the Twihating has taken. People who haven't even read the books or seen the movies are practically frolicking in the garden of Twihate, repeating the old jokes over and over. I certainly don't think it's appropriate to bring all that hate into professional movie reviews. Sure, write a review about how bad the films are, but make it balanced and fair. Write in a way that makes me think you're an educated person who knows quality in films, rather than a person who spends most work days scrolling around Failblog.
(To Martin Bergesen, if you should by any chance read this - nothing personal. Don't hate me. Just ... be reasonable. You would hate Stephenie Meyer and the other "demons" if they really HAD sold the game concept, so there really is no reason to hate them for NOT doing it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, right? I did laugh out loud at the video examples at the bottom of your article though. But the text in general was a tad over the top.)
Thursday, 10 November 2011
A Letter From Einstein
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this
delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion
but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of
peace of mind."
-Albert Einstein
Original found here: Letters Of Note
-Albert Einstein
Original found here: Letters Of Note
Monday, 7 November 2011
Secret Knowledge
Right, so thanks to NaNoWriMo, I've been a writer for one week now. Last night I even had a whisky as I wrote and felt very authorish. Even though I only drank whisky in the hopes of nipping my cold in the bud. It didn't work.
So, as I've become a writer (with a cold) now, obviously I have gained that deep, secret and archaic knowledge only accessible to the wise and sensitive, and I'm going to share that knowledge with you now.
Are you ready?
Here it is:
WRITING IS FUN! YEAH!
Thank you.
So, as I've become a writer (with a cold) now, obviously I have gained that deep, secret and archaic knowledge only accessible to the wise and sensitive, and I'm going to share that knowledge with you now.
Are you ready?
Here it is:
WRITING IS FUN! YEAH!
Thank you.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Monday, 31 October 2011
OBEY THE LAW
Imagine for a second that you're a road construction worker. You build roads all day, all year, in all kinds of weather. Most likely the road you're working on was already there and you're just trying to make it bigger and better. You're surrounded by heavy machinery, cones and traffic. So you probably wouldn't want cars speeding past you at 80 km/h, would you? No? Good.
So WHY GOD WHY do some people still speed past road construction workers at 80 km/h?!
This goes out to YOU, owner of a black Citröen C4 from Notodden Bil & Speed Shop AS with registration number NV 53036, you and all your brainless speed-head buddies, guess what, when the signs on each side of the road says "40", this DOES NOT MEAN you get to add them together and drive in 80, okay? See, there's a REASON that sign says 40, and that's because OPEN YOUR EYES MAN there are road construction workers and pedestrians all over the place and YES the road is wide and new and nice and the tarmac is flawless and everything, but it STILL does NOT mean you get to drive in 80 because it's the speed sign that decides how fast you get to drive, not your subjective opinion of the road quality.
And yes, said owner of said Citröen, I might have flipped one of your fellow speeders the bird once when I was sick and tired of people overtaking me when I dutifully kept driving at 40 like the sign told me to, but even if I resorted to a childish act, he should not have answered by throwing his car in front of mine and braking hard so that I almost hit him, because not only was that equally childish, it was also DANGEROUS.
You need a better reason to drive within the speed limit?
Because.
It's.
The.
LAW.
OBEY.
To clarify: The reason I know so much about that Citröen is not that I drove as fast as him after he whizzed past me, but that after a few hundred metres he had to stop in line for temporary road lights because of the road works, and I was the next car in line. Yeah man, that's right, you saved NO TIME, NONE, by overtaking me. Numbskull.
So WHY GOD WHY do some people still speed past road construction workers at 80 km/h?!
This goes out to YOU, owner of a black Citröen C4 from Notodden Bil & Speed Shop AS with registration number NV 53036, you and all your brainless speed-head buddies, guess what, when the signs on each side of the road says "40", this DOES NOT MEAN you get to add them together and drive in 80, okay? See, there's a REASON that sign says 40, and that's because OPEN YOUR EYES MAN there are road construction workers and pedestrians all over the place and YES the road is wide and new and nice and the tarmac is flawless and everything, but it STILL does NOT mean you get to drive in 80 because it's the speed sign that decides how fast you get to drive, not your subjective opinion of the road quality.
And yes, said owner of said Citröen, I might have flipped one of your fellow speeders the bird once when I was sick and tired of people overtaking me when I dutifully kept driving at 40 like the sign told me to, but even if I resorted to a childish act, he should not have answered by throwing his car in front of mine and braking hard so that I almost hit him, because not only was that equally childish, it was also DANGEROUS.
You need a better reason to drive within the speed limit?
Because.
It's.
The.
LAW.
OBEY.
To clarify: The reason I know so much about that Citröen is not that I drove as fast as him after he whizzed past me, but that after a few hundred metres he had to stop in line for temporary road lights because of the road works, and I was the next car in line. Yeah man, that's right, you saved NO TIME, NONE, by overtaking me. Numbskull.
Saturday, 22 October 2011
NaNoWriMo Countdown
I'm doing this this year!
Yahey! Oh, god, what have I gotten myself into! If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo, basically it's a challenge to write a 50.000 word novel in one month. That month being November. So, in little over a week I'm going to start typing like mad whenever my baby boy is sleeping, so if you come visit just excuse the layers of dust and puddles of baby dribble everywhere cause I won't have time to clean.
I'm not an aspiring author if you wondered, it's just that I have some ideas for my epic comic novel that I want to toss around. Also, you know, writing a book would definitely be on my "things to do before I die"-list, if I had one.
But hey, who's with me? I'll try to update my blog every once in a while as well.
I'm not an aspiring author if you wondered, it's just that I have some ideas for my epic comic novel that I want to toss around. Also, you know, writing a book would definitely be on my "things to do before I die"-list, if I had one.
But hey, who's with me? I'll try to update my blog every once in a while as well.
Friday, 21 October 2011
No Man's Land
You know what scares me? Virtual landscapes.
They are CREEPY. Flight simulations, computer games, even Google Earth freaks me out. I believe there is a very specific incident that triggered this fear in me. So settle down, children, it's story time.
It was the eighties, and my crafty brothers had recently aquired the must-have object of the century: the Commodore 64. It was sleek, shiny (in a metaphorical sense at least) and could entertain two pre-teen boys for hours with cutting-edge graphics and thrilling car games. Who can forget Spy Hunter or The Last Ninja? What better way to kill an hour than by doing a few levels of Mr. Robot or Jumpman Jr? Or a full Saturday Summer Games II tournament with the neighbourhood kids?
But neither one of these games scared me at the time (apart from The Last Ninja: those eyes in the intro screen could frighten anyone), and I have no trouble playing any of them now if I am so inclined. No, it was a different game that made the hair on my back stand on end. A small, obscure game no one really remembers. Apart from me. And a very few others. So few, in fact, that I spent a whole half hour searching for it on the Google, and we all know that a search session of such epic proportions means that whatever you're looking for is very, very obscure indeed.
But I found it. Here it is. Watch this video. If you dare.
They are CREEPY. Flight simulations, computer games, even Google Earth freaks me out. I believe there is a very specific incident that triggered this fear in me. So settle down, children, it's story time.
I love the caps lock-button on this.
Photo from here
It was the eighties, and my crafty brothers had recently aquired the must-have object of the century: the Commodore 64. It was sleek, shiny (in a metaphorical sense at least) and could entertain two pre-teen boys for hours with cutting-edge graphics and thrilling car games. Who can forget Spy Hunter or The Last Ninja? What better way to kill an hour than by doing a few levels of Mr. Robot or Jumpman Jr? Or a full Saturday Summer Games II tournament with the neighbourhood kids?
I mean, there were two buttons on that joystick, the possibilities were endless!
Photo from here
But neither one of these games scared me at the time (apart from The Last Ninja: those eyes in the intro screen could frighten anyone), and I have no trouble playing any of them now if I am so inclined. No, it was a different game that made the hair on my back stand on end. A small, obscure game no one really remembers. Apart from me. And a very few others. So few, in fact, that I spent a whole half hour searching for it on the Google, and we all know that a search session of such epic proportions means that whatever you're looking for is very, very obscure indeed.
But I found it. Here it is. Watch this video. If you dare.
Wow.
What, were you scared of being bored to death, you ask?
I know, it's dull, monochrome, ugly, slow (was it really that slow?) and annoying. But picture me as an impressionable six-year-old playing this game, that eerie rendition of Greensleeves playing softly in the background, those green walls enclosing me, that oh so black and empty sky above. And then I get lost in the maze. I have forgotten which button to press to get help. I start to panic. I move about more and more randomly. I see a black square and aim for it. Maybe I found the way out! Oh but no. Nooo. Nooo! An empty, black abyss lies before me. With the scariest message I have ever seen:
Yeah! I know! Freaky, right? This experience was sufficiently significant for me to result in that whenever I want to check a map online to see, for instance, how I get from A to B in a car and have to zoom in to see small details, I keep my eyes half closed in case I somehow end up BELOW the map surface and plunge into No Man's Land again. It's like those robots you see that are very human-like, but not quite. Nothing is more scary than that not-quite-ness.
Wild horses couldn't drag me onto the Holodeck on the Starship Enterprise. Unless they paid me. A lot. And gave me free therapy sessions afterwards.
(By the way: I couldn't find a screenshot of the No Man's Land image up there, so I made it myself in Photoshop. You can download the Commodore 64 font for free, who knew!)
(By the way 2: my cat is sitting in front
of her food bowl right now, looking like that guy in the corner at the
end of The Blair Witch Project, weird)
Boo!