2008-08-30 16:12:50 - 4 comments
Since it's official through all the proper channels now, I feel that I can blog about it: I'm quitting my day job in TrygVesta. More -->
2008-08-24 14:36:19 - 0 comments
Check list for Elf and offspring for this weekend:
- Trip to the pool on Friday *check*
- Tortillas for dinner after pool *check*
- Soccer cup on Saturday *check*
- Swimming at the beach on Saturday and Sunday *check*
- Sun burnt after staying out in the wonderful summer weather *check*
- Ate soft ice cream *check*
- Went for a bike trip *check*
- Photo shoot *check*
- Played Lego Indiana Jones on Wii *check*
- Had waffles for breakfast *check*
- Had said breakfast on the balcony *check*
- Ate pizza *check*
- Read comics and books *check*
Yup, I think we pretty much nailed this weekend!
2008-08-22 07:47:47 - 0 comments
I'm going to a funeral in a few hours. I was on call for the online edition of the newspaper last weekend when we got the message that he had been killed in a collision with a moose while riding his motor cycle. It wasn't too long ago since the last time I met him, and he then introduced me to his beautiful fiancée. It could be years between each time we met each other, but we always sat down and had a nice talk. He was also among the first people I got to know when I came to Molde to start college.
In my third year he went to USA to finish his degree there, and he stayed there with a bunch of people I knew very well, so we kept in touch sort of indirectly. After he moved to Oslo, I often bumped in to him when he came to Molde for a visit. A few years ago he took a photo of my family and me when we met him, purely by chance, downtown. We sat down and had a nice talk and exchanged contact information, and he later sent me a copy of the photo, which I thought was a very nice thing to do. We've kept loosely in contact through the years, but mostly it's been through chance meetings or via greetings from other people.
So why go to the funeral of someone you weren't exactly close to, one might ask. I'm not sure. The most important reason is that other of our mutual friends from both the college here in Molde and from the university the US are coming, and I will pick them up at the airport and take them to the church and generally be their host for their stay here.
Another reason is that even if we've never been close buddies, I realised when I sat down to think back on the wonderful years in college, that he was an integral part of my experiences there. And we did pull off some stunts together, Like the time we kidnapped one of my best friends on her birthday and took her to Burger King for a kid's birthday celebration. Or the pranks pulled in the computer lab. Or the time we messed around with the signs in the main corridor in the school. And the great student's trip we had to Germany. Not to mention the time I went over to deliberately ruin his attempts to pick up this girl at a party. He could sometimes be a bit big headed, so I decided to peg him down a notch. Said girl became my partner for ten years and is the mother of my son... We had a laugh about that every time we met.
I've also discovered that he knew quite a few of my friends from childhood and other of my friends that never went to college with us. So I'm sort of also representing them, I think. But mostly I'm going because I want to. He was a nice guy. Nice guys should be remembered.
2008-08-20 03:00:33 - 0 comments
If you look to the right, under the Playlist, you will find that I've reintroduced my blogroll. For those who are in the dark, a blogroll is a link list to other blogs that I read on a regular basis.
I didn't include it in my blog for quite some time because of several reasons. First of all I got tired of updating it, and I couldn't really decide if I should include it directly in the html, or if I should clutter up my database even more and include it as a table there. The latter also meaning that I would have to make new queries and functions to an already big include-file.
Secondly, after I started using the rss-service at bloglines, I never used my blogroll menu to visit blogs anymore so I had no personal need for it. But then it's a question of common courtesy. If someone links to your blog, you should really link back, shouldn't you? Also, since I share my playlist, status whereabouts, photos, thoughts and everything but the kitchen sink with readers of this blog, why not also show them what sort of blogs I read?
But how to do it as painless as possible? Bloglines to the rescue. They have a service that makes it possible for you to share your blogroll.You can even subdivide the blogs in to folders, and the folders can also be included in the blogroll that you publish in your blog. Personally I haven't done so.
Another cool thing about this feature, is that you don't necessarily have to share all the rss-feeds you subscribe to via bloglines. After all, at least half of my subscriptions are non-blogs, like rss-feeds to news-sites or other things I want to keep track of. This is easily solved by telling bloglines that such a feed should be kept private.
While doing this, it occurred to me that my blog is becoming a dashboard to several aspects of my life. And I love that. This is what web 2.0 should be all about. Customizing your web-experience to your own needs by combining widgets and feeds from several sources and services, and compiling them in to one repository.
2008-08-18 13:17:17 - 0 comments
I can't believe that summer is almost over. In fact, in many ways it is already over. The schools are starting up again, most people have done away with their holiday and most important of all: Leaves are turning yellow again. Especially the last part sends me further on to the way to my usual autumn depression.
Just before this weekend I started thinking on how I had spent this summer, which has been a really good summer by our standards, and I realised something:
- I've spent very little time on my balcony, despite the beautiful weather
- I've graced the hammock with my presence less than ten times
- I've only gone swimming in Kringstad Bay once, despite the fact that the water hasn't been this warm since 1997
- I've bicycled far less than I had hoped
The reason for this is that I've spent huge parts of the summer working. Even during my holiday from my day job I was several days a week fiddling with something. As I realised this I stared to feel like Calvin when he freaks out over the fact that summer was almost over and that he has to try and have as much fun as possible in the little time that remains.
So, this weekend, despite that I had a huge workload because of the weekend watch for rbnett.no and that I assisted on a photo shoot, I made the most of the beautiful day and did the following:
- Took a long bike trip
- Went swimming in Kringstad Bay and it was so warm that you could actually stay in the water
- Ate my dinner on my balcony
- Relaxed in the hammock after the sun had set and I had finished all my work
- Had ice cream for dessert
And as I lay in my hammock and gazed upon my view, which is now three times better than before because I last Monday cut down a huge tree with nothing but raw muscle power and a hand saw (am I a man or what?), I realised that I should focus on the positive things I've gotten out of this summer:
- I've earned money
- I've gotten to do a lot of fun stuff
- I did go swimming in a lake several times during the really warm period when I was on holiday at my parent's place
- I got to meet Stian, Astrid, Ellen and Lasse
- I've taken loads of photos
- I spent a wonderful, albeit a bit short, time on Andøya
- I got to spend time with my family, and helped my dad build a balcony at their cottage
And now I'm off to go for another swim. I'm gonna yank whatever I can out of what's left of this warm period we're having at the moment.
2008-08-14 15:22:06 - 0 comments
I took this photo during this year's trip to Andøya. My uncle's girlfriend asked me to take the confirmation photos of her son, since they still hadn't taken any. So I dragged him with me to Børra, on the west side of Andøya, where we used the wonderful light of the evening sun.
This photo is not photoshopped in any way, apart from the usual tweaking. I was on the ground, and he jumped from a rock and towards me. I think it created a pretty cool effect.
2008-08-11 14:51:00 - 0 comments
"After the wedding of Kyrre and Shona, the McNeils and the Sæthers must try to set aside their differences and try to live together as one family. But combining Scottish customs with Norwegian traditions and values proves to be anything but easy.
Follow the the lives of the two families as they struggle to keep up appearances, while keeping the family together. In the centre of it all is the newlyweds, refusing to take sides. But can the marriage hold up to such a pressure?
Tune in on CNBC in the summer of 2008 to find out!"
2008-08-09 17:01:16 - 0 comments
For the fourth consecutive summer I took my bike and bicycled around Andøya (Duck Island). I also brought my cousin with me, and he had never taken this trip before. At least not by bike.
Andøya is 69 degrees north, and it's a very fascinating island with a very diverse scenery. More -->
2008-08-08 03:14:30 - 0 comments
Ellen tagged me to do this a couple of weeks ago.
So here are the 10 things I can't get enough of:
1.My son
2.My annual summer trip to Fauske and Andøya (Duck Island/And Island) to meet family and friends, as well as taking in nature and the midnight sun
3.Friends
4.M&M's
5.Oreos
6.Pizza
7.Pepsi Max
8.Cooking
9.Being creative (music, writing, photography, acting etc.)
10.Work (well, I try to get enough of it, but there's so much out there that is too fun to say no to)
2008-07-26 16:39:19 - 0 comments
This photo was taken on 30th of June. Two friends of mine hired me to do their wedding photos. I was honored and scared at the same time. You don't want to be the one who screwed up their big day.
My friend Erik Hattrem helped me out and we set up the equipment along an alley between a bunch of boat houses leading down to the ocean.
The happy and beautiful couple were thankfully very happy with the photos.
