Axolotl and the rain

All the snow is raining away today, like expected. But it was a good thing that we got a lot of snow as a warning for winter. Because as usual everybody are totally unprepared for snow. Cars and people sliding about on the ice just like Bambi, and whining about how cold it is.

But now we have got a taste of winter, people will recall what snow is like every year, and so we have some time to unpack our giant coats, the boots, the hats, the mittens and the spiky tyres, right? I blew my nose in a napkin, but it was full of cinnamon, now my head feels weird.


For some reason I ended up looking at pictures of Mudkips today, and randomly I cam across this creature called Axolotl. I didn't even know there was a creature named Axolotl. But I like it. It is on the brink of extinction though, but I hope it survives. It looks nice, doesn't it? It has a friendly face.

First snow!

The first snow fell last night! So beautiful, the sounds are all muffled by a soft whiteness. In Norway we have a "saying" about the first snow. And it goes something like this: "It has to snow seven times before the snow settles" (or stays, you know - not melt away again). It's not always true obviously, but the first snow is rarely permanent.

Elin gave me a star shaped egg pan, so Skjalg and I had a star shaped egg for breakfast.

On Friday Hans-Jørgen gave me a bouquet of roses!
I am such a lucky person!

Inside out the outside in

I think it is a problem how strangers' looks never reflect their personality. Like whenever you meet a really beautiful girl - and you're thinking "Wow! She looks amazing!" and you start chatting her up, but turns out she is totally not confident about making jokes. Game over!

Because I believe to have perceived a certain link between people that can be physically confident, while at the same time not having the self esteem to mock themselves. When I say someone is physically confident I mean that their good looks probably have provided them with admiration and likely also a high social status in their network. BUT, and there is quite a big but here, - surviving on looks does not secure this character's social position. They can be made to believe that they have to take themselves seriously to be admired, and that is the immediate moment when they go from stunningly sexy to boring, insecure and uninteresting.

And it is so typical, because all the quirky, fun people I know I think of as beautiful. Seeing as I know them, their outsides are reflections of their insides (not saying the quirky people I know are ugly unless you know them XD). But they are nourishing to any situation. And you always end up chatting up the most likely attractive person - which time has shown; is also the most dull.

Long time, no Seal!

Yeah, so sorry about that. I have totally been neglecting this blog for the last couple of days, which is terrible of me - I'm sure. Not necessarily because my little submissions were to be missed, but because it is dangerous for me to lose my blogging rythm. It makes me lazy and takes ages to retrieve.

I was at my second Justice concert last wednesday, it was quite good. The audience were certainly prepared recepticals for any sound the French duo were willing to blast out of their speakers. Personally I think the peak of the concert was when they quite brutally mashed "You're No Good for Me" by the Prodigy in to their beats. That was fabulous. Also I wore a sure deathtrap that easily entangled itself into any passing creature, so dancing was much like "avoiding", which is common in Norway, because it is so full of Swedes. Either way, every feminine particle in my body can be proud of me wearing a dress - because I'm not too good at that. And my wonderful, sparkling shoes reduced my feet to a pulpy sludge of blood and flesh.

Saturday we went to see everybody again at Eivind's place, and I had alcohol for the first time in several months*. It is so nice to catch up with everyone, and Elin is back from England and Ulrik back for a bit from the Army and you know - it was really nice. Also there were new people to meet and I had a rather dramatic misunderstanding up on the roof-terrace. All in all I had too much Urge and too much alcohol and then I walked Elin home and I was in bed about 5 in the morning.

Needless to say I had the hangover of centuries (again, so unfair I always get them. I think someone out there is secretly sending their pain to me, so I get double the trouble). But honestly, there is a reason why I'm not a hard drinker (usually!) because I just fall asleep, or if I manage to stay awake (which takes endless amounts of caffeine) I am so fragile the next day I almost have to take a few days off.

Speaking of which I am being such a good girl and working out, the problem is that I work out on Mondays and then my muscles are horribly sore until the following Friday. Seeing I am a lazy bastard and couldn't even consider working out during the weekend - I start off at Monday again. Even though I am paying for working out the entire month, I only get to do it once a week. Hopefully it will change though, and I'll become Superstrongmonsterwoman and I'll kick your sorry ass back to 1991! Which is a mean place to end up - you'll have to wear tights!

The weather is quite mild, I'm really eagerly anticipating December and the snow, even though November is going to be a tough one. Scored well on my Java hand-in, but have another one on Friday which is smaller but a lot harder, and I'm not very keen on spending a lot of time on it because it just doesn't feel rewarding! But I'm working on that, I really want to like it, it is just hard to do so.

This has turned into the longest post ever, and also one of the most pointless posts ever. Make whatever you wish of it, I'm publising it now. Oh, and I think I'm brewing up a cold, I'm sneezing into my tea!

*meaning alcohol in the common, vast quantities that the Scandinavian drinking culture requires.

Speaking of which

"If you do find a girlfriend who already loves video games... keep her. "

You will find this to be my point exactly!

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Girlfriend-to-Play-Video-Games

I just randomly skimmed through that, it was a very comforting read to be honest. It is like the perfect proof of that guys also "ease" their girlfriends into doing as they want. The patience and smoothness executed by the authors of this article however - might be rare.

Also, I discovered that there is actually such a thing as http://www.missvideogame.com/

- Miss Video Game! Now there's a title! I don't think having a pageant is going to "incorporate girls and women into the gaming culture and industry", I think that is just emphasising that female gamers often are looked down upon. I tried googling "Mister Video Game", but all I found was Mister Slime for Nintendo DS.

One, two, Tea!

I think I might be drinking too much tea. Mum wont let me buy anymore, so I have to drink up all the different varietes I have first. It is not THAT many though, but I thought I'd list them here to tell you which ones are the best. Also I smelled a tea the other day in a shop, and the tea was called Mexican Mango. Incredibly exotic, I know - and it smelled absolutely amazing too. In Norway there are pretty much two brands of tea, it's Lipton and Twinings. There are obviously loads more if you go in a special tea/coffee shop, but they cost shitloads. It doesn't cost to just go inside and smell all the different blends though. That's like one of my favourite things to do.

If you wonder what on earth this entire post is about, it's about tea. But I have caught a nasty case of NaNoWriMo again, so you will find my posts to be unecessary long and winding. Just look at my review of Keane's "Perfect Symmetry" - it is like a huuuge wall of deadly text. Yarp! But anyway, point is - Lipton and Twinings kind of dominate the grocery stores, and they keep inventing flavours that don't exist and put them in very nice packages. Like pyramid shaped teabags and stuff like that, it is pretty crazy. I fall for it though. I buy things for their wrapper all the time.

Lipton's White Tea
I think I have been scammed, it is just ordinary black tea with some white bits in it. It tastes nice however - I'm not complaining.

Lipton's Gold Tea
Now this is definitely a scam, it comes in a really sexy black and gold box that has absolutely nothing to do with tea. But I brought that on myself, because this is just black tea with yellow bits in it, I know - wow. Definitely just a bland blend of tea named Gold, and so I fall for it immediately. But it's good too, so hey! What do you know?

Lipton's Tropical Fruit Tea
Ever had like tropical fruit yoghurt, and then spilled it in your Earl Gray tea? Well this tastes exactly like that. But in a good way, at least I think it is in a good way.

Twining's Green Tea with Lemon
Tastes like lemon, smells like lemon, -then a bit like a rabbit's cage. Delicious though.

Twining's Green Tea with Jasmine
This is very sweet in flavour, and the fragrance is very heavy. Though I'd expect that's what to happen when you put the remnants of wilted flowers in a cup of boiling water. AND DRINK IT! Who invented this, I will never understand. But I am grateful.

Twining's Green Tea with Mint
Hah, this'd be my favourite, it is like you're brushing your teeth and swallowing something hot at the same time. Sounds gross - is excellent! You'd be surprised.

Twining's Earl Gray
What can I say? Nothing to say. Always liked Earl Gray. Lipton's Yellow Label on the other hand - is just not my cup of tea! (oh, see what I did there?)

SörgårdsTe (that's southerns farm tea, from Sweden)
It tastes like passion fruit, but it doesn't have anything to do with any farm in southern Sweden as far as I get it. And I don't think they grow any passionfruit there either. But then I am sceptical to Swedes y'know, I don't trust them, can't help it! I'm Norwegian. So forgive me, I like you, but I don't trust you.

Himlagott
(Heavenly good/Divine, also Swedish, in Norwegian it would be "Himla godt", at least you could say that, but in writing it looks weird). And this is very interesting, because on the bag it says it has a flavour of "Kvitten" (whatever that is), peach and cream. I know! Peaches and cream and "Kvitten" flavoured tea. Far out! Smells heavenly, as described. ... Hmmm - Maybe Kvitten is like a bird? Could be a bird. Sounds a bit like a bird. I think it is a bird. Like Bird, peaches and cream tea. Ooh. Yum.

Twining's Blackcurrant Tea
Wow, surprisingly this tastes like blackcurrant, and there is really nothing more to say about that. When I drink from my tea-bottle on my way to school it makes the entire bus smell like blackcurrant. I can sit and panorama the tired people's nostrils vibrate as the scents unfolds. it is most tasty.

Twining's Apple, Cinnamon & Raisin Tea
This is great! I can't have more than like a bottle a day though, because it tastes just like its description, so it's like drinking a pie. And it is like an illusion of feeling full afterwards. (note: illusion).

(Please listen to Keane's - You Haven't Told Me Anything. It makes me want to dance around and smile like an idiot). Also when I move out I want to have like a really tacky and ugly teapot like that, I'd just totally love that!

Blog Action Day '08

I've been thinking a lot about blog action day, especially since it's about poverty this year. And I suppose we all get to taste the meaning of that word these days, because we are more or less surrounded with poverty in different apparitions. The western world has also received a blow economically and people we know - or even ourselves get to experience how much it means to be pinchy on our wallets. Obviously, there is more to poverty than not affording to go to the hairdresser, it means having to go through desperate measures to survive every day. Money is so incredibly important, as important as we have made it to be.

And it isn't any wonder that money is as important as it is today, everyone can see that. It is much like food, really - if some of us weren't so greedy, it'd be plenty to go around. But I'm afraid humans don't work like that, and even though everyone wants to contribute - not many follow through.

I don't want to lecture about people being bad and horrible and that we are leaving thousands of our fellow specimen to starve to death every day. Because we know that, something which maybe even makes it worse, I suppose - but my point being that instead of telling us things we are already painfully aware off, I just wanted to encourage you to help.

Today being today - Blog Action Day, I want to spread the word of Change.org in association with Blog Action Day - and you can donate whatever petty amount of money - because it will make a difference to someone out there.

To you and me a small sum of money will mean more or less a pair of socks or a computergame or maybe even lunch. If you are willing to let go of your flippin lunch for the sake of some frightened, malnutritioned skeleton somewhere in the world - that is a beautiful action. I take my hat off for you. If you'd like to learn more about poverty, Foss' written about it in his blog. And so has Elin.

Keane - Perfect Symmetry

Yay it's 72 days until Christmas!

And 20 days until I'm going to the Keane concert.

3 days until my first exam.

And 1 day since Keane's newest album, "Perfect Symmetry" officially released. I mean, it's been on the internet for yonks, but now I have it here, in it's sweet, shiny cover. So I'll tell you about it.

I have had "Perfect Symmetry" on repeat ever since I got it in my possession a mere 24 hours ago. And I will initiate my review by saying that I don't like the four last tracks on the album. They're okay, I guess - but they aren't as ambitious and (well, actually "Black Burning Heart" is SO ambitious that it totally backfires on itself) energetic as the seven first tracks.

Their release single "Spiralling" is definately one of the strongest elements on this album. The song "Perfect Symmetry" is pompous and audiably challenging, but is sung with all the force and power that is required to emphasise the quite dramatic lyrics is has, like: "I wish I could make sense of what we do/ Burning down the capitals/ The wisest of the animals". But don't get me wrong, it is a really good song.

"The Lovers Are Losing" and "You Haven't Told Me Anything" are by far my favourites. They are worth purchasing the entire album for. Especially when the album contains "Better Than This", "Again and Again", and "You Don't See Me". --Erhm, yeah, you will find to your grand surprise that I have just listed the first seven tracks on the album. But like I said in the beginning - they're brilliant, and well produced and original yet still Keane'y! One other important thing is that this album is way more upbeat, playful and almost funky. You can dance to this!

Keane has always had good lyrics and this album is definitely no exception, they may sometimes be a little too philosophical though, you know, it gets so emotional and soulful that it doesn't even make any sense anymore. "I wish that I could be/ In the cellars of the sea/ And disappear in them/ Never to be seen again". Like what exactly is an ocean's cellar? This might be a very naïve question, I love artists with random lyrics. I am not sure though, because in "Black Burning Heart" the above phrase is followed by verses like "If we could turn back/ You can paper over the crack/ But it will return now/ And your heart will burn black" and so the song goes back to making sense in accordance with the title, but loses it's meaning as an entity. (There is also a strophe read in French in "Black Burning Heart", which is probably the major reason why I don't like this song. It tries to be something that it's not, and the biggest problem with that is that it is trying to be something it shouldn't want to be! If that makes any sense to you. It strives for something that is undesirable. Right? They have proved that they can give their songs perfect and wonderful sense in English. Well instead of going completely spastic over something as insignificant as mere 16 French words in track 10, I'll move on.)

Like stated, Keane have accomplished to record another great album that I already love a lot. It is not their best so far, it is nothing FANTASTICALLY BRILLIANT when it is compared to other bands I suppose. But for being Keane this was very daring of them. They have played a lot with the different spectres of sound and polished them (if you listen carefully there are like a gazillion different sounds that build up quite basic melodies) so that it isn't noisy. Well perhaps except from in "Playing Around" which keeps hollering "Turn up the volume!" but that never quite kicks off, so you don't want to turn the volume up at all.

Obviously, I can't finish this review without mentioning the amazing vocals of Tom Chaplin. He has an amazing voice.

Compared to "Under The Iron Sea" - "Perfect Symmetry" doesn't have a significant wholeness about it. You don't necessarily need the entire album to understand how wonderful it is, but listening to it over and over makes it grow on you eventually.

Like Keane always does.

I loved it, thank you!

Sunday!

It is getting SO cold!

Brr!

How is everyone, anyway?

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. - Rita Mae Brown

Gratulerer med dagen Ask!

Hurra for Ask!

NaNo Help!

Our friend Mikee took this picture at Ibiza, these poor brits had collapsed in the sun, probably a little drugged or drunk or hungover or something. At least they don't look too well. I've been laughing at this picture on facebook for ages, so I thought I'd share it with the outside world. Like, outside facebook. Whatever world that is.

Today the weather's been exceptionally grim, and there isn't much beauty left in the rotting leaves either. Well it's still nice colours and stuff, but now it is turning a lot more -- brown. If you know what I mean..

Well to the point, I'd be extremely grateful for any NaNoWriMo ideas. Because it'll start in November, but because of all the assignments we get after each lecture, and our massive group-exam - I really need to get a headstart I'm afraid. It sucks a little, but then I'd still be writing a NaNo, it is just that because of the circumstances I have to start up a little earlier.

Hurry!

Every girl that is additionally a geek never remains single for very long. It's true. It is like the second a guy gets the notion some girl has a mere fraction of nerdness about her - she gets snapped up even before she can say "LOL!".

Which is interesting, and probably due to the fact that nerd girls have a reduced defense system. First of all they are probably not used to the idea of being attractive to someone, which means they are not prepared (YOU ARE NOT PREPARED! (or, you know what I mean). And secondly, they are probably so busy gaming they rarely even realize that they have entered a relationship.

And this is quite normal, just think about it. It makes sense. How many remotely sane gaming girls do you know that is single? (Well, I could actually think of a few right now, but all of these chicks are either stationed somewhere in the farthers corners of uncivilized Snoreway, or in fact too fast). Which is a gift. If you are able to run away soon enough - you'll be alright. Or, you could always just move to somewhere safe. Like the moon, or Yemen, or somewhere you have to wear either a full-bodysuit or -grow a beard, which could be either of the two places.

Happy Birthday Kristin!

Yay!