Category: Really old entries

People are so weird (rant warning).

On my way home yesterday I crossed the road at a zebra crossing to get to the shop on the other side. The street was virtually empty, except for me, and this guy who was parked just outside the shop, half on the sidewalk, just above the zebra crossing. As I start crossing, he starts reversing in order to turn his car, thus blocking my way. I’m expecting him to stop any moment (in Norway: A. when you’re reversing you give way to EVERYONE, B. cars are supposed to stop for pedestrians “on, or on their way out onto, zebra crossings”), but realise it’s not going to happen, and so stop for a while in the middle of the road (no traffic, remember) until he’s far enough down to make it practicable to walk around the front of the car. No very big deal, just not very impressive as far as driving goes. I muttered something to myself, but I doubt he heard. However, I probably looked rather indignant (I have this habit of exaggerating my expressions in situations like these – probably comes of watching too many cartoons or something), so he called out to me (his window was already down).

And now he’s sounding indignant/offended/hurt (take your pick): “You know, you don’t always see everything when you’re in a car.”

I answered along the lines of “well, you are rather supposed to stop for people when you’re reversing” because it was the first thing that sprang to mind, whereas what I should have said, of course, was “Empty road, bright daylight, zebra crossing just behind you – maybe you should have been using your eyes a little better?” I just haven’t had any practice, people so seldom give me the chance of telling them exactly what’s wrong with the way they drive.

Anyway, he then started muttering something about if I had any common sense I would have realised the reason he didn’t stop was he didn’t see me. Duh, I DID realise: That’s the reason I didn’t keep on walking and get run over. I didn’t actually think he was deliberately trying to maim me…

I do realise that people don’t always see everything when they’re in a car. There’s a reason why I failed my driving test several times way back when, you know. However, I always though that that was a fault of mine rather than an excuse, and I can’t remember ever thinking it was the fault of the person (or tree or mailbox) that got in my way. “You should have realised I didn’t see you” if you run someone over that you should have stopped for is about as good an excuse as “The reason I did 80 in the 30 zone was I’d had a couple of drinks”. This is why normal people say “Oh, SORRY, I didn’t see you.”

Music in my head: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word (Elton John, actually, I’m making that up – it would’ve been appropriate, though)

Ok, so, I don’t get it. This page is fine in Explorer and in Opera. The testblog and the reading journal seems to be fine in Netscape too. But this page most certainly isn’t fine in Netscape. How odd. Especially since I’ve just copied the template code for this page to the testblog. And that is still fine.

Oh, well. If the text on this page runs off the right hand side and disappears: I’m working on it. I’m just stumped at the moment. Nothing I do seems to make any difference.

And I want to go home.

Modem hopefully arriving soon. This is dreadful.

John has joined the people who blogChalk, and since I have been missing a way of searching for “local” bloggers myself, I thought I’d give it a go. So this needs to go here (just ignore it):
Google! DayPop! This is my blogchalk: Norwegian, Norway, Oslo, Sinsen, Ragnhild, Female, 26-30!

An antiquarian bookshop in town has a first edition of De Profundis. I want that book! Question is, do I really want it 1600NOK bad? More than 10-20 (depending on where I buy them) other books? More than a plane ticket to Trondheim (or London, even)? Maybe not. Had it been An Ideal Husband, maybe. But then, An Ideal Husband would probably cost more in a first (I’m right, the cheapest one on ABE is USD350). Thi-hi, would definitely pay 1600NOK for an ideal husband (no caps) – he’d be a bargain at twice the price…

Music in my head: Knowing Me, Knowing You (ABBA)

“Well, you know what I mean.”
“Of course I know what you mean, stupid, I’m you!”
“Drawing conclusions on false premises again, I’m not sure I know what I mean, in which case it’s unlikely that you do.”

“Music” in my head: Not Waving, But Drowning (poem by Stevie Smith)

Ok, I think Blogger’s back to normal, so I’ll get my normal template back soon – just want a witness that it’s not just me, this ‘ere template displays somethin’ awful in Netscape, too.

Off to download Opera.

Music in my head: I’m On My Way (the song playing when Shrek and donkey are on their way from Farquar’s castle to rescue the princess – very good song, but all the words I’m sure about are “I’m on my way, a-ha a-ha a-ha”, which makes for monotonous entertainment)

Hepp. Well, sorta. Blogger’s been having publishing problems for a couple of days, but today I got a tip by bloghopping, Perry has found that changing to one of the blogger-provided templates means you can at least post. Hence the facelift (or drop, possibly). You guys can’t talk back, though – not in public, anyway, you’ll have to e-mail me (address is my first name (any of them will do, check the under-construction-so-not-linked-anywhere-yet bio page if this is your/our first encounter) @ the site address – can you figure that out? If you can’t, I’ll never know…) Soon as the good folks at Blogger have sorted the problem out I’ll be back to normal. Apparently, the Blogger Pro people are fine (Hi, Donna!), an argument for forking out the $35, maybe?

My modem’s been sent, so hopefully I’ll be online other than at work within a few days. I found the drivers for the old modem on the net, but when I had a look at it at home I realised I didn’t have the right sort of lead to connect it to the PC anyway, so the drivers would do no good. And a lead would probably cost as much as the new modem, so I guess I’ll keep the old one for the trusty old mac.

I met up with Linda and Stine Pernille yesterday, and a good time was had. We talked mostly of current events (in our own lives, not as on BBC World), but managed a bit of “Do you remember?” as well. We had not managed to get hold of Anne Cathrine, but collectively got hold of her phone numbers. I’m going to send her an SMS and see if we can’t arrange another girls’ night soonish. Old friends are such fun! (So are new friends, but you know what I mean…)

The diary display issue is probably resolved for the moment, but once I go back to my preferred template, I guess I’ll have to look into it. I’m assuming it’s got something to do with the css, as it’s fine on any MSIE (where I’ve tested it), but looks awful on Netscape (which I used to prefer, now, with AOL involved, I’m sceptical).

Music in my head: Summer in the City

Ok, so I checked the website of the company I’m supposed to get the modem from and it says “10 days” in the “in stock” column. Does that mean it’ll be ten days before it is in stock, or what? And do they actually expect me to survive without a connection for another ten days? In the panic following this thought, I realised I actually already have a modem – only I only have the Macintosh OS drivers for it. So I’ve tried downloading the drivers off the net… We’ll see. I may have a problem in that the files from the net are all dubbed as “updates”. However, if it works, I can cancel the order for the other modem, which would be good, as it turns out I need a microphone… The DVD-ROM extras on the Harry Potter DVD seem to be available only if you can speak the “spells” to access them out loud. They really have seriously misjudged their market on the compilation of that DVD, assuming I can be in any way representative. OK, so maybe they thought their market would consist of 10-year-olds. Well, I didn’t think the sort of hassle you have to go through to get to the goodies (deleted scenes) on the DVD was fun when I was 10 either (I positively HATED the sort of book where you chose where the plot goes, whether with dice or at random (oh, so now dice aren’t random?)). But I ramble…

In other news, also computer related, with Windows XP, the JVM is not automatically installed, and I need it for my netbank. So when I try to log on it says “Do I want to install it?”, I click yes and I get to a Microsoft page that says that there is no automatic install of JVM for XP, sorry – but no advice as to what to do next… So I’ve installed the updates from the Microsoft site – didn’t help, but then I didn’t expect it to, because they were all security related. Searched the MS site for JVM – nothing, not for XP, anyway. I wouldn’t care, except the one thing that doesn’t work in the netbank now is paying bills, and since that’s what I mostly use the netbank for it is wildly annoying. Any suggestions? I am additionally irritaded by the fact that my XP version, both at work and at home, is in Norwegian. I suppose I could have had it in English at home if I’d remembered to ask for it, but I didn’t. It’s no big deal, it’s just that when you’ve gotten used to looking for “Options” in the “Tools” menu, looking for “Alternativer” in the “Verkt&oslsh;y” menu takes rather a lot more conscious effort.

Rant mood over…

Do any of you have problems with the way the diary displays? Talk to me! It looks allright on my machine but a certain gentleman in Portland has experienced hiccups. Anyone else?

How fun! I’ve had an e-mail from a Saxegaard fan in Germany (and a comment from another over on the “reading” log). I love the internet!

Music in my head: Allt vad jag begär (Michael Wiehe)

Nicolette has the right of it, it was Strong Medicine (see post and comment below). The other thing I saw which I couldn’t remember was in fact not a series at all, but a film from 1933 starring James Cagney called (unfathomably) Lady Killer. I even saw the whole thing, which kind of ruins the flow of the evening, but I enjoyed it, so who cares? Yesterday the first series of Jeeves and Wooster arrived in my mailbox, so now I have a few evenings covered as far as viewing material that doesn’t require fierce activity of the brain goes. Yippee. Love Wodehouse. A favourite quote: “[Aunt Agatha] is the kind of woman who makes strong men climb trees and pull them up after them.”

We have had the most spectacular lightning storms here over the past few days. Tuesday night two of them passed over my building giving me perfect view, not just of the flashes, but of the actual forks of lightning. And Wednesday night I was in for another treat. This time the actual storm was much closer, standing at the kitchen window (with a delighted smile on my face, I must say) the thunder was much louder than usual and instead of the normal rolling, booming sound the crackling of electricity was the dominating impression (with loud booming, too, though). Shortly afterwards I had to close the window as the following rain was hard enough to wet the floor several feet into the room. Unfortunately,”the show” which seemed to have been put on for my enjoyment, caused quite a lot of damage – several thousand people with no electricity due to power-thingymajigs knocked out by lightning and houses in various areas northwards from Oslo evacuated due to floods. I am very happy to be living in a five-storey building on top of a hill… I wonder whether it is wrong of me to enjoy lightning so much considering how much damage it causes? At least there’s nothing I could do to prevent it happening even if I wanted to. Unlike fireworks, which I can no longer enjoy wholeheartedly (I keep thinking “What a waste of resources!” and “What if a house catches fire from one of those?” and “What if something goes wrong and anything goes into the crowd?”and so on). Lightning being beyond human control, I figure there is no point in not getting the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it while it lasts. (Though possibly I should draw the line at wishing for them?)

I guess most of you have come across one or other of the various somthing name generators on the web? One of the mailing lists I am on have been playing with two of these lately. What is my pirate name? yielded me the excellent pseudonym Mad Ethel Read, as good a name as any, though why “Ethel”? The other is the Wu Name generator, and provided Happy Dreamer. Not bad, considering. An alternative Wu name generator gave me World-Class Programmah… Better and better. Now I just need someone to tell me what on earth a Wu is…!? Incidentally, I ran some other people’s names through the former of the two, and my former boss came out as Smiling Samurai, which struck me as so appropriate that I nearly sent him an e-mail about it (and then I realised the reason I found it appropriate was not entirely flattering and so I desisted).

It is pouring (no, POURING) down outside. I almost didn’t bring an umbrella today, as the forecast was for reasonably friendly weather. Luckily I remembered that I could just pop the compact one in my bag, and that there was no need to carry the one with Gromit (which, though nice, is rather a nuisance when not in use, as I am not used to carrying a walking stick. Though maybe I ought to practice, I’ve always wanted one of those walking sticks with a hidden blade. Very useful for fencing with villains and probably also for cutting through jungles, though a machete might be more functional for the latter. Sorry, it’s Friday).

Music in my head: Rock DJ (Robbie Williams)

N’other day at an end, well, work-wise, anyway.

I am mentally exhausted.

For some light reading I have got my hands on a copy of No Logo. I am becoming increasingly averse to every buying anything logo’ed again. Further viewpoints can be found in the currently (or not so currently) reading log once I’ve finished the book. It’ll take me a little while, as I seem to be spending most of my time watching the last half of random episodes of various tv-series (I keep beginning to watch in the middle of an episode, then the show ends and I start channel-hopping to avoid having to watch the comercials and come across another series in the middle of an episode and start watching that, then that end and we start all over again). Yesterday, apart from Sabrina, I watched most of MASH, and various snippets of Providence, Judging Amy, one about a women’s clinic that I don’t know the name of, Blush and one other (but what?).

Music in my head: You Win Again (The Bee Gees, one of my all-time favourite songs, for some reason – think it’s the drums)

Hey, my coffee is cold! (The coffeemachine is on a timer, and it must have been off for a while – well, almost everyone has gone home or is just about to go by this time anyway, except me – I haven’t gotten around to build any flexitime yet, naturally.)

New job still sorta scary, a bit more responsibility than I’m used to, and mostly new stuff or stuff that’s been buried in the dark depths of the closet that is my brain for months, even years (main tools are Oracle and Visual Basic, rather than easy-peasy HTML). I’m sure I’ll feel a little more into things by the end of the week. Also have major feeling that there is a lot of stuff I should have sorted out that I haven’t, but I can’t think what, really… I need to hand back the mobile to my old employer, but I’m supposed to do that tomorrow morning, so that’s not in the “unsorted” category, really. Maybe it’s just the old I-should-really-have-cleaned-the-house-and-paid-some-bills-and-phoned-my-grandparents-and-sent-that-birthday-present-to-Nicolette-and-oops-haven’t-I-spent-rather-a-lot-of-money-lately normal, everyday angst? Probably.

I was trying to set up a let’s-do-lunch-except-maybe-not-lunch-but-a-cafe-in-the-evening-instead-thingy with three of my friends from way back when (pre-16) this week, but it seems we’ll have to try again next week. Getting four people together really isn’t very easy when everyone’s normally pretty busy and it’s in the middle of the vacation-taking season. It should be fun once we really get around to it, though – I see Linda reasonably often, but have seen Stine Pernille only every four years or so lately, and Anne Cathrine hardly at all since 9th grade (which is when I moved away from Hamar). We used to have such fun, and they’re all such nice people (well, I wouldn’t say anything else, obviously, as they might be reading this… ;) )

I’ve obviously forgotten all the stuff I thought about writing last week, except for the bog bit, and right now nothing much seems to happen except work. It’s raining outside, and I think I may have become addicted to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which is so bad it’s good. It’s on every night, which is ideal in my current loaf-in-front-of-telly mood. Come to think of it, I think I’ll head home and do some loafing in front of the telly now.

Music in my head: nothing. zip. it’s strangely quiet. Hey! Who pulled the plug on the jukebox?