Category: Little Voices archive entries

A couple of new pictures of me as a child that I found lying around when I was home this weekend, and a couple of pictures of one of my mother’s orchids that I took while experimenting with the tripod this Christmas.

The Monday Mission on a Tuesday…

1. The North Carolina Press Photographers Association (NCPPA) recently took back a photographer’s three awards when it was learned that he had digitally altered some photos. I use PhotoShop or other digital editing tools all the time on my photographs. I never thought that was wrong. Do you think it is “unethical” for newspaper photographers to use PhotoShop to alter the images they capture? Should journalists be held to a higher standard?
I don’t think it’s wrong to alter images in Photoshop, but I do think that that makes it something other than a straight “photograph”. It’s a different sort of art entirely. And in press photography, where do you draw the line? Is it ok to remove the offending lamp-post which blocks the view? Well, is it then also ok to remove Trotsky from the photograph altogether?

2. On the flip-side of journalistic integrity, several newspapers are choosing not to run the Sept. 7 edition of “Doonesbury” because it mentions masturbation. I just don’t care for Doonesbury anymore, but it made me wonder how much progress we’ve really made as a society. Is masturbation a bad thing? Even in the times in which we live, is it something that can’t be spoken of still? And just for grins, do you really believe people who say they’ve never done that?
To start with the last question: No. It’s not a bad thing, though, is it? (In fact, I think it’s quite a good thing, and especially… but I digress.) However, I guess it’s still one of the great taboos – most people feel profoundly uncomfortable talking about masturbation. Not necessarily from a belief that it’s wrong, I don’t think. Personally I wouldn’t really discuss it – you won’t find me sitting round sharing tips on technique with my friends – but then you wouldn’t generally find me sitting discussing sex with them either, to me there’s not much of a difference (well, there’s a difference in doing, obviously, just not in talking about. Oh, you know what I mean…)

But censoring a cartoon for mentioning it is just silly.

3. If you had the power to be the Webmaster Almighty, what one thing would you eliminate entirely from the World Wide Web?
Child pornography.

4.Did you grow up in the same town when you were young, or did your parents move around a lot? How do you think that impacted your life? Has it had any affects on your adult life?
We moved about a bit. Until I was four we lived in Oslo, we then lived in Hamar for 11 years with a one-year break when we stayed in The Gambia. When I was sixteen we moved to Trondheim, which is what I mean when I say I’m going “home” for the weekend.

I’ve continued the trend myself, though, having lived both in Denmark and England in addition to Trondheim and Oslo since I moved out.

I think the moves were good to some extent. It made me unafraid of change and self-reliant to a larger degree than I would probably have been otherwise – I’m not really scared of facing a completely new place with completely uknown people all on my own.

It’s also given me constant homesickness, but I can live with that.

5. Who deserves to be called a Liar to their face? What would you say to them to publicly humiliate them? (“Liar, liar, pants on fire…”
Most politicians. Not to mention names, but a guy whose last name starts with B and ends with ush springs to mind. And that other bloke. Blair, was it?

6. How do you picture Heaven?
“I’ve always imagined heaven to be some sort of library.” Jorge Luis Borges and I agree on that, at least.

7. Who do you hope to meet in the afterlife?
Oscar Wilde. Jane Austen. Shakespeare. Do I need to go on?

Voices in my head: Travelling Wilburys – Handle me with Care

Well, that was an interesting weekend…

It was well after six by the time we got out of Oslo on Thursday, so it was late (just short of 1 am, in fact) by the time we arrived in Trondheim. My parents were sound asleep – just as well, really, I was way too sleepy to want to sit down and talk or anything – so we went quietly to bed.

Friday morning my father walked around the kitchen in his slippers and woke us (well, me, anyway), the kitchen being just above the guest bedroom. He was gone by the time we got up, though – he had a meeting in Oslo, ironically. Still, got up pretty early, said hi to my mother before she went off to work and then lazed around the house for a bit before heading in to town to have a copy of the cabin key cut and have a wander.

It’s actually been three years or so since I was last in Trondheim when there was no snow – it’s been Christmases mostly – so a walk around town was nice. We did manage to get the key cut, which means we can now go up to the cabin for a weekend – unfortunately we don’t actually have any free weekends before late October, so the idea of testing the canakk (a cross between a canoe and a kayakk) might have to be shelved. Anyway, we headed back to my parents’ where I proceeded to attempt to ignore Martin for the rest of the afternoon in order to scan as many slides as I could (yes, yes, you’ll get to see some).

We were invited to a friend of Martin’s for dinner, so we kept my parents company while they had theirs with just a glass of wine (oh, ok, so I was hungry so I ate all the cartilage off the chicken legs they were discarding – mmm, cartilage…). We even managed to get out the bottles of whisky we’d brought (two bottles of whisky isn’t excessive for a weekend, surely?), so that they could try them.

If you’re going to aquire a boyfriend I suggest you make sure that not only can he cook himself, but that he has friends who actually enjoy making gourmet dinners. How’s this: Home made creamed mushroom soup for starters, steak (perfectly cooked) for the main course, followed by banana fritters and home made ice cream once we could manage another bite? Mmmm. Oh, and the company was nice, too. Lucky gal, me.

We had a reasonably lazy Saturday morning – I scanned some more slides (yes, yes, I know, they’re coming) and we had breakfast in plenum – we then waved goodbye to my parents and set off for Hitra. My turn to be slightly apprehensive about being ‘introduced’… Well, apart from a few flutters of nervousness just as we approached the house, it all went swimmingly. Not that there was any reason to suppose that his family would all be horrible, but it was pleasant to find them charming, nonetheless. Any awkwardness there might have been was prevented by the presence of Martin’s almost-two-years-old nephew – he drew the attention away from me most of the time which was fine with me.

Hitra, of course, is lovely. Most of the Norwegian coast is, in fact, but that doesn’t make this particular part any less beautiful. More advice on aquiring a boyfriend, therefore: Make sure his family has a house in some spot where you really wouldn’t mind spending a lot of time. And if your own family has a cabin/summerhouse/whatever, make sure his is in as different a landscape as possible, then you’ll both get the best of both worlds.

So: Coffee and home-made buns with home-made jam for “lunch”. A drive round the islands on Saturday afternoon. A stop by the house His father’s family comes from and a warm welcome and a cup of coffee from His aunts. Deer tame enough to wait around until I had changed the lens on my camera. A little sunshine and a little rain. Pizza made in heaven for dinner. A couple of bottles of Weston’s cider because He had been thoughtful enough to suggest we bring some. A drowsy evening in front of the telly with His arm around me. Going to bed together and waking up together. Another lazy morning. A walk around the neighbourhood in the sunshine, breathing in the fresh sea air. Leaning on the jetty watching cod, crab and sea urchin (and getting hungry). Dinner at lunchtime, so good I stuffed myself and then found out there was dessert.

And then a long drive home to Oslo which didn’t really seem all that long at all.

In fact, the worst part of the weekend was arriving back in Oslo.

As I said: Lucky gal, me.

It’s not Friday, unfortunately…

1. Are you going to school this year?
Not really, no. I’m sort of working on a doctorate, but it’s not exactly progressing very quickly and it doesn’t involve going to classes anyway. I suppose I ought to register, though, to get the student discounts…

2. If no, when did you graduate?
I got my Masters degree in the autumn of 1998.

3. What were your favorite school subjects?
Arts. And once I got to ‘high school’: English.

4. What were your least favorite school subjects?
Maths. I found maths really easy for years and so it was excruciatingly boring to sit through maths class – by the time it actually got challenging (somewhere around the age of 18) I had lost all interest. Pity, really.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?
Hm. Well, I liked my English teachers at IB, because they were interested in their subject and made us feel they were interested in us learning for the sake of learing rather than for the sake of passing exams.

Still busy. Sailing yesterday was wonderful, but when is sailing ever anything but?

Pictures to be found here.

Voice in my head: Rod Stewart – I am Sailing (D’oh!)

Not that I really have time for thumb-twiddling…

1. If you had medical insurance that would cover any medical treatment, would you seek additional care for anything?
I’d get preventive treatment for my back/shoulders – massages or kiropractor help or something.

2. For a sizable payment, would you get on TV and personally endorse a product you thought was mediocre?
It would have to be VERY sizeable. Actually, it depends on the product and what I would be required to say about it. If it were, say, a single malt whisky I didn’t particularly care for and I had to stand there and say that it was the finest whisky in the world I don’t think I would. Also, I’m a terrible liar, so there would not be much point in paying me to do so, either…

3. If you were guaranteed a window view, regardless, what floor of a 100-story office building would you want to be on?
Somewhere around the 10th, probably. My patience in waiting for elevators is limited, so I’d want the option of taking the stairs to be viable.

The Monday Mission:

1. When was the last time you helped out a friend in need? What was going on that made you want to help?
It’s a case of “never and all the time” here. I can’t think of any one occasion that I’ve helped a friend in need – I can’t think of any occasion where a friend has been “in need”. On the other hand, I’m there for my friends, obviously, that’s what friendship is about after all.

2. Are you a “pet” person? Do you like to keep pets or would you rather not bother with them? Why?
Yes and no. I have kept pets. I have a Betta at the moment. I’d really like a dog. On the other hand I have had long periods of not keeping pets and haven’t missed keeping any.

3. In a dating or married relationship, is it possible to change someone to be more like you want them to be? Have you tried to or had someone try to change you? How did it turn out?
In little things, perhaps. Not in fundamentals. But then, in fundamentals you should really look for a match to start with anyway.

4. In your opinion, why is it that some married people have affairs? Is it ever justified?
Why? I don’t know. Moral cowardice? And, no, it’s never justified. It is possible that it’s sometimes justified for the other person to ‘forgive and forget’ and stay in the relationship to try to make it work again, but I have my doubts even about that.

5. Do you tend to make the same mistakes over and over? Got any examples?
I never travel light. Every time I struggle to fit everything into my backpack at the end of a holiday (end? how about the beginning?) I think “Next time I’ll be more sensible.” It hasn’t happened yet.

6. What do you find distracts you the most when you are trying to concentrate?
An interesting discussion going on at the next table. Lack of sleep, an itch or pain. The boyfriend doing his best to distract me.

7. What do you know “now,” that you wish you knew “then?”
Je ne regrette rien. Well, except, perhaps, that I didn’t put an effort into learning French properly when I had the chance at school.

I’ve just learnt that the husband of a dear friend passed away yesterday. Jim was a lovely man and will be sorely missed by his family – his youngest grandchild was born only a few weeks ago. I’m feeling somewhat stunned. I want to go over there and give her a massive hug, but Florida is a bit far off. That’s the problem with this global communication – you can rally round, of course, but only with words and words are so inadequate at times like these. Luckily, prayers can be wordless.

…as a bee. This week’s going to be a bit mad.

Monday (today, that is):
8:30 (not going to make it by 8) – 4 pm or so: work
5-6(ish) pm: NWX at Spektrum, to hear Glenmorangie’s master blender talk
7-?? pm: Nydalen, ‘beginner’s class’ in Scottish Country Dancing
?? pm – morning: sleep

Tuesday:
8 (ideally) am – 4(ish) pm: Work
half 4 to half 6 (ish): NWX again – it takes some time to get around to all the exhibitors
7pm- late: board meeting of NMWL
late-morning: try to get at least a little sleep

Wednesday:
Morning: attempt to make it to work on time
3 pm – ?: a sailing trip organised for all the developers
Late: again, sleep would come in handy

Thursday:
8(ish, or earlier): work
Between 2 and 4 pm: leave town to drive north to Trondheim

Friday to be spent in Trondheim, scanning some slides hopefully and getting a key cut for the cabin while I have a chance of borrowing the original. We’re invited to a friend of Martin’s for dinner Friday night, which should be interesting. Saturday we’re going out to Hitra where I’m supposed to face up to the whole of his family. That should definitely be interesting… (yikes!)

Via Anja and Anette.

Past Raido – Safe travel, movement, obtaining justice in an issue, used to keep a situation from stagnating.

Present Berkana – Growth, abundance, fertility, Mother Earth, protection, the zenith of an idea or situation.

Future Hagall – Slow, steady pace, no disruptions, asking for a hand from fate within a situation you do not control.

And, well, I had to ask about love and all, didn’t I?

Past Uruz – Used to create change, healing, vitality, strength, to boost energy of magickal work.

Present Lagaz – Intuition, imagination, success in studies, creativity, vitality and passion (especially for women).

Future Perdhro – Unexpected gains, hidden secrets coming to light, discovering that which has been lost, spiritual evolution.

(Cast the runes here:
Rune Caster.)

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Pity I don’t believe in this sort of stuff, really.