Category: Little Voices archive entries

To tie in with my chosen charity I thought the theme ought to reflect what I like the most about Plan International’s way of working, which is how the feedback I get as a sponsor teaches me a lot about the way of life in my sponsored children’s area. So I thought: Why not write about Life in Norway. And I don’t mean My Life in Norway, either, except I will probably use my own memories for examples and anecdotes. As I’ve had a few visitors in the past who have come looking for ‘local flavour’ this will be a chance to put something out there for the next visitor of that sort.

So, come Saturday I will regale you with facts and stories regarding Life in Norway. Perhaps I can even make a case in favour of the UN theory that Norway is the best country in the world to live in, who knows? I will make sure to post a few Norwegian Lessons along the way, too, to prepare you for your future visits – because, of course, once you’ve read all I have to say you’ll be bound to want to visit ;) To tie in even more thoroughly with Plan’s work, I will aim to take childhood as the starting point for most of my posts.

And if you sponsor me with a minimum donation of 10 USD, I’ll even send you a little something from Norway (I haven’t yet decided what – watch this space).

I could taste a new whisky every half hour and write tasting notes… Ok, that’d make it 48 whiskies, and I don’t think I have that many (actually I’m sure I don’t). It also probably wouldn’t be very good for me. Forget I mentioned it.

Back to the drawing board, then.

and the Blogathon. I’m going to have to do it now, as I now have a sponsor (not sure whether to be pleased or mad). So you might as well sponsor me too. Go on. It’s a good cause, really!

Partly in participation of Saturday, I could tick off two items on my to-do list of Monday Morning last night – I’ve picked up and installed the broadband pack. Yay! No more agonisingly slow phone lines for me!

Now all I have to do is come up with a theme. I don’t have to come up with a theme, of course, but it occurs to me that a theme might help. I’m going to have to think of a whole lot of stuff to say, after all, and though it can sometimes be difficult to stop me talking that doesn’t mean I can necessarily ramble in writing non-stop (more or less) for 24 hours.

So, suggestions on a postcard please.

I’d rather not do anything as elaborate as the stuff Jason has planned (though I am going to check in on him on Saturday, this has got to be worth watching), but you know, something to get me started would be nice.

An odd assortment from This or That – due to taking suggestions from participants this week, I gather.

1) DVD or VHS?
No contest: DVDs.

2) Best Literary/Movie Villan: Voldemort (Harry Potter) or Sauron (LoTR)?
I’d have to say Voldemort. Sauron is “more evil” if you like, but he’s not very interesting as a character (he’s almost not really a character, more like a natural force, like gravity) – whereas poor muddled up Tom Riddle is fascinating in himself.

3) Meat: rare or well-done?
Well-done. “How would you like that steak, m’am?” “Nuked, please.”

4) High Speed Internet-Cable or DSL?
I just sorted out the former yesterday – I now have broadband through the same cable as my digital tv signals. Love it.

5) Women: 1-piece bathing suit or Bikini?
For swimming; 1-piece. Not very good for getting a tan, though, is it? On the other hand, I’m not all that fond of lying about in the sun, so that doesn’t really matter much.

6) To be fair–Men: Boxers or briefs?
Am I supposed to answer this or not? (In case I am: The answer, of course, is boxers.)

7) Beer or Liquor/Wine?
Not beer. Cider. Or wine. Or whisky.

8) Coke or Mountain Dew?
Uh? No thanks. Ok, Coke very occasionally.

9) In honor of my 10/18/03 nuptials: Morning or Afternoon/Night Wedding?
Morning ceremony, celebrations the rest of the day/night, surely?

10) Carpet or Hardwood Floors?
Hardwood with rugs.

11) American cars or foreign?
Frankly, I couldn’t care less.

12) Cutest TV Twin: Mary-Kate or Ashley Olsen?
Ok, I was wrong, I could care less…

13) Coffee: Caffeinated or Decaf?
As long as it tastes like coffee I don’t care. I need at least one cup of caffeinated every day (or I get a headache), but I sometimes make an effort to drink decaf if I am drinking a lot of coffee (more than 4-5 cups a day).

14) Thought-Provoking Question of the Week: Computers: Do they make life better or worse? Why?
Oh, better, definitely. So much convenience (databases instead of file archives, online yellow pages for the whole world at your fingertips, e-mail etc.), so much fun (C-programming, Tetris, e-mail, etc.).

Voices in my head: The Beatles – Penny Lane

The rain I’ve been hoping for has arrived. This is good.

However:

I left the house this morning with a sleeveless dress and no jacket. This is not good.

Oh well. A few hours more in the office, perhaps it will have stopped by this evening.

Today’s quote from the always excellent Daily Philosophical Quotation:

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: ‘He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned’.

Epictetus — Enchiridion

I følge nettavisen har noen italienske (måtte jo være det) forskere funnet ut at det er sunt å spise pizza – det kan forebygge visse former for kreft. Hurra.

Plan for the week:

– do some actual work at work
– get self-starter pack for broadband from UPC
– install broadband (possibly with all computers at home in a network, but that might have to wait)
– do some rather major work on nmwl.no (long overdue)
– look at installing gallery software on sandlund.net (via my usual source of all delicious things netty: Donna)
– see Nobody’s Fool at Cinemateket Tuesday or Wednesday
– do blogathon this weekend
– addendum: finish cleaning the fish-tanks (poor fish)

And, oh yes:

– spend some time with (dare I say it?) the boyfriend (I like the sound of that)

My concentration is shot to hell. For explanation see previous post, also it’s still f***ing warm and I’ve had too little sleep – the latter is partly my own fault, but as what hours of sleep I have had have been spent tossing and turning because of the temperature (20+ degrees at night is not natural), I refuse to take the whole blame.

So I’m glad it’s Friday. I suspect this is a good thing from my employer’s point of view, too, as I might just possibly be a little less giddy by Monday morning. Possibly.

In the meantime I’m seeing Lillebjørn Nilsen in concert tonight, which is all kinds of good. He’s one huge reason to feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t understand Norwegian. I mean, Ibsen, pft, you get decent translations of Ibsen. Lillebjørn has to be experienced in the original, preferably live.

And in good company.

Looking forward to tonight.

Strawberries are in season (yay!) and I love my employer (I feel ungrateful in repaying them with zilch concentration) – they buy us fresh strawberries every day. I also have two baskets in the fridge at home, and cream. Meant to consume them yesterday but got sidetracked by a pizza and then some wine (oh, and some other stuff, non-ingestible). Might end up freezing them and buying new ones to eat with the cream (the frozen ones will be good slightly heated with ice cream in the autumn).

Will have to write this last hour off as in lieu of previous long hours. Have just been writing this and helping AK in a quiz the support people have been having on msn (name the band/artist from the LP title). Great fun, especially when M discovered why AK was doing so well (two heads being better than one) – “YOU! No wonder it didn’t help pulling out the really weird questions!” I’ll take that as a compliment.

Voice in my head: still Sinatra, but with disturbances from Genesis with I Can’t Dance, related to one of the quiz questions

…of what’s been playing on the crenjuz today, you could take it as an indication of my mood if you like.

Nat King Cole – Let there be Love
Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart
Eddi Reader – The Right Place
Bjørn Eidsvåg – Mysteriet deg and Tålt
Billy Joel – And So It Goes
Frank Sinatra – Fly me to the Moon
The Monkees – I’m a Believer
Alison Krauss – When You Say Nothing at All
Vonda Shepard – Hooked on a Feeling
Lou Reed (or “Various”, rather) – Perfect Day

Voice in my head: Sinatra – Fly me to the Moon