I have been getting increasing numbers of the “Nigerian scam” spam mails recently. This morning, for example, I got one from a nice gentleman called Dr. Ken Amobi (am I the only one to think that “Amobi” has an unfortunate ring? It’s a little to similar to amoeba, somehow. The good man can’t help his name, though) who addresses me as “My dear”, which I find somewhat presumptious.

Does anyone still fall for these things? It’s tempting to answer with spoof letters to see how far they are willing to go, but this has been done before, so I will refrain.

Can you see a red thread? I can’t.

1. Who are your favorite cartoon characters?
Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner, Crazy Cat, uhm, I used to watch a lot of cartoons but I seem to have gone off them. I do wish Crazy Cat were on occasionally, though, it’s been years since I saw that.

2. Have you yet reached the point where you feel like you are from a different generation than today’s youth?
Oh yes. I feel very young a lot of the time, but put a couple of teenagers on the seat behind me on the bus and I feel positively middle aged.

3. What was the first Music Video that really impressed you? What made it so amazing?
I can’t really remember which was the first, but a very good early one (early for me, that is) was the one for that Pet Shop Boys song… You know: “My heart starts missing a beat, my heart starts missing a beat, every time, a-a-ah, every time, a-a-ah” and so on.

4. Name a song and an era that comes to mind when you hear the word “Retro.”
I think of recent songs that have a “retro” feel when you say retro, not an era gone by. So… that “just another lemon three” song, I guess, is an example.

5. How has your life been affected by HIV or AIDS?
Has it been affected? Hm. Well, I guess casual, unprotected sex does not seem to me to be a good idea, but then I don’t think it would have seemed like a very good idea to me even if it weren’t for HIV/AIDS…

6. Yesterday in the USA, we celebrated “Mothers Day,” a day where we honor the mothers in our lives. If you were on a “special day” nominating committee, who or what would you recommend that we create a day in honor of?
I think we have ever so slightly too many special days as it is. Couldn’t we just try to be better at telling each other how great we think we are on all the ordinary days instead?

7. Last week, we have several Tornadoes tore through many neighborhoods, destroying homes and devastating the lives of the residents. How would you feel if you lost every possession you owned? Or would it matter? How would you go on with your life?
Would it matter? Yes, of course. Would I be devastated? Probably, for a while, anyway. Would I pick myself up and keep going? Definitely. I may be a hoarder, but that’s because I’m so bad at getting rid of things. In some ways it would be a relief to have a clean slate and start again (I’d build up a new collection of stuff soon enough). The only things I’d be really, really upset to lose are things like photographs and old letters.

Voice in my head: well, it’s obviously that stupid lemon tree song now, isn’t it?

You should see this weather. I mean, I know I put in an order, but holy moly, I didn’t actually expect it to work quite this spectacularly. The sky has been an absolute clear blue for three days. The sun has been out and smiling. The only “problem” is there’s quite a bit of wind, but in a way that’s a good thing as it’s kept the temperature comfortable for walking about in.

Stockholm is great. It’s not only a beautiful city (all this water everywhere, all this sunshine, all these elegant and well-kept(!) buildings), but my company is great and we’re having such a good time (well, I am, the other two may be pretending).

It’s a good thing it’s Sunday today, as cash has been disappearing as if gone with the wind. I don’t care, though. In fact, I won’t think of it today, I’ll think of it tomorrow.

Ok, I’m off. Gonna go see if the national gallery is open.

Voice in my head: Shakira still, who’s switched to Underneath Your Clothes

Ok, so it’s Sunday. I was busy Friday…

1. Would you consider yourself an organized person? Why or why not?
Kinda, sorta, dunno. I can seem very disorganised and haphazard, but I’ve normally got pretty much complete control of the details and all.

2. Do you keep some type of planner, organizer, calendar, etc. with you, and do you use it regularly?
I’ve got a filofax (or an A-plan, rather, but it’s the same difference) – which I use to double-check dates, but I normally keep most of them in my head anyway.

3. Would you say that your desk is organized right now?
This one certainly is, I’m in an internet café. My desk at home, however, is in a constant state of chaos (the components of the chaos keeps changing, but the level is pretty constant).

4. Do you alphabetize CDs, books, and DVDs, or does it not matter?
I alphabetize, or organise according to some other system. The DVDs are a little less rigidly organized, they’re just roughly grouped according to genre. CDs are alphabetised. Books are subdivided into categories (cooking, travel, children’s, 17th C. literature etc.) and then alphabetised within the groups (if the group’s big enough to warrant it).

5. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to organize?
The current project at work, I guess, though I had help there.

Voice in my head: Shakira – Objection (just passed a shop where they were playing it)

Hello. My name is Robin and I am a compulsive proofreader.

I can’t help it – I am the sort of person who goes through the world with a mental red pencil and underlines words, inserts carets and various other symbols (some of her own invention) and suggests alternative words, phrases or entire paragraphs. I am this (this: || ) close to becoming a vandal, because there is a piece of grafitti just across from my bus stop (hence I have to look at it every day) which is just shouting for someone to come along with a can of red spray paint: “or dreams are dieying all the time”… With such a reckless abundance of vowels in “dieying” you’d think they could have splashed out on a u for “our”, wouldn’t you? This is how bad it gets: I frequently make corrections that no one but myself will ever see to documents at work while reading them, because correcting mistakes as I read consumes less time and energy than “just” reading and ignoring mistakes.

Most of the time the only person who suffers from my affliction is myself – because I suffer in silence. I may sit there with my brain boiling with indignation or frustration, my right arm twitching, my hand reaching for the pencil, but never quite picking it up – you won’t hear a word. Every so often, though, the teacher in me takes over (I have tried to conquer her for years, but she’s a hardy one, she is) and I voice what I’m thinking, as I did today. It’s kind of rude, really. My apologies, it was kindly meant.

All this is not to say I never make mistakes myself, far from it. In fact, it’s normally when I am writing about other people’s mistakes that I make the most myself (well, excepting the times I try to type while drunk). And I justify my own meddling from the fact that I actually appreciate it when other people make me aware that I’ve made a mistake (as long as it’s done in a helpful rather than offensive manner, obviously). It’s one of the very few things I actually hit “edit post” in movable type for – correcting mistakes – whether I’ve spotted them myself or had them pointed out to me.

Voice in my head: Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue

Have I packed everything, I wonder? Well, the toothbrush I need to use twice before I pack it, but otherwise? The tricky thing about this trip (as is usual in Scandinavia) is: What sort of weather are we going to have? I have put in an order for “sunny, but not too warm” to the powers that be, but who knows whether they were listening and in the mood to grant me what I wish? Maybe I should pack my raincoat? That’s usually a good way to ensure that it won’t rain. I have packed an umbrella, will that be enough to outweigh the fact that I’ve also packed my sunglasses (though that’s sort of a given, they happen to “live” in the pocket of the camera bag, so maybe it won’t count as “packing”).

Superstitious, moi?

But how to decide which jacket to take, for example? I don’t want to carry more than one, but on the other hand I don’t want to freeze to death either.

Ach. Decisions, decisions.

Voice on the stereo: Robbie Williams – Have you met Miss Jones?

Ok, so it’s not a very long one, but I am actually having a holiday this weekend – and taking Friday off, too! Me and two girls from work are going to Stockholm – flying extremely cheaply with Ryanair – something of a spur of the moment thing. Well, we booked the tickets about two weeks ago, but for international travel (hey, we get to do tax-free shopping!) that counts as spur of the moment. We have no plans, beyond plane there Thursday evening, plane back Monday morning (at some unholy hour) and room booked at a reasonable hostel-type-thing. Oh, and “paint the town red”, of course. That’s definitely the plan.

Actually, AK had an offer from someone in Stockholm to set us up with “ungkarer i en alder av 34-37. Alle med jobb og lang utdanning……. – men de er svenske.” (bachelors between 34-37. All with a job and seconday education…… – but they are Swedes. That last bit’s a bit of a joke – Swedes and Norwegians tell jokes about each other, so being Swedish could be considered a serious drawback in any potential blind date situation.) She said “Do we want to?” and I replied “Never” in a tone that so obviously said “Yes, please” that I made her laugh out loud in the middle of a meeting. Oops. Anyway, I don’t know if she’s heard back yet, so maybe nothing will come of it, but it could be good for a laugh, and nice to have company one evening who could potentially show us some good pubs.

Talking about good pubs, I wonder if there are any good whisky bars in Stockholm? Probably. Must do some research.

Voice in my head: Di Derre – Faren til Ivar

This or that?

1. TV or radio?
Tv. I don’t have the patience for a medium that makes use of the mute button impractical.

2. On the radio: talk or music station?
Music, until something I don’t like comes on, then I switch off and put a CD on instead.

3. Actual books or books-on-tape (or e-books)?
Actual books (need you ask?), but I enjoy audio books, too. I can’t just sit and listen to an audion book, though, I have to do something as well – so they’re good for when I’m painting or on the train and that sort of thing.

4. Actual newspaper, or web version?
Web version. It’s free. While I still subscribed to a paper version I hardly ever got around to reading it anyway. The only thing the paper versionis better for is the tv guide and flea market ads.

5. Wall Street Journal or National Enquirer?
There you go being US specific again…

6. TV news…news channel such as CNN, or your local broadcast news?
Local broadcast (as in NRK, the national channel). Local news broadcasts in Norway don’t just do local news, though (whereas in the US I got the feeling even CNN spent most of their time on local news).

7. A movie you’ve been looking forward to seeing gets bad reviews all around. See it anyway, or pass?
See it anyway. I frequently disagree with the critics. It does depend on the sort of movie and who the reviewer is, though.

8. See movies when they first come out, or wait a few weeks for the lines at the theater to get shorter?
I go when I get around to it. So if I happen to get around to it on the day it opens, so be it. If I think “No, it’ll be too crowded, I’ll go later”, by the time I get around to it again, it will almost certainly have been taken off.

9. TV: cable, satellite dish, or just plain old antenna?
Digital cable. Love my digital cable. That’s only because it’s the only way to get BBC Prime, of course.

10. Thought-provoking question of the week: If you had to choose only one form of media to come into your home, which would you choose…print (newspapers, magazines) or electronic (TV, internet)? Why?
If books don’t count as media, then electronic. If books count… well, you know the answer.