Calyx travels the mind...

Stop SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-19T03:06:00.000-08:00

Passing it on from Leisha Camden.

More info here.

Protestants are making their voices heard in Egypt!

2011-11-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

At least, that is what Aftenposten would have me believe. If found this news rather puzzling, as I thought most Egyptian Christians are Copts, and anyway, why would they be at the forefront of the protests? And then I realised: the curse of Internet hackwork has struck again - bad translation creates alternative realities. Even Google Translate got this one right!

Sorry, sorry, no religious revolution in Egypt after all. Hopefully there will finally be a democratic one.

2011-09-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Al-Qaida ber Irans president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad om å slutte å spre konspirasjonsteorier om 11. september, ifølge Dagbladet.

Hvis jeg ler meg ihjel, er jeg da offer for muslimsk ekstremisme?

It's biting me

2011-09-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

I am sad to realise that the next time my bones will feel warm will be sometime around June next year.

Melancholia.

If there is one thing I love....

2011-09-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

.....it is a great rant. As far as I'm concerned, as long as ranters have a close relationship with reality, they can be as offensive as they like.

My friend Leisha Camden has perfected the rant as a work of art. In Latskap? Whatever, she has a thing or two to say about the fruitfulness of discussing the existence of gods. It's all in Norwegian, but there is plenty more where that one came from, over at her blog. Leisha has promised to have a go at England soon, and I'm holding her to it.

I also really appreciate the steam of a frustrated American who, poor man, has to live with the propaganda machine Fox News. In What Socialism Is and Is Not, For Dummies, he is like Hercules trying to clean out the Augean stables. Seriously, somebody's got to start somewhere.

We haz election rezultses!

2011-09-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

I iz little kitty, licking cream off lipses!

I can't make my mind up whether I ought to be happy or unhappy that the Conservatives made such a a killing out of these local elections.

That piece of information pales in comparison to the happy news that the Progress Party (hah!) has lost half its voters in the Oslo elections. I breathe a sigh of relief and daydream about a political debate answering real questions, instead of wishful thinking and demagogy.

In other words, we are now going to discuss how long the libraries are supposed to be open, and what they ought to do for us, instead of whether they ought to exist at all.

I hate having to discuss the basics of civilisation. Possibly, quite a lot of people agree with me.

When will this stop?

2011-07-24T22:40:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk in the city today, the cabin fever was setting in. This morning they said another victim had died during the night. We couldn't stay inside and listen to more awful news, so we got our 18 month old daughter dressed and went for a walk in the Vigeland Park. The city was almost empty, except for buses full of Chinese, Japanese and Spanish tourists. What a day to visit Norway! It can't have been much fun.

The baby is a star, she is always getting photographed by Chinese tourists. It cheered us up a little, and I met an old friend I haven't seen since his wedding three years ago. He'd stayed up all night reading the terrorist's "manifesto", and was sad and scared. We found out we were both happy that our children are so young they have no idea what is going on.

We went for a long walk while the baby was sleeping. The atmosphere in the city is bizarre. There are people out walking and sitting in cafes, but everyone is so sad. People are not talking.

We heard sirens, and I think everybody in the street jumped. It was a couple of military cars with flashing lights following an empty Royal Guard bus. For a while we were worried something was going on, but I guess they were just being a lot more efficient than usual in picking up the soldiers.

We came home, had a simple dinner. A friend called from abroad to ask if we were ok. My husband's family called us on Skype, happy to see us all. His grandmother asked: "Is the guy Norwegian?" -Yes. "But what does he want?". She has a gift for getting to the gist of the matter.

Not usually a fan of infotainment, I find myself neurotically following the news. This time I feel it is important to be part of what is going on, and to hear what the survivors have to say. We all have to participate in trying to repair what can be repaired, and to prevent what might be prevented. We must be as one in this task.

Other than that, I don't feel quite rational these days. I hope my little girl doesn't pick up on too much. She seems happy, though. My husband and I are lucky that we have a little girl to put us in order. Not everyone is that lucky.

As bad as it gets

2011-07-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

I really don't know what is worse than this. My family and friends seem to be safe, but so far, 92 people are dead, mostly teenagers.

We are a small nation. It is always someone you know, or the child of someone you know.

We all think of the families of the lost children, and hope they will pull through somehow.

Vi er i det nasjonalromantiske hjørnet

2011-05-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Sitter og skal si noe dypt om "Nordmannen" av Ivar Aasen og "Fjell-Norig" av Olav Aukrust. Nynorsk er sære greier. Må krype til korset og innrømme at gamlisene hadde rett; nynorsk er mye mer poetisk en bokmål. Det er særlig rytmen i språket det går på. Alle diktere blir tonedøve sammenlignet med Olav Aukrust. Men spørsmålet melder seg likevel: Hva var det egentlig mannen mente?

Jeg har dessverre ikke slekt i Gudbrandsdalen, detta lyt gå galt!

Derfor avslutter jeg med noen udødelige ord av Hallstein Bronskimlet:

"Nordisk Råds litteraturpris kan gjenge dit den vil for meg. Eg hev folketrygda!"

Det snør, det snør, tiddelibom

2010-11-30T13:12:00.001-08:00

...og det aller beste er at det ikke er like svinekaldt her i Beograd som i Oslo. Forhåpentligvis legger det seg i løpet av natta, akkurat nå er det bare bilene som har snø på hodet. Nattinatt.

"I am sorry to say this, but I almost miss the Soviet Union"

2010-11-11T14:01:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine said this the other day, and I know the feeling. Growing up, there seemed to be a real choice in ideology. Either you believed in freedom, or you believed in solidarity and dignity, and some people even though it might be possible to combine these things. Now there seems to be a choice between cold-hearted capitalism, rabid capitalism and finally rabid religion - which apparently goes hand in hand with rabid capitalism. So there you go. Does anyone have any new ideologies to bring to the table? This is getting stale.

Apparently, Britain is committing civilisational hara-kiri by cutting university spending by 40%, letting universities decide their own fees and letting students borrow the money from the state. Which will not actually save any money. Hallelujah.

According to Napoleon Bonaparte, "Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.”

I haz baby!

2010-02-03T02:37:00.001-08:00

....and no idea when I will have time to write anything again.

Was I lucky?

2010-01-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

Re-reading my post about age appropriate presents, I realise that I made a statement at the end, that girls today are bombarded with bullshit. I was thinking about whether I had any foundation for saying that, and then I decided I had. I feel that girls who grew up in the 70's, 80's and early 90's got a breather between 50's housewife ideology and noughties' obsession with appearance.

There was always the pressure to appeal to the opposite sex, but it seems worse today...or I just don't remember how horrible it was to be a teenager. However, we learned nothing useful about sex other than the biological facts iced with a bit of hypocrisy , and it seems kids today get the same biological facts plus a ton of porn, i.e. active disinformation. Am i right about this, or just getting old?

Age appropriate presents

2010-01-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

A recent blog post over at Kate Elliott's blog got me thinking about the difficulty of figuring out what are age appropriate presents for children. Christmas is just over, and I think I managed to get the right presents this time, but the fact is that it is hard enough to allow for personality if you don't have to add age to the problem as well. I used to have a fair overview about what was interesting for different age groups when I was working in a toy store, but that was long ago..... It always fascinated me, though, when a customer would swan into the store and ask for something that for example six year olds liked, as if all six year olds have the same tastes and interests.

What I remember from my own childhood is that I frequently got presents for Christmas and birthdays that were way too immature for me. Oh, the crushing disappointment of receiving a book I'd read three years previously! The disappointment was particularly crushing because I loved books so much and got terribly excited every time I was handed a book-shaped present - they are so very recognisable. Sigh.

In her blog post, Elliott is asking for tips about books for a 12 year old who just finished the Twilight books, and the books should contain limited sex and violence. Since everybody who likes to read loves to recommend books, she's at 168 comments and counting. Hehe. What fascinates me, though, is the difficulty people have in finding books with limited sex an violence - for that age group. As far as I understand, the Twilight reference is a glaring sign the girl in question is heading for life as a teenager, and that from now on, references to sex and violence are inevitable. I haven't read the Twilight books, partly because I feel a little too old and partly because I am sick of romance novels. The passive heroines, the objectification and the "the more he neglects my feelings, the more he loves me"-ideology is a big downer. However, all I hear about Twilight makes me conclude that they are books about sex for people who haven't developed their sexuality yet.

What might be really useful for a girl just discovering boys would be books that talk about relationships in a normal way, since that is what teenage girls obsess about anyway. As a rule, descriptions of relationships for that age group are quite unreal, a bit like the way porn describes sex.

I read a lot of fairy tales at a fairly young age, and for those who haven't read the Grimm Brothers, Asbjørnsen & Moe and 1001 Nights in the original version, the violence involved can be a shocker. I don't think my parents were quite aware of the content. Fortunately, particularly a lot of the stuff in 1001 Nights went right over my head.....those dirty ol' arabs... My conclusion is that the way a certain topic is presented is quite a lot more important than whether it is presented at all. In fact, not talking about things can turn them into pink elephants. I've always admired Astrid Lindgren for tackling all sorts of heavy topics in her children's books in such a sensitive and tasteful manner.

As I'm expecting a little person to join our family any day now, I just don't want to turn into one of those parents that underestimate children. And I really wish that when my little baby hits that rocky age, she'll have access to some useful information instead of being bombarded with bullshit the way girls are today.

The Truth

2009-09-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

Since I am having a spurt of writing, I thought I might as well tell The Truth about my miserable blog performance. I'M PREGNANT! I didn't want to broadcast it on the World Wide Web before I'd told everybody that ought to know, but by now it is quite impossible to ignore. The other day, I was buying a coffee, and the lady behind the counter asked me "It's not long left now, is it?". I had to admit I still have more than three months to go, but I already look like a beached whale.

In any case, the reference to zombie life earlier this summer, was in connection to the fact that pregnancy causes the production of some funny hormones, among them "relaxin". Anyone guess what it does to you? Basically, I was punch-drunk for about three months. In fact it feels a bit like being drunk while having the hangover at the same time (i.e. the nausea). I was eating crispbread like Popeye eats spinach. Since then the nausea has abated, and instead I've got a nice little explosion of other health problems. The next person to tell me that "Pregnancy isn't an illness" (the new slogan of our brave new world - we pregnant women are apparently responsible for all the slacking in this country) will get a Glasgow Kiss from me. I can't jump, but boy, am I heavyweight!

Anyway, I've got one of those babies that kicks all the time. She was doing gymnastics at the ultrasound, and now she is really packing a punch. The working name is Muhammad Ali :) Today I saw an ultrasound picture on tv and got all soft inside - it looked just like my baby! Of course, they all look the same when they are 18 weeks old, which is why the ultrasound is done then. But who cares! If being pregnant wasn't so nice, I'd go mad waiting for her to be born.

It feels really wonderful to be pregnant, actually. I always have one of my favourite people with me :) It's the best company there is. And my dear husband is my rock when things get rough, so all in all, life's not half bad. A tip to anyone planning to have a baby: Read books about it. It's a help for the woman to understand what is happening to her, but it's even better for the man to be prepared when she is having a Jekyll/Hyde moment. Key word: Foot massages.

Anyway, if I disappear from the web at some point, rest assured that there is a natural explanation for it.

I find myself being miserable about being sick with a cold and floating on a pink cloud at the same time. Nighty night :)

Would really like to know what is happening in Iran

2009-09-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

There's one thing I really hate about the media, and that's when a really important piece of news gets sidelined by a piece of news that has personal relevance to approximately ten people. This summer, I was awed and inspired by the bravery of the Iranian protesters getting out on the streets and fighting for their freedom and dignity. When the situation suddenly received a lot less media attention due to the death of Michael Jackson, I was disappointed and disgusted.

For a long time, I have felt that ever since the Soviet Union went arse over tits, the international political debate has moved away from what I thought was the Big Question, namely how to create a good life for the citizens of the world, and become more concerned with every minor detail of life. I guess this reflects the fact that more and more people now live in democracies, and that these democracies are getting older and so established that people can't imagine living a different life. What I find the most bizarre is the tendency to relativise values and accept statements such as: "Democracy won't work in our country because we are a collectivist society/moslems/tribal/whatever."

What is democracy? It is the right of the citizens of a country to make their own decisions about their own lives in collaboration with other citizens. What is feminism? It is the idea that men and women should have the same rights and duties as citizens. If you don't like it, try living without.

As far as I am concerned, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights still holds.

What I found so inspiring about the Iranian protests was the feeling that the protesters are fighting for something real. That this was not just an aimless outpouring of frustration, which one sees in a lot of countries, but the result of a general feeling that people have had enough of having their lives run by priests, and want to make their own decisions. I might be wrong, but Iranians appear to have some of the most finely tuned bullshit detectors in the world - I guess it is the result of living in a Shiite version of "1984".

Michael Jackson's death was a tragedy for his family. Neda Agha-Soltan's death was a tragedy for her nation as well as for her family.

The Quds day protests is the latest piece of news from Iran (excepting some hot air from the alleged President, but that's not really news).

Waiting for summer

2009-08-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

At this point in life, there is one question that keeps bothering me: When will summer start? I distinctly recall being in a panic sometime in June because I didn't have swimwear that fit me. Then I went swimming two times, feeling very viking about swimming so early, and then......nothing.

Right now, it feels as if we are one month into fall and preparing for Christmas. Where did this summer go? Down the drain, that's where. Did I ever see so much rain in such a short period of my life? It doesn't seem likely, or my memory is just really selective.

Maybe we can house-swap with an Egyptian family or something. The Egyptian Tourist Board is trying to attract visitors by claiming to have lots of sun - ain't that the truth. They have sand too. I am fascinated by that tv ad, because I can think of about 150 things Egypt might want to tempt visitors with, before falling back on nice weather. Saying Egypt has sun is a bit like saying the North Pole has snow.

If there are any weather gods lazing about, they ought to know they are in trouble.

Best ever T-shirt

2009-08-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

The other day, I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt with the following words: "I have no problem with God, it's his fan club I can't stand" (in Swedish). Sometimes in life other people describe your feelings so well that you are thankful you don't have to do it yourself.

I want that t-shirt! In a nice, feminine version, that is, once I have shrunk to my normal size...to be expected sometime next summer, if I'm lucky.

They have them here

I is back!

2009-07-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

I have come to a realisation......I will probably keep writing this blog very irregularly. Reviewing past performance, it is obvious that my writing happens in bursts. However, the last three months of silence has to do with the fact that I, for certain biological reasons, have been a zombie.

Life as a zombie is incredibly boring, and places a heavy burden of cooking and cleaning upon one's hard working spouse. I have spent what passed for a summer holiday digging through the debris, thinking of Hercules cleaning out the Augean stables. Not being quite the Herculean sort, I also had friends over for dinner, played computer games and read books.

Now that I am back at work again, I realise that most people here have longer holidays than I had, and that this building is a ghost town. I wonder if anyone will notice if I wear a bathing suit and snorkelling gear to work? At this level of activity, things like like that start to seem tempting....

Must be more serious. Hmmph.

Suksess med Nobelprisvinner! - Krigen ruller videre!

2009-03-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Vanligvis strever jeg med å lese noe som helst av forfattere som har vunnet Nobelprisen, i den grad at jeg lurer på om det følger en forbannelse med prisen. Både Naguib Mahfouz og Orhan Pamuk har tatt fullstendig knekken på meg med alle digresjonene sine, og jeg har aldri kunnet fatte og begripe at min kjære mor som tenåring syntes Sigrid Undsets Erlend var en romantisk figur. Hamsun har jeg både tålt og likt, men etter elendigheten med Mahfouz har jeg aldri turt å prøve meg på "Markens Grøde" eller andre hovedverk av Nobelprisvinnere. Jeg snek meg inn bakveien via "Pan" og "Paa gjengrodde Stier".

Den siste boken er uhyre interessant om man som meg lurer på hva som foregikk oppi hodene på folk under 2. verdenskrig. Hamsun skrev "Paa gjengrodde Stier" etter landssvikoppgjøret, for å fortelle om det han hadde opplevd, og for å forsvare sine handlinger. Han var da 90 år, og ville ha seg frabedt å bli stemplet som sinnssyk, samtidig som han ikke ga inntrykk av å forstå hvor ille han hadde oppført seg. Når man så leser "Når løken skrelles" av Günter Grass, er det snakk om et helt annet nivå av selvransakelse - men så har det gått en stund, og Grass kan ikke påberope seg å ha vært isolert eller gammel. Han dømmer seg selv ganske hardt for ikke å ha stilt spørsmål, og for ikke en gang å ha reagert med forskrekkelse da han som barn var vitne til at jøder ble trakassert under Krystallnatten. Grass har sparket ganske hardt både til høyre og venstre i europeisk politikk, og fremstått som en moralsk søyle, så når han 60 år etter krigen forteller at han har vært medlem av Waffen-SS, er det mange som gjerne vil si takk for sist.

Jeg sitter igjen med følelsen av at Grass visste akkurat hva han gjorde da han skrev denne boken. Det er mulig jeg tar feil, men jeg tror den gamle rakkeren hadde moro av å lure en del dobbeltmoralske fjols til å spenne ben for seg selv ved å kritisere ham urimelig sterkt. Særlig Polen er forbannet med en del politikere som lever godt på å dreie den politiske samtalen over på ting som skjedde for 60 år siden, slik at de slipper å snakke om det som skjer nå. Kritikken mot Grass går først og fremst ut på medlemskapet i Waffen-SS, som han strengt tatt fikk dradd ned over ørene. Det forfatteren selv bebreider seg, er det han er redd var villet blindhet - han spør seg selv hvorfor han, som i barneårene stilte spørsmål om alt, ikke lurte på hvor det ble av jødene, klassekameraten som visste alt om krigen, de kasjubiske slektningene, osv..

Grass meldte seg frivillig som ubåtsoldat selv om han bare var 15, men fikk beskjed om at han var for ung og at de ikke hadde bruk for ham. Han ble i stedet innrullert i Waffen-SS og begynte året etter. Når han oppgir årsaken, er det snakk om en blanding av fjollete krigsromantikk og et desperat ønske om å komme seg ut av den trangbodde leiligheten. Nylig leste jeg "Dommen" av Hanna Kvanmo, og det påfallende er at hun beskriver nesten akkurat det samme som årsaken til at hun meldte seg til tjeneste hos tysk Røde Kors under krigen - behovet for å komme seg vekk fra den lille rommet hun delte med moren, vekk fra Gestapo, som plaget henne mer og mer, pluss litt for mange romantiske bøker om Florence Nightinggale.

I "Dommen" siterer Kvanmo jusprofessor Johs. Andenæs, som var en sentral person i landssvikoppgjøret, fra en artikkel i Aftenposten 1.2.1974. Han advarer mot å drive et nytt, unødvendig landssvikoppgjør i pressen, i tillegg til det rettslige som for lengst er over. Han skriver at 15- 16- og 17-åringer på begge sider stort sett valgte side etter hva slags syn som var rådende i hjemmet. "..hva et menneske kan ha gjort i sin grønneste ungdom av dumheter og feilgrep, sier lite om hva vedkommende er idag." Jeg har selv lest ganske mange landssvikdommer, og jeg kan ikke skjønne annet enn at det finnes større fisk i havet enn forvirrede tenåringer. Det virkelig ubehagelige spørsmålet som melder seg, er hvor mye sosial klasse og inntektsmuligheter har hatt å si for hvilken side man har havnet på. Kvanmo hadde alternativer, men det som skinner igjennom når man leser både "Dommen" og "Når løken skrelles", er at begge forfatterne var tenåringer av den typen som har mer handlekraft enn vett - og dem er det jo nok av fremdeles.

Det ville være synd om vi bare hadde politikere og kunstnere som aldri hadde gjort noe galt - fordi de som har gjort noe galt og angret på det, er så uendelig mye mer verdifulle for demokratiet. De vet ikke bare at noen ting er gale, men også hvorfor. Av Hamsun, Grass og Kvanmo, er det Grass som dømmer seg selv hardest - men så kunne han lett ha endt opp med å drepe noen også, samtidig som han hadde den beste muligheten til å skaffe seg informasjon om det som foregikk.

Av og til når jeg hører moderne mennesker kritisere mennesker under krigen for at de var blinde for alle overgrepene, lurer jeg på hvor mye folk egentlig kan ha visst. Etter 2. verdenskrig vet alle hvilke ekstreme forbrytelser mennesker er i stand til å begå - men hvem kan ha forestilt seg dette før og i løpet av krigen? Antageligvis visste den jevne tysker at forferdelige ting foregikk, uten å ha noen anelse om graden av grusomhet. Det finnes ingen tidligere eksempler på galskapen, selv folkemordet på armenerne var ikke like omfattende og foregikk ikke like organisert og industrielt som nazistenes systematiske utryddelse av jøder, sigøynere, homofile og store deler av Øst-Europas befokning...og en hel haug med andre grupper jeg ikke kommer på. Nazistene mislikte mange.

Dette ble et alvorlig blogginnlegg, men jeg har lest litt alvorlige bøker i det siste, og tenker hardt. Jeg er nødt til å tenke på sånne ting, det kommer så nært. Jeg blir så ofte redd for at vi dømmer andre mennesker overdrevent hardt for å døyve redselen for at vi ikke er noe bedre enn dem, og at dette går ut over evnen til å lære av egne og andres feil. Noen som synes noe om dette?

Alvorlige Calyx

The annoying Potemkin

2009-03-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader. I am being shamed by my own blog. I realise that Mr. Potemkin has been stuck in my book list for a very long time - to the point where my far-too-clever friend Leisha commented on it.
The problem with this book is that it is very, very thick. This is usually not a problem for me, as I generally regard a very thick book as insurance against running out of reading material. However, this one is challenging. I am terribly interested in the subject, which is the life of the great Grigorij Potemkin and his peculiar relationship with Catherine the Great. I am learning lots of interesting stuff about Russian history, not to mention the fact that their love life was, to put it plainly, bizarre. Samantha from Sex and the City, eat your heart out!

My problem with this book is the author. Biographers are stuck with a sticky problem (idiot pun, I just had to do it!). They have to stick to historical fact while using their imagination a bit to understand why people were acting the way they did. Quite a lot of the sources are unreliable, and anyway they don't always explain why things happen. With Potemkin and Catherine, there is a ton of material, as they were both obsessive letter writers. And I still don't believe in a lot of Mr. Sebag-Montefiore's conclusions.
The author enormously underestimates the emotional impact of things that happened in the lives of the main characters, like only a Brit can. I sit and read and feel sorry for the characters for having such difficult lives, while the author ignores the blindingly obvious and rattles on about minor details.
My second point of contention is the Agatha Christie-like characterisation, where people are constantly doing things because of their personality rather than because of circumstances. This goes in the face of everything that is known about psychology and decision making. It just doesn't seem logical. Although Potemkin had a larger-than-life personality, there is a limit to how much can be explained by it.

Perhaps I am just being too picky, requiring historians to be psychologists. But isn't that a large part of what interpreting history is about? The facts of Potemkin's life are incredibly interesting - he was a creative genius with power most creative geniuses can only dream about - and the author has really done a great job researching. I particularly love the way the book points out that quite a lot of the crazy stories about Potemkin are actually true, and that a lot of the negative stories are actually lies constructed by his enemies.

I think I'll give this book a second chance, but I reserve the opportunity to rant about it again!

Forfattere: Arto Paasilinna

2009-02-21T03:07:00.000-08:00

Siden jeg nevnte "Harens år" på listen over bøker jeg leser, må jeg si litt om den også.

Nydelig. Paasilinna er en av de forfatterene som har litt for lett for å skrive den samme historien om igjen, men det han skriver er stort sett både dypt og morsomt - og det er det ikke mange forfattere som får til samtidig. Min favoritt er "De hengte revenes skog", som handler om en bankraner, en drikkfeldig offiser og verdens eldste skoltsame - fantastisk! Jeg må ha sett aldeles åndssvak ut der jeg satt og lo på toget på vei til jobb, og enda så følte jeg at boken sa noe veldig dypsindig om frihet og vennskap og sånn. Hvis jeg hadde greid å si akkurat hva Paasilinna snakker om i en liten bloggpost, hadde jeg vært en bedre forfatter enn ham. Les boken!

Det samme gjelder i grunnen "Harens år". Boken handler om en journalist som en dag får nok av alt og stikker til skogs med en skadd hareunge i lomma. Av og til leser man bøker som minner en om hvem man egentlig er, og Paasilinnas bøker føles gjerne som mer virkelige enn hverdagen - om det henger på greip.

Jeg synes i grunnen at en blogg er perfekt for å si noe om bøker, og jeg har alltid lyst til å spre budskapet når jeg leser noe bra. Løp og les! Anbefalt på det sterkeste!

My job search - Chapter 2

2009-02-21T02:30:00.000-08:00

Hello there! I'm writing again! The reason I was gone for so long was that I got a job, and then the aliens abducted me and put weird stuff about application forms and legal contracts and suchlike in my head. I now know stuff I don't want to know about bureaucratic procedure.

I won't write on this blog what I do, as those of you who know me know anyway, but suffice it to say that it was an uphill battle to begin with but it could become a lot of fun. I read a lot of really interesting stuff and pretend I am omnipotent :)

I was going to write several chapters on my bizarre experiences while looking for a new job, but I found out that most of those experiences were really depressing, and not worth mentioning here. It is simply not fun to look for a new job when you don't have one already. One should always have a job when looking for a job :(

We started planning a holiday in the event that I got a job. Then they called me for an interview, and my husband got a "feeling" about that one. He told me that the fact that we were planning a holiday meant that I would get the job. He was right, as always. Interview on Monday, offer on Tuesday, contract on Wednesday and job start on Thursday. Whaddayaknow.

This means you don't necessarily need to have a job to get a job. You might also just go on holiday, or even just plan it :) It is a more fun option.

Anyway, it seems we'll be visiting the in-laws for Easter. Fantastic! Coffee and ice cream on the Sava, with all our good friends......

Life is cold

2009-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

....which is as it should be. Outside is -10 degrees celsius, inside is lovely and warm. This is what winter should be like, with tons of snow. This is what it used to be when I was little.

The guys who clean the snow like to dump it all on our garden path, so now I wear skirts and high boots a lot, to be able to walk through the snow without getting covered in it (we don't have our own shovel yet). At job interviews I pretend I am a very stylish and sophisticated person who likes to dress in a feminine way :)

Bloody infuriating stuff for Weegies

2009-01-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

The government is proposing to remove the sleeping blasphemy paragraph in the constitution, and instead expand paragraph 185 in the criminal law (straffeloven) to include a ban against religious critiscism. The new law will have two main effects if it is passed:

Firstly, it will force the courts to draw a line between "qualified" religious criticism, and offensive remarks. This is madness. Not only are the courts not qualified to make this sort of distinction, but the people who feel the need for this sort of law are the sort of people who would view any kind of criticism as an offense. I know lots of religious people who can handle a bit of criticism, and ridicule is water off a duck's back to them. So who exactly is this law supposed to protect? Do we all need a PhD comparative religion to be able to speak our mind from now on?

Secondly, the whole point of replacing a "sleeping" paragraph is that the new one will be active. The Minister of Justice says that for example none of the Muhammad drawings that were published earlier would have been touched by this ban, and that it will be up to the courts to decide what will be. This doesn't tell us anything at all, if we even believe it. The effect of the law would be an increased level of self-censorship, because nobody will know what is legal and what is not.

I don't even believe that this law change is intended to protect people from hateful remarks. I believe it is intended to keep us out of trouble internationally, because we are a small country, and an easy target for cowards who don't even believe in their own religion. A lot of Muslim countries are now trying to make it UN policy to protect the religious feelings of Muslims - ok, they try to make it out to be about the feelings of all religious people, but in fact none of the other religious groups really care. Why? Because they don't feel so threatened by other people's opinions.

I am frequently deeply offended by what religious spokespeople say about women. As far as I can see, if they have the right to offend me, I have the right to offend them. I certainly don't want a law that makes it illegal to offend women.

Here is a petition that I hope a lot of people will sign, to stop this law change.

If anyone is organising a demonstration, I'm in.

For a pointed post about this, read more at Leisha's blog.

Quote of the week

2009-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

"Sometimes there isn't enough coffee in the world..."

Hillary Clinton said it during her campaign, but I have a feeling she's not the first person to have said it.

I blame the champagne!

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'

2009-01-21T00:29:00.000-08:00

Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way.

...in the immortal words of Oscar Hammerstein II. Finally some things are going the right way. My husband, my mother and I watched the inauguration and cheered. My mother brought champagne and said Obama reminded her of Kennedy. She spent the summer of 1968 working in West Berlin, a couple of streets away from the Wall, and it made a great impression on her. Bush Junior has spent a lot of time trying to convince people that they live in the darkest times ever, but in fact the Cold War and most other conflicts that the United States have been involved with, have been a lot worse, which Obama very gently pointed out in his speech. Now that things are getting rough again, I am very happy that the USA again has a president with a sense of proportion and moral strength.

If I could wish one thing for the new president, it would be that the level of support he has from the American people comes not from a cult of personality, but from a realisation that a lot of people have been living in a dream, and that one has to give up the ambition of being idealistic and selfish at the same time. It will be interesting to see what the US media will do - will their owners feel that all Americans are in this together, or will they try to protect the narrow interests of the rich?

The United States finally has a president who comes from a normal family and lives in the real world - always a good thing for a person of power. Having lived outside the US will be a great asset for him in his work - Junior illustrated very well the negative consequences of acting decisively on matters one doesn't understand.

Finally, no matter how this story plays out, black Americans have come a long way. This won't be the end of racism, but it will definitely help. There are still people alive who grew up being oppressed by their government and humiliated by their neighbours, and who learned at a very early age that they would always have to settle for less because of their skin colour. This really strikes a death blow to that sort of thinking.

All in all, so many good things at once! I will now end this post before I become really pathetically romantic and preachy. Things probably won't get as good as I hope, but what the hell; a crisis is a great opportunity for change.

Congratulations, USA!

Trouble with language never ceases to amuse

2009-01-10T09:13:00.000-08:00

It is always fun to watch people doing something they have no idea how to do. In fact, a Norwegian comedy show is based on that exact principle - the main character does things he has never done and has no talent for, with interesting results. This also seems to be the guiding principle of the Bush junior administration - may he get his own tv show. The main qualification seems to be that one has worked with or studied something similar, and is an Evangelical Christian. I believe this to be the case with the new system for registering before travelling to the United States. Obviously they found some Evangelical with a Norwegian granny to do the translating.

I had to help someone fill in the form, in which half of the questions were misspelled, or contained questionable grammar, or were simply hilarious. The best were the insulting questions that Immigration always peppers you with. I particularly liked the one where they asked whether you had ever held back, or helped to hold back by force, children of American nationalists. By Golly! What about Americans who are not nationalist? Aren't they also exempt from the laws of other countries?

There is an email address where you can give feedback, but I am afraid they will do something evil to me if I complain, so I'll just laugh at them instead. Btw, you may have caught on to the fact that I don't like Bushy. There are a million reasons why, but the one that goes to the root of it all is that I don't believe in aristocracies ruling. It's messy.

Note on blog

2009-01-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

I fixed the blog whatshamacallit so that anyone can comment, not just registered users. More fun that way. Thanks for telling me, Milos.

My job search - Chapter 1

2009-01-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I am currently looking for a job. This search provides many amusing moments, and certainly a few amusing job ads. I decided not to apply for the position as Chamber Servant to the Queen, but I was charmed by another ad. Apparently, Ikea is looking for an "Ass In-store Logistic Mng". They might want to stick to Swedish......

My favourite video

2009-01-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

As the fat lady is warming up for the final aria, we all contemplate life without George W. Bush in the White House. Hopefully, politics will be less interesting with Obama. I use this opportunity to post a link to my favourite video, featuring Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner. It is long, and that's a good thing. Watch it - it is a thing of beauty.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

Introduction

2009-01-07T13:06:00.000-08:00

The start of a new year! I present my New Year's resolution: to write a blog. I have tried before, but I was so annoyed by the messy nature of the blog host that I never got around to writing. This place looks more promising. I will write about anything I find interesting, and hope that my friends will take pity on me and read it. Happy new year! If you think it is too late to celebrate the new year, enjoy Orthodox Christmas instead. Srecan Bozic!