Archive for February, 2010

QOTD February 28 2010

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Judy Garland: “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Skiing and a concert

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

A pretty interesting day today; I went to Romy’s Birthday at Carmen and Tore’s place in Sørkedalen, a pitoresk foresty area outside Oslo. Since it’s great to do cross-country skiing there, we did that too, and oof, was that tough; we went ‘off-piste’ through 30cm’s of fresh snow!
Tonight is a whole different play; I’m going to the DumDum Boys concert, a great Norwegian band! Hehe, another event that I consider to be a part of my integration into Norway, it’ll be good!

More snow

Friday, February 26th, 2010

While I hear that NL is having temperatures up to 10 degrees (C) these days, Norway is still in the middle of wintertime; although it is not as cold as before (only -5 to -10, warrrrmmm!), the snow came back (I guess that is related actually).

I shoveled out around 20cm last Sunday, and another 10cm this morning…we’re close to 1m snow in the garden now! And, the snow is still falling in big flakes so I see more outside work coming this weekend in order to keep the path and the area in front of the garage clean…uhhmmm, yayyyy!?! 😉

LARP

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

LARP (Live Action Role-Playing game) is where the virtual world meets realit: dress up as your favorite character and pretend you are IN the movie or game.

I still haven’t seen Avatar (!), but some people apparently love it so much that they’re larping the movie, so LARP then becomes Live Avatar Role Playing…uhhh, no comment?!? 😉

QOTD February 24 2010

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Helen Keller: “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

Svencouver turns into Svencrossing

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Sven Kramer’s goldrush at the Vancouver Olypics has ended after he got disqualified for not switching lanes during his 10,000m race today…Svencouver became Svencrossing… 🙁

The mistake was caused by his coach Gerard Kemkers who pointed Sven halfway the race to the inner lane while he should have taken the outer lane.

The fact that Sven Kramer skated one of the best races of his life, putting everyone more than 4 seconds behind and obviously good for gold, does not count…it would have been, no, should have been the all time 100th Olympic Gold Medal for The Netherlands, and yet it is not.

Damn, it’s pretty tough to get over this for a top athlete who is training for four years for this event. And I’d say it’s even tougher for his coach Gerard Kemkers…this is not the first time that he has to swallow the disappointment of loosing an Olympic medal; he himself fell during his 10,000m race in the 1988 Calgary Olympics which cost him valuable seconds, he came in fifth and missed a guaranteed Olympic Medal…

Well, I wish both of them good luck in getting over it…hopefully they’re able to focus again for the Team Pursuit later this week.

Facebook newsfeed flooded with animals

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

I recently joined the Facebook group  ‘I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!‘ after my Facebook newsfeed got flooded with updates from friends who apparently got addicted to FarmVille, FishVille, Zoo World, Mafia Wars, etc.

Today I found a way to hide these updates from my newsfeed, thank God (and Mashable 😉 )!

I will still be a member of that Facebook group though, since I think people should be smarter about what they publish on their wall, if only they would follow the instructions from Tim Baker’s blogpost for instance…

The Lost Symbol

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

…and I don’t mean Dan Brown’s last novel ‘The Lost Symbol‘…nope, I refer to the ancient Egyptian symbol for protection that Jaap and Sonja gave me some months ago; the Eye of Horus (see picture), a symbol that I really liked.

Unfortunately I lost this symbol today… 🙁

I guess it is protecting the nature around Uvdal now! 😉

QOTD February 20 2010

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Stephenie Meyer: “I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.”

Cross-country skiing pictures

Friday, February 19th, 2010

It was a be-au-ti-ful day for a ski trip; dry and -15 degrees but no wind, a lot of snow and well prepared tracks, sun allover and great company!
The pictures below speak for themselves! 😉

Fjelltur – mountain trip

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

With the snowy mountains so close by, it is very popular among Norwegians to go skiing for the weekend. This is called ‘fjelltur’ – mountain trip (or ‘hyttetur’ if you’re staying in a cottage).
Not a bad idea if you ask me, and it’s our turn this weekend; we just arrived in the Uvdal area (close to Geilo) and will enjoy both alpine an cross-country skiing the coming days, it’s gonna be funnnnn!!

First Norwegian Gold

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Norway just won their first Gold medal at the Olympics, Marit Bjørgen won the Cross-Country skiing Sprint, heia Norge! 😉

So The Netherlands and Norway are even now (in Gold at least) as NL already won their first Gold medal last Saturday; Sven Kramer is still on track to turn the Vancouver Olympics into Svencouver after winning the 5000m Speed Skating! 😉

Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code?!?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

I was halfway writing a blogpost to make mention of the fact that it has been exactly one year ago today that Adam Curry recorded his last Daily Source Code, DSC#821. And that it would be great to have the show back, or at least have an anniversary episode…or convert it into something like a YSC, Yearly Source Code! 😉

…it must have been channeled through, since I hear Adam say TODAY that he actually plans to go back into DSC-mode (he mentioned this in the No Agenda #173 podcast of February 11)…well, that is FANTASTIC news!

I am sure that many with me will appreciate the return of the Rachmaninoff intro, Metrosexual moments and other special moments (still giving me a boost of energy!), Red Pill Blue Pill stuff (much of that in the No Agenda show actually, higly recommended if you are interested in an alternative view on the news!!), adventures of the Delta Sierra (the Cesna 172 RT airplane which is up for sale actually!), Trinity (the 1984 yellow Mercedes station wagon running on biodiesel), Charles the drunken Londener, Comic Strip Blogger, Adam’s PCPQ (Prostate Cancer Prevention Quotient), Fubar Friday, Mashups, Jan Polet’s HitTest and more, much more!

So Adam, what’ya say? When can we expect the DSC coming back? Perhaps a DSC#822 today, for old times sake? 😉

QOTD February 15 2010

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Barbara Hall: “Because you are in control of your life. Don’t ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.”

Valentine’s Day Birthdays

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

It seems that Valentine’s Day is a popular day to have a Birthday; 5 out of my 185 Facebook friends have their Birthday on today! Statistically there should be 1 Birthday every two days, so 5 on one single day are a many!

I guess that the love and affection associated with Valentine’s Day has something to do with it? 😉

And for my Norwegian friends; perhaps the celebrations (and drinking) on May 17, the Norwegian Constitution Day, has some effect? After all, May 17 is nine months before February 14! 😉

Frisbee ‘inventor’ dead at 90

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

The father of the Frisbee, Fred Morrison, died last February 9 at the respectable age of 90 years.

The story goes that he got the inspiration for this flying-saucer toy in 1937 at a Thanksgiving feast in Southern California. He and his girlfriend, Lucile “Lu” Nay, entertained themselves by tossing a popcorn-tin lid in the backyard. The lid eventually became dented, ruining its aerodynamic potential, and the resourceful couple snatched a cake pan from Mr. Morrison’s mother’s kitchen.
Cake pans, it turned out, were sturdier and flew better – so much so that one day, when the two were flinging a pan back and forth on the beach, an impressed passerby offered to buy it. The pan had originally cost a nickel, the stranger offered a quarter – and that exchange was enough to whet Mr. Morrison’s entrepreneurial appetite.
“That got the wheels turning,” he told a Norfolk, Va., reporter in 2007. “There was a business.”

Quite some business indeed; who hasn’t thrown a frisbee once at a picnic or on the beach?

Eurovision Song Contest

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The Dutch selected the song to represent NL in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest (held in Norway btw.). Wow, what an amazing song…NOT, aahhhhh!! It is so not my type of music…a terrible song, shitty lyrics,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH8UL62GVSA

A late flight to the homeland

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

And…we’re back in NL again! 😉 This year has been a pretty steady ‘one-trip-a-week-to-NL’, or at least, it feels that way…no complaints though!
For some reason January and February have been like this the last couple of years, you would say I should be used to it by now, eh? 😉

QOTD February 10 2010

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Winston Groom: “My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

The Oslo fjord in wintertime

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

The fog disappeared today and I was able to enjoy the nice view over the Oslo fjord that this hotel is known for. Pretty neat, eh?

Haha, the first to make it across the fjord gets a beer! (besides cold feet and a wet suit!) 😉