Archive for January, 2014

What if animals were round?

Sunday, January 19th, 2014

Wow! Quite an animation, hilarious!! LoL

These are creatures from some common wildlife scenes in the world of “Rollin`Wild”, check out more inflated animals on www.rollin-wild.com.

QOTD January 19 2014

Sunday, January 19th, 2014

Claudia Jewett Jarrett: “It is the caring and sharing that count—-love is not prevented by the things and the time that you haven’t shared.”

QOTD January 18 2014

Saturday, January 18th, 2014

Jean-Paul Sartre: “In love, one and one are one.”

BT Sync brings the DSC back home

Friday, January 17th, 2014

A few days ago Adam Curry tweeted that he was looking for a full archive of mp3’s from the Daily Source Code Podcast (aka ‘DSC’ or Delta Sierra Charlie). It got me to dust off some DVDs on which I burned all (yes, ALL 😉 ) of them! Adam created a BitTorrent Sync Archive and currently all ‘my’ mp3’s are being downloaded and shared by 15-20 DSC fans (if you want in, the BTSync key is B5XIHOVFXGSA2QXS7ED6ONN4KG5JTH6T6). Mind you, the archive is in total well over 31GB (!!), Adam’s dedicated DSC server still has about 1.5GB to go…he he

BitTorrent Sync is THE sharing tool for geeks (and soon for the ‘masses’) these days, it is a private and secure Dropbox alternative (/-killer) which is not only faster, it also doesn’t have the 2GB ‘free’ limitation, no limits on file-sizes or bandwidth and it does not rely on penetrable servers (/NSA spying or other threats), me like! Ha, my upload pipe is smoking hot as it has never been used so intensely as in the past days! 🙂

Oh, and thx for the kindly note Adam…no question that after this early pre-DSC encounter we are DSC-buddies for life! 🙂

QOTD January 17 2014

Friday, January 17th, 2014

Hugh Macleod: “Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it’s primal. Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it’s a primal calling.”

QOTD January 16 2014

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

Lawana Blackwell: “Age is no guarantee of maturity.”

QOTD January 15 2014

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

L. M. Montgomery: “One can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things.”

Smile of the Day: When humor becomes humour

Tuesday, January 14th, 2014

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

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1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

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2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’

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3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

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5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

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6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

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7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

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9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

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11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

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12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

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13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

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14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

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15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

PS: Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (NOT humor)!

 

(via Adam & Steve..hilarious!!)

QOTD January 14 2014

Tuesday, January 14th, 2014

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: “The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.”

2 years electrifying the road

Monday, January 13th, 2014

I am driving my electric car (Nissan LEAF) for two years now and am still a happy camper (well, not so much camping, the car never failed on me 😉 ). By now there are many more car brands with a 100% electric model in their portfolio and though the LEAF is still a frontrunner, I would go for the BMW i3 today, costing about the same. ‘Obviously’ the Tesla Model S would be THE one for me, a stunning design combined with nifty features AND a driving range of 370km or 480km (!) depending on the model. It is unfortunately slightly above my budget…oh well, who knows what future brings; I have a dream… 😉

 

 

QOTD January 13 2014

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Maria Montessori: “Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.”

QOTD January 12 2014

Sunday, January 12th, 2014

Dinah Shore: “Trouble is part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough.”

Heating up the house (for dummies)

Saturday, January 11th, 2014

Finally…finally…winter seems to be on its way here in Norway!

The outside temperature took a dive and went down to a whopping -8C today (still ‘warm’ for the time of year though 😉 ), and the weather forecast shows that it will be between -6C and -10C the whole coming week. All ‘we’ need now is more snow (much, much more than the lousy 3cm that came in this morning…) and an additional 10C colder temperatures (somewhere between -15C and -25C seems to be right for January, brrrr!).

The cold outside goes hand in hand with the need to heat up the house; watch the YouTube video below and learn how to do this very efficiently (and cheap!)…I will try it out the moment I find the correct flower pots (and will delete this post if it doesn’t work hahaha!).

Watch and learn y’all, watch and learn… 😉

 

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

QOTD January 11 2014

Saturday, January 11th, 2014

Sophy Burnham: “To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information within. With our own eyes we see, and with our own skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself.”

How do YOU define yourself?

Friday, January 10th, 2014

This is an amazing story by Lizzie Velasquez at a TEDx Talk in Austin, watch it and be inspired!

No matter what shit life seems to give you; live your dream! Even though things might look dark and difficult at one point, there is always a way to turn things around if you put your energy at it!

“In a time when beauty is defined by supermodels, success is defined by wealth, and fame is deified by how many followers you have on social media, Lizzie Velasquez asks the question how do you define yourself? Once labeled, “The Worlds Ugliest Woman,” Lizzie decided to turn things around and create her own definitions of what she defines as beauty and happiness.”

QOTD January 10 2014

Friday, January 10th, 2014

Muriel Spark: “Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.”

Norway Rulez!!

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

huffingtonpost.com: “Norway is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It’s home to more natural wonders than we can count and it has stunning cities, fascinating history and really happy people…25 Reasons Norway Is The Greatest Place On Earth!”

Added to that; as of yesterday, everyone in Norway became a theoretical millionaire (in NOK), yayyy! 🙂

So, the 25 reasons became 26, they are:

1. It’s actually one of the happiest places on Earth.

2. It’s really safe.

3. There’s a law called “allemannsrett.”

4. Trolltunga is the perfect photo op.

5. So is Kjeragbolten.

6. Even urban spaces are lush.

7. Fredrikstad Fortress is an ancient wonderland.

8. Fjords.

9. Norway produced this beauty…

10. There are adorable fisherman’s cabins.

11. See the midnight sun.

12. It’s regarded as the birthplace of skiing.

13. It has more lakes than Finland aka “The Land of 1,000 Lakes.”

14. Hornindalsvatnet is the deepest lake in Europe.

15. Norway also boasts the world’s longest tunnel.

16. This view from the top of Mount Fløyen in Bergen.

17. You can see the Northern Lights.

18. Two words: Wild. Reindeer.

19. Two more words: polar bears!

20. The national drink is Aquavit.

21. You can ski in the middle of the summer.

22. Aalesund is gorgeous by day…

23. And by night.

24. Ferrying through Geirangerfjord is breathtaking.

25. Norway has some 50,000 islands and a coastline that stretches over 51,600 miles.

26 And finally, we are all millionaires!

QOTD January 9 2014

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

Steven Wright: “Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it”

A new suitcase (or two) a year

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

My ‘Year in flights‘ blogpost showed that I am, despite my sabbatical, still flying a lot which is probably one of the reasons that I cannot ‘attach’ myself too much to a suitcase; experience tells me that a suitcase is with me for about a year or so before breaking apart (=torn apart by the airlines’ bagage handling ‘services’ as their bagage rules (max. 23kg) make it virtually impossible to overload and by that break a suitcase… 😉 ).

So, last year was no different and I got my first new/replacement suitcase in March, thank you KLM! 😉

Today I pick up another one (replacing the one I lost end last year)…I wonder how long they will last… 😉

 

QOTD January 8 2014

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014

Max Frisch: “Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.”