Archive for the ‘Blog Entries’ Category

Isn’t it ironic…

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014

Besides a great song by Alanis Morissette, Ironic is also what some photographs, photos of situations that are a pure fail in themselves and by that hilarious.

Check ‘m out here, actually some are so ironic that it is hard to believe that they were completely unplanned. 🙂

 

From today I am the answer…

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

From today I am the answer to The Utimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything; the answer is calculated in exactly 7.5 million years by supercomputer Deep Thought and turns out to be my age as of today: 42!

The Ultimate Question is not known, though apparently we are all part of the calculation of it; a supercomputer called ‘Earth’ was designed to calculate the Ultimate Question in 10 million years and Life itself forms part of its operational matrix…

(from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, recommended! 🙂 )

 

So, from today you just ask me and I will be your answer! 🙂

 

 

Marching Moon Walk

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

Half a year ago the Ohio State Marching Band celebrated the 25 year anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s album ‘Bad‘. If you have the time, watch the full video at the bottom, it is worth it! If you want to settle for less 🙂 , the following clip shows the best part of the show; an amazing tribute to Michael Jackson’s Moon Walk…fan-friggin-tastic!!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdaOf3AVvJk

 

The full show:

Happy Easter!

Sunday, April 20th, 2014

Happy Easter y’all!! 🙂

 

Safety Instructions

Saturday, April 19th, 2014

I flew back to NL today and had a chance to enjoy the standard safety drill that the flight crew provides.
A pretty boring and routine experience…unfortunately not as entertaining as the one provided by the South West purser below…LoL 🙂

Cutting wood

Friday, April 18th, 2014

Living in Norway, wood plays an important role; most houses (except those in the main cities) are made of wood, and fireplaces use wood to heat up the house during the cold winter months. Besides that, there are a shitload of trees in this country, making nature here an absolutely stunning experience! If I would have the time and the talent, I would chop down one of those trees and start wood carving…why? Well, why not? The result can be amaaaazing!!

I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so the picture below is just the start (‘the’ tree), just click this link for the full article and let yourself be surprised with the end result…WoW!

Viralnova.com: “One tree, four years of work and an indescribable amount of talent: that’s what it took to create this incredible masterpiece. A famous Chinese wood carver chopped down a single tree and tirelessly worked on it for over four years to make this piece. Your jaw will hit the floor when you see what he created.”



Smile of the Day: Creating a Password

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Creating an acceptable password can be quite frustrating; trying over and over again, and if you’re unlucky you have to re-enter most other details too, pffffff!

ROTFLMAO! 🙂

 

2.5 minutes

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

When I was young I often played the ‘game’ of holding my breath for as long as I could (not to be confused with the Choking game, in which one intentionally cuts off oxygen to the brain with the goal to faint/pass out, uhhh WTF?!).

From what I remember I could easily do one minute, but hardly managed to reach two minutes. This week, yeeeeeeeaaaaars later 🙂 , I tried it again with a surprising result; 2.5 minutes!! It was just a dry-run without any ‘practice’ and it felt as if I still could go on for some time, huh?! I actually didn’t dare to hold my breath any longer as I expected that I could harm myself (O2 is kind of important eh 🙂 )…I did some more reading on the topic and I believe it should be fine for sub-5 minute times; the current world record is 11m35s (and 22m32s when pre-breathing 100% oxygen…via WikiPedia).

The most dangerous problem with breath holding is (surprisingly?) not related to oxygen (your body has plenty of that in reserve), but related to the buildup of carbon dioxide which acidifies the blood, and THAT is an issue (understatement 🙂 )…I guess I should not take this ‘game’ too lightly, though some controlled training techniques and safety precautions should make it possible to increase the amount of time I can go without breathing… 🙂

How long can you hold your breath???

Sugar Hill Gang – Rapper’s Delight (Tonight Show version)

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

One of the best rap songs of all time, Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang, got a makeover done by the crew from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. A years worth of footage of NBC anchor Brians Williams comes together better than you might think…(OMG, can you imagine being assigned to make this clip?? 🙂 )

Back in 2009 I posted an alternative version, for all of you who enjoy rollerskating babies! 🙂

And, if you want to hear the full – close to 15 minute (!) – version; check out my post from November 2008 (way before I tagged these kind of posts ‘Song of the Day’ which it obviously was 🙂 )

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YCeIgt7hMs

Dutch Club Oslo, finally

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

For some time now my dutch friends in Norway asked me to come to the monthly gathering of the Dutch Club Oslo (Nederlandse Club Oslo) and for the past two years I unfortunately have not been able to come; I either was not in Norway, OR Misha was with me and even though he is a big boy now, I obviously stay home when he is here. 🙂 Today both of those reasons were not there so I was able to meet fellow cheese heads! Nice talks with loads of new people to get to know better…so, see y’all new month! 🙂

Smile of the Day: What’s wrong with my brain

Monday, March 31st, 2014

I always like to play with words, this one is a nice example…LoL!

 

 

And yes, I like this one too! 🙂

 

Thunderstruck – the Cello version

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

Well, well, one would never expect *this* kind of performance when going to a ‘classical’ cello concert eh?

Ha, it’s a classic…I just can see Angus Young duckwalking the stage, I love it! LoL

 

Misha 2.5 years!

Saturday, March 29th, 2014

Although Misha is enjoying the lovely spring weather in NL at the moment, we had a lot of fun in the past weeks enjoying the woods in the ‘snow-is-melting-so-no-more-winter-wonderland’ at home in Norway.

Happy as always, my angel turned 2.5 years today, wow!! Time *is* flying…waaayyyy too fast!!!

 

X5 for sale

Friday, March 28th, 2014

After three fabulous years with a lot of driving fun it is time to sell the BMW X5. He he, having two cars is a bit overkill for a guy without a job, eh? 🙂 And I am actually using my (electric) LEAF a lot more than the X5, there are just too many benefits; no toll, allowed to use the bus/taxi lanes, free parking in Oslo, and oh yes, greennnnn driving. 🙂

The X5 is in 100% condition and cleaner than ever (outside and inside); actually a pity to sell it! Oh well 🙂

Check it out! (and share)

 

Overthinking and how to stop it

Thursday, March 27th, 2014

We (or at least most of us 🙂 ) are gifted with the ability to *think*…to think things through is both a bliss as well as a necessity to survive and evolve.

Interestingly enough, while thinking is very important there is also a catch; thinking too much. Overthinking causes the good things to go wrong, has non-issues become priorities and makes people come to a stand still in life. Luckily there are 9 Simple Habits to Stop Overthinking Everything (from Henrik Edberg / positivityblog.com). When you go through them you will notice it ain’t so hard to avoid overthinking! 🙂

Oh, I added a 10th habit: Think with your Heart!

  1. Put things into a wider perspective.
  2. Set short time-limits for decisions.
  3. Become a person of action.
  4. Realize that you cannot control everything.
  5. Say stop in situation where you know you cannot think straight.
  6. Do not get lost in vague fears.
  7. Work out.
  8. Spend more of your time in the present moment.
  9. Spend more of your time with people who do not overthink things.
  10. Think with your Heart

(read the entire article for more details)

Find the black dot…

Monday, March 24th, 2014

OK, here is one that will  have your eyes blown up from the inside or at least make you go crazy and run in circles; this one is not for the faint at heart! 🙂

Find the black dot in the image below……hey *there* it is, euhh or no it ain’t…optical illusions at work here! 🙂

 

Sun causing confusion…

Friday, March 21st, 2014

Today marks the first day of Spring, it is March 21 right? Well not quite; Spring actually started yesterday which has to do with the moment that the sun ‘reached’ the equator on its way North. This phenomenon is called Vernal equinox, you can read more on this in my blogpost from a couple of years ago.

Pretty confusing as we have been told from our youth that Spring starts on March 21…well, fasten your seat belts, there is more sun-related confusion…read on!

We are all born with a certain zodiac sign, right? This sign is determined by the constellation the sun was ‘in’ on the day you are born. The initial zodiac signs were based on the positions of constellations relative to the calendar, as observed by the Babylonians, but…they no longer correspond to the dates they appear today! (This is due to the moon’s gravitational pull in the past millenniums, the Earth ‘wobbling’ around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars’ alignment).

This effectively means that the correct signs of the Zodiac are:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.  (Yeah, this one is new — read all about the Ophiuchus way of life here)
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

Uhhhh…WTF?!? Uhh, is *that* the reason that most of my horoscopes have been plain wrong?? 🙂

Well, no need to panic!!

First read the ‘no your zodiac sign hasn’t changed’ article which explains that while this zodiac sign-change *is* true, it only affects the sidereal zodiac (which is fixed to constellations and is followed more in the East). The western astrology uses the so-called tropical zodiac (based on seasons) and that means that your zodiac sign did not change…pfewwwww! 🙂

International Day of Happiness 2014

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

Are you happy today?? If so; GOOD! If not, you *should* because today, March 20, is the United Nations‘ International Day of Happiness! 🙂

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “Happiness may have different meanings for different people. But we can all agree that it means working to end conflict, poverty and other unfortunate conditions in which so many of our fellow human beings live.”

A nice thought, but I’d rather keep it simple and start with a smile…a smile to the people around me which will make the happy energy flowing around! If everyone would do that, and not just today, then *everyday* will become a happy day! 🙂

Here is a song to get you started, it is THE perfect happy song for a day like this: Bobby McFerrin with Don’t Worry, Be Happy…guaranteed to put a smile on your face! 🙂

 

Turning a (huge) Profit

Wednesday, March 19th, 2014

Everyone is aware of the extreme profitability of Apple and other Tech Companies (slightly less, but still very profitable). To put things in perspective, WorldPay created a website with an animation that shows how quickly the top tech companies generate their revenue and profits…it puts things into perspective eh?

The screenshot below was taken after just 3 seconds and while Samsung has the biggest revenue, Apple puts all the other tech ‘giants’ to shame when it comes to actual profit; a stunning $4000 in 3 seconds, (accumulating to $1,000,000 in just 14 minutes and 11 seconds!!)…Apple’s profit is bigger than the combined revenue of Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo and LinkedIn, WoW!

Give it a try yourself (click the play button) and see how long you can stand watching all that money pile up. 🙂

 

I can’t believe we made it!

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

For all of ‘us’ who are born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, or early 80s; CONGRATULATIONS, you made it!

You made it, *despite* the challenges put on us by the living standards of those years which, according to todays regulators and bureaucrats, are supposed to be life threatening and therefore totally unacceptable…uhhh?!? Well, I’d rather like to say; You made it, *thanks to* the challenges put on us by the living standards of those years! He he, I am pretty sure you know what I mean… 🙂

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWRdHXbTmrs