Su Doku!

This clever Japanese game is just brilliant! The idea is that numbers from 1 to 9 is to be placed once in each row and column, and only once in each box (marked with the thicker black lines). some problems are difficult, others quite easy. The origin is as mentioned Japan, where the written alphabet is difficult to make crosswords with. Therefore, games such as Su Doku, which use numbers, are very popular.




Warning! Very addictive game!

The Norwegian Newspaper Bergens Tidende has a Su Doku generator, where you can choose easy, medium or difficult and play for ever! Here's the link: Su Doku
Yesterday evening, Ragnvald, Tommy, Anna, Håvard, Guro and myself consumed extreme amounts of cheese, crackers and red wine. Great evening! I'm sure Ragnvald will publish pictures in his blog eventually.



Other cheese lovers

Here's one for the ladies...

A friend of mine is arranging poker nights once in a while where we drink beer and other beverages, smoke cigars and play serious Texas Hold'em poker. This picture is from a session this winter, where the six of us agreed to create the perfect poker mood.



I just got it on mail from Thomas. The others are (from left) Henry, Kjetil, Ragnvald, Tommy and yours truly. A great evening. I believe the night ended with Henry and me playing Caribbean Poker, drunk and tired, 5 in the morning. Perfect! Yesterday I saw amongst others Tom McRae at the Rockfest festival in Haugesund. As always, a brilliant performance! Today, Turbonegro awaits. In addition, I'll try to see concerts with We, Jackman and Low Frequency in Stereo. Brilliant!

Enlightenment:

Ragnvald's last message for the night:

F! Det va knalla i kveld! Lika billigu då byn om då gjenn! ;-) Ha en fotbt god natt?5 lød nakke!

Well, you have a lød nakke yourself, Ragnvald! I just felt this summed up our evening... Fotbt natt!

Celebrating Ragnvald!

It's 2.21 AM, and I've been out celebrating Ragnvald's Master thesis... Here's a drunk surrealistic poetry, as I've promised:

It's raining, and my wheelchair is broken down.
Why, you say? That is beyond my reasonable eyes.
The flies are busy annoying me.
The dawn is reflecting my car's ears.
How can bumblebees fly?
Beats me, the blind lady foresaw.

OK, that must be an all time low... Thank you Ragnvald, for pushing me this far.. How can I look in the mirror and face myself now? Damn... Well, good night everybody!

A "summer" update

Hi, y'all! I've just received my final exam result, in advanced math and optimization. I got a B, and that was all I needed! :D So now I can continue to enjoy the rainy summer days in Haugesund. I got sunburnt yesterday, not bad for a rainy day... I have some "best-of-lucking" to do, here goes:

Best of luck to:

- Ragnvald, who is just about finished with his Master thesis. I look forward to celebrating!
- Karl Kristian, who has just started his prosperous future as a assistant at the developement division at ABB in Bryne.
- Håkon, who is about to finish his Master thesis and move back to Somewhere, Norway.
- Everybody else I know, who have two great summer months ahead!

My plan for the week now is continuing the refurbishing of Casa del Risøy, first of all. In addition, I'll celebrate with Ragnvald on Wednesday. This weekend, Rockfest will provide inhabitants in Haugesund with brilliant music, manifested mainly by Turbonegro and Tom McRae. However, local hotshots Haugesund Popensemble will also supply me with great music! I have a gut feeling I won't be in such good shape on Sunday... Information about the festival is available here.




Picture from one of Turbonegro's concerts... No, you're wrong! Hank Von Helvete is the left one! Explanation: one of Turbonegro's new songs are "All my friends are dead". Say no more...

US National Debt

If you have trouble coping with your debt, I suggest you take a look at the United States national debt clock. This page updates you on the latest movements of the US Debt. And I tell you, your own loans will look puny and neglectible after this. When I last checked, the US debt was $7,791,876,781,898.34... My 240,000 NOK study loan seems very small now!

Other: I enjoy calm days in Haugesund, before the refurbishment marathon starts...

Good morning, good day and goodbye!

The headline is a modified version of a phrase in "The Truman Show". It's 8.45 and I'm starting to pack. Today I'm moving from Gyldenpris, and the last visit here for the summer is tomorrow, when I'm due to deliver the keys and hand over my room to the Student Welfare Administration. I just want to write this post to thank everyone in Bergen who has made the last year a great one!
I'll miss you all! And don't forget, we'll meet again!

Music for the day:

Johnny Cash: We'll meet again from American IV: The Man comes around (originally Marlene Dietrich, isn't it?)
The Clash: London Calling from London Calling...

Have a GREAT summer!

News flash!

Dagbladet has now changed the article. Strangely enough the storage area has changed to about 46 000 square meters. Also, the military spokesperson's estimate has changed from 12 to 6 soccer fields...
Congratulations, Dagbladet! I wonder how they choose their sources...

Brilliant mathematics, Dagbladet!

One of Norway's largest newspapers, Dagbladet, is printing an article in the web edition of the newspaper about a new weapons cache in Fallujah, Iraq. (Here's a link to the article)
The cache was found in an underground complex, and is of course a nice catch. What's really disturbing me is the mathematics perfomed by the journalist in the article. The ingress states that the room was 4,7 square kilometers. An incredible size, I thought, and contiuned the reading. In the actual article, the numbers are 170 * 275 meters. This equals 46 750 square meters.. And I must state: that is not NEAR 4,7 square kilometers! Actually, the Vatican State is about 0,44 square kilometers, And I cannot imagine an underground room ten times the Vatican State...
Also, a military spokesperson says the complex is the size of 12 soccer fields. OK... One international soccer field is approximately 100-110m long and 64-75m wide. Let's say an average field is 100 * 70 meters. Then 12 fields are 84 000 square meters. This makes sence, because the cache was in part of the complex.


An presumably anonymous worker collects another PG-7 Launcher. According to the journalist, the man was a giant, exceeding 25 meters...


The conclusion: In addition to firing 25 % of the newspaper staff, the remaining 75 % should get a 9th grade math course...

Summer!

I have made my decision. There's no point in taking the final exam, as I already have secured a place at Cass and my bachelor degree is completed. That thought kind of killed what whas left of my motivation, along with the fact that 150 pages of European Competition Law was crucial to do well on the exam... And besides, I can't wait to get started with our new house!
So that actually means: I'm through, the summer vacation has started! Weeee!! Best of luck to all of you who aren't done yet!

Murphy's law

1. When you choose the register queue in a grocery store, you will always pick the slowest one.
2. If you end up behind an old lady in the same queue, she will without a shadow of a doubt pay in the smallest change available. If you're really lucky, she won't have enough money either...

Today I ended up behind a woman who couldn't decide how to exchange her 100 NOK lottery price into new coupons. I think she spent 15 minutes. How very entertaining..

Other news: Karl Kristian and I saw a sick film this evening. Battle Royale. I'm actually not sure what the morale in the film was, but it was quite gory.. Hope I'll be able to sleep.

Competition Policy and other events

I have spent the last 3 hours calculating consumer surplus, total welfare and profits in an intricate model, which means a lot of boring (although easy) math. Then I started thinking... (About time!) We won't get such intricate models on the three hour exam, so why bother spending extremely much time with this particular part of the curriculum? Good point, Anders.. "And now, to something completely different!"
A good friend of mine, Toralf, is finally through with his Master's Degree in History (I am certain he'll comment this post and correct me if I'm wrong!) and is presenting / defending his thesis on Tuesday. After that, he'll pack his bags and head off to his new job. But unlike other historians he's not becoming teacher. (at least not yet..) No, Toralf had other plans... He's starting his new job in July as a maintenance supervisor at The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington.


Toralf's new working environment...

Nice one, Toralf! Here, his job will be to keep the embassy shipshape. Of course he will have his own 90 m2 (Look, I'm learning!) flat. Toralf is a very intelligent young man and should have no problems adapting to the diplomatic environment. In time, he is bound to end up in the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry.. I can't wait to come over for a visit and play croquet with him and Dick Cheney in the embassy garden! I hereby challenge you both!


I can see my croquet winning chances are small since Dickie's got a very powerful boss..


If your reading this, Your Excellency Vollebæk: Good choice!


His Excellency with wife when Toralf decided to accept the job offer. (thank God for people with camera phones!)

And best of luck, Toralf! I have trouble finding a good expression for your qualification level(as you are both under- and overqualified). How about quasiqualified? :)

"Welcome to my life, tattoo!" - Sindre, 2005

Sindre, my sister's fiancé, got a new tattoo today. So did my sister, Camilla, but I don't have a picture to display so I'll leave that one for now... Sindre, on the other hand, sent me the picture from his cell phone. They actually went to Denmark to get tattooed, so my first guess was an anchor tattoo or a heart with "mom" inscribed...
Fortunately that was not what happened. Thanks to modern technology I'm able to present you the picture here. Enjoy!



Nice work, and congratulations, Sindre! Camilla: I expect you to mail me the pic of your new tattoo soon!

Music suggestions:

Fountains of Wayne: Red Dragon Tattoo, Utopia Parkway
The Who: Tattoo, Sell Out / Live at Leeds (a classic, the live concert rocks!)
Rolling Stones: Congratulations... :D

Språkskifte!

Etter å ha holdt et lite øye med Nedstat på siden min, som registrerer antall hits per dag og hvor disse kommer fra, har jeg funnet ut at det faktisk er folk inne på siden min fra De Forente Arabiske Emirater, Nederland, Indonesia, Storbritannia, USA, Danmark (hei, Håkon og Maria...), Japan og mange flere. Med mindre dette er nordmenn i eksil eller medlemmer av den eksklusive gruppen "Utlendinger som forstår norsk" (inkluderer ikke svensker), kan jeg ikke skjønne underholdningsverdien av siden min.
Uansett skal jeg jo flytte til London i høst, og kan sikkert ha bruk for å trene meg i å skrive på engelsk. Så, what the heck! Fra i morgen av skriver jeg på engelsk! Takk til Ragnvald for inspirasjon i så måte!
Nå venter en haug med konkurransepolitikk-jobbing. Til rette vedkommende i Ferkingstad & Alsaker: Visning kan påregnes i midten / slutten av juni. Ta med malekost og godt humør!

Dagens musikktips: I dag slår jeg til med to anbefalinger, begge norske:

Datarock: Fa-fa-fa, Datarock Datarock
Hopalong Knut: Suppe, tror den er fra albumet som er i salg nå

Boblere:

The Decemberists: My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist, 5 Songs
Groove Armada: But I Feel Good, Love Box
Tom McRae: How The West Was Won, All Maps Welcome
Mando Diao: God Knows, Hurricane Bar
Motorpsycho: California Dreaming, 8 Soothing Songs for Ruth

Tanneksorsisten slår til igjen!

En eksorsist er en djevelutdriver, så jeg tar meg den frihet å omdøpe tannlegeyrket i denne sammenhengen. For i dag fjernet jeg min andre visdomstann. Den hadde aldri sett dagens lys, men ble fjernet fra tannkjøttets mulm og mørke etter forsiktig lirking i en halvtimes tid. I tillegg fikk jeg krone på tanna som jeg rotfylte i høst.
Tannlegebesøket i dag var egentlig veldig merkelig. Jeg hadde ikke med meg mobiltelefonen, og fikk dermed ikke beskjed om at det var forsinkelser på opptil en time før jeg ankom kontoret. Når det endelig var min tur til å sette seg i stolen, fikk jeg en saftig mengde bedøvelse. Det tar imidlertid en stund for denne bedøvelsen å virke, så tannlegen satte på litt kaffe. Så der satt vi da, tannlegen og jeg. med hver vår kaffekopp, han med matpakke og jeg med en mer og mer nummen munn. DET kaller jeg service! Satt forøvrig totalt to og en halv time i stolen.
I skrivende stund er formen bra, jeg antar det kommer til å være litt ømt og sårt i bakre del av tanngarden noen dager, men jeg er ved godt mot! Vil forøvrig sende min dypeste medfølelse til Marte, som spjæret yndlingsbuksa si i går.

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

NERVER

I skrivende stund er klokken 07:53. Jeg har allerede sjekket studentportalen 3 ganger. Dette kan definitivt bli en lang dag... Men for å lyse opp dagen litt: Egg og bacon til frokost! Ha det gunstig!