Winter?

The weather is something we cannot change, but still we discuss it every day. And in our modern times it really doesn't affect us much, does it? I mean. The only difference in my day if the weather is freezing instead of warm is the clothes I put on. What's the rush? Is it because we don't have anything else to talk about, an icebreaker? Or am I wrong, it does affect us all. Naturally a storm will change our behaviour to some extent, but it is temporarly and not that big a deal! Of course, hurricanes, tsunamis and other extreme weather conditions have a huge impact on people's lives, but they are rare.
As I come to think of it, shipping is a weather-dependent business, and I suppose agriculture is as well... So that will probably mean that people working in shipping or agriculture will be very concerned about the weather. As I come to think even more about it, the theory of trading with weather options are becoming more and more central as well... Think about it. Hedging against weather risk! The one who came up with that one must be one clever person!
Hmmm... I now face two choices: To edit the entire post and pretend that I always have thought of weather as the thing that moves our world, or to leave the post as it is. I think I'll choose the latter (otherwise you wouldn't have known. Or would you? Sorry, I won't get metaphysical here...) At least this proves that my brain functions to SOME extent at 1.30 AM...



"No way I'm stopping to ask for directions. The last time I did that, I lost all my reindeers in poker!"

I will take this opportunity to wish all my relatives, friends and people I don't know a brilliant Christmas, and an even better New Year! You're all great! I won't mention ANY names, because I would be guaranteed to forget someone... You know who you are! And Elisabeth, your present is behind this link. No sneak peeks! ;)

Home, sweet home!

After a quite fascinating night in London after the final exam, I'm back home in Haugesund. Directly after the last exam we all rushed down to All Bar One to remove all sensible thoughts from our heads.



Amer, Kyriacos and Fredrik seems quite happy..

I think we stayed there from 12.30 PM to 8 PM. Then I figured out I needed a rest, so I went back home to Francis Rowley to take a power-nap. 10 PM I woke up, half confused, half drunk. I phoned Robert, and found out they were on their way to Hilton Park Lane. So I grabbed a cab and hit the road. The place was called Zeta, and it has been written about it:

In its chic Park Lane location, Zeta bar is one of London's most stylish bars. Famous for its classic contemporary cocktails and exquisite bar-bites, its Feng Shui decor, neutral shades and materials, Zeta Bar is amongst the trendiest nights out in London.

We were all having a great time, I look forward seeing all you guys after christmas! I went to bed around 5 AM, after a shabby hamburger and banana milkshake at Tinseltown. Big mistake...
9 in the morning I had to rise and shine, fresh and ready to take the Stansted Express and finally Ryan Air flight 2254 to Haugesund. That was without a shadow of a doubt my worst flight ever...
So here I am in Haugesund, and it finally dawns for me that christmas is approaching! In 20 minutes I'll go out to play Snooker with Kjetil. That's gonna be great, for some reason I haven't played in England. I really have to find someone to play snooker with there. Robert is a self declared Snooker/Pool disaster, so that's one down. Anyone volunteering? :)

Thank you, SV!

SV (The Socialist Left Party in Norway) is one of the parties in the Government Coalition in Norway for the next four years. The good thing is that I'll be away from Norway in one of them. The bad thing is that I will be in Norway when the effect of their politics (or lack of ANY effect, due to the fact that the government parties hardly agree on anything...) occur. And as you might have guessed, the headline is PURELY sarcastic. In Norway we have a limit on how much you can import to Norway (such as internet-shopping) without having to pay a tax on it. This limit is today 200 NOK, or about €25, £18 or $30. Actually, this limit hasn't been adjusted for changes in the consumer price index since 1975. Using the internet pages for Statistics Norway, a huge statistical database on mostly Norwegian data, I found a calculator here and I checked how much 200 NOK in 1975 would be today, price index adjusted. The answer was 865.67 NOK... or €108, £76 or $130. But Norwegian merchants selling items above this rate are thrilled! Mainly because this makes them "competitive". Sure. Great. I am truly impressed on how they try to keep their puny protection barriers... What REALLY happens is that if you buy a couple of CDs from US or UK, they usually ship them to you in separate packages. The reason why I'm pretty much annoyed at SV is that they turned around and decided to vote AGAINST the increase of the toll-free level to 1000 NOK. Hello, stupid!
The worst blow to the WTO negotiations is that Norwegian farmers, along with farmers from other developed countries such as France, US and UK, lobby like hell to keep the toll barriers and even get subsidized within them. That means that the poor countries cannot export their goods, which often are produced much cheaper than in the developed countries, subsidies aside. The result? Basically, they tend to stay poor. And by that requiring more financial aid. THAT is why the poor countries scream out for TRADE, not AID.
I've spent 20-30 minutes now to read some of the dreams SV have in building a better society. And I must admit. It sounds nice, some of it. But the problems are amongst others:

1) I see a lot of proposed projects, but read little about how on earth these projects could be financed. Example: Maximum 15 pupils per teacher. Sure. So what's the plan? Half the wages?

2) Read this extract about maritime transportation: SV will work through international forums to abolish the international competition on tax levels. Tax havens should not be considered legal registration for airplanes or ships that arrive in Norway. SV will also work for this principle to be adopted internationally. Right... Don't let those bad persons get their dirty ships/airplanes NEAR Norway. I'm sure the size and significance of Norway will have this matter sorted out in a year or so. In short, it's bollocks!

3) VERY strong governmental ownership, strict conditions to prevent all the evil "factory owners" to exploit the poor Norwegian population. Sure, that will do the trick for future investments in Norway. Face it, we're not that bad off with "international conditions"...

4) In fact Audun Lysbakken, one of the top men in the party, have decleared that he wants to abolish the Norwegian Stock Exchange and the concept of private property. Riiight...

No, I have to stop now. I have an exam in 8 hours, got to get some sleep.

One down, two to go!

Ah, finally the exam period has started. By finally I don't mean that I like the exams. It's more like an appreciation of the fact that there's an end to it, and that it's up to me to perform in the last days of the semester. I did well today, I think. Got the questions I wanted, and was able to answer them properly. I had much more to communicate than I was able to during the two hour exam. The time pressure was really present, and for the first time in my academic career I stayed put until the exam finished. I guess there's a first time for everything.
After the exam we had a good lunch at Digress, a nice place near the school. Then we moved on to exam two. Managerial Accounting. In fact, we worked on that one for five hours today, which I am sure will prove to be more than sufficient. We have all day tomorrow as well, and it isn't THAT complicated. Robert and I found time to watch the game between Tottenham and Portsmouth at Hog's Head. Two beers were kind enough to join us... I am really exhausted now, but I always am after an exam so I guess the situation is normal. Four more days, and the Christmas holiday will have started!
Tomorrow I'll start studying Managerial Accounting at 9 AM, it's really not that bad a life I live here! :D Yesterday I received the trade directory for The Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce for 2006. And which name did I find under "Young Professionals"? No, except Harald Helgesen and Robert Andre Jensen! That's right. ME! :) I'm not sure which category I belong in, young or professional. Who cares?
Oh, I just remembered that I haven't opened the Pondus calendar today! Let's see.. Yes, a chocolate! Now I can go to bed and sleep like a child. Oh, by the way! For those of you who think I might be in some kind of danger regarding the explosion at Hertfordshire oil depot. Don't worry! I actually heard the explosion, but was to sleepy to pay attention to it. For some reason I think that pictures of fires look really nice. Here's one from the depot:



"I told you that nuke wouldn't remove the sun!"



The view from London eye became a bit limited...



UK/EU suddenly had huge problems facing their Kyoto obligations...

International Economics

Well, well, well... I'll take five minutes off to write a little post here. "It's late in the day" as Supergrass would have said it. Tomorrow is the term's first of the last exams. That's right. I've filled this weekend with the Heckscher-Ohlin model, gains from trade, factor equalization theorem, foreign exchange markets, purchase power parity, not to mention uncovered interest parity along with the elasticity and absorption approach to how a country will do after a devaluation/depreciation.
In 12 hours, I'll be sitting there. Sweating. Writing. Cursing the clock that seems to gain speed every second. Tick tack. Tick tack.
So how will this go, you might wonder. Well, the point is that I am gambling. Or maybe not. Let's just say I've got a hunch, and that Joakim and I have gained excessive experience in interpreting signals from teachers, hunches and last but least: previous exams. The concept of an exam is actually a bit fascinating. During a very little period of time you are to be tested in a small part of the curriculum. Exactly. The same curriculum that you've spent a lot of time with, and which comprises numerous subjects you'll never be tested in. It's like betting. The more combinations you pick, the larger the cost (in this case: time). I think I have placed a medium bet, and like every other gambler I pray for maximum return! :D
If anything, this post haven't excactly reduced my exam fever... But I am still amazed by the body's reaction. The closer I get to the exam, the more my brain sharpens, and the clearer I understand and percept the curriculum. Like a survival instinct... Except that this is not a matter of life and death. Luckily my brain and genes still think it is.

Another week is passing...

I'm looking at our timetable, and suddenly it strikes me: We haven't got any more lectures in the autumn term. The only thing remaining now before our well deserved (?) Christmas holiday is 3 exams, endless hours of frenetic reading, and not to forget: A BIG party on Friday 16th to conclude the semester. But hey, who are we kidding? We have three exams next week, but this semester has comprised of 5 courses... Oh yeah.. 2 more exams to come in January. Well, those will have to wait at the moment. Monday kicks off with International Economics, a subject where I at the moment are at a 50 % level. Or maybe less. That may not be too bad, considering the fact that the lecturer never has given more than 76 % on an exam. This was a subject I heavily discussed with him over countless glasses of red wine on this Wednesday.. I am uncertain of my impact, time will show!
On Wednesday 14th we'll have a last look at Managerial Accounting, with the second invigilated test. I received the result of the first one now on Thursday. to get a distinction in a subject, 70 % on average is required. I got 90 on the first (Yeah!), so simple math tell me I only need 50 % to get a distinction. Sounds to me like bad motivation, too passive! I go for gold! Or as Leif put it: (he got 92, the clever bastard...) "Hey, I only need 8 % on he second one to pass..." (As you may have guessed, there's a 50% limit).
Friday conlcudes the exam week with Quantitative Methods, a subject which comprises Statistics, general Mathematical Economics and Econometrics. Definitely not an easy one, but I think I will do well. ("I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please help me Superman." Homer Simpson)



You can always tell when working in groups are becoming less productive...

Today we had our last lecture in Managerial Accounting and Quantitative Methods. What still amazes me is the lack of strategical thinking sometimes. The student golden rule is very simple: "In the last, exam-preparing (and hopefully revealing) lecture, SHUT UP AND LISTEN!" This seems difficult to understand, as selected members of the class seems to be blabbering endlessly! It's annoying enough in a "standard" lecture, but in the last one?! And also, Knut mentioned an expression I haven't heard in a long time: "Don't fight the setting!" And he's absolutely right. In the military this is a smart thing to bear in mind to "survive". Using energy on things you cannot change only results in irritated superiors. Equally, complaining about the amount of questions on the exam, not enough time, difficult tasks etc. is really not that smart. In a worst case scenario the lecturer might actually alter the exam to be worse. Clever? NOPE!
Ah, good to get that one off my chest. Maybe it's just the stress before the exams, I don't know. And I really shouldn't complain. One in my class is right now at the hospital, probably next to his wife as she's giving birth to their first child! I wish them all the best! And it kinda puts things into perspective. An exam, a challenge? COME ON!
I suppose I should focus on my International Economics lecture notes now... I know myself enough to tell when I should stop looking into the computer screen and start studying again. As Christmas is approaching rapidly, I thought it might be appropriate to end this post with a little George W. Bush humour..

Sign of life

It's midnight, and Francis Rowley Court is disturbingly quiet. The main reason must be the exam period which is sneaking up on us nowadays. Yesterday, Knut, Leif Olav, Robert and I sat in our kitchen at Francis Rowley Court reading Quantitative Methods. Nice picture of Knut below. He was so frustrated he pulled up his glowing fist...



I sit in my room, trying to decide which tie to wear tomorrow. Today was the first day of the Biennial meeting, a conference arranged every two years (thus called biennial) by our Professor Costas Grammenos. The meeting this year comprise of subjects such as International Economics, Financial Markets, Shipping and Energy, and several prominent personalities are speakers and invited delegates (no, I don't look at myself as a prominent...). For instance, The Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, a number of ambassadors, assisant to the Oil Minister of Iraq and retired Lord Mayors from City are present. The location of the meeting is the IMO headquarter.



The IMO Headquarter

Today's session was quite interesting, with the lecture by Professor Harry M. Kat about how their research showed that a replicate of a hedge fund could perform much better than the hedge fund itself... Quite convincing!



Marion inside the Conference Hall of the IMO Headquarter. Note Dolf's noce and forehead to the right...

Right now I listen to "Shanty For the Arethusa" by the Decemberists (from the album "Her Majesty", for those who are weird enough) and look forward to yet another day in London.
Today, before the conference started, we were up on the 1st floor, having a nice cup of coffee, Suddenly, I saw a guy looking really interested in something down on the street below. As the curious person I am, I walked to the window and looked out. A woman had been hit by a car, and was lying on he street, receiving medical attention from ambulance personel. It was really creepy. After a while they got a stretcher from the ambulance (the stretcher kind you use when you expect a spinal injury, which I suppose they very often do) and eventually they lifted her onto it and into the ambulance. Her head had been bandaged, but it seemed she was conscious. I really hope sh'll be OK. I'll never know. Seeing things like that really makes me think. You never know what tomorrow will bring. Carpe Diem!
Before I go to bed I'll just Iron my shirt, then it's off to Neverland. Hopefully this post will keep Joakim away from the dreaded Macroeconomics books for a couple of minutes... Elisabeth gave me a "Pondus" chocolate calendar and a "Flax" calendar. The result so far is 6 chocolates and 10 NOK from the "Flax" calendar. Money! Power! I'm rich! Mohahahahahaaaaa!!!