Gyldenpris

I saw on the webpages for BT, a newspaper from Bergen, that a truck crashed into a car on the Puddefjord bridge. This is the same bridge I crossed more or less every day last year, on my way to the University of Bergen or just a coffee. My first thought (of course after hoping no one got seriuosly injured) was whether I might be able to see student house "Gyldenpris" in the background. You might say I got a glimpse...



Gyldenpris, with a crashed car on a bridge in front. My good old flat, 402, is circled out. Joakim lives next door to the right.

I've spent the weekend with good friends from Norway, who didn't come for me. They came for the incredibly interesting match Charlton Athletic vs Aston Villa. The match ended 0-0, and was just as cold and eventless as only a February mid-table clash in London can be. More information and pictures will follow...

Firealarm, exam and things to do on Sundays

During the last weeks, my reading rythm has been severely damaged by the frequent fire alarms here at Francis Rowley Court. To my extreme pleasure, I discovered last night at 0.30 at the new alarm system implemented in our rooms is a local one. The result was that when someone, somewhere lit a cigarette, smoke came into my room (I couldn't sense a thing). the alarm went off, in our flat only. So now we have two different systems that are capable of annoyance... Great! Well, at least we'll notice a fire. Or will we...? I seriously considered to ignore the alarm Sunday morning and take a shower instead. I'll probably do so next time. So much for safety, I guess!
In a break on Sunday, Leif and I went to the Old Spitafield Market and Brick Lane. It was really nice, take a look at the pictures below!


Above:I walk past this mosaic every day on my way to school. Really nice!


Above: Brick Lane on a Sunday


Above: In Spitafield market, Leif and I suddenly walked into a concept car exhibition. Cool!


Above: The Wool and fruit exchange


Above: One of the more obscure street musicians I've ever seen...


Above: Leif doesn't seem too unhappy when Beate (in the background) is cooking. Please ignore the wine glass...


Above: Artillery Arms, conveniently located between Leif's apartment and Cass.


Above: I guess I HAD to show a red phone booth sooner or later...


Above: Nice contrast between new and old buldings


Above: Mr Crepes, right....


Above: View from 3rd floor at school. The library can be spotted on 1st floor, and our beloved tables on 2nd.


Above: "Two for a fiver, two flowers for a fiver!"


Above: The Smithfield meat market. According to the legend, the spot where you see a blue car is the place they tortured and killed William "Braveheart" Wallace (FREEDOOOOOM!!!, quote Mel Gibson)


Above: Due to annoyance level at Francis Rowley, other living quarters are considered...


Above: Something tells me this is a multicultural neighbourhood (Brick Lane)


Above: England's tallest living quarters; Barbican Tower


Above: For some reason, I HAVE to walk through this park before every exam... (superstitious, ME??) This is also the location of the mosaic in the first picture.

I had an exam in Shipping Investment and Finance today. I think it went fairly well. I never really know before they return it... Anyway I won't fail, which means that another brick in the wall is in place. Jej! I seriously look forward to having a job again. I miss the days when I could turn off my brain when I return from the job (OK, I guess I'll never be fully able to do that...), and to have weekends without feeling I ought to be reading. Oh, glorious September! :D

Chuck Norris!

As an addition to the series "Anders writes something" comes a little webtip of the day... Chuck Norris, this great (?) actionhero with less expressions in his face than Keanu Reeves. Nice. Starring in series such as Walker: Texas Ranger and Missing in Action, he can at least claim the ability to fight properly. The black belt and world championship title in karate makes sure of that. He is without doubt a cheesy character, and it was with great amusement I read the link given to me by Karl Kristian. Just click the picture below...



Simply hilarious! Otherwise I got another result back today, and it went very well. so I guess I'm on a roll. Hopefully the good feeling will last untll Monday. Even so, I hope I don't do silly mistakes like this then:



The red writing is of course the examiner's. Good thing I don't give away points easy... :) Consumer and producer surplus. That's new stuff to me!

Close to Francis Rowley Court is a small pub / tavern, called Jerusalem.



The best pub in London!

It dates back to 1720, and will without doubt become my favourite pub! They sell beers from St. Peter's Brewery, as the only pub in London. And I must say the beers Winter Ale and Honey Porter were brilliant, most recommended! I liked them so much I ordered 12 bottles of each, delivered here at Francis Rowley. I'll probably get a written verbal warning for taking up space in the reception... I'm loving it! Tomorrow we'll be presented the different electives we might choose for term 3. I think I know which I want to have, but I'd like to hear the presentation before I make up my mind.

Don't worry, George W.!

I read today that a South-East Asian country's intelligence stopped an al-Qaeda terror plot against Los Angeles in 2002. But don't worry!



We'll take good care of LA, Mr. President!

I've seen all seasons of "24", George. And it ends well this time also! It sounds like the 2005 version of "War of the Worlds"...

What is a trainee?

I have, as you may have noticed, started looking for jobs. This might be a bit early by Norwegian standards, but here in England it is quite normal to start the application process early. In addition, the application deadline for different trainee positions are mostly in February. Which brings me to my point. What is a trainee?



Rome wasn't built in a day...

If you take a job search engine like Finn.no or Aetat.no, you may be fooled by the excessive use of the word. Today it appears that trainee, in 90 % of the cases, is a nicer word for telephone salesman. Why?! It is a very time-consuming task to pick the few (in my opinion) GENUINE trainee positions today. No, I don't want to be a telephone meeting booker, or a sales engineer (which is another example of the fact that "engineer" is not a protected title). In my eyes, a trainee is a person who, during a period of time, undergo training in different areas of a company. To be parked behind a desk with a telephone doesn't seem to live up to that...
I had a strange experience today. Searching through my blog, I discovered that a post had disappeared. Vanished. Gone. However, Joakim had the page in his cache, and sent me the link. The page was still there, so I copied the content and published it again. Here it is:
If you find it offensive, please let me know... I guess I've learned my lesson, as I downloaded my entire page today to have the raw data on my local computer as well. I don't want to be too conspiratory minded though, as Blogger has had a lot of trouble throughout the weekend.

The weekend is over again

I checked my mail box today (not the virtual one) and got a nice letter from Charlton Athletic Football Club... I know that Håvard, Tommy, Kjetil and Thomas will like the content!



My K700i once again prove to be an excellent... phone.

I am impressed by Charlton's quick despatch of the tickets, maybe they can't sell them fast enough after they sold Danny Murphy. I look forward to the match against Aston Villa, and the completion of my Premier League London stadiums collection. Also, I saw something strange today.





Is this a good sign; no-one need the service of the company. Or a bad sign; even the emloyment office couldn't make a living here... Well, 50 metres down the road is a nice pizza place called Barbican Express. This must not under any circumstances be mixed with Barbican Grill, London's worst lunch place...
During the exam period before christmas, Leif Olav and myself ordered a lot of pizzas and chicken wings from Barbican Express. Convenient, and very good junk food as well. On Thursday we considered to order some pizzas around midnight. We were however uncertain whether they had closed. They answered the phone, and on the question whether they were closed, the answer was a bit embarassing... "Yes, we're closed. But for you guys, we'll open!" Right... Maybe we should take this as an opportunity to cut down on the junk food consumption?
Otherwise, I'm thrilled to hear that Pogo Pops has decided to start playing together again. Or, as the lead singer and song writer Frank Hammersland put it; "We played our last concert in 1996, and officially we never dissolved the band." Now, they're making a "Best Of"-album, and they are going to have a lot of concerts. Great! I guess London is a bit far off, but if I'm lucky I'll be in Norway when they're playing. I hope... Thanks to Håvard for the link to this great news!
I've spent a lot of time this weekend discussing the recent development in the Mohammed cartoon incident, both with muslims and other parts. It's been very interesting to hear both sides of the story, as only reading Norwegian newspapers and talking with "Westerns" would be a bit biased. And I must say three things.

1. The recent events cannot be called terrorist acts. Not that they aren't criminal or extreme actions, but they simply don't fall under that category. I discussed this with a good friend, Knut, and I must admit I agree with his view. Feel free to comment on that one, the basis of our discussion was the definition of the term "terrorism", which can be read about all over the internet. I suppose the term terrorism is a bit overused, and I fell into that pit myself...

2. The biased focus on THE REACTIONS to the publishing of the pictures has overrun the focus on WHY the pictures where published in Jyllandsposten and Magazinet in the first place. The violent and extreme actions in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey have of course contributed to that... (See, I'm learning!)

3. My (quoted) description of the Norwegian foreign minister was a wrong one, as I think he (and OK, maybe the Prime minister to SOME extent) has dealt with the situation in a far from spineless way. The defence of the freedom of speech and democracy in Norway is a job well done. Now it will be interesting to follow the diplomatic conversations with Syria about their handling (or lack of) of the demonstrations.

I suppose you are all bored of reading all this, and I apologise for that... I guess I am getting a bit carried away with the situation, and I'll try to move over to more trivial events in my daily life in London after this. You all have a nice week!

Logical breach

Today, the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damaskus, Syria are burning. This is the latest result of the publishing of the Mohammed cartoon pictures. What a clever confirmation it is!



Since you published pictures of our prophet as a terrorist, we burn down your embassies! How dare you say we commit terrorist acts?! (Now that is clever...)

A Danish friend of mine here in London worked for 6 months at the Danish embassy in Damaskus. Today, he saw pictures of his former working place in flames.
Most imans don't believe that suicide bombers go to heaven where 77 (?) virgins are waiting for them as a reward. This is a way to persuade young, desperate persons to commit the terrible acts. This is the fact behind the caricature of Mohammed in front of the gates of heaven, telling the queue of suicide bombers: "Stop! We're out of virgins!"
OK, maybe the editors shouldn't have published those pictures. Although they had the right to, through the freedom of speech, doesn't necessarily mean they should have. But that is the liberty of the editor. If someone feel offended, they are of course entitled to press charges against them, after which the justice system might react. The blasphemy paragraph in the Norwegian law is a sleeping one. It has been for many years. Basically, the limit of the law about freedom of speech is the threats to commit and the commiting of violent acts. The cartoon pictures are not of that nature. The reactions ARE. The whole situation is turning into a clash between religions and civilisations. The person who said that religion is both cement and explosives was a clever person...

Blasphemy

Religion is a strange, irrational thing. But so are love, beauty, art, friendship, music and spirituality of whatever form. My point is that irrational may be good, but it may also violate the fundation of our society, democracy and freedom of speech. The debate raging all over the world about the Mohammed drawings is an important one. Christians and Jews have kept up with jokes on their behalf for centuries. But this cannot be the case with islam. Oh, no! The pen could be mightier than the sword, but not more frightening...
Honestly, I find the pictures of extremists burning the Norwegian flag quite provocating. But I don't threaten to kill anyone. The raging blind persons burning my nation's flag is taking a huge crap in their own nest. It is just as sophisticated as the blood revenge laws from the Middle Ages. Dante wrote about Mohammed in "Inferno" (A part of "Comedia Divina"), and several artists have painted the scene. Here's Salvador Dalí's contribution, from 1963:



Inferno XXVIII, 19-42.

The poets are in the ninth
chasm of the eighth circle, that of the Sowers of
Discord, whose punishment is to be mutilated.
Mahomet shows his entrails to Dante and Virgil
while on the left stands his son Ali, his head cleft
from chin to forelock.

I agree, the Magazinet editor published the pictures to provocate islamic forces. It is really impressive to see him whimper now. The reactions must have been a huge shock to him. Or maybe not. The freedom of speech is a precious thing, and walking in the grey zone between hatred and evil on one side and the right to critizise on the other. Drawings of Muhammed, mocking or not; I find it difficult to see it violating the freedom of speech. Threaten to kill someone, however... That is crossing the line. But the apologies our government and the Danish government has sent mean two things.

We are willing to cross our beliefs

We have surrendered to opponents against freedom of speech

Great job, lads! As another blogger wrote: "We may well have a foreign minister who can do good PR work. I would prefer one who had a bit of a spine."

PS As I'm a coward without a spine as well, I only post a link to pictures of Mohammed throughout time. DS

Eyecandy

As the observant reader might notice, I've changed a couple of things visually on the blog. Since the content in itself is rather useless, it is the visual things that change. However, future employers might take a look at my Curriculum Vitae under "Why I should get a job". I would also say to Maria: Hah! Look at my countdown! It is way past bedtime here in London, but I'll try to be quick, so I don't get a written verbal warning for the tapping i perform when writing this.
Knut and I went to see "Munich" today at the cinema. It was a fairly good movie, two hours disappeared in an instant. Good directing by Spielberg, and good acting by Eric Bana. The message of the film is relevant as always. Bloodshed leads to bloodshed.