Anders In The City

The End....

2006-06-19T02:06:00.000+02:00

I hate this feeling. Waking up, realizing that the friends you have made and have spent a lot of time with will no longer be part of your everyday life. The feeling of packing your bags, going out the door and leave the way you have lived your life.
The first time I felt like this was when I finished my National service in Norway. Although it was nice to have completed, it was also sad. And I learnt the first lesson of ends there. You promise to keep in touch and maybe come for a visit. Truth is: you probably won't. The reason is that once you "stop" one life and go on with your next, you can only deal with one of them. You have other friends, a job, maybe education. I have two very good friends from my time up North. I have a chat with them once in a while, which is not bad seven years later.
The second time was when I left Kosovo. Through 18 months we worked closely together, and in the evenings we sat on top of an APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier), smoked a cigar and had a chat while listening to crazy dogs and the random fire of an AK-47. Nice!
The third time was when I left work to start to study. I didn't really think much about it at the time, but I know now that it was a great place to be with great people, and isn't it always like that? You don't know how much you like something until it's gone...
The fourth time was when I left Haugesund to study together with Joakim in Bergen for a year. We were ten persons or so gathering in the cafeteria every day between lessons, chatting and laughing. None of us knew each other before we started studying, but almost all of us had the one thing in common that we had previous work experience. In days where a lot of "fresh" students really couldn't care less about their performance at school, that was refreshing as we all were really motivated for studying. But then Joakim and myself went to Bergen as the University College in Haugesund couldn't provide us with the topics we wanted. Already having a friend in Joakim, the end of the Haugesund study adventure wasn't that tough.
Bergen was fantastic, nothing less. The social life on Gyldenpris where I lived was brilliant, and the city was also very nice. One of my friends there was one of the friends I keep in touch with from the national service. It really sucked to leave them all, as I had a great year. That was the fifth time.
The sixth time is now. I'm not there yet as I leave on Monday, but the end of the semester was yesterday, completed with a big party. It was also the final of the business plan competition, but we didn't win. I congratulate those who won and curse the "Board" for not choosing our project. I still think ours was the best one, but unfortunately I wasn't asked... When we asked of reasons, all we got was that our project was too risky. Sure. Knut pointed out that the Board didn't have the balls to accept our project, which was a popular remark...
While I write about all the "ends" in this post (a post which is growing by the minute), I have to say one thing. This time is different. The first reason is that for the first time in 5 years, I can concentrate on the present. I'm back where I started, and I can finally see my friends during weekdays as well as weekends.
The second and biggest reason is that I return to Elisabeth, and can finally be with her on a permanent basis. I really look forward to that! All the times that I have had "ends" I have left someone permanently. But all the times I have left Haugesund, Elisabeth and my friends and my family to study or work I have known that is has only been temporarily. I look forward to seeing you all again! The third reason that it is different this time is that I have a feeling I will meet a lot of my new friends professionally. Shipping isn't that big a business...

Pain!

2006-06-04T13:46:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was the annual football match between the students and the staff, in Hyde Park. We lost 10-6, a result that of course shows that football is an unpredictable game... I haven't played football for a while (or any other sports), so 2*45 minutes in 25 degrees celsius, burning sun and 0.5 litres of water proved to be a tough challenge. Today I'm red as a lobster, and my body hurts as if it has been in a tumble dryer. The pain, the pain!
I've got some pictures, and I will post them soon. After the match we went to a cafè called Lido, which lies on the south side of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Here we sat and had a couple of beers and a nice evening in total. Great weather, great people, great beer and great conversation. Afterwards we walked through the park to Marble Arch.
But the pain from yesterday's activities were relieved by a message from the school. Previously I wrote about a business plan we have been making, where we will be purchasing two single hull VLCCs and converting them to FPSOs. There were 30 groups in total, and all thirty groups presented their plans. The best four groups would go to a final where professionals from City along with professors from the business school would pick a winner. It appears that our plan was so good that we are one of four finalists in the Moore Stephens Business Plan Competition... GREAT!

Bloody Chelsea

2006-05-29T11:37:00.000+02:00

I just had to say it. With the signings of Schevschenko and Ballack they will be too strong next season. And Man Utd still hasn't signed their new midfield boss. Damn! I was hoping that the league would even up a bit.

Discovering an S-curve shift

2006-05-29T02:07:00.000+02:00

The first question that probably hits you in the back of the head is: what is an S-curve? To cut down a long story, an S-curve is the illustration of how an implemented technology gradually becomes more efficient until it flattens out. Then comes an S-curve shift, where a new technology rises and replaces the old one. One good example is the shift from sail ships to steam ships, and further on to motor shifts. (Thank you Rudolf Diesel!)
So why am I bothered with this during an Shipping, Trade and Finance master's degree? Well, one of the courses I'm attending at the moment is Shipping Innovation. My grade will be given on the base of a coursework, where I brainstorm and find an S-curve improvement or even better a shift. Aha, the plot thickens... My idea is that since the current propulsion system efficiency used in ships are reaching its limit, a shift in the S-curve will occur somewhere in the future. (And yes, I am raving mad)
So what will the shift be? I have of course no answer to that, but my search for alternatives have given me some fantastic new knowledge about previous hoaxes regarding perpetuum mobiles and brilliant solutions to the world's energy problems. For some strange reasons, all attempts have failed the second someone invest money in them...

I DO believe that the next energy source used for propulsion will be environmentally friendly, abundant in nature and cost efficient. Today, solar power, wind power and wave power gives us two out of three. Wallenius Wilhelmsen has developed a ship design called "Orcelle" which combines all three (along with NO ballast tanks).

The E/S Orcelle as designed

So now, the $10,000 question is: Can you beat this, Anders? Of course I can! All I need is 50 more years of research, and commercially available Fusion power will be available. All that needs to be taken care of is the 10,000,000 degree plasma cloud and the trillions of Watts needed to kick it off... :D
When people hear about nuclear fission energy today they think of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Dr. Strangelove. During the 1990s, CERN scientists created a much safer nuclear fission power, using Thorium instead of Uranium. Toss in a particle accelerator, injection of the nuclear waste back into the process and the fact that one of the countries in the world with the largest amounts of Thorium being NORWAY, and voila! The successor of oil is here...
Maria Ruggero Santilli is another interesting character. His Curriculum Vitae seems impressive at first, and his two babies Magnegas and Hydrogen Technology Applications Inc. (together with Denny Klein)seems very impressive. That is if you don't understand the high tech chemistry mumbo jumbo. If you do, several of his claims are, to say it nicely, dubious. His findings are discussed critically here, here and not to mention here. Especially the last one has some quite obscure comments by a "Joe Kelley". And as a final warning to those of you who STILL want to invest in some magic free energy invention, here is a link to make you think again.
Now to something completely different. Tonight, Harald and myself went to Angel and saw X-Men 3. Just like MI:3 it provided action and costly special effects. Braindead fun for a Sunday evening, just perfect.
Now, after supplying you all with some crazy reading on Bank Holiday, I quietly retire for the night. I of course would like to hear from you different ship propulsion solutions for the future. (And I especially want you, Karl Kristian, to prove you're worthy for CERN... :D )

Finally, the pictures are here...

2006-05-25T13:22:00.001+02:00

OK, I could try to pretend that I lost my camera last week or an ice bear ate it, but the truth is that I just didn't make this post before today... It is busy days at school now, with courseworks in Chartering, Financial Derivatives and Shipping Innovation. In addition we have an exam in Shipping Risk Management, and we have to start preparing our dissertation. Robert, Leif and myself plan to write it together, if God (read: Grammenos, the course Godfather) will. We MIGHT write a dissertation about financing structures for FPSOs, but it may or may not be the case a week from now.
Back to May 17th. The day was a bit rainy, but Leif and Beate gave us a brilliant start with the delicious breakfast. After completing the meal with champagne and strawberries we moved on to Southwark Park, where the Seamen's Church arrangement took place. Kristin Halvorsen, the Norwegian Minister of Finance, held a speech. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't very good. First of all she had a cold or something. Second, a nasal voice combined with harks isn't very pretty. We then moved on to Covent Garden, or more precise the place "Punch & Judy's". This has been the place for celebrating Norwegians for MANY years, and we had a really good time there. When the Champions League Final were approaching we moved on to Henry J. Beans, a pub on Kings Road. The place was packed with Norwegians, and it was quite fun that some of the "foreigners" in our class also showed up. Nice!
After a good time at this pub everyone moved on to Boutique 60, except from ME, I went to Norway the morning after, and was pretty keen on not losing my flight. (and I think I would have, had I continued the party...) Anyway, here's the pictures!

Six men in their best age!

The breakfast table 1/3

The breakfast table 2/3

The breakfast table 3/3

Leif had brought with him a "whistle", and Robert fell in love with it at once...

Blow, Robert, blow!

Knut, the responsible one, figured out it was time to get CLASSY

Knut, Robert, Harald and Thomas outside Leif & Beate's apartment

Harald as Cobra, the only things missing are a motorcycle and Brigitte Nielsen

Therese, Michael, Bjørn Andreas (B.A.), Henrik (nearest to the camera), Robert (standing up) and Petter (sitting) All are enjoying park life, under a huge oak.

It's not May 17th without ice cream. A lot of ice cream...

The previously mentioned Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen, trying to shed light on a rainy day. We were not impressed, but nice that she could make it!

Petter gives the words "sleazy flowerboy" a new meaning (I'm not sure what the old meaning was)

Finally we get som beers at Punch & Judy's, Beate to the left, Leif unable to prevent his funnyface

Celebration time!

Balloons in red, white and blue, "Gratulerer med dagen" and a happy cameraspotting Knut in the centre

Leif trying to be important. Well, you can stop it. We all know you're just holding the TV remote control... Harald happy as always

Robert is exhausted trying to keep up appearences, and drops his guard; thus revealing his normal face.

Find one error in this picture. No? OK, then: Why am I happy if my beer is empty? (probably a new one on the table)

Leif finally understands he's not holding a water pipe

A picture speaks a thousand words...

This is a really funny picture! All the Norwegians celebrating and singing, while all the tourists are watching from above, taking pictures. Picture title: Don't feed the Norwegians! We really are in a zoo down there...

Morten Bakke, a previous Cass shipping student. He has celebrated May 17th 9 times in London, and was the lead singer of "Ja, vi elsker". You can see his mother in the lower left corner of the picture.

All in all we had a nice day! This Monday, before I went back to London, I had a small meeting with my new boss. I will start in my new job during the summer, and I will get an office where I can sit and write my dissertation. Great!

May 17th

2006-05-20T13:10:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the lousy updates! I'm in Haugesund this weekend, but I promise to post pictures from the celebration when I return on Monday. Have a nice weekend!

Decision time!

2006-05-13T12:20:00.001+02:00

I have finally decided where I will be working after my Master. The place is:

in Haugesund, where I in the beginning will have a portfolio of shipping clients which I will provide all the financial services they need such as granting loans, risk management etc. I really look forward to starting in the job, and the reasons are many:

I will return to Elisabeth and stop living in paperboard boxes and suitcases

Finally I can see my friends and family on a more regular basis...

I will finally be able to use the skills I have obtained through my education

I will be able to work with SHIPPING

Our beautiful house on Risøy will finally get the attention it deserves!

Today Harald, Knut and myself will take a trip up to Angel to drink coffee. After that I will have a look at some of the subjects we have this semester. I feel like I'm getting a cold, and I don't want to make it worse by going out drinking today. Not more than one pint, at least. Or two... Have a nice weekend, all!

Looks like I'm going to Haugesund

2006-05-09T18:07:00.000+02:00

The question now is: Should I accept SR-Bank's or Nordea's offer? I think this must be the ultimate luxury question... I am a lucky person, that's for sure! Well, the prodigal son will return to Haugesund once again..

Weekend back home

2006-05-08T19:48:00.000+02:00

I was home this weekend, and it was hectic as always... The second I landed on Norwegian soil I went to an interview at SR Bank in Haugesund. It went very well! Saturday was a bit more relaxing, with a couple of beers at Glenn's place. On Sunday we celebrated Silje's confirmation. It was a successful event, nice speeches, nice songs (the pink song, everybody!) and of course enormous amounts of food. Just what I need...
Today, Monday, I went to another interview at Nordea, Haugesund. It was... interesting... Always a bit terrifying with four persons "interrogating" you, but I think it went OK.

Oh, by the way..

I was also offered the job at SR Bank today :D

Last exam in my life (?)

2006-05-02T00:03:00.000+02:00

As I haven't written on this page for a month or so, I will recap the last month:

Going home...
I went back to Haugesund for Easter after the final lecture. The original plan was that Elisabeth would arrive here the weekend before Easter, and we could have a weekend together in London before relaxing back home. As I was getting a bit fed up with the confined pigeon hole some might call a room here at Francis Rowley Court, along with wanting to see Elisabeth of course, I went back home ten days before Elisabeth would travel here to stay with me. That created a challenge. Who would Elisabeth go to visit? As the frequent flyer I am, I travelled with her.

Weekend in London
As Francis Rowley Court best can be described as a two star hotel (without room service), I was secretly toying with the idea to book a hotel room. However, Leif and Beates return to Bergen (and Porsgrunn) for Easter gave me another idea... I mean, it would be terrible of me to let their poor little apartment in Featherstone Street spend the weekend all by itself, now wouldn't it? When I close my eyes I can still picture Elisabeth's surprised face when I unlocked the front door there... :D We had a very nice weekend, watching Chicago and Ice Age II (Musical and cinema, respectively). At daytime, I read and she tried to find the ONE shop in Oxford street she still hadn't been to. After being absolutely certain our luggage was way too heavy not to cost us a small fortune, we checked in with 5 kilos to spare...

Easter in Haugesund
The best time of year to read a book is at Easter. I love crime novels, so sitting and reading about Shipping Finance Credit Analysis and International Commodity Trade was not that great. On Friday 14th we drove to Vågslid and visited Elisabeth's familiy in their amazing lodge. In fact, let's just call it the house. After a week with fantastic food I went back to read, read and maybe read a bit in the end.

Reading time
In only 6 days, Leif, Harald, Knut, Robert and myself increased our knowledge about various topics like Financial Markets (Swaps, Bonds, Futures, Forwards, Options etc.), International Commodity Trade (Tradeflows, supply/demand determinants and taxonomy of major commodity groups like Iron ore, copper, aluminium, grains, sugar, coffee, cocoa, rubber, oil and gas) and Corporate Finance (IPOs, WACC, DCF, APV, NAV and other funny letter combinations).

Hell week
Last week we had exams on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Pretty exhausting, but I think we all did a pretty good job. Of course I can only speak for myself, but it appears to me that the others are quite happy with their performances as well. After the exam on Friday we blowed some steam and had a couple of beers and Gin Tonics. It is always a great feeling to just relax after several exams, not feeling guilty for not reading.

The final one
It is now Monday, May 1st. As millions of people have demonstrated in London about free beer and a longer Premiership season (or maybe not) we are preparing for our last and final exam this semester. Next term consists of five small subjects, of which some may be concluded with small tests. Of the major exams though, the one we have on Wednesday may possibly be the last. Ever. I think the last four years as a student has been great, but I sincerely look forward to starting a working career. I have heard a lot of people saying that they miss the student years. I'm sure I will sometimes, but I suppose that will be due to the human defence mechanism to always remember the good days. And it has been many!
I think this exam will be the most demanding I have ever had, and it counts for 1/9 of my entire Master's Degree. I hope we all will be able to put in a good effort and feel we did our best.

One to go!

2006-03-25T16:05:00.000+01:00

The last two weeks have been incredibly fast, with courseworks and hand-ins all the time! Yesterday evening we handed in our International Commodity Trade coursework. The task was to create a business plan about a self-defined shipping, energy or logistics business. We chose to purchase 2 VLCCs and convert them to FPSOs. For questions, ask Wikipedia... I'll post a picture of the concept nevertheless

The picture is of Berge Helene, an Bergesen Worldwide Offshore FPSO.

Today I have just relaxed, and I'll probably just clean my room and wash some clothes this evening. Tomorrow we aim to complete our last coursework this term, about handling a bond portfolio for two weeks. In my eyes a bit stupid task, since bonds aren't really the financial securities that fluctuate the most on a two week basis...
I'm going home to Haugesund on Tuesday, and I'm staying home until April 8th. Then Elisabeth and I will have a couple of days in London before we spend Easter in Norway, Finally, I'll return to London on April 18th. Right now I'm just sorry that Ryan Air don't have a Frequent Flyer program. I would surely have had a Platinum card by the end of Easter.
On Wednesday we managed to fit into the schedule a panel discussion with persons in the Shipping industry who previously took a Cass MSc in Shipping, Trade & Finance. Very interesting! After that some of us went to a shipping dinner put together by Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce and Acergy (Stolt Offshore previously). The food was very good, the presentations were OK and the people we met were great! For those of you who have it available, Tradewinds wrote a piece about it this week.
Other news this week is that Statoil have considered all the Norwegian shipping and energy students to be lightweighters. In other words, I've received rejections on all the positions I applied for there. I can't really do anything about it, but I've heard of applicants holding only a Bachelor's degree with no abroad experience who got an interview. So I guess the bottom line is that I'm VERY disappointed. It's their loss, though...
I've got a couple of other jobs I have applied for where I still await response, and I cross my fingers and check my mail every day. So maybe I'm lucky there.

I'm still alive!

2006-03-12T14:02:00.000+01:00

If some persons think I have disappeared from the surface of the planet, I can comfort you: That rumour is slightly exaggerated. The last weeks have been very busy with several courseworks along with the normal lectures. Also, Elisabeth, her mother and father came for a visit. I was lucky enough to live with Elisabeth on Selfridges Hotel for three nights. I must also admit that since her parents also were there, my hours with shopping was drastically reduced...
I have promised some pictures from the weekend with the boys, and here goes. I guess you regret your interesting grimace on the Valley now, Tommy... :)

All Bar One, Friday evening. Beer in the hand saves the day!

Knut seems to have something fascinating to say. Håvard is a bit sceptic...

Portobello Road, Saturday around 12.30. In about one hour we'll be sitting in a taxi who drives like he has stolen both the car and the petrol. Well, we made it to the stadium in time!

Håvard in front of the world's (?) only Mexican-Polish bistro...

The match. Aston Villa has the corner kick, and you can se Charlton's Norwegian Thomas Myhre as number 36. The match ended 0-0, and Myhre had a good match.

Here are the boys, after watching an unforgettable match between eh... well... two English teams.

Now I'm off to see Man Utd with Robert while having breakfast at Printworks. Then it's coursework all the way. Have a nice day!

Another list here...

2006-03-02T11:14:00.000+01:00

Ragnvald put a list on his blog that I do not wish to copy... However, I saw an interesting experiment on Maria's blog. So here is a naked, unedited version of random 20 songs on my iTunes playlist:

Little Miss Strange - Jimi Hendrix (Electric Ladyland)

She's The One - Ramones (Anthology)

Heropsychodreamer - Live (Secret Samadhi)

Geigerteller - Xploding Plastix (The Donca Matic Singalongs)

Put You Down - Alice In Chains (Facelift)

Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today? - Stereophonics (Performance And Cocktails)

All You Want - Dido (No Angel)

Joy To The World - Three Dog Night (Forrest Gump soundtrack)

There's a place - The Beatles (Please Please Me)

Upside Down and Inside Out - Broder Daniel (Broder Daniel)

The Shadowlands - Ryan Adams (Love is Hell)

An Unkind - Soundgarden (Down On The Upside)

The End Of Medicine - The New Pornographers (Electric Version)

Good Night - The Beatles (White Album)

Topanga - Euroboys (Soft Focus)

Street Spirit - Radiohead (The Bends)

It Must Be Summer - Fountains of Wayne (Utopia Parkway)

The Grand Duel (Parte Prima) - Luis Bacalov (Kill Bill Soundtrack)

Feel Good Hit Of The Summer - Queens of The Stone Age (R)

I Get Around - The Beach Boys (Best Of The Beach Boys)

Well, that wasn't so bad... Robert and I have a competition nowadays. Who are most frustrated over the lack of job offers? I think we have a draw at the moment. I hope I'll at least go to ONE interview among all the jobs I have applied for. Rejections from employers you really want to work for are extremely frustrating. But what else can I say but: THEIR LOSS! I know I will do one hell of a job wherever I finally get one. So please: bring it on!

Gyldenpris

2006-02-26T16:12:00.000+01:00

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

2006-02-20T14:51:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-02-17T00:24:00.000+01:00

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.!

2006-02-09T21:32:00.000+01:00

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?

2006-02-06T17:58:00.000+01:00

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

2006-02-06T00:28:00.000+01:00

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

2006-02-04T17:20:00.000+01:00

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

2006-02-01T16:45:00.000+01:00

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

2006-02-01T02:33:00.000+01:00

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.

Challenged!

2006-01-30T21:48:00.000+01:00

Maria has posted a number of "List of four", which she challenges me to continue. As it has been embarrassingly long since I last posted something, it was a good opportunity to reply. At the moment I'm trying to read, but I feel I'm a bit tired. Well, all in all it's been a productive day. So here goes...

Four jobs I have had:

Chemical Process Technician at FMC Biopolymer (earlier Pronova Biopolymer)

Chairman, Bjørgene II Co-operative housing organization (Now we're talking high class... Chairman, wow!)

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Assistant, Kosovo

Strategy Assistant at FMC Biopolymer

Four movies I can se over and over again:

Sin City

Pulp Fiction

Dr. Strangelove

The Godfather II (Close race with the Godfather I)

Four places I've lived:

Haugesund, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Camp Lebane by Pristina, Kosovo

London, England

Four TV-series I like to watch:

The Simpsons

The Family Guy

Lost

The neverending series of Premier League, England

Four favourite food dishes:

Pinnekjøtt (Stick Meat)

Homemade pizza

Tenderloin with gratinated potatoes

Cannibal toast (OK, it isn't as bad a it sounds... There's a place called Naboen (The Neighbour) in Bergen, Norway. In the basement they serve one of the most gastronomic meals I know. Simple, but incredibly tasty!)

Four websites I visit daily:

Haugesunds Avis (I wish it could improve, though...)

VG (Norwegian tabloid, but better than the British equivalent)

Cass Business School (Have to check my mail...)

Finn.no (Always looking for a job!)

Four things to do before I die:

Skydive!

Travel to Mauritius

Roadtrip in the US. Good idea, Maria! :D

Complete my master...

Four persons to pass this on to...:

EDIT

Robert has added a twist to the challenge, by also making a list of the four songs he can listen to over and over again. Well, I hereby present mine:

Four song I could listen to over and over again:

Kissing the lipless - The Shins

Lover, you should've come over - Jeff Buckley

Age of Pamparius - Turbonegro

Everlong - Foo Fighters

Thanks, Robert. I just had to discard 400 songs I love. To all the songs I have let down: sorry!

The results are ticking in...

2006-01-26T16:32:00.000+01:00

I received my two first results today, from the exams I had before christmas. In International Economics I got 72%, where over 70% gives the top mark. The best result was 77%, and I must say I`m thrilled over that one. The other one was in Managerial Accounting. This was the second half of the Accounting course, where I got 90 % on the first one. I knocked in 76%, which gives me 83% on average. Great! I'm relieved right now, I must say!
Tonight we're going on a reception at Radisson SAS Portman hotel, where the Young Professionals in the Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce have their monthly Thursday drinks. Should be nice. I don't think we'll be sitting there all night, though. Too much happening at school at the moment... BUT: It will be a great opportunity to meet Norwegians working in London, to hear about their experiences, and maybe also make some new connections here. All weekend is tied up to school work, and forunately I am totally comfortable with it. Tomorrow we have our first lectures in Advanced Quantitative Methods, which basically will concentrate on multiple regression and forecasting. Also, International Commodity Trade begins tomorrow. That's gonna be very interesting as well!

Case closed

2006-01-23T21:29:00.000+01:00

The weekend is over, and a new week awaits. Had a lecture in Shipping Finance today, it was quite good. The weekend was nice, we went to visit Robert in Docklands on Saturday evening. After a home-cooked, delicious pizza complemented by some Stella Artois, we decided to hit the streets and go to No. 5, the hip nightclub at Cavendish Square.

Nice main bar

Leif, Beate and myself drove in one cab, while Robert and Harald drove in another. Halfway there, Anders called (No, I'm no schizophrenic, Anders is a Danish guy who lives at Francis Rowley..) to let us know that the queue outside was alarming. We decided to go to Zeta bar (Hilton Park Lane) to see whether we could avoid 45 minutes in the crispy, cold London air. When we finally arrived with our taxi, Harald called. No. 5 wasn't packed at all, so we should regroup and leave Park Lane. Finally we decided to do so, to Beate's big frustration... So in a taxi again, and off we went.
We arrived at Cavendish Square and went to the nearest ATM. Since No. 5 is a place where a lot of Greeks go (Actually, it is owned by a sheik or something who lives on the top floor(s?). Leif decided to go for the popular phrase "Ela Malaka", which means something like "Hello, w**nker"... The Greek (...) in front of us in the ATM queue turned around, only to stare into three pairs of blue, Nordic eyes. He said to his girlfriend next by: "See, THEY learn themselves Greek!" Nice guy. When we were on our way to the club, Anders came out and said it was packed, way too crowded. Well, what else to do than to return to Francis Rowley... So we waited for an hour to get the bus, as all the taxis were busy... ack at Francis Rowley we got rid of some alcohol before I went to bed at 5.30... Credit to Robert and Anders who were the last men standing!

Here's Harald, drinking white wine like a redneck... :D

We had a coursework that was due today, and I had the pleasant job to join the different parts of it together in the end and make a complete paper of it. On Sunday I woke up around 12, and my plan for the day was to see Man Utd crush Liverpool and complete the coursework. They won 1-0, which is just enough for me... In the afternoon I did my laundry and the dishes, before I started with the coursework around 23.30. Kinda late I must admit, and I was struck by the bloody Pareto principle again. To put a long story short, I went to bed around 5, and got up at 8 to reach the lecture.
Last night I chatted with Toralf, he had finally gotten internet in his apartment in Washington. After I while I remembed that I could call him if he had land-line, as I have one of those 0800 terrorist-sponsored phone cards which price a phone call to 3.2 p from London to the US. Nice! He gave me his number, and I rang. But who answered? "Hello, this is Ellen Vollebæk speaking?" "Oh, sorry! I was trying to reach Toralf." was my response, not quite prepared for the Ambassador wife to answer the phone... Toralf had given me the wrong number by mistake... Well, she seemed like a nice person! (For those who want to know...)
While reading this I checked the website of No 5, and found out they have a Cigar Bar as well! Here, I can sit down with a nice Montecristo or a Hoyo de Monterrey and drink a glass (25 ml) of whisky from 1937, to the cheap price £1,100... Oh, what the heck! I'll take the bottle. After all, what is £31,000!
This evening I have relaxed a bit, seen a movie (A night at the Roxbury's) and tried to be blind IT-support... Not an easy job. As I've written earlier, City University wouldn't allow me to use an IP telephone to phone home (You hear me, E.T.?) for free. Therefore, I sent it back home. Or more precise, Joakim and Karl Kristian brought it with them back to Norway. Thanks! Anyway, there seems to be a problem connecting it back home. I tried to solve it by phone, but it is really not that easy. Hopefully we'll sort it out!
Right now I'm happy I'm using a laptop. I'm sitting in the dark, as the lights just went out. Well, I'm going to sleep anyway! No worries! I saw Joakim had updated his blog about their visit here. Good thing, Joakim! We had a really good time, and I found this picture of Karl "Firm Handshake" Kristian:

Charisma. Pure, simple charisma...

Job: Translator

2006-01-17T23:09:00.000+01:00

I am currently writing a CV and application in English why Statoil of course should hire me as a Corporate Trainee this summer. While translating my Norwegian CV, I had problems with translating one of the bullet points.

In Norwegian:

Styreleder Bjørgene Borettslag II

In English:

Chairman, Bjørgene II Co-operative housing organization

Hmm, I'm more and more impressed by English titles! I'm also more and more convinced that the trainee job I'm most interested in is made for me. At least when concidering my proud years as a chemical process technician (There you go again!). Should be a perfect match...
We had the first lecture in Corporate Finance today, and I got the feeling at once that the teacher is really gonna put pressure on us. Great! We will have group presentations, and the groups should be inter-gender, inter-nationality and inter-background oriented. That will be interesting and challenging! tomorrow is the first lecture in Shipping investment & finance, a subject I look forward to!
I'm otherwise quite impressed by the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund, or Lånekassen as it is called in Norway. In order to receive this year's loan and scholarship, I had to return an answer sheet. Because I had changed bank since the last time I sent my best regards to the fund, I also had to add a form with my new bank account number. This week I was informed that they hadn't received the answer sheet, which I sent in December. Miraculously however, they have updated my account number on their web pages, information which was sent in the same letter... And since it's not possible to send this answer form abroad, time goes by. So slowly. (Get it, get it?!)

Weekend update

2006-01-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

It's Saturday morning, and I've had healthy 6 hours of sleep. Today, my globetrotter friends and myself are going to Camden Markets, followed by Fulham-Newcastle. Yesterday we did some sightseeing, but I was shocked to discover that St Paul's Cathedral have started with 8 pound tickets. I guess they need some for renovation, but hopefully they haven't missed one of the basics in supply and demand. If you double the price, you don't necessarily get twice the income...
It was nice, although our plan to take it easy yesterday backfired over a heap of Mojitos. We also went to Canary Wharf, a place I really like. The architecture is really nice, and the history about the development of the area since the 80s is amazing. To read more about the history of Docklands and Canary Wharf, click here.
Well, gotta go. To sleepyheads at King's Cross are about to get a wake up call in person..

Bird Flu

2006-01-12T11:41:00.000+01:00

No, I'm not infected. I just wonder whether journalists are aware of the fact that ALL flus that arrive in our home countries from time to time are bird flus. So the fact that a bird flu is closing in on us is a bit silly. However, the effect of the different ones are varying, and the one this winter, H5N1, is maybe not that healthy for us.

To look behind the paperselling headlines in tabloid newspapers, check this Wikipedia article. I know it's not an encyclopedia to trust 100%, but it gives you a good starting point if you read it with scepticism.
I read a VERY American page to day:

I get the feeling Michael Moore has some good points in Bowling for Columbine, with the media creating a fear and all that... Let me quote:

"The looting in New Orleans is an example of what happens when governments and individuals don’t adequately prepare for a potential crisis."

Right, tell that the poor lot in New Orleans, who never had a home to secure... Sorry, you just prepared badly!

Closer..

2006-01-11T13:15:00.000+01:00

..to completing term 1, by doing the exam on Thursday. The Finance exam went OK, but some administrative blunders didn't quite make my day. Well, we'll se what happens there. It's strange how empty I feel after ding an exam. I spend so much energy in those few hours, and the body seems to need some hours to reload the batteries. Today is Wednesday, and I have the last exam tomorrow. After the exam yesterday I just surfed the internet, spoke with friends on MSN and saw two crappy movies. Daredevil and Transporter 2. Not Bellini or von Trier, just some primitive actionmovies with plots and acting so thin you could see right through them. Perfect for a day like that.
I guess I'll be heading over to Leif (which has now become Leif & Beate, since she has returned from Norway) to pound in the last few thoughts before the exam tomorrow. I think I needed a day off after the exam (considering the fact that it ended 16.30 makes it half a day) and now I'm ready to absorb knowledge! Again.
Other news, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when Karl Kristian and Joakim will arrive, intending to show me how to sightsee a whole weekend in London without using the tube. Bring good shoes, boys! :) I once heard that there only lives 5,000 persons in the City, while 700,000 work there. Talk about commuting! And talk about tubing...

Music tip of the day: Iron & Wine - Cinder And Smoke

Another football post?

2006-01-09T02:20:00.000+01:00

Well, sort of. However, I'll try to refrain from commenting to much on events in the matches. Even though Leif and myself was sitting and reading today, we had a pizza break which happened to be at the same time as Leicester-Tottenham. We didn't see that much of the game, the interesting thing was that it was the 3rd round in the FA Cup. That means clashes between teams from lower divisions and Premier League teams.
And there I reach my topic of this post. This is the essence of why the FA Cup is a classic. You have David versus Goliath, amateur players get the opportunity to play against football mega stars. One of the matches today was Burton Albion versus Man Utd. Through heroic fighting during the entire match, they secured a repaly match at Old Trafford. The match ended 0-0, and think of the confidence boost the Burton team must have felt. The goalkeeper kept a clean sheet, against world class strikers such as Ronaldo, Rooney and Solskjær...
After the match, players and the coach of Burton was interviewed. On BBC. The definition of 15 minutes of fame. Pictures from the wardrobe with players celebrating with champagne and a premade (!) banner depicting "WE'RE GOING TO OLD TRAFFORD!" A routine day at the job for the Man Utd players, a memory for life for Burton. And think of the feeling when entering Old Trafford, the largest football stadium in England, and you are about to play a match there...

Also, another funny thing to observe was how important different managers thought the match was. Premiership and Championship managers were interviewed in sweaters, while the managers from lower divisions was dressed up in their finest suits, preferably with the tie in the club colors. Of course, it was a big day for them as well. The Essence.

One day closer...

2006-01-09T01:49:00.000+01:00

To the exams waiting in the horizon. Another productive day in Matisse Court (Leif's place) working with Shipping Economics. I'm starting to get the feeling that I have successfully managed to put a lot of information inside my head without it exiting. For now... Now, the challenge is to systemize the knowledge and be able to get the right information out on the exams... time will show!
My return to Haugesund during Easter is bought from Ryanair, more precise I'll be visiting jolly, good old Norway April 12-18. Looking forward to it! However, I have a curricular mountain to climb in the meantime. I may be masochistic, but I look forward to it! Music tip for the day:

The Long Winters - Blue Diamonds

Still going strong!

2006-01-08T11:20:00.000+01:00

The weather is grey outside, but I don't care. After all, it's nothing compared to the winter on the Norwegian West Coast. (OK, I'll stop talking about the weather). Leif Olav and myself have spent two whole days working with Shipping Economics, and I feel we have a quite good grasp of the entire curriculum. Today we'll try to sum things up a bit and answer some previous exams along with reading fresh market reports and outlooks to get a grasp what have been and what will be going on.
I wrote a post a couple of days ago, but it miracously disappeared. It was about Christmas and New Year's Eve, and it was of course the best piece of material I have ever written. At least that's what I can say now... Anyway, I'll try to give a short version. First of all, the Christmas holiday had one flaw. It was over WAY too fast. I had a great time with Elisabeth, family and friends, and the food was ten notches above my everyday meals in London. I was well taken care of!
New Year's Eve was celebrated at Anna and Tommy, it was a great party. Although I had seen many of my friends earlier in the holiday, I was fortunate so see all of the that night! I have some great pictures, but due to the fact that I left the camera in Haugesund, none of them will be posted at the moment..
Next weekend, after the exams, Joakim and Karl Kristian will pay me a visit. I suppose I'm required to give them a tour of London, so maybe I'll get tickets on one of those sightseeing buses.. For them of course... On Saturday we're going to Craven Cottage to see Fulham vs Newcastle, and as that stadium is located directly by the Thames, I suggest you bring warm clothes, boys! Karl Kristian is destined to see Camden as well, so beware Gyldenpris! More obscure t-shirts and shorts will arrive shortly!

Sildajazz 2005 when Karl Kristian and myself decided to supply our hawaii shorts with fresh air.

Also, I'm applying for a trainee job in Statoil nowadays as well. It's gonna be a very hectic semester with lectures (which require a LOT of reading before and after each), group and individual assignments along with applying for jobs. What can I say? I LOVE it!

Winter?

2005-12-23T00:57:00.000+01:00

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!

2005-12-20T21:01:00.000+01:00

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!

2005-12-14T00:49:00.000+01:00

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!

2005-12-12T23:08:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-11T22:56:00.000+01:00

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...

2005-12-09T23:05:00.000+01:00

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

2005-12-07T00:57:00.000+01:00

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!!!

Gin Tonic

2005-11-30T17:11:00.000+01:00

I hereby declare that my body (especially my liver) will be a gin tonic-free zone for the next six days! And besides the beer on Friday, a beer-free zone as well! The exams are approaching, and I have no time to lose! (and for some funny reason, the day afters seems to be less productive..) Yesterday evening we had the class Christmas party, and it was really fun! I really like the concept of students and teachers socializing, good to know them a little better. Had a chat with one of the teachers about Arsenal and Man Utd. I think the conclusion was that we really don't agree at all. But of course, Man Utd is the best team...

Other news: No job for me in Haugesund that I'm a potential candidate for at the moment, but I'll be back! Future employers, be aware! Also, the Vard Haugesund and FK Haugesund cooperation talks are closely followed here from London. And the 273 million NOK stadium (!) project is also a subject for my curiousity! Sounds a bit much, but hey! Maybe I'll become a "rich uncle" sometime in the future.

The suggestion from the architects. You see "old" Haugesund Stadium closest.

I'll go down to Harald's flat shortly, to make some dinner and eventually eat it as well. So take care, all! And Ragnvald, remember: If the snow seems do go away, make a couple of snowballs and put them in the freezer!

A terrific weekend!

2005-11-28T15:58:00.000+01:00

This weekend, Trond, Odd, Roald and Håkon (in descending age order...) came to London for their annual football trip to London. I was lucky enough to roam the streets of London with them almost all weekend. On Thursday we had some drinks and a pleasant meal in a small restaurant in Shepherd's Market before we moved on to a Mexican-Polish (!) bar in the same area. After that, the young and promising continued the journey to Piccadilly Circus and the bar / night club Cheers, while the not so young but still promising ended the evening with a night cap in the apartment in Mayfair. A good night indeed!
The day after, on Friday, we went to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane to see the hilarious musical "The Producers" by the genious Mel Brooks.

The plot is in short about a Broadway producer who, with help from an insecure accountant, discovers that a musical can actually give him more money as a flop. What they only need is the worst play ever written, the worst actor and the worst director. And believe me, they find it... I won't reveal any more, but the name of the play they find is "Springtime for Hitler"...
On Saturday I spent most of the day doing a bit reading and doing the laundry, while the guys saw Arsenal beat Blackburn 3-0, undeserved... But I think the food was good. Later in the evening we had some drinks and then off to Neverland again, preparing ourselves for the biggest moment in my football watching history: To see Manchester United live. And I don't think I could have found a better match to do that. Roald, Håkon and I had seats in the away supporter's section on Upton Park, the home ground of London team West Ham United. Trond and Odd had "borrowed" some season tickets, and discovered to their disappointment tat they had been ripped off, and that someone else had entered the ground with the same tickets. Well, at least they got good seats in a bar near Soho, and good seats on the tube on their way back...
Back to our position in the away section. I'll give two good reasons why that was so brilliant:

1) The Man Utd supporters there were mainly Die Hard supporters, those who sing the most and spend all their money travelling to away games.

2) The atmosphere was really special because it was a ceremony honouring the late George Best, one of the greatest attackers of all time, who passed away on Friday. I'll get back to how great he was in another post.

The game itself looked pretty bad, considering the goal West Ham scored after merely 50 seconds. Terrible defending and a good counter attack by West Ham. The Man Utd players really tested the ex-Man Utd goalkeeper Roy Carroll (as Håkon put it: "Typical... His first brilliant performance in a Man Utd game, and it's against us...") but no more goals were scored in the first half.
In the second half the game turned in Man Utd's favour during the first twenty minutes, when Wayne Rooney and then John O'Shea scored one each. It might be a bit early to compare Rooney with Best now already, but he was still magnificent. Ruud van Nistelrooy had a brilliant chip that hit the bar, a stunning performance. All in all a great match to see. And all the goals were scored right in front of us as well!

Today is monday, and I can feel that the weekend has been busy. The exams are approaching quickly, and there's still a decent amount of knowledge that has to be hammered into my head over the next two weeks. And then comes Christmas with the delicious food, seeing family, meeting friends and in general have a great time. In addition I'll have to read for the January exams. So sleep is a luxury I cannot afford in the next month... All in all I have a great time here in London, but I look forward to returning.

Sports Cafe... SCUK or SUCK?

2005-11-17T22:14:00.000+01:00

Sports Cafe UK, or SCUK as they like to call themselves, disappointed us AGAIN on Wednesday. The occasion was Norway's away game in the second leg of the World Cup Play Off, against the Czech Republic. Last time the bar let us down was when Rosenborg played against Real Madrid at Lerkendal. We called the place to check that they would show the game. But did they? No... The only channel they had that showed parts of the game was some Arab station that switched between four different matches, constantly. That was really crap, and I was there with one Real Madrid supporter (Robert) and one Rosenborg supporter (Harald).
This time, they also claimed that they would show the match. And they did, if you call showing the second half 50/50 with the Slovakia-Spain match. And the most annoying part was that other matches shown were Wales-Cyprus (!), Ivory Coast-Italy(!!) and not to mention some minutes of a Lorenzo Lamas film(!!!!). Of course these were all more interesting than a Play Off match where the outcome still was unclear (Hey, I'm Norwegian, I have to say that!)... And the Slovakia-Spain match. Such tension! Spain won the first leg 4-0, and Slovakia was barely on Spain's side of the pitch in the entire first half. Well there's excitement! I think the Sports Cafe is a terrific palce to go to see Champions League matches and England games, but this was really disappointing. I'll use this opportunity to congratulate Czech Republic. Well, I guess it was deserved over two matches.
Now to something completely different! This weekend I'm going back to Haugesund. Kjersti and Asbjørn are both reaching their 25th birtday, so the 50th anniversary is to be thoroughly celebrated! I really look forward to see Elisabeth again, along with all my friends. The weekend will without a shadow of a doubt be great!
I'll celebrate for Australia and Trinidad & Tobago as well the weekend. At least SOME B-nations in football made it...

Happy birthday, Harald!

2005-11-13T22:47:00.000+01:00

Harald, one of the Norwegian bunch in my class, is 24 years old (or young) today. This soon to be energy trader has become a good friend, and one of my presents to him is that I will grant his lifelong wish to get his 15 minutes of fame. So here he is:

One of his great achievements this autumn was when he went straight from nachspiel to play in a football tournament. Despite the fact he's in the Energy, Trade & Finance class he played for the Shipping class. And even though he had problems kicking the ball in the first game, he actually scored some goals and the Shipping team ended up winning the tournament! I think this is all part of his luck though, and I look forward to my shoulder recovering so I can squish him in squash!
We had a great time yesterday, when we celebrated his birthday. The celebration started a bit slow, with Norway being embarassed against the Czech Republic. Although the game ended 1-0 to the Czechs, the Norwegian team played so bad it was terrible to watch. I've never been to the Seamen's Church in London (or in any other city for that matter) before, it was nice. After the game we went to Maxwell's near Covent Garden to eat and celebrate. A couple of hours later we ended up at the Garden Club 50 metres away, also a nice place. All in all it was a good evening! So once again, happy birthday!

Only in Sweden...

2005-11-11T23:48:00.000+01:00

Today, a suspicious looking man walked towards an airplane at the airport in the Swedish city Karlstad. The man wore a uniform, and carried 2 suitcases. A nervous person phoned the police, explaining the situation, and the whole airport was evacuated...
You may now wonder what REALLY happened. Did the airport explode? Was it David Duchovny in a new X-files episode? Is this the start of 24 season 4? Not at all! The suspicious looking man was a pilot, going to work...

"But I work here!"

It's raining cats and dogs!

2005-11-11T22:35:00.000+01:00

The origin of this expression is somewhat dodgy. One possible explanation is that in 17th century Britain, after a cloudburst the gutters would overflow with a filthy torrent that included dead animals. Another explanation is that the expression is derived from mythology where witches, in the shape of cats, rode with the wind, and that the Norse god Odin controlled the rain (through his dogs). My favourite though, is that Johnathan Swift wrote the sentence “I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs” in the book "Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation" in 1738.

Cover of the New Yorker

Well, enough of this... The reason for me bringing up this topic is that it REALLY rained cats and dogs today. We had been at All Bar One in the City, having our traditional Friday beers. Robert, Harald and me decided to go to Farringdon and have a good meal at Pizza Express. (Don't let the name fool you, it's a really nice place with good food and nice interior) It was raining a light, dusky rain when we walked towards the restaurant. Suddenly, the sky just opened, and the wind changed to storm in 1.2 seconds. I've lived in rainy Haugesund practically all my life, but I have NEVER experienced anything like this. The umbrellas didn't stand a chance, and the wind made us all soaking wet in no time. Luckily Harald managed to grab a cab before we drowned...
As you might suspect, we all survived, and I'm now safe and sound in my flat. Tomorrow we're going to the Norwegian Seamen's Church to se Norway's match against the Czech Republic in one of two play off games, to decide which team will play in the World Cup next year in Germany. Harald is also celebrating his birthday tomorrow, so after the game we'll go to T.G.I. Friday's. For a while it was a dream for us to go to Prague for a week to celebrate his birthday and see the 2nd leg of the play off, but economic and curricular considerations ensured it remained a dream... After all, I'm going back to Haugesund next weekend anyway. And I'm really looking forward to it!

NRK Licence Division - you are not this bad...

2005-11-08T19:20:00.000+01:00

I got a leaflet in my mailbox today (the snail mail mailbox). It was from the TV Licensing ENFORCEMENT Division. It was the closest I've ever been to a threat letter from a company. The logo of the firm is: "TV Licencing - Easier to pay. Harder to avoid." And the whole brochure is packed with sweet formulations like "Any evidence collected may be used in court", "They could even apply for a search warrant to investigate your property."... This is really comforting, if I include the fact that I once a month come back from the school and meet notes like "The Hall manager was in your room today" on my desk. What a sweet and heart-warming country! Feel like I'm in a boarding school of some sort...

This Saturday Harald and I ordered a pizza from St. Pauls pizza. Although it wasn't heavenly tasty, and the delivery guy didn't have wings, it was still a good meal. (Not that healthy, but who's counting calories...) This was at the same time as we saw the "Around the world in 80 days" movie, in Knut's flat. As we were sitting in their "living room", I didn't know the flat letter. Instead I gave the delivery guy my cell phone number, so he could call me when he arrived. 30 minutes later, one of the other inhabitants came into the living room, saying that a pizza was waiting in the hall reception (with a delivery guy attached to it).

I went out to pay, and was called to the reception window by a sweet young lady. Her words, that sounded like a machine gun, were: "WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE THIS MAN YOUR ROOM NUMBER??! I HAD TO CALL -ALL- THE RESIDENTS IN YOUR FLAT TO FIND YOU!!" I calmly responded that I had given my cell phone number, but hadn't received a call, therefore I couldn't see why this was my problem... Flabbergasted, she pointed at the pizza guy: "TALK TO HIM, IT'S NOT MY PIZZA!!" "But you asked me??!" I responded, a bit surprised by her sudden change of attention. To this she of course chose not to respond, and instead she focused on something in front of her that looked like a guest list or something... Must have been really interesting, because she didn't look up when I wished her a pleasant evening after I had tipped the pizza guy. My point of writing this is first of all that some people tend to believe that power is something you have to show (strangely enough even if they have no power...). I don't have an authority problem, just an idiot problem. I am yet to see a written verbal warning in oral wrapping on this one, but I haven't stopped hoping..

But enough of this path to nowhere... Back to TV Licencing! Any TV in my flat will make me liable for paying a Licence fee of £126.50. Or £42, if I choose the ultra modern black&white solution. Did I say any TV, by the way? No, that would be understandable. Any television, set-top box, video recorder, DVD recorder or computer with a broadcast card will make me a criminal offender if I don't pay the licence. Except TV-sets solely powered by its own internal BATTERIES... Of course. That makes perfect sense...
But if you think this is a braindead solution, consider this:

If you are registered blind, you are eligible for a 50% reduction in the licence fee.

50% reduction? Of course! After all a TV set can be considered a 50% watching and 50% hearing experience! I mean, the TV licencing Enforcement Division is not an unreasonable company...

They even believe in miracles!

If you're applying for a Blind Concessionary Licence for the first time, or if it has been five years since you provided proof of your entitlement, we will need to ask you for some information to confirm that you qualify.

Yes! The perentage of persons gaining vision after being blind must be huge. Good thing they "keep an eye out" for possible returners from the dark... My conclusion is probably that the Licence division in NRK is a mild and gentle one. I remember the time Licence control came to Gyldenpris. Word of mouth (and MSN) made the operation successful for about 27 seconds.

Easy!

2005-11-07T15:15:00.000+01:00

Gimme me a challenge... No, seriously. It went very well! A lot to do, but I managed to do it in time. Hopefully I'll get a good mark.

Managerial Accounting

2005-11-07T09:03:00.000+01:00

Today is my first exam at Cass Business School. Subject: Managerial Accounting. It will last from 9 to 12, and my guess is that it won't be too difficult. Usually I'm quite stressed up about those exams. Some people believe that's a bad thing, and maybe it is for some. For me, though, it's just makes me more focused on the task. So stress is positive up to a certain level!
The exam will mainly focus on several ratios to interpret a company report, along with making a cash flow statement (probably). I've done it so many times now, I'm on auto pilot. And I have also seen a previous exam answer, which in my opinion was too generously rewarded...
The final conclusion this morning must therefore be that I am putting more pressure on myself by writing here that the exam will be easy.. It will be interesting to see if it makes me more focused! Have a nice day!

Darren Fletcher: THANK YOU!

2005-11-06T19:47:00.000+01:00

Darren Fletcher celebrates the only goal in the match

Finally the Manchester United squad understood that the only way to play football is to have the heart on the OUTSIDE of the shirts! After a brillinat first half, United was ahead one-nil against a Chelsea squad that seemed to have met their match... I was on the other hand quite nervous, as Chelsea in game after game has returned in the second half and played brilliant, attacking football. But the Man U players fought like lions and ended Chelsea's impressive 40 game streak of games not lost in the Premiership. But after all, that is also what happened in 2004 with Arsenal.. Maybe Old Trafford again is to be considered a fortress, feared by opposition squads? I really hope so!

For my English readers: Sorry

2005-11-06T01:07:00.000+01:00

This post will be in Norwegian from... Now.

Maria har etter en artikkel i Spirit om Norges 100 beste låter laget sin egen topp 10-liste. Hun oppfordrer samtidig andre bloggere til å gjøre det samme, så det skal jeg herved prøve på. Før jeg starter vil jeg imidlertid få påpeke at listen til Spirit har STORE huller og jeg har tatt meg den frihet å gå litt utenfor den T-merkede stien. Disse låtene er umulig å rangere, så jeg vil i likhet med Maria ikke rangere dem innbyrdes (bra idé, Maria!)

BigBang – ”Long Distance Man“ (1999)
Jeg digger Big Bang, og har alle platene deres. Wild Bird og Girl in Oslo sto på lista til Spirit, men min personlige favoritt er likevel denne. Greni og kompani har skjønt det!

Kåre & The Cavemen – ”Rubber City Revolution“ (1999)
Kåre Joao Pedersen (beklager, jeg VET at jeg ikke har helt oversikt over tødler og sånt her...) og hans hulegutter har laget en skikkelig feelgood låt her. Knut Schreiner på gitar er som vanlig KONGE. Jeg kunne valgt omtrent hvilken som helst låt fra Jet Age...

Jokke & Valentinerne – ”Narkoman“ (2002)
Joachim Nielsen var vår tids største rockpoet. Hverdagsbetraktninger og et skakt syn på livet, samt fantastiske tekster og primitiv rock gjør at Jokke lett får en plass på lista mi. Denne låten ble innspilt mens Jokke var i heroinrus, og det høres. Det er så hjerteskjærende å høre ham beskrive hvordan livet er som narkoman. RIP, Jokke. Hils Eddie!

Turboneger – ”The Age Of Pamparius“ (1997)
Tidenes beste introlåt fra kanskje tidenes beste norske album. Hvis jeg en gang drar en Abramovitsj og kjøper et fotball-lag, skal spillerne springe ut på banen til denne låten. I mellomtiden slenger jeg den i CD-spilleren og kjenner det kribler etterhvert som låten bygger seg opp. Fantastisk!

Dumdum Boys – ”Splitter pine” (1989)
Trønderrock på sitt beste, med denne klassiske låten. Prebble Houmb gir gass, og Mr. Kristiansen klemmer ut et av Norges mest kjente gitarriff. Splitter Piiine...

Gluecifer – ”The year of manly living” (2002)
"This is the year of manly living.." Krutt i denne også. Veldig bra kjøremusikk, ihvertfall hvis du skal kjøre fort. Biff Malibu, måtte reunionkonsertene aldri stoppe!

Kaizers Orchestra – ”Ompa til du dør” (2001)
Kaizers fortjener en plass på lista mi for innovativ holdning. De (til nå) tre albumene deres er som et parallelt univers, og den røde tråden på hver plate er ganske unik. "Det kan bli varmt der nede, det kan bli varmt der nede, Svein! Det kan bli Jææævlig varmt der nede". Og med Sjøen på kontrabass (plate 1 0g 2) så er også et lokalt innslag ordnet!

Madrugada – “Beautyproof” (1999)
Madrugada er en bauta i norsk rock. De siste utgivelsene har høstet strålende kritikker, og det siste albumet har åpnet veien til det VIRKELIG store publikummet. Jeg mener allikevel at Industrial Silence er deres beste plate. En sekser blant femmere. Sivert Høyem er en av få mannlige vokalister som kan få en bryggesjauer til å gråte (Paal Flaata og Pål Angeskår er to andre), og Robert Burås på gitar kommer jeg aldri til å glemme når han A) satt oppå høyttaleren på Flytten oppe under taket og slengte riff rundt seg) og B) sparket etter forsterkeren på den store (oransje) scene på Roskilde i 2001 under Madrugadas kanskje dårligste konsert (ifølge dem selv).

Pogo Pops – “The great fall” (1992)
At Frank Hammerslands popgeni ikke er representert på Spirits liste er kanskje det største hullet i lista. Gruppene Pogo Pops og Popium har krydret Norge med så vakker og fullendt musikk at NOE kanskje ble overført fra New York til Hammerslands hode 8. desember 1980... At Pogo Pops ikke ble STORE i utlandet er fremdeles et av de store spørsmålene i livet...

Motorpsycho - "Pills, powder and passionplays" (1997)
"Angels and Demons at play" regnes av mange som Motorpsychos beste plate. Sterkt undervurdert i Norge, allikevel med en trofast lytterskare. Låten er nydelig, men for meg er den også på denne listen et symbol på GRUPPEN Motorpsycho, som definitivt fortjener en plass på topp ti!

Ja, da sitter jeg og ser på lista mi... Det var mye godrock, gitt! Og jeg kan virkelig stå inne for denne lista. Dere får bare over med faktafeil og sånn, fort gjort. :) Ellers håper jeg at andre bloggere kanskje også kan finne inspirasjon og lage sin egen liste. Jeg innser jo også her at jeg først og fremst har valgt ARTISTENE som jeg syns fortjener en plass på topp 10. Men det er godt nok for meg.
Dette har vært en forholdsvis rolig aften for meg, har sett film sammen med Knut og Harald. Around the world in 80 days med Jackie Chan (!) er vel egentlig den verste radbrekkingen av Jules Vernes bok jeg har sett. Utrolig hvordan enhver bok kan presses (med mer eller mindre hell) inn i Hollywoodstøpeformen. Jeg skulle gjerne sagt at den som sitter med den store blockbusteroppskriften kan ta dette manuset og stappe det opp der sola aldri skinner (eventuelt der kroppen er høyest når man plukker blåbær, sånn omtrent nederst på ryggen.) Men det kan jeg jo ikke si.

Explosions in London!

2005-11-06T00:17:00.000+01:00

Am I kidding? No. Another terrorist attack? No. So, what's up then? The answer is: Guy Fawkes Night. In 1605, on November 5, the radical anarchist Guy Fawkes was arrested, caught red-handed with huge amounts of gun powder in a basement below the House of Lords... (I guess Homeland Security wasn't that clever) His comrades were revealed after he was tortured for days. The glorious session ended with poor Guy being "Hanged, drawn and quartered". I won't go to much in detail, other than that the hanging was stopped before he died... For the morbid minded, here's the explanation on Wikipedia.

Hey ho, and a barrel of.... err.... Rum?

To celebrate the failure, the fireworks rule the city until about now (23.00 in England) once a year on this date. The poem that pretty much sums up the events goes like this:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

I feel it is also in place here to add the rest of the poem, for some reason often excluded from the school books...

A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!

Well, I guess that should do it for today. For some reason I remember a certain scene in the film Cold Mountain. Kabooom! For those who wants to read more on the subject, here are some links:

Wikipedia
The Gunpowder Plot Society (I wonder what they do the 364 other days of the year...)

Working time..

2005-11-01T01:21:00.000+01:00

I suppose it's time to be a bit more serious and party a little less... I've just arrived here at Francis Rowley Court after working with Managerial Accounting all day. I think I've learned more today than all the Managerial Accounting classes all together... Great! I was at Leif's place where we pushed each other all day with accounting curriculum. And sitting there talking about it really is useful!
We were at a party this weekend down in Chelsea, and it was probably one of the best parties I've ever been to! Great music, great people, great location. Great! Otherwise I try to forget that Vålerenga has won the gold medal in the Norwegian Premiership, and that Man Utd hit the wall against Middlesborough. Terrible!
However, football is not that important at the moment. The Norwegian attacker Dagfinn Enerly broke his neck in the match against Start on Saturday. His condition is still unclear, but hopefully he'll be OK. This really puts things in perspective.

The late Bill Shankly once said ""Some people think football is a matter of life and death... I can assure them it is much more serious than that." I am confident that the episode with Enerly would have made him alter that statement.

Working...

2005-10-26T20:47:00.000+02:00

After a surpricingly calm weekend, I'm back in the game here in London. Good to se the lads again! Not so good to leave Elisabeth again. But I'll be back! The hard work with moving out the furniture was carried out by family and good friends. Thank you all! My dislocated shoulder made me feel really bad about the whole thing, and I suppose I deserved all the jokes... :D
Anyway, I really feel that I have a lot of catching up to do with the studies. I feel that I miss a piece or two in the puzzle, but hopefully I'll be updated during this week. Harald, Robert and I have begun working on the assignment in Shipping Economics. the task is to calculate a number of different different voyages and present which ones are feasible and also to find the most profitable option. It's really interesting. And I think we will do just fine...

Dislocated shoulder part 3...

2005-10-21T09:14:00.000+02:00

OK, this is weird... The first two times I dislocated my shoulder, it was due to external shocks. Tonight, while asleep, I was obvioulsy lying in a bad position. Suddenly I woke up, and looked at my arm. And oh yes, deja vu - again.
However, after experiencing Norwegian health care at its most insecure last time it happened, I decided to tend my own business... I laid down on my back, and pulled the shoulder back in position. The weird thing is that it worked! So I guessed I've learned the trick. The sad thing is that it seems I've gotten a talent for dislocating it also...
The bottom line today is: HELP! I'm moving out of the apartment, and could use all the help I can get! Embarassingly convenient, isn't it..

SOLD!

2005-10-19T09:36:00.000+02:00

This morning I have sold the apartment for 900 000. And I feel quite good about it! :) So now I'll probably come home for the weekend and move all the furniture out! Helpful assistants may apply below... ;)

Who am I?

2005-10-19T01:27:00.000+02:00

What are my skills? And of course: why the heck should someone give ME a job? I never thought writing a brilliant CV would be so difficult. I guess Pareto's 80/20 law is fitting here as well. To do 80% of a job requires 20% of the work. The last 20% requires 80 % (I think Olaf Thommesen calls it the 70/30 rule, but who's counting... Besides, I'll bet all my money that good old Vilfredo is more reliable!)
That was a small detour that really was intended to clarify my point... It's easy to punch down work experience, education, interests and so forth. But to present it in a way that sells. THAT's difficult. And that's when the real job begins.
I have also a small confession to make. Remember Sunday when I said I wouldn't go out, just sit and read? Well, I was wrong. Leif Olav and I went to see a movie at a Vue theatre up at Angel. The film was called Domino, and starred among others Kiera Knightley, Mickey Rourke (Whose role in Sin City cancels out all his previous crappy movies) and Christopher Walken. Quite amusing film, if you fancy a fist fight and dodgy morale. The plot is about a young girl who wants to be a bounty hunter, Domino Harvey.

What else is new? Not much. The days go by in amazing pace. Today (well, it's Tuesday for me...) I came home around 10.30 PM, after a long day with school work. OK, I admit it! I saw the second half of the Man U game.

Oh, just before I go to bed... I got my first bid on the apartment. 870 000.. Is that enough? I doubt it. We'll see tomorrow. Cross your fingers! Here's just a quick reminder of what's at stake.

Shame on me!

2005-10-16T12:16:00.000+02:00

The updates on this blog has been few lately, and I apologise for that. I'll try to increase the update rate... The days fly by here in London, and I really like the city. This week Elisabeth came for a visit, and I hope there's still some shops in Oxford Street she hasn't been to yet. Me talking about her shopping is likely to backfire though, as I bought more than her!
I'm awaiting the arrival of my new digital camera, a Sony Cybershot DSC-P200. This week I have also bought two suits, a finacial calculator, some shirts and books. I really don't wanna check how much is left on my account... Anyway, once the camera arrives I'll take photos of the surroundings here.Life at school is good, I feel I'm quite in control at the moment. However I must work hard, because the lectures will become increasingly complex.
Yesterday we went to see Chelsea-Bolton at Stamford Bridge. In the first half, Bolton was mainly in control, and deserved the 1-0 lead they ended up with in the first half. However, Jose Mourinho must have spent the break well, for the Chelsea-team that entered the pitch in the second half was like a new one. They rolled over Bolton, and 20 minutes out in the half the score was 4-1. And the atmosphere was electric! We sat at row 30, which means that the air was a bit thin... The match ended 5-1, and MOM (Man of the match) was clearly Didier Drogba. He was a constant threat to the opponents, and showed great skills in heading, shooting, dribbling.

Before the match I sat in my room and listened to Fram Larvik vs Vard Haugesund. And Håkon. :) That's right Håkon, I heard you loud and clear.. Probably the referee did as well! :D Håvard also shouted a couple of times... Of course Vard won, but in my opinion it's almost about time to face the fact that next year also will be in division 2. Sad, but true. To cheer myself up, I have spent the morning today watching the greatest goal in history 200 times. Yes, I'm talking about Marco Van Basten's unbelievable bicycle kick for Ajax, pinpointed in the right corner. It just is THE ultimate goal... You can find it on soccerclips.net. Enjoy!
Today I'll just sit and read, I suppose. The area here is completely deserted in weekends.

Wining and mingling

2005-10-04T23:57:00.000+02:00

The social Network (With a capital N). As fresh meat in the shipping business, everybody in the shipping course (and all the other master courses as well) need to establish a social network, people to have a beer with today and maybe work relations with tomorrow... The event this time was at The Brewery, a very nice place with a huge reception area.
The establishment is located approximately 200 metres from Cass Business School, and as we started to circle around the place like Fins around a sauna (No, I don't mean naked, whipping each other with birch branches...) we were greeted by a well-dressed bowlerhat-wearing gent. Good first impression. Then we aimed at the reception area. For those of you who bother to click on the link in this post, the room was The Porter Tun, I believe.
So there we were... Mingling, drinking white wine, beer and of course tasting canapès. A brief speech by the Business School Dean, David Currie, were followed by even more networking. The session lasted about three hours, from 5 to 8 PM. Really crowded, lots of great people there. And the favourite two words of the student vocabulary: FREE ALCOHOL.
Of course we all found out that this brilliant evening was too nice to end, so we moved on to SOS (See previous posts...). Great! After spending a couple of hours there I went home and into what they call "The blue lagoon" in the Norwegian Army. (For those of you who has avoided this broke institution: I'm talking about my bed) About 2 seconds before I was about to enter Dreamland I heard a knock on my door. Pavlos had returned as well, along with a couple of other guys from our course. And before I could say Nachspiel I was sitting with a beer in the kitchen.
So there we were, chatting about the very nice evening when suddenly a person approached. Security! Our pleasant conversation seemed to bother some of the other habitants here. I suppose that's fair enough. It was Monday (or rather Tuesday..) after all. So we reduced the volume and were just about to break up the party when the security guy returned. This time slightly less happy, and he started questioning about our room numbers. Great! :)
So I woke up today at 9 AM from the phone ringing. "Excuse me Sir, could you please come down and have a word with the Hall Manager?" Fair enough, I suppose. Still I couldn't get rid of the feeling of being a 12 year old kid who were sent to the Principal's office for making too much noise in class... :D
Downstairs I hooked up with the rest of the guys, and we got a verbal warning from the Hall Manager... So that's me... The troublemaker!
Well, anyway! The next time, he threatened to send Lance Armstrong's twin brother to deal with the noise:

After what I've heard he's a mean cracker.

Hihi

2005-09-30T10:54:00.000+02:00

Seems like I was the first person who finished the test! That`s not a good thing you say? Jeez, you should`ve mentioned that earlier... Actually, I finished 3 minutes ago. The test started 09.20 GMT. Which means 30 minutes of 60. Oh well. Coffeetime! :D

Test tomorrow...

2005-09-29T21:38:00.000+02:00

As the headline suggests, tomorrow will be the first time abroad when I'll be tested... It's just a non-compulsory test in Financial Mathematics and Statistics, and the result won't count. Still, with my 10 day history of coughing I have only been to 0.3 of 10 lessons... So it will be interesting to see my level compared with the others. Actually I spent the entire day at school today! The guys I already know wondered whether I studied there, and I trully felt like the new kid in town!

Music tips of the day (Norwegian): "Hei Reidar" by Vassendgutane :D The beginning of the song is: "Hei Reidar, har du kjøpt deg ein ny gjødselspreidar?". Fantastic... Well, I think I'll go to bed early, hopefully I'll be in shipshape tomorrow morning. Here's today joke: (courtesy of Odd).

Surfing tip of the day:

2005-09-28T23:55:00.000+02:00

I just HAVE to post this: The Swedish irony metal group Black Ingvars have launched a cover version of Schnappi: das kleine Krokodil... And it's a blast! They wanted to release it on their new record with rocked child classics, but the German record company refused to distribute the rights.
Just to give you an image of their twist on old classics: The good old Led Zeppelin hit "Whole Lotta Love" was covered by Black Ingvars as "Whole Lotta Engberg"... Fantastic! Just what Schnappi needed, more guitar riffs! :D

You gotta love those guys!

On the link here you can actually stream the song (Courtesy of Aftonbladet). Up yours, German record company! :D

Anders - The Cold: 2-0

2005-09-28T23:31:00.000+02:00

This and yesterday evening I went to see Champions League games at local pubs. Yesterday we ended up at a Russian vodka bar, Potemkin, mostly because they were the only ones showing the Man Utd match... So there we were sitting, four Norwegian guys, in a Russian vodka bar, watching an English team play against a Portugese one. Quite strange!

Tonight we were at a local place called Printworks. They showed the game between two of the most boring English teams, Liverpool and Chelsea. Of course the match ended 0-0. Now I'll look over a couple of Statistics excersises. That should do it to get me sleeping in no time! Tomorrow I might be well enough to go to school. Hopefully there are some persons there who will recognize me. I haven't exactly been often there. To be honest it's been over a week. This isn't the start I was hoping for, but I suppose that makes me a underdog. Well, in this class I'll be a underdog no matter what I do!

I have also bought a telephone card now. With it I can phone home to land lines for 6p / minute. That's quite cheap. The only drawback is that I have to punch in 35 digits before the phone starts to ring on the other side... Puh! But at least it means I have increased my chances of terrorizing you guys back home!

And Ragnvald: No, I'm just fine. Have been to busy recovering from the cold and feeling sorry for myself to post anything the last two days... I'm glad you're coping with life in Berlin! And from the comment on my post, it seems like you've been cathing up a bit German as well... ;)

I'm listening to Minor Majority now; "(In that) premature way". Time to go to bed!

Today's top 2 list of unpleasant discoveries

2005-09-26T13:39:00.000+02:00

1. The box with Nescafe I bought had a word written with VERY small letters: Decaffeinated. This means I have been drinking the crap WITHOUT GETTING ANY CAFFEINE FROM IT! No wonder my head aches...
2. I can't taste anything from my breakfast.

Have a nice day!

War is declared!

2005-09-26T12:30:00.000+02:00

My cold just don't seem to let go, which forces me to find better remedies... Today I went to Boots and bought 2 bottles of coughing syrup, 2 packs of Strepsils Extra and one pack with Echinacea (In Norway known as "Rød Solhatt") Hopefully this, complemented with a strict indoor-policy will help me defeat my enemy!
If you can hear me, cold: You have won the battle, but I will win the war!

I'm 27!

2005-09-25T13:27:00.000+02:00

Finally the day has come, when I go out of the grey, miserable life of 26-yearolds and into the even more grey, miserable life of people turned 27. No, just kidding! Life was great last year, and I'm confident it will continue in the same way! I would like to use this opportunity (yeah, I know.. I can write whenever I want..) to thank all of you who have called, sent messages and even presents! Thank you, it is really appreciated! Later today I'll probably go out to eat dinner with my room-mates, Alexander and Pavlos.
Pavlos and his girlfriend were kind enough to serve a variety of greek specialties on Friday, such as cheese from Chania... Briliant! I'm not sure I'll have the same success with Norvegia or Jarlsberg (which they have in many grocery stores)...
Yesterday I sat in front of my computer and listened to webradio, Radio 102 to be more precise. the occasion was the match between Vard Haugesund and Notodden, two of the top teams in Vard's group. It was really an exiting, nailbiting experience! Luckily, Sami Sakkas overtime goal turned the game in Vard's favour. 2-1 is plenty enough! Today I'll probably see Start vs Vålerenga on NRK Web TV. (Hopefully it's possible... I've never tried to see live broadcast there before.) If I'm lucky I'll se my aunt and her family as they are ringside in this "finale" of the Norwegian "Tippeligaen". Well, I'm on my way to the kitchen to make a typical English breakfast; egg, bacon and toast (OK, it could have been beans and small sausages as well, but.... I don't think so!)

The plot thickens

2005-09-22T13:03:00.000+02:00

Finally the cold seems to be letting go of me. I went to buy some books and a water boiler today. Great! And Joakim: No offence, but I'll be drinking Nescafe this year... Hopefully you'll just feel sorry for me. I trully miss you incredible espresso. Sorry; RISTRETTO. Argle....
I received my schedule for the Autumn Term. I tell you, this will be hectic! My final test is December 16... And my exams starts January 3. So the Christmas holiday will probably be filled with reading and "Pinnekjøtt" (Stick meat? :D )
Right now I'm cleaning my room as well. I have to start studying today, to be prepared for what I will meet in the weeks to come. I just found out that a standard UK postgraduate year equals 120 Credits. In my course we will have 235... So hectic? No doubt. Fortunately the weekends seem to be spared, so hopefully I will be able to say hello to visitors from Norway!
By the way, let me present my favourite bar in London: Smiths of Smithfield/SOS. It is packed with people having the after work beer. Great place, and the customers seems to be mainly office workers in the area. did I mention it is in 3 minutes walking distance from my flat? :D

A day off...

2005-09-21T18:14:00.000+02:00

I didn't go to school today, because I have a cold. It started yesterday, and I suppose the beer and not wearing a jacket mainly is to blame. Which points out ME as the reason... Even though, my day hasn't been a complete waste. I shopped some groceries and did my laundry. To be honest, I'm still a bit shocked over the British (and apparently other countries') educational system. Here, a 3 hour lecture is a 3 hour lecture. Period. No pauses, no coffee, no fresh air... I probably just have to get used to it, though.
Long lessons aside, the school really looks great and extremely professional. I mean, we all pay a shit load of money to attend, and that, I think, is reflected in every inch of the school. My first impression of my class is that I think it will be VERY hard to excel... But I really look forward to the challenge! The class is 50 % Greek, 10% Norwegian and the rest is from all over the world.
This week and the next are induction weeks, with classes in elemetary math, economics and excel. I am not sure why I didn't say that I didn't need this when applying, but it is after all a good way to get used to lectures in English. (not to mention the lack of pauses...)
I have to say I really miss you all back home, I suppose the summer have been so busy with refurbishing that I haven't prepared myself for it. But now I have my internet up and running, which means I can listen to terrible radio commercials from Radio 102 and also see the entire "3 Brødre" on the NRK website.
Now for something different: English food... It's just not that bad. Why? Well, what is English food now? The only typical I have come across are eggs & bacon and meat pie. Both I can easily eat. Maybe the reason is that I haven't looked for it yet... Guinness is good, though ;)
I haven't bought a digital camera yet, I just can't agree with myself which one to buy. This is where you should feed me with advice, Joakim. England, digital camera, between 100 and 200 £. Go!
I think I'll move over to the school now. The lecture I'm not attending ends at 6pm (7pm in Norway), so I guess I'll hook up with the others and grab a bite. Not a beer though, I don't think my immune system will enjoy that as much as I. Take care, all!

By the way, the phone number to call me is: +44 79 149 15 796 (in case you got confused with the zeros, Håvard.. ;) ) I haven't called many, and I'm really sorry for that. But the price is sky high, so I suppose Elisabeth and this blog will be the main information sources. (Along with MSN Messenger (Sorry, Joakim: Adium))

Internet cafe update

2005-09-18T17:23:00.000+02:00

Right now we're sitting in an internet cafe ny Tottenham Court Road, surfing the Norwegian news pages and checking our mail. The internet is down in the flat this weekend, hopefully this will not be normal. I really feel isolated without the web here, because that is the main way for me to update myself on issues lik Norwegian football, what's going on in Haugesund (not much) etc.
Had a great night out yesterday, at a place called Underbelly. They were supposed to play a lot of Scandinavian music, but for some reason they didn' fell like it... Damn!

Life in the City

2005-09-15T11:37:00.000+02:00

Great match! I saw Arsenal vs FC Thun yesterday, the first Chapions League game for the season. The electric atmosphere on English football matches is really something missing in Norway. At least in Haugesund... Anyway, as you can read in any newspaper and internet sports site, the game ended 2-1 for the Arsenal (instead of the usual one-nil) the climax of the game was when Dennis Bergkamp scored the winning goal in overtime. I took the opportunity to test the function of my new K700i mobile phone camera. Here's a picture of the pitch before the game:

But I should also present my two room-mates now: First, Alexander from Germany:

Second, Pavlos from Greece. Actually he is from Chania, I have a gut feeling that some of you who read this have been there...

That's all for now. Have a nice day! I'm off to buy some books. See ya!

Finally, online...

2005-09-13T19:31:00.000+02:00

Well, things are beginning to sort themselves out (with a little help from me), and I really look forward to staying here with my flatmates Alexander(Germany) and Pavlos(Greece). Pictures will come here shortly, both of the flat and my neighbours. I went shopping today, for some reason I forgot to pack SOCKS. And I tell you, City of London is NOT famous for its variety of clothing shops... After wandering around in the area (without a map, that should probably be mentioned) for hours, I found a small shop where the socks cost 4£ each. Well, good enough for one day. I also bought a Sony Ericsson K700i today, just to have a English phone this year. Tonight I will shut down my Norwegian phone, but of course you can all reach me on the English one. My contact details now are:

Address:

Anders Kolbeinsen
Flat 505, room A
16 Briset Street
London EC1M 5HD

Telephone:

+44 (0)20 7040 7991

Cell phone:

+ 44 (0)79 1491 5796

Oh, by the way: When calling from outside the UK, don't include the (0) in the number you're using. I will update soon, take care, everyone!

Anders

Hi, all!

2005-09-13T12:35:00.001+02:00

Just a quick message to say that I am safe and sound. At the moment I'm sitting on an University Computer, trying to get internet for my room at the Francis Rowley Court. See you all later!

The advertisement

2005-08-11T18:39:00.000+02:00

Here's the ad for the apartment: FINN.NO

FOR SALE

2005-08-10T16:06:00.000+02:00

I haven't got much time at the moment, as I'm moving a lot of stuff out of my apartment. However, here's what I'm SELLING. It's in Norwegian, but I suppose that shpuld suit 99 % of the readers well... Give any comments you like... :D Have a nice day!

Thank you, Joakim!

2005-08-08T18:05:00.000+02:00

As I'm also a Mac-user (after 15 years with Windows-based machines), the little Dashboard Widget Dashblog was really useful! Now I can just write down observations from my shallow life in an instance!

Finally - an update!

2005-08-06T22:20:00.000+02:00

Hello again! It's been over a month since my last update on my blog. To anyone who might actually care: Sorry! :) Elisabeth and I have spent the last two months refurbishing our new house, along with preparing to sell my apartement. And to be frank: I'm sick of it! Luckily we're done with the major projects now. We've received great help from Elisabeth's parents, uncles and aunts. Appreciated! Also, Asbjørn has helped me with the oak mouldings (I think that's how to write it...).
Months ago I promised pictures from the process, and here comes:

Over: A very brave Anders defies his temporary injury (once) and gravity (as usual) when painting the cellar windows.

Over: Our kitchen before we tore it all down... (note: observe the incredible wallpaper...)

Over: How can you not fall in love with a toilet like this? Not to mention the sink..

Over: Elisabeth were also painting, with a smile!

I still don't understand why I'm smiling here... Tearing down layer after layer with old wallpaper... Funny? NO!

I just read on Joakim's blog about last year when we moved to Gyldenpris. Those were the days! I had a brilliant year there. Now, however, London's calling.... September 12th I'm off to good, old England. I don't think am mentally prepared for it all at the moment, but I will be.
Also, I really look forward to next weekend! The reason is simple: Once a year, Haugesund finds an excuse to drink and party for several days by combinding herring and jazz music. Without doubt original! In fact, Karl Kristian and his girfriend finds the combination so fascinating that they're coming to visit us! Great! We have a lot of catching up to do...

Things to do in Haugesund...

That's all for now! I'll return in VERY short time with pictures of our freshly refurbished house. Also, pictures of the hottest real estate object in Haugesund in years will be exclusively available on this site soon... (That meant my apartement...)

Ooops, I did it again...

2005-07-04T13:15:00.000+02:00

Playing soccer can be dangerous, well at least painful...(archive photo from last December...)

Just before christmas 2004, I jumped over a metal bar an hit my shoulder in a concrete pavement. Since then, my shoulder has been about 80-90 % OK. Until yesterday... Some friends and I were playing soccer, just relaxing, sending passes and shooting at a random goalie. It was my turn to be the goal keeper, when Einar (I think he's the one) fired a hard shot against my right top corner. I stretched my arm against the ball instinctively, and when the ball hit my hand I heard a sound from my shoulder I didn't like.. And yes, the same old wrong angle on my arm, the "missing bone" in my upper arm... It all fitted in. So Kjetil gave me a ride to the hospital where a doctor put my dislocated shoulder back in position. I'll probably write more later, as I'm only writing with my left hand now...

Su Doku!

2005-06-26T13:45:00.000+02:00

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...

2005-06-18T12:17:00.000+02:00

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:

2005-06-16T02:33:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-16T02:21:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-13T23:33:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-09T13:13:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-06T08:41:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-05T16:29:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-05T14:33:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-05T13:06:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-04T22:29:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-04T12:31:00.000+02:00

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

2005-06-02T23:10:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-02T19:19:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-02T14:40:00.000+02:00

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!

2005-06-01T08:27:00.000+02:00

NERVER

2005-06-01T07:53:00.000+02:00

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!

Nok en lesedag nærmer seg slutten...

2005-05-31T21:55:00.000+02:00

...og som overskriften muligens antyder begynner jeg å se fram til sommeren. Elisabeth har startet det møysommelige arbeidet med å sette Sundgata 130 i mint condition. Gleder meg virkelig til å komme hjem og begynne å rydde opp i urskogen foran huset. Når det gjelder vitale mål på slottet kan jeg nå opplyse om en grunnflate på 63 m3 og en tomt på 480 (?) m3. Enten er jeg dårlig i hoderegning(kanskje), eller så har jeg et dårlig øyemål (mer sannsynlig). For den tomta er da vitterlig ikke 8 ganger husets størrelse?? Jaja, om nødvendig får vi ekspropriere naboens garasje. Det hadde virkelig vært å slå to fluer i en smekk!
Jeg leste på en glitrende blogg i dag, milblogg.no. Siden er full av meningsfylte kommentarer og artikler om aktuelle temaer i norsk forsvarspolitikk. En veldig god kilde til å få et mer nyansert bilde av totalsituasjonen enn forsvarets øverste ledelse og ikke minst landets stolte bladsmørere ser som relevant. Anbefales!
Ellers benytter jeg her anledningen til å gratulere alle som er ferdig med årets eksamener og kan se frem til en sommer fylt med mer eller mindre meningsfull dankdriving. Lykke til! Selv er jeg kun dager (13 i tallet) unna den siste eksamenen min. men det føles som eksamensnervespøkelset virkelig har satt inn et rykk LANGT fra mål denne gangen. I tillegg får Joakim og jeg i morgen dommen over vår eminente bacheloroppgave. I morgen kommer jeg antakelig til å sitte med tynnslitte nerver og sjekke studentportalen til Universitetet hvert 10. minutt inntil resultatene foreligger.
Jeg følger også nøye med i debatten som foregår i Haugesund for tiden, angående Harald Aabrekks disposisjoner og motivasjoner. Og ikke minst Måkebergets mer eller mindre effektive "aksjon". Jeg var ikke selv på kampen, men hørte store deler av den på Radio 102. (Takk for en stabil nettsending, forresten!). Det hørtes ut som det ikke bare var Måkeberget som uttrykket sin misnøye over prestasjonene på banen. Allikevel kan en kanskje spørre seg om ikke det å pipe og komme med ukvemsord mot egne spillere var en i overkant kvass reaksjon. Allikevel forstår jeg supporternes reaksjoner dersom spillet virkelig var så dårlig som radioreporterne ga inntrykk av. Og de siste kampene jeg har sett FK Haugesund spille har vært en studie i mislykket "Drillofotball", et konsept som i uraffinert utgave er like moderne og effektivt som å pløye et jorde med tannpirker. Trist å se på, og spillerne kan så mye bedre. Kanskje Harald Aabrekk er en vanvittig dyktig trener, med et konsept som egentlig fungerer. Av og til er dessverre et miljøskifte nødvendig, og dette tror jeg er tilfellet for både Harald og spillerne nå.

For å snakke om noe helt annet! Joakim entret nettopp bula mi med tilbud om en duggfrisk Newcastle Brown Ale. (for innvidde: bruken av ordet duggfrisk må IKKE misforstås...) og det ville være uhøflig av meg å takke nei til slikt et sjenerøst tilbud!

Er kvinner onde?

2005-05-30T17:25:00.000+02:00

Diskusjonen har versert lenge i vitenskapelige miljøer (helst de miljøene der mennesker som aldri har sett et eksemplar av kvinnearten verserer) om at kvinner egentlig er ondskapen selv. Allikevel er det ingen som foreløpig har klart å bevise påstanden. Ragnvald kom i en kommentar frem med et oppsiktsvekkende bevis som uten tvil vil skape turbulens i forskermiljøene, først og fremst ved NTNU. (Det presiseres herved at gutten ikke tilhører de tidligere nevnte miljøene. Ennå. ;) )

Vi takker Ragvald for dette ikke ubetydelige bidraget til vitenskapens søken etter svar på livets mysterier!

JoakimNytt

2005-05-29T23:21:00.000+02:00

Har fått et par henvendelser på hvorfor Joakim ikke har oppdatert bloggen sin i det siste. Og hva skyldes så dette? Har han blitt sløv? Seriøs og eksamenslesende? Ordløs? Nei, svaret er at han har Macen på verksted... Han skulle teste om den tålte et fall på 40 cm. Det gjorde den, men den var ikke like vinkelrett etterpå, for å si det sånn. Skal ikke gå nærmere inn på detaljer, da jeg regner med at han selv kommer med en utførlig forklaring når han får englebarnet sitt tilbake.

Dagens musikktips: Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God fra albumet Employment. Hør, hør!

Det er ikke lett å forstå ALT!

2005-05-29T23:04:00.000+02:00

Synes denne her er litt artig. Det er utrolig hva en kan forklare med matematiske uttrykk, det finnes nok av personer som har klikka fordi deet var noe de IKKE klarte å forklare med matematikk.

For å runde av den ufattelig interne faghumoren med en vits, som Christoffer fikk presentert av en foreleser (det kan nevnes at han studerer matematikk):

To matematikere som av uvisse grunner har havnet på galehus er en kveld innblandet i stor ståhei. Den ene matematikeren springer rundt, viftende med en kniv og roper: "Jeg skal derivere dere, jeg skal derivere dere!" Alle da andre pasientene springer livredde rundt, usikker på om de er i live til å bli foret med svidde brødskiver neste morgen. Alle unntatt den andre matematikeren, som kun rusler smilende rundt, tilsynelatende upåvirket av den ville stemningen. Årsaken var at han trodde han var en eksponentialfunskjon...

Vel fikk denne vitsen et helt auditorium til å knekke i latter, men jeg tviler på at et tilsvarende auditorium med historiestudenter, eller sosialantropoligistudenter haddde reagert på samme måten. Uansett tror jeg ikke poenget var av matematisk karakter. Jeg tror foreleseren prøvde å formidle den store sannsynligheten for å bli gal... :D Lykke til, Christoffer!

Nå har jeg bestemt meg! (tror jeg...)

2005-05-29T22:02:00.000+02:00

Jeg er jo egentlig ferdig med Bachelorgraden min nå, men har som tidligere nevnt en eksamen igjen, 13. juni. Spørsmålet jeg stiller meg selv er: Hvorfor ta denne eksamenen? Jeg kan jo faktisk ta sommerferie nå. Så helga mi har vært omtrent: Jeg gidder ikke ta eksamenen. Jo det gjør jeg. Eller, kanskje ikke. Jo, forresten, hvorfor ikke!
I skrivende stund har jeg bestemt meg. For å ta den. (eller har jeg det? :) )

Uansett, skriv gjerne hva DU syns jeg bør gjøre! Var forresten ute en liten tur i går, på en nattklubb som heter C-49. Relativt uspennende, og ikke min type plass i det hele tatt. Men nå kan jeg ihvertfall si jeg har vært der. Til slutt vil jeg bare nevne at Brann nettopp har slått Oslo Vest 3-0. Gratulerer!

Ekstra Ekstra!

2005-05-27T10:27:00.000+02:00

Nå har det kommet informasjon om stykket vi var på i går, sammen med bilder. Jeg benytter anledningen til å ta med bildet her:

Mer informasjon om stykket finner du her. Som dere ser var forestillingen pakket inn i en moderne kafèsetting, et artig grep av regissøren!

Hei igjen, folkens!

2005-05-27T00:26:00.000+02:00

Nå nærmer det seg leggetid med stormskritt, og nok en begivenhetsrik dag er i boks. I dag har Mariann, Joakim og jeg vært på en operaforestilling ved Grieg-akademiet, med studenter fra akademiet. De var enormt flinke! Tusen takk til Thea Næss som inviterte oss! Det var en skikkelig impulshandling da vi fikk invitasjonen, og som Joakim sa i dag: Carpe Diem!

(Obs! Bildet avviker NOE fra forestillingen... ;) )

Egentlig er det noe en ALLTID bør leve etter! Etterpå tok vi oss en liten Bayer på Naboen, og Mariann fikk smake den berømte kannibaltoasten... Uansett, kvelden var definitivt en suksess! Stykket hette forresten "Milde himmel, jeg tror jeg blir svimmel!" og var en potpurri av berømte konfliktscener fra operaens verden, med scener fra blant annet Figaros bryllup og La Traviata. Kan ikke si mer enn vel utført forestilling! Og skuespillerkunstene, de melodramatiske faktene var det heller ingenting å si på!