E: Happy birthday Jesus!

Christmas came on time this year too. This fall has been the warmest in Europe in 500 years and the warmest winter in this country since they officially began measuring
the temperatures over 100 years ago. Still, the snow made it for the north of Norway, two days before the big night.

In Norway the day was Christmas eve, like every year. For season holidays like these, habit is anything but bad. To see and be with the family again is rewarding in its very bonding and comforting way. In my family we get up fairly early to snooze in front of the telly with childrens TV and candy. Around noon we eat porridge – the only time a year as a breakfast dish (normally Saturday dinner). We add an almond in the pot, and whoever gets it, will get a little reward, traditonally a marsipan pig.

By 3 pm we are nicely dressed and head up for church. The Christmas service last only one hour, from 4 pm, giving us time to visit my grandparents’ grave. At 5 pm the service is over, and the church bells rings continoulsy for a long time (officially for an hour). Christmas has officially begun.

The difference this year is that I had a Malaysian girlfriend by my side. It has been really interesting to have Darsh(ini) in my home town, with my family, in my house, alongside all the traditions and settings I have encountered throughout my life. She has been a really good sport, meeting heaps of people, dealing with the vintry snow and the lack of sunlight. She gets along really well with my family and acts as a member with her willingness to be joyous, eat and help out.

Family dinner was salted muttons (norwegian: pinnekjøtt). My brother celebrates with his wife this year, while we got my sister’s fiancé “in exchange”. Christmas time is much about meals, a bit about eating, but mostly about the fellowship.

From around 8 pm onwards we unwrapped presents. Also Darsh had been given a fair share parcels, mainly containging clothing and artifacts made in Norway. Personally I like giving over receiving, especially as I feel I (and most people in the West) have more than enough as it is, but still were thrilled with many of the great gifts on which people had put my name tag. Examples are some of the books I got; “Promoting the Gospel”, “1001 movies to see before you die” and “Broken English spoken perfectly.” The coolest one may be a belt with DRE written on the buckle.


Most important is a concept I got from some and gave to a few; “gifts that change the world”. This specific Norwegian idea, is an example of charity where instead of an artifiact, the receipent gets a card stating that the money is put to give hope and future to people with less then us – through things like chickens, goats, sport equipment or water pumps.

Today, Christmas day, is more a time to chill and the only time of year we are “grounded”. One picturesque event was Darsh’ first creation of snowmen (and snowballs). After coming here she has also seen proper snow and seen it snowing for the first time in her life. We are enjoying time together so much that you will not be getting more frequent updates than the current flow – as long as she is here at least.

We return to Oslo January third. Before then we will be with more people and family of mine, go out, go snomobiling, go to the city of Tromsø for New Year’s Eve – among other things.

Enjoy the season, preserve and nurture your relationships with each other – just the way God wants it.

In Norwegian, Merry Christmas is "God jul". Underneath is a marsipan cake decorated by the lovely Darsh, for you to absorb and us to eat ;)

E: DARSH IS HERE!!!

After 172 days we finally caught up. I left Melbourne June 21st. Darsh landed in Oslo December 11th. We have now been together for a little more than a week. Having communicated solely through media such as letters, e-mail, phone, sms, msn, web cam, skype and prayers, it has been a big relief finally to be able to see each other in person. Thus, the last week has been jammed with activities and not so much talking. Since last Monday we have seen many of the most important sites in Oslo, met many of the most important people in my life from around here, seen some movies, ate good food, waited for the snow and enjoyed each others company. It was not as weird reuniting as we may have feared.

Additionally, we went to Gotenborg between Thursday and Saturday last week, catching up with Darsh-friends who she met in Australia; Jonas, Paul & Andrea (see pic below). We also watched Norway beat Hungary in Women's Handball European Championship and visited Liseberg among other things.


More pictures, stories and text to come, I had just had one too many (better) things to do, than typing on a computer. My apologies to all those Norwegian speakers eager to read your native tongue again; it will come :)

E: 1600 times online

If I search for ”Sindre Storvoll” in Google, so-called googling, I get about 1600 hits. That is when searching on my full name with brackets, not just Sindre (909,000 hits) and Storvoll (24,000 hits) by themselves. As far as I know I am the only one on this planet with this name (. No, I do not have any middle names).

The web pages that appear originate from some 50 different domains. I will hereby quickly describe a few of them – responsible for a chunk of hits.

Much has to do with my own composition of text.Blogger.com: Blogger is the host of my webpages Mastermind and the former Dre Down Under. Furthermore, is OSI the club for whose volleyball team I play and write match reports. DinSide is the consumer web page is my main work place for journalistic work and database update. The owner, Aller Internett, is also in charge of ITavisen.no – the computer news website I worked for this summer.

Moreover, Ilimitado ia a support group in connection to some missionaries in Bolivia sent out by the Norwgian Mission Alliances. I know a couple of the missionaries and wrote a bit for the page while in La Paz in January last year, hanging/helping out with the volunteers from Norway at the time.

I have also written for pages like Dyrøyseminaret and Revestreken – the local newspaper for my county Dyrøy.

In other circumstances, I see that articles I have written are quoted of sites I have not heard of before. This I find flattering.

I do not only interview. For a youth page in my region to the sports pages in a Las Vegas news paper, I have given some comments after journalism was digitalized.

I have also played quite a bit of soccer in my life, including many years for my home town Brøstadbotn. I am also registered in the register for people from Dyrøy, my county. My political involvement is poor online, but a visible stand is against the early/materializing of Christmas.

Other reasons for why my name is online is that I have friends with blogs who link to my blog or mention my name. The same happens when I enter various guestbooks, suggestions, comments or competitions comments at personal and commercial pages.

The complete listings are found by doing the search.

The interesting part with this is the discussion about identity, privacy and about impossibility of removing oneself from the Internet. With so many entries online, I do not know if I could just disappear – even if I wanted to. And although Google is a good search engine, maybe the best, there are sites and many a database it does have access to or do not use. A Yahoo-search gives about 900 hits, but have a few that Google does not have - for instance my old blog from Las Vegas (now attacked by ads). Here you also find links to my Melbourne soccer club (Northern Pumas) and various other entries. The Norwegian engines Kvasir and Sesam, "only" came up with 203 and 205.

And there are entries none of the engines will reveal. For instance, Norway is one of the countries with a very extensive availability of names and contact details online, if you do not block yourself. See GuleSider's entry on me.

There are dangers and skepticism in having such world wide access to my information, but for now I thought I would just give it a mention for the sake of updating my blog :)

E: Crammed weekend

My Friday to Sunday had no less than five reunion-like happenings of remembrance.

* Last supervisor meeting this year. An hour after 10 am was more or less the beginning of my Christmas holiday. The remaining load of work is a bit alarming, but needs to be put aside while taking a long-needed time out. When returning in January I need to explore the field of religion sociology, according to my supervisor.

* Journalism student celebration. One of this year’s many Christmas dinner gatherings, was a semi-reunion of my journalism college class. About 40 of the then enrolled 60 students turned up for dinner (at the restaurant Mecca), followed by socializing in the club Sydöst (SouthEast). I proclaim that there are extremely few educations that can generate so interesting and wide-ranging what-have-you-been-up-to conversations as those going for journalism and media.

* Volleyball win. The final volleyball match for the year ended with an easy 3-0 win with horrible performances from both teams. Therefore, the match report is particularly short, but for once in English – in dedication of our leaving Italian player (I do not speak Italian and he is not very good in Norwegian). I played libero again, because of the many injuries we had.

This can be classified as a reunion as we have played this team twice before this fall and we met up as a team :)

* Family reunion. My brother with wife lives in Oslo. My parents and my sister with fiance all came to town for the weekend. Saturday they all came to our game. At night we went to “The Fast Show” by the humorous group Raske Menn (Fast men). This must be the funniest thing I have seen in a very long time. Creative, original, talented, diverse and energetic – with everything from skits to songs to audience interactions to charades. I easily recommend it over the other big comedy hit this fall, Team Eckbo – which I also would describe as a time and money well spent. I choose start my usage of embedded film clips with their most known skit; the world history in 5 minutes (in Norwegian):



Later we, the family, headed for the Italian restaurant Santinos. In a couple of weeks we will meet up again, then with my better half as well.


* Preperations for Malaysian arrival. Sunday was the day before and today is the day my girlfriend Darshini will be coming to Norway. She is currently in Vienna, and her final flight’s landing wheels will start rolling on Norwegian soil around 10:15 pm tonight. It will be one big climax, being seperated since June 21st (which adds up to 173 days apart!). Sunday was spent cleaning, packing and preparing the final bits upon arrival.

From tonight until January 10th my life will be occupied with a girl that is hopefully my very last girlfriend and my first (and only) partner for life. The month ahead will determine if things are as we think they are and that we are still willing to turn our lives upside-down for one another. The blog updates for the time to come might be less frequent than currently, as I will have better things to do :)

If-fen seier

Gårdagen begynte strålende med en prinsipiell seier mot IF/Europeiske.

I mai syklet jeg, som kjent (?), i en bil som ikke holdt vikeplikten. For de som husker krasjet i Melbourne, hørte jeg aldri mer fra de bil-skyldige.

I etterkant viste det seg uansett at min reiseforsikring fra Europeiske var en annen enn den jeg trodde jeg hadde besilt, og som i utgangspunktet ikke ga meg noen dekning 45 dager etter utreise. Selskapet skulle ta kontakt for å klarne opp i sakene. Da jeg kom tilbake til Norge, leverte jeg de nødvendige papirene til ANSA som jeg også var forsikret hos. Her fikk jeg kompensasjon for sykkelreprasjon og ødelagt kompakt fotokamera. Europeiske hørte jeg ikke noe mer fra. I høst tegnet jeg ny reiseforsikring med Vesta.

Men så på tirsdag fikk jeg melding fra if om å kontakte de fordi post var kommet i retur til min gamle adresse postadresse på Grefsen. Jeg ringte, mest for å si at jeg ikke hadde behov for noe post da jeg hadde ny forsikring og den gamle var gått ut. I stedet Fikk jeg vite at jeg skylte 361 kroner som ville gå til inkasso om jeg ikke betalte før fredag. Pengene var for en forlenget ekstraforsikring med straffebot ettersom jeg ikke hadde avbestilt forsikringen. Og fakturaen var blitt sendt til min gamle postadresse Grefsen (all korrespondanse mens jeg var i Australia foregikk per telefon eller e-post).

Dette stod det muligens noe om mellom en av linjene på papirmassen jeg fikk ved kontraktinngåelse, men jeg argumenterte med at jeg ennå ventet på svar fordi jeg mente forsikringsavtalen ikke dekket det jeg i utgangspunktet ønsket å få dekket. Den serviceinnsilte kundebehandleren, hun var faktisk det, responderte med å slette summen.

Det var ikke snakk om mange kronene, og intet stort steg for menneskeheten, men det føltes likevel godt ikke å bli straffet urettvist.

E: Humorously lost in translation

English is a world language, but is not alwayws equally well-spoken throughout the globe. Here follows some laugh-out-loud examples from an exert of the book "Lost in Translation: Misadventures in English Abroad" by Charlie Croker (2006). The list is also referred to on ScaGOZO.com and recently on the online consumer web site for which I work: DinSide.

Air China brochure
Dear Passenger, Wish you have a joyful journey! When you are in public talking and Old Ladakh Guest House (hospitalizing since 1974).

Seoul
Choose twin bed or marriage size; we regret no King Kong size.

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursdays.

In an Italian hotel, signs by the bell
If service is required, give two strokes to the maid and three to the waiter.
It is kindly requested from our guests that they avoid dirting and doing rumours in the rooms.
Hot and cold water running up and down the stairs.

Las Palmas, Canary Islands
If you telephone for room service you will get the answer you deserve.

Rome, Italy
Please dial 7 to retrieve your auto from the garbage.

Vietnam
Visitor should be not carried: arm, pets of material should be fired into the hotel. Visitor should be not ironed-cooked-washed. Hotel has got every service for a visitor.

Seoul
Measles not included in room charge.

Dalat, Vietnam
Laundry bag
19: Skirt
20: Stocking
21: Hand Kerchief
22: Big Towel
23: Small Towel
24: Hat
25: Shoes
26: Tie
27: Price of ironing
28: Car with 12 to 15 seats
29: Car with 4 seats.

Tel Aviv, Israel
If you wish breakfast, lift the telephone and our waitress will arrive. This will be enough to bring up your food.

Austria
Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
Moscow, Russia
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.

Acapulco, Mexico
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.

Serbia
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. Turn to her straightaway.

Thailand
Please do not bring solicitors into your room.

Japan
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.

Possible 'How was the service?' answers, Cuba
a) Excellent
b) The awaited one
c) Almost the awaiting one
d) Nothing

Finland
If you cannot reach a fire exit, close the door and expose yourself at the window.

Copenhagen, Denmark
In the event of fire, open a window and announce your presence in a seemly manner.

Beijing
No smoking in bed. If it's on fire the guests should be disperse according to the safety way.

Tokyo
In case of earthquake, use the torch to pass yourself out.

Madrid
Our wine list leaves you nothing to hope for.

Nairobi, Kenya
Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.

Poland
As for the tripe served you at the Hotel Monopol, you will be singing its praises to your grandchildren on your deathbed.

Ankara
You are invite to visit our restaurant where you can eat the Middle East Foods in a European ambulance.

Replies from German hotels in response to inquiries about accommodation
Standing among savage scenery the hotel offers stupendous revelations.
There is a French widow in every bedroom, affording delightful prospects.
A hotel should be a home from home. But then again, it's at home where most deaths occur.

Sign in hire car, Tokyo, Japan
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.

Instructions on Japanese driving rules
At the rise of the hand of the policeman, stop rapidly. Do not pass him, otherwise disrespect him. Do not explosion the exhaust pipe. Avoid entanglement with your wheel spoke. Go soothingly on the grease mud as there lurks a skid demon.

Notice in sleeping carriage on Indian train
Do not invite thieves to sleep in the floor.

On a Soviet ship in the Black Sea
Helpsavering apparata in emergings behold many whistles! Associate the stringing apparata about the bosoms and meet behind. Flee then to the indifferent lifesavering shippen obediencing the instructs of the vessel chef.

On a ferry in San Juan, Puerto Rico
In case of emergency, the lifeguards are under the seat in the center of the vessel.

Sign at ferry terminal in Davao, Phillipines
Adults: 1 USD
Child: 50 cents
Cadavers: subject to negotiation.

X: Silver in/Sølvgutter i Trondheim

The first divison volleyball season is divided between season matches and three ranking tournaments. The first tournament was in Trondheim this weekend. We won 7 of 11 games/sets, or 3 out of 4 matches – losing only the final. I was ver annoyed with the close loss yesterday, but am more satisfied with the achievement today. My role was, as usual, libero. Tournament report in Norwegian here. Pictures will come (not taken by me).

Being with Thor Oskar in Trondheim, and meeting friends like Kristin, Igor, Thomas and Torstein, improved the quality of the stay.

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Førstedivisjon i vollebayll er en kombinasjon med vanlig seriespill og rankingturneringer. Å vinne serien gir 150 poeng, og det å vinne en turnering 50. Plassene bak gir naturlig nok gradvis færre poeng i potten. Den første turneringa va i Trondheim i helga. Vi, OSI, ble nummer to etter å ha vunnet 7 av 11 sett, det vil si seier i tre av fire bataljer. Vi tapte en jevn finale mot Mosjøen i går, som vi slo i gruppespillet lørdag. Les turneringsreferat her. Bilder kommer (fra andres kamera).

Det å være med min bestevenn Thor Oskar i Trondheim, og møte Kristin (hans kjæreste), Igor, Thomas og Torstein, foredlet oppholdet ytterligere.

Hverdagsspekulasjoner

Har jeg litt ro i mitt indre, får jeg mange rare tanker. Jeg liker det best på grunn av sinnsroen, men det er spennende å fundere. For eksempel spurte jeg en urmaker i går hvor mange klokker (armbåndsur) han hadde. Svaret var fem-seks, selv om det bare var et par han brukte til vanlig.

Håndballklinsj
Hva har håndball egentlig med kubjeller og hjelm med horn på? Jeg har aldri sett en ku i en sportshall og kjenner ikke til noen bondelag i ligaen, så fremt en et nytt Tufte-konsept har gått meg fjøs forbi. Og jeg klarer ikke i min villeste fantasi å se for meg vikinger legge sverd og mjød til side for korte shorts og en håndball, for et lagsspill med sofistikerte regler. Er ikke flaggets farger "norske" nok?

Bilde fra Bergens Tidene

Reklamebom?
Det er greit at Telenor endelig har økt bredbåndskapasiteteten. Men at nyheten frontes ved å la en smågal bestefar drive ulovlig mp3-nedlasting av stammende 90-tallshits midt på natten er vel ikke den beste måten å reklamere på (lenken vises til reklamefilmen)?

Navnforvirring
En liten lingvistisk digresjon: Som forstad er et område før en by, blir fornavn egentlig noe som burde komme før et navn. Da mellomnavn er mellom noe, og etternavn til slutt, kan man på norsk argumente for at alle egentlig burde ha fem navn: fornavn, første egentlige navn, mellomnavn, siste egentlige navn og så etternavn.

E: Online clips 18

When the working gets tough, the fun gets going.

I like hip hop, and am amazed by rappers who can imitate other quick-mouth stars.

Commercials are mainly to convince and cell, but parodies can be really humourous. At least the manly PMS replacement pills is worth a look.

Priests and pastors baptizing have to be prepared for anything – also while baptizing.

Like hunting for men and a motherly care for women, I think finding harmless explotions cool, is a human instinct.

Birthdays is a common event to caputre on film. That is a main reason for having many viewable memories from them, and humorous ones from whom you do not even know.

There battle between democrats and republicans is tense. In this hearing, an opponent of the current president lets out his dissapointment.

See my collections of all online clips.

E: Life bygone list

My updates have been easy to keep track of lately – as there has been few of them. This is not because the number of occasions have been dropping, rather the opposite. Not all have been new and radical, but the sum has exceeded necessary composure to relfect and blog frequently.

Thus, I give you a list of the important 10 elements that have occupied my mind and time the last few weeks (but not out of my life as the title may indicate).

1) Darsh is coming! Yesterday was two weeks until my girlfriend, Darshini, will enter Norwegian territory. The 22-year-old Malaysian speech pathology student have a havy share in “life stock” such as phone conversation time, SMSes, e-mailing writing, thoughts and prayer. And from December 11th she will occupy most of my time for the month to follow. Being physically separated since June 21st sure makes it about time to meet again. Long distance relationships are rarely just fun, but can still be worthwhile. More on the reunion to come. It will be really good to be around her again.

2) Studies are getting to me. Having spent an entire semester by myself, on my own terms and motivational factors require self discipline. I consider myself diligent in this way, but my working steam had a bit of a crack recently as the newspaper database, atekst, needed to gather the indispensable articles for my thesis, is down. Nor do the people in charge now how or when to get in operating functionally. Instead I have been doing a bit of on-the-side work, and am now writing theoretical chapters for the introduction.

3) Sport wise, I have been training regularly. Apart from a bit of squash, running and weights, volleyball happens three times a week + weekend matches. Other than last weekends loss, the team is doing well and we are ready for a ranking tournament this upcoming weekend in Trondheim (where we had mustaches last time around). Volleyball has been consistent

4) Christmas is less than a month away. Accordingly I have completed the parcel shopping for 2006. There are still some details remaining and a bit of fixing to do for a couple of presents, but I have wrapped most and shipped off those I will not be able to give away myself. I love giving, and I sense relief for being about done with this can-be stressing purchasing activity.

5) The holiday season came about to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Being a Christian lately has been satisfactory (beyond the general certainty in meaning and purpose of life and salvation). I have a Bible study guide devotional I like, and enjoy time attending or translating in church (into English, which I do every third Sunday); Storsalen. The student complex is also a good place to live.

6) I now have green light to get a house loan from my local bank. Even though the interest is not the national best, there may be tough to get a mortgage elsewhere as I can only predict what I will be making for the years to come. I do not even know where I will be or what I will do :) But I keep looking for apartments to buy, and find a fair bit of could-be-interesting ones. Have not been on house inspection yet, though.

7) Handball is an excited sport. I watched my first live match ever Sunday, November 19th. In the top national division for women, Stabæk defeated Bækkelaget 21-19 in an average performance in Nadderudhallen (the home stadium hall). My views on the physical toughness in the game were strenghtened. Those players are tough. At the same time I confirmed my conviction that handball is really the sport I am proportioned to do. Volleyball is fun too, but my willingness to run fast and long is not used. Compared to soccer, I am better with my hands than feet. Maybe I will go try out next season for the fun of it.

8) Team Eckbo is this fall’s most famous theatrical comedy show in Norway. Four of Norways funniest men perform four times a week at the main stage of the Chateu Neuf buidling in Oslo. I went there Thursday November 17th with my friend Maia. Her synopsis here. Underneath follows a paragraph from my diary entry that day (in Norwegian).

Høydepunktet for dagen var Team Eckbo med Maia. Humorgjengen har ikke uten grunn fylt Chateu Neuf gang på gang torsdag til lørdag de siste ukene. Innslagene er mange og kreative, særlig de segmentene som improviseres på scenen. Noen stikkord fra de ulike sketsjene og innslagene; gjøglere, sneglenes dans, musikal om allværsjakke, sang om anti-penetrering bakfra, jul med Eckbo-karakteren Asbjørn, en eggete fremstilling av konflikten mellom Hizbollah og Israeal, Ekstra Joker Nord, danske produsenter av trailere (smakebiter fra spillefilmer), Debatt En, og en finale med eventyrlesing og barnemating på ett (1) minutt. Jeg lo mye og inderlig, som var godt for kropp og sjel, selv om det ikke er det aller morsomte jeg har sett med de gutta. Terningkast fem (eller 6,9 på en skala til 10).

Picture taken from Leif-Atle Heen's home page.

9) Work, in DinSide, is business as usual. Sometimes it is good just to do pretty mind-less database updating (when writing services are not needed).

10) Fatigue. The last few days I have felt really exhausted. I do not go to bed early, but have slept as much, if not more then usual (that is more then 7-7,5 hours per night). It has been raining consisently for weeks, and the desired winter snow does not set. It gets darked much sooner than earlier. I have a lot to do and have been a bit stressed. Still, none of these factors normally drain me of noticable energy for any significant period of time. I reckon it is a passing phase, but am more cautious now than before about taking breaks when needed.

X: Seier og tap på 10 sett

We lost 2-3 in volleyball today, but won 3-2 last Saturday. The current negativism and lack of enthusiasm is my explination of lacking determination and poor results.

Last Saturday night we also had our annual Christmas dinner/party event. Pictures can be viewed here.

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Vi tapte mot Kolbotn i dagens volleyballdyst. Det er to tap av to mulige i årets serie. Jeg følte meg ikke helt til stede, litt småsyk/tom i hodet. Selv om tilbakemeldingene var positive, følte jeg det som alt jeg gjorde var mer eller mindre vilkårlig og at kontrollen manglet. Jeg skulle liksom returnere som stødig libero foran helgas viktige kamp, som vi tapte 3-2. Les kampreferatet her.

Sist helg slo vi Lier 3-2, uten å overbevise. Jeg spilte endelig kant, men fikk kun ett sett til tross for at min innsats var mer eller mindre feilfri. Dette var noe irriterende da mannskapet som var på surret en god del mot slutten av kampen. Kampreferat her.

Vorspiel, pinnekjøtt, dans, prat, underholdning og musikk er sentrale stikkord for det påfølgende julebordet samme lørdagskveld. Bildene forteller litt mer.

X: 10 best(e) feel-good hits

My mate Dag Yngve adores music, owning about 2000 CD and LP records. During his visit yesterday, he challenged me to compile a list of the top ten song that make me feel best within. There are piles of pop rock melancoly hits and a row of strong Christian worship tunes that all generate emotions and joy, but rarely carry the property of uniqueness needed to make the cut for the list. Keep in mind also that this does not say what songs I think are the very best, nor which ones I listen to the most.

The web master stresses that the list may be incomplete, and the order of the tracks may vary with my daily mood. I like lists. There may be more popping up int he near future. That most certainly goes for other life updates too – it is just a tad too much happening these days.

Having said that, have a peek at my list (artist first, then title) below the odd combinations of letters (Norwegian). Song 1, 3, 5 and 9 are (surprisingly to myself) in my mother tongue. Number 7 is from South Africa, partly in English.

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Min musikkdiggende venn Dag Yngve eier omkring 2000 CD- og LP-plagetr. I gå ba meg sette opp en liste til sin hjemmeside over de ti låtene som får meg til føle meg best i mitt indre. Det finnes mange rolige poprock hittene og en rekke kraftige worship-spor som kan generere flust av følelser og glede, men sjelden har den unikumsegenskapen som trengs for å figurere på en slik liste.

Under følger mitt ordinale utvalg (artist – tittel). Webansvarlig bedyrer at den kan være ufullstendig, og at rekkefølgend kan varierer med dagsformen. Husk også at dette ikke er synonymt med lista over de beste sangene eller de jeg hører mest på. Overraskende nok (i alle fall for min egen del) er både 1, 3, 5, og 9 norske. Nummer 7 er fra Sør-Afrika. Jeg liker lister. Det blir det nok flere av fremover (i likhet med litt flere ord fra de seneste opplevelsene i hverdagen).

1) Sigvart Dagsland - De umulige
2) Europe - The Final Countdown
3) Odd Nordstoga - Kveldssong for deg og meg
4) Good Charlotte - We believe
5) Ravi & DJ Løv - Tsjeriåu
6) U2 - Beautiful Day
7) Kwela - Emlanjeni
8) Twizted - Afraid of Me
9) Sander - Vi tar det som det kommer
10) Genesis - Congo

X: Divine drip 4/Himmeldrypp 4

An introduction and the former three parts can be found here.

What: Sermon in Assembly of God (AOG), Park Street, Melbourne (Australia), May 7, 2006
Who: Pastor in AOG
Scripture (part of the Bible): Samples from the book of Mark

* Before communion three joys of death on the cross was mentioned
- To be reunited with our Father
- That everything is laid by his feet (Eph 1:22)
- That it had a divine purpose

Sermon: Desperation

* In desperate situations people do and ask for desperate things
# Mark 5:21-43 (minus 25-34): One of the leaders of the synagoge left his (Jewish) religion desperate to get an answer (from Jesus). We do not get any answers if we do not ask.
# Mark 2:1-12: A paralyzed man and his friends where so desperate that they opened/destroyed the roof in house where Jesus was – just to meet him. Masses of listeners blocked them from entering. Fortunately the paralyzed had reliable friends.
# Mark 5:23-24: A lady crawls up and touces the cloth of Jesus, desperate to be healed from her many years of bleeding.
# Mark 7:24-30: A lady, whose dauther was posssed by evil spirits, fell at Jesus’ feet, desperate to have her daughter freed – although Jesus wanted to be alone.

Common for these people is that desperation is more important than social status and reputation. They did not feel worthy, but asked for help regardless.

* How desperate are you?
- What are your obstacles?
- Are the depression, need and the initiative greater than the hindrances; pride, opinions of others and social status?

* Faith in action is initiative
- Excercise faith
- Take initiative
– God will answer prayer

* Jesus is the only answer; God of the impossible

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En introduksjon til blogserien og de forrige tre bidragene finnes her.


Hva: Preken i Assembly of God (AOG), Park Street, Melbourne (Australia), 7. mai 2006
Hvem: Pastoren i AOG
Bibeltekst: Fra boka av Markus

* Før nattverden var det nevnt tre gleder man har på grunnet døden på korset
- Å bli gjenforent med Far
- At alt er underlagt hans føtter (Efeserne 1:22)
- At det hadde en himmelsk mening

* I desperate situasjoner gjør og spør folk om desperate ting.
- I Mark 5:21-43 (minuus 25-34) står det om en av synagogens ledere som gikk ut hans (jødiske) religion i desperasjon for å få svar (fra Jesus). Vi får ikke svar om vi ikke spør
- I Markus 2:1-12 står det om en lam og hans venner som var så desperate at de åpnet/ødela taket for å møte Jesus. De var hindret av mengden og bevegelighet – men den lamme hadde venner man kan stole på
- Mark 5:24-34 forteller om en dame med blødning som i desperasjon etter å bli frisk tok på Jesu klær.
- I Mark 7:24-30 kaster en kvinne seg ned for Herrens føtter selv om Jesus hadde bedt om at han tilstedeværelse ikke skulle bli kjent.

Gjengs er at desperasjonen ble viktigere enn sosial status og omdømme. De følte seg ikke verdige, men ba om hjelp uansett.

* Hvor desperat er du?
- Hva er dine hindringer?
- Er desperasjonen, behovet og dets initiativ større enn hindringene (stolthet, medmenneskers syn, sosial status)?

* Tro i aksjon er initiativ
- Utøv troen
- Ta initativ
- Gud vil svare dine bønner

Jesus er det eneste svaret. Gud for det umulige.

X: Flea spree/Loppedilla

Flea markets are cool. At least in Oslo. This fall has really revealed to me the numbered of treasures that hide between encyclopedias and old coats. Densely populated areas generate great selections where there will always be personal jewels at hand. I only got the chance to visit two fields of harvest before winter came along, but the reaping was groovy.

A mobile white screen (for projectors/slides) costed me only 30 kroner (USD 4.7) and a fully functional hammock 40 kroner (USD 6.2) – which is, at least in Norway, extremely cheap. The same can be said about my main “investments”; a palaroid camera (10 kroner/USD 1.6 !) and old time type writer (40 kroner). I do not know, or care, if they fully work or not (bought them for domestic “exhibition” purposes).

Earlier this semester I had a great urge to fit out my apartment-to-be-purchased solely with flea market and give-away articles – as far reasonably possible. This way I would save heaps of kroner (or dollars) and automatically institute an environmental and smashing original style for my movables.

Recycling is retro extreme!

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Loppemarked er kult. I alle fall i Oslo. I høst har jeg virkelig fått opp øynene får de mange skattene som virkelig skjuler seg mellom leksikon og gamle kåper. For med store publikum, blir det stort utvalgt og alltid et eller annet fancy å hente seg. Jeg fikk i grunn bare med meg to stykker før vinteren kom, men fikk til gjengjeld gjort noen ordentlige varp.

Et lerret med stativ til 30 kroner og en flott hengekøye til 40 er særdeles rimelig. Det samme kan sies om mine hovedfunn; et palaroid kamera og en gammeldags skrivemaskin. Å betale henholdsvis 10 (!) og 40 kroner er nærmest et ran – uavhengig om de virker eller ikke (noe jeg ikke vet).

Jeg fikk en visjon tidligere om at den dagen jeg kjøper meg leilighet skal jeg innrede bare med loppemarked og gi-bort artikler – i den grad det er mulig. Det kan jeg spare mye penger på, og samtidig få meg en miljøvennlig og pangoirinal innbostil.

Gjenbruk - gjenvinning - gjenommført seier.

X: Close joy / Nært og glad

We were extremely close. My volleyball team (1 div) lost the quarter final today by lousy three points in tie break. Final score 2-3 (26-24, 17-25, 25-20, 16-25, 12-15). Personally I am satisified with my own libero effort against old team mates (I played with while living in the north). Even though we are out of the cup, there is not much dissapointment to be traced within me or the rest of the team, as we had nothing to lose, everyone thought we would be mashed, and we proved all wrong. Nor would we be able to afford an advancement :)

Right after the game I went to a city cafe to celebrat father’s day with him, my brother and his wife and a friend of my dad. It is nice to

Last nite I heard Funky Baptized in concert after attending a festivity meeting for the Norwegian IFES organization, NKSS, during its general assembly.

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Vi var så nærme så nærme. OSI førstedivisjonslag tapte kvartfinalen i volleyballens Norgescup med usle tre poeng. Les kampreferatet mitt her. Personlig er jeg fornøyd med liberoinnsats mot gamle medspillere (BK Tromsø er i stor grad gamle Brøstadbotn jeg spilte på en gang). Selv om vi er slått ut, er det ikke så mye skuffelse og spore i meg selv og resten av lagskameratene, da vi absolutt ikke hadde noe å tape og var storfornøyd med å yppe litt med de store gutta.

Etter kamp dro jeg rett ned i byen på Den Gode Café med min far, en venn av ham (Vidar), min bror og hans kone (Ingunn Sofie). Det var tid for å ha litt familietreff og sette pris på fedrenes dag.

I går var for øvrig en stor kveld med ”Takk for Laget”, festivititene rundt NKSS’ generalforsamling (den kristne organiasjonen jeg har hatt desidert mest å gjøre med siden ungdomsskolen, og den tilhørende konserten med Funky Baptized.

X: Dead ironic/dødlig ironisk

After a couple of weeks with snow and cold, most of the white stuff and its underlying ice had melted by Tuesday. After cycling all the way to my study desk at uni, still without winter tires (on my bike), i plunge to the ground after a right turn about 40 meters from the main door entrance – the only icy area on my journey.

Minorily battered I get up and confirm that my body, bike and my portable mac (in my backpack) are without damages (unlike my camera in the Aussie crash). After a long day of research I go home, cook and chill for a bit while reading the newspaper. Before practice I quickly go upstairs to get ready for practice. Out of habit, I unpack my bag and am about to put the mac on my study desk. Though the zipper type bag is not fully closed, and the grey metal machinery slips out and hit the floor.

Now the result is a minor bump in the back left corner close to the power outlet. It is only a matter of a milimeter or two, everything still works, but attaching the power cord takes slightly longer than previously. And the value of the powerbook fell with the fall.

The irony: Crash in my room rather than the obvious cycle fall
The moral: most accidents are domestic (happen at home)

Halfway related to this entry is an article I read in VG, Norway’s most selling newspaper. A Danish investigation has quantized just how many deaths are related to stress. We push ourselves to the max to live what we see as complete lives – which, if done in excess, ironically can be the cause of casualty. The closest I came to an English equivilient was a page answering affirmative that stress can kill you.

People at risk are (and I translate/quote): people understimlated or ignored, who encouter stress, who are teased, those working excessively and those with socalled unlimited work; those who can work anywhere anytime without limites to what and how much that is to be produced.

Getting burned out or simply collapse of too much activity are causes of action I see as real dangerous – and neither unimaginable for myself. I am a fairly occupied character in my wake hours, and have friends who have taken leave from studies and work because of too much work or commotion.

Chill, people! And have a great (relaxing) day!

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Tirsdag morgen var en nokså av-iset dag. Etter å ha syklet hele veien til Institutt for Medier og kommunikasjon (ved Forskningsparken for de kjent i Oslo), går jeg i bakken rundt 40 meter fra inngangsdøra etter å ha tatt en sving på speilisen; som kun var i de få kvadratmetene utenfor bygget.

Småforslått reiser jeg meg opp igjen, og kan konstantere at verken kroppen, sykkelen eller macen, som ligger i sekken, har fått noen skader. Etter en lang lese-/jobbedag drar jeg hje, mekker middag, absorberer avisene og tar livet litt med ro en liten time. Så er det tid for trening. Jeg spretter opp på rommet i andretasjen, og skal bare kjapt pakke ut sakene ved å legge Powerbooken (min bærbare mac) på pulten. Glidelåsbagen er ikke helt glidd igjen, og følgelig sklir macen ut og faller rett i gulvet. Konsekvensen er at det ene bakre hjørnepartiet får en bulk rett ved strøminntaket. Det er snakk om en milimeter eller to, alt fungerer heldigvis, men maskinen datt nok i verdi. Og det å tilkoble strømledning til uttaket er litt seinere og hakket mer ustabilt enn før.

Ironien; krasj på rommet i stedet for den opplagte sykkelvelten
Moralen; de fleste ulykker skjer i hjemmet

Halvveis relatert er en sak i VG mandag om en at man kan dø av stress. Vi styrer og presser oss til det ytterste for å leve – som ved for mye innsats ironisk nok kan være vårt jordlige dødsstøt.

Folk i faresonen for å havne i kronisk stress er

”folk som blir understimulert eller oversett, oppleve stress, de som blir mobbet, de som jobber svært mye, og de som har såkalt grenseløst arbeid. De kan jobbe overalt, til alle tider og har uklare grenser for hva og hvor mye de skal produsere.”

Akkurat det med utbrenthet og kollaps av overarbeidethet tror jeg er en reell fare – og ikke helt utopisk for meg selv heller. Jeg er en nokså hengitt karakter i mine våkne timer, og har venner som har gått på sykemeldende smeller på grunn av overbelastning.

Ha en kontrollert og avslappende dag!

Blest før kvartfinalen

Volley Media er Norges nye, og godt brukte nyhetsportal for volleyball. I skrivende stunde er OSI hovedsaken.

Som kampreferent er det moro å lese at "OSI herrer har også noen av landets friskeste kampreferater".

Jeg har prøvd å fiske litt interesse hos Oslo-pressen, med "pressemeldinger" til Aftenposten, Dagsavisen og TV Norge (Oslo-TV). Vi får se om noen biter på. Klanen (supporterklubben til Vålrenga Idrettsforening) bet heller fra seg, etter jeg gjorde et PR-fremstøt på klubbens forum.

Kampen går altså søndag i Domus Athletica (Oslo), klokka 10:45. Inngang: 0 kr. Underholdningsverdi: Ubetalelig.

Alltid en mobilkampanje

Mitt siste lille bidrag til DinSide Økonomi tar for seg de nyeste bevegelsene hos landets mobilabonnementer.

E: Triple victory

A long weekend travel is completed, with good experiences, good friends and two good wins. Both yesterday and today we proved considerably stronger than Gløshaugen and Åsheim (match reports in Norwegian if clicking on the names).

I played libero as usual, and apparantely will keep doing so at least until after the quarter final next Sunday. I do not mind the position, and defintetly that I get to play on this good team (we are leading our division group), but look forward to a chance at actually do some net blocking and striking.

Attached is one of the mustache photos from those who deared to play the Saturday that way against the ”mustache city” team Gløshaugen.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
A thanks to Thor Oskar, Kristin, Torstein and Igor for making my Trondheim visit so memorable – in addition to the volleyball guys of course.

I write triple victory because the soccer team Tromsø managed to remain in the Norwegian elite league in today’s final round of the season.

E: To Trondheim with mustache

Yesterday I flew to Trondheim. The airline "Norwegian" was on the verge to go on a strike, but managed to negotiate a deal with the employers, nearly 20 hours after deadline.

The reason for my presence here is now to visit friends, including my best friend Thor Oskar (with whom I stay), and play volleyball on Saturday (versus NTNUI Gløshaugen) and Sunday (versus Åsheim).

Trondheim is nicknamed the city of mustache. Thus, most our team members will shave so that the only piece of beard tomorrow will be that under the nose. Pictures will come.

Lack of time and regular access to the Internet, may disallow me from further updates before returning to Oslo Sunday night.

I am currently working and doing fine. Winter has reached most of Norway now, and all the way from Oslo to the north is covered by the white element.

Hva med et gebyrfritt lån?

Min siste epistel for DinSide Økonomi omhandler banker som betaler tinglysninga for deg og ikke krever noe i etablerings- eller termingebyr. Men det er den effektive renta som gjør utslaget.

E: Finally a DSLR

My very first camera was compact and analog and given me for Christmas when I was 12 or 13. Since I purchased my very first digital camera, Canon Powershot G3, I have stored over 15000 photos on my computer. I have never taken any classes, which I have been wanting to, but have gotten heaps of practice behind the lens. A fair amount have also been published in newspapers and online.

Nevertheless, it is not until this fall (September onwards) I have began to feel slightly like a photographer. The reason is my newest investment, which many of you already know; a digital single lens reflex camera. Those unfamiliar with the term, can read this page, or settle with the thought of those big cameras with big objectives in front used in studios and by the press. If you want to buy one, here is what you need to know (I have not read this particular page myself). Canon EOS 350D was my choice.

Beware that new models pop up not unlike in the computer business, which make give you a notion of an old camera fairly quickly. That happened to me. After waiting for years to get one, two weeks after finally sliding my credit card, the new model EOS 400D came out. This was three years since the previoud version was launched. Since then, the price of mine has dropped significantly. I do my best though, for any aspects in life, not to think of how things could have been/what one could have done etc.

Because my camera is just as good as when I bought it. I quickly noticed the improved possibilities for capturing depth, focus and movement. Yet, there are at least four reasons for why I still would have been able to capture better pictures with my current compact version: the Canon Powershot A80.

* Lack of knowledge: I am still in the process of learning how this all works. It is possible for a high price, but most SLR cameras disables the possibilities of looking at the screen while taking photos. Getting used to the view finder again is a big adjustment. It is still lots of fun though, but I also..
* Lack of time: Days are long and easily fill up.
* Objectives make a world of difference for SLRs. With the standard, simple one that comes with the camera, one’s possibilites are limited. Although the flash is not worse than on the compact camera, is it defiantly not much better. I need an external light flasher.
* The size of the new thing makes it inconvenient (and partly unsafe) to drag it along everywhere. I am not bringing the fine technology up in the open as often.

Do not get me wrong, I love the camera. And as soon as time and money allows, I will buy better lenses and an external flash. Due to transitioning to my new macintosh, there has been a delay in publishing new pictures to show recent happenings in the ongoing world. This will take place shortly.

Ut på tur, aldri sur?

”Ta med godt humør...” på ymse invitasjoner er et håpløst utbredt eksempel på naiv overfladiskhet. Av alle ting du må ha med på tur og i sosiale lag er en maske om at alt er velstand og flott uansett hvordan du har det inni deg.

Moralen er at Norge topper verdens utviklingsindeks som beste land å bo i, så ikke prøv å ødelegge ryktet eller lage dårlig stemning med å snakke om eventuelle problemer under kollektive utflukter.

Min oppfordring; ikke ha en fin dag om det ikke stemmer.
NB: Jeg stortrives i Tromsø og har det svært fint for tida :)

E: Online Clips 17

Starting today, I put all of this online clips in a list of its own, retrievable from the links menu to the right.

If you think soccer and volleyball are hard; don’t even think about trying this.

Remember the Colombian soccer goalie who did the amazing save against England? Well, a similar deal has been done in handball.

This campaign is my type of campaign; spreading spread peace, joy and love – through hugs.

There is nothing stopping you from be a grandparent and being cool at the same time.

I love traveling. So does Matt. He has danced through the world and made a really neat movie and website about it.

I had laser surgery on my eyes in Bolivia in January last year. If you plan to do it, I say go go go, but you may want to wait to watch this movie from an operation (not mine, but the lasik method is the one I used) until after you are done.

X: Dyrøyseminaret

Today I was and tomorrow I will attend the seminary/course named "Dyrøyseminaret". This is a conference devloped in my home town, lead by my father. The concept is how to dear to have visions, dreams and faith in oneself, creative ideas, in technology and in business in small communities. My town is such a community, which have had many positive projects happening the last few years. A related building to this work was also opened today by the Norwegian minister of rural affairs.

More in Norwegian on the official page; Dyrøyseminaret, where I am in charge of the daily newsbeat while being here.

Thursday I will head for the city of Tromsø to visit some friends before heading back to Oslo Saturday.

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I dag og i morgen er jeg delaktig på Dyrøyseminaret hjemme i Brøstadbotn. Det har gått i ett siden jeg ankom Nord-Norge i går ettermiddag. Oppdaterte artikler fra i dag (som jeg har skrevet), program og annen informasjon finnes på seminarets offisielle hjemmesider.

Jeg befinner meg "nordafor" fra i går til lørdag. Torsdag tar jeg turen til Tromsø for å besøke kjentfolk før jeg returnerer til hovedstaden.

Det er godt, trivelig og snøfyllt å være i Troms.

Voldelig ironi

Pubene i Kristiansand skal få en tryggere by ved å dele ut sjokolade til drikkegjestene, meldte blant annet Dagbladet.no for en tid tilbake. Feil. Sjokolade er en sukkerbombe. Og forskning viser at sukker kan utløse både hyperaktivitet og voldelig atferd fordi det gir en unormal kjapp økning i blodsukkeret. Om dette er måten de ”ansvarlige vertskapene” skal skape ”snillere gjester” på, kan de likegodt dele ut små festpiller med smilemunn på – så slipper de i alle fall en by forsøplet med innpakningspapir.

X: Quarter final advancement/kvartfinaleplass

My volleyball team qualified for the Norwegian cup’s quarter final today after winning 3-1 and 3-0 against two teams in the mini tournament to decide who was to get the slot. I played libero again, and did my best performance so far. The informal match report is written in Norwegian as usual.

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OSI er i kvartfinalen i norgesmesterskapet i volleyball. Det sørget laget for selv, med overbevisende spill mot Hønefoss og Lier i dag. Jeg spilte libero igjen, og særlig den siste kampen var en av de beste kampene jeg har hatt i klubben. Avansementet ble feiret på klubbfest (for OSI) i Nydalen – derav sen publiseringstidspunkt. Trekningen av motstander vil skje neste uke. Her er turneringsreferatet.

E: Americans & Swedes once drove on the left

In the majority of countries, cars drive on the right hand side. This probably does not surprise you, and until recently I believed the amount of countries which stick to the ”wrong” side was in a tiny minority. However, after traveling around for a bit lately in the Eastern part of the Southern hempisphere, I got my passport stamped in quite a few left side driving countries. And discussions with Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Kiwi and Aussie friends weakened my conviction. For about half a year now I have been curious about what the deal is in term of the actual division between right and left.

Today I came across Brian Lucas’ domain, with a very fascinating page on the topic answering my questions.

* 166 (69 %) of 240 registered countries or territories drive on the right, whilst 74 (31 %) drive on the left (see map)
* About and two thirds (4 billion) of the population drive on the on the right, compared to one third (2 billion) on the left.
* About 21 billion kilometers of road (72 %) is used for right hand driving, compared to about 8 billion kilometers (28 %) on the right.

The page also has historical theories, back to Medieval times, for why things turned out the way they were. I can reveal that much has to do with weapons, wagons, horse riding customs, and most right-handedness.

Some other interesting findings:

* Napoleon was the one enforcing right rule for all European countries (other than the little island west of Norway)
* Both US and Canada once had driving on the left
* In ancient Rome the rule was to go left
* There are nine countries with right side driving that have minor left side exceptions. This includes Italy, Netherlands and Spain.
* Several countries do not have the steering wheel on the opposite side of the side on which they drive. This breaks with my logic, particularly in Japan where some import cars that way intentionally for prestige.
* Boats and planes stick to the right
* The rules are different when it comes to trains
* In the UK pedestrians walk on either side
* And finally to a particular interesting example I myself noticed last semester at the University of Melbourne:

Although Australians normally keep left, the spiral stairs in the Ballieu Library at the University of Melbourne have a sign saying "keep right." This is apparently for safety reasons... The steps curve to the right, or clockwise, as you climb them, and they are very narrow on the inside of the curve. Narrow stairs are easier to climb than to descend, because people usually put only the front part of their foot on a stair and don't use their heels. Therefore, it is easier and safer to climb on the inside of the curve, and descend on the outside where the stairs are wider, meaning that one should keep to the right.

X: Apartment process/Leilighetsprosess

The papers are filled with classifieds on housing. Many of my friends have recently purchased apartments around in Oslo. I may be done studying in June, and will not be able to live in the student complex anymore. Thus I am tempted by the thought of finally take the purchasing step of becoming a home owner. Few other investments increase money value as quickly as owning property in popular neighborhoods/cities. I have a bit of proprietary capital/equity, and will speak to my local bank back home north (where I will travel next week) regarding loan rates and amount.

I have been searching a bit online the last couple of weeks online, but am considering attending some house inspections in the next months. I look at apartments between about 25 to 50 square meters, with separate bedroom (and bathroom of course), and possibly a kitchen of its own. My limit for estimated value is 1,5 million kroner (about 222,000 US dollars). Here are some examples of ads I find appealing (some of which are sold): 1, 2, 3 & 4.

I am not planning to buy anytime super soon though. The earliest will probably be the beginning of next year. This for three particular reasons;

a) I am not really sure about where I will be or what I will do when I finish. I might wait a bit until I know more about location for some time to come. It is possible to have others rent a future bought home, but if this happens before I have lived there for a year, I will have to tax a fair bit. And I cannot afford buying to places anyway, so I would need to know where my base would be.
b) I do not really know the market too well yet, what to look for, what to expect. This needs training, which I am currently undertaking.
c) analysts fear that the crazy price market, it is really expensive to buy property in Oslo, will have a crack soonish. If would be terrible if this happened right after I bought. On the other hand, if it is central enough, it will always be a need for available space as Oslo is growing consistently.

All hints, tricks and tips are appreciated :)

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Avisene er tynget av boligkjøp og -salg. Flere av mine venner i hovedstaden har nylig gått til innkjøp av selveid hjem. Juni kan være min siste studiemåned, og studentkollektivet er da uaktuelt. Jeg vil være i en mulig etableringsfase i livet. Få andre (relativ sikre) investeringer har en sånn sjanse for stor avkastning, som det å kjøpe eiendom med hjem på i populære områder/byer. Jeg har en del egenkapital og skal ta en prat med banksjefen hjemme i Brøstadbotn – om rente og lånesum – når jeg besøker hjembygda neste uke.

Finn.no er min foreløpige hovedkilde for leiligheter til salgs, som sender meg forslag på e-post etter mine definerte søk. Jeg vurderer sterkt å delta på en visning i løpet av de neste månedene. De jeg sikter meg inn på er mellom 25 og 50 m2, har eget soverom og bad, og helst eget kjøkken. Makstakst/prisantydning jeg setter meg fore er 1,5 millioner kroner (det er ufattelig mye penger). Her er noen eksmpler på annonser jeg anser som passende (særlig den første): 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Men kjøp vil neppe bli gjort før tidligst 2007. Dette av tre viktige grunner.
a) Jeg er ennå ikke sikker på hvor jeg vil være og hva jeg vil gjøre etter endt studie. Det er selvsagt mulig å leie ut, men det er en risiko, det vil skatte seg om jeg ikke har bodd der et år selv og jeg har ikke råd til å kjøpe mange steder på en gang.
b) Erfaring i kjøpsleken mangler. Jeg ønsker å lære mer om hva jeg må være obs på og hva man kan forvente i forhold til innhold og pris på ulike boalternativer og områder.
c) Skeptiske analytikere venter prismarkedet vil sprekke snart på grunn av urealistisk høye priser. Dette vil nok likevel alltid være tilfelle, og i sentrum av voksende Oslo vil det alltid være behov for å finne tak over hodet.

Alle tips, triks og gode råd tas mot med takk :)

X: Divine drip 3 / Himmeldrypp 3

From today onwards I place this series as a link of its own in the menu on the right hand side.


What: Sermon in Filadelfia, July 7, 2006
Who: Egil Svartdahl
Scripture (part of the Bible): Mark 6:30-35

The topic this Sunday was rest. We need a resting position, to be tuned into relaxation. We need a resting place, as a fundament for life.

* Jesus pulled us out of the mud/bog. Without him we can keep floating, but will be floundering. I picture a person splashing about on the water’s surface, carrying gold and/or other “valuables” pulling him down.
* If Jesus can chill and be content with me, I shall take comfort in that “It is finished”
* The position for which God “hire” people, are resting positions.
* Already by the beginning of the era of Jesus, year 0, it was vital to wind down. It sure ain’t less important to do so in today’s hetic, mobile and information loaded times.
* God worked for five days before man was created. Adam’s first full day was a day of rest.
* Bread analogy: if one does not leave the dough sufficiently long by itself during bread making, the bread will quickly turn hard and dry. So things can be with preachers and pretty much anyone else.

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Fra nå av samler jeg disse dryppene i en egen oversikt som kan lokaliseres i menyen til høyre.

Hva: Preken i Filadelfia, 7. juli 2006
Hvem: Egil Svartdahl
Bibeltekst: Markus 6:30-35

Temaet denne søndagen var hvile. Vi trenger en hvilestilling; å finne en grunntone, et underlag i livet Vi trenger et hvilested, som fundament for livet

* Jesus har dratt oss ut av gjørma/myra. Uten ham kan vi alltids kave og holde oss over kanten, men ikke hvile. Jeg ser for meg en person som kaver i vannet med gull og/eller andre verdier som gjør det veldig slitsomt.
* Om Jesus kan slappe av og være fornøyd med meg, kan jeg hvile meg i at ”det er fullbrakt”.
* Ordet stol kan ses relatert til det å stole (på); vi kan sitte og hvile hos Gud.
* De posisjonene/stillingene Gud søker folk til er hvilestillinger.
* Allerede ved tidregningas begynneslse var det vitalt å slappe av og være litt alene. Hvor mye viktigere er ikke det i dagens fartsfylte, mobile og informasjonsdyngende verden?
* Gud arbeidet i fem dager før mennesket ble skapt. Adams første fulle dag var en hviledag.
* Brød-analogi: om man ikke tar hviletid med deigen blir den fort hard og tørr. Slik kan det også være med forkynnere og folk flest.

Ny volleyballseier

Vi slo Spirit Lørenskog 3-1 i går kveld. Kampreferatet finner du her. Jeg spilte libero og følte det gikk greit. Dette er den tredje av fire kamper hvor jeg har hatt den blå drakten (de andre har røde). Litt morsomt er det at den eneste kampen vi tapte, var da jeg satt på benken, selv om jeg tror dette er mer tilfeldig enn noe annet.

X: Thought bundle/tankeklase

A few non-related, semi interesting thoughts on a Friday morning:

* Authority, competence and age are partly intertwined with each other and with what people think you know. With a certain position, degree or age, your words are considered powerful, almost to be the answering key, independent of what you actually know. I feel this way sometimes regarding statements on “media” (which people have lots of questions about, without any clear definition of the term).

* I was wondering a while back if it is discriminating by me to actually think of/be aware that Darshini, my girlfriend, and I are of different ethnicities and complexion. If anything, I see it as positive, yet no statement (i.e “Look, I have a colored girlfriend”), but there has been an incident or two in my mind where I have seen her as more than “just my girlfriend”

* Why have not soap bars gone off the market by now? Liquid soap is just so much easier/convenient.

* For weeks now I have been studying at the library without paper (other than the books I am reading) and pen. Is this a sign of technological development, or my dependency on my laptop?

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Her følger fire urelaterte, semi-interessante tanker på en fredag morgen:

* Autoritet og kompetanse går mye på at folk tror du kan noe. Har du en viss grad eller stilling, blir dine ord vektlagt tyngre – uavhengig av hva du egentlig besitter av kunnskap. Litt slik jeg blir konfrontert med ”media”, fordi jeg tar en mastergrad. Folk tar ofte mine synsinger som god laks (fisk).

* For en stund siden lurte jeg på om det er diskriminerende av meg å tenke på at Darshini har ulik etnisitet og hudfarge enn meg. Jeg synes det er alt annet enn negativt, uten at jeg tenker på det som noe ”trofé” (eksempel: ”Se, jeg har en mørkhudet kjæreste). Men jeg har lurt på om det er naturlig at man har hatt tanker om at hun ikke ”bare” er min kjæreste.

* Hvorfor har ikke såpestykker/håndsåper gått av mote? Rengjøringsmiddelet i sin flytende form er langt mer praktisk.

* I flere uker har jeg studert på biblioteket uten verken penn eller papir (bortsett fra bøkene jeg leser). Er dette et tegn på utvikling, og/eller et avhengighet av min bærbare datamaskin?

X: Blogging friends/bloggende venner

Inspired by the cyberworld of blogs, I figured out it may appear egosentric to not link to friends who run their own site on the world from their perspectives. Today I created this list which can be found as a link in menu on the right side. I have only included those updating on a fairly regular level. They are all presented in the language in which they write. They are all friends, the brackets specifies the
connection to me. Christian means that we met in Christian setting.

Disclaimer: The Internet contains billions of pages, and I surely have not regiestred that all the people I know well have blogs in business. Do tell me, if you are not on the list.

BTW: The term ”Blogging friends” was snatched from my friend Maia (see below)

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Inspirert av verdensvevens blogger, ser jeg at det kan virke egosentrisk å ikke lenke til andre venner med sine personlige perspektiver på verden. I dag har jeg derfor likegodt laget en liste som vil være tilgjengelig fra menyen til høyre. Med i oversikten er kun de vennene jeg vet har en blog de pleier nokså jevnlig. De er alle presentert i det språket de skriver mest på. Parentesene viser vår forbindelse. Kristen betyr at vi ble (hovedsakelig) kjent i en kristen setting (leir, møte, skolelag etc).

NB: Si fra om jeg har gått glipp av noen.
PS: ”Bloggende venner” så jeg min venninne Maia (se under) bruke først

* Andreas Norbye og Jonas Evensen (Christian/kristne): Lamasnakk.com er fra de solide, kristne, nordnorske guttas ettårige frivillige tjenesteår i Bolivia.

* Andreas Gundersen (Cousin/søskenbarn): Det er fint med familie i Oslo. Andreas er vekter for Securitas.

* Camilla Isaksen (Christian/kristen): Camilla er fra Melen uten for Sjøvegan, nabotettstedet til Brøstadbotn. Gjennom leire, videregående, et kort kjæresteforhold og et kjempelangt vennskap har vi en spesielt god kontakt, selv om vi dessverre ikke får truffet hverandre ofte da hun er i Tromsø og jeg i Oslo.

* Cherrine Chan (Tuturus): Bright Malaysian girl I know from Melbourne. Also a part of the ”Tuturus”.

* Dag Yngve Dahle (Journalism/journalistikk): Vi har begge bodd på Olderbakken, stedet der jeg bodde mine første leveår. Vennskap ble ikke reelt formet før jeg forvillet meg til hovedstaden. Dag Yngve er journalist i Aftenposten, og min mentor i medie- og fotoverdenen, og ellers en trivelig kamerat.

* Håkon Skipenes Østrem (volleyball): Brøstadbotns største volleyballtalent. Bloggen er fra oppholdet på Topp Volley Norge.

* Igor Cristobal Poeblete Torres (High school/videregående): Chilener fra Bardu jeg gikk på videregående sammen med.

* Ingunn Sofie Berntsen Storvoll (sister-in-law/svigersøster): trivelig jente, nå gledeligvis en del av familien. Hva mer kan man si?

* Karsten Heikmann (Las Vegas): An interesting German fellow who was an exchange student in Logandale outside Las Vegas the same time as I was wihin the city (2000-2001).

* Kjartan Ørnes (Christian/kristen): Nordlandsk kompis jeg kan le høyt, tulle rått og dele masse med.

* Lars Olav Karlsen (Christian): Autograf jeger og fotballspiller på Tufte. Vi ble kjent mens han var ettåring (frivillig ungdomsarbeider i menigheten) i Salangen (nabokommunen til min, Dyrøy). Kontakten tok seg opp etter jeg kom til Oslo.

* Luke Stirling (Melbourne): The first person I remember from my stay in Chisholm college at La Trobe University campus. Luke is an intelligent and friendly man from whom I have learned and gotten a good deal of help and fun.

* Onjira "Bell" Niranatkul: (Tuturus): Thai-American girl I know from Australia, a part of this Tututus group mentioned in my blog. We have traveled a fair
bit together in Australia, Thailand and around San Francisco.

* Maia Bakkevold (Christian/kristen): Venn siden ungdomsleirer og start i Laget. Maia bor nå også i Oslo der vi møtes, diskuteres og har det gøy på nett, hjemme hos hverandre eller i byen.

* Norvald Nikolaisen (Cousin/søskenbarn): Mitt kjære søskenbarn er bedre å tenke enn han selv tror - når han tar seg tid.

* Patrick Ho (Melbourne): Another Malaysian in the Tuturus environment.

* Polaputt (“Pete”) Sirodom (Melbourne): Christian Thai friend who I was fortunate to meet in Melbourne and later in Bangkok.

* Rune Torsteinsen (volleyball): Veteran og snart legende i norsk volleyball. Kant på BK Tromsø, men opprinnelig fra Brøstadbotn. Mitt forbilde på volleyballbanen med sine egenskaper, integritet og fortsatt bruk av knebeskyttere.

* Samanta Watanesk (Melbourne): Floormate from Chisholm college during my second semester in Australia. A smart Thai girl with IT education. This page use to come in English, but is now primarily Thai.

* Sathees Mylva (High school/vgs): En reflektert kar og sykepleierstudent fra Sri Lanka. Vi formet et sterkt vennskap i videregåendedagene og har holdt en god forbindelse siden den gang.

* Åshild Kvammen (House mate/medboer Oslo): En snakksalig, reflektert, vennligsinnet og tydelig ung dame som jeg deler tro og hus med i lagskollektivet (2006-07).

X: News exuses/Unnskyldene nyheter

The previous entry is abnormally far behind. This will not be a compensation for the lack of updating, but more a list of events that have occurred in my life recently. Some I will elaborate on later, others are just to explain my blogging absence.

• My superhot girlfriend, Darshini, recently booked her ticket to Norway. This will be her first encounter of my country, of Europe, of proper winter, minus degrees, polar nights, polar lights, my family, and Christmas and New Year’s away from her family. More to come.

• We lost 3-0 (23-25, 26-28, 20-25) in today’s volleyball match. Although we played our toughest opponent in our group, a mental/negativity break-down is the main cause for our sloppy play and many mistakes. I only played the very last part, maybe the last 10 points. Although I feel I deserved to start or come on earlier, I resepect the coach’s shots.

• In healthy respects it may be fortunate, as I’ve been pretty ill this weekend. Some fever tendencies and headache have troubled me the last couple of days. Saturday morning I woke up feeling like being in a shallow pool after a sweating attack. I am doing much better now though, and will heal within a few days I believe.

• The residents of the student complex, in which I live, had a get-to-know-each-other-better trip up in the forestry fields north of Oslo. We barbequed, ate, played, prayed, socialized and shared stories yesterday and today. We recently had to Brazilian girls moving into the complex, who are in Norway for a year (through the Brazlian IFES for those familiar with the Christian organization), staying with us about half of it.

• I got a job offer to consider for a very exciting 20 procent position. Will probably decline though.

• Thursday my friend Maia and I experienced a very abnormal cultural performance. I love the word different, whether it describes food, places, people, cultures or myself. “Super Night Shot” sure was an untraditional show.

• My thesis, work, volleyball practice and sleep take most remaining time.

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Forrige tekstbit er unormalt langt unna dagen i dag. I denne omgang skal jeg kun liste noen av den siste tidens hendelser som kan forklare og være med på å unnskylde mitt bloggende fravære. Noen av punktene vil bli sterkere utdypet etter hvert.

• Min råsøte kjæreste, Darshini, har bestilt billett til hennes Norgestur. Dette blir hennes første møte med mørketid, minusgrader, Norge, Europa, min familie og jul/nyttår hjemmefra. Mer kommer.

• Vi tapte 3-0 i dagens volleyballkamp mot Kolbotn. Kampreferatet er min uformelle versjon av bataljen. Personlig fikk jeg kun de siste ti ballvekslingene, i en kamp jeg følte jeg kunne ha utrettet mer og kanskje burde ha fått startet. Men treneren bestemmer, og det retter jeg meg etter.

• På en måte er det like greit, da jeg har vært nokså dårlig i helga. Lørdag og søndag våknet jeg tidlig på morgenkvisten av svettetokter som gjorde rammemadrassen til vannseng light. Jeg er heldigvis i bedre slag nå og på bedringens vei.

• Kollektivet var på bli-bedre-kjent tur fra lørdag til i dag. Grilling, mat, lek, spill, peis, sosialt samvær, deling av livshistorier og åndelig fellesskap fylte tiden på Nordmarkskapellet i den skogsherlige marka nord for Oslos sentrum.

• Jeg har blitt oppringt om mulig ny jobb i 20 prosent. Da dette ennå er uoffisielt og det er sjanser for at jeg ikke tar denne spennende, relevante muligheten, gjør at jeg ikke går ut med mer informasjon.

• Torsdag inntok jeg og min venninne Maia en dose utradisjonell kulturunderholdning. Annerledes er et ord jeg liker godt. Om det er på andre ting, personer, kulturer, matretter, skikker, eller om meg selv, er det et honnørord i mine ører. ”Super Night Shot” var en forestilling av den uvanlige typen.

• Ellers tar masteroppgaven, jobb og volleyballtrening mye tid.

X: House warming & volleyball win/Inflyttingsfest og volleyballseier

From yesterday and overnight I visited the village of Vikersund where a close friend, Gundhild, and her sister hosted their house warming. Several good personalities gathered for a positive and fun get-together.

On the way back to Oslo today, I stopped for this weekend’s volleyball match. The opponent was elite (top division) material last year. This year they were stomped by us in division one (3-1; 25-7, 22-25, 25-22, 25-23). Two out of two possible wins feels good, but I would have been better if I had not displayed such a weak performance as I felt I did in the libero role.

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Fra i går kveld til i ettermidag fant en innflytningsfest sted i det nykjøpte huset til Gundhil og Audrun Fretland. Førstnevnte bodde i samme hus som meg i kollektivet jeg bor på nå for mitt første år i Oslo (2002-03). Vi har holdt god kontakt siden. En herlig samling individer fant veien til Gesthus ved Vikersund i Modum kommune.

Etter overnatting og en gåtur i dag, gikk turen via Lier for helgas volleyballbatalje. Selv om vi vant mot fjorårets elitelag Lier, er jeg langt fra fornøyd med egen prestasjon på liberoplass. Jeg er redd jeg delvis har forspilt mine sjanser til å starte på banen på en stund. Men gitt opp er jeg langt fra å gjøre. Les kampreferatet her.

E: Online Clips 16

Today’s first clip is Bible re-do of the popular song “Baby got back”. “White BoyDJ” is a Christian who is rapping about “Baby Got Book”. Have a listen and smile of the music video.

Next is a basketball player who spins his way to the basket, twice while airborne before he dunks!

BMX is fascinating. Particularly if you are really really good at it.

If I was to list the various kings of Norway through history, I would tussle with more than a few in either end. A little American girl, who has barely learned to speak, can list all the country’s presidents.

Trick shots on the pool table are simply incredibly remarkable.

One can never get tired of babies – espeically not laughing ones. Try not to giggle with quadruplets.

See all past entries here.

Hvor mye taper du på mobilregninga?

Som ansvarlig i DinSide for å oppdatere prisene for bank og mobiltelefoni, blir jeg også utfordret til å skrive litt om disse oversiktene. I dag publisertes en nokså enkel sak om kostnader rundt mobilbruk, "Mobilabonnement til enhver pris", men majoriteten av leserne vil kunne finne ut at de kan spare penger på å endre løsning. Gjelder det deg også?

X: American movies education/lærdom fra amerikanske filmer

Sari’s page is a private website with a Canadian girl’s random thoughts and blog items. One of these is an entry named “Things we learn from American movies”. I do not know if she made it herself, but the wisdom sure is funny.

So is some of the leaning that can be obtained from “The Matrix”, James Bond and Indiana Jones.

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Dagens innboks-fangst inneholdt en liste over ting man lærer i amerikanske filmer. Listen, frigitt på Dagbladets humorsider, er virkelig verdt å lese gjennom for en liten humrestund. Originalen er trolig engelsk, for eksempel oversatt fra en kanadisk side kalt ”Sari’s page”.

Lær også litt (på engelsk) fra Matrix-filmen, James Bond og Indiana Jones.