E: End of year droplets

The number of days left of 2007 are two. The number of hours left at home with my family in Brøstadbotn is few. The pace of life has decelerates around Christmas with time off, many meals, and a bunch of family and friends. The business sense of being productive is distant, but efficiency can be measure in many ways. For my own mind, it has been healthy to tune out a little. It is in times like this one realizes that real creativity or inspiration often comes once you stop thinking too much.

For instance, I have not had so many ideas since I started my job (I had plenty coming into it) as I have had after I went on a break. This will hopefully rub off on the coming issues of Agenda 3:16.

Here are some others bits of my thinking the last couple of weeks.

There are two extremely vital questions in everyday life, about which we (I) spend far too little time thinking:
1) How am I - really?
There is a difference between asking what’s up and figuring out what is really going on on the inside and why. This I want to spend more time thinking about for the time to come.
2) What do I want to do with life?
What to study? Where to work? Many many many a time I hear people tell me that the reason for them to educate themselves to whatever they do is coincidental. When comparing the amount of time people spend choosing high school, university etc with the number of years of given subjects the choice leads to, it is almost scary. Of course there are chances of swapping, withdrawing, changing etc, but often it does not happen. I think it should be far more mandatory presence and scheduled meetings with school counselors to assure that people give their choices proper thought.

When being employed, many stick to their job for a while. But some maybe stuck too long. If people enjoy themselves and get enough challenges, that is all good. But I believe there are others who do not properly assess their own satisfaction and qualities in terms of thinking ahead. One does not have to stick to the profession one starts out in or is educated to do. At least not in my mind.

This brings me to the discussion I have had for some time regarding what I will do in the future. I am still trying to figure out. For now I know I will work as a journalist at least till this summer, probably for all of 2008, maybe longer. But in the back of my mind I have a notion that journalism is not what I do (or can do) best. I think my qualities are more in terms of counseling, coaching, leadership, motivating and analyzing – putting creativity into the formula. Other than consultation firms (HR, strategy, leadership, maybe media), I have given (police/crime) investigation some thought.

Another writing thought: My writing tends to be annoying complex – at least for other people. I have never been accused of writing too simple. A vague theory is that it is a rebellious act. I never really had a big period of provoking and uprising in my teens. Thus, I thought my way of composing text could be a subconscious way of protest. I have been working with an anxiety of repeating words/phrases/myself. At least up till now. From 2008 I will do my best to write things the way they are. Period.

Barns herlige formuleringsevne 2

Her kommer 11 gullkorn til, som en oppfølger til Barns herlige formuleringsevne.

1) Gamle damer har nesten brukt opp kroppen sin og de er ofte så utbrente at det lukter svidd av dem.

2) Hvis du går en tur og hjernen faller ut, så finner vi ikke veien hjem for da kan vi ikke tenke klart lenger.

3) Kneskålene er to skåler som sitter under kneet, i tilfelle man får vann i kneet

4) Hvis du vil bli tynn i en fei, kan du bare gå til legen og bli støvsuget

5) Fordøyelse er noe man gjør i fordøyelsesparker

6) Hvis det er like strevsomt å være forelsket som å lære seg å skrive, vet jeg ikke om det er verdt det

7) Nå er det blitt ozonhull i himmelen. Det gjør gulvet til Gud ikke helt tett lenger. Det kan bli et problem.

8) Hvis man er støl i huden kan man bare smøre seg med tigerbalsam. Den virker fort, for moset tiger er ganske sterkt

9) Kona til Gud heter Gudmor. Hun er moren til alle barnebarna hans: Moses, Jesus og Julenissen

10) Øl gjør ofte at kroppen blir usymmetrisk

11) Å være engel er et typisk kvinneyrke.

E: Merry Christ’s mass!

We have just entered the most discussed and advertised holiday in the year. Christmas is here. Although my childlike excitement toward the season has lessened over the scope of the last few years, I treasure it greatly as an important tradition and family get-together. This appreciation was strengthened this year due to the airport chaos from Oslo, which kicked up a fuzz regarding my traveling up north.

December 24th, Christmas Eve, is the big day in Norway. Candy, children’s TV, church, dinner, cakes, singing and finally opening presents is our routine. This is similar to the one of others. We had the entire core family present, including sister-in-law, brother-in-law + his mother and sister. My uncle, cousin and his son also came for dinner. It was a happy dozen for dinner.

Commercial interests have in many ways transformed the last week, or month, of the year into a materialistic mess. Yet, the Old English origin of the word is literally Christ’s mass.

I do not oppose the parcel exchange, as long as the aim can be the giving side of things, not the receiving. Serving, giving and sacrificial behavior is Biblical big time. After all, John 15:13 states: ”Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. I am personally very found of providing people with gifts of various kind. In recent years, to give when not expected (outside of Christmas, birthdays etc) I find a cooler thing to do. Two challenges with this: A materialistic focus increase and possible wrong interpretations (particularly when (a boy) giving to a girl) c,”). I also have an increased desire for giving gifts that can change the world or make the difference (i.e. financial support to various charity/development work with a symbolic card/present given to the receiver). There is not all that much stuff one needs when having the privilege (or curse?) of living in the wealthiest par of the world. Having said that, I keep being amazed of all the creative solutions and gifts I receive from friends and family every year – this year included. A big thanks to all.

Christmas is also an “excuse” to get in touch, say hallo, send a greeting, meet up etc for both family and friends. This is also the case for me, Christmas normally being one of the two times a year I go home north.

But, like I wrote in the beginning, the holiday is originates from a holy day – the day Jesus was born. What I found chiefly nice this year was that my mother, father, brother and sister-in-law sat up till nearly 3 am talking and praying – drawn together around the person who was born as a fragile, vulnerable human, faced the challenges with opposing the current religion leaders and eventually dying for the sake of mankind.

Enjoy the holiday!

Pictures of various things will be coming.

Teipet sterk mening

I dag var jeg på trykk i Dagbladet - med følgende kommentar på Sterke Meninger:

Bortkastet teip
Hvorfor i all verden bruker hopptrenerne- og lagledere masser av tid og energi på å filme sine utøvere med dårlige handholdt utstyr? Er det noen som kan tipse dem om at det går an å ta opp TV-sendingene på video og heller be dem nyte rennet?

Her er noen andre ytringer jeg har klapret i dagboka mi den siste tiden:

Bakskjermraseri
Til deg som har stjålet bakskjermen på sykkelen min to ganger i løpet av to uker: Kan du vennligst si fra på forhånd neste gang du planlegger å gjøre det en dag det høljeregner, etter at sykkelbutikken på hjørnet har stengt? Vær på vakt for en gjennomvåt, gjennomprovosert mann med balltre og hevnlyst.

Grønn glede
TV2-nyhetene melder at FEE Norge (Foundation for Environmental Education) deler ut grønne flagg med logoen sin på til alle skoler som satser på miljø. Oj oj oj så inspirert og supermotivert jeg ville blitt for en bærekratig utvikling for kloden om en privat stiftelse hadde drevet høyreist reklame og markedsføring ved hjelp av flaggstanga mi!

Misvisende reklame
Gebyrfri.no reklamerer disse dager med at de har 98 % tilfredse kunder.
Wow, liksom?! De som misliker tjenesten har selvsagt funnet andre leverandører av banktjenester. Det eneste oppsiktsvekkende for meg er hvem i alle verden de to prosentene er som ikke evner å melde seg ut.

E: Grounded in Oslo

I am supposed to be in my home town Brøstadbotn for Christmas preperations. Instead I just finished an extra day of work in Oslo. Fog and ice have caused chaos (see article from VG (in Norwegian)) at Oslo Airport Gardermoen, which have lead to numerous flight cancellations yesterday and today. Unfortunately for the airlines and us passengers, this Thursday and Friday are two of the busiest travelling days a year, with 70,000 people paying for airborne transportation.

My flight SK 0397 was scheduled to take off at 10:10 PM last night. I came ready and excited as early as 9, just to see a crowd of travellers and bags. My immediate thought was that «this will take a while», but felt slightly more concerned when revealing that all self-check in counters were closed and the lines were at standstill as there were no staff admitting luggage or tickets. Instead of information, there were journalists and cameras. Many newcomers, including myself, made a few phone calls to try to figure out what went on. After a bit the loudspeakers advised all passengers to check on the screens for updates. Many were delayed, a few cancelled, but so far nothing regarding my flight. A chapter of reading later (Stephen Baldwin – The Unusual Suspect), the next message declared that all flights with the airline SAS were negated.

I did not care to be frustrated – the airlines cannot change the weather – and headed back on the express train. And I could not help smiling at the irony of the train hostess making the mistake of saying «have a nice flight» before correcting herself to «have a pleasant stay» as we arrived back at Oslo central.

I booked a new flight for Sunday at 6:20 pm, but still await possible changes in flights and times, in case it is possible to head home earlier. Time will tell. I just got through to some information centre, telling me to show up at the airport tonight and hope that I will get on some flight. I highly doubt I care to wait for hours and hours for something maybe, but will rather be in touch if a larger flight is put into traffic.

I feel all right about the situation, although I would very much like to be home with my family. As long as I get there before Monday, I will be all right.

UPDATE 8:20 PM (Friday)
I will fly out tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:35 PM if the weather allows. An extra plane will be taking off, as long as the fog does not reappear around that time. The forecast is not the best, but I am optimistic. Yeah!


PICTURE TAKEN FROM VG

X: Divine drip/Himmeldrypp 14

My notes after the sermon on prayer in church Sunday.

What: Sermon in Storsalen (Church in Oslo), December 16, 2007
Who (preacher): Egil Elling Ellingsen
Scripture (part of the Bible): Matthew 6,7-13 + Deuteronomy 1,30-31

* The Lord’s Prayer can be seen as an instruction or key to prayer.
* It was, as it would be today, fairly controversial to told people to pray and particularly NOT to pray certain ways – as Jesus did just prior to and with the Lord’s Prayer.
* Prayer is not about performing, but to relate to God – in a way that God can act. One is to strive for word shortage as the words themselves do not matter all that much. God already knows what you need in advance of your prayer.
* The first sentence, Our FATHER in heaven (or: who art in heaven), establishes lots in terms of the frame of mind required when praying, rather than praying to a abstract power or wrath. This is also point of a little distress, as it will also make God into a best friend position Jesus already has. How do we make room for two?
* No one has experienced a perfect (earthly) dad. The Biblical father is as follows: loving, close, but also firm and strong. And one who ALWAYS cares.
* When you pray, the order is God first (name, kingdom, will) and then ourselves (bread, forgiveness of sins, salvation).
* Suggestions for ways of praying:
1) A straight forward Lord’s Prayer (LP), calm with related aspects in life for the various segments.
2) Prayer with perspectives related to life (as you find them in LP)
3) Study one segment of the LP in particular.


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Mine notater etter preken om bønn i helga.

Hva: Preken i Storsalen, 16. desember 2007
Hvem (taler): Egil Elling Ellingsen
Bibeltekst: Matt 6, 7-13 + 5 Mos 1, 30-31

* Fader Vår kan ses på som bruksanvisningen eller nøkkelen til bønn.
* Det var, som det er i dag, kontroversielt å si til folk ikke be slik, men slik, noe Jesus gjorde med akkurat Fader Vår.
* Bønn handler ikke om å prestere, men å relatere til Gud – slik at Gud kan handle. Man bør etterstrebe ordknapphet, det er ikke ordene som betyr noe. Gud vet hva du trenger før du ber om det.
* Første setning, vår FAR, avgjør mye om hvordan man er når man ber, i motsetning til om man skulle bedt til en makt eller vrede. Dette er litt skummelt fordi det gjør ikke bare Jesus, men også Gud til noen nær som en bestevenn. Har man plass til enda en?
* Ingen har erfart å ha en perfekt far. Den bibelske far er som følger: kjærlig, nær, men også myndig og sterk. Og sørger ALLTID for oss.

* Når man ber , er rekkefølgen først opp til Gud (navn, rike, vilje), så ned til oss (brød, skyldsforlatelse, frelse). Dette gir riktig fokus: Han først.
* Forslag til måter å be på:
1) Fader Vår rett frem. Rolig og med (dags-/livsaktuelle) relaterte aspekter til de ulike leddene
2) Be med perspektiver relatert til livet (som man finner dem i Fader Vår)
3) Studere ett og ett ledd i Fader Vår

X: Valuable elements/Verdifulle elementer

This English bit is more a brief synopsis, to give you an idea. Recently I have discovered various aspects of life I cherish.

1) Value of sincerity.
You cannot measure the value of a mother’s song or a child’s play the same way one criticizes contenders at idol or professional soccer players. Friday I viewed a gospel choir of youth where everyone was allowed with their own voice and style. Everything was run by the youth themselves. Great stuf.

2) Value of a cross-country ski trip
More valuable than hours of counseling to get back on your feet I believe, never having tried counseling. But Saturday I went skiing, and what a renovating and recreational joy it is to ski in excellent sunny weather with glittering snow.

3) Value of silence
Is underestimated. I am not talking about the quiet you need to write an exam or sleep, but the pursued absence of sound in an everyday. It will be, and might already be, a sales product in a gradually more sound-filled society. A recent positive example was the absence of music at a birthday party I attended. Yes there was talking, but the atmosphere was a particularly good one, I thought.

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Om det er den forestående høytidens salighet som slår inn vites ikke, men den siste tiden har jeg tenkt en del på hvordan jeg verdsetter visse begivenheter og perspektiver. Det er mye å glede seg over, og det er mange måter å glede seg. La meg illustrere med tre eksempler.

1) Verdien av ekthet
Generelt finnes det ofte viktigere og større kriterier for å vurdere noe, enn de åpenbare ”objektive” mål for kvalitet og innhold. Om en mor synger til sitt barn, oppstår det en umålbar kjemi mellom mor og barn som er mange ganger mer sjarmerende og ekte enn hvordan man måler deltakerne i idol. Dette bildet er inspirert av tanker fra venninne Gunhild. Et annet eksempel er konserten jeg med på sammen med henne fredags kveld. Heggen gospel er et kor av godt over 50 tenåringer som velger sanger, øver, spiller instrumentene og dirigerer selv. Den autonome gruppa med kristen profil har en voksen tilrettelegger, men ellers skjer ting på eget initiativ. Musikken som strømmet ut i Modum menighetssenter var stundom av høy kvalitet, men enda mer inderlig var gleden av deres særegenhet. Tenåringene fikk være akkurat så aktive, bevegelige, finkledde og aktive som de ønsket. Og alle som vil får være med, uavhengig av hvilken stemme man har.

2) Verdien av en skitur
Lørdag foregikk sesongens første ferd med ski på beina. Norefjells terreng bydde på vindestille, sporpreparert snødekke overøst med sol og en vindstille blå himmel. Slike turer gir meg rekreasjon i store mengder. Jeg er nokså sikker på slike turer kompenserer for ganske så mange kontorterapitimer for de som trenger å få lufte ut vanskeligheter i livet med profesjonell assistanse.

3) Verdien av stillhet
Forrige lørdag var jeg med å feire venninne Meretes 30-års dag sammen med rundt 15 andre i hennes leilighet på Sinsen. Her var det mat og drikke, prat og hygge som ved andre festligheter. Men det var også bevisst fravær av musikk. Det at det ikke var annet lyd enn summinga og latteren fra folket satte sin dannethet på arrangementet, men også en behagelig atmosfære som jeg synes frister mer til gjentakelse enn hva jeg antok på forhånd.

Lyden av stillhet er dessverre mangelvare anno 2008. Sjelden er man utenfor larmens sfære. Fred og ro er i ferd med å bli, eller burde i alle fall bli norske eksportartikler, selvsagt kombinert med de herlige naturopplevelsene som finnes. Om man ber eller ei, tror jeg det å aktivt oppsøke eller klargjøre noen minutters stille forum i ens hverdag vil betale seg i tilfredshet. Og da tenker jeg i løpet av dagen, ikke i forbindelse med sengegang eller oppvåkning.

X: Volleyball loss/Ikke helt som adventet

The final volleyball match for the year (not the season) ended with a bitter 2-3 loss against the division group leader Akim. I got to play outside till halfway through the second game before being swapped.

Match report, on the close battle, can be studied (in Norwegian) here.

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Nok en gang skulle OSI tape for puljeleder Askim. Undertegnede spilte første 1,5 sett, uten å gjøre det fremragende, men samtidig ikke håpløst på kanten. Jeg er ikke nødvendigvis helt fornøyd med ikke å komme innpå igjen når det buttet i mot med høyere feilprosent senere i kampen enn det jeg presterte, men det var uansett en underholdende kamp med mye liv.

Kampreferatet leses her.

E: Missing links 5 – travel

There are so many web pages out there related to traveling, an acvivity which gives me the kicks. I will quickly list a few links I have come across.

The best and most extensive travel guide on the planet, is lonely planet. The web page is also very well done. Nifty facts are also given in the CIA world factbook.
If you wanna see what language they speak where, click here. Or you may wanna check on the country code for phone calls

By the way, this is how you pack: in one bag.

After you go, you can update a map of how many countries you have visited at World66.

If you wanna go abroad and have not been to Norway, this introduction from VisitNorway.com may inspire you. This fun list of things I do not miss about Norway may not.

For you traveling from Norway, going abroad, here is a collection of cheap flight ticket sites.
* Fly billigst
* Omindo
* Kilroy Travels

The remaining list are sites of which I am not as familiar.
* Travellink
* Supersaver
* Reisefeber
* Ticket
* Lavprisfly
* Reisbillig
* Travel Partner
* Restplass

E: Misleading web pages

Every so often people post a web page without thinking about possible double meanings. As URL addresses ain’t case-sensitive (it doesn’t matter if letters are small or capitol), you can easily read different meanings – also by mistakes.

A few known ones from the web are the following

nowHere.com -> noWhere.com
ChooseSpain.com –> ChoosesPain.com
PotsOfArt.com –> PotsoFart.com
ViaGrafix.com –> ViagraFix.com
Speed of Art -> www.speedofart.com

I chose not to refer to the more obscure mistakes made. Other times, addresses you type do not lead you to the content you are seeking.

Personally I recall being surprised three times this year.
1) www.kirken.com (church dotcom in Norwegian) refers to an anti-abortion site.
2) kyrkan.se (The Swedish church is named Svenska kyrkan) links to a casino site. The correct site is www.svenskakyrkan.se
3) Finally, www.duo.no will take you to a semi pornographic site instead of the University of Oslo publication system named Duo, short for Digitale Utgivelser ved UiO (www.duo.uio.no). This is wehere my thesis is published.

Beware of what you type :)

E: Booked December

The present couple of weeks exemplify a lifestyle I am trying to avoid. I do not oppose any of my current activities, but I am short of flexibility with fully booked days and nights. This is an important reason for being slack with the updates. Fortunately this is temporarily.

In general, though, work engages my everyday. Tuesday and parts of Wednesday and Fridays are locked to volleyball practice. Tuesday I coach a division 2 men’s team after my own practice. Furthermore I am still undertaking French classes, which is Monday nights. The coming Monday is the last of the course, however. Most other activities are event-based.

This is my December 2007 outside of the regular activities
1) French reading + meeting my father, brother and sister-in-law
2) Volleyball tournament with the div 2 team I coach + dinner and hanging out with my father and a mutual friend Rune.
5) Dinner visit from Signe before practice.
6) Christmas dinner party (julebord) with Aller Internett, the owners of DinSide.no, the consumer web page I have worked for since 2003. I am know am nearly out of. It took place at Frognerseteren (Sporten), Oslo. I do not know many as I have been doing most my work online, but I had lots of fun with old friends and new acquaintances through lovely food, all right music, a cool music quiz, chatting and dancing.
7) Christmas dinner party with former journalism students (class of 2002-04), eating tapas at Youngstorget (Cafe Tenerife) and clubbing a little at Grünerløkka (SüdÖst), Oslo. It is fun seeing where all the guys wind up, and how many that are still studying various new subjects. Moreover, I much appreciate the fact that we have a big turn-out every year. The intake was 60 students. This year we were 20+. Last year we were 35.
8) Today: 30-year birthday party at friend Merete.
9) Church and lunch with friend Mona + birthday taco at friend Maia’s place.
12) Last volleyball match this year: Home vs Askim

The days following will contain meeting various friends, practice, church, volleyball tournament ++. Everything is not completely set.
20) Heading up north, for Christmas in Brøstadbotn.
This will be the first break in years when I will not be working, as working is what I normally do nowadays (opposed to studying).
30) Return to Oslo.
31) New year’s eve with best friend Thor Oskar and wife Kristin.

Barns herlige formuleringsevne

I påvente av litt tid til å skrive ut mange av de tankene jeg har om alt det som skjer i og rundt meg for tiden, gjengir jeg et dusin gullkorn-uttalelser fra de minste jeg fant i en liste

1) En bestemor er en som hele slekten har kommet ut gjennom. Da er det ikke så rart om hun blir litt slaskete i skinnet.

2) Jeg vil ikke begraves når jeg blir gammel, for jeg klarer ikke å ligge så lenge under jorda uten å puste. Og så er det så ekkelt å få jord i nesa. Da er det nesten bedre å bo på gamlehjem.

3) Bestemødre har veldig store behåer. De er så store at jeg får hele rumpa og to knær inn i den ene rundingen. I den andre kan broren min sitte

4) Hvis Gud hadde holdt det han sa om å la alle barna komme til seg, hadde vi ikke trengt barnehager

5) Først blir man celle, så blir man barn, så blir man mamma, så blir man bestemor, så blir man oldemor og så blir man tippoldemor. Til slutt blir man gjørme.

6) Faren min sier at moren min er bevisstløs når hun kjøper klær.

7) I gamle dager var det ikke lov for faren å føde barn. De syntes det var umusikalsk. Men i dag er det vanlig at moren og faren føder barnet sammen.

8) Babyer blir til i gjerningsøyeblikket

9) De som tror på Allah er muslinger. I Kina tror jeg de tror på noe annet. Der tror de på drager.

10) Det går ikke an å gjemme brokkolien i melkeglasset

11) Blåbær er innmari godt, fordi det er syltetøy inni dem

12) Folk som er forelsket holder hverandre i hendene så ikke ringene skal falle av, for de koster mange penger