Now I don't have to read "The Humbling" by Philip Roth. (Not that I ever intended to...)
This is from the Guardian's Digested read:
------------
After his release, Axler had retreated to his farmhouse in upstate New York and it was there that Pegeen had visited him. Her parents were old friends and he had known her since she was a baby, suckling at her mother's breast. Now she was 40, a lesbian teaching at a progressive women's college in Vermont. "Have you ever slept with a man?" he asked.
"Not for more than 20 years," Pegeen replied. "But there's something about your arthritic body I find irresistible."
"I can only make love if you're on top of me because my back's playing up," he said, fondling her heavy breasts.
"You're a smooth talking lesbo-converter, Philip . . ."
------
LOL:-D Read the rest here!
mandag, desember 07, 2009
fredag, desember 04, 2009
Winter is here
The wife took this photo from our veranda last week:
The day after she went for a walk in the neighbourhood:
It was 14 degrees celcius below zero that day:
All these photos were taken around noon. We don't have much daylight the few weeks before and after Christmas, but the little daylight we have is beautiful, I think:-)
Check out the wife's new photo blog!
The day after she went for a walk in the neighbourhood:
It was 14 degrees celcius below zero that day:
All these photos were taken around noon. We don't have much daylight the few weeks before and after Christmas, but the little daylight we have is beautiful, I think:-)
Check out the wife's new photo blog!
lørdag, november 07, 2009
Weekend in Trondheim
Saturday started kind of foggy:
But by night time the weather was perfect for Halloween!
Sunday drive with mum. We parked the car for a few minutes by the fjord, so that we could enjoy this view:
But by night time the weather was perfect for Halloween!
Sunday drive with mum. We parked the car for a few minutes by the fjord, so that we could enjoy this view:
mandag, oktober 19, 2009
Sunday walk in our new neighbourhood
- How do you like the view from their new flat?
- Well, I haven't seen any cats yet. So in my opinion it's excellent.
fredag, oktober 16, 2009
Dog hair knitting
Thanks to Av en annen verden for helping me discover this great blog: Awful Library Books. Check it out!
Besides watching all the Seeking Simone episodes that I had missed, I've also been catching up on Tanita Tikaram's blog. I think my teenage crush has re-awakened. She's so hot - and funny! Take a look at this:
"There are a couple of photos of me in the supplement of the men's fashion magazine ' Fantastic Man' this month. I'm featured under the headline ' Tanita Tikaram on Modern Health', a subject I know absolutely nothing about, which sort of qualifies me to talk about it in most modern media. I come across as vaguely barmy, not inaccurate, but the barmiest quote of all is completely made up!!
Q : " What do you see when you look in the mirror ?"
A: "I see a teenager. My skin is not aging, and I don't understand why. It's embarrassing to be 40, looking like 16."
Yikes!! I do remember the journalist asking me how old I was and answering that I was going to be 40 this year. How this information has evolved into the self-love fest that is the above quote only the shamanic mind of a trained journalist can reveal. In truth, I hope that when I do look in a mirror I see something more interesting than my age..."
onsdag, oktober 14, 2009
lørdag, oktober 10, 2009
Connected
We've just moved in to our new flat, and now we have internet again! Woo-hoo! We've been without TV and internet for about 8 weeks - it's great to be connected again. Now I can post photos!
This is from our Oslo-holiday in July/August this year. I'm showing off that I can do handstands, and the dog wants to join in on the fun, appearently:-)
This is from our Oslo-holiday in July/August this year. I'm showing off that I can do handstands, and the dog wants to join in on the fun, appearently:-)
torsdag, juli 23, 2009
Holiday in Oslo - the opera house
I hadn't seen the new opera house before. I'm impressed! I think it's even cooler than the Sydney opera house, because this one you can walk on top of:-)
Better put on some sunscreen since we're almost as white as marble...
Tomorrow we're off to London! :-D
Better put on some sunscreen since we're almost as white as marble...
Tomorrow we're off to London! :-D
lørdag, juli 11, 2009
Driving from Båtsfjord to Alta
By the delta of Tana river. We saw quite a few people trying to fish salmon as we drove along this river.
Several photos from somewhere between Lakselv and Alta. Stretching my legs:
One of the locals:
Perhaps someone has inherited their parents' or grandparents' house, and now they use it as a holiday home/second home. Not a bad place, when the midnight sun is shining!:-)
Several photos from somewhere between Lakselv and Alta. Stretching my legs:
One of the locals:
Perhaps someone has inherited their parents' or grandparents' house, and now they use it as a holiday home/second home. Not a bad place, when the midnight sun is shining!:-)
torsdag, juli 09, 2009
On the move
onsdag, juli 01, 2009
Penguins and other animals
I've sort of written about this before, but here is more:
Confirmed: God is slightly gay
Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
I am sitting here right now smiling just a little, fondly recalling that famously controversial children's book, the one about the gay penguins.
Remember? That positively adorable pair of them, at the Central Park Zoo, who had adopted an abandoned egg and then hatched it themselves and were raising the chick together as a couple, even though the chick was clearly not theirs -- though of course how penguins can actually tell whose kid is whose is still a question. Never mind that now.
The best part: the story was absolutely true. The book, "And Tango Makes Three," was beautiful and sweet and touching in all the right ways -- except, of course, for the fact that it was also totally evil.
For indeed, the penguins in question, named Roy and Silo, were both males. This meant they were clearly in some sort of ungodly, aberrant homosexual relationship, mocking natural laws and defying God's will that all creatures only cohabitate with the opposite sex and buy microfiber sofas from Pottery Barn and eat their meals in silent resentment and never have sex.
[...]
Behold, the ongoing, increasingly startling research: homosexual and bisexual behavior, it turns out, is rampant in the animal kingdom. And by rampant, I mean proving to be damn near universal, commonplace across all species everywhere, existing for myriad reasons ranging from pure survival and procreative influence, right on over to pure pleasure, co-parenting, giddy screeching multiple monkey orgasm, even love, and a few dozen other potential explanations science hasn't quite figured out yet. Imagine.
Read the rest.
(Emperor Penguin Photo by Chris Dunham)
Confirmed: God is slightly gay
Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that homosexual sex
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
I am sitting here right now smiling just a little, fondly recalling that famously controversial children's book, the one about the gay penguins.
Remember? That positively adorable pair of them, at the Central Park Zoo, who had adopted an abandoned egg and then hatched it themselves and were raising the chick together as a couple, even though the chick was clearly not theirs -- though of course how penguins can actually tell whose kid is whose is still a question. Never mind that now.
The best part: the story was absolutely true. The book, "And Tango Makes Three," was beautiful and sweet and touching in all the right ways -- except, of course, for the fact that it was also totally evil.
For indeed, the penguins in question, named Roy and Silo, were both males. This meant they were clearly in some sort of ungodly, aberrant homosexual relationship, mocking natural laws and defying God's will that all creatures only cohabitate with the opposite sex and buy microfiber sofas from Pottery Barn and eat their meals in silent resentment and never have sex.
[...]
Behold, the ongoing, increasingly startling research: homosexual and bisexual behavior, it turns out, is rampant in the animal kingdom. And by rampant, I mean proving to be damn near universal, commonplace across all species everywhere, existing for myriad reasons ranging from pure survival and procreative influence, right on over to pure pleasure, co-parenting, giddy screeching multiple monkey orgasm, even love, and a few dozen other potential explanations science hasn't quite figured out yet. Imagine.
Read the rest.
(Emperor Penguin Photo by Chris Dunham)
tirsdag, juni 30, 2009
Walkman vs iPod
This is a great read: "Giving up my iPod for a Walkman" (BBC Magazine)
When the Sony Walkman was launched, 30 years ago this week, it started a revolution in portable music. But how does it compare with its digital successors? The Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week.
My dad had told me it was the iPod of its day.
He had told me it was big, but I hadn't realised he meant THAT big. It was the size of a small book. Read the rest here!
tirsdag, juni 16, 2009
søndag, juni 14, 2009
June 2008: bird watching and crab fishing
In June last year we went bird watching and crab fishing in Syltefjord! Here we are getting ready:
Unfortunately my compact camera didn't do the landscape justice at all, and the birds ended up being tiny dots... But we (me and the wife) tried! Next time we'll bring the big camera.
This cliff is packed with nests:
Some birds - don't remember the name:
Then we went hunting for crabs! We caught some big ones:
Most of them ended up on the table:
They were delicious!
It's strange to think that our two years in Båtsfjord are almost over. We've had a wonderful time here, and met some really lovely people. As you probably can tell by looking at all these photos! I had hoped to blog a bit more often, but being a headmaster is busy. Busy, but interesting! I've really learned a lot, both about myself and school life.
Before we moved north we planned to stay 1 - 2 years, and then move back to Trondheim. That's not going to happen, though.
Unfortunately my compact camera didn't do the landscape justice at all, and the birds ended up being tiny dots... But we (me and the wife) tried! Next time we'll bring the big camera.
This cliff is packed with nests:
Some birds - don't remember the name:
Then we went hunting for crabs! We caught some big ones:
Most of them ended up on the table:
They were delicious!
It's strange to think that our two years in Båtsfjord are almost over. We've had a wonderful time here, and met some really lovely people. As you probably can tell by looking at all these photos! I had hoped to blog a bit more often, but being a headmaster is busy. Busy, but interesting! I've really learned a lot, both about myself and school life.
Before we moved north we planned to stay 1 - 2 years, and then move back to Trondheim. That's not going to happen, though.
fredag, juni 12, 2009
søndag, mai 31, 2009
Go Sweden!
This is so cool! The world's first lesbian bishop! Read all about it here. I like her sense of humour:
When Brunne, who was a pastor in Stockholm for 16 years, was asked what she does to relax in her free time, she answered, “I read crime fiction. And I carve. The things you do to conform to Jesus, huh?”
Her partner Gunilla Lindén, who’s also a pastor, gave birth to their now 3 years old son after they entered a registered partnership. International journalists addressed whether this is a problem for the Swedish church, but Eva Brunne only joked, “Um, why? The backyard of the bishop’s house is really big enough.“
When Brunne, who was a pastor in Stockholm for 16 years, was asked what she does to relax in her free time, she answered, “I read crime fiction. And I carve. The things you do to conform to Jesus, huh?”
Her partner Gunilla Lindén, who’s also a pastor, gave birth to their now 3 years old son after they entered a registered partnership. International journalists addressed whether this is a problem for the Swedish church, but Eva Brunne only joked, “Um, why? The backyard of the bishop’s house is really big enough.“
lørdag, mai 16, 2009
Things I have learned
Stefan Sagmeister's "Things I have learned in my life so far". They're a little bit hippie, but I like them:
Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doeses.
Having guts always works out for me.
Here he gives a short talk about the things he has learned, and the art projects that come with them.
Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doeses.
Having guts always works out for me.
Here he gives a short talk about the things he has learned, and the art projects that come with them.
lørdag, mai 09, 2009
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox:
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
-- Mary Oliver
Flickr-photo
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox:
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
-- Mary Oliver
Flickr-photo
søndag, april 26, 2009
How does everyday life change when electricity becomes available to people?
Interesting stuff from an anthropologist who did research in Zanzibar:
So what has changed after the introduction of electricity?
What was most striking to me was the tremendous effect electricity has had on people’s time management. With electric light the day in theory has 24 hours instead of 12. People must make new choices as to what to do when. In consequence, time is speeding up and practices change: Women cook only two meals each day and not three as they used to (they now serve leftovers for the third meal). This is also linked to their wish to watch television in the evening and their opportunity to earn money during daytime.
Relations change in the process; the man has ‘entered the home’ in a new way. In the evenings, men and women now sit together in the same room, together with neighbours and the extended family. The electric light provide transparency and purity and the television programme is in focus. The paradox, although a phenomenon also observed in many other places, is that the spouses new opportunity to spend more time together actually provides less time for marital (?) intimacy. Sexual patterns change due to electricity. Because of this and also electricity’s high cost and rapid normalisation, there are signs that the birth rate is on the decrease. This was exemplified when men complained to me that due to the need for electricity, it is becoming too expensive to have more than one wife, or even get married at all.
...read the rest of it HERE.
So what has changed after the introduction of electricity?
What was most striking to me was the tremendous effect electricity has had on people’s time management. With electric light the day in theory has 24 hours instead of 12. People must make new choices as to what to do when. In consequence, time is speeding up and practices change: Women cook only two meals each day and not three as they used to (they now serve leftovers for the third meal). This is also linked to their wish to watch television in the evening and their opportunity to earn money during daytime.
Relations change in the process; the man has ‘entered the home’ in a new way. In the evenings, men and women now sit together in the same room, together with neighbours and the extended family. The electric light provide transparency and purity and the television programme is in focus. The paradox, although a phenomenon also observed in many other places, is that the spouses new opportunity to spend more time together actually provides less time for marital (?) intimacy. Sexual patterns change due to electricity. Because of this and also electricity’s high cost and rapid normalisation, there are signs that the birth rate is on the decrease. This was exemplified when men complained to me that due to the need for electricity, it is becoming too expensive to have more than one wife, or even get married at all.
...read the rest of it HERE.
mandag, april 06, 2009
Easter Holidays
It's been so busy lately, so the Easter holidays this year are most welcome! We've been really lucky with the weather too:-)
Happy holidays! Also - today the wife and I have been together 8 years! Hurrah! I feel very lucky and thankful:-)
Happy holidays! Also - today the wife and I have been together 8 years! Hurrah! I feel very lucky and thankful:-)
søndag, mars 15, 2009
torsdag, februar 26, 2009
Tagged
I was tagged by Turunga, my task is to post the sixth photo in the sixth folder. It's not often I get tagged!:-) Maybe because I don't respond if it's something that takes a long time (like "100 things about me"), and if it's an easy thing, it still takes me two weeks to do it. Anyway, here it is:
This is Relly and her puppies. Such a sweet dog! Relly was my parents in law's former dog.
One of the puppies later became this dog:
Sita. Sweet and lovely, but also a little more unruly! I tag everyone on my blog roll. Feel free to be as unresponsive and lazy as I am:-)
This is Relly and her puppies. Such a sweet dog! Relly was my parents in law's former dog.
One of the puppies later became this dog:
Sita. Sweet and lovely, but also a little more unruly! I tag everyone on my blog roll. Feel free to be as unresponsive and lazy as I am:-)
mandag, februar 16, 2009
torsdag, februar 05, 2009
Go Iceland!
I guess most of you know about this by now, but it is still very cool:"Johanna Sigurdardottir, named as Iceland's prime minister on Sunday, is the first openly lesbian head of government in Europe, if not the world - at least in modern times.
[...]
In Iceland itself, however, the new prime minister's sexual orientation appears to be causing less excitement than it is abroad.
What is really historic about this new cabinet, says Skuli Helgeson, the general secretary of Ms Sigurardottir's Social Democratic Alliance, is not the fact that its leader is a lesbian, but that for the first time in Icelandic history it boasts an equal number of men and women." The rest of the article on BBC news is interesting too. The Huffington Post also writes about it.
As for her politics:
"After President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson formally asked Ms. Sigurdardottir to lead a new government, she signaled at a news conference that she planned a shake-up of the Haarde government’s policies, particularly on housing and jobs. “All the ministers in my cabinet must work fast, take firm action and accept responsibility for their actions,” she said. “The people of this country must see that there is a new government in place which will defend their homes and rebuild the job market.”
Ms. Sigurdardottir comes to the prime minister’s job with a formidable reputation. As social affairs minister in several governments since 1987, she is credited with pushing through policies that widened housing opportunities for Iceland’s poor and strengthened the social welfare system. She has said she will use her powers as prime minister to push for debt relief for the most vulnerable Icelanders" (NY Times).
torsdag, januar 29, 2009
Roadside toilet
I've nicked a photo from the wife (again). She's been driving around the western part of Finnmark, and the winter landscape is gorgeous - especially now that the day light is coming back. I'm sure she'll post some photos in her own blog soon.
She didn't just take a photo of the toilet, she had to make a stop there as well. According to her, it was really really COLD. Looking at the photo, I can believe that!:-)
lørdag, januar 10, 2009
Lurking in the poetry section
I bet some of you might recognize this feeling:
"So I set off towards my local bookshop, the Borzoi, in Stow-on-the-Wold, and then I had a panic attack and found myself calling our very own literary editor, Erica Wagner: I wanted to be sure that I had the title of Bechdel's book just right. It's all very well ordering a book called The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For in London or Manchester or Paris or San Francisco, but my bookshop is full of retired gentry piling up their biographies of Churchill and taking home multiple copies of Niall Ferguson. Even as I went through the door, some chap was booming away about ordering the Schofield Bible and had they got that “Mitford thingy?”
Erica calmed me down - she is like human chicken soup - and I lurked in the poetry section until there was a lull, then I babbled my request.
No, they didn't have it in stock, but, and, what was the title again? Dykes? At that moment a dozen colonels' wives appeared at once, so quick-thinking Kevin at the counter said: “I will find that book about HOLLAND for you.”
Sure enough, a few days later, the call came, and Anthea, who runs the shop and always wears pearls, said: “Your HOLLAND books are in. We've got them under the counter for you - in a bag.”
So I went and collected my dykes, and just to save face ordered a vastly expensive print-on-demand copy of Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. I had to do this so that I too could boom a title over the counter, instead of finding myself speaking something like French - or certainly a language where none of the words meant what I thought they meant."
Great writing by Jeanette Winterson, as always. Read the rest here.
"So I set off towards my local bookshop, the Borzoi, in Stow-on-the-Wold, and then I had a panic attack and found myself calling our very own literary editor, Erica Wagner: I wanted to be sure that I had the title of Bechdel's book just right. It's all very well ordering a book called The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For in London or Manchester or Paris or San Francisco, but my bookshop is full of retired gentry piling up their biographies of Churchill and taking home multiple copies of Niall Ferguson. Even as I went through the door, some chap was booming away about ordering the Schofield Bible and had they got that “Mitford thingy?”
Erica calmed me down - she is like human chicken soup - and I lurked in the poetry section until there was a lull, then I babbled my request.
No, they didn't have it in stock, but, and, what was the title again? Dykes? At that moment a dozen colonels' wives appeared at once, so quick-thinking Kevin at the counter said: “I will find that book about HOLLAND for you.”
Sure enough, a few days later, the call came, and Anthea, who runs the shop and always wears pearls, said: “Your HOLLAND books are in. We've got them under the counter for you - in a bag.”
So I went and collected my dykes, and just to save face ordered a vastly expensive print-on-demand copy of Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. I had to do this so that I too could boom a title over the counter, instead of finding myself speaking something like French - or certainly a language where none of the words meant what I thought they meant."
Great writing by Jeanette Winterson, as always. Read the rest here.
onsdag, januar 07, 2009
Snowy weather
This is a photo of our house! In the background you can see the wife trying to shovel some snow. Go here if you want to see more photos from yesterday's weather in Båtsfjord! Click "Neste bilde" to see next photo.
We've had this kind of weather the last couple of days. The mountain road is closed, and the stores have run out of milk! Yesterday the schools were closed. It's not often it is like this, fortunately. Today it is already a little better, so maybe they'll open the road tomorrow.
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