Friday, January 27th 2012

Training for a new job at a major telco

I'm getting a job again, since the meager state stipend and student loan just won't cut it. Instead of returning to the old job, where I am always very welcome, I decided it was time for something new. Allthewhile reading up on modern German History and Literature as well as Syntax, of course.

I was thinking about herding sheep or categorizing ancient norse poetry index cards, but it so happened that my resumé ended in the hands of an IT consultant firm, who immediately gave me a call. I am now in training for one of the greatest telcos in the country. They've got a massive glass building just outside the city, where I am surrounded by the 4000 other zombies on the way to work. It reminded me of the factory scene in Joe versus The Volcano. Or perhaps more fitting, something with a little more office over it:



Something new and exciting is very refreshing, even though I am sort of over-qualified and under-paid. But it helps reviving some old people skills, that I didn't need when I locked the door behind me at my last office. This is a modern open office setting, with a lot of like-minded, be'glassed nerds with wallpapers from sci-fi series and cheeky hentai-wannabe anime. Nerds in all ages, sizes and genders! Gotta love it!

Last training session we had to setup a mobile broadband (3G) connection on a random OS (Win XP/Vista/7 and Mac OSX). PIECE OF CAKE!11! I must have exclaimed non-verbally, because my socially superior peers sent some annoyed glances at "the old wolf in the puppy pen". (And yes, I am one of the two Elders!)

I took out the little plastic cover from the USB device and popped in the SIM.

WHOOPS!!

I admit I blushed. The plastic cover had a little slot in it, into which one was to slide the SIM card. While I, on the other hand, being so cocksure about it, had put the SIM card directly into the electronics. Where it remained fastened and out of reach. The instructor was just going through how it was important to study the details in front of us, and how (haha) often regular users resort to all sorts of physical violence to make the pieces fit.

At the back of the room I was banging the USB device at the table to get the SIM out.

"Oh, sorry. Is it too loud?"

Then the instructor casually remarked that each device cost 1800 NOK to replace (circa $300 USD).

"Oh, sorry. Bang a little lighter?"

FINALLY! getting ready to resort to the old let's poke a knife in there and see what happens routine, it somehow came loosr and within reach of my finger nail. I put it in the right way as fast I could, kept my head down and ran through the tests.

Apart from the sweat I worked up right then, we've been treated with silk gloves. They even pay our lunch throughout our training, whatever we like, veggie chicken burger or true to life Italian Pizza. That's multi-billion dollar evil corporations for ya, kid! So most of it has been a walk in the park.

Except for the job interviews. Plural.

I must tell you, I have had the same steady job for about 7 years -- which is actually very long in IT where you'll usually go somewhere better paid every 3-4 years. But I had a great time at my last job, it was very nice socially and I had a comfortable existence. Except it was just too much of it, and not exciting enough to keep me there, yet too much responsibility to stay at a smaller position. After all, I am supposed to be studying Philosophy at the University, so this 20% position will do great for me!

But I digress.

The long term employment has given me a lot of great recommendations from some brilliant people, but extended the period since I last had a job interview. Now, if you're in the sysadmin line of work, your social skills are not top priority (even though they help a lot). However, in support and the kind of uneducated work that I do, you must learn to talk with people because their problems are usually what you're paid to solve. So to land this kind of job, you would have to not only point and tell about how social you are, you must show it. It's just like acting, or role playing. That's the road to staying patient and helpful. You'll be screaming on the inside.

Anyway, aside from the repeat questions (What's your 5 best qualities? What is an IP address? How much is Pi squared? Can I have a slice of Pi? Where did she touch you? Can you show us on the dummy? How to display your current IP address?) they asked me what, if anything, I would like to improve about myself.

*Crickets chirping*

- Errrr.... Change?
- Yes, Sigg3. Name 5 of your worst qualities?
- Five?
- Uh huh.

*Crickets playing cricket*

After the awkward silence died out, I had firmly established my complete and utterly unquestioned belief in myself. Which may or may not go well together with the concept of social antennas. But what the heck. Have you seen my resumé?

I got the assignment, and so did 3 other really cool people, and these days we're training as a team every available hour. In my last job I had flexible hours, but didn't know coming in to the office whether it would be a 10-12 hour shift or just three and a half hour day. This job is 100% punctuality because we're on the clock, and they don't tolerate late-comers at all. So, I've taken good care to be there on time so far. Time will tell if I can keep it up. But then, that's what we all did in the days before the cellphone. I'm starting to sound like an old-timer, already.

Speaking of appointments, I gotta get up early in the morning. I'll be attending work from 10 am and if all goes well, celebrate reaching another Saturday alive, with my pal Freddy when Lady C is partying with her friends. If you can think of five things to change about me, you or the world, feel free to leave them in the comments! You only have 30 seconds to think though. Have a nice weekend!
post number 1611 @ 11:36 pm | category: news | print-friendly | 2 comments!

Wednesday, January 18th 2012

US Congress takes down the Internet

.... but we're not dead yet!

The U.S. Congress is currently considering the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), that are among the two most anti-global and anti-social law proposals to appear before congress since the Patriot Act (which was the end of one of our civilization's greatest principles - Habeas Corpus). If passed, the laws will grant powers to the US Government that only the US Government perceive themselves to have, thinking about "the Internet kill-switch", however the side-effects to the practical realities of the way the Internet is run will pose a threat to its statelessness, as well as pave way for enlarging corporate control over Internet content. Read more here on Wikipedia: Stop Online Piracy Act and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act.



Other sites, such as Wired.com, reddit and Mozilla followed Wikipedia's example today. As did Google, 4chan, Vimeo, flickr, Miro, MineCraft, PostSecret, and many others, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation!

The Acts' names are misleading, even if you are an adherer to the notion of "intellectual property", these laws will introduce Government censorship that invariably and inevitably hurts the common man's interests and favor those few at the top, the large corporations, and those that'd rather see an Internet akin to cable television.
post number 1610 @ 11:16 pm | category: links | print-friendly | 4 comments!

Tuesday, January 10th 2012

Michael Park leaves blogging behind

Michael Park's domain is expiring in about 2 weeks, but he has decided to not renew the domain. I am sad to see such a long term online friend disappear from "the neighbourhood" -- Michael has been dear help to Sigg3.net since 2003 or so -- but I also understand the reasons why he wants to shut it down.

Good luck to you, my friend, all the best!
Thank you for your friendly advice and regular comments on my blog. Please stop by in the future!
post number 1609 @ 11:34 pm | category: links | print-friendly | 2 comments!

Monday, January 9th 2012

Proprietary ATI driver on OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit system

Here's the quick and dirty way to get the proprietary ATI 'fglrx' driver up and running on OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit and 32-bit systems. Why blog about this when there must be hundreds of great wikis out there to cover the issue? None of them worked 100%. Here's a way that works:

1. Download latest driver from AMD/ATI driver page 
2. Open Yast2 and install: kernel-devel,kernel-desktop-devel,Gcc,Gcc c++,Make 
3. Reboot, and add this to the GRUB startup options: radeon.modeset=0 blacklist=radeon 3 
4. When you boot into console, become root and run: # mkinitrd 
5. Afterwards, cd to download directory and run installer: # sh ati-driver-installer-*.run
6. Select default options all the way, then: # aticonfig --initial 
7. And last: # /sbin/shutdown -r now 

Please note the GRUB boot options that blacklist the open source radeon driver. Without these parameters the driver would install but I would have fuzzy graphics and no way to change screen resolutions and so on. I added these instructions to the unofficial AMD wiki: wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/SUSE/openSUSE. Also note that AMD's display driver no longer require kernel sources if kernel headers are present (hence the kernel-devel packages).

Please note that in time there will be made an RPM one-click install available for the new ATI drivers on the OpenSUSE wiki, but since I want to play some graphical games I need the latest and greatest. Also note that OpenSUSE policy dictates that the 'radeonhd' driver is phased out in favour of plain 'radeon' open source driver and 'vesa'. If I wasn't supposed to be gaming, I'd stay with the defaults.
post number 1608 @ 7:27 pm | category: computerwelt | print-friendly | a single comment

Saturday, December 31st 2011

Happy New Year!

We've just popped a bottle of Champagne in our hotel room and will soon be leaving for a six-course all inclusive evening at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Blue Mosque, Haga Sophia and the Bosporus strait towards Asia.

Thanks for 2011. It was quite eventful, detailed report to follow. But now: belly dancers and kebap! We welcome 2012! Have a happy new year!
post number 1607 @ 6:14 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

Wednesday, December 28th 2011

Going Where East meets West

Bollicks to this, I'm off to Istanbul!

That's right, folks. If you're going to celebrate New Year's Eve, you might as well celebrate it in the Ottoman Empire. Or the remnants thereof. That's why me and Lady C are traveling economy class to Constantinople tomorrow at noon! There's free wifi at the hotel, no viruses, surveillance ++! so if I can remember it, I will up some images to the blog, or my sigg3.net flickr page!

Right now I have a lot of packing to do, so I gotta go! Cheers!
post number 1606 @ 6:55 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

Saturday, December 24th 2011

Merry Yuletide!

While the video was made by the atheist organization TheThinkingAtheist.org, and focuses on the American Christmas celebration, I think it has quite a lot of interesting historical facts:



With this freshly in mind, I can go eat at the Winter Fest with the good conscience only a warm-hearted non-believer can. Have a Happy Yuletide and Frohe Weihnachten!
post number 1605 @ 6:25 pm | category: links | print-friendly | comments?

Wednesday, December 21st 2011

Split video files using ffmpeg

I've been working with large video files lately, files that are too large for regular storage media. I've come to learn how much better ffmpeg is at these jobs than the graphical tools. Mainly because the graphical ones draw more resources and require more fiddling about, in total taking more time than a short command. Here's the only command you'll need to create new files from one source video:

$ ffmpeg -i INPUT -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss START OF VIDEO -t DURATION OUTPUT

So, let's say I have bigvid.mpeg that's 50 minutes and want to split it in files that are 30 minutes and then another with the next 15 minutes, discarding the last 5; respectively small1.mpeg and small2.mpeg.
Here are the two commands to deliver what we want:

$ ffmpeg -i bigvid.mpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:00:00 -t 00:30:00 small1.mpeg

and then

$ ffmpeg -i bigvid.mpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:30:00 -t 00:15:00 small2.mpeg

As you can see the start of video operand is relative to the input file (source video), while the duration or -t parameter is not. The -vcodec and -acodec options aren't strictly necessary, ffmpeg's default output codec should match the input.

ffmpeg and audio delays
However, I have experienced that videos created without codec specification will have audio delays or audio that is not synchronized to the video stream. Specifying both the audio and video codecs as exact copies using -vcodec copy and -acodec copy as in the examples will give you less headaches. That's all!
post number 1604 @ 1:14 am | category: computerwelt | print-friendly | comments?

Thursday, December 8th 2011

CONGRATULATIONS A & T!

Just before I forget, congratulations are in order for Lady C, Vixen and me, but more importantly to their brother A and his girlfriend T who gave birth to a baby boy today! Yes, you can call me Uncle Sigg3.

Happy Birthday [untitled] !




I've been dusting off my vast historical knowledge in order to rightly name the child, still untitled or it, if you want to be personal. I think my late reading of Prussian kings can be of great help, especially if they allow descriptive names; such as "the wise" or "the crooknosed" granted that he sports such characteristics, of course. "The gifted" is vague enough to fit anything. Use "the plump" if you want to have something that fits the baby right now. Or "the pink", perhaps.

Preferably, you should call the kid something you like. Not as in "something you like" but as instantiated by something you like. Take Guiness for instance. I think it's a great name. Just consider: "Here, have a Guinness, Guinness!" Got a nice ring to it. And it's not going to get your kid into any trouble either, like Marijuana or Doobie most certainly will. Just a tip. Cheers!
post number 1603 @ 8:51 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

German Exams: 2 down 1 to go!

I've done it! The two worst class room exams this year have been idled through and delivered. The first one, Tysk 1101, was 9 o'clock Monday, and I had looked up all the nearby cafés around campus to find out when they opened in order to secure a cup of coffee. I found a good spot staring into the backs of the American Lit section, with my back against the rest of the library. Then I started farting.

Around an hour into the four hour ordeal I couldn't take it anymore and asked to have someone follow me to the restroom. I don't know how they do it in other countries, but in Norway you are allowed to take breaks and walk outside, as long as an exam warden follows every step you take -- sometimes even checking the WC stalls.

And if you ever notice a lack of retired people in your immediate vicinity, you can bet there's an exam going on somewhere. The very temporary (4 hour) positions are mostly filled with retired people. Solemn, long-nosed men and knitting grandmothers. But I digress!

I had remained calm during the morning, which is important in order to rightly comprehend the tasks in front of you. If you panic, you'll certainly overlook something important (such as a negation at the end of the sentence -- always funny). But you can be too calm as well.

I was like: Remain calm. Just be calm.
'I am calm' I thought. 'Caaaaallmmm.. Soo veryyy caaaaaalmmmmzzzz... zzz.. zzz.. zzz-*! naCHTUNG!' One of the retired wardens walked over and slapped my across the face. "Shush!" People who lived through the war knows how to use violence for peaceful purposes. If you're good, they'll reward you with candy.

We got a text about Martin Luther (the Reformist, not the King) and how they had done archeological excavations in what has been established as his childhood home. The point of the article was two-fold; 1) his father was very rich -- contrary to popular beliefs in Germany, and 2) they may have found the Toilet on which his Turmerlebnis unfold itself.. don't ask. I really enjoyed the read, and answered the comprehension questions, in Norwegian, as best I could.

"DO NOT WRITE A NOVEL", the lady had said at the last session of the course.

That's exactly what I did. I even wrote in my own Norwegian interpretation of the questions I then answered, totaling some 8 pages! What's worse is that I completely lost track of time, so that after the 4 reading comprehension tasks I still had some 8-10 tasks of very time consuming grammatical analysis to do!

Needless to say, I just barely made it in time. Then I headed home, knowing I had to read for the next exam, Tysk 1100, which was today. German Syntax 1.

Let me just add in here that all of the courses I take this fall have a recommended prior education of High School German, sporting at least a C. I didn't have German in High School at all. Zippo. Zilch. I had French. It's Latin based, not even Germanic. But I mostly played Quake II: CTF II instead.

In order to stay on a positive note, let's just say I have been setup for quite a lot of Eureka! moments this fall.. Especially since the first exam ended, and I have learned how many errors I did, which could have easily been avoided. I went from being satisfied to questioning my very academic existence in a few pages.

But I can't give up either. With a little luck my classmates, of which many come straight from High School, panicked and really screwed up. If the statistics work in my favour, I can still avoid having to do it over again. If not, then I'll just have to do it. The bar for a Master in Philosophy's set to C, but I'd like it to linger around B if I can. Right now, I feel that I'll need a lot of luck to avoid an E!

Enough of the alphabet soup!

The exam today didn't start until half past two in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to not be nervous. As usual, I remained calm. Almost too calm. In fact, I overslept, and didn't get to read through the pages I had planned to, and instead barely made it to the library just before the exam started with only 5 minutes to spare!

This reminds me of gym classes in my childhood when we were counting our pulse strokes after anaerobic training, and they could't find my pulse because I was so calm. For the rest of the year I just wrote 'In a coma' in the report book to skip gym class, and the Physed teacher couldn't argue against the science. The following year, alas, he had changed batteries in the pulse-meters.. but I digress.

Today we had German Syntax and despite my calm prior to the exam, I was rather stressed out when we finally started. Who knows what sort of misunderstandings I have conjured up along the way?

First we had to recognize 5 Genitive cases in a text about electric cars' success in Norway. I have been so focused on the Accusative and Dative cases (direct and indirect objects, mainly) in my German training, so it was really hard to turn my brain around to notice ownership- or description-like appositions. But I managed to find all 5! At least that's what I think..
I actually nailed the last one on account of Mark Twain's «Wegen des Regens» below. Talk about basing my education on happy happenstance!

Then we had some verbs that had to be located and shown in the Infinitive, as well as a translation of a text from Norwegian to German, also about electric cars, sporting a lot of Modus Conjunctive (indirect speech).

As usual, my non-existing vocabulary made this pretty hard. But I at least delivered something that meant something going in the same general direction as it was supposed to be. It really bothers me that I know historical words such as Sword, Horse carriage and the like, but not Airport or Pollution.

I see now that I missed on the latter. I didn't know what pollution was, so I just used a German sounding of the Norwegian 'forurensning', that is, die Verureinung. The correct word is die Verunreinigung. Bad luck.


The last task, however, was complete hell.

As I wrote about earlier, our German Syntax professor is quite the geek, and he had stated that he "wanted to make things interesting". So today as the final task we were given a foul text written by some Norwegian girl living in Germany, who could not for the life of her form a German sentence. She wrote Norwegian in German, had bad punctuation, and sometimes just blurted out nonsensical statements. The task read: "In the (genuine) text below, there is one type of mistake that is occurring more often than (all) the others. What type of word are we talking about and what kind of error(s)? Could we give this/these type of error/s a nickname?"

Pure evil.

I have no idea what kind of statistics the professor is going for here, but he's setting himself up for a lot of misunderstandings and -- let's not trivialize people's feelings -- angry retorts.

I based my comprehension of the task that he used the word -flexion, which rules out verbs (conjugation), and focused on the Flexive (plural endings) of Adjectives and Nouns, but I have no idea whether this is right or not. Time will tell. In the meantime, I can only look forward to learning more German, so that I more easily can identify all the errors I put on record as of 6:30 pm today. Cheers!
post number 1602 @ 8:31 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

Friday, December 2nd 2011

To the Possibly Gay Guy at the Gym: Fuck Off

Having spent most of the day in bed and learning German verbs at the library, I decided to work out a little at the local gym. As you probably didn't know, I try to go to the gym for about an hour 3 times a week in order to stay in shape. I have to, because my life style would otherwise render me a Fat Bastard in very little time. In fact, one could argue that it already has. But I would beg to differ!

Anywho.

The gym that I go to is fully automatic and therefore -- and most importantly -- the cheapest. I don't want to pay a fortune to work out. After all, I'm doing the one doing all the work, right? Cheap also means that the clientele is varied, both in origin and numbers, and unfortunately though entertainingly a lot of people have no clue as to how to train efficiently, healthily and even safely. I've seen Thai kids literally harm each other because they don't know any better.. but anyway.

There's this annoying guy from East/Central Europe, I gather, who always jump onto the elliptic machines when I'm there. And then he starts just running like a fucking maniac.. and it annoys the shit outta me.

Okay okay, let me tell you how this works.

The Elliptic machines are like a bike that you stand on and that you have to move with your hands and feet. They are motion-powered, so after you step on it the screen lights up and you can choose your work-out method. This is where everyone else seems to totally ignore the technology and just try to act normal.
I'm the IT guy, however, so I work out that there's a RESISTANCE setting 1-10, that I put to 4, and a count-down timer that I set to 20 minutes. There are all sorts of resistance-variation programs going all the way from 1 to 10 to 1 again over the course of 15 minutes, but I usually stay on the manual straight pain as the doctor prescribed. The immovable handles in steel measures your pulse if you hold both hands there for a little while. I usually do 10 minutes forward, 2 minutes reverse (which is really exhausting), and 8 minutes forward without breaks with a pulse of 140-175.

While I'm doing this, the other guy is just running along so fast that you can hear that the machine is being slowly but thoroughly worn-out. Why? The grown man's running as fast as he can with no resistance.

But that's not all.

While I'm taking it slow and steady, pushing but saving energy and watching television, he keeps looking over at me with this stupid fucking grin on his face. He doesn't say anything, but he's all like: "Hey, look at me! I'm fucking owning this work-out thing. My health is 100%! And you? Sorry dude, you're shit. Give it up, man, give it up!" .. For the entire 20 minutes. Every time I go there!

Sometimes you just want to hit'em over the head like people did way back when. Remember that? *Bom* Okay, I did a mistake, I won't do it again. Done.

Lady C suggested that he's what the venerable Karl Pilkington would call 'a little gay feller'. I'm not sure about that. Maybe you have to be homosexual to work out in Post-Soviet Russia, I dunno, but just in case that is the case I'm completely ignoring everyone else around me. I understand that they may be allowed to exist in order to foot the bill for the gym, but that's about it. You don't look at people, never talk to them, and you don't make a fucking pass. You're at the gym!

I mean. Seriously.
I can understand that people would like a piece of this little cupcake; especially when I'm running on the treadmill, all red-faced, panting and farting, and sweating so hard that my man tits are lactating.. I'm like your regular male model!

But how in fucking Hamburg is running on the elliptic machines at full speed and with no resistance whatsoever supposed to impress a fucking sex machine such as myself?!

No, I think Lady C is wrong, it can't be gayness. I think he's just an asshole, regardless of sexual preference. And it all boils down to evolution. This guy's had his chance, he didn't make it into the genepool, and now he's just waiting for the gymnastic apparatus to end his life of misery. As it will the day that he slips, and his body is caught in the cold steel of the Elliptic machines, and torn to pieces.. Anyway.. A man can dream.
post number 1601 @ 10:35 pm | category: thoughts | print-friendly | comments?

Wednesday, November 30th 2011

Nearing the exams (basic German)

The libraries are as full as my sinuses. It's the Tide of Exams around Oslo University campus these days, and I have a hard time finding a place to read up on German grammar. And boy is there a lot to read..

As you have figured, I don't have much time for blogging. Or anything else. I was slightly ill last week, pushing myself to perform an oral exam in Deutsche Lautsprache (pronunciation) which counts for 50% of my grade in German phonetics. And that's one of the easier ordeals I must go through a'fore X-Mas.

I have three courses altogether, three written exams (4 hour school tests) to do, starting Monday next week. First up is Reading comprehension (Tysk 1101), which is excellent for beginners. It's about -- you guessed it! -- reading comprehension. Which means I can apply some of my comprehension skills from philosophy. But the German language is so inclined that it has no problem whatsoever placing the object before the verb, whereas Norwegian (and English) places the verb before the object, not to mention that the Subject is somewhere close by the verb, easily establishing the who-did-what routine. German is like a rubber band, however, and you must try to insert as many trivial facts into each sentence so as to further lengthen the distance from the acting part to the actual act as humanly possible.

So you can't rely on your reading/comprehension skills either. When there are direct and indirect objects you must know just how to discern which is which. Enter the famous German Kasus, case, oder der Fall. z.B. haben wir die Geschenke^{Accusativ Object}, dass ich^{Nominativ Subjekt} schenke^Verb dir^{Dativ Object}.. I hope that was somewhat correct.

Sometimes you stumble across random legacy constructions that are thusly because no one has thought to change them. Enter the so-called "free Dativ" which can more or less pop up in the middle, or wherever, of a sentence for no apparent reason at all. Mark Twain has a lot to say about it in The Awful German Language:

Now the answer to this question -- according to the book -- is that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain. Of course no bird would do that, but then you must stick to the book. Very well, I begin to cipher out the German for that answer. I begin at the wrong end, necessarily, for that is the German idea. I say to myself, "Regen (rain) is masculine -- or maybe it is feminine -- or possibly neuter -- it is too much trouble to look now. Therefore, it is either der (the) Regen, or die (the) Regen, or das (the) Regen, according to which gender it may turn out to be when I look. In the interest of science, I will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine. Very well -- then the rain is der Regen, if it is simply in the quiescent state of being mentioned, without enlargement or discussion -- Nominative case; but if this rain is lying around, in a kind of a general way on the ground, it is then definitely located, it is doing something -- that is, resting (which is one of the German grammar's ideas of doing something), and this throws the rain into the Dative case, and makes it dem Regen. However, this rain is not resting, but is doing something actively, -- it is falling -- to interfere with the bird, likely -- and this indicates movement, which has the effect of sliding it into the Accusative case and changing dem Regen into den Regen." Having completed the grammatical horoscope of this matter, I answer up confidently and state in German that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop "wegen (on account of) den Regen." Then the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word "wegen" drops into a sentence, it always throws that subject into the Genitive case, regardless of consequences -- and that therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop "wegen des Regens."

N. B. -- I was informed, later, by a higher authority, that there was an "exception" which permits one to say "wegen dem Regen" in certain peculiar and complex circumstances, but that this exception is not extended to anything but rain.

Now you may say that it's funny 'cause it's true, but you don't have to answer for it in a written exam less than a week from now..

Thankfully 1101 can be written in Norwegian so I don't have to spend so much energy worrying about die Kasus-Numerus Differanzierung, especially since I am still learning how to rightly detect the gender of everything around me. See above.

Following that we have German Syntax I (Tysk 1100), which is, according to the teaching Prof: "The most boring class in Oslo University" And that's his words. This guy is the kind of Professor that, and I quote again, "like to make things interesting". Scares the living schattenfreude out of newcomers like me. And he wants everything written in Deutsch, bitte and bitte without any syntactical inconsistencies with whatever it is you are claiming semantically.

That's next week in a shoe box.
On the 16th is the last chapter, the remaining 50% of Spoken German (Tysk 1105) which is mostly Phonetic Theory as applied to modern German, with strong emphasis on and correct transcription to IPA symbols under a given intonation and die Auslautverhärtung which rears its head all the time, apparently. For all insanity in the world, I'm actually looking forward to it. After that I'll be enjoying my X-Mas holiday or, more likely, committed.

Wish me good luck, und auf Wiedersehen! Time to hit the sack.
post number 1600 @ 11:54 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

Thursday, November 17th 2011

Donate to Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia

If you can spare some change, please consider donating to the Wikimedia foundation. This time around the money goes to:

• Technology: Servers, bandwidth, maintenance, development. Wikipedia is the #5 website in the world, and it runs on a fraction of what other top websites spend. 
• People: The other top 10 websites have thousands of employees. The foundation has fewer than 100 employees, making your donation a great investment in a highly-efficient not-for-profit organization. 

You can donate through PayPal or by credit card. Simply click the banner:



Presently, I'm a poor student of Philosophy without a job and no steady income. But I can still afford to give 200 NOK to one of the sites that I use the most. Lately, I've had the great pleasure of reading up on course subjects on the German de.wikipedia.org. It's a great upwelling of information and truly one of the greatest endeavors of the Internet. And I'm not much of a Jimmy Wales fan boy. That's no reason not to recognize one of the greatest institutions of all mankind up until today!
post number 1599 @ 11:32 pm | category: links | print-friendly | comments?

Wednesday, November 9th 2011

«Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III» by Keith Martin

Disclaimer: I did not write the following, but I found it on a discussions forum (thanks bro!) that had copied from the original source or another site. Apparently the text was written by Keith Martin ©2005 and hosted here, but since the host is down I'll take my chances. //END Disclaimer

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope -- Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.

For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.

Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.

As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.

Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.

To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.

Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)

Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn't want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.

R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2's first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2's second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.

Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment's amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.

On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet." Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.

Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.

20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He's there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda's. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it's his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion's best ship.

The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations - a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.

Han is Chewie's front man. It's much better, and safer for him, if he doesn't know what's really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie's working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.

Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2's urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the "mistake" that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo's getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren't going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.

En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they've played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they've done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.

Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don't know just how much trouble they're in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they're all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke's plan.

Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he's been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.

Chewie's first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don't understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He's no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that's Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances - he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.

When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it's for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there'll be one agent who knows what's going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn't feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.

Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn't. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there's no way he can tell her that.

As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan's ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C. © Keith Martin 2005

// END COPY. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did :)
post number 1598 @ 10:10 pm | category: links | print-friendly | comments?

Tuesday, November 8th 2011

Truckin' zine on hiatus until January!

My latest Truckin' story is absolutely awesome! In fact, it's so awesome that dr. Pauly has decided to put it on the shelves until JANUARY!

Seriously though, I can understand the need for a break. Even without all the volunteer work behind Truckin' both Pauly and Nicky a.k.a Change100, I know he would have his hands full with his other e-zines. I'm very grateful for the effort to make my effort eatable to the public. It's a hiatus well deserved!

Allegedly, it has nothing to do with the murder of Michael Jackson.
post number 1597 @ 7:40 pm | category: literature | print-friendly | comments?

Monday, November 7th 2011

Latest Internet Relay Chat-logs (IRC)

Back by irregular demand, I fetch the best IRC quotes from bash.org for you kids. IRC, for you youngsters out there, is like a social network only live and anti-social. It's also immoral, un-educational and probably unhealthy. Enjoy!


#947444
//
// Dear maintainer:
//
// Once you are done trying to 'optimize' this routine,
// and have realized what a terrible mistake that was,
// please increment the following counter as a warning
// to the next guy:
//
// total_hours_wasted_here = 25
//


#947055
<@gongoputch> so my 12 year old has been BEGGING me for a minecraft server. I told him 'OK', he said YEA!', I say 'but you have to install the OS (FreeBSD), configure it, set up a jail and generally learn enough to admin it.
<@gongoputch> he hates me now
<@gongoputch> BUT - he got it running :)
<@gongoputch> after it was going, he looked up at me and said 'This OS is the logical thing I have ever seen'
<@gongoputch> ... it's little moments like those ...


#946461
<@joosa> how do you say float in java? just 1.5f?
<@Gliptic> FloatFactoryFactory.getInstance(FloatFactoryFactory.defaultInstanceDescriptionString).getFactory(Locale.getLocale("en-US")).createBuilder().setString("1.5").getResult()


#945825
<a> I have a new girlfriend, man. She´s 90-60-90...
<b> wtf? She is purple


#945624
CandyKillJoy: Have you heard of Avenged Sevenfold?
Danktolker: Yeah, I went to one of their concert
CandyKillJoy: You're a fan?
Danktolker: Unfortunately something called a "mosh pit" broke out, which I misunderstood as a series of failed hug attempts
Danktolker: I was beaten rather severely after trying to join in
Danktolker: Learn from my mistakes, friends


#944007
<@Scootz> i just realized i left 'erection after death' in my google search bar when i let my dad use the computer
<@Scootz> and it's different now


#921395
<Aussie> I was listening to some girls talking in a video store.
<Aussie> And one of them was saying that she had failed her learners permit because she had used both hands to change gears.


#930784
<mindbomb> anytime anyone refers to themselves as a 'foodie' I want to knock their fucking teeth out
<mindbomb> oh you like to eat food that tastes good? congratufuckinglations
<mindbomb> blog about it


#937988
<+ChubZee> i was watching telly this morning before i went to work
<+ChubZee> and there was a discussion on about a charity that deals with teenage pregnancy
<+ChubZee> which is a huge problem in the uk
<+FCN|M0rlock> i can imagine
<+ChubZee> and they're advocating anal sex as a form of contraception
<+ChubZee> (which i'm all for)
<+ChubZee> and their tag line is "one up the bum and you won't be a mum"
<+ChubZee> i was almost dying laughing


#939691
Venificus: Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
post number 1596 @ 8:32 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?

Wednesday, October 26th 2011

Waits' Bad As Me at a first glance

You couldn't have possibly missed Tom Waits' new album Bad As Me, and lo and behold if it wasn't just the one that fell into my possession from a crooked crow's nest this early afternoon.

Tom Waits follows on the same trail he's been pursuing since Real Gone, minus the heavy percussions, with 16 well-written albeit short tunes that may prove better suited for radio play than recent releases. The poetical though cynical justice flows like it did during the red rainstorms of Blood Money, with clear musical scars from the hard-to-swallow Mule Variations.

When Get Lost looks back to a an imaginary E. Presley we feel the cheap taste of bourbon on the edge and underneath our oratory organs, just the way Waits should do. Then with Face to the Highway we catch a glimpse of the roadside romantic that we all know, but not long enough to taint the sad text of Pay Me.

There's definitely more musical harmony in this album as compared to MV; a nicely tuned accordion, violin, piano, guitars and glockenspiel bring the point across. I even get guitaric vibes from The Shadows. The slow ballad Back In The Crowd paves the way for Bad As Me that must really kick your gut in a live performance. Though not the strongest song on this record, Kiss Me puts us back in the 70's.

There's definitely a little Alice in the mix. The aggression of Hell Broke Luce really doesn't leave much to the imagination, it's a songful of fear and loathing. Come New Year's Eve you have a lump in your throat.

I bought the deluxe edition that naturally won't fit in my CD shelves and will have to stay out of sight, with the ever-so-artistic Radiohead special editions. I'll have to get a 2nd normal edition for the shelves. I do like the book though. I was standing in front of the stereo listening to the music and reading the music, and it occurred to me that I was holding the album like a preacher holds the Holy Bible -- like some kind of magical weapon against evil. As usual, it's great to hear Tom Waits again, and I look forward to his next album.
For some reason, there's a lot of Keith Richards in this release.
post number 1595 @ 5:54 pm | category: music | print-friendly | comments?

Friday, October 21st 2011

Star Wars Blu-ray Marathon, minute by minute

Lady C recently bought the Complete Star Wars Saga on Bluray, and she decided that we would all get together to watch them chronologically over 2-3 evenings, starting tonight. Since we will begin with the beginning, The Phantom Menace, no one is here except for me, Lady C and her sister Vixen. I guess there will be some more people in a couple of hours, and even more tomorrow evening when we begin with the first films (IV, V and VI). The following is my continuously updated live-log from the event as it transpires.

Friday 6:30 pm
We have only just begun watching. Lady C has made us Porter Steak and we've just watched Queen Amidala flee Naboo. I sincerely loathe the cartoonish Jalla Jalla Jar Jar Binks character.. But I have to eat while it's hot!

Friday 7:55 pm
We've returned to Naboo after a fruitless debate in the Seeeenate, and Queen Amidala just bowed down before the Giant Toad to join forces. The Porter Steak was fine, but Lady C used the wrong ale and the sauce was a little too bitter for my taste.

We have discussed various bloody endings of the life of Jar Jar Binks. We have also noted what an effin' greedy racist George Lucas is. You won't agree that the braided Jamaica-sounding servant/slave Jar Jar is not a racist image? And then we're all Pulp Fiction in the Jedi council, with Samuel L. Jackson silently adding 'mothafuckah' to every single sentence. If skin colour was so important, they should've used Morgan Freeman. This Jedi council's been institutionalized.

I remember watching the racing scenes in the cinema, thinking that it was some sort of commercial or hidden advertisement for a new Playstation game or something. It looks even more so on Bluray.

Friday 9:10 pm
Oh, shit. The young padawan Anakin has just kissed Senator Amidala (didn't know she "lost her job"), while Obi-Wan's visiting the lost planet to look at the Clone army. Lady C just woke up from a little nap, and my brother Koew just phoned in to tell he wasn't coming after all. I can't bare more terrible actors with artificial lines. I think I'll have a beer.

Friday 11:12 pm
We've just begun the third installment of George Lucas' silver screen masturbation. I haven't seen this one before so I've got to pay attention. I'll drop by for a last update when the movie's done, I think.

Friday 11:16 pm
Right. Whatever Natalie Portman's been doing, she should stop it. She looks like a two-dollar hooker in this flick:


Can you spell E-A-T-I-N-G-D-I-S-O-R-D-E-R? or C-R-A-C-K-P-I-P-E?


Friday 11:48 pm
We've just watched General Ben Kenobi bash it out on General Griveous. We're making some wiener dogs for those who's feeling a bit nibblish.

Saturday 1:17 am
So, that's the first half of the Star Wars saga, having seen the Revenge of the Sith for the first time. I find that while its script was more adult-oriented it felt very strained trying to fill in each and every empty spot between the previous and the next installment. Not very creative, but from the first three it was definitely the best.
I really dislike CGI Yoda. Whenever I see him, I completely lose the feel of the story and instead it seems that I'm watching a poor commercial for LEGO Star Wars or something. I have no respect for George Lucas whatsoever. We'll see the first three (IV-VI) tomorrow evening, hopefully with more than 3 people attending. Until then, have a good one!

Saturday 6:28 pm
We just started the first Star Wars film, A New Hope. I think some of the desert scenes from after the droids landed were pretty grainy. I can't remember if they were so grainy in the old VHS versions. Otherwise the level of detail so far is good.

Saturday 6:46 pm
We will delay the first flick until the pork chops are done.

Saturday 9:03 pm
That concludes A New Hope. It's still a great movie, but I don't like the adjustments Lucas did in the first digitalizations (also available as VHS) that also accompany this film. Lucas has added some cartoonish and wholly unnecessary scenes with creatures walking by or heckling each other. Unbelievable. So far we're me, Lady C, Vixen and their brother and her pregnant girlfriend. We're preparing for the usually most-esteemed 5th installment of the Saga after a short break. Looking forward to it!

Saturday 10:43 pm
Luke is torn between his Jedi training in the Empire strikes back and saving his friends that he saw suffering in a vision of the future. They're in Bespin at the moment. I had a little nap to regain consciousness after Lady C's most brilliant pork chops.

Saturday 11:30 pm
And it is a great film! We've lost two guests who had to get up early tomorrow morning, but the core three are still here, ready to enjoy the very last installment (or third, if you're my age).

Sunday 1:57 am
Finally we are done! The last three flicks are sort of what you'd expect them to be, with random inserts from the manic mind of George Lucas. I have so far not seen a single necessary or substantial insert. They all seem like the whims of a madman, a sales man targeting children, with stupid additions instead of meaningful contributions. It's nice to have seen all of the movies in two sittings like this. I will probably never do it again. Star Wars is always great, but the meddling of its rights-owner leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I would spend quite a lot of money on a Bluray version of the Star Wars films (4-6) as they were shown on the day of the premiere, and there are many of us out there, but I fear it will never happen. Instead of a Scorcese-deep space opera, what we have is a result of greed, and so it will slowly fade away into oblivion.. The lesson to be learned here: Don't mess with a winning story, and don't fuck the fans.

It's a little over 2 in the morning and we're getting ready to go to bed. I hope you've had a nice weekend. Mine has been off the charts in TV watching and space fighting, not to mention beer, chocolate and popcorn. Let's hope it's some time until the next movie marathon. Cheers!
post number 1594 @ 6:36 pm | category: news | print-friendly | 4 comments!

Wednesday, October 19th 2011

I should've been in class now

Only the students at the Faculty of Theology drink more coffee than we do at the Faculty of Better thinking but ours does alas not receive the divine blessing, and as such double-serves as a liquid laxative.

That does not entail less coffee, only sore bum.

We all have our little ways to maintain, and mine is to seek refuge in the single WCs at the Faculty of Linguistics, that are never in use and always clean. I don't know why but many Asians go there learning English (in Norway, go figure). Asian schoolgirls don't poop.

They also have motion detectors that regulate the light-saving. Today I learned that it is possible to sit long enough reading Slashdot on the cell for the sensors to deem you a fixed object.

It raised an existential problem, that was greatly underlined when the lights refused to go back on from within the WC. With pants around the ankles I fumbled for the handle only to expose myself to a class of Anime characters. "Oh, fuck."
Wonder how long etiquette dictates I should avoid the bathrooms for my daily meditation.. The scientific faculties' have no comprehension of the refined art of toiletry, and force men of fine culture, such as myself, to relieve my bowels in the vicinity of common folk.
post number 1593 @ 1:20 pm | category: thoughts | print-friendly | comments?

Tuesday, October 4th 2011

Quick Rendezvous in the Paris of the North

Bollicks to this, I'm off to Tromsø!

Actually, the both of us are taking a day trip to Tromsø to get some business done and say hello to my pops. It'll be nice to see the north again, even if it's just for a day. I'm in the middle of my midterms right now, so we can't spare more time, unfortunately.
post number 1590 @ 11:31 pm | category: news | print-friendly | comments?