It's such a perfect day . . .

. . . and right there stops the similarity with the song. Well, I could continue but I do not think I have multiple personalities. There is not a cloud on the sky at the moment. The sun is shining, the smell of the water from the ocean sneaks into my office. This is quite a good day to be at work on. I even have my door open, so I can hear everything from seagulls to cars driving by. The local ferry is having some maintenance done and that spoils the romantic picture of a small city in the northern parts of Norway. I wish it would leave soon, but it leaves at four o' clock. So in the meantime, the boat is partly blocking the view. The boat engine is blocking out the annoying sound my printer is making, that kind of cheers me up, too. Another thing that cheers me up right now is in fact the tourists that stop by. Every person has been very nice and polite so far. Maybe it is the weather? They finally see the sun and have the chance to actually see the sun tonight. And when the tourists are happy, I am happy. My wish for today is to have more people stopping by to ask me something. My skills as a helping hand for the tourists increase every day and I want to use them. The job also forces me to use my vocal English skills. I am afraid I have been neglecting them the last couple of years so it is good to use my vocabulary again.

What in the world is this?

The picture above was taken inside a karaoke pub in Edinburgh, I believe the staff is still living their fairytale after our visit. Now, I would like to know what they are selling. Does anyone know or have a suggestion?

Yes to video assistance for referees

I am sure that we all can agree upon the fact that technology is here to stay. So why not use what we have? As an above average-football fan I do have some thoughts about the debate after the game between England and Germany. First of all, the referee did not rule out England from the game, they did that perfectly on their own. I believe that Germany would have won even if it was a tie at half-time. But there is no doubt that the nature of the game would have been completely different. England pushed on for an equalizer and, with some help from Barry, the result was 3-1 rather than 2-2.

Now, Lampard's show was way over the line. The whole situation took me back to a game between Man Utd and Tottenham and Carroll's blunder. In both these instances, the referees made the wrong desicion. Not because, I hope, they cheated, but because they did not see the incident (a little pun on Arsene Wenger here). That is why either replays from cameras should be allowed. As far as I am concerned, you can not blame the linesman here. He had to stand where the defence line was to check for 1)the defender nearest the goalkeeper 2)see if there's an offside 3) notice where the ball was shot from 4) see if the ball takes a deflection. The people who oppose new rules (Blatter, I am looking at you) claim that the flow of the match is ruined. I have seen many games where the play has been stopped because of several throw ins or free kicks. I might have misunderstood this but from what I have been told the fourth official has a monitor beside him at the sideline. Instant replays are just that, instant. Confirming it was a goal takes no longer time than the players use to celebrate the goal so I do not think ther will be lost more time because of this. Just as a conclusion, I hope that the winning team wins, not because of a mistake by the referees, but because they were the best team on the field.

Impulsive, me?

As previously mentioned I do like to write whatever that is in my head. I feel that my honest opinions come out through babbling rather than planning what to say in the style of academic writing. But it is difficult to be impulsive or trying to write on the spot. Topics or themes do lurk inside my head and I know I want to say something but I don't know how to put it on screen. If you could put sentences inside a blender they would all be there. It is just that they would not make any sence to any other than myself.

I tried a bit to say something about my relation to clothing and fashion but it was useless. My words are giving me such pain right now, they stay inside me. Why should it be so difficult to say what I mean? Maybe that is faith, maybe I am not supposed to write about stuff like fashion. My words rarely have a deeper meaning and we will leave it at there. From now on my writings are pure superficial crap not trying to cure world hunger.

thoughts on the World Cup

It has been four years since the last time, in Germany. Finally, we football nerds (yes football), can sit inside for several weeks and feel good about it. The World Cup in itself is a competition for you as well, trying to see as much football as possible regardless of what teams are playing. Now, my mind is not in some sleep mode while watching the games, I do have some thoughts lurking and these are some of them:

1) Bzzzz! That is right, the unforgivable vuvuzela. We had a little taste of it last year during the Confederations Cup but did we expect it to be this annoying? Probably not. Let me be the first in line to give the inventor a smack on the head because the world is better without, in my opinion. It does create atmosphere, just it is bad atmosphere. Through out this championship I have been thinking of Eddie Izzard and his "covered in bees-joke". It has now come to the point where I think I am immune, I laugh of dispare!

2) To be honest everything is sort of normal about the teams. France is out, no surprise there. England is still in it at this hour, but if they beat Germany they will lose on penalties for sure.

3) Jabulani, the ball. Adidas is the one to take the blame here. Why come up with a new type of ball that no one can benefit from? The goalkeepers hate it, ask Green. The strikers can not shoot with it.

4) Is the water inside the team bottles some sort of holy water? It is amazing to see water can cure when a player is injured. The medic staff pours water where it hurts and suddenly the player is fit to continue. I want to know where I can buy that type of water.

A photo

I do remember this day quite well, actually. This was the first time using the camera outdoors. To be honest, I had waited for some days to use this. It was really cold outside and since this is my first SLR I did not want to ruin it. Even further, it was icy and slippery on the roads. You should not be surprised if I managed to fall and suffer a real face plant. That is just how I am as a person, what can go wrong usually goes wrong. Many days has passed since this picture was taken. Have I improved as a photographer? I hope so. Is it as fun as I thought it would be? Definately! Whenever I can bring a camera, I do it.

It is hard sometimes . . .

too be a guy. You know, all of us with the y-chromosome. But why? I am not talking about the infinite number of things that has something to do with the other gender (maybe I will say something about that later). No, it is the combination of a guy and technology. I like to think that I am a guy, and I like technology. Maybe a bit too much, one would say since I do have a certain urge to buy all the latest technology. It isn't cool to have all the latest gadgets, at least no longer than five minutes. So I guess a small piece of me likes the attention. But the feeling you have while exploring uncharted possibilities is awesome. A comparison back in time must be the discovery of the America. Thankfully, my brain functions and I see that buying all the latest gizmos is far away from reality. First of all, it costs pretty much to be the cool guy who has all the latest. Second of all, do I need it? Do I really need an iPad, for example? As far as the iPad is concerned, I have no problem since I do not know what it really is. My laptop is way better. My number three concerns the environment. Yes, I do not want to mess up the planet. Let some other guy do it and then he can take the blame.

Does this makes sence? Do we need someone to smack us in the head to realize that our quality of living is not solely based on having the latest of technology?

Woop!

So much for nice weather, eh? We are back to normal with rain pouring down from the skies. At least I can have a clear conscious about staying inside and that is what I am going to do. I do not deny that I like to watch the telly. Neither am I ashamed about it. Hey, my favourite channels are dealing with documentaries. My parents have a great number of channels that I do not have in Trondheim and I do sort of envy them. Try stop looking at History Channel, I challenge you. It is almost the same as to try stop breathing. Maybe it is a good thing then that I do not have these channels in Trondheim? You might say that watching the telly is not a smart move to earn some credits.

What is even better when it comes to staying at my parents, you know beside seeing your family and doing nice things together, is my parents' Wii! The fact that they would own a gaming console was not on my mind ten years ago. Do not read me wrong here, I do enjoy the concept of moving and sweating while playing a game but the Wii opens up a world of possibilities, like Ocarina of Time. My favourite game of all time, ah it brings back so many memories you would not believe it. If only I could play it in Trondheim, though . . .That would be awesomesauce.

The sun is shining

...and the weather is sweet? Absolutely! This is the first day since I got back home I can truly say that the weather is resembling something like summer. The past days have been nothing but rain. This makes my job at the tourist office pretty, darn hard. People want to know what to do while it rains. My answer usually starts with "eeeeh" while thinking hard. We have a museum which is the thing to do. Other than that? Our selection of stores and shops is rather limited and they do close at four o'clock. Yes, that is 16.00 pm. The town is virtually dead after that.

Along with the rain comes clouds, you can not see the sky nor the sun. Which is an essential part of watching the midnight sun. Tourists are rather disappointed when I have to tell them that chances of seeing the sun at night are slim during the weather we have had the last two weeks. At least they will experience how bright it is during the night even when it is cloudy. And I can assure you, your sleeping pattern will be ruined. But hey, it is fun none the less.

One small step for me

Ok, I am the first to admit that my computer skills are not amazing. They are more like entry-level. But that makes this achievement even greater or that is what I would like to think. If you see at the bottom, there is now a slideshow of photos from my Photobucket (yes, i has a bucket). This page wants me to have my photos at the top. But we will not stand for that, will we? Oh no, sir. My cheeky brain said something along the lines of "hey, why not have it at the bottom of the page?" What is even better is that I can now see the photos. Hurray! My plan is to make this page look appealing, but I am not the person who can follow a plan that well. The goal will be reached but not in as I intended in the first place.

Back again?

So I am back in the world of blogging and this time it is in English. How about that? Nevermind, you can hold your applauses for about a week or two. This site is not my best friends when it comes to getting thingys to work and therefore it might seem a bit "under construction". Comprendes? I guess so. Anyway, I realized (not out of the blue, though) that I have many friends abroad and maybe some of you are interested in reading this. Since my job this summer is at the tourist office there are a lot of periods where I do not have anything to do. My mind works in mysterious ways and it is plausible that I will post something, either in text or photos. I am an avid reader of different blogs and it seems that the good ones have a certain theme of some sort. That is my main problem. I do like all sorts of stuff and quite frankly, I like to write on impulse rather than planning something days ahead.

Hope to see you soon!