Fog and sun

It was one of these rare days. The morning was freezing cold and foggy down in the valley. The moist air made it feel even colder. We covered our faces with scarves, everything except the mouth and the nose.

Older boy and his buddies went to the terrain park, where the black run, with the biggest jumps, has just opened.

Little boy and I took the fast double-quad chair lift up in the mountain. When we jumped off at the top station, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. We decided to continue with the gondola, to the top of the mountain.


The buildings at the top were completely covered in snow and ice. There was no wind. The sun is low over the horizon at this time of the year, but we could feel it was warming. It was amazing.

We paused at the top for while, enjoying the pleasant weather and the fabulous view. The fog and the clouds were like a gray ocean down in the valley. Then we skied down the slope. Little boy was waiting for me when I came down. He’s too fast. I’m not able to keep up with him anymore.

It got very cold again when the sun set around 2 pm, but even though our noses ached, we continued to ski till the lifts closed at 3 o’clock.

Happy New Year >:)

The second day of Christmas

This Christmas has been freezing cold. Even the brackish water in the lower part of the river has frozen. It doesn't happen very often. The flame in our fireplace has burnt continuously.

Today it was warmer, only -10 degrees Celcius (15 Fahrenheit). Older boy went to the local ski resort with his buddies. Little boy and I went skating. The ice rink is outdoor, a five minute walk from our house. It's a football field in the summer, and ice rink in the winter. The ice rink is slightly oblique, uphill one way and downhill the other. It was a very nice and pleasant day to be outdoor.

Most of the Christmas hazzle is over, fortunately Tomorrow we leave for skiing vacation till New Years Eve >:)

Christmas Day

Santa Claus dropped most of the presents over the rich and wealthy, as usual.

Next year I suggest that he starts further south, for instance with the children in Africa.

Little boy was happy with his presents, no reason to complain. >:)

The darkest day

Today is the darkest day, we have about 4 hours of day light now. Tomorrow we will start moving towards lighter times. Great!

I'm closing down this blog now, for a little while, from Merry Christmas to Happy New Year, approximately >:D

In the meantime I'll be outdoor skiing, or indoor reading. And I will try to write a couple of new chapters for my so-called novel.

The novel takes place in the summer. It's kind of strange to write about summer in the middle of winter, but it's fun too. I can swap seasons in just a few seconds. I can go to the ski resort at day time and to the beach, in my novel-world, at night.

If you thought I'm just a metal head, you're wrong. I'm a big fan of Tom Waits too. Here's one of my favorite "Christmas songs": Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.

Merry Christmas to everybody, in the ski resort and on the beach, or wherever you are. Or maybe I should say Happy Yuletide >:)

The Story of Christmas revised

This happened some years ago, when little boy was about five yo. They had learnt about The Story Of Christmas (Luke 2:1-20) in kindergarden. One evening before Christmas little boy and I were playing with plastilina clay. Little boy started to retell The Story in his own way, and asked me if I could model it in clay. He was the director, and I just made what he told me to.

We made Jesus in the crib and Virgin Mary and his stepfather Joseph, and the Three Wise Men who came with gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matt 2:1-15). At this point little boy started to deviate from the original version of the story. He suggested that Jesus should get a soccer ball, so I made a soccer ball for him.


Then little boy wanted a soccer match. I made two goals, and little boy set up the teams. Even Virgin Mary had to participate, to make the two teams equal.

I argued that it was not very likely that Jesus was running around with a soccer ball just a few hours after his birth, but little boy insisted. Maybe he was right, taking into account the incredible tricks Jesus did later (the water-to-wine trick, the calming-the-sea trick, the five-breads-and-two-fish trick and so on)

Waste of time

I don't know anything less interesting and more boring than Christmas. Usually I don't think about it before 23rd December.

This year it's different. My old lady is away this week, off-shore, on the oil platform she's working with. So I have to take care of a lot of Christmas shopping and preparations.

Damn, what a waste of time!

Usually, Christmas preparations bring some arguing and yelling in our family, since I'm not very enthusiastic when it comes to putting up lights and stars and the Christmas tree ans so-called decorations.

I hardly get the time to write on my so-called novel. Tonight I have written only 666 words.

Now I need some good music to cheer me up, for instance Freezing Moon by Mayhem. This live version from 2004 has Attila on vocals; the original studio version with Dead on vocals is even cooler. Note Hellhammer on the drums >:)

Draped in white

Winterland is draped in white. Cold and dry snow. It's great when your properly dressed for the outdoor. We spent the weekend skiing, both in groomed piste and off piste.

When skiing off piste, little boy lost his ski in the powder. I took off my skis and used one as a probe stick. Then I followed his track and probed for every foot until I hit his ski. It took us about half an hour to find it.

The days are short now. The sun comes above the horizon just for a few hours (south of the arctic circle). At 2pm it's dusk, with kind of pink-bluish colors. The lifts close at 3 pm when it's getting dark.

It was cold when we came to our cabin. The olive oil had turned to wax. We put the bottle in the fireplace for a few minutes to bring it back to liquid. Then we cooked dinner, chicken with Thai curry and rice. The kids were hungry. Then we watched a movie in TV (Narnia) and ate candy (we even tasted some before dinner, bad dad I am).

The two-hour drive back home yesterday was challenging with icy roads and drifting snow and darkness. No problem. We just take it easy >:)

Wikileaks and KKK

I’m sitting in the airport, waiting for my plane back home. This is my 11th day travelling in three weeks. I’m tired of it.

I just read the latest news about the Wikileaks case.

According to the newspaper, the leaks are embarrassing for the American government, because of the way they have described leaders of other countries. Putin is the alpha-dog (which probably just flattered him), Berlusconi is the corrupt criminal (it’s true anyway). For the American government, this is easy to get away with. It was internal communication, not intended for publication. As easy as that. Every organisation in the world is doing the same, internal mails and memos, analyses of partners and competitors, confidential reports to the boss. For your eyes only. But all organizations have unfaith employees.

What is serious for the American government is that the leaks reveal their plans and strategies, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the world economy. The Wikileaks founder is arrested, on a rape charge. It smells like conspiracy. Get something on him, get him jailed, get rid of him. The American and European governments are pissed of course. Openness is good, but only when they can control the information that is leaked.

According to the newspaper, PayPal has blocked all money transfers to Wikileaks. But donations to the Ku Klux Klan are accepted. It’s a crazy world.

The good news: Ive written 1000 words for my so-called novel today, some really hot stuff. I hope it’s not on Wikileaks tomorrow >:D

After the mass

Skiing is bad right now. We've had two weeks of clear sky, insane cold weather, and no snow fall. So, I spent most of this weekend indoor. I did my part of the house cleaning (bathrooms, kitchen and the TV room) very fast, and spent the rest of the time working on my so-called novel.

I'm using double POV, alternating between my hero and protag (a liberal scientist, of course) and the major antag (a conservative and evil dentist). Right now I have the most fun writing with the antag POV. Then I can play around with all my stereotypes of people I dislike.

Below is an excerpt of what I wrote this weekend. It starts at the point where the dentist Clint Parker and his family gather around the dinner table, after mass in church, and I, for some reason, swapped to English.

I haven't decided on how to merge the chapters written in protag and antag POV yet. Therefore I number the protag chapters as 1,2,3... and the antag chapters as A,B,C...

By the way, does anyone know an English before-dinner prayer that I can use in my story?

And there's no sex in this chapter. If that's what your looking for, you can stop right here >;)

Chapter B: After the mass

(first 3/4 written in Winterlandic; omitted)

“Dinner is ready”, Laura said

Clint and Christine went inside, and they all gathered around the table. Clint folded his hands and looked down on his fists.

“Let us pray”, he said. “Thank you Lord for giving us this food. Amen”

Laura had prepared a fabulous meal, smoked ham with potato salad and grass onion, light and suitable for the warm summer weather. They ate without talking. Only the jiggling of cutlery broke the silence, for a while. Then Christine put her knife and fork down.

“There is something I should tell you”

She rarely started out like that. Parker was alert, preparing for whatever surprise was to follow.

“I think I have got a boy friend”, she continued.

“How nice for you”. Laura clapped her hands together and smiled. “ Who is he? A fellow student in medical school?”

“His name is Steve. I have known him for about three months. He’s a very cute and kind boy. He is in the band I’m singing with.”

“What do you mean?” Laura asked, in a hesitating voice. “Have started to sing in a mixed choir, with both male and female singers?”

“I said a band, not a choir”

“A band? With drums and electric guitars and that kind of terrible things?”

“Yes, I have joined a goth-metal band. I’m the female lead singer. He is the male singer, and plays the lead guitar. He’s a musician. He tries to make a living form the band and his music”

Clint Parker dropped his fork and knife, from a considerable height, about a foot above his plate, and making a sound like a doom bell.

“And may I ask, what is a goth metal?”

“It’s a kind of heavy metal, with both female and male singers. They call it beauty and the beast vocal. I’m the beauty of course, singing the soprano voice”, she said and tried to set up a smile. “Steve is growling the male beast vocal”.

Clint was shocked. Sweet and obedient Christine, his only child, with a growling and guitar-playing beast. The beast didn’t even go to college. What would his peers in the Rotary Club say? What would this do to his reputation? This was something he couldn’t accept. He would make sure that this relationship came to an end, at any cost.

Christmas isn’t about Christ

Then we have entered the month of Christmas, if we like it or not. In English the word Christmas is closely tied to the name of Christ. This is the case in many other languages too, directly or indirectly. Here are a few examples:

o French: Noel, means birth
o Spanish: Navidad, means birth
o Italian: Natale, means birthday
o German: Weihnachten, means holy night
o Dutch: Kerst, which means Christ.

However, there are exceptions: In the Scandinavian languages, the word for Christmas is Jul, and in Icelandic it’s Jol. It is the same as the English word Yule, which was the Pagan celebration of winter solstice.

Yule (or jul as I call it) was a religious midwinter fest honoring the myriad of gods of the Germanic people in Northern Europe. In my country the Norse gods Odin and Thor were the most important. Thor was the god with the big hammer, the god who created thunder and lightning. The English word thunder is derived from his name.

Christianity was brought to Europe around year 1000 (with some local variations, in my place it happened in 1030). To make it simple, the Christian church simply took over the Pagan midwinter fest, and gradually introduced Jesus in the lead role. In elementary school we learnt that Christmas Eve was the birthday of Jesus. It is not known exactly which day he was born, but it’s not likely that it was in December (I researched this on the Internet).

The Yule tradition dates back to the iron age, at least. Christmas is not about Christ originally, but in many languages this is not so obvious.

(Maybe Christmas was about Christ for a while. Now it's about shopping.)

If you would like go into the Christmas month with the Pagan origin in mind, I can recommend this doom-black metal classic by Gorgoroth: The Virginborn

Enjoy your Yule-tide >:)

Utopia

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out my desk and shelves in our office up north. In a magazine box, I found an old note book, between math notes and calculations. The note book contained some poems and short stories and memoirs that I wrote between 1987 and 1990.

Nice surprise. I thought that book was lost and gone long time ago.

It was fun to read. I was astonished by some of the stuff I wrote. Maybe I will post some of the high-lights (if any) on my blog. I just need to get it typed and translated to English.

Here's one of the poems, which is easy to translate, since it's free form. According to my note book, it was written on the night-train from the south in April 1987:

Utopia
Those
who can write
write, and
those who cannot write
print books and
make jellymen and
grow tea and
tobacco
for those who write.
By the way,
I have quit
today

What the Hell does it mean? I'm not sure, but maybe I tried to quit the tobacco. If so; it failed. I'm still using it. I don't smoke, but I use this black stinking stuff that you put under the lip; snus (kind of moist snuff) >:)

Office poetry

I had to spend most of this Saturday in the office. What the Hell, I have better things to do, like enjoying the nice (but cold) weather, and writing on my so-called novel.

It wasn't even fun work, just some boring preparation for meetings and travel next week. For a moment of entertainment, I glanced into the blog world, and found this funny game on Colene's blog:

Pile up a few books and see what poetry you get out of the titles.

So, I grabbed a few books from my office bookshelf, and piled them up. I happened to find a couple of novels in my shelf (borrowed by some friends), so I put science and fiction every second. I took a picture with the camera on my cell phone (crap camera). Here's the science-fiction poem that I got:

Supersymmetry and supergravity
A hero of our time
Numerical analysis
On the road
The changing earth

I've seen better poetry, for sure, but at least I got some entertainment in my office boredom >:)

Thanksgiving

Holy shit! Six Flags Airlines was spectacular this evening. The tickets are pretty expensive, but they give you bang for the buck. I've been a frequent customer for some years, but never experienced anything like the roller-coaster ride we got today.

The start was smooth and easy. At cruising altitude the captain started to tease us: "Weather is nice. Good landing conditions. Easterly winds, so we expect some turbulence when we approach for landing"

And turbulence we got! No kidding.

I could never imagined an airplane moving like that, up and down and sideways, bullying the laws of physics. Some people cried, and some puked (the smell can not be mistaken).

The plane made a downward move so rapid that not a single ass touched the seat, like we were weightless in outer space. A tall man, two rows in front of me, banged his head in the ceiling. I bet you tighten your seatbelt better next time, dude.

I think we were all pretty shaky and exhausted when we touched down on the runway.

These pilots really impress me. They know how to keep a Dash 8 flying. They're very experienced, flying up and down in the turbulence between the small and remote airports in the north, all day, all year. And they all retire happily at age 56.

It's Thanksgiving today, so I should probably say: "Thank you guys for bringing us down safely"

In Satan we trust >:O

Just another Thursday

That's it for today. In half an hour I leave our office in the north. Then I will go to the airport to get back home, flying Six Flags Airlines of course.

I just returned to my computer after a visit in the basement of our office building. I went down to look at some cores that the sedimentologists have put out on display. Cores means that it's samples of rocks taken out from the borehole when drilling a well into a oil reservoir. It's about a hundred meters of sandstones, similar to what you observe along the road in Western USA (I took the picture in Utah some years ago). However these cores have the familiar smell of oil. It's the stuff that we turn into petroleum for your cars.

Cool stuff, but I don't get to see these cores very often. That's the faith of a geophysicist. I spend most of my time with mathematics and computers, and hardly ever get to see the real stuff.

There's no thanksgiving celebration here. We don't have a tradition for that. I won't get any turkey with sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, unfortunately. Maybe I'll take a hot dog while waiting in the airport.

I'll write another chapter for my so-called novel while waiting for my flight. It's gonna be the continuation on the previous chapter I wrote. Hay, that's gonna be exciting. I'm already looking forward to it.

We will see what I get. Here it's just another Thursday.

Wine and oyster

So I'm back in the north, once again. I plan to stay till the end of the work week. Last night i took a late flight, with a two-hour transit stop. While waiting in the airport, I wrote a new scene for my so-called novel.

The plot is pretty much lined up, chapter by chapter. I write the scenes in random order, depending on my mood. This is what I wrote last night, approximately 700 words:

Chapter 11: Wine and oyster

He couldn’t help it. Tom Snare was nervous when he was going to visit someone in their home. Meeting people in a bar or a restaurant, no problem, but coming into someone’s private sphere always made him feel uncertain.

He walked up the stairs, to the third floor and pushed the door bell. Nothing happened. She had invited him to come, for white wine and oyster, but maybe he was wrong about the time? A minute passed by, it felt like an hour. Then the door opened, and Marions’s smiling face appeared.

“Hi, Tom, come on in”, she said and pushed the door wide open.

“Thanks”, he said, and stepped into the hall.

He took off his jacket, and hung it on a hook in the corner. She looked at his black T-shit with a white scull printed on the chest.

“You look so scary in those T-shirts, but I know you’re pretty harmless”. She touched his chest with the palm of her hand. “Harmless and sweet”.

Snare captured her green-brown eyes and then glanced down her body. Her chunky thighs were squeezed into a pair of black tights. The red T-shirt stopped above her wide hips. She was barefoot, toe nails painted dark red. His heart was beating a little bit faster..

“I just came back from the gym”, she said, when she sensed his eyes sliding down her curvy body. “I just need to take a quick shower”.

“Are you hungry?”

“Yes, a little bit, but no hurry. Just take your time”.

“Did you come straight from the office?”

“Yes, it was hard to break loose today. I’m working on some really interesting stuff, and so close to get all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. It’s a new mathematical formulation of … ”

“Stop it, Tom, before you get into it again. I bet it’s just another obscure geophysical imaging method that doesn’t work in the end”

“Yes, maybe”

“I’m just teasing you”, she said, with a caring smile. “Tonight we will just relax”. She paused for a second, “and have a good time”

“And I was thinking about the student that died”, he said.

“They guy who died in the bike accident?”

“I’m not sure it was an accident.”

“Hobby-investigator Snare has a new hypothesis”, she said with a touch of irony. You must tell me more about it later. I have to get into the shower”.

“There’s s bottle of white wine and glasses on the table. Why don’t you have a taste and make yourself comfortable while you wait. I’ll give you something to eat in a few minutes”, she said, in an increasingly louder voice, as she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

He poured a glass half-full of wine, and leaned back in the sofa. His eyes fell on the bookshelf, and then on the pictures on the wall. Three lithographic prints in pale blue and green. The colors matched the furniture. Landscape-like half-abstract features, the kind pictures women tend to like. The kind of pictures he found annoyingly tasteful and boring.

He wanted to take a closer look at the bookshelf, but he didn’t. A bookshelf can tell a lot about the owner. It would be impolite, like peeping into someone’s privacy. He took a sip of the wine and just waited.

After half an hour, she came out from the bathroom, with a purple bathrobe wrapped around her body. She crossed the room, and stopped three steps from the sofa where he was sitting.

“Didn’t you like the wine, Tom?”

“Yes, I did”, he said. “But I wanted to wait for you, so that we can enjoy it together”

“You’re charming when you try to act a gentleman. It’s not your natural style, but I know you’re doing your best”, she said and smiled.

She flung her hair backward and raised her arms, with hands gripping around the hair to gather it into a pigtail. He suspected that she did it on purpose, when the bathrobe slid open, and revealed her belly, and her dark-blond bush, gently trimmed along the bikini line. It was just the way he liked it.

The oyster was served.

Swimming for Harry Potter

I'm not a big fan of Harry Potter. I have read only one of the the books (the first, with the kids). I thought Lord of the Rings was boring too. I just don't like the fantasy genre very much.

However, today little boy and I planned to go see the new Harry Potter movie in the theater. The movie is just released here. We found that 5000 tickets were pre-booked for the weekend, all sold out. Little boy was somewhat disappointed. What should we do?

We went to the nice waterpark we have down on the harbor, right by the quay where the big cruise ships come alongside in summer. The waterpark is indoor, otherwise it could be used only for a month in the summer. The kids love it, the diving tower, the wave pool and the tube slides. And there is a big pool for competitive swimmers of course. The parents can relax in the warm pool, with panorama windows on the sea side. It gives an illusion of swimming in the middle of the fjord.

Little boy was happy and we still have the Harry Potter movie to look forward next weekend >:)

(Here's a video from our waterpark; freestyle skiers at off-season practice)

Back on the slopes

The winter has come to Winterland. The ski resorts opened this weekend. There's not much snow yet, but it's possible to ski. For the next five months it will only get better.

Last week I bought new ski boots for little boy, and spent a fortune on ski passes. The good thing about it is that it makes the rest of the season appear very cheap. There's a couple of more investments to be done, new ski boots for older boy (the old boots still fit, but are worn out), and a pair of new giant-slalom skis for little boy, but it's not extremely urgent.

The kids have been looking forward to this for a long time now, and I don't mind some snow myself.

We're back on the slopes. Yeah >:)

The beauty of religion

I read in the newspaper about this farm worker in Pakistan. It was a woman who belongs to the Christian minority in the Muslim country.

One day she was sent to the spring to fetch water for the farm workers. The other farm workers refused to drink the water, because it had been carried by a Christian. The woman got pissed off and said: “Jesus died for our sins. What has Mohammad done for you?”

She was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Well deserved, of course, you can't just offend the gods and the prophets like that.

On the big day, she will be painted black in her face and pulled through town by a donkey, to the square where the cheering crowd is waiting to watch the execution. It will be a spectacular show.

It’s the beauty of religion.

The 7th day

I didn't participate in the NaBloWriMo, because I don't have enough ideas to write every day, and I don't have the time. I just write when I want to, as simple as that.

Now I have in fact posted something on my blog every bloody day in the first week of November. It wasn't planned; it just happened. I don't like making plans, because I have too many already.

Today I'm resting, on the 7th day, just like God. Thats about the only thing we have in common, God and I.

I'm the peaceful and tolerant one; mostly harmless >:)

Fuck more and buy less

Yesterday my old lady and I had this very interesting conversation by the kitchen table. The big question was: Should we buy new cutlery or not? The old crap we have was bought cheap at IKEA in the previous millennium.
- I saw these nice knives and forks in a catalogue, she said.
- I'm quite happy eating with the ones we have, I said.
- It's quite expensive, $100 per pair, and we need six at least, she said.
- I don't care. If you want it just go ahead and buy it. It's your money.
- The design is really cool, she said.
I don't worry about the cost. It wouldn't ruin us. This is just one of these questions I don't bother to boggle my mind with. I'm not concerned about what cutlery we're eating with. Buying new we might get sharper knives, but we already have steak knives, and we have plenty of silver if we need to impress.

This was just one example. It happens over and over again. We throw away things that work fine, and buy new stuff just because it's newer and looks cooler. Things have become too cheap. It's too easy to just buy new. Does it make us happier? No, it doesn't. The better parts of life are not for sale in the shopping mall.

Fuck more and buy less >:)

Abrahadabra

A few weeks ago, I visited the local metal store. It's a small obscure shop selling only heavy metal CDs, cash only, no cards accepted. I asked the long-haired and pale guy behind the counter if he had any cool stuff to recommend. He handed me an album by Australian grindcore-death-metal band The Berzerker. I bought the CD, and also grabbed the new album Abrahadabra by Dimmu Borgir.

Dimmu Borgir isn't my favorite band; I like the old-school black metal better. I wasn't very impressed by the previous Dimmu Borgir album and didn't have big expectations this time. Also, they recently fired half the band members, and replaced them by session musicians on base, drums and keyboard.

The new album was a positive surprise, nice melodic black-metal-inspired symphonic metal. Finally, they've got budgets big enough to hire a full symphony orchestra, and a big choir. In the song named Dimmu Borgir, the orchestra, choir and band flows nicely together. It has almost a radio-hit potential (hard-core black-metal fans don't like that).

On the song Getaways, which is the official video (a crazy mix of milk, blood and pigeons), they also use some female vocal. This works quite well, for variation, in particular the last 1/3 of the song (the "be the broken or the breaker" part). But they're not the first black metal band to do this; Satyricon had some female vocal on the Volcano album.

It's gonna be very interesting to see how they will perform the new songs live. Hopefully I get the chance to see them in concert next year. It's a really good live band >:)

Health or wealth

The Republicans are back in the House. On their agenda is to stop Obama's health reform.

In my mind, the health of the many is more important than the wealth of the few. But that's obviously an insane idea for the Republicans.

Then the good news: With Republicans like Jack Conway, Christine O'Donnell, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich in free action, it will hopefully help the Democrats in the next election >:)

Nothing is sacred anymore

I was shocked and horrified yesterday, when little boy came home with this new book from the school’s library. Nothing is sacred anymore, not even the Hardy Boys.

When I was a kid, I read about all the books about the Hardy Boys, at least 60-70 of them. This series was the backbone of my literary childhood. I had to buy the books myself, or borrow from friends. The librarian in my hometown (hardly a town, it was on the country side) refused to take in the books. She thought it was junk literature. What the Hell, the Hardy Boys, that’s the best books ever written … well, at least when you’re 10 years old.

Yesterday little boy came home with a book from the new Hardy Boys series; Undercover Brothers. I hadn’t seen this series before, so I got curious. We read the book loud together. It was “written by” Franklin W. Dixon of course (that guy has an impressing career, starting in the 1920s). The story is told in 1st person with POV alternating between Frank and Joe. They are undercover agents and get their missions from an organisation called American Teens Against Crime (ATAC).

The new series is modernized, in the sense that it's set in our cell-phone-and-computer-game age. It’s probably done to make the kids relate more easily to the setting and the environment. Maybe it’s needed to boost sales.

I’ve always thought that half the fun of reading books is to learn about life in past times and different places. And I definitely prefer the original Hardy Boys before the new. Don't mess with the Hardy Boys.

Maybe I’m a little bit prejudiced, or maybe I'm just getting old >:)

Private property

I don't want to own anybody.

I don't want to be owned by anybody.

It's just this little madness. Private property is evil. Marx was right, but his theory has not been properly tested.

It's against human nature

Seafood in the dark

This weekend we switched the clocks back, from daylight-saving time to regular time. That's the astronomically correct time, more or less, depending on where you are compared to the meridians that define the timezones. It's getting dark pretty early now. It's dark already when I go home from work.

Anyway, we got one hour extra this weekend. It's like we save one hour in the spring, and get it back in the fall. I spent that extra hour in the best possible way with seafood, oyster and that kind of stuff. To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night, I recommend this great song by Arcturus.

Which timezone are you in? I'm at GMT+1 >:)

Halloween and such

Our door bell has been ringing continuously tonight, trick-or-treat kids of all sizes and ages (I suspect some of them were university students). Maybe a little bit childish, but I wanted to have some fun too. So I borrowed a scary mask from little boy. And I was wearing one of my metal T-shits, as usual, with sculls and scary stuff ... muuhaaahaaah!

Every time the door bell rang I put on the mask. Then, with the mask on, I opened the the door with a quick move, and screaming out the most horrifying growl I could make. I thought that would scare the shit out of the kids ... but they just laughed at me.

It's not easy to scare the kids anymore.

The picture has nothing to do with Halloween, but I thought this might be a suitable day to post it. I took it this summer, on a black metal concert on town square with one of my favorite bands, Mayhem.

Black metal fans have Halloween every day >:)))

Cleaning up after the summer

I've been working in the yard this weekend. Boring, but necessary to do. The snow we got couple of weeks ago is gone. October-snow never stays.

I've taken down the kids trampoline and put it to winter storage, and removed the leaves on the ground. The different species of trees drop their leaves at different times, so this goes on continuously, from September to December. I was shaking the damn plum tree, but it still refuses to give up it's leaves (the plums were good though, eaten in September).

My old lady has been gone most of the time, on a sewing weekend with her friends. I've been able to make some progress on my novel too. She thinks my writing is just a big waste of time. If I sit down to write, it means I'm idle, having nothing useful to do, and available for doing all kind of jobs she invents. So, I mostly write in secret.

Today is Halloween. We don't have a tradition for celebrating it. First time I experienced Halloween was when we lived in Colorado some 10 years ago. But last few years it has become bigger and bigger here too. The stores have found another opportunity to sell all kinds of crap. Little boy is going to a Halloween party with friends tonight (older boy and his friends had Halloween party yesterday; that's because they drink beer, even though they're under age).

Now the trick-or-treat gangs are coming soon. I need to find the candy and make it ready. Then I think I'll watch the Antichrist movie by Lars von Trier, bought the DVD couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy your Halloween >:)

Defeat at Elland Road

In my country we’re crazy about English football (real football; some call it soccer). Most men and some women have their favorite team in England. Leeds united is my team. They had the best team when I was a kid, in the 1970s. You can’t change favorite team. Never. I still follow Leeds United, but not as enthusiastic as before. Now I'm more interested in skiing and science and literature and music. I don’t even know the names of the players anymore. It’s a shame, isn't it?

Anyway, this weekend I was in England to see Leeds United. In fact, we were lucky, and got to see three matches:

Saturday: Doncaster - Sheffield United 2-0

Sunday: Liverpool - Blackburn 2-1


It was cool to be at Anfield Road. We went up to the stadium two hours before the start of the match to look around, to visit the club store (bought a T-shirt for little boy who is Liverpool fan), and to see the Hillsborough memorial (where 96 Liverpool fans were squeezed to death on the over-crowded stand in 1989). Even a Leeds fan must admit that there’s something special about Anfield. The atmosphere is magic when the crowd sings “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

When we got back to Leeds, I went for a walk around the quarter and ended up with a dark malty beer in an old bar with live jazz. Nice to get some music after all the football.

Monday: Leeds - Cardiff 0-4


This was our main match, the highlight of our trip. We were on the North Stand, with the hard-core Leeds fans. The club is short of money and has a crap team now, but the supporters are still enthusiastic (or fanatic). The F-word and C-word and P-word were shouted continuously, but only aimed at the referee and the Cardiff players. I didn’t hear a single negative remark about the Leeds players, even though they lost 0-4 at home. The Leeds fans are used to hard times.

After the match we were met by 200 policemen (and women), with helmets and shields, many on horses, some with barking dogs. I haven’t seen that many police ever. They wanted to keep the Leeds and Cardiff supporters separated to avoid fighting. For some reason they hate each other.

I don’t hate anyone, but I like English football >:)

Write Around the World guest post

Yesterday I was guest-blogging for Michele's Write Around the World series at Southern City Mysteries

I was a little bit nervous about this. It's my first time writing a guest post, and Michele has some really fabulous posts on her record. My favorite is the Literary Movement Series she wrote this summer.

Anyway, I'm doing my best. Please, take a look if you want >:)

First snow

It was all white when I woke up this morning. The mountains have been draped in white for a month already. Today was first snow in town. Before driving to the office, I changed to winter tires on the car. Damn boring to do, but now it's done >:)

In a couple of days the snow is gone, I guess. October-snow never lasts ...

Walking and writing

I walked around the town center this evening. It doesn't take long. It's a small town.

From the quay I can see our house, in the hill, on the other side of the bay, the house that we rented when we lived here. It was a nice place to live. The view was fantastic. In the summer we had sun in the backyard for 23 hours a day. It just dropped behind the mountain peaks for little a while. I took the picture in May two years ago, from our backyard, right after midnight.

It was great to live here, and I would be happy to move back some time. The summer was fantastic. I liked the dark winter too, with the northern light. It's not that dark. The sun is completely gone for only eight weeks. Then it rapidly becomes lighter.

Now I'm sitting in my hotel, writing on my so-called novel. I've written 550 words to night. That's not very impressive, is it? I have to speed up >:)

Winter is coming

I'm back in the north. I haven't been here since June.

I took an early flight this morning. First, one hour on a big jet. Then another half an hour in a small propeller plane. Before take off they moved some passengers to the back seats, to redistribute weight, and stabilize the plane. That's normal, they often do that on Six Flags Airlines.

The trees have dropped their leaves. The birch forest is gray, with spots of flaming red from the berries of the rowan trees in between. The mountains are white, but in town there's less than an inch of snow. Right now it's snowing outside.

Winter is just around the corner. Great!

I don't have my commute apartment here anymore. Now I'm sitting in a down-town hotel, writing on my so-called novel ... sorry guys, I have some fun work to do >:)

Super yachts and communists

Last week, when we were in Nice, down on Cote de Azur, I picked up the September issue of the free monthly magazine “That’s Nice”. On page 8, there was an article with this headiline:

"Super yachts are back on the shopping list"

Here are some highlights from the article (I inserted the conversion sfrom meters to feet):

"When the global financial crisis hit, the luxury yachting industry took a major blow ... Yachts are once again the must have toys of high society... 108 super yachts - yachts over 24m (80 feet) - were sold between January and June this year... And it’s the sale of really big yachts - 50 to 70 meters (160 to 230 feet) – that have seen the most dramatic rise... It appears the endless supply of cash is back and perhaps the big business people aren’t feeling too bad this year about lashing out on luxury goods..."

Personally, if I had enough money to buy a super yacht, I would feel better if I bought just a regular yacht, for instance a 2nd-hand 44-feet Princess at $400.000, and gave the excess money to the Salvation Army.

My first thought, when I read that article, was that these business-idiots didn’t learn a damn thing during the financial crisis in 2008. But maye that’s what they did? They learnt that the next time the stock market and banking system breaks down, the US president, and the EU leaders will save their asses once again. In the mean time, let the party go on, in Nice, Cannes and Monaco and other crazy places.

Last Saturday, in downtown Nice, I happened to observe a big demonstration coming down Avenue Jean Medicine. It was a protest against the French government, and their proposed changes in the retirement system, organized by the French Communist Party and the workers unions. The news in TV said it was 10.000 people participating, the organizers claimed it was 30.000.

It was great to see this big demonstration. In a place where people have super yachts on the shopping list, they definitely need a strong communist party to keep things in balance.

Magret de canard

Fall is the time to fly south, when it’s cold and dark and rainy in the north, before the snow drapes the hills and mountains in white and the skiing starts. Last week we went down to the French Riviera for a few days, my old lady and I.

We explored the narrow streets and alleys of old Nice, had lunch with rose wine on Place Massena. We hiked around Cap Ferrat, and visited the old castle with the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

It’s pleasant to stay in southern France, and it’s always entertaining to watch the Frenchmen, when they’re riding scooters with designer suits and tie, and when they play boule in the parks, arguing intensively about who wins.

In the fall, when the days are warm and evenings are chill, the Frenchmen are never too warm and never really cold. They’re always something in between. When they’re half-cold, they carry a yellow or read wool sweater over the back, with arms tied loosely around the neck. When they’re three-quarters-cold, they hang a jacket over the shoulders, but without putting the arms in. That’s the way the French do it, no one but the French. To me it only looks awkward, and I have to smile every time I see it.

Then there is the food and the wine. In France you get the most hyped food, stuff that tastes like shit and costs a fortune, for instance frog legs and snails and duck liver. But there is delicious dishes too, like magret de canard (steak of duck), with orange gravy, or with honey and pepper gravy.

And I read some good books of course. This was my read:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Teriible story, great prose.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Great story from Afghanistan.

Black metal birthday

Today Michele at Southern City Mysteries is hosting a blogfest, to celebrate the one-year anniversary for her blog. Congratulations, Michele!

I wrote this little story, just for fun, drabble style, 200 words exactly, to avoid boring you with too many words, it's true >:)


Black metal birthday

When he woke up, she gave him a kiss and an envelope.
- Happy birthday my dear, she said.

He had wondered what gifts he would get this year. He had everything he needed and a lot of crap he didn't need.
- What do you wish for your birthday?
He got the question every year, and always gave the same answer
- Nothing.
It was never fulfilled.

He stumbled around to find his glasses, opened the envelope slowly, and read the card inside: “You’re permitted to play black metal in the car as load as you like for one week”. Great! This was a birthday present he liked; non-material. She really hated black metal, but she was willing to suffer for one week, about an hour every day.

They worked in the same office building and drove to and from work together every day, picking up kids at school on the way home. The first day he played a good old Satyricon CD, the second day Gorgoroth.

The third morning, when he was right about to shift to his favorite album, she smiled and said
- Enjoy your drive. I think I'll take my bike to work today >:)

Top ten TV shows

I’m not watching much TV anymore, but since Alex J. Cavanaugh hosts this cool blogfest I’ll try to twist my brain and come up with a list of favorites.

Sometimes I watch a movie, but never TV series. I watch the news and my favorite sports, and thats it, basically. Number one on my list, no doubt, is Soccer World Cup, not a regular TV show maybe, but it feels like a very intense one, every 4th year when the ball is rolling.

The first (and last) soap I saw was Dynasty. Not sure if I liked it, but it has to be on my list. When I grew up in the 1970s, we had only one TV channel, state-controlled public broadcasting. Commercial TV, cable TV and satellite was illegal. There were incredible discussions and big concerns, in the parliament and in media; TV soaps would destroy the moral of the country and damage the fragile souls of the people. In 1981, the sensation happened; Dynasty was approved by the authorities and the public broadcasting company! The entire nation was watching.

Today we have hundreds of channels on cable and satellite, like most other countries. More junk, less quality, that's the trend.

Anyway, here’s my top 10 list:
1. Soccer World Cup
2. Alpine skiing World Cup
3. Winter Olympics
4. Summer Olympics
5. South Park
6. Stingers (Australian crime)
7. Headbanger’s Ball (heavy metal on MTV)
8. M*A*S*H
9. Twin Peaks (boring after 4-5 parts)
10. Dynasty

Hungry as Hell

You won't imagine what happened yesterday!

I was out traveling again, just a day trip to the south. I was up at 5:30 am to get on the morning plane, and came back home at 7 pm, tired and hungry as Hell. I hadn't eaten since noon.

But my old lady refused me to eat. She was preparing for a gathering with her friends, and had all kinds of obscure dishes spread all over the kitchen. She said I would just mess up everything if a made a couple of sandwiches. Crazy isn't it?

I just had to be patient, but it paid off in the end, when the salmon rolls were served ... and finally, the oyster >:)

Where were you on 9/11?

September 2001.

I was attending a geophysics conference in San Antonio. Monday 10. September I had an oral presentation, with approximately 50-100 people in the audience, and 3 or 4 questions from the floor after my twenty-minute presentation. The world was normal.

The day after, I had a poster presentation, at 8:30 in the morning. I was very disappointed that no one showed up. It was a somewhat special subject, something about non-linear waves (similar to the breaking waves on the beach), but it couldn't be that bad?

After my scheduled presentation time, I went out to the big exhibition hall were the geophysical contractors run their software demos. Big crowds were gathered around the computer screens, all of them displaying the CNN broadcast.

There was a big discussion about what to do with the conference; proceed or cancel? In the end, they decided to skip all the social events, and run the technical program as planned. All the participants from Europe, Asia and South America would be stuck in San Antonio anyway. And those who lived within driving distance could not get rental cars.

When the conference ended, it was impossible to get on a plane back to Europe. So we decided to take it easy and drive around in Texas for a while. We went down to Big Bend National Park, to Austin, and the strange "German" town Fredericksburg (where a friend of mine took the picture above, outside a mall).

In Del Rio, we crossed the bridge over Rio Grande, to look around and to buy some Cuban cigars on the Mexican side. The border police told us it was no problem to get back, with our Western Europe passports. After a couple of hours, we returned to USA, smoking happily on our cigars. But when the border police found that one of my friends had three visa to Iran and one to Libya in his passport, Hell broke loose ... we spent the night in the police station.

Where were you on 9/11? The day the world turned crazy ...

Burning the Koran

I read in the news about a minister who wants to burn the Koran. I think that's a very stupid and childish thing to do. There are Muslims around the world who burn stuff, like American and Israeli flags, Salman Rushdie's book and sometimes the Bible.

There are many things in Islamic theory and practice that should be, and need to be debated and criticized; womens rights, sharia laws, violent attacks as response to critique. But burning the Koran means that we step down to the same low level of primitive outrageous action. Burning books is just a stupid thing to do.

I bought the Koran some time ago (and wrote a blogpost about it). I'm not gonna burn my copy. I rather read it. How about you?

Rewriting the beginning

It's week end. Yeah!

Almost no work to be done the next two days. Finally, I've got some time to write. I'm working on my so-called novel. The plot is lined up, mostly, and finally I've got names for all the characters. I had a cool name for my protagonist, but it was damn difficult to invent good names for the rest. The San Antonio Rotary Club helped me solve the problem.

All the characters (except the protagonist and his family) have real names taken from the member list of the San Antonio Rotary Club (don't tell them if you know anyone in that club). About half of them even have the same occupation.

I've been reading a lot of great writer blogs, and think I start to get a grasp on the show vs tell issue. Now I'm rewriting the beginning, for the third time. I hope it's improving. I've even got a dead body on the first page, a bicycle accident, apparently ... >:Z

The manuscript has become a big mess. I decided to write in English, but swap to Winterlandic whenever I run out of vocabulary, to avoid loosing my line of thoughts. Right now I have about four chapters of a bilingual novel >:)))

Do you know any agents that deal with that kind of stuff?

Too much work

Right now I have a Hell of a lot of work to do. Basically I have 3 jobs:
1. Doing my old job, exploring for oil in Arctic waters (we're running two (too) big 3D seismic projects, to be completed by next summer).
2. Doing my new job in the research center (planning research projects for next year)
3. Teaching at the university (supervising PhD and MSc students and preparing a course I will teach next semester)
So, if you see that my blog posts get shorter and shorter, and I don't comment on all your great blogs, you know the reason ... but I'll be back >:)

Fags eat poop

A few days ago, I saw a documentary, on 60 Minutes, about the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. They run this website GodHatesAmerica, because America is a doomed country of fags and sodomists. The sodomists include anyone who has anything but simple straight (missionary) sex for the sole purpose of breeding. God probably hates Europe too. I can tell you it’s the same misery over here; fags and sodomists all over the place.

The Westboro Baptist Church has a collection of very creative posters and slogans, like "God is your enemy" and "God hates fags". The highlight is this one: "Fags eat poop". I think God appreciates that one. They probably found it somewhere in The Bible. Jesus is more tolerant. He might hang out with both sinners, tax collectors and poop-eaters.

I know 3 fags, and they are all very nice people. None of them eat poop. I think I should send a mail to the church and ask them to modify their slogan a little bit. Maybe something like "Fags eat poop, except 3 of them, at least".

Do you know any fags that don't eat poop? If you tell me how many, I can eventually add up the numbers and increase the total count, before I mail the baptist church >:)

Dear Cold As Heaven

Recently I got a mail, starting out like this:

Dear Cold As Heaven,

I would be honored if you’d take the time to review our product on your blog. In exchange for an unbiased review, We will provide a copy of the product for free! We will also place link to your review from our product's page with your logo.

The review may be written in any language you want ...

I thought maybe I could write a review in Fortran or Python >:)))

Just joking. This is the reply I sent:

Dear A####,

Thank you for your offer. I have, however, decided that I will keep my blog free from commercial reviews, ads and giveaways.

Best Wishes,
Cold As Heaven

In the picture you see the wave equation. That's how I make a living. I have everything I need, and a lot of crap I don't need. The blog is just a hobby, and I don't want to clutter it with ads and commercials.

Do you get mails asking for review of commercial products? How do you respond to that kind offers?

The captain from Venice

Here is the story about how the stockfish export to Italy from the outermost island up north started in the 15th century (read my last two posts). The RIB driver who took us out in the waves, told the story:

In 1432, an Italian nobleman, merchant and sea captain was on the way from Crete to Amsterdam in his trade ship. In the Atlantic ocean, they lost the course in a bad storm. The ship got damaged and the crew had to go in the lifeboats.

Weeks later, the lifeboat with the captain drifted in between the skerries in the archipelago north of the Arctic circle. They stranded on a small uninhabited island. Two weeks later, local fishermen in small boats found them, after observing the smoke from the campfire.

The fishermen brought the captain and the remnants of his crew to their village nearby. The captain stayed for four months, to recover from his strenuous voyage. The local priest served as translator (this was before the reformation, and the Bible was in Latin). He befriended the locals, and learnt to eat their stockfish.

When the captain returned to Venice, he brought some stockfish with him. The Venetians liked the fish, and a trade route was quickly established, to ship fish to Venice from the island in the north.

This story was transmitted orally from generation to generation, but on the mainland they believed it was just a legend. The captain had, however, written down his own version. His story had been forgotten, but in 1910 the manuscript was found in the Vatican library. The captains manuscript confirmed the oral transmittal.

Still today the entire stockfish production on the island goes to Italy.

Stockfish and rock

I just came back from the north. On the way south, the plane passed over a glacier, the second largest in Winterland. From the plane, I took a picture where you can see the crevasses in the glacier if you enlarge it.

Yesterday we were on a short geology field study along the beach. South and west of the island, there are potential oilfields under the sea floor. Therefore, it’s of interest to study the geology where it outcrops on dry land, to learn about what’s down there in the ground.

Yesterday we had a nice dinner, with dry cod prepared after the local recipe, served at the local bar. The cod is dried outdoor by the sun and the wind, without adding salt. This kind of dried fish is called stockfish.

All over the island there were racks made from logs. That’s where they hang the fish to dry it, for three months. Right now the racks are empty, since the fish has been taken down and shipped to Italy.

The stockfish export from this remote island to Venice in Italy, and how it all started in the 15th century, is interesting history. I’ll tell you the story later.

I am already missing the islands and mountains in the north. That’s why I’m listening to Mother North right now, a black metal classic by Satyricon. Here’s the link to the video on youtube: Mother North (video)

The video is somewhat controversial. If you don’t like that kind of stuff, you can listen to this cool version, live with the broadcasting orchestra: Mother North (live)

The outermost island

I'm back in the north, and basically in the middle of the ocean, on the outermost populated island in this big archipelago. A weird place for a geophysics conference. I've never been here before. It's a nice place. The island is remote and manage on their own. There are two flights to the mainland per day, and two ferry departures, with four hours transit across the sea.

The population is about 600 people. They export first-class dry-cod for 150.000 dollars per citizen per year, mostly to Italy. Unemployment is zero, it's a self-sustained community. They have 100 fishing boats, one taxi and one church.

Today the weather has been perfect. Sunny, but windy. It's always windy here. Before lunch we went on a boat ride, in a fast 30 foot RIB, out between the small islands and rocks near by, where only sheep, eagles, and half a million Atlantic puffins live. I took some pics of course.

After lunch, the conference started. My talk was the second last before dinner. I presented my new invention, on nonlinear waves, and got good feed back. Apparently no one noticed my somewhat original haircut. Or maybe they're just too polite to say anything.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be a geology field trip, but it may be cancelled. There is only one man who can drive the bus here, and he's on vacation in the south >:)))

Haircut

I cut my hair yesterday. I did it myself, as usual, with one of these electric hair cutters. I always cut it down to 4 millimeters (about 1/8 inch), and my old lady always gets annoyed because it’s too short.

Yesterday, she was mad.

OK, I’ll admit it; I did a small mistake. I was going to cut off a few hairs left behind, and forgot that I had taken off this little plastic thing that regulates the length. So I cut it down to basically zero. But only on a small spot near my forehead.

It was the worst haircut she had ever seen, and she refuses to be seen in public with me for the next four weeks, and she gets embarrassed just by thinking about me giving a presentation on the geophysics conference tomorrow. I laughed, and she said it was all due to my Tourette’s syndrome (she’s convinced I have Tourette, I wrote about it here ).

I tried to get her in a better mood by talking about the new stairs with the nice hand-rail that I’ve built, in front of our main entrance. She said this was the definitive proof of my Tourette, when I brought stairs and hand-rails into a discussion about hair-cuts.

I took a picture so you can judge yourself. It's not that bad, is it? Anyway, I don't care, and hair grows back >:)