Finding oil

It’s not easy, and never will be. We all want to be nice and good people. On the other hand, life is passing by, right now. We won't get the chance to do it all over. We're not getting any younger.

This is a continuation of a post I wrote some time ago: Drilling a dry hole. If you didn't like that post, stop reading now.

OK, here we go; this is the big question: If you're tired of drilling dry holes, what can you do to find oil? (Sorry about the poor metaphors, they're just popping out.)

The best is, no doubt, like-minded partners, who accept and approve their respective entertainment on the other side of the fence, or leap the fence together, like fellow bloggers Hotwife Anna and Hubby.

But, if you're not among the few in that lucky situation, what can you do? There are three options, I think:
o Manage on your own, playing your drums, bursting out.
o Play around with technology, with friends all over the world. I'm sure you'll find some like-minded.
o The Nike way.

You can buy anything for money, of course, but that's not too interesting. Then we're back to drilling dry holes, which is what we wanted to avoid in he first place.

You can get a divorce, then you're free to do whatever you want. Not a good solution neither, if you're good friends, cooperating well in all respects. And it would mean failing the kids. Playing games is not nice. Where is the border between the acceptable and unacceptable? I'm not sure.

Finding oil is not easy, not if you want to do it frequently. Whatever. I'm not doing much. I just think about it ... >:)

A big fucking deal

The president won, and the vice president said the F-word in pure happiness. That’s cool. I like people who dare to say it, in particular when it appears inappropriate (I guess it’s that little rebel in me). The train has started to move, but Obama’s reform is not really a health reform. It’s rather an insurance reform, a step in the right direction, a beginning. But it doesn’t even touch the real problem.

All over, the US health care system is the most inefficient in the world. USA is spending 16% of the GNP on health care, for about half the population. For comparison, Canada and European countries are spending 8-9% of the GNP to give health care for the entire population. And it’s been like this for more than 40 years. Basic health care is offered by public hospitals. We pay for it over the tax bill; about 7% of the tax is for health care and social services, such as one year maternity (or paternity) leave. The rich and wealthy can buy additional services and cosmetic surgery if they want to. Yes, that’s possible, even in the most fucked up “socialist regimes” in Northern Europe (sorry about the F-word, it's just my Tourette again).

The American system is sick, infected by parasites sucking money out of the system; insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals, and lawyers (the lawyer assholes are everywhere). The main purpose of the US system is, not to produce health care for the people, but to make profit for the companies involved. The republicans are their loyal spokesmen and defenders (like they are for the gun industry, and used to be for the tobacco companies).

The health (or insurance) reform limits the insurance companies’ possibilities to refuse insurance due to “pre-existing conditions”, or cancel the insurance if you get sick. That’s insane isn’t it? The health insurance is cancelled when you need it, when you become an expense rather than a source of income for the insurance company.

The hospitals also take their big share of the cake. Some years ago, we lived in Colorado for a while. We didn’t have an insurance, since we were covered by the public health care in Winterland, within reasonable limits. When needing medical care for the kids, we learnt that it was important to tell the doctor that we were self-paying customer. Then the price was greatly reduced compared to treatment covered by insurance.

It’s amazing to see how those opposing the health reform are defending a bad system with such enthusiasm. It’s a good system for the rich and very bad for the poor (like USA in general). I know there are historical reasons why Americans are suspicious to government involvement, and prefer coffee before tea. But there’s no reason to be afraid of King George III anymore. He died in 1820, and is not coming back to force you into the British Commonwealth again (there’s not much left of the Commonwealth anyway).

In general, I think there are a few things that are best handled by government and authorities. This includes road construction, power supply, water supply, and basic health care. This may of course involve commercial sub-contractors to perform the actual work. I know this is crazy European socialist thinking (we call it social democracy), but all over it’s a quite beneficial system for both the rich and the poor.

But who cares about the poor anyway? They’re probably just lazy and stupid. If they were smart, they would have been rich and republican, of course; insurance agents and lawyers and vampires and stuff like that.

Vienna State

I'm talking about that great stone building on the corner of Kärntner (I don't have a German keyboard, it wasn't easy to get those damned dots above the a) Strasse and Opern Ring; the Vienna State Opera House. I have been there a few times. It's an amazing place to be, in particular when you have a ticket for the standing places at the uppermost level.

The Vienna State Opera is performing every night, alternating between 3-4 different operas. You know, the great tenors and soprano prima donnas can't sing two nights in a row. Their voices need rest and care, of course. Every day they're shipping the entire scenery for tonight’s opera performance in from storage outside the city, on big trucks.

I've always bought a ticket for the standing places. It's cheap; costs only 2 Euro (about $3), and it's fair; there's no pre-booking, and you can only buy one ticket. If you want to buy a second one (for your partner), you have to go back to the start of the queue. It's about the only queue I enjoy being in, with lots of weird people, from old jews to young cute goth girls.

I usually prefer Italian operas; by Verdi, Rossini, Puccini and Donizetti. Here is one of my favorites; Nei giardin del bello from Don Carlos by Verdi. This aria is written for the mezzo soprano voice, the finest opera voice in my opinion:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyyA77d2Rio

Slave of the Moon Shadow

I'm just sitting here, relaxing, and listening to one of my favorite songs, a black metal masterpiece; Måneskyggens slave from the Pentagram album by Gorgoroth. In English, the title would be something like Slave of the Moon Shadow.

It's a Hell of a crazy band, but great music!

Note the guitar riff that starts at 2 minutes and 8 seconds, and the one at 3 minutes and 3 seconds.

Here's the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJSZ2k-VAUs

White gold

Snowy, sunny, snowy. Then sunny and snowy again. This weekend we got another 70 cm (two feet), in two days, and good skiing.

The white gold. Powder to the people!

Have you ever seen airport snow removal in action? I watched it tonight, while waiting for the plane to the North to take off. Looks really impressive; all the big machines working syncronized together, to clean the runway.

March is usually the month with the greatest snow fall. It seams to be true this year too.

March is named after the Roman god Mars, and so is the planet Mars. Here is a really cool piece of music, Mars the Bringer of War, from The Planets by Gustav Holst: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

And I won't even mention that damn chocolate bar ...

Drilling a dry hole

Some time ago I happened to read (and comment on) an interesting post by female blogger flinkpike. Her blog is written in a language that only a small fraction of the world population can read, but it’s amazing what you can do with some general language skills and Google Translator or BabelFish. Yesterday, a similar topic was discussed in the blog post by Shell, with a different point of view.

The question is: What do you do if your spouse (or partner) wants sex and you don’t (or vice versa)? In most cases (?), he wants more than she, but the converse, she wants more than he, also happens, for sure.

The question above obviously indicates some kind of imbalance. What’s the right thing to do about that? I don’t have the answer, I only have a few thoughts about it. If you’re not fairly liberal and open-minded, you may want to stop reading at this point. I don’t intend to offend anyone.

OK, if you’re still reading, here we go:

Alternative 1: Never say no when you partner wants sex. This was the viewpoint of Shell mentioned above.

Yes, that may kind of work, maybe. But there's not much fun, not very exciting, to have a quickie with a partner that would rather read a book or go to sleep. Sex is good when two (or more) people are enjoying it together, when you can use all the senses; see, hear, taste, smell … for mutual gratification.

Sometimes, with kids around, finding time may be a challenge. But still, whether you’re doing a quickie or a full tantra session, you can certainly feel the difference; if your partner really wants to do it or not.

Alternative 2: You own your own body, and have the right to say no. This was the perspective of flinkpike above.

In the past, a married man had the right to have his way with his wife when he wanted. Women had (in general) no rights. Fortunately, this has changed, at least in the Western world. Women’s rights, in all matters, are generally accepted, including the right to say no. I think this is a good thing, of course. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.

Anyway, there’s not much fun drilling a dry hole. Sorry for being rude. I’ve written about this already; no need to repeat.

If you didn’t like what I wrote above, you should probably stop reading now. I don’t want to provoke, if you don’t want to be provoked. Your choice.

Alternative 3: Climbing over the fence; an alternative perspective.

If you’re accepting the right to say no, the follow-up questions are the following: If your spouse wants sex, and you don't, is it acceptable that he or she goes somewhere else to get it? If you say no nine out of ten times, or more, is it acceptable that your partner has an affair, or finds a friend with benefits? You might even encourage your spouse to do this? Maybe controversial, but in my opinion, the answer to these questions is yes, for both men and women. I support equal rights, in all matters.

Sex just for fun; it’s nothing wrong about that, is it? Sex for the sole pleasure of it, with other adults that want the same. This could make most of us happier, more satisfied.

It’s not about fooling around with everyone, everywhere. It’s about connecting with people sharing the same mindset, people you can trust. No scandals, no jealousy, no breaking up homes and families, no kids left to live with only one parent.

You may claim this is a typical man’s perspective. Yes, maybe; there are probably more men than women sharing this view. But the landscape is not just desert or ocean here. I do know both men opposing, and women supporting this view.

Well, that’s it, for now. Time to stop. More to follow in later posts …

Burzum is back

Good news; Burzum is back! The first album in eleven years, was released this week. The first guitar-based album since 1993, when The Count was jailed for church burnings, and for killing his band mate Euronymus (guitar strings were banned in jail, I guess). The new album Belus catches, partly, the atmosphere from the great albums from the early 1990's (Det som en gang var, Aske, Hvis lyset tar oss) . Some songs have the kind of monotonous feeling from the ambient Filosofem album. Here's one of my favorite tracks (so far). Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPKXUxJVv6Y

Jesus the pirat

I was nine years old and in 3rd grade. At that time public schools in Winterland officially had a preaching objective (fortunately this is no longer so). We had to sing psalms and pray in class everyday. Our teacher was a Christian fundamentalist. She really taught us how to believe in God, properly.

Once in Christianity class, the theme of the day was Jesus calms the storm. After the teacher had told the story, we were set to draw the scene in our workbooks. My friend Foggy and I were sitting together on the back row. Our imagination was running off. We made some creative drawings with Jesus on board a pirate ship, with a pirate flag in the rear, and some angels flying around with propellers on the back. The kind of things little boys do.

The teacher was furious, and God was furious too, she said. We should expect a painful destiny in Hell, unless we prayed. The homework for next day was to color the pages black, to cover the blasphemic drawings. Tearing it out was no alternative. Then the attached page on the other side of the staple would fall out, the page where the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20) was written down. Covering the drawings with black crayons was the only option.

That day, I learnt three things:

o Religion is a stupid thing,
o I'm an atheist,
o Black is my color of choice.

As I have grown older, I have refined my views a little bit:

o Religion can be a stupid thing, but doesn't have to be. Anyway, religion has brought more pain than good to the world. The Catholic Church has killed more people than Hitler (the church also had alot more time to reach the top of the killing list, of course, today it's mainly the Muslims who are running up).
o I'm an atheist, with some sympathies towards satanism (which is not a theistic religion, but more like a philosophy).
o I wear only black clothes, and I listen to black metal.

In Satan we trust >:)

Emmy Noether

Here is a little text that I’ve had almost finished for some time. I thought today, 8th of March, would be a suitable day to post it:

Some time ago a colleague of mine was revising his book on the history of science and creative thinking for a new edition. He had noticed that basically all the names he had mentioned from the history of science were men. He had written something on Marie Curie of course, but that was it. He came to me and asked if I knew about any women who had made outstanding contributions to the development of science. One name that immediately came to my mind was Emmy Noether.

Emmy Noether (1882-1935) was a German mathematician who worked at the University of Gottingen, until she moved to USA in the 1930’s, to escape the German nazi -regime. For many years, she worked without being paid, because women were not supposed to do research. The famous mathematician David Hilbert announced Noether’s courses in his own name, to avoid that they were stopped by the university board (Hilbert wrote an angry letter to the board, asking if the university was supposed to be an academic institution or a spa).

Emmy Noether has made important contributions to both abstract algebra and to theoretical physics. As a student, I first heard about her work in the quantum mechanics and quantum field theory courses, and this amazing property known as Noether’s theorem. It states the relationship between mathematical symmetries and conservation laws. Well known to anyone who had basic physics in high school is the principle of conservation of energy. Using Noether’s theorem, this follows from symmetry with respect to time: The potential energy of a bucket of water running off the Niagara Falls would be the same if it was measured today or next week. It’s the vertical drop that counts, not the day you measure it.

The symmetries related to space and time are relatively simple to understand. But Noether’s theorem applies to more abstract cases too. One example is the so-called gauge symmetries that lead to conservation of electric charge (these currents that flow through all our electric and electronic devices). Electric currents can not just appear or disappear. A similar, but even more abstract, example is the gauge symmetries leading to conservation of “color” in quantum chromo dynamics, the theory of nuclear forces (these enormous forces that we release in nuclear power plants).

Finally, there are empirical conservation laws that are not related to known symmetries, and the converse of Noether’s theorem has never been proved. Not even Emmy Noether was able to do that.

The smallest and the biggest

When I was in junior high school, I used to sit in the back of the class, next to my friend Foggy. We were talking all the time, and making some noise, for sure, but were still able to learn what we should. My favorite class was mathematics, no doubt. But this was before I discovered theoretical physics.

In senior high, I had a really good physics teacher. I got very fascinated by the most extreme ends of physics, the smallest and the biggest: Elementary particles and atoms at the smallest scale, stars and galaxies on the biggest scale. All the everyday physics in between, the kind of things we experience and feel in our lives on earth, I found mostly boring.

When I went to the university, it was an easy choice, it had to be physics. I found that astrophysics was kind of boring at the advanced level. Most of the time we were computing equations of state for white dwarfs and neutron stars. However, elementary particles was really cool. So, I was majoring in quantum field theory; this amazing mixture of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of relativity.

Unfortunately, there are not many jobs in the quantum business. When I graduated, I started to work with the plain everyday stuff; geophysics. Surprisingly, I find it really interesting, because the mathematical methods we use to solve our problems are basically the same in all branches of science.

Quran and Corona

This evening, after work, I went downtown to have a beer with a friend. I took the bus, and had half an hour to kill before we met (one hour between buses). I went to
a music store to buy some drum sticks (closed), then to a bookstore that had lots of books on sale. These are the books I bought:

o Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky
o Russia - People, History, Politics and Culture
o Sex 365: A Position for Every Day (gift for my old lady)
o The Quran (not on sale, still popular; believe it or not)

At 6 pm I arrived at the bar. She was there already. We had a good time; drinking Corona and talking about life, the universe and everything.

After a while I pulled up my books to show her. We started to read here and there in the Quran, searching for the verses that forbid alcohol and pork, the verses that forbid pictures of God and Muhammad, the verses that justify repression of women and stoning of unfaithful wives. She was reading load. I didn't have my reading glasses.

What a wonderful view she was: A young woman in a bar with the Quran in one hand and a Corona in the other.

Fishing trout - eating oyster

He pulled the car to the side and parked by the trail head where the bridge crosses the river. They took out their backpacks from the trunk, to get ready to go. She was carrying only her clothes and her sleeping bag. He had a heavier load, carrying the tent and their food, and his fly rod that he always brought when hiking in the mountains.

It was the last year in high school and all exams were passed. He had three weeks of vacation before starting his military service. He wanted to spend a few days hiking in the mountains with his girl. It was a warm day, sunny no wind, one of these days when you can hike in the mountains in shorts and T-shirt. It was summer in Winterland.

They walked quickly up the steepest slope through the crooked-birch forest, following the river. Nothing of interest, no view, only bush. He kept his eyes on her tan naked thighs as he walked behind her on the trail. They took off from the river and followed a small stream into the valley. Above the timberline, the terrain flattened out. The vegetation was low and sparse, and they walked side by side, hand in hand into the mountains.

They stopped and dropped their backpacks at the place where the stream widens into a small pond. A flock of reindeers where cooling on a snow patch near by. Their fur was made for colder and windier days than this. He picked up his fly rod, size 6 with a weight-forward sinker line and tied his favorite wet fly to it. She wasn’t interested in the fishing, and as usual she brought a book to read while he was trout-fishing in the stream. He had been fishing in these mountains since he was five years old. He knew how to read the stream, where to throw the fly line: Behind a rock where the trout could rest on the way up the stream, in a pool under a waterfall, in the inlet of the pond where the fish was waiting for food passing by.

After a while he returned to their camp, with a handful of brown trout. He gutted the fish, and put it in a small tank. Then he sprinkled some salt on it and stirred slowly, his hand sliding gently between the fish, smooth by mucus and water.

She closed her book and came over to him by the bank of the pond. The water was clean and crystal clear, running over a shallow sand dune. Their bodies were warm in the sun. Without talking, they stepped out of the clothes, and stood naked by the pond. No one could see them in this remote place. They dived into the water. It was ice cold, from melt water running off snow patches and glaciers at higher elevations. They stepped out of the water and soaped up their naked bodies, and dived into the water again, to rinse it off.

They sat down to dry their bodies in the sun. He looked at her breasts and felt his rod was coming to life. She lay down on her towel and spread her thighs to give him a good view of the best she had. Then she closed her eyes, let her hand slide slowly over her fur and started to rub her little berry. He put his hand on hers to help her, and she moaned as she let him take over, his hand gently stroking between her thighs. He felt like putting his hand in a tank of dead fish. Most exciting is to stimulate all the senses; see, smell and taste. He went down to taste her moist oyster, circling his tongue around the pearl, while she was twisting and moaning. She rolled over and lifted her rear slightly. He was more than ready to enter her den from behind.

They made a campfire to cook and eat, happy and satisfied. When the sun set an hour before midnight, they assembled the tent, and zipped together their mirrored-twin sleeping bags, to make it a larger bag for two; the most enjoyable way stay warm through the cool mountain night.

Winter Olympics

The winter Olympics is over. I have been watching TV for two weeks now, no time for blogging. Yesterday I watched the very last event; Canada-USA in the ice hockey finals.

Ice hockey is a nice an enjoyable sport. When I was a kid I had lots of fun playing ice hockey with my friends. The fire fighters in my home town used to bring their hoses to make an outdoor ice rink outside the school (there was hardly ever a fire, so I guess they were happy to get some practice).

However, when I watch pro-hockey, I don’t really like the violent attitude of the players.

The events I enjoyed the most were the skiing (of course) in particular the alpine racing. The downhill races are always amazing. And I enjoyed watching the curling games. It’s a slow and relaxing game (I have played it myself only once). When the thrower pushes out of the hack, you can go make a cup of coffee before the stone reaches the target area (house) in the other end of the field. I like that the curling players look like normal people, not like the supernatural human machines in skiing and speed skating.

It’s good to see a forty-something bald guy winning the Olympic gold medal. And the third player on the Swiss women’s curling team, what the Hell, she had pretty eyes.