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 >:)