A day for differentiation

The necessary holiday travels and visits are done. It wasn't much this year. Now I'm back home. That's good. I kind of like these corona times. There are fewer places I need to go, less people I need to visit. More time on my own. 

I have watched some football with the boys. Last night Leeds won 5-0 against West Bromwich. 

The winter has been crappy so far. Not much snow in my part of Winterland, and the borders are closed. No skiing.

The last couple of days I have been in the office to do some fun stuff, while everybody are gone, and the bosses don't send me mails. Today I finally found the time to do some math that I needed to work my way through. Just some straight forward differentiations. But I need to be focused, to get all the signs right.

(That's the summary of what I have produced today in the picture)

The darkest day

 

Today is the darkest day of the year, and the last day at work before Christmas. Maybe it’s the last day at work this year. It remains to see, depending on the weather during the holidays, which are not so holy for me.

This year has been special, with the COVID-19 stuff going on. Many days spent in home office, which is fine in many ways, but with too small computer screens, and somewhat monotonous surroundings. But sometimes it’s good to get out of the house. So today I’ve been sneaking into the office, to my big computer screens. That’s the good thing about having the boss in a different city, and even in a different country far away. He can’t see where I am and what I’m doing all the time.

Everything that needs to be done this year is finalized, so it’s time to do some clean-up, and some updates. Today I have updated Python, all the modules. The kind of things I don’t dare to do when I have urgent stuff going on. Don’t change things that works when there are deadlines coming up.

But now it’s done, and then it’s time to go home, on the darkest day, to prepare the Christmas celebrations that I dislike as much as I did last year and the year before.

Looking forward to January.

Christmas

Yesterday was the last day of work before Christmas. I left the office around 6 pm. I immmediately wished that it was 2. January so that I could get back to my equations and computer codes.

Fuck Christmas. I’m not interested.

(Picture taken today, when I was out on a short walk. Days are short in Winterland on this time of the year. It's hardly possible to take a picture in day light. However, the darkness outside fits with the darkness of my mind.)

The end

Today is the last day of the Russian Christmas, when they celebrate the baptism of Jesus, and stuff like that. The Russians first go to church, then jump into a lake through a hole in the ice, while saying prayers. Finally they drink vodka. And then it has come to and end, both here and there. Very good.

Tomorrow, I will put away my favorite Santa, which is not really Santa but more like a heathen gnome. He's probably a little bit like me. I got it from my best friend, and now he will rest till next December.

(I took this picture in Moscow some years ago, on a cold day in January, when the river was frozen)

So this was Christmas

And what have you done?

I haven't done much actually, except the usual not-so-interesting stuff. The weather was bad, windy and rainy, so the skiing was disappointing too.

On Christmas Day, I went to church, to watch and listen to the mass in our big medieval cathedral. The cathedral is visited by some 250.000 tourists every year. I've been there many times in the tourist way, to enjoy the architecture, the glass paintings, and the stone carvings, and to climb the stairs to the tower with the kids. But I have never attended a mass. This Christmas I did, just for fun.

I enjoyed the music, the two choirs, and the sound of the big Steinmeyer organ, which has recently been restored. When they read from the Christmas gospel, it came to my mind that this thing about fake news, that we heard about in the US election, is nothing new. Some fake news have been repeated for almost 2000 years, and there are still people believing in it.

I'm not a believer, and I hardly ever go to church. If I do, its only for weddings and funerals. When I was a kid, we had to go to church from time to time. It was part of Christianity class. We're mainly Protestants in this country. Martin Luther was supposed to be our hero. Now it's almost 500 years since the reformation, when the Catholics were kicked out, with their saints and confessions and indulgences. There's no doubt that Luther had a point.

Our protestant church got dull and boring. It seems like the congregations want more show, more like the Catholics do it. I think I noticed, in the Christmas Day mass, that Catholic elements are coming back. The service was performed by an army of clerics. They were parading proudly through the church, behind a guy in white robes carrying a tall pole with Jesus on the cross. There were four priests (two female) and the bishop himself, dressed in white and purple robes. I find it kind of funny that the bishop has the name of the Norse thunder god, Tor.

In our town we have always been somewhat schizofrenic about the Catholics. We have always celebrated our local saint, the king of the vikings, who was killed in battle 1000 years ago. It was noticed (according to the saga) that his nails and hair continued to grow after his death; the sign of a true saint.  Every summer there's a festival to celebrate the holy king, including rock concerts, to attract more people I guess.

Whatever, I have nothing against neither Protestants nor Catholics as such. Religion is just fairy tale to me, and rock concerts are great.

And a happy new year >:)

(I took this picture on New Year's Eve of the public fire works at the old fortress. Sorry about the poor quality. My cell phone camera isn't very good in this kind of conditions. )

A child was born in Bethlehem

Many children were born in Bethlehem. Jesus was not one of them. He was most likely born in Nazareth (but he didn't play in the band). However, some prophecies from the Old Testament (Isaiah 11:1.10, Micah 5:2) said that Messiah should be an ancestor of King David, born in Bethlehem.

So in the Christmas Gospel they invented the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, to make the story fit. And tomorrow we're celebrating this fairytale. Just like we do every year. I'm not looking forward to it.

Christmas always makes me depressed. The whole damn thing. Usually I spend the last three months of the year dreading Christmas. The worst part is the materialistic orgy of Christmas gifts. Whenever I'm asked what I wish for Christmas, I say "nothing". I hope this year that I will get it.

I'm longing for January. In the meantime, we can appreciate that days are getting longer. Happy winter solstice >:)

(I found this picture on the Internet some years ago. I don't remember where I found it and who made it, unfortunately. Otherwise I would have credited the artist. Great work.)

Happy winter solstice

Yesterday was the darkest day of the year. Today we have started the journey towards lighter and brighter times. That’s good.  Also, my best friend is gone, for a while, and Christmas is coming up soon. That’s not so good. This perverted commercial-religious holiday is the time of the year that I dislike the most. Whatever, I will probably survive, once again. It’s just about switching the brain off, do what people expect me to do, and wait till it’s over. January, please come as soon as you can.

Happy winter solstice >:)

(I have never understood why we chop down trees and put them into our houses with lights and glass balls. They look much better in the forest where they belong. Picture from my collection) 

Winter solstice

Tomorrow is the darkest day of the year. It’s the winter solstice. We only get about 4-5 hours of daylight. The day after tomorrow we start the the journey towards increasingly longer days. That’s good.

Also, we are approaching Christmas. That’s not so good. I’m not into the religious part of it, and the commercialism just makes me sad. I try to keep it on a very minimum. When I enter the malls with Christmas-pop-music on the loud speakers (Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Claus is Coming to Town) and people running around carrying bags full of stuff, it makes me feel sick.

The only place I feel fairly comfortable is the bookstore. So that’s where I try to do most of my shopping.

It’s been a rush at work as usual. Projects and reports need to be finished before the end of the years. Managers sitting with there Excel spreadsheets counting deliverables, worrying about the KPI’s.

If you don’t know what a KPI is, you’re lucky. KPI means Key Performance Indicator. That’s the measures by which managers can maximize their bonuses, by local optimization in their little pond, and private agendas. At the same time they usually harm the overall interest of the company. But who cares. This is competition. This is the wonderful capitalist world.

Whatever, it’s great with two weeks of vacation, skiing in the mountains.

I hope I get the book by Thomas Piketty for Christmas. If not, I buy it on sale in January.

Happy winter solstice >:)

(Picture from my archives, from a past Christmas, in 2010 or 2011 I think. We have less snow this year, but thanks to efficient snow making system, the skiing is not at risk)

Back to basics

This fall has been quite busy, somewhat too busy, I must admit. It’s all the stuff going on at work, as usual. In addition, my handyman season has lasted longer than usual.

Living in a 100-year old house is like rowing a leaky boat. You need to bail out water continuously to keep it floating. That’s OK. I’m used to it. But this fall there has been more. We have refurbished the ground floor (still going on). We have ripped out everything, and rebuild it from the core; putting in insulation in the walls and floors, installing water-borne heating, and so on.

We have hired craftsmen to do the most difficult and time consuming things, but I’ve done a lot myself too. So, I’ve been working as a scientist at day time and as a carpenter in the evenings and weekends. It’s a nice combo actually. I rest my body when doing research in the office, and I rest my brain while swinging the hammer and saw.

In fact, I enjoy it. It feels like I’m doing some real work, not just fiddling around with physics and mathematics and computers. However, it leaves too little time for reading and writing. Things are too complex right now.

I don’t believe in any gods and superheros, and I think that from the beginning, the (pre)humans were much like any other species of animals. Our mission in life was very simple; to eat, fuck and die. We were supposed to spread our genes to the next generations, and then get our bio-mass recycled.

But at some point, our brains just got too big, and we started to worry about religion and science, and stuff like that. I don’t like religion, but I’m happy with the science.  

But there’s more. There’s no end to this craziness. We shop for hardwood floors and induction cooktops, and what the hell should we do with all the old crap that we have bought at the mall over the years? At work there are company strategies and deliverables and achievements, evaluation systems and key performance indexes (so-called KPI’s). Management is pretty insane. I've developed my own management theory. More about that on a later occasion.

Right now, it feels like I wanna go back to the basics. Fortunately, there’s the Christmas vacation coming up. I don’t like the Christmas part of it, but I do like a mid-winter vacation. Tomorrow we go skiing in the mountains for a week. Great!

To whom it may concern: Merry Christmas.

I prefer to say Happy Winter Solstice >:)

(The pictures were taken some years ago, when little boy was really a little boy. He had heard the Christmas Gospel in the kindergarden, and re-told it at home, in his own way. I made the clay models while little boy directed. There were Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the Holy Kings, and little boy insisted that they played soccer. This was unknown to me, but who cares. I just made it the way he wanted)

Preparing for Christmas

Lots of stuff to finish off at work before the end of the year.

People are going crazy in the shopping malls.

We're getting close to Christmas, but who cares?

Crappy creepy commercial Coca-Cola Christmas.

Santa Claus is coming with presents. I guess he won't get as far as the children in Africa, as usual. It's quite understandable. He's coming all the way from the North Pole.

This year, we're doing it differently. We just go up to the mountains for a 10-day skiing vacation.

No Christmas tree, except a picture to put on the wall.

Kids will get presents, don't worry. I don't need anything. I've got too much already.

I'm looking forward to the days on the slope. Cold days with white snow and the faint December sun. Great! This will probably be the best Christmas ever.

I'm preparing for Christmas; waxing my skis >:)

(The picture above is from my archives, taken last Christmas, on a beautiful day, with the low December sun burning between the birches.)

Christmas as usual

It’s Christmas, the traditional celebration, as always.

This year we went down south to celebrate with family. All of them live in the south of Winterland. We’re the only ones who moved away.

My father had bought a Christmas tree this year. When I was a kid, we used to steal a tree in the forest. We put on our skis, brought a saw and an axe, cut down the most beautiful little pine we could find and pulled it back home. Not anymore. Even my father is buying the Christmas tree now.

(My father is a cool guy; retired teacher and enthusiastic cross-country skier and writer. He has written his own Christmas song, both the lyrics and the melody. He plays harmonica but he can’t read sheet music. I have to tell more about him some time.)

The meal on Christmas Eve is traditional, but varying around the country. We’re alternating between the sheep rib of the west coast (most years), and the pork rib of the south east (some years), depending on who we’re with.

This Christmas Eve we had sheep rib, dried and salted and smoked, and then watered (to remove excess salt) and boiled and finally fried, served with mushed swede and boiled potatoes. Very good.

After the meal, we were ready for the commercial Christmas orgy (we open the presents on Christmas Eve). Tons of toys and games were unwrapped, a lot more than the kids were able to appreciate.

On Christmas Day, little boy and I watched the Christmas Mass in TV (on public broadcasting). I need to know the stuff I mock and criticize. Recently we got some new liturgy; more music, more show. We’re getting closer to the Catholics. Martin Luther wouldn’t like this, but who cares. People want to be entertained while getting their opium.

We watched the mass for half an hour. Then we zapped to cartoons, The Simpsons, little boy’s favorite. I must admit I enjoy it myself.

In the evening a heavy storm hit the west coast and the south east. We were in a party, and when we tried to drive back an hour after midnight, the roads were blocked by fallen trees. We talked to a police patrol who was out to close roads. He advised us to go to return to where we came from. So we did, and slept over.

Tonight we went back home (no problems with the flight). Tomorrow the real vacation starts. Six days of skiing in the mountains. Great.

It’s Christmas as usual >:)

(Christmas on the slopes, that's the way I like it. Took the picture one year ago, and hope it will be the same this time.)

Christmas - two different ones

Christmas is a big hazzle, and this year I have to worry about two of them.

Last week, the guys I’m working with in Russia proposed a work meeting in Moscow 26-28 December. There’s no way I can go on a business trip between Christmas Day and New Year. I won't even mention it. Christmas is family time.

We can meet early in January, I suggested. No, we can’t, because that’s the Orthodox Christmas in Russia. No chance before mid of January, at best. Damn. Not good.

Christmas is a pain in the ass, and has always been. I dislike both the religious and commercial part of it. The Virginborn and Santa Claus, two quite bizarre products of human fantasy.

If I could delete two days from the callendar, I would pick Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

However, it’s not much I can do about it. I just turn off my brain, watch the Disney cartoons with the kids, and wait for it to be over on the 26. December.

Then the rest is just a mid-winter skiing vacation, which is nice >:)

(I took the picture above one year ago when I was running desperately around town doing last-minute Christmas shopping. This year we don't even have snow in town. However, my wife has bought her present from me herself. Great. Then she gets what she wants, and I avoid going shopping. I'll rather buy her a book that I want to read ... that's how meaningless this Christmas thing has become >:D)

Antichristmas

Today is the 6th of June, 6/6, the day Satan was born.

We're planning a big celebration, at least I do. Mohahhaa, it's scary, isn't it?

Not really. I'm not taking God nor Satan very seriously.

I think the Christians should be happy to have their Satan. He's a nice guy, and the second most important character in Christianity (after Jesus). Satan has been used for centuries to scare people to believe in God. It has been an effective campaign. Satan and Jesus are friends.

By the way, here's a cool joke I heard from little boy some time ago.

Pete and Paul were playing in the sandpit.
Pete said: "Paul, do you beileve that Satan really exists?"
Paul replied: "No, it's like Santa Claus, it's just dad."

Merry Antichristmas >:)

(The picture above is not my work, unfortunately, it's a cool drawing. I found it on the internet some years ago. I have used it in presentations at work from time to time; nobody has been offended so far. We're a country of heathens>:))

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 >:)

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 >:)

January

It is January. I like January. Long dark nights and short days, a faint sun on the horizon, skiing in fresh white snow, reading a book by the fire, having a good time with friends. Christmas is over. I don't like Christmas. A mid-winter vacation; yes, that's nice. But we don't need a pile of crap wrapped in paper under a tree and a small Jewish boy wrapped in a cloth in a crib to have that. It's almost a year till next Christmas. That's one of the things I like about January