A horse in the street

I went for a quick walk downtown, had a couple of quick errands to do. On the way back home, I walked through one of the oldest streets in town. The street is named after a local saint, I think. it’s been there since medieval times, long before the reformation. Monks used to walk there on the way to the cathedral.

Suddenly my feeling of ancient times was kind of confirmed by a horse pulling a sled up the street. Horse traffic is sparse in town now. It's more common to see Teslas and other electric cars.

A few moments later I passed over the old town bridge, with a view to the technical university (where i once was a student), where they do reasearch on artificial intelligence and under-water robotics. All kinds of advanced stuff was invented here, like internet search and the GSM cell phone network.

I think that we have come pretty far since the last catholic arch bishop fled the town in1536. The first step of progress is to get rid of religious power.

Now I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop (not the the Amsterdam type, here they only sell coffee). I'm drinking the coffee of the day and writing some crap, like I often do when I'm here. Whatever. The coffee is very good >:)

(Picture taken on my walk to town center today)

Maybe, probably

I haven't written much this year, for different reasons. Most important, I didn't want to. For a while, there was nothing I wanted to say. Worse is that I lost my notebook this summer, on a trip to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. I lost a lot of valuable notes. They were valuable for me, not for anybody else. Now, I have bought a new notebook, same type as the previous one, black Moleskine. Maybe, probably I'm gonna start writing again.

And now it's the damned Christmas coming up. Happy winter solstice. Soon we will meet again ...  >:)

(Picture taken in the area where I maybe, probably, lost my notebook, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge comes up from the deep sea.)

Writing course

Last weekend I attended a course on writing. It was really cool. I learnt a lot, and got to know some fellow hobby writers. The course instructor was a professional author, who had published plays, poetry and children's books.

In the course, we learnt to exploit all our senses in the writing, we learnt to observe and describe people and situations, and to write better about feelings. We had some good discussions on what we had written in the exercises. Maybe I will post some of my snippets later.

To my surprise, I was the only man in the course. The rest of the participants were women, age 20 to 75. I don't no why there were no other men. Maybe men don't write, or maybe they believe they have nothing to learn. I have >:)

(Picture taken Sunday morning when I was walking to town to attend the second day of the writing course)

Weapon of self destruction

Fear

            is to go where you don’t want to go

is to be where you don’t want to be

is to say what you don’t want to say

is to do what you don’t want to do

Fear

            is a weapon of self destruction

(Just a picture from my archives, taken on a late scary summer night many years ago, I think)

Signed up for the A-Z Challenge

I signed up for the A-Z Challenge again this year. It's gonna be fun. This year I will go for a theme, but not sure which.

Today, I took a day off from work, and went up to the mountains with little boy and a couple of his buddies. The boys are already out skiing in the snow park, jumping on the big jumps.

I'm sitting in the cafe drinking a cup of fairly good coffee (not the best), and reading some work mail. We have another two days of skiing ahead of us, so I think I will skip the skiing today. I will try to get some work done, and think about a theme for the A-Z Challenge.

I should find a theme which is interesting, and doesn't provoke or offend anyone. No, I think I will reduce my ambition. I'll find a theme which is just interesting. There are som nice options in the sub-heading of my blog:

"about science, mathematics, skiing, drumming, black metal, opera, sex, summer, winter, Heaven and Hell"

Science would be a cool theme, with plenty of topics to write about: astronomy, biology, chemistry, dinosaurs, evolution, Feynman, gravity, Hubble ...

Maybe I should go for mathematics, which also has lots of topics: asymptotic analysis, Banach space, complex numbers, divergence theorem, error function, functions, Gauss distribution, Hilbert space ... Might be fun to write about, but maybe interesting to only a few readers.

Opera could be a cool topic, with posts about Aida, Bizet, Carmen, Donizetti, ...

No, I think I go for the last two options: Heaven and Hell, or some variety of it. Just wait and see till April >:)

(Picture taken today, when I sent little boy and his buddies off in the chair lift)

My bookshelf

There's nothing important I have to say. I just wanted to make å test, to see if I can write a post on my cell phone, including upload of a picture. I will need to check later how it appears on the computer. The picture is of my office bookshelf, a part of it. There are some science books, of course, and a couple of oddities. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and the Quran. I bought the latter on sale for half the price. It's a pretty useless book. The two-volume green book is more useful. It's kind of my Bible >:)

My to-write list

It’s February already. January just flew away too fast, without a single blogpost. I was just to busy. Basically, I had three jobs. At daytime I did my regular job for BigOil, as usual. In the night I worked on the refurbishing of our house. Late night I was grading exams. It’s a Hell of a boring job, but I have to do it, since I have a part-time position in the university.

Now the exam-grading is done. Then I only have two jobs, and I hope I’ll get some time to write. I have many topics to write about. Just to remind myself, here are some headlines on my to-write list:

• The white gold
• Russia; good, bad and evil
• War heroes on the metro
• Mekka and Disneyland
• Jerusalem and Hollywood
• Some people still believe in God
• The importance if blasphemy
• Michel Houellebecq
• Haruka Murakami
• Management and leadership
• Monogamy
• I never got a Green Card
• Where does Satan live?
• Skiing in America
• My merits in battle
• Does size matter?

I don’t know in which order I’ll do the list. I’m open for suggestions.

Also, more than a year ago, I started on a one month blogging challenge; 30 posts in 30 days. I got half way through it. Maybe I’ll try to do the rest of it. But n

ot this month; February has only 28 days, it’s skiing season, and soon the Winter Olympics are starting up >:)

(The picture above is the huge Russian nuclear-powered ice breaker Lenin operating in the Arctic. I took the picture a couple of years ago. To be honest, I've never actually seen the ship. There is a big picture of the ice breaker on the wall in the reception of the Poliarnie Zori Hotel in Murmansk, and I took a picture of the picture on the wall, hehe.)

Out of the silence

I’ve been silent for a while, for various reasons. It’s a long time since I was writing anything at all, except technical stuff at work of course.

Before the summer, I filled the last page of my notebook. Like Hemmingway, I buy these small Moleskine notebooks. I immediately bought a new one, because I always want to have one in my bag or in my pocket.

I must admit the I haven’t written a single word in it yet. I didn’t feel like writing, and summer has been busy doing all kind of things:

Vacation in Greece. When summers in the north are cold and rainy, we escape to the south for a while.
Vacation in the mountains. Gone fishing for about a week.

Painting the house. That’s a Hell of a job when you live in a 100 year old house. Hours and days scraping off old paint (of various vintages), before we even get to start the painting. Actually, we hired the kids to do most of the heavy work, in particular the highest parts. I don’t like climbing high anymore, so I sent the kids to the top. That’s what kids are for.

Summer Olympics. Spent too much time watching TV.

Working a lot. July is a great time to work, because everybody else is on vacation. No bosses around, not much mail to reply to. Time to do some science. Great fun.

Reorganization at work. Very good boss replaced by not-so-good boss. Fortunately the next reorganization will come in only 1-2 years (according to statistics).

Now the bosses are back bossing, and I’m writing e-mails and status reports rather than doing science. 

Anyway, I’m out of the silence. Time to find my new notebook

(I took the picture above some time ago when we were painting the house. It’s older boy and one of his buddies working on the uppermost level of the scaffold. Fortunately, they enjoy climbing, because I don’t)

Thanks to Judas

It’s been busy times, a Hell of a lot to do at work. That’s why my blog has been dead recently.

I’ve been working day and night for the last couple of weeks, to finish the stuff we have promised to finish before the end of the first quarter of 2012. That’s the kind of things that managers measure.

Now I’m looking forward to Easter vacation, going skiing as usual.

I’m not very concerned about the religious part of it, but I think the Christians should stop talking shit about Judas. He’s the 2nd most important person in Christianity. What would Jesus been without the acts of Judas? Just imagine Jesus dying in loneliness, from old age in a dark and dusty cabin.

Judas was an important part of the plot, the antagonist who betrayed the hero. Without him the entire story would fall apart; no crucifiction, no suffering, no resurrection. Jesus and Judas had equally important roles in God’s plan, for those who believe in the story.

I think it was just an effective twist of a good fiction writer who knew his craft, almost 2000 years ago.

Anyway, I thank Judas for the annual skiing vacation he gave us, and after Easter, I hope my blog will resurrect.

Happy Easter Holidays >:)

(I got the Easter egg in the picture from my boss today. The egg was on the desk in my office when I came to work this morning. Nice boss, good candy.)

Apps

I'm working with science and technology every day. Therefore I'm not very interested in playing with gadgets outside office hours.

I prefer to spend my free time reading, writing and skiing.

Yesterday I made a great leap forward: I got my first smart phone. Not because I'm interested in smart phones, but simply because people expect me to read mail when I'm out travelling. There have been some problems and misunderstandings when I didn't (like messing up time and place for drivers to pick me up in Moscow, not a good thing to do).

So, now I've got a brand new HTC phone (that's what they give us at work). And where do I go to learn how to use it?

Answer: Ask the kids. They have a natural feel for how these things work (older boy has an iPhone4S; guess who paid for it).

The kids taught me how to download apps from the Android Market. There are thousands of apps, for doing all kinds of rediculous and useless things.

So far, I've downloaded one app: Kindle Reader for HTC >:)

(That's a picture of my new phone, downloaded from the HTC homepage. I vivited their site to get the user manual on a pdf)

Notes from Moscow

I have a crazy travelling schedule these days. Last week, I was on a domestic trip up north. This week, I'm in Moscow. Next week,I'm going to San Antonio. In between the trips,I need to catch up with thing in the office. But most busy was the preparation for everything upfront. My writing has been suffering from this. No time to post on my blog, and no time to work on my so-called novels (yes, plural, I'm working on two novels now, in rare progress). Fortunately, days away traveling also means nights free for writing, and other sorts of fun.

I flew into Moscow today. A driver picked me up in the airport. The traffic jam was terrible. It took almost two hours to get to the hotel. The Moscovians have found various tricks to get around the problem. The rich and powerful have blue lights and sirenes on their Audis and BMWs, to get through the traffic. Along the higway to the city centre, there's an unofficial dirt lane for the impatiant, through gardens and across lawns, wherever it's physically feasible to get trhough.

Actually, I enjoy going to Moscow. It has become a metropol comparable to London and Paris. The Russians are a proud people. Their hospitality is great, and they always want to show you the best of their country (there are plenty of not so great things as well). They always want give you the best borsch (the famous beetroot soup), and the best salty fish (as a starter), and they always book five-star hotels for me.

Moscow has never been invaded or occupied by foreign powers. They stopped Napoleon in the battle of Borodino in 1812. You can read the artistic exposition of it in Tolstoy's War and Peace. The Germans didn't get further than to IKEA. At that time there was hardly any IKEA, of course, but there's a memorialright outside the warehouse, to mark the place where Hitler's army was forced to retreat.

But also, in a sense, the Russians show a lack self confidence. Anything made in Russia is inferior, importeted stuff is superior; cars, clothes and even soccer players (recently Cameroon superstar Samuel Eto'o was signed by Anzhi from Dagestan for a $28 million per year salery). In bars and restaurants, they always want to serve the tasteless imported beers, like Heineken, Budweisser and Carlsberg, even though the Russian beers are much better.

I checked into the Swissotel by the river a couple of hours ago. It's a convenient place to stay, just a ten-minute walk from our Moscow office. They gave me a great room this time, on the 26th floor, with a magnificent view of central Moscow. I didn't bother to go out tonight, so I chose the lazy option, eating in the hotel. Right now, I'm sitting in the restaurant on the 34th floor, to get something to eat. It's dark outside, and I'm looking down on the Moscow River. The barges gliding slowly down the river make a big contrast to the busy highway on the river banks.

I'm eating alone tonight, and taking a couple of beers; first a Baltika #7 with my food, and then Belgian abbey beer, Leffe Brune. Boring? No, not at all. I'm never bored. I'm entertaining my self with some writing. I'm lonely tonight, but doesn't feel lonesome. My own company is good company, sometimes at least.

(Above is a picture I took from my hotel room right before dawn today. Very nice view of central Moscow.)

Ghostwriter

I've been ghostwriting the last couple of days. No, I'm not talking about the Holy Ghost, though we're just through the Pentecost. I'm talking about science and technology.

I often make slides for my boss, technical stuff that she uses in various settings. This time, however, it was kind of a special event. Today the Prime Minister, the Mayor, and the CEO of the company came to visit our research center. I've never seen any of these people in real life before, only on TV.

Three months ago, we made a fairly big oil discovery in the Arctic (we found oil worth some 50 billion dollars with current prices). The Prime Minister, the Mayor and the CEO came to hear about the role of research and advanced geophysics in this discovery. My boss had 13 minutes to tell the story (the time schedule was planned minute by minute).

My own contribution was, by all means, very modest. I was just involved in parts of the geophysical work. I made my four slides, as usual. But this time I did more than that, because I wanted to create a good story. So, I wrote down, in detail, a proposed wording (a monologue) to use when presenting each slide.

As I was doing this, I realized that, what the Hell, this is just like writing a short story or a novel. I need a good hook to start with, then build up the excitement before the grand finale (unfortunately they already new the happy ending). I also put in a teaser pointing to on-going and future work, like writing for a series. It was great fun to write, actually.

I did of course, tell my boss, that this is just my proposal, the way I would have presented it. Use it if you want to, pick pieces of it if you like.

(The picture above has nothing whatsoever to do with the oil discovery mentioned above. I picked it from my archive of past projects. It's a seismic image from the other side of the world, offshore South America, computed 7 years ago)

Writer's ban

My ambition was to complete my so-called novel (the 1st draft) by the end of June. Now I have realized that this will not be possible.

I don't suffer from writer's block, quite the contrary. I've got writer's ban.

When I sit down to write, it takes less than ten minutes before I'm interrupted by my old lady:

"What are you doing?"

"Writing"

"Do something useful. Do the dishes, mow the grass, paint the fence, water the flowers, iron your shirts, clean the bathroom, go for a walk. Do whatever, just get off that computer."

So, I have to go back to my old strategy, write when I'm out traveling, take the opportunities I get, write in small portions, slowly but steadily. No goals.

And writing a blog post only takes five minutes >:)

(That's my copy of On Writing by Stephen King in the picture. This winter, I put it in my pocket when I was on duty as gate judge in a giant slalom race. I planned to read before the start, and between the 1st and 2nd run, when nothing was happening. During the day, it started to rain heavily. Both the book and I got soaking wet. I took two weeks to dry it and bring it back to a readable condition. Good book.)

No country for old men

I'm back in the North, just for a few days.

Today they served sun buns in the cantina at work, to celebrate the return of the sun. The sun buns have some yellow egg cream in the center. Except from that, they're like regular buns.

The sun has been hiding behind the horizon since early December. Now we can see sunshine on the mountain tops at least. It's the end of the polar darkness already. The sun is gone for only 7-8 weeks. That's not bad, and I like the darkness. It has it's own mysterious charm.

Tonight I've been out eating, alone. That's not very fun, so I made it quick. I had a cheese burger and a Mack beer, brewed by the northernmost brewery in the world, according to the commercials.

(The brewery is located in the Paris of the North, a 4-hour drive from here, across a mountain pass, and around a couple of fjords, or less than 3 hours by the fast catamaran boat that runs on a regular schedule along the coast.)

On the way back to my hotel, I passed by the bookstore, and couldn't resist. I have become a fan of Cormack McCarthy, since I read The Road and Child of God recently. So I bought No Country for Old Men. Looking forward to read it.

But the first thing I'll do is to write a couple of scenes for my so-called novel >:)

(I wrote this piece of text with my own hands (and brain). I also took the picture myself, early in February three years ago. Then we lived walking-distance from that little hill I'm shooting from. My hotel is right outside the left edge of the picture. Today, I can state, with the best conscience, that I haven't stolen anything ... In Satan we trust >:D)

To write or not to write

"What are you doing?"

"Writing."

"I thought you were working."

"I was working. Now I’m writing."

"What a useless waste of time."

"My writing is about as useless as your sewing and broidery."

"Sewing is something everybody are doing, following a straight-forward pattern. You can’t just write a novel."

"Why not?"

"It's not the kind of things that anyone can do"

"I'm trying anyway"

"Why can't you just do normal things that other people do?"

"I'm doing that too."

"Like going to black-metal concerts and reading Dostoyevsky. Is that normal?"

"It's normal for me."

"You’re always so eccentric. You learnt to play drums on the Internet, and now you’re gonna learn to write a novel."

"Yes."

"Your biggest fear is to be viewed as ordinary."

"It’s just the way I am."

"I guess that’s why I liked you in the first place."

"Thanks."

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.

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 >:)

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 >:)

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?