Breaking my thumb with a hammer

You have probably seen these gangster movies where they break people's fingers with a hammer, to make them reveal or confess something.

A few days ago I tried this, on myself.

Did I confess? No, not at all. But I swore a little bit, I admit.

It happened by accident, of course. I was doing my handyman stuff in the attic. Then I hit my left thumb with the hammer. And I hit hard, damned hard.

As a torture method, I think it’s over rated.

It wasn't that painful, not in the beginning. But after a couple of days it was. I think I've broken the outermost part of my thumb. Something has come loose in there.

I don’t want to waste my time waiting in the line in the hospital, so I tried to take care of this myself. After all it’s just a minor injury, and I’m supposed to be a handyman.

I fixed it with a nail and some tape. No problem.

It’s like you don’t need to call a mathematician to do some simple calculus >:)

(That’s a picture of my thumb, after I did my self-medic-treatment.)

Mountain with a view

It was a nice and sunny Sunday in May, a great day for a hike in the mountains. We went up in the ranges on the coast.

Down in the valleys the fields and trees were dressed in the light green colors of spring. Up in the mountains, there were still patches of snow, and large areas of brown grass from last year, places were the snow melted just a few days ago.

The view from the top was great; fjords, islands and ocean. The coast is nice. Mountains are great. But there’s nothing like a mountain with an ocean view >:)

(I took the picture today. Can you see the wrecked airplane in the front of the picture? It’s a German plane from the 2^nd World War. In April 1940, the plane was hit by shell fire from a British navy ship, and crashed into the ranges by the fjord, with three men on board. The first died immediately, the second lived for a couple of days. They were buried next to the wrecked plane. The third soldier walked down fro the mountain, in hiding, and was able to re-unite with the German Nazi forces.)

Almost as always

Yesterday we celebrated the Constitution Day. It was the traditional stuff going on; flags all over the place, the children's parade and then the citizens parade, brass bands playing in the streets.

We (as a country) are very proud of our Constitution Day. In particular, we appreciate that children are parading, and not the military.

There's a general consensus that parading children is a good idea.

I know there are some people (in particular European immigrants) who don't agree. To some, marching children are even more scaring than marching soldiers. Thousands of children waiving flags and praising the king can give an impression of indoctrination; a slight touch of North Korea.

Whatever, we've been doing this for almost 200 years, and probably will the next 200 years.

It was Constitution Day as always. The only thing unusual, was the nice and warm weather. No freezing in suit and tie, no need for gloves >:)

(I took the picture of the nurse's drum corps when we watched the citizen's parade.)

Democracy is un-Islamic

Skiing season is over, and my handyman season has started.  Living in a 100 year old house, there’s always plenty to do.

Yes, I can.  Now I’m refurbishing the attic, insulating the floor and ceiling and stuff like that.

I always listen to the radio while I’m working. It’s a very old radio. I bought it when I was in highschool. 

I can’t stand the chit-chat-and-pop-music stations, so my radio is tuned into the national broadcasting’s news station.  Most of the time they just switch in the BBC World Service, which is very good.  You get to learn a lot, not only about Europe and America, but the entire world (or at least the Commonwealth).

This weekend there was two main happenings: The resign of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson after 26 years in charge, and the election in Pakistan.

I found the latter to be the most interesting.  And so did BBC World.

There was in-depth presentation of Pakistan’s political system. Reports from the big cities, and from rural areas, where politics, bribes and loyalty to local landowners are intertwined.

The campaign was very violent, with frequent bombings taking place. The Taliban did their best to undermine the election, claiming that “democracy is un-Islamic”.  Still voter turnout was 60%, including many women (provided their family allowed them to vote).  

It’s encouraging if Muslim countries start to move away from religious fundamentalism.

The election was won by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was kicked out of office and exiled in the military coup in 1999.

The runner up was the former cricket star Imran Khan. His slogan was obvious:  “Yes we Khan”.

(I've never been to Pakistan. In fact, I've been to a Muslim country only once, at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar, a couple of years ago. The picture above was taken inside the congress center, by the women's prayer room. Maybe I should build one in my attic?)

Gameboy in Texas

This week there’s a huge conference on petroleum technology in Houston. I’m not attending, and I don’t want to. First, Houston is not my favorite place to go. Second, the conference is too crowded (more than 50.000), too much business and politics, and too little science.

I have, however, been to this conference once, some 10 years ago. I was invited to give a presentation on some research we had done.

There was a somewhat complicating issue, because I brought older boy with me on the trip to the US. Back then, he was a little boy, only 8 years old. He was going to visit a friend who lived in Colorado at that time (the father of his friend was a professor on sabbatical).

Older boy looked forward to visit Denver (where we lived for a while when I was a student).

But first we had to go to Houston.

Houston is a big city with high crime rates (in some areas). It’s not a place where you want your kid to get lost. Also, he didn’t speak English. In case he got lost, he wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone.

This was a challenge when I was giving my talk at the conference.

After some negotiations with the conference management, I got a special permission to bring the boy with me to the technical-session’s area.  He was not allowed to visit the exhibition halls, where lots of heavy-duty offshore equipment was shown.

I went to the speaker’s preparation room, to upload my presentation and check that it was OK. I put the kid on a chair next to me, with some candy and a Mountain Dew, to keep him quiet.

Then we went to the auditorium where my session took place. When it was my turn to speak, I put the kid in a seat in the first row, right in front of the podium. I gave him his Gameboy (a Nintendo device), and told him to turn off the sound.

I gave my talk, presenting the mathematical model and application examples. All the time, I kept an eye on the kid from the podium, while he was sitting still playing a Pokemon game.

After my talk, we went straight to the George Bush airport to get on the plane to Denver. Then we went up to the Rockies to enjoy some slushy May skiing in Arapahoe Basin.

(For some reason, I've never used my camera when visiting Houston. I took the picture above by the I-70, west of Denver, where the highway starts climbing up the Rocky Mountain Foothills)

1st of May

Today is the 1^st of May, the International Worker’s Day. It’s a national holiday in many countries, including ours.

It’s a great day for the Labor Party and the unions. It’s always been an important day for their fight for worker’s rights, which I support. Workers should of course be offered reasonable working conditions and a fair salary.

Remember the days of the cold war. The 1^st of May parades on Red Square.  Brezhnev and the Politburo waiving from the top of the Lenin Mausoleum.  Soldiers, tanks and missiles show the capacity of the Red Army.  I have visited Moscow many times the last couple of years. Every time when I take an evening walk on Red Square, this bizarre show comes to my mind.

For us the 1^st of May is mostly a day off, Also, it’s the last opening day of the season in the skiing resort. Little boy insisted on getting his last day on the slopes. OK with me, off we went. We had a great day of spring skiing, dry cold snow at the higher elevation, and slushy in the lower part.

It’s the end, for this time. We’ll be back on the slopes in October or November.

(I borrowed the picture above from the Internet. Brezhnev (with sun glasses) at the Lenin Mausoleum on 1st of May 1972.)

The extinction of snow

I just came back from our last skiing weekend this season. March and April is the best part of the year. Then light is coming back to the north, but we still have winter snow, in the mountains. Long light days and good skiing.

Spring is arriving late this year. Nights are still cold, which slows down the melting of the snow.

Soon spring will take over. There’s no mercy. Sad but rue. It’s the time for the extinction of snow. 

(Picture taken from the chair lift yesterday; one of my last lift rides this season. The yellow and brown grass from last summer reappears. On the slopes there is still plenty of snow, but along the lift, only patches remain.)

30.000 feet

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. Don't worry. There are plenty of good blogs around. You don't really need mine. I'm just writing it for my own entertainment.

I do most of my writing when I'm out traveling. This year I haven't been traveling much, so far. Before Easter, I spent a week in Moscow, working long days. Now I'm on the way to Milan, Italy, about to cross the Swiss Alps at 30.000 feet. 

The last three months have been quite busy. Too much to do at work, very interesting and important projects, but intense, and with tight deadlines.

Half a year ago we were reorganized. We've got new bosses, doing administration and micro-management rather than showing leadership. No problem, we get used to it. We just have to make up the visions and grand plans ourselves.

You can't really stop researchers, just slow them down, by setting up weird obstacles. I've come up with a new management model. How to utilize the various facets of corporate management in the optimal way. Maybe I will write a post about it some time.

Winter is the most busy time of year. It's skiing season, and we've been skiing a lot. I've got about 45 days on the slopes so far. The kids have more. The Easter was great, cold nights, sunny days, and great skiing conditions. April is the best part of the season. There's more to come, for another month.

Finally, I've got a new favorite author, the French rebel Michel Houllebecq. He's a very good writer; pessimistic, ironic and provocative, pointing to the sickness of modern society. Accused of being a pornographer, and pulled to court by Islamic organizations for offending their religion. That's a real author, with his mission. Recommended.

I've read four of Houllebecq’s books recently, just started on the fifth. So, I've done a lot of reading, but not much writing, except the science reports at work.

(April is the best time of the year for skiing. It's not me in the picture, but I know the guy quite well. The picture was taken and put together by one of his buddies.)