/gone!
Flyttet ---> HIT!
I just saw this guy on Japanese TV, and I have to share it with someone.
ENJOY!
...LOL!
Japanese people are crazy, but that's kinda why I love them.
TTYN!
/The Vegetable Musician
...LOL!
Japanese people are crazy, but that's kinda why I love them.
TTYN!
/Lucky? Oh yes.
I can't get over how incredibly lucky I've been. Things like this do not usually work out for me.
I'm in Japan, I'm staying with some of the best people I've ever met, and I'm able to work for my office back home. It's not often you get to travel this far, learn a new language, experience a whole new culture, and at the same time have a job you love and the possibility to work from abroad. A big, fat thank you to all those who made this possible for me. You know who you are :)
I've finally settled in to a nice rhythm here. Monday to Friday I work from nine to five (what a way to make a living! lol), then I study Japanese for a couple of hours, then Yumi's mom make me practice my Hiragana for a while, and then we chill for the rest of the evening. I still cannot get over how nice everyone are to me, not to mention their incredible patience regarding my Japanese skills (or lack thereof). As I've mentioned earlier, they've declared me their second daughter, and they treat me one hundred percent as if I were. They refuse to accept any payment for food and lodging, no matter how much I try to insist. I feel a bit awkward knowing that I probably make more money than they do, yet they are covering all of my expenses. I really have to pay them back somehow, but I'm at a loss as to how I can do that. If anyone reading this have any suggestions - please let me know. The only thing I've planned so far, is a Scandinavian dinner next week, where I'll do all the cooking, cleaning and shopping. That isn't enough by far though.
During the weekends, Yumi and I will travel the country. Last weekend, we went on a road trip to Japan's geographical centre, followed by a small Japanese village further north, and then we finished the trip by going to an old Ninja village.
Japan's geographical centre wasn't too exciting to be honest - it was just a big building in the middle of nowhere, with a huge needle marking the exact location.
The little village we went to was much more interesting. It's on Unesco's World Heritage list, and I could really see why. Shirakawago is a very peaceful and charming old village in the middle of the mountains. It consists of a lot of huge, old houses, a couple of temples, a lot of ponds with pretty fish, beautiful flower meadows and stunning nature.
The Ninja village was also pretty cool. We went to an old house which had actually been used for Ninja training way in the old days, and now functioned as a museum. We were told elaborate stories of how the Ninjas used to live, and were shown some of their tricks and way of escaping.
All in all, it was a very nice trip :)
The next day, we went shopping and sightseeing in Osaka, followed by dinner and karaoke with some of her friends.
When we came to the restaurant, everyone introduced themselves. It was really weird, kind of like the introduction rounds you do the first day of school. Everyone had to introduce themselves with name, age and what they did, and then tell everyone a little bit about their hobbies. Apparently this is a normal thing to do in Japan.
When the introductions were all done, we started eating and drinking. They place we went to were one of those all-you-can-eat-and-drink-in-90-minutes places, and believe me when I say that Japanese people are very good at eating and drinking a lot. A lot. Some of them even outdid me, the Scandinavian. Luckily for me, it turned out that I'm way better at handling my alcohol than they were and a few of them were actually impressed (!) that I didn't seem drunk or fell asleep. I knew something good would come out of me and my Norwegian partners in crime's work back home ^^
When we were finished at the restaurant, we continued on to a karaoke place nearby. If you think I suck at singing, you should have seen the others. Holy shit. Japanese "singing" is more like screaming/shouting in a high-pitched voice. Check out the video below (from the road trip), and you'll see what I mean...
Now: Work
Soon: Japanese traditional festival in Osaka
TTYN!
/RoadTrip to Shirakawa and Karaoke Extravaganza
People keep saying that a picture says more than a thousand words.
So here's a shitload of pictures, and not so many words.
Enjoy.
Blogg.no is currently being a bitch, and refusing to let me upload more pictures.
Stay tuned for more!
/Fanatics
Picture this - you're staying with a family in a foreign country and you don't know the language. They've all gone to work or are out running errands, and you're alone in the house. Someone knocks on the door. Do you open or pretend like nothing happened? Is it Otosa or Okasa who've simply forgotten theyr keys? Is it a random stranger? Only one way to find out. I braced myself for the worst, and indeed that is what I encountered.
Three nicely dressed Japanese people where standing outside, with the craziest smiling faces I've ever seen. Oh-oh..And Oh-oh it was indeed. A lady started yapping away in Japanese, and as soon as I picked up the word Bible, I knew I was in trouble. Jehova's effing witnesses were at the door. They can be hard enough to get rid of in Norway, try making them go away when you don't even speak the language? It took forever. They made me read a bunch of bullshit in English before I politely said that I was sorry, but I had to work. Would I like to come to Bible Study with them? They could teach me Japanese. No thank you. I'm not desperate enough to learn the language, that I'd join some crazy ass religious cult. Hell no.
So now I'm sitting here, feeling slightly annoyed, with The Watchtower lying in the garbage bin behind me. 
I will never walk towards the light.
Now: work
Soon: Update from the RoadTrip
/Japan > Norway
Today I bought a new cellphone.
For some reason it's almost impossible to get a phone with a prepaid card here, but in the end (not to mention store number five) we succeeded.
There were two reasons why I got this phone:
* It's pink (if you're a girl in Japan - it has to be pink ^^)
* It was the cheapest one
When I came home and opened the box, I expected some pretty useless shit. However, it turns out that my super-girly phone is actually something of a technical master piece. Let me present a quick summary of it's glorious powers:
* Free (!!!) internet wherever you are
* Instead of SMS, you can e-mail for free. To anyone. (yes, nerds at work, I know this isn't brand new, but hey, no settings needed - it's just there. You can reach me at julie86@softbank.ne.jp)
* TV!!! Seriously. I can watch TV on my phone. Anywhere. For free. It kicks ass!
* Lot's of weird functions I haven't really investigated yet. Like chat stuff, communities, applications and media. Apparantly I can stream movies live from internet as well. I like!
* It's shiny.
It didn't take more than 5 minutes before Yumi had attached a weird yellow baby/bird/thing on my phone though. You can't live in Japan withouth BLING on your phone. That would almost be criminal.
...And enough about that....
/The Art of Writing
Yesterday I realized how absurdly complicated writing/reading Japanese is.
Apparantly there are three different systems, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is supposed to be the "easy" way of writing, and it's the first system children learn to master. You can write anything you want when you've mastered these signs, but for some reason the Japanese people like to complicate things.
Yay.
The second system, Katakana, is mostly used when writing words "stolen" from foreign laguages, such as the word television, which is called terebi in Japanaese and is written like this: テレビ. Why they couldn't just spell this with Hiragama is beyond my comprehension. I guess that might have been an offense to the Japanese language or something, or maybe it was just to simple for them. Hmph.
Just to make things even better, the two (hiragana and katakana) are used simultaneously. I hate my life.
Yup... As if that doesn't seem complicated enough for you, let me introduse you to Kanji. I hate kanji. For some reason the Japanese have a thing for the Chinese writing system, and decided to start using all their signs. Great. These signs are also mixed with the other two. I've asked around, and no one here seems to know how many different signs there are in Kanji. The only estimate I could get, was infinate. Huzzah! Say what? I've decided to ignore Kanji with all my heart. In my world, the damned thing doesn't exist.
Here are som basic Kanji for you to enjoy [/ignore]
Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm just going to go kill myself.
Apparantly there are three different systems, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is supposed to be the "easy" way of writing, and it's the first system children learn to master. You can write anything you want when you've mastered these signs, but for some reason the Japanese people like to complicate things.
Yay.
The second system, Katakana, is mostly used when writing words "stolen" from foreign laguages, such as the word television, which is called terebi in Japanaese and is written like this: テレビ. Why they couldn't just spell this with Hiragama is beyond my comprehension. I guess that might have been an offense to the Japanese language or something, or maybe it was just to simple for them. Hmph.
Just to make things even better, the two (hiragana and katakana) are used simultaneously. I hate my life.
Yup... As if that doesn't seem complicated enough for you, let me introduse you to Kanji. I hate kanji. For some reason the Japanese have a thing for the Chinese writing system, and decided to start using all their signs. Great. These signs are also mixed with the other two. I've asked around, and no one here seems to know how many different signs there are in Kanji. The only estimate I could get, was infinate. Huzzah! Say what? I've decided to ignore Kanji with all my heart. In my world, the damned thing doesn't exist.
Here are som basic Kanji for you to enjoy [/ignore]
Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm just going to go kill myself.
/Typhoon update pt. 2
Last time I was in Japan, I found a huge article about the big earthquake in Tokyo on dagbladet.no's front page.
Now, there's an article about the Typhoon ^^
It feels a bit weird reading about the things happening here in Norwegian newspapers. If you check out the map in the article, you can see where the city I live in is (Nara). Not that far from where the typhoon first struk!
All is well though :)
(Dagbladet): Tyfonen Melor traff i dag Japan. Den kraftige tyfonen produserer vind i hastigheter opp til 198 kilometer i timen, i tillegg til store regnbørsmengder.
En drept
En person, Hiroshi Kitahara (54), ble drept på jobb som avisbud da motorsykkelen hans ble truffet av et tre som ble felt av stormen, ifølge nyhetsbyrået Associated Press. 54-åringen ble drept i kystområdet Wakayama.
Reuters skriver at minst 18 personer er skadet.
Stormen har revet opp hustak på bygninger, og tippet flere lastebiler på motorveiene.
Over 200 flyavganger er kansellert og togene i den travle hovedstaden Tokyo er stoppet, og bilprodusenten Toyota har stoppet produksjonen på alle deres fabrikker i sentral-Japan.
Stormen har blitt svakere siden 01.30. Vindhastigheten er 03.45 omkring 145 kilometer i timen, ifølge Japans meteorologbyrå.
(takk til dagbladet.no)
/typhoon update
Aiight
Luckily the Typhoon hit Nara during the night, while I was safely snoring away on my precious futon.
Apparantly the typhoon (named Melor) was the strongest typhoon to hit Japan's mainland in over ten years. That's pretty damn strong. I woke up to a lot of noise, and it took me a few minutes to figure out that it was just the wind, rain, thundering and lightning. It sounded absolutely crazy, I've never experienced anything like that before. The typhoon didn't cause too much destruction in the area, only a couple of fallen trees and a bit of flooding here and there. No trains are running in the area, and all flights have been cancelled.
According to the news, about 20 people were injured in the area, and one man died while delivering newspapers this morning.
I'd recommend that you watch a video of the typhoon here. Embedding has been disabled, so I'm unable to post it on my blog. I think it's pretty impressive.
The picture below, is of the actual typhoon passing over Japan. The other typhoon (Parma) which was heading for Japan luckily decided to head in another direction. (I'm somewhere under the white thing called Melor ^^)
Melor was typhoon number 18 to hit Japan this year, and hopefully it will be the last one as well.
It's currently having the time of it's life over Tokyo right now, and they've shown some pretty scary images on tv here (I tried to find some on the internett, but to no success). People have barricaded their homes, and the streets are filled with water. All the subway/metro stations have been closed, as they're all under water.
Crazy shit.
Now: Work
Soon: Watch weird Japanese tv
/LOL @ Japanese Counting Vid
Okay,
I just finished work, and figured I'd youtube learn Japanese just for the fuck of it. Hey, everything helps, right?
WRONG!
Check out this learn-how-to-count video I found. It's horrible! It would have been good though, if his pronunciation wasn't über-american. LOLz!
I just finished work, and figured I'd youtube learn Japanese just for the fuck of it. Hey, everything helps, right?
WRONG!
Check out this learn-how-to-count video I found. It's horrible! It would have been good though, if his pronunciation wasn't über-american. LOLz!
/Toilets and Typhoons
Aparantly Nara, the city I'm staying in, is trapped between two typhoons at the moment. None of them have struck the area yet, but they're both approching from different sides. I've never experienced a typhoon before, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm kind of looking forward to it in a weird way. I guess I'll find out to night!
According to my dear friend Mr. Google, two typhoons would look something like this:
In other words, dear colleagues / bosses; if I'm not online tomorrow, you know why.
Now, on to the second (nonrelated) topic; the toilets.
Japan, as you all probably know, is a very high-tech country. Everything is very fancy-schmancy, and there are so many buttons on everything, that you hardly dare use anything in this country at all. Even the toilets.
The thing that strikes me as slightly odd though, is that there is no thing inbetween completely outdated or über-fancy.
Take the toilets for instance. The toilet in the house I live in is one of the fancy ones. It has a billion buttons which do anything from wash your asshole to make weird sounds and deodorizing the room. Scary. The one where I work though, looks more like something from a concetration camp. It's one of those weird things on the floor that you have to squat over. I don't get that. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on the fancy buttons - shouldn't you be able to at least get something you can sit on? Jeez. Fine, all the people where I work are men, but how cool can it be to shit in a squatter? We all know how good men are at aiming, and if they miss the hole, the shit hits the floor. nice.
And with that said, it's Sayonara for the day.
If you need me, you can find me squatting somewhere.
/Back to Basics
Yesteday was quite hard on my ego. The continued struggle with the flashcards and the childrens book did not exactly make me feel clever. It kind of feels like the part of my brain that contains things you're supposed to know has been completely whiped out. Yesterday I had to learn how to count again. And it was hard. I did however succeed after a lot of memorizing, and I can now proudly count to 9999. I guess I should be excited about that, but after discovering that these numbers aren't used when describing things (like 5 bananas or whatever) it felt like yet another setback. Apparantly I have to learn how to count twice. I'll stick to what I know for now though, if whoever I'm trying to ask for five bananas doesn't understand me, then that's their problem. Hah!
Mama was really sweet yesterday. When she found me hunched over my books after work, she decided to join in and give me a few lessons. Apparantly my atempt at writing hiragami was quite shitty, so she kindly showed me how it was supposed to be done, and then made me repeat each letter/sign a billion times. I now kick ass at Ru, E, O, I, Ri and Ka. Even though that's only six of a billion signs, I can already spell out a few words. Like Kaeru, which can mean anything from frog to change and to come home. Three words in one? Check. Hopefully I've mastered the pronunciation as well, so that when I tell Papa that I want to go home after work, he won't look at me like I'm a retard for telling him that I want to change into a frog.
I've also learned how to say that I'm hungry or thirsty, that I want to go out, to say when I want to wake up or go to sleep, and the words open and close. Babysteps, but I'm getting there!
Today, I'm going to learn what all the different bodyparts are called in Japanese. I'm thinking this might come in handy for my "secret" project - haha, I should totally send in an application to MythBusters for this one.
Now: Work
Soon: Bodyparts
Mama was really sweet yesterday. When she found me hunched over my books after work, she decided to join in and give me a few lessons. Apparantly my atempt at writing hiragami was quite shitty, so she kindly showed me how it was supposed to be done, and then made me repeat each letter/sign a billion times. I now kick ass at Ru, E, O, I, Ri and Ka. Even though that's only six of a billion signs, I can already spell out a few words. Like Kaeru, which can mean anything from frog to change and to come home. Three words in one? Check. Hopefully I've mastered the pronunciation as well, so that when I tell Papa that I want to go home after work, he won't look at me like I'm a retard for telling him that I want to change into a frog.
I've also learned how to say that I'm hungry or thirsty, that I want to go out, to say when I want to wake up or go to sleep, and the words open and close. Babysteps, but I'm getting there!
Today, I'm going to learn what all the different bodyparts are called in Japanese. I'm thinking this might come in handy for my "secret" project - haha, I should totally send in an application to MythBusters for this one.
Now: Work
Soon: Bodyparts
/Time for Action
OK,
I'm fed up with understanding fuck all, and it's time for action.
I've got Pimsleur - learn to speak and understand Japanese pumping through my headphones, and I'm never taking them off. Exept when I'm going to attempt to put any of it to use. Hah, I'm going to start sleeping with my iPod. Maybe there is something to the whole learning-while-you-sleep thing? I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.
My lunch break started out pretty awkwardly today. Everyone were just sitting there, not saying a word. It turns out you're not supposed to speak before the boss starts yapping away, so it was lucky that I kept my mouth shut for once. Couldn't say anything if I wanted to anyways. After a while, they all started talking about me. I could tell from the few words I understood (like english, norway, japanese, yumi, english, blabla, nara, blabla etc). They tried to include me in the conversation, but you know - just wave and smile! I think they're planning on taking me on some sort of sightseeing today, but I've no idea where, with whom or what. Or if, for that matter.
Time will tell.
Now: work
Soon: Sightseeing?
I'm fed up with understanding fuck all, and it's time for action.
I've got Pimsleur - learn to speak and understand Japanese pumping through my headphones, and I'm never taking them off. Exept when I'm going to attempt to put any of it to use. Hah, I'm going to start sleeping with my iPod. Maybe there is something to the whole learning-while-you-sleep thing? I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes.
My lunch break started out pretty awkwardly today. Everyone were just sitting there, not saying a word. It turns out you're not supposed to speak before the boss starts yapping away, so it was lucky that I kept my mouth shut for once. Couldn't say anything if I wanted to anyways. After a while, they all started talking about me. I could tell from the few words I understood (like english, norway, japanese, yumi, english, blabla, nara, blabla etc). They tried to include me in the conversation, but you know - just wave and smile! I think they're planning on taking me on some sort of sightseeing today, but I've no idea where, with whom or what. Or if, for that matter.
Time will tell.
Now: work
Soon: Sightseeing?
/Let There Be Pictures
she said, and there were Pictures!
As I mentioned yesterday, there's a lovely Hello Kitty carpet on the floor of my room. Mjau.
..and SpongeBob? He's everywhere. EVERYWHERE!
Japanese people are crazy, but in a good way.
On, and my personal favourite, the SpongeBob-Pig!
Forget about SpiderPig, that's SO twothousandandLATE.
So yeah. This is what I'm surrounded by while I sleep, and every morning I wake up to a thousand creepy looking SpongeBob's staring down at me. I just hope they never pull a Toy Story thing and start moving around at night. You never know, I'm not that far from Hiroshima, and who know's what all that radiation could have done to Mr. SpongeBob? - I don't, and I'd rather not find out.
After work yesterday, Yumi decided that learning to speak and understand Japanse wasn't enough, I also have to learn to read the god damn language. And write. Yeah. As if just learning the words and grammar wasn't difficult enough..
So she and her mom [Mama] dragged me off to the 100 Yen shop, and refused to let me bring my wallet. I tried to go get it, but then they started shouting at me in Japanese, and that's never a good thing. Apparantly, as I've been declared one of their daughters, I'm not allowed to pay for anything. They even buy me cigarettes. I feel really weird accepting all these things, but in this country you're basically not allowed to say no. So I keep saying Hai! and Arrigato gozaimasu all the time, while nodding and smiling and flapping my arms around like the oversized idiot that I am, trying to make myself understood. Easier said than done. Anyways, I ended up leaving the shop with a learn-to-write book meant for four year olds, as well as word-cards and lot's of other practical things, such as pink hangers (Lovisa would LOVE them) and towels and other weird things I'm not quite sure what to do with.
Yup... Learning in progress! Not going too fast, but hey - I blame it on the jetlag.
After a lovely homecooked Japanse dinner, Yumi, Mama and I finished off the evening watching Anaconda 4 in Japanese with English subs. Interesting, to say the least. Btw, snake in Japanese is Hebi. Just in case you were wondering.
Now: Work
Soon: Mobile shopping?
/Big in Japan
Konnichiwa!
I survived the 24 hour journey. With a hangover.
The flight to London was cramped, I sat next to an abnormally large man who very nicely claimed half of my seat. I wanted to kill him, but my hangover said no. Too much effort.
London was boring as hell, three hours is a lot of time to kill at Heathrow. Luckily I had a shitload of books, and I finished the first one at the airport. My flight from London to Tokyo went surprisingly well. I had a couple of beers (KIRIN^^) while watching The Hangover in order to make myself feel a bit better about my own hangover. I fell asleep after a few hours, and slept the rest of the flight. No stress.
The few hours I had to spend at Narita airport in Tokyo was a lot nicer than Heathrow, as they had a smoking lounge in the terminal. I can't think of anything better to do after a hell of a long flight, than to relax with a great book and smoke a billion cigarettes.
Arriving in Osaka was a bit more chaotic than expected. I couldn't find Yumi when I landed, and I managed to lock my phone after entering the wrong pin code three times. So I was stuck at a place where no one spoke English, I didn't have my friends phone number and I was ridiculously tired. After walking around like a zombie for twenty minutes or so, I finally found an internet cafe at the airport, and managed to get Yumi's number from Facebook. Gotta love Facebook. After that, the search for a payphone began, and surpisingly enough I found one straight away. It turns out that Yumi had been waiting at the wrong terminal, and she came running to my rescue as soon I called. Thank god..
After that, we got into Yumi's SpongeBob car (she is a hardcore spungebob fan), and drove over to her house in Nara, where I will be staying for the next couple of months.
It turns out that she lives with her entire family, and I guess I'm doing the same ^^
They are the sweetest, kindest people ever, however they don't speak a single word of English. Trying to communicate with them so far has been an interesting experience, but it's going better than expected. It involves a lot of pointing and waving, but we're getting there. Definately a huge kick in my ass to learn Japanese!
Apparantly they've already adopted me and declared me their second daughter, so I must be doing something right.
Their house is very japanse, it's not very big, but there are things everywhere. Figurines, flowers, gadgets, you name it, it's there. Haha, and the bathroom's got Pokemon tiles! I'm going to take a lot of pictures later today, so that you can see what I'm talking about.. Yumi's room is also kick ass - I've never seen a room with so many teddybears and SpongeBob gadgets ever. It's absolutely insane. And pink. She has a hello kitty rug in her room. I rest my case.
I'm sharing room with Yumi (poor girl) and I've got my own little futon ^^
She keeps apologizing to me for having to share room with her, and because she thinks it so tiny and dirty (it's not), but she really shouldn't be. I feel like I'm the one who should be apologizing for invading her and her family's space, and I'm so gratetful for them inviting me to stay with them. I'm planning on letting her know that at least 20 times a day.
Her parents didn't think their home was good enough for me to work from, so they've invited me to come to her dad's company to work from his office, and that's where I am right now. Again, no one speaks English here, so I'm trying as best as I can to make myself understood. Word of the day: Arrigato & Sumimasen (thank you & sorry / excuse me).
Yumi's mom has even made me lunch, and I have my own little pink lunch box in a pink lunch bag. They love pink in this country. She also gave me a thermos with coffee, after Yumi told her I was addicted to it. Seriously, Japanase people are the kindest people I've ever met, and it keeps amazing me all the time.
Oh, and everyone in her family smokes like crazy. I'll fit right in ^^ They smoke inside, and so do I. In fact, I'm having a cigarette right now. Take that, Norway! HAH!
Now: Work
Soon: Lunch
/Friday - I'm in Love
Luggage: Check
Tickets: Check
Passport: Check
Books, laptopp and iPod: Check
Farewell party: Check
Anne: Check
Kick ass at quiz last night: Check
Spotify Premium: Check
Frustrated Lovisa: Check
Last day @ the office: Check
Sitting next to Therese: Check
Life is pretty good right now.
All travel-nerves are gone, and I'm really looking forward so seeing Yumi agian. In just two days, I'll be in Japan!
Anyways, I know I've posted this video a billion times before, but no words can express how much I LOVE it. No matter how shitty or grumpy I'm feeling, this little cat makes me laugh my ass off.
ENJOY!
/random
I think this has to be one of the better tuesdays of my life. Not that it has been an extraordinary day in any way (rhyme uninteded), but it's been nice. We went through the whole nerdy thing at Casa PipeSon, and we played everything from normal card games to Kung Fu Panda (Therese's favourite game?), Fable 2, Halo 2 and Oblivion. Najs. We had a few beers as well, which is never a bad thing when you think about it.
All in all, it would have been a very successful evening had I not [literally] pulled the plug of Lovisas computer. Woops.
I'm hoping it'll be fine tomorrow. Eh. Sorry!
Now: Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea
Soon: Sleep
/Tick Tick Boom
Soundtrack of the day: The Hives.
Book two and three of the Sookie Stackhouse series: Check
Everything Bad is Good for You: In process
Work: In process
Cold: Check
A surprisingly good Tuesday: Check
I've decided to postpone packing for Japan a bit, and I'm going to spend today with my darlings Therese and Lovisa. We're going to have a proper Nerdy evening, with lots and lots of video games and beer. Therese makes the best sounds ever when playing video games, especially if they involve close combat in some way. I mean, the girl even manages to get freaked out by Kung Fu Panda (check out the video of her playing at Yllet.nu). Watching her play Oblivion is simply hilarious - whenever she enters a dungeon or is attaked by something, she completely freaks out and throws the controller away. I love it. We're going to force her to play Halo 2 tonight, and watch her scream.
We're planning on recording it all on camera, and assemble a nice litte video later. It shall kick ass.
Now: Work
Soon: Fun
Book two and three of the Sookie Stackhouse series: Check
Everything Bad is Good for You: In process
Work: In process
Cold: Check
A surprisingly good Tuesday: Check
I've decided to postpone packing for Japan a bit, and I'm going to spend today with my darlings Therese and Lovisa. We're going to have a proper Nerdy evening, with lots and lots of video games and beer. Therese makes the best sounds ever when playing video games, especially if they involve close combat in some way. I mean, the girl even manages to get freaked out by Kung Fu Panda (check out the video of her playing at Yllet.nu). Watching her play Oblivion is simply hilarious - whenever she enters a dungeon or is attaked by something, she completely freaks out and throws the controller away. I love it. We're going to force her to play Halo 2 tonight, and watch her scream.
We're planning on recording it all on camera, and assemble a nice litte video later. It shall kick ass.
Now: Work
Soon: Fun
/one of those days
I dag skal det drikkes vin. I litersvis.
/end.
/shouldn't, but hey..
OK.
So, obviously I'm not quite sober right now. I really shouldn't be writing anything right now, but I have this weird need to ventilate a bit. So,. So. The first part of my evening was nice. We had a couple of beers at work, I hung out with Frida & co and I finally met Lovisa's loverboy [emil]. I approve .
After that, I went on a wild goose-chase trying to find my god damn frieds, who for some reason had a hell of a time playing hard to get. Finally found them though, and we went from cafe sør so some random place we couldn't get into ("private party"?) and then to mono. Mono was nice, except for the fact that I ran in to some old friends-of-friends-whom-im-not-friends-with-anymore, which was... well - awkward. And that word pretty much summons up the rest of my evenig. AWKWARD. yuip. Just to make things even more awkarard (if possible), I ran into some Danish dude who apparantly worked at Mamut (my job..) before. I didn't recognize him at all, but he knew me. Weird. While I was trying to figure out who the fuck he was, some other dude from the Belfry showed up. Again - awkward.
Anywho - going to bed now! I'm looking forward to reading this tomorrow morning. I will be ridiculously embarrased.
GOOD NIGHT!
So, obviously I'm not quite sober right now. I really shouldn't be writing anything right now, but I have this weird need to ventilate a bit. So,. So. The first part of my evening was nice. We had a couple of beers at work, I hung out with Frida & co and I finally met Lovisa's loverboy [emil]. I approve .
After that, I went on a wild goose-chase trying to find my god damn frieds, who for some reason had a hell of a time playing hard to get. Finally found them though, and we went from cafe sør so some random place we couldn't get into ("private party"?) and then to mono. Mono was nice, except for the fact that I ran in to some old friends-of-friends-whom-im-not-friends-with-anymore, which was... well - awkward. And that word pretty much summons up the rest of my evenig. AWKWARD. yuip. Just to make things even more awkarard (if possible), I ran into some Danish dude who apparantly worked at Mamut (my job..) before. I didn't recognize him at all, but he knew me. Weird. While I was trying to figure out who the fuck he was, some other dude from the Belfry showed up. Again - awkward.
Anywho - going to bed now! I'm looking forward to reading this tomorrow morning. I will be ridiculously embarrased.
GOOD NIGHT!
/Everything Bad Is Good for You
Yesterday was nice.
I went crazy in the bookshop, had a couple of beer with Lovisa, helped her tidy her place up a bit (loverboy's coming over this weekend) and quizzed my ass of with Nora.
We did surprisingly well at the quiz, and I hereby declare Nora and I as the brains of Slut Central.
Derek and Mark provided us with the oh-so necessary fuel of life - beer and food.
Anyways, back to the books I bought.
The first one was a completely random purchase. The author (Steven Berlin Johnson) was completely unknown to me, but I fell in love with the title of the book - Everything Bad Is Good for You. I think that's going to be my new motto in life. I could definately live by that rule.
Anywho - Here's pretty much everything I know about the book so far (from the back cover)
Tune in, turn on and get smarter. "The Simpsons", "Desperate Housewives", "The Apprentice", "The Sopranos", "Grand Theft Auto": We're constantly being told that popular culture is just mindless entertainment. But, as Steven Johnson shows, it's actually making us more intelligent. Here he puts forward a radical alternative to the endless complaints about reality TV, throwaway movies and violent video games. He shows that mass culture is actually more sophisticated and challenging than ever before. When we focus on what our minds have to do to process its complex, multilayered messages, it becomes clear that it's not dumbing us down but smartening us up.
I'll let you know if it's worth reading as soon as I'm done with it.
His birthdate is ridiculously similar to mine, so it must be good.
(Him: 06.06.68 Me: 06.06.86)
The other books I bought, were (of course) the two next books in the Sookie Stackhouse series.
I've just started reading book no. two, and it's shockingly different from the tv show True Blood. I guess that's a good thing, or I'd probably get pretty bored reading it.
Aiight, Enough BS for now,
I went crazy in the bookshop, had a couple of beer with Lovisa, helped her tidy her place up a bit (loverboy's coming over this weekend) and quizzed my ass of with Nora.
We did surprisingly well at the quiz, and I hereby declare Nora and I as the brains of Slut Central.
Derek and Mark provided us with the oh-so necessary fuel of life - beer and food.
Anyways, back to the books I bought.
The first one was a completely random purchase. The author (Steven Berlin Johnson) was completely unknown to me, but I fell in love with the title of the book - Everything Bad Is Good for You. I think that's going to be my new motto in life. I could definately live by that rule.
Anywho - Here's pretty much everything I know about the book so far (from the back cover)Tune in, turn on and get smarter. "The Simpsons", "Desperate Housewives", "The Apprentice", "The Sopranos", "Grand Theft Auto": We're constantly being told that popular culture is just mindless entertainment. But, as Steven Johnson shows, it's actually making us more intelligent. Here he puts forward a radical alternative to the endless complaints about reality TV, throwaway movies and violent video games. He shows that mass culture is actually more sophisticated and challenging than ever before. When we focus on what our minds have to do to process its complex, multilayered messages, it becomes clear that it's not dumbing us down but smartening us up.
I'll let you know if it's worth reading as soon as I'm done with it.
His birthdate is ridiculously similar to mine, so it must be good.
(Him: 06.06.68 Me: 06.06.86)
The other books I bought, were (of course) the two next books in the Sookie Stackhouse series.
I've just started reading book no. two, and it's shockingly different from the tv show True Blood. I guess that's a good thing, or I'd probably get pretty bored reading it.
Aiight, Enough BS for now,
/Hitman wanted
OK
If you happen to be a hitman, or you know someone who is, please e-mail me at hitman@familyjules.net.
There's a certain someone who's driving me crazy, and I need to get rid of that person. ASAP. I won't be able to pay you much, but you may concider it a favour to the world in general. It would certainly make my life a lot better.
If you're unable to terminate the mark, simply removing all vocal cords would do as a temporary solution.
If you happen to be a hitman, or you know someone who is, please e-mail me at hitman@familyjules.net.
There's a certain someone who's driving me crazy, and I need to get rid of that person. ASAP. I won't be able to pay you much, but you may concider it a favour to the world in general. It would certainly make my life a lot better.
If you're unable to terminate the mark, simply removing all vocal cords would do as a temporary solution.
/Random shit
Aiight!
8 days, then I'm off to Japan! Feeling slighty stressed, as I'm 99,9% sure that I've forgotten something very important. I've got travel insurance though. Need to buy contacts. That's the only thing I can think of right now. Oh, and I need to do my laundry, and pack everything. Yeah. Next week. Some other day.
Today is, as we all know, Thursday [which is way better than Tuesday].
Thursdays = Quiz = The Belfry = Slut Central = Beer
We're gonna win to day. We have to. There's a first time for everything.
I've read three books this week. Three. That's a lot.
* Dan Brown - Deception Point - Not recommended. I hate the way he writes. It's just.. Dumb.
* Stieg Larsson - The girl who played with fire - Recommended. He kicks ass.
* Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark - Recommended if you like True Blood. If not, stay away. She's not the best author IMO, but it does the trick. I'm a sucker for the HBO series, and if you like the show, I think you'll enjoy the books as well. I'm just to impatiant to wait for the next season, so I'm buying the rest of the books today, even though I can't afford it.
Can't be bothered to write anymore, so...
8 days, then I'm off to Japan! Feeling slighty stressed, as I'm 99,9% sure that I've forgotten something very important. I've got travel insurance though. Need to buy contacts. That's the only thing I can think of right now. Oh, and I need to do my laundry, and pack everything. Yeah. Next week. Some other day.
Today is, as we all know, Thursday [which is way better than Tuesday].
Thursdays = Quiz = The Belfry = Slut Central = Beer
We're gonna win to day. We have to. There's a first time for everything.
I've read three books this week. Three. That's a lot.
* Dan Brown - Deception Point - Not recommended. I hate the way he writes. It's just.. Dumb.
* Stieg Larsson - The girl who played with fire - Recommended. He kicks ass.
* Charlaine Harris - Dead Until Dark - Recommended if you like True Blood. If not, stay away. She's not the best author IMO, but it does the trick. I'm a sucker for the HBO series, and if you like the show, I think you'll enjoy the books as well. I'm just to impatiant to wait for the next season, so I'm buying the rest of the books today, even though I can't afford it.
Can't be bothered to write anymore, so...
/tuesday - again.
So here we are, another lovely tuesday. I'm not a religious or superstitious person at all, but something is seriously wrong with Tuesdays. They always suck.
Friday was nice. Saturday was OK. Sunday was nice. Yesterday was great. But today? Hell.
I'm out of contact lenses. I've lost my emergency glasses. A certain someone is really getting on my nerves. There's too much to do at work. I can't focus. Lensway.com keeps giving me error messages when I try to order new contacs. I was late for work. It was pouring down this morning. The tram's not running properly. I've probably forgotten to do something very important. Like getting travel insurance.. Fuck.
I wish I had 52 vacation days every year. If I did, I'd use them on every single tuesday of the year. I wouldn't try doing anything nice on Tuesdays, I'd just stay at home. In bed. Hiding under my covers during those horrible 24 hours. I guess the house would burn down if I did, but hey. It could only burn down once, right?
Eh.. I blame my terrible logic on the fact that I can't see properly, and that straining to even see what I'm typing this very moment is effecting my otherwise brilliant brain. Yeah, yeah, just play along, ok?
Now, over to a slightly unrelated topic. Lovisa and I are planning on starting a hibernation campain. If it's less than 15 degrees outside, or still dark when you have to leave for work in the morning, you should be able to stay in bed. In other words, you shouldn't have to leave your bed at all between now-ish and april. In order to make it through the nasty cold-and-dark-phase (aka autumn & winter) we would have to eat and drink as much food and alcohol as possible during the nice-bright-and-warm-phase (aka spring and summer). We'd have to gain a lot of fatty-fat-weight to keep our systems running throuhg the hibernation period. A solid plan, in other words. Completely flawles. I shall write a letter to El Presidente tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.
Now: work
Soon: Buy contacts & emergency glasses and travel insurance.
TTYN!
(Thank you Simon - made my day!)
Friday was nice. Saturday was OK. Sunday was nice. Yesterday was great. But today? Hell.
I'm out of contact lenses. I've lost my emergency glasses. A certain someone is really getting on my nerves. There's too much to do at work. I can't focus. Lensway.com keeps giving me error messages when I try to order new contacs. I was late for work. It was pouring down this morning. The tram's not running properly. I've probably forgotten to do something very important. Like getting travel insurance.. Fuck.
I wish I had 52 vacation days every year. If I did, I'd use them on every single tuesday of the year. I wouldn't try doing anything nice on Tuesdays, I'd just stay at home. In bed. Hiding under my covers during those horrible 24 hours. I guess the house would burn down if I did, but hey. It could only burn down once, right?
Eh.. I blame my terrible logic on the fact that I can't see properly, and that straining to even see what I'm typing this very moment is effecting my otherwise brilliant brain. Yeah, yeah, just play along, ok?
Now, over to a slightly unrelated topic. Lovisa and I are planning on starting a hibernation campain. If it's less than 15 degrees outside, or still dark when you have to leave for work in the morning, you should be able to stay in bed. In other words, you shouldn't have to leave your bed at all between now-ish and april. In order to make it through the nasty cold-and-dark-phase (aka autumn & winter) we would have to eat and drink as much food and alcohol as possible during the nice-bright-and-warm-phase (aka spring and summer). We'd have to gain a lot of fatty-fat-weight to keep our systems running throuhg the hibernation period. A solid plan, in other words. Completely flawles. I shall write a letter to El Presidente tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.
Now: work
Soon: Buy contacts & emergency glasses and travel insurance.
TTYN!
(Thank you Simon - made my day!)
/life and stuff
This weekend:
* I've been drunk
* I've been sober
* I've been tipsy
* I've been smart
* I've been stupid
* I've been sleeping
* I've been reading
* I've said stupid things
* I've said some important things
* I've been with friends
* I've been alone
* I've started to freak out
* I've ignored a lot of things
* I've realized a lot of things
And that's about it. I'm in a weird state of mind right now, and I don't really know why. Oh well, who cares anyways. I feel like drawing again, but I'm all out of black, so no can do. I have a billion other pens / markers / pencils, but no black. I'm not in a very colourful mood right now, so I guess it's just not meant to be, like so many other things in life. Bitter? Never. Now if you'll all excuse me, I'll escape reality for a while, and enter the realm om Stieg Larsson.
TTYN!
/hasslehoff
Today has been really strange.
I overslept, even though I had thirteen alarms set, not to mention my dear, screaming parents.
I feel like I'm hungover, even though I'm not.
Easy fix though, as I'm having my first beer @ Friday bar in three hours.
Work has been shit today.
No easy-peasy cases, only hassle cases from hell. Days like this make me wish I never got out of bed in the first place.
Just to make things better, I'm stuck with all reactivation and redemption cases, as Ole has the day off.
Great fun.
Oh well, in three hours it's /quit #grumpy mode and /join #team drunk.
I luvs my alcoLOL
TTYN!
I overslept, even though I had thirteen alarms set, not to mention my dear, screaming parents.
I feel like I'm hungover, even though I'm not.
Easy fix though, as I'm having my first beer @ Friday bar in three hours.
Work has been shit today.
No easy-peasy cases, only hassle cases from hell. Days like this make me wish I never got out of bed in the first place.
Just to make things better, I'm stuck with all reactivation and redemption cases, as Ole has the day off.
Great fun.
Oh well, in three hours it's /quit #grumpy mode and /join #team drunk.
I luvs my alcoLOL
TTYN!
/fyi laxeN
I don't like the fact that Lovisa's hanging out with some random dude [fish?] that I've never met. I also don't like the fact that he doesn't understand Norwegian. "Koffemaskinen bruker ikke" is not correct.
I just added you [laxeN] on facebook so I canget all the dirt learn more about you. I am, when it comes down to it, Lovisa and Therese's pimp, and those who want to enterain them in the bedroom department need my aproval. Not that they care.
Ps. The only reason I write in English is so that you will understand. I guess you have to dumb things down a bit once in a while ^^
Oh, and please come fishing in Oslo next weekend! Lovisa's quite the catch.
PEACE YO!
TTYN!
I just added you [laxeN] on facebook so I can
Ps. The only reason I write in English is so that you will understand. I guess you have to dumb things down a bit once in a while ^^
Oh, and please come fishing in Oslo next weekend! Lovisa's quite the catch.
PEACE YO!
TTYN!
/Niclas - this is for you
Since you left in such a sneaky way without saying goodbye last saturday, I figured I'd dedicate this entry to you.
It was very nice to meet you.
I love your dog.
Thank you for the shot.
You have an amazing sister - take good care of her.
You are funny.
I wanted to post a picture of you as well, but since I can't find any god damn photo's of you (only of your dog), I decided to make my own picture. This is 100% how I remember you.
Sayonara!
TTYN!
/Mameshiba
Our darling friend Bashi who we met in Japan, is actually a celebrity.
Check it out ^^
TTYN!
Check it out ^^
TTYN!
/shoot me
I don't know why, but today really sucks. I guess it's beacuase it's tuesday. I hate tuesdays.
My brain isn't working, and I'm convinced that I'm passing through time a lot slower that everyone else.
I can't wait for the last 43 minutes to pass, so I can go home and watch True Blood and then die.
I might flip through my Lonely Planet guide to Japan, but I have a feeling I'll be asleep before I even get the book out of my bag. Maybe I'll check out the Japanese courses I downloaded yesterday, but yeah.. Probably not.
So, whoever reads this: Do you have the infamous swineflu?
If so, please pass it on to me. After all - sharing is caring, right?
I'll finish of todays bullshit with a lovely quote from my good friend Mr. Wiki Pedia:
In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world, where a proverb runs: En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, meaning, "On Tuesday, neither get married nor begin a journey." For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday.
TTYN!
My brain isn't working, and I'm convinced that I'm passing through time a lot slower that everyone else.
I can't wait for the last 43 minutes to pass, so I can go home and watch True Blood and then die.
I might flip through my Lonely Planet guide to Japan, but I have a feeling I'll be asleep before I even get the book out of my bag. Maybe I'll check out the Japanese courses I downloaded yesterday, but yeah.. Probably not.
So, whoever reads this: Do you have the infamous swineflu?
If so, please pass it on to me. After all - sharing is caring, right?
I'll finish of todays bullshit with a lovely quote from my good friend Mr. Wiki Pedia:
In the Greek world, Tuesday (the day of the week of the Fall of Constantinople) is considered an unlucky day. The same is true in the Spanish-speaking world, where a proverb runs: En martes, ni te cases ni te embarques, meaning, "On Tuesday, neither get married nor begin a journey." For both Greeks and Spanish-speakers, the 13th of the month is considered unlucky if it falls on Tuesday, instead of Friday.
TTYN!
