A ella le gusta la gasolina

It's a new year. I woke up this morning and all the snow had melted overnight. I remembered the chill from last night standing at a taxi rink in the middle of Oslo CBD and still not being able to get a taxi. I went to a Summer Party with Gamme.no yesterday and it was very much fun. I've only freelanced for them half a year or so, but appearantly they have their Summer Parties in January and Christmas Party i July. We were going to have the Norwegian dish of smalahove, but due to cancellations the last minute we ended up at a restaurant called Ylajali instead. From the name you'd think it was slightly Thai or Asian inspired, with a chill atmosphere and coconut drinks. We couldn't have been more wrong. French inspired, large tables where you nearly had to yell to be heard at the other side of the table and the waitress came and asked if we wanted an "aperitif". Can we just have four beers please, we asked, and she hummed quitely, "Sure, that's an aperitif, isn't it?"

The menu was a 5-course surprise menu consisting of grilled and smoked whale, mango ravioli with toothfish-tartar, cod soup with egg baked on 63 degrees for a helluva long time, ancient-cow-fillet, cholocate canneloni and cherry sorbet. It was very interesting and some of it very nice and we all had a good laugh about it every time the waitress was trying to explain what we would eat next. As she introduced the Chilean toothfish we started asking about the necessity of this long-travelled food, and if it hadn't been better if they'd used the supreme cod from Norway instead - also so we didn't have to feel the need to offset the CO2 emissions after our meal.

The poor waitress didn't think this was as funny as we did, but she served us our coffee and Baileys regardless.

Jeg er ikke sinna, jeg er bare veldig, veldig skuffet

Well, I must agree it would be a very destructive way to wrap up 2008 by being dissappointed, however, there are a few who deserves the finger pointed in their direction:

George W. Bush: you are somehow a regular in this blog, and in your case that's not a positive thing. I can not say how much I'm looking forward to your Last Day in Office, and appearantly I'm not the only one. Not sure how to put it, but "YOU SUCK" somehow explains it.

Isreal: I won't get too much into this conflict as I don't know enough about it, however even I can see that carpet bombing Palestinean civilians should be a big no-no during the holidays.

Firework-selling-Swedes: just because the Norwegian government criminalized fireworks with "steering stick" (styrepinne), doesn't mean you should go all haywire and think you can make up for a weak Swedish Krona by robbing dynamite-loving Norwegians and selling them their beloved New Years entertainment just over the border at Svinesund. My mum's on duty New Years morning, and I'll kick your arse if she get's called in because one of you wankers misjudged the length of the fuse after too many Black Russians and ended up steering the explosion straight into your eye. You should have stayed up on the balcony kissing your girlfriend into the new year instead!

Elixia: you are an overrated, expensive, celebrity-wannabe, customer-ignorant gym chain. My six pack is just as imaginable as it was a year ago.

HiO: it was supposed to be really cool starting a master degree, but so far I've been rather dissappointed. It's not just because of my lack of reading skills or nightmarish dreams about the exam result, but a three year old would have more organizational skills than you. Hopefully University of Cape Town will save your shattered reputation with a kick-arse module on HIV/Aids, Gender and Development after Christmas. Looking forward to it!

It's not like I'm not giving you another go (allright, maybe you Bush, you've outstayed the White House long time ago), but second chances are up for grabs. Just don't go out and spoil it all in the new year!

It's a ring with diamonds, not a diamond ring

And then it was that time of year again. Christmas is all around us, with glimmering lights, sparkling candles and children's eyes shining more than ever. Despite the financial crisis we have gone through millions of dollars in Christmas presents, about the same amount of people being HIV infected every year, or refugees on the run in Congo as we speak. With no resemblence to a refugee camp in central Africa, I've spent the last few days at the in-laws. Being a part of another family gives you new perspectives on things, despite both being from the same country. During a Christmas dinner one of the guests proclaimed he was very happy that we lived in this modern world with 52" plasma screens and the world at his feet, so close he didn't even have to travel to see it. I quite disagreed and went on to help myself to another piece of turkey, thinking about the people who were not quite so fortunate. I realize there is little we can do despite wishing each other a merry christmas and all the best for the new year, hence that's what I'll do as well, but come on, prove Obama right and try to achieve some change in 2009. Where will you start?

Day time television

When I was younger, being sick was almost like a treat. You had a little cold or a sore throath and could spend the entire day in bed, stocked up on cough lollies, magazines, music and dvds. Well, that was then. Now being sick includes having bad concience for all the stuff you miss out on at work, all the housework you don't get done and in general it is nothing like the day off it used to feel like.

My boss is out in paternity leave for a few months, and after just two days of being home with a cold I sincerely hope his little son gives him enough work during the day, because watching day time television must be one of the most timewasting activities you can possible endure. Appearantly you burn more calories sleeping, so it wont even do your abs any good.

I've zapped through the channels for the past two hours and feel deeply sorry for anyone stuck with day time television.

If you are at work and don't have the joy of having a tv close to you I'll let you know what you are missing:

NRK1: will give you a long day with yesterday's news, 2nd rate talkshows from the USA and cooking shows waaaay below Jamie's league. You might learn how to boil water, but it won't get more exciting than that. Come six o'clock and there's Jul i Blåfjell, but untill then, no good.

NRK2, NRK3, FEM and so on: these channels will provide you with so boring stuff you wish they actually showed commercials in between each program. If it's not a re-run of the other channels' news it's soap opera that was taken of the air everywhere else but here in the 90s.

TV3: you might think there was a bit of hope to switch to this channel, but if you don't hit the moment and Sex and The City episodes or similar is on you will get a recounter with Days of Our Lives. This program first went on air when my mum was in primary school and is still running. I saw an episode in 1996 and it was about a wedding, and when I again switched through in 1998 they hadn't even made it to the "I do's". They got back from their honeymoon in 2002, so I can't exactly say it's a show where lots of stuff happens. Of course you shouldn't neglect old episodes of ER with George Clooney strutting his stuff, but, hey, he's not that hot.

TV2: TV2 is supposedly the "family channel" with all the cosy programs such as 7th Heaven and Mac Gyver, and it's also the channel which shows Home & Away. The only reason why I watch this is of course because it's Australian, and it's fun to see how amazing far behind Australia they actually are. Not to spoil the fun but...

TV Norge: this channel also relies on some long-run shows. Today they showed the 5186th episode of Glamour, and I am very very proud to admit I haven't even seen one thousand part of this series. The One Tree Hill episode I was slightly looking forward to was from a season Kristoffer downloaded last summer, so no fun there unfortunately either.

Animal Planet: will show you a fine display of very mystical creatures found in deep, deep caves and Boston Animal Police. Hmm...

BBC, CNN and the like: news from all over the world, nothing more, nothing less, you'll actually waste your time cause you can get a summary of it all tomorrow on NRK3.

Discovery Channel: what would this channel do without mega structures, mega buildings, mega bridges, mega super things? I quite like Mythbusters, but that's about it from this channel as well.

Cartoon Network, Disney Channel etc: should be prohibited!! No wonder this world prosper war and miseducation when you take one look at what screens on these channels. When my kids grow up they are only to watch Jul i Skomakergata and anything made by Astrid Lindgren. Hannah Montana?? Who?

So what has six (well, I'm sick, so haven't written non-stop have I?) hours of day time television taught me? I'm very tempted to say nothing. Ahh, can't wait to go to work tomorrow!

Sisten på nett?

Jeg trodde folk var lei av kjedebrev i posten (husker dere det?!), kjedebrev på mail, kjedebrev på Facebook, men jommen sa jeg smør, nå er den nyeste greia visst kjedebrev på blogg. Jeg velger å tro at dette er en måte å spre ordet om alle de fantastiske bloggene som finnes her i verden, og da er det jo bare å gjøre det. Men jeg sliter enda mer enn Christer å finne fem stykker å videresende den til.

Spillereglene er da ihvertfall som følger:

1. Du må linke til den bloggen som tagget deg.
2. Lag en liste med seks (u)interessante ting om deg selv.
3. Tagg fem andre blogger, la dem vite det ved å kommentere på deres blogg.

Seks (u)interessante ting om meg?

1. Jeg har heller ikke lest ferdig LOTR. Kom godt uti To Tårn og så ble jeg lei. Extended version på DVD derimot skal man ikke kymse av.
2. Min kaffelagingrekord er 118 kopper kaffe på en time.
3. Jeg studerte tre år i Australia uten en engelsk-norsk ordbok. Den glemte jeg for så vidt på eksamen igår også.
4. Hvis jeg kunne velge ville jeg heller startet på jobb 07.00 enn 10.00.
5. Jeg er ikke sikker på om linkingen til de andre bloggene kommer til å funke. Jeg skal ikke si hvor lang tid jeg har brukt på å få det til.
6. Jeg tror virkelig is er lønsningen på alt vondt.

Stafettpinnen går videre til Tonje Camilla for hun skriver faktisk mye festlig, Kent William fordi han holder på med mye festlig, og hvis dere vil kan dere hjelpe han med å svare på spørsmål om dataspill for jenter, og Marte, selv om det er en evighet siden hun har oppdatert bloggen sin, men det er kanskje bare fordi hun er så busy med ny kul jobb etter å ha blitt ferdige med studiene.

Jaja, sånn kan det nå gå! Nå er det ferie! HUURRRRAAAA!!!

Flittig student

flittig
adj. flittig ( a2) ['flitɪ] arbeidsom, driftig, iherdig

student
subst. m student () [stʉˈdent] person som studerer

Hmmm...totalt ukjent. Aldri hørt om.

Lesedag

Last night's dream which involved a super-difficult exam question and getting lost on my way to the examination room should have inspired me to be more productive than the following account, however, as I'm not superwoman, I can't help it.

06.30am: alarm rings. Snooze for 15 minutes is allowed. This will be a super-mega-productive-day.

07.56am: at work. Yes, I know I have the day off to read for my exam, but there was just a few things I had to fix, some e-mails that needed to be answered and stuff.

08.49am: ok, still at work. Will leave soon. Just gotta do this one thing with my students' home exams which are due tomorrow.

09.49am: I'm leaving now!

10.13am: at uni. Stocked up on water, clementines, apples, must certainly be brain food. Found my favourite reading room (being away from the general area where you get murderous looks just for breathing out load), this will be good.

10.15am: books out, food out, computer out. Ok, will just quickly check my personal e-mail.

10.17am: and quickly job e-mail as well, could happen someone sent me an e-mail since I left 20 minutes ago.

10.18am: yeah, there was one there, I'll just reply quickly and I'll get started.

10.25am: Bourdieu. Hmm...apparently this dude writes about cultural capital which is knowledge you acquire through upbringing. It's a bit dull actually, maybe I'll just quickly update my Facebook-status to say how dull this is.

11.15am: what?? Quarter past eleven? I haven't even finished the first page, ok, keep reading.

11.25am: I don't really get much out of this. Think I'll have a clementine.

11.28am: Yummy clementine, might just have another.

11.35am: do you think anyone will notice if I skip the article, as it doesn't really do much for me? Maybe I should look through the rest of the book to get an overview of what I should read in the coming days. Planning ahead is always a good idea.

11.42am: Ah, cool! Found an article I had read (although can't remember, but at least it's highlighted) that I hadn't crossed off the reading list.

11.43am: *cross*cross*cross*cross*

11.58am: Oh, Trond pops by, do I want a coffe? No, it's still a bit early and I have to keep reading.

12.15pm: Ok, consider the Bourdieu article read as it was too dull to actually read. Didn't anything out of it.

12.52pm: Oh, fuck. It's lunch time already.

To be continued...

There's teryaki on Bryman

I am having a deja vu. It's as if this time of year comes around every year. No, not the singing santas and goodilicious gingerbread cookies, but the sweat, nerve and anxiety about exams. Last year I was desperately trying to get my head around anthropology and myself into a red dress. This year I know the dress fits, but I don't have a freaking clue about epistemology nor research methods - the terms which unfortunately constitute the subject I'm taking this semester.

So, now I am work, for the 12th hour running, using my desk as a study place as it's as far as I need to be from little big planets, sack-people and Lara Croft. I've had Chinese for dinner and the teryaki unfortunately spilt onto my beloved book. Nevertheless, I don't think it matters if I can't read whether it's qualitative or quantitative research I'm supposed to conduct.

Normally when you have a 700 page book with a glossary at the back, these few pages usually gives you some kind of wrap-up or summary of the mayhem you have tried to understand for the past hundred hours of lecturing. However, not Bryman, no, he gladly distorts the picture even further by giving you obscure definitions that just emphazises the fact that you are, sincerely lost.

Let me give you one example, as I have problems understanding ontology:

Ontology: a theory of the nature of social entities. See objectivism and constructionism.

Ok, let me see objectivism them as this didn't make it much clearer.

Objectivism: an ontological position that asserts that social phenomena and their meanings have an existence that is independent of social actors. Compare with constructionism.

What? You describe one un-understandable word with another? How about constructionism then? (watch this...)

Constructionism: an ontological (here we go again...) position that asserts that social phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors. It is anti-thetical to objectivism.

Hmmm...nope, nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Didn't get it. Don't effin' knows what it's supposed to mean.

I'm gleaning through the rest of the glossary, hereby re-named confussary, to look for any enlightening stuff, and what do I see:

Missing data: when you are feeling lost in the curriculum and don't see otherwise obvious connections between the different paradigms and theories. Can be influenced by alcohol intake or exhaustion. Not a general indicator of dumbness, however will undoubtly affect the exam result. So basically, you are screwed.

Maria is... hijacked

9:57am Maria
hey
whats up ?
9:57am Christian
hey
hoooola
how r you
9:58am Maria
well im stuck here in africa
9:58am Christian
africaaa? were?
9:59am Maria
west africa ..nigeria
well i had to visit a resort here in africa
9:59am Christian
how , didn't know u were there, having a good time?
9:59am Maria
and i got robbed in the hotel im staying
9:59am Christian
nooooooooooooo
but u are OK?
10:00am Maria
well im luky i still have my life and my passport
10:01am Christian
:-)
wow, so bad.....
so sorry
no cards, no money?
10:01am Maria
but i really need some help now
10:01am Christian
anything I can do?
10:03am Maria
well i got some money wire to me to catch a flight back home
but i still need 300 more for the ticket
and get out of here
can u loan me the 300 till im back home?

I thought it was only moving vehicles that could get hijacked, but appearntly Nigeria is on the front in computer hijacking as some unknown wanker actually managed to take over my Facebook account. I can happily live without the social network, however, don't like the feeling of someone else asking my friends for money because I am stuck in a hotel resort outside Lagos. For the record, if I'm ever in a beach resort in West Africa, let me stay!

While I found the situation slightly stressful, with someone portraying to be me, my friends found this quite amuzing. I sent out an email letting people know I hadn't gone haywire, nor crazy, and urged them to ignore any Facebook-contact from me in the near future, however, got some answers that completely disrespected the seriousness of the situation:

From Morten: Kræve så gæli å få tilbakebetalt kroner 15 som æ sporenstreks sendt nedover te Nigeria! Ellers e det bare fint med mæ, håpe det e det med dæ å kjære maria philippa!

Thanks, I'm good!

From Solfrid: Hahahaha, ikke i Nigeria--ennå ;-) Vittig, men dårlig gjort...

From Trude: La meg istemme i et rungende hahahahahahahahahahahaha. fantastisk! Jeg har dessverre ikke fått noen forespørsel fra deg, men vil forsikre deg om at en slik forespørsel ville blitt mottatt med en avdempet entusiasme med en påfølgende klage om hvorfor jeg ikke var invitert med. Og så lo jeg litt til... hahaha

Don't worry, I'll invite you if I ever go to West Africa!

After countless e-mails, and almost spamming Facebook central urging them to disable my account, I finally got a reply from Daisy, asking me about my mother's maiden name, to then grant me my rightfully own account back with a new, more complicated password. I logged on to do some damage control, only to find out the bastard hadn't been tagging unsolicited photos of me, nor written rude comments on my friend's walls. Most people had just ignored the begging requests and lived happily on in their virtual networks. Good for you! Only two people deleted me as friend as a result of the hijacking, one being my boyfriend. Not quite sure what I should read from that, but what tha', all is good now!

Thanks for nothing

On this day you kinda have to pay a little tribute to some of the leaders that have taken office in various countries during the years. Or you might not be paying tribute but you can acknowledge how you feel about them (about the same feeling as when taking out the trash).

You have a number of country leaders; the Marcos, Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Castro (debatable if you are a Communist), Mugabe, Pinochet, Hussein, Idi Amin, Omar al-Bashir who have caused absolutely nothing but mayhem for their countries. Yet, they have for a number of years, and sometimes decades had the chance to spend their country's money or foreign debt on questionable projects, shoes, concubines, unsolicited wars and arms. I will happily include George W. Bush on this list, and cannot wait til he is finally out of office and hopefully out of control with a democratic president on board in the White House.

Despite Obama currently being nearly 100 votes up I can at this moment not jump in joy just yet, as you never know what's going to happen in the weird country of US of A, but I sure hope the world and USA has taken to its senses and will elect him. I have to this moment not met one person under 30 who says she will vote for McCain, and just a quick warning, if YOU'D vote for the bastard I'd ask you to stop reading this blog. But have McCain no faith in youth (or the other way around)? How can such a large part of the population and in the rest of the world not have any faith in this guy who after all "could" become president? Is it because he is pre-historic? Because he support pre-historic, anti-women politics? Because he agrees to a war with no end? Hmm...I dunno.

Sarah Palin was just on CNN giving a little speach after casting her vote in Wazilla, Alaska. She rocked up casually in jeans and a fleece jumper, looking just like the soccermum she is. I'm slightly conflicted not supporting a woman more than I do in this situation, but after all, she's in with McCain, and somewhere one have to draw the line. She talked McCain up and above and said how much he was looking forward to go to work tomorrow as the new US president, and was lastly asked who she voted for. With a smile she said "Ohh, that's one of the great things about America, here everyone can vote freely and won't get punished for it," and she then declined to reveal who she voted for. My little faith in womankind kicked in here, and I'm convinced she deeply inside herself realized what would be the best for her children and the rest of us and voted for Obama.