Still not forgetting the Germans invading us back in 1940, and my parents weren't even born back then, so I have a feeling this may not be forgotten in a very long time.

Tomorrow marks the end of my training period at my new company, and hopefully things will go well so that I may be offered a permanent job. My mentor is going on holiday on Wednesday, which means I will be in charge of the Scandinavian helpdesk. Brilliant. Let's mess things up, why don't we! Still, I feel I have learnt and memorised a whole lot over the past few weeks (something which would explain my early nights lately), so I am positive things will work out.

I haven't been able to play Oblivion all week, but this weekend I started playing both Colonization (again) and Final Fantasy IX (for the first time), so I may not get back to that game for another week or so. Easter holiday is apparently uncommon at my new company, not that I'm complaining, as I've had nothing but holiday (AKA unemployment leave) since before Christmas anyway.

At least Green Wing is back. And yes, I know I keep mentioning it, but it's just so bloody good I can't help myself. Yum.

Current track: Need for Speed OST - Techno 1

Labels: comedy, gaming, history, personal, tamsin greig, TV

First of all; it's a bank holiday. I understand most other countries don't celebrate their national/constitutional day like we do at all, and letting it be a day off for everyone apparently is unheard of elsewhere. The point with our constitutional day is to celebrate our constitution (duh), which was signed on the 17th of May 1814. We were also turned over to the Swedes that year and had to be run from Stockholm for more than ninety years, before finally having a revolution in 1905 - a quiet revolution where there was no bloodshed, although reports from earlier today show that we were nearly at war with Sweden at that point.

So, our freedom is one hundred years old today. And at the same time, it isn't. There were five years there in the middle where some nasty men from Germany held us captive within our own borders. But sixty years after the end of the war we should be getting over that by now. It's just that...well, we keep getting back to it, don't we? Like I did right now. Hmm...

Anyway, the day is celebrated for the sake of the children. The future, if you will. They make out most of the parades all over the country, only interrupted by marching bands, of which there are plenty in this country. Seems like most schools have their own marching band, and in addition there are several bands for those who never could put away the instruments after leaving school. (Fact: There are 1,717 marching bands in Norway) Today there are 113 schools participating in the Oslo parade, so I'm guessing about 50,000 children plus many of their teachers and then a marching band for every three schools or something...it's a looong parade. And it all ends up by the City Hall, via the Royal Palace, where the Prince Regent is standing today together with his mother, the Queen, and his wife, the pregnant Crown Princess. The King is on sick leave (yes, that is possible). It was quite special to watch the three members of the Royal Family sing the Monarch's Song when he wasn't there. (Fact: That song just happens to be the same as the British national anthem, only with different lyrics, naturally)

In recent years, the usage of the traditional dress and suit, bunad, has increased dramatically, especially among the younger men. These suits are very different as there are lots of local variants. Oslo is such a fun place to be when one likes the bunad because of the migrants from all over the country - in smaller places they usually wear just a few variants but here they're all gathered. A normal bunad costs from NOK 25,000 (£2,000) and upwards, because it's all handstitched and there is a lot of jewelry involved, so many get one for their confirmation celebration at the age of 15 (a version that can be altered as one grows) or they save for years. Decorums state that the bunad is to be considered equal to a gala uniform or white tie, but at the same time it can be used on all formal occasions, like a baptism, a wedding, birthday celebrations etc. (Not funerals, though...although I double dog dare ya to wear one and take pictures.) Our Prince Regent wears a morning suit today, with the two women on both his flanks wearing bunad. Personally, I've never had a bunad and don't want one, but think they look great (most of them, that is).

And my personal favourite, the Vestfold bunad (because that's where I come from).

After the children's parade they are given as many hot dogs and as much ice cream as they can eat, and then some, before there are local celebrations, usually on every other school in the area. This is more of a huge playground, as the point is to keep eating hot dogs and ice cream and play silly games until everyone just wants to go home and sleep. Personally, I think I'll go to the newsagent's and buy some ice cream.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: history, Norway, party

Or die Verwandlung if you'd like. What Bruno Ganz does in order to portray Hitler in that film is amazing, simply amazing. I got to see it on Saturday and don't know why I haven't written anything about it until now. Sorry! Anyway, I would recommend this claustrophobic and very disturbing* film to anyone who's the slightest bit interested in history and who doesn't care about subtitles (or is/understand German). I embrace any German film showing some part of WWII (as long as it's historically correct) because it shows that there's always hope, people can change. Of course, by next generation there won't be anyone responsible left, which makes it so much easier to forgive...and forget, unfortunately. It's one of those popular phrases that may be seen as a cliché, but at no point in the future should the world forget what happened during the second world war.

Der Untergang, which should get an Oscar next weekend or I will be...not too surprised and not too cross, really, but I would think it a shame, is about the last few days of the Third Reich, meaning we get to spend a lot of time in a small bunker together with Hitler and his minions, as well as a few innocent bystanders (Goebbels's children). This dramatisation is considered to be among the most accurate ones when it comes to the actual events happening, as it draws upon the story of one of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge, who died a few years ago. The film is called Downfall in English and you may visit the international site here.

*) Disturbing not because of physical violence or anything, but the fact that it makes them seem human. Of course I know that all the nazis were human, that's the worst part of humanity, isn't it, that we're capable of doing so many foul and despicable deeds, but I believe thinking about them as different than the rest of us makes me grasp the whole reason for the war more easily. But in this film you may discover that they're a lot more similar to you than you'd care to know.

Current track: Keane - Your Eyes Open

Labels: film, history, personal

...I was having a swell Saturday evening. First there was the first official celebration of the centenary for the absolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union ("hooray! and good riddance" being the general mood, har har) - they'd staged a huge show at the Drammen Teater, "they" being mostly people from that theatre I'm going to own one day, and I think it was a success. A couple of minor mistakes, most of which weren't really noticeable unless you were biting your nails and gnarling on your knuckles like I was, terrified something would go horribly wrong during the live, two-hour transmission. I was giggling about the number of Swedish performers portraying Norwegians, but apart from that I think they'd got the spirit of it all. Lots of flags; the way it should be during such a tremendous celebration. They'd mustered up quite a few talented and experienced actors, and I have to say that Hans Marius Hoff Mittet is becoming more and more impressive. If he goes on like this, he will end up being one of our most beloved stage performers; he just has to keep working hard. Never liked Mari Maurstad much, but she's rather good on stage and that's what matters. Jon Eikemo became a very annoying man some years ago but he's good to have around for those intricate "new Norwegian" lines. Sven Nordin (curiously Swedish name he's got there) is always a big presence whenever he enters a stage, and Linn Skåber is great at comedy (should be seeing her in more straight roles soon, there's a goldmine just waiting to be found, I'm sure) and Dennis Storhøi...well, he's Dennis Storhøi, isn't he? (That's rhetorical, by the way, or we'll enter a very long and philosophical discussion.)

Another great event of the evening was Gaygalan (The Gay Awards) on Swedish telly. Great music, and the host, Sissela Kyle, was terrific. She had so many costume changes it nearly put Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep in the shadows. And such funny lines and sketches. As it is in Heaven, the Swedish (and only Scandinavian, therefore also "our") nominee for an Academy Award in a few weeks' time, won over Monster and La mála educación in the category "Best film of the year", and now I'm intrigued. Is it really that good? Has it already been shown over here, or may I expect it to arrive anytime soon?

The greatest thing happening during the awards, though, was when Caroline Krook, the Bishop of Stockholm, won for "Hetero of the year", went up there, received the prize and - get this - said "Jag känner att kyrkan har en väldigt, väldigt stor skuld att betala av på, till er"/"I think that the church owes you a great, great deal". Standing ovations, and well-deserved, too. We've got a couple of those "gay-friendly" bishops as well (I think three out of nine), and they've done quite a lot but there's a long, long way to go, and not just for gays, but for the Sami/Lapps, the gypsies, the divorcees, and - if we go far enough back in time - those labeled "witches". And that's just in this country. I haven't even started with the missionaries, all the other aboriginal peoples around the world, the crusades... There's so much hatred within that religion it should be tried before the Human Rights Court.

My evening ended on a happy note, finally getting to see Richard Roxburgh as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles. I managed to miss the entire run of the same film when it was shown repeatedly on some movie channel I used to subscribe to, so this was a nice surprise. The film was quite good, too; Ian Hart was brilliant as Dr Watson.

This weekend I have also managed to watch Mrs Doubtfire (for the umpteenth time), Memphis Belle and Home, the latter being a very disturbing story of a man, played by the magnificent Antony Sher, who locks himself into his house "as a project" and stays there for many weeks, first living off the food that was already present, then looking elsewhere for sustenance. We follow his journey into insanity (or, actually, perhaps that's where it all started) through his own video diary. It's already a classic in my opinion.

Hope you had a nice weekend, too!

Current track: Dimmu Borgir - Puritania

Labels: award shows, dennis storhøi, film, history, Norway, richard roxburgh, theatre, TV

In just one and a half weeks we're entering our 101st year as an independent nation (in modern history, that is). This will be celebrated throughout most of 2005. Oslo's main boulevard/shopping street (named after a Swedish king, bit of a paradox there) is being refurbished, much to people's current dismay as they're stumbling across cement pipes and gravel and makeshift pavements during their Christmas shopping, but the result will be stunning, I'm sure. As we're approaching this significant celebration, one of our leading newspapers is running a feature series about the 100 most important events in Norway during this period. Today they wrote about 1905 itself, when the government made history by dismissing the Swedish king and appointing their own (imported from Denmark, our previous rulers, LOL!). There were some figures that baffled me, especially compared to today's voting. The Swedish government demanded that there would be a popular vote on the matter. 85% of those allowed to vote (i.e. men, since the women had to wait another eight years) turned up, and the count revealed that a whopping 368,208 people demanded the union to be dissolved, with only 184 votes against. That is just amazing. I wonder what it must have been like at the time. I'm picturing an immense sense of nationalism (which these days is more or less considered to be the same as racism). And to think young Norway was to be regarded as one of the most progressive, radical and humane countries in Europe back then is strange. OK, so we've still got quite a lot of that going for us, but not as distinctively as back in the earlier parts of the last century.

Actually...perhaps we shouldn't count those five years during which the Nazis took control of the country. That means we're actually just 95 years old.

Current track: Nothing, sorry.

Labels: history, Norway

Actually, I'm going to go a bit further back in time, to the eighties. What brought this on, I hear you mumbling. Well, last night I watched this BBC programme from 1985 in which they talked about personal computers (or "micros", as they appear to have been calling them at one point in time) and mobile technology. First of all, the mobile phone they were talking about was the brand new cellular technology (ring any bells? LOL!) that had just arrived from the US. New York already had 10,000 subscribers to the network after only six months of availability. The UK was planning on making the network available to 90% of the UK mainland. :D And the phone they were showing was "without a cord, honest!" and really handy (in a suitcase kind of way). I nearly fell off my chair laughing. But the funniest part was when they talked about the BBS (bulletin board system, anyone familiar with computers from the seventies and eighties know what these were, the rest should watch Wargames, which is a brilliant contemporary film about computers - I never tire of it); BBC had its own BBS which had had so many visitors during the previous month that it had collapsed, but now they'd installed "a brand new 15 megabyte harddrive system" and everything should work like a dream.

Anyway, the computers they were talking about (and showing (off)) were one of the Spectrum (Speccy) machines (that year's bestseller), the Commodore 64 (C64) (that year's runner-up), the BBC Micro B and one of the Atari machines (the 800, I presume). I've been fiddling around with emulators ever since I realised they existed back in 199x, simply because I love all that older technology. Also, there are programs and games for these old systems that you can't find anywhere else anymore. One of my all-time favourite games is one for the C64 and is a pinball game (Magic Pinball). Due to the fact that the C64 only had a 320x200 maximum graphical mode, there was a very limited number of sprites (graphical icon or figure, basically) allowed on screen at any time. That also meant that the ball could only follow certain patterns every time, and after a short while of practice you would know exactly where to hit the ball in order for it to go where you wanted it to.

I am, however, looking for a game for the Commodore 16/Plus 4. It was a text adventure game and the only thing I remember about it was that there was a rope featured at the very beginning. I played this when I went to a summer course in England in '89 and have never seen it since (especially since I never owned one of those machines; I went straight to the Amiga 500). Doesn't really matter that much, I just find myself remembering it now and then. We stayed at a school which was closed for the summer, and they had a computer lab there with about...ooh, I'd say roughly three and a half machines. ;-) Three of us sneaked around to the other rooms and gathered power supplies (I remember scaring one of the maids that way once, as I was hiding behind a door, clutching the power supply and pretending not to be doing anything wrong) before firing up one of the Commodore 16's they had there. We didn't actually do anything with the computers, because they had very few games and we didn't really know enough English to play around with the programs (thankfully).

Another game I've played a lot is Tracksuit Manager, on the C64. It's possibly the coolest sports management sim ever, and believe me, I love the (first four, full) Championship Manager games! It's just very simple and easy to learn and it's basically about winning. I know CM has got so much more to offer in way of micromanagement, that's why I love it, but still, TM is lots of fun.

Oops, just remembered I have to watch the last two episodes of Himalaya (eith Michael Palin) tonight, before lending it to my parents over Christmas. Guess that means I've got to go.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: computers, history, holiday, michael palin, technology, TV

I read in the newspaper Aftenposten today, in a casual sidenote, that due to the building of a new opera house, they are digging down to about 16 metres below sea level down by the Oslo harbour, and "so far they've found several old quays, a couple of anchors from the 1840s, a rudder from the late 19th century and a ship dating back to 1760." My thoughts go to the extra material on the Kate & Leopold DVD (I think it was), when one of the producers was ecstatic because "NYC has got really old buildings, some of them are a hundred years old!" Ah, well. Perhaps I'm a bit too nonchalant about it. After all, I come from a city that was founded in the year 871, situated in Vestfold county. Here's a tourist video, btw.

Current track: My harddrive.

Labels: history, Norway

Crazy old bat upstairs has made her alarm go off. The security alarm. She refuses to open the door, silly sod. Until the security people come, after more than half an hour (which is VERY alarming, pun intended), and start threatening her about forcing the door open. She must be deaf by now.

Some lady in a watch shop downtown talked about me today: "...and give it to the woman over there." I was thinking "woman? Where?" I've just not got used to the fact that some people, especially children and those in posh watch shops, call me a woman, not a girl. Oh, well. Guess the anti-wrinkle daycream doesn't work. *winks*

I was fixing my watch, that's why I was there. I've been without a working watch for two years now, and most people, including myself, don't understand how I can manage without. So finally I went to the shop and bought a black leather strap (not an original brand strap, because I don't like wearing the metal kind) and got them to change batteries. And voilà! I know what time it is wherever I go, without having to rely on my mobile or the VCR. I am free at last!

On the tube back home two teenage girls were talking about what courses they're going to take next year (school's out as of today), of which one was "older history". Clearly they're going to the same kind of sixth form as I did. Older history is a subject covering "everything" up to 1850. Newer history is covered the following year. Anyway, one of the girls said, apparently being serious, "not a damn thing happened before 1850 anyway!" I couldn't help but laugh. Being teenagers, they didn't even notice as they were too busy in their own little world. Which reminds me. You know when "grown-ups" (i.e. those who've been through hell and back, AKA "their teens") complain about teenagers and how incredibly annoying they are and "at least we behaved when I was a teenager." Bull. I'm sorry to say this, but it seems like we all forget all the bad times when we grow up (like, wasn't summer always sunny when you were a child?) I bet if you speak to your parents/uncles/friends from when you were a teenager yourself, you'd be told that you weren't as sensible and well-behaved as you'd like to believe. I know I wasn't. I think I wasn't as bad as the teens of today (puh-leeze, we're talking ten years ago), but I'm wrong. I threw lots of tantrums. I called my parents names. I was awfully self-absorbed, as were all of my friends. We like to think we made more sense than today's teens, that we were actually discussing "deeper issues", but most of them weren't as deep as we'd like them to have been. Also, I distinctly remember talking about these things privately, not on the bus or in class, meaning there's a strong possibility that the brats youngsters you hear chatting about clothes, parties and the opposite sex (yes, most gay teenagers are too scared to come out, it's a confusing enough time as it is, and so they too discuss the opposite sex) actually are able to discuss more serious matters. Remember that you're the uncoolest of the uncool and there's no way you could possibly understand what they're going through. You disagree with me, don't you? Well, if you've been there, done that, don't you think that means you've actually gone through the exact same thing? I know I have, so I desperately try to shrug it off when a bunch of them enter the train and start shouting and laughing and pretending they own the place and think that the rest of us are useless adults who don't know anything because we're so lame. I find watching documentaries about teenagers help understanding them. And understanding me, when I was at that age. I just wish they'd listen to us when we tell them "don't do that. You will regret it, believe me." But hey, most of us found out by ourselves and got through it all right, didn't we? The funny thing is, you'll go through this all your life, or at least until you're so old there are hardly anyone left that's older than you and who can say "I remember when I was your age; if I knew then what I know now..."

When I got off the train, we were about twenty people there, but this girl approached me (Bob knows why) and begged me to buy her a pack of fags. I said I was sorry, even though I wasn't, but I just couldn't help her. I was actually thinking I would be helping her more if I didn't buy her the smokes, but I was carrying a bag which obviously contained a couple of bottles of booze and so I thought I shouldn't give her a lecture after all. *smiles* It was just one more of those "I wish you'd actually listen to me" moments. I know she'll regret having even started smoking in a few years' time, but saying "I told you so" doesn't help at all. Reading The Runaway Jury made me realise Grisham has a very good point: No one starts smoking when they're grown-up. The whole peer pressure thing is very scary. Personally, I was even more stupid, because there was no one pressuring me into smoking, I was just bored and wanted to try something else, so I started smoking all on my own; none of my friends smoked regularly and I was the only one who after a while smoked out of parties. Silly git. In about eight and a half years my lungs and general health will be at the same point they would have been if I'd never lit that first cigarette. It actually takes ten years. Everyone tells us it's dangerous to smoke, yet since we apparently start during our teens, we think we're invincible and that cancer is something that happens to old people, other people. Good thing there's no law against sheer stupidity; about one third of this country would be in prison because of that, in addition to those stupid enough to already be imprisoned, of course. *gnashes her teeth*

Current track: Erasure - Voulez-vous (Brain Stem Death Test Mix)

Labels: history, humour, literature, personal, tube

99 years today - not bad! And of course we all take off completely. Traditional clothing and Norwegian flags everywhere. I'm confident there are very few nations in the world that celebrate their independence day as extensively as we do. As for me, I'm quite content with just watching the parades on telly this year, listening to the hundreds of marching bands and thousands upon thousands of children singing. And crying for a bit every time I hear the national anthem. *sighs*

Hooray for getting rid of the Swedes back in 1905! Yay! *winks* (FYI, I actually like Sweden.) And the Danes in 1814! (I like Denmark too, even though I'm having trouble understanding some of their dialects.)

Current track: Gammel Jægermarsj (which will be played just about 423 times today)

Labels: history, Norway

Her Royal Highness Princess Ingrid Alexandra. I like it already. Ingrid after her grandma (a commoner, I may add) and Alexandra after her great grandfather King Olav (yes, he was christened a great many names, Olav not being one of them.)

Current track: None

Labels: current affairs, history

Just a short notice about the Crown Princess being in labour right now; we may have a new heir to the throne by the end of the day. Another exciting thing about that is that if it is a girl, we will have a female regent sometime in the future; the first one in more than 600 years.

In other news, go to Mike Rowe Soft Design to show your support against another one of Microsoft's idiotic decisions.

Current track: Stereo MC's - Connected

Labels: current affairs, history, technology