Geeky linguistic moment: The two kids on the bus, they're supposed to be siblings, right? Then why on Io do they speak different dialects?

Can hardly wait for tonight's episode, though. More loveliness!

Labels: chris barrie, comedy, linguistics, red dwarf, TV

This is a bit like my singing in "English"...when I was four and didn't even know "yes" and "no".

Labels: humour, linguistics, music, time wasting

Now, as I am eagerly awaiting the release of Grand Theft Auto IV in late April (touch wood), I am keeping up-to-date with the progress on a daily basis over on Gamespot and I have to say this movie was the best. I would HIGHLY recommend it for everyone, even those not even remotely interested in gaming, as it actually is a tale of Irish-themed pubs. Laughing out loud when I watched it.

Finished reading The King of Torts by John Grisham today. Must admit I was starting to get a bit bored about 2/3 into the book, and during the last few chapters I actually more or less just skimmed. Looking forward to starting a completely new book now.

Finally got episode 510 of Whose Line (US) today. It's been deleted no less than three times from my PVR because I always thought I had it already. I sort of did, but it was on my flatmate's PVR, so that didn't really count. I even managed to delete it again yesterday (DUH!), but tonight I got a firm grip on the remote and steered my fingers away from the delete button. Phew. So now I can see the wonderful Biker Gang sketch over and over and over again. Not that I would want to, but at least now I have the opportunity to do so, should I go temporarily insane in the middle of the night. And insane I would have to be, if I wanted to keep looking at that funky looking pompadour of Greg Proops's. Man! (Loosely connected with the Bergenese "gå, mann!")

Labels: comedy, gaming, greg proops, humour, linguistics, literature, time wasting, TV

I have had some real vocabulary treats these past 24 hours, I must say.

First, we entered into a discussion about "bi-weekly" yesterday at work, and decided to settle the matter once and for all. Would it turn out to mean "twice a week" or "every second week"? Oxford helped a great deal, with their definition of "bi-": Occurring twice in every one or once in every two.

Then I received volume eight of Just a Minute, the BBC radio series in the post (naturally acquired because Greg Proops appeared in one of the episodes), and was having great fun listening through their linguistic escapades. I even enjoyed listening to Paul Merton voluntarily. Wow.

And today I received an email in my frequently-spammed catch-all Yahoo! inbox which subject line really intrigued me: Fatty has her meat flaps wrap around a big rod. It's amazing how beautiful smut can be.

I feel enlightened.

Labels: greg proops, linguistics, radio, time wasting

Maybe I'm in a bad mood today (I didn't think I was), but I just didn't find today's Wulff Morgenthaler to be any kind of fun. People who know me are very well aware of the fact that I can joke about anything, but at the same time it has to be funny. If it's just vicious, for instance, I don't deem it to be humour. So for some reason the above strip was just...not funny. Informative, yes; funny, no.

I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got home at around eight to find a couple of "new" episodes of Whose Line (UK) waiting for me. Yes, I have unfortunately reached the point where it's more unusual to find any episodes I didn't already have. Of course, this makes the so-called "new" episodes even more welcome. OK, so I had seen yesterday's episodes before, but that doesn't really count. One of them contains one of my absolute favourite bits (and quotes); Steve Frost and Greg Proops sharing a prison cell; it's hilarious. Perhaps I can find it on YouTube somewhere...

OK, I didn't, but I found some other clips:

A particularly frustrating Party Quirks game for Tony Slattery (UK)
Press Conference 1 (US)
Press Conference 2 (US)
Film dubbing (UK)
Superheroes (US) - one of the best
Newscasters (US) - the perfect couple

In other news (this is rapidly turning into my most used expression, and it's a contradiction, as there hardly ever follows or indeed precedes any real news), I got my bathroom lighting back in working order last night, after having lived without since the Neighbours' Leaking Bathroom incident just before Christmas. I can finally see my bath! Unfortunately this also means I can see how long ago it was I last cleaned it.

I may also have managed to reduce the amount of taxes I have to pay to Norway. I seriously don't understand why I have to pay them anything, since I get absolutely NOTHING back (I don't get any pension points anymore), unless they count the immense privilege of being allowed to carry a Norwegian passport. If anyone wonders, this is one of the many reasons for Norway's immense wealth. Calling the tax office people was a good move, as I got answers to some other questions I've had for a few years. So now I feel educated and rejuvenated! I even slept rather well last night, after three consecutive almost sleepless nights.

Ooh, and for anyone out there who enjoys a good romp of toilet humour (and I know you all do, just admit it), this coming weekend will feature "nothing but Bottom" on Dave (the channel). You have to watch it or Eddie Elizabeth Hitler will come and fart in your face.

Just because he can.

OK, I honestly don't know what it is about Bottom that makes me laugh hysterically. It's not really the kind of humour I would normally fall for. But then I look at my favourites and they are rather diverse, so I suppose Bottom fits the bill. FYI, I actually loved that series before I became a fan of Rik Mayall's. And I quote it from time to time. "Half past eight and all's crap" is a favourite, for instance, and can be used in any context. The top favourite, however, is screaming "Gas man! Gas man!" followed by a rather more quiet "Do you have anyone who looks after you?" - and I am pretty sure that's not very funny at all to anyone who hasn't seen that particular episode.

Then again, random quoting is da bomb. If only I wasn't so white middle class I would probably even know what that actually meant.

Going to the Improvathon on Saturday night I met some of my flatmate's drama school classmates and one of them asked me what I do for a living. "I'm a...err..." (always a good start when you desperately try to sound cool while describing your rather mundane job) (I quickly gave up on that project) "...a helpdesk operator. It's boring." / "So what do you REALLY wanna do?" That's a proper artist, that. Finally someone who looks beyond the exterior. Usually people just say "oh, well, that sounds...interesting." Do they think I am some sort of a git who thinks it falls to their lot to spend their days trying to reason with ungrateful punters? Do they really think that I consider myself to be worth nothing more than this? Wankers.

Yes, I enjoy using the vast English profanity vocabulary. At work I sit there swearing in Norwegian (or Dutch; whatever is more fitting in that particular situation--with Dutch there is more saliva involved) more or less because then people around me wouldn't know what I was saying. Sometimes uttering "oh, poo" simply isn't enough when you deal with borderline idiots on a daily basis.

Labels: comedy, greg proops, humour, linguistics, Norway, personal, rik mayall, time wasting, TV

Been looking forward to the tenth of October for a long time.

The day started with "a local grocery store" delivering groceries (duh) to us, so now I won't have to go shopping for a long time. ;-)

Then I did some housewifey things I seldom do, i.e. I ironed some clothes. Don't think I've done that in years.

At half four we left for the tube, by which we finally ended up at the Strand, where we had supper at a local Italian restaurant (with no Italian waiters, even though there were a lot of waiters--we had at least four during the 90 minutes we were there). I thought the food was nice. I even had dessert. Couldn't finish it, but that's not the point.

After supper we crossed the street and went to see...drum roll, please...yep, that musical again. I had been touching wood for six weeks every time I was afraid of Philip Quast not turning up, and I grinned broadly when I could see his name on the board in the foyer.

Still didn't believe it until I saw his understudy (the increasingly unpopular (in my circles) Mark Houlihan - but that's because he tried to out-sing Quast, a feat which will be neither forgotten nor forgiven) perform in one of the earlier ensemble scenes. I could breathe easily for the first time in weeks.

The point is, we had paid through our noses for these seats and up till tonight I have been unfortunate enough to miss Quast in 33% of the performances I went to specifically to hear him sing, so it was crucial he was there. Since I went with my flatmate I wouldn't have left if he weren't, but I would definitely not have sat through yet another performance with his understudy.

I know, I'm bad.

Well, the show was bloody brilliant again (my fourth performance so far), and even though we sat close to someone who stank from hell and back (think old gym clothes), that did not ruin the experience.

Just one thing--maybe I'm being picky here...or just creepy--unmarried men are usually supposed to not wear wedding rings, right? So, basically, for authenticity, actors should also leave their own rings behind when entering the stage to portray single people? ;-)

And now for something completely different. From one idol to the next, actually. I watched the Michael Palin special on BBC 2 during the weekend and as soon as it ended dragged my flatmate with me into the sitting room, where we watched his first (and, in my opinion, second best) travel series, Around the World in 80 Days (hmm, interesting to see that three of my biggest favourites have appeared in different "versions" of that story...and no, the 1989 film with Brosnan and Idle is not among those). I must have seen the series at least five times, but it is still a great watch and also brings back a lot of memories. It is, after all, the programme which made me a fan of Palin's. I actually know exactly where I became a fan...which is either sad, obsessive, creepy or all of the above.

Never mind that, I am going to bed. Been a long day and I have just one day left of my holiday. I need to land first.

It took me at least four times of hearing it before I realised that Madonna tried to say "Ik ben trouwig" in the intro to her song "Sorry". Duh.

And if any Norwegians out there wonder why haven't mentioned the death of Jan Werner Danielsen it is simply because I still cannot believe it. I read about it a few hours after they found him and I was in shock. I'm very fortunate that I saw him performing live at least twice. It is such a loss.

Labels: comedy, evita, film, food, linguistics, michael palin, music, musicals, online shopping, personal, philip quast, theatre, TV

Yeah, that's sort of my usual walk to the closest shopping centre, if I ever feel like/must go there during my lunch hour. Yesterday, which was a reasonably quiet Sunday, I counted myself saying/thinking/mumbling the following phrases during the 20-minute-return-trip just because there were people in the way who didn't do exactly as I wanted them to:

Oh, for fuck's sake - twice
Fuck off - once
Fuck off, you bastard - once
Twat - twice
Piss off - twice
Yeah, don't fucking move or anything - once
Bollocky twat - once

I feel my vocabulary increase every day.

Labels: linguistics, personal

Did some research on the laws surrounding Norwegian names. It seems my middle name (which is a second last name) is protected, which means no one may take the name without a complete consensus from the people already bearing that name. However, my last name is a very common one in comparison. I would have loved to use my middle name as a last name, but since I got my current last name from my father, I think he'd be a bit miffed.

Also, no one in this country would be able to promounce it correctly. Heck, even Norwegians usually say it incorrectly until I let them know how to say it, LOL!

Labels: linguistics, personal

I really like the fact that Bill Fichtner (for once billed just that) saw the light and moved from the absolutely terrible Invasion to the absolutely brilliant Prison Break. This is going to be a good series. (As in "season" for any American readers.)

And a short comment for those who know Norwegian: I read a comment yesterday, written in "English" by a Norwegian guy, in which he said "this email address has been out of drift for along time". So...it's finally working again? Sod.

Labels: humour, linguistics, TV

Right. OK. So, first of all: To those of you who are doing the sing-along thing at the Beeb: The lyrics aren't necessarily directly translated. I know this for a fact, as the Norwegian lyrics are not too similar too the English translation. And then, a little tip for our dearly beloved Terry Wogan: The Norwegian song? It does not sound Irish. It's pure Norwegian folk. You should know this, Terry, that our two histories are sort of woven together, down to the music. What sounds Irish to you, is very, very Norwegian to us.

So, midway through the Eurovision Song Contest, I'm afraid I have a few favourites. I will be voting for the Norwegian one, because...I can. Haha! And I quite like it. I will also be voting for the Finnish one, since it's alternative enough for me to be a breath of fresh air. The German one was kind of nice, as was the Danish entry. I like the British one, but since I can't vote for that one, I will pick a couple of others.

Current track: Turkey's Eurosong entry

Labels: linguistics, music, Norway, TV

Sorry about not posting for quite a while, but you will not believe how busy I've been these past few weeks.

Last week I went to a one-day-long interview with a twatty company in central London. They were of course twatty because they wasted both their own and my time in that they kept me on for the whole day, checked my references and then didn't just not want me, but also posted the job as being available again the day after I'd met with them. What a loser, I thought, but then Lady Luck came over for a visit and granted me a much better opportunity. So I am at present working for a company outside of London, as per usual, this time in Hertfordshire. Hopefully we'll all like each other and get along well enough for me to stay on.

In addition to that, I have been going a bit overboard on the translation front and signed up for a few more projects than I could handle when I suddenly found myself in a new job. I have nevertheless done my bit (except for one project) and feel quite pleased with myself. If only they would pay me!

Two great things have happened in Telly World since last I posted, namely both Trevor Eve and Green Wing being back on the screen. OK, so the latter hasn't premiered yet, but I've been waiting since before the end of the first series, so this is pretty important to me.

I have done other things too, of course: Waiting for Oblivion to arrive I played GTA: SA again (started afresh). Took me about 20 minutes to accumulate 34 million dollars once I had 4000 to start with. Without cheating! Let's just say I quickly stopped mugging people for spare change and started working out at the gym instead. Anyway, Oblivion turned out to be even better than expected (even though it requires a rather massive computer compared to what's average for a gamer these days (and yes, I will laugh at that comment in about five years' time)), and I turn out to be much better at combat in Oblivion than I was playing its predecessor, Morrowind. Perhaps I'll even get past the few opening missions this time!

Right now all I have to worry about is getting enough sleep before the alarm rings.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: comedy, gaming, linguistics, personal, tamsin greig, time wasting, trevor eve

I've been made one of the three project managers for an online translation project. All I asked was if they needed some help.

Must remember not to volunteer for things.

I overheard a French guy speaking with some English person on the phone today, in his "outrrrageous" French accent. In the middle of everything he suddenly said 'vell, 'e cannot do zat, it iz like finding a monkey!' I would like an explanation about that expression. Any explanation will do.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: linguistics, personal

Now that we're leaping towards the UK premiere of Good Night, and Good Luck, could someone please tell me what's the correct pronunciation of the name David Strathairn? The David bit I get, the last name not quite so. So far in my 12+ years of being a fan of his, I've heard a minimum of four different ways of saying his surname. I have actually changed my own way of saying it twice. I know there are other more important issues in the world, but this is getting in the way of my doing constructive things.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: david strathairn, film, linguistics

...as you may have realised by now. But when someone at work mistakenly points out that the sentence I have just typed should say "follow up", not "full up", and the rest of the sentence says "until Christmas", I must say I get a bit miffed. Especially when coming from someone whose spelling I've already seen; I don't feel too bad about my English, actually, and it is improving every day. My oral English, however...ay caramba! I usually shut up, really, because I want everything to be perfect before I involve other people. Not going to happen, by the way. Which is really annoying. I will, because of my age, always have an accent. Argh! Anyway, this bloke at work speaks the most outrageously ridiculous Norwegian-accented English which embarrasses me. But he keeps talking to everyone and he's made lots of acquaintances there. I, on the other hand, keeps mumbling and only speak to other if I really, really have to. LOL! His accent is amazing, though. I didn't think anyone from our generation would speak like that, and definitely not if they'd already spent three years in English-speaking countries. (For Norwegians' reference: Think Thor Heyerdahl. See? Bet you Fredrik Skavlan's English sounds like James Bond's to you now!)

I'm going to moan a bit about British banking again. It's crap.

There, I said it. No, but seriously, I don't understand how they get away with it. Probably because the customers don't have anything to compare it with. You have to see my bank's Online banking service - click here. I think I agree with my flatmate when she tried to sum up the level of technology they use for everything over here: 'It's like they had a surge of computer technology when it started popping up in the seventies, and then it just sort of stayed in that decade'. I think it's slightly exaggerated, because they clearly have discovered the Internet and HTML...but only just. This online banking service I'm talking about, for instance -- you can do just about nothing with it. At least nothing compared to what I'm used to. And the security is sort of iffy. They're also making a big deal of the new chip and PIN cards over here now. To be honest with you, I've seen loads of people paying for goods with their credit or debit cards, and not a single person using cheques, so I guess it's the banks that can't keep up. Or it's because I live in a big city where people tend to embrace new things quicker.

OK, moaning over for now.

I just have to mention Space Cadets. Before the ultimate and probably highly nervewracking LIVE episode tonight, I must say that we've been watching the whole show feeling both emotional, happy and guilty. Emotional because we've kind of put ourselves in their shoes when they've gone into 'space', or 'a simulator in Ipswich', as the rest of us have called it, happy because it's been a lot of fun, and guilty because we're actually watching the show. I feel so sorry for them and I have very mixed feelings about seeing the live show tonight, when they're going to reveal the whole hoax. It's been a brilliant idea put to life, though. Very impressive what they've done, and I think it's much more about the crew behind the hoax than the unlucky contestants. I mean, swapping everything in an old US military base with their Russian counterparts just so that they wouldn't realise they were still in England? One of my favourite parts was the flight, though. The plane, I mean, when they flew for three and a half hours, taking lots of large turns and eventually ending up just a short ride away from where they started. And they were all amazed that they were in Russia, and how cold it was ('this must be Russia, it's so cold'), when in fact they were in Suffolk, slightly more south from where they began their trip. Our minds really make us believe the strangest things.

Current track: The Raveonettes - Beat City

Labels: linguistics, personal, technology, TV

I just have to say that I think the new Depeche Mode album is great. I only listen to it when I do the washing up, so I haven't heard the last few songs very much, but the first track is a brilliant start and then it just keeps going. One of the songs really annoy me, though, because when I listen to it using a headset it sounds out of key but on the stereo it sounds fine...ish. The problem is that the first thing I did when I got the CD was to rip it (yeah, so what) and then listen to the album on my headset, so even when I listen to the CD on the sitting room stereo (not that I have more than one stereo, just a 'fancy' way of telling you where it's situated) I can still hear the out of key bits.

Or perhaps my hearing is skewed.

I also learnt today that apparently it's bad luck to walk past someone tying their laces. I'm not sure if it only applies to winter shoe laces and on carpeted stairs, but this guy at work stopped right next to me today as I was in the process of fiddling with my shoes (because I am actually three years old and still don't know how to make knots), saying something in the neighbourhood of 'oh, I don't need any bad luck today', so I said 'is that it...ok, I'll just pretend they're fine and wait till you've gone'. Why on earth would I go out of my way (literally) to accomodate some stranger's superstitious whim?

Also in this edition: Congratulations to Daniel Auteuil on his getting the European Film Award for Best Actor! I'm looking forward to the film. Then again, I'm looking forward to any film of his, because there are lots that I haven't seen, since most French-speaking films aren't released over here. Not with subtitles, anyway, and I have to admit my French lacks something...or most things, to be precise. I think I can say a complete (clean) sentence if it would involve a knife, a hat and a heart. Of course, I wouldn't need to speak the language to understand a film (I mean, I've seen several Danish films without being able to utter much in that language).

Ooh, speaking of which, I heard this Icelandic guy today talking about how Norwegian sounded old-fashioned to them. I almost fell off my chair, because we consider Danish to sound old and Icelandic to sound ancient. I guess it all depends on what you're used to.

Have I mentioned Bleak House yet? Well, it's a great series. The Beeb really knows how to make period dramas. Of course, the Beeb knows how to make most things TV related (including some bad telly as well, let's face it, after more than seventy years in the TV business there's bound to be a few misses, too), but Bleak House has been a real treat these last few weeks. Super talent, modern filming, brilliant script, wonderful costumes, great make-up and then of course Dickens. A must-buy on DVD.

Current track: Cliff Richard & The Young Ones - Living Doll

Labels: award shows, daniel auteuil, film, linguistics, music, personal, TV

I wonder.

I also wonder if I'm a little bit too enthusiastic about words. Earlier today I read the word "zakmes" in a Dutch advertisement, right beneath the picture of a pocket knife. Then I thought "how odd, it's the same as in English." I mean, "zak" means "pocket", "mes" means "knife". Well, duh. It's the same in Norwegian and Swedish, so I don't know why I was so surprised. It's like I was thinking "well, that is clever, and I always thought the Dutch were so backwards!" - I don't think so, because I know quite a few of them and have been in love with their country and language since I was little. So there.

Current track: David Bowie - Eight Line Poem

Labels: linguistics

What a sad life I'm leading these days. For the past four days I have been mostly eating haggis locked up in my flat, studying for my exams coming up next week. This has resulted in my not having talked to anyone for days, and thus when I noticed a fly in my kitchen just half an hour ago, I uttered the above sentence to it. In English, of course, because it was clearly a foreign fly. I mean, all the Norwegian ones have flown somewhere warmer a long time ago. This one must have had both a faulty compass as well as a rubbish thermometre.

And it will die in my kitchen, as it most probably won't fly outside into the cold weather.

Sitting there, by the dining table (which was meant to be an interim solution when I moved in nearly three years ago), reading in poor lighting, I eventually had to admit that at least the view is rather good:



And while out there, I also found this:



It's partially melted snow, which looks just like that phoney snow they use in Hollywood films because they can't be arsed to go anywhere colder than California and do some research.

I needed to take a break from my studying now, as one of the authors was annoying me beyond belief. It seems as if the authors whose first language isn't English tend to have this inferiority complex that involves having to write as elaborately as possible. Unfortunately, this particular (Greek) author made mistake upon mistake and also couldn't decide whether she was writing British English or American English. I soon got hung up in her shifts between s/z and ou/o within the same paragraph and just had to browse through the rest of the article. I hope her work doesn't come up on the exam.

Also, all through the day, I've been taking short breaks between chapters and have got through one-third of American Beauty that way. I haven't seen it for years and so had forgotten how brilliant that film is. Such wonderful actors. Such a great script.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: animals, film, linguistics, studies

Just heard that My Prerogative or whatever by Britney Spears and I thought "why do these superstars ALWAYS end up making songs about the paparazzi/fanatics surrounding them?" Why are they at all surprised? History repeats itself! It's been like this since Hollywood became a phenomenon! Tsk, tsk.

Then I'd like to point you to the direction of my game collection on Gamespot; simply because I want to share. Mind you, just about half of my games are in their database and of that I've entered about 60% of the games I've got. But it'll at least give you a picture of what kinds of games I like to play.

Finally, I've been wondering about something for quite some time now. As I may have mentioned, I'm currently studying a bit of sociolinguistics for fun. I'm very interested in dialects, always have been. Could someone please explain to me why on earth we're using English textbooks when we ideally should be using Norwegian ones? In other subjects, of more global use, like maths and European history etc., which language you're using doesn't really matter, but I find it awkward to be reading about North Norwegian dialects in English (even written in American English!)

Oh, and good luck to Jules when she's leaving the (BBC) Radio 1 lot for Manchester today!

Current track: Scent - Up & Down

Labels: gaming, linguistics, music, radio, studies

I don't know if you realise this, but London is sort of...crowded. Especially Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus - mad tourists on a shopping spree. I usually avoid Oxford Street, but on Friday I had too much time on my hands and went window shopping...or rather, looking for a cheap copy of The Sims 2; I'll get back to that later. Anyway, I'm the kind of person who just cannot stroll. It's physically impossible for me, it seems, to walk any slower than 5 mph. *winks* So trying to go down Oxford Street is a bit of a test and I frequently nearly bump into people. This allows for the usage of the number one favourite word of any Englishman, namely "sorry". Constantly. This is perfectly acceptable to me; I'd do it at home if it were as crowded and we actually did bump into each other on the streets of Oslo, it's just what I'd call good behaviour. However, I am usually surprised at the situations in which an Englishman would apologise for his behaviour. This time it was a lady sitting next to me on the Heathrow Express on the way to Paddington: She sneezed, something I would call a perfectly natural occurence that can't be helped, and immediately said "I'm sorry" - to no one in particular, really. I was so baffled I forgot to say "bless you". It's not like that's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me or anything remotely close to that, it's just that I didn't think it necessary to apologise for something like that.

Other than that, I'm sure I've got English genes in me. :-)

Current track: Queen - Seven Seas of Rhye

Labels: holiday, linguistics

Certainly felt like it, yesterday, as I travelled up to campus in order to buy some books and read some other books. I was back! With a vengeance! Well, nearly. Haven't been there (as a student) for years, so it felt good. Guess I must have lacked something in my life these past few years.

Noticed that the students have changed since I went there. Naturally, they're not the same people, duh, but when I began studying at the uni there were lots more hippie wannabe's there. Nowadays they're much more yuppie wannabe's, with their fancy clothes and mobiles and laptops. Of course, being a student doesn't necessarily mean you're a socialist bordering on communism, like in the sixties and seventies, but I was surprised to see the drastic change that's happened during the last eight years.

In other (related) news, I may have finally found something I actually thoroughly enjoy studying.

Current track: Nothing; the boss is a madman and doesn't want us to listen to the radio all of a sudden. Perhaps he's afraid we might hear of his escape from the mental hospital on the news or something.

Labels: linguistics, personal, studies