Escape from boredom

Some time I ago I did my duty and sent a letter to The State Council of Beijing doing my share to help Chen Guangcheng, a blind civil rights activist who is now doing his time in jail. Read more at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Guangcheng#Detention_and_trial and to find out more about what Amnesty does for him (Norwegian) http://www.amnesty.no/web.nsf/pages/CFDB46730458CF22C1257305002F157F

Was surfing on Finn.no looking at tractors when I found this Valtra T180 2003, costing kr. 485.000,- for sale. At first I found nothing special, just another expensive machine, but then…I studied the pictures in detail

Airbrush your tractor…if this ain’t redneck, nothing is…

For as long as it is for sale http://www.finn.no/finn/agriculture/object?finnkode=9970351

Celebrity’s are influencing a lot of people, and now how people date, such as “elderly women dating younger man” – their proof Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore…and also “celebrity’s are living together, but not necessarily getting married…as this was news…much ado about nothing I must say. My mom is dating a younger man, my mom affected by celebrity’s – roll on the floor laughing…

http://www.kjendis.no/2007/10/08/514410.html

Tonight we saw episode 5, season 6 of The Sopranos. The first scene when Tony is walking down the stairs he sang a song which I knew that I should know but could not remember. And when the episode was over they played a song that Elin wanted to know which band played it. I ran to my computer while memorizing the lyrics (not a long run, since the laptop was just next to me in the sofa).

After about a minute doing searches on Google, I stumbled across this page http://thehive.modbee.com/?q=node/3949 that had all the answers. There are people more dedicated to Sopranos than me I must say 🙂

I also found the official Sopranos web page which had the information about all the songs in the episode http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/music/episode82.shtml (but not the one Tony sang while walking down the stairs)

Last year I read the book “Hemnes at war” and as usual I created a post in my blog. Here the other day I got a comment on that post http://www.hellem.org/blog/index.php/new/2006/08/04/hemnes_i_krig_1940_45 , Neil Livingstone had visited Hemnes last week where his uncle fought in the war in 1940. He wanted to get hold of a copy of the book, but was not sure how and where. I connected him with Torstein Finnbakk, the author.

So once again, rblog is connecting people! The first time http://www.hellem.org/blog/index.php/new/2006/08/31/rblog_connecting_people

Back home from one week of vacation up north. We flew to Tromsø last Saturday and was picked up by my cousin Andre. When walking around in the streets of Tromsø Elin suddenly started talking to someone who came out from a shop, first I could not understand who she knew in Tromsø, but it was my friend Kent with his two daughters Dina and Nora.

Later that evening we had to buy breakfast for the next day. We went to OBS, where Elin had to try this Step-Machine. Click “Read more” to read further and see more pictures…

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The next day Andre, Anna, Elin and I went to Hella http://www.destinasjontromso.no/aktiviteter_turforslag.html where we tried to get some fish and also meet up with some friends of Anna and Andre. The weather was really nice, maybe that is why we did not get any fish..

The day after we took the fast boat to Finnsnes where Daniel picked us up. The next picture is from the waiting room in Tromsø.

At Senja we visited my grandmother and spent three days there. We got to travel around all of Senja, the two next pictures are taken at Flakstadvåg http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flakstadv%C3%A5g That day we also went to Grunnfarnes http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunnfarnes Senja is amazing, Norway in miniature as it is known to be with high mountains, bogs and moors.

On Thursday we went back to Tromsø and stayed for two days at Kent and Kjersti. Kent was driving his friends car for a few days, Elin was really impressed, she wants one like this

Today, before we went home by plane we visited Kents brother who is captain at “Arvid Nergård”. They had a few days stop in Tromsø, so we got to get on board a large fishing boat for the first time.

Yesterday I got stuck in the middle of Oslo due to an electrical breakdown, so both the subway and the trams stood still for about two hours http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article2020354.ece

So I took the bus from Nationalteateret down Prinsens Gate where I got off due to traffic jam and walked down to Oslo S. From there I took the bus to Munkegata in Gamlebyen where I stood waiting for 15 minutes on a bus which I could not get on, it was full. Then I walked up to Helsfyr and got there just at the same time as the next bus would have. Then I walked to the bottom of the hill up to Tveita where Elin came and picked me up in the car. So finally I arrived at home, over 2 hours after I had left Lysaker…

Cruising Vålerenga, and one of the buses I wised I would be on, but could not, since I was not allowed since it was not a city bus

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Another view of Vålerenga, at least I got to see parts of Oslo in another way…by foot…I was about to stop at Vålerenga Vertshus and grab a beer…http://www.nattguiden.no/utested/154

Then later passing by Etterstad. Did not know that the high school had a “Delikatessebutikk”, good thing the electricity went away…

In the last issue of Ny Tid they had an article about the movie Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjane_Satrapi Nothing extraordinary about that article, but in the last issue of Ny Tid there is an article written by Najmeh Mohammadkhani. Found her blog http://nasininaes.blogspot.com/ but it has not been updated since December 2006. Anyhow, the article she wrote is published here http://www.nytid.no/index.php?sk=9&id=4342 And now to what I want to say:

My opinion is that the content of the article backfires on Najmeh. She criticize the movie for not telling the truth. She says that Satrapis focus on the hijab http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab and asks why do not people also focus on the Indian sari or the Japanese kimono. As far as I have been able to find out there is a major difference since the hijab is so tightly related to Islam and the Korean. Women should carry the hijab so the moral of the society should be strong. There is no such connections as I know of related to the kimono and sari. In my opinion the article is written by a muslim feeling hurt because someone dares to challenge Islam and Iran in any way.

I have not seen the movie, but now I would like to, just because Najmeh’s criticism of the movie made me angry… http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/

I might agree more on Najmeh’s criticism of 300, but then again, why put so much effort on a movie that anyhow is just fiction http://www.nytid.no/index.php?sk=7&id=4133

Last Saturday Elin, Anders, Kikki and I went to see Raga Rockers live in concert at Rockefeller. My opinion is “Raga Rocks!!!” You can listen to their new album at http://www.ragarockers.no/