What is the purpose of it all?

How many centuries has man wondered about just that? It’s a question I won’t be able to answer in this simple post, but that won’t stop me from pondering about it. Why do YOU think we are here? Are we here to aspire to great things, to reach our full potential or are we here simply to enjoy sex, drugs and rock ’n roll? Maybe the sole purpose of our being is to see how long it takes before we fuck mother nature up beyond all recognition? Who knows. Maybe we’ll never get an answer, but history shows that we do make lousy decisions. We don’t even learn from our mistakes. I believe I once read that the only thing we can learn from history is that we can’t learn anything from history. How true.

Are we good or bad when we are born? Are some people destined to become what society likes to refer to as losers (unemployed people or people with low status jobs) and are some more prone to become serial killers and drug abusers? Do we make our own destiny or is it made for us? This is turning into a very philosophical thing, isn’t it? And I’m using way too many question marks. Have to stop using those. It’s not like anyone bothers to comment on any of my posts.

Education. That’s a powerful word. School and universities – the cores of knowledge. Big, scary, mighty and intimitating power banks. School is without a doubt one of the most important institutions in our society today. It’s also the work place for millions of kids for many, many years. With knowledge comes power. What comes with power then? Money and status? Probably. At least in part. Are schools neccessary or are they just places to put troublesome, annoying, snot-digging and crying kids to keep them off the streets and to stop parents from whacking them with a baseball bat? We certainly like to think that education is important. Education – gotta have it to be something. Right? I can only state my subjective opinion, naturally. You should know this. I’m friggin’ blogging here. I think education is important and a great way for us to develop ourselves. It’s not only the theoretical book knowledge. There’s always the social aspect. We mingle with people. We learn how to act in the presence of others. We learn how to be members of a group, or a society if you will. How messed up wouldn’t things be if we didn’t know how to interact with others? Or maybe things would be better? Perhaps bad things happen when people started interacting? Perhaps that’s when the shit started to hit the fan.

Why do we bother to go to school for so many years? Do we really want to do it? It’s not just a joy ride. It’s hard work. We have to read, write, keep presentations, show up at lessons at ridiculous hours and we often have to sit passive and listen to what that old, greyhaired chimpanzee with glasses is saying. The question I ask is – can that goddamn chimpanzee be trusted? It’s easy to manipulate us. Especially when we are young. We are fragile, accepting and quite frankly stupid people. But we have potential, don’t we? We can be something! People have showed that it’s possible. We read about great people, we watch movies about great people, we read books about all these great people. The legends. With the right tools, we might even become great some day. Maybe we can live to our full potential.

I wonder if we would even go to school if it wasn’t compulsory. Now we sort of have to do it. It’s in the law. No fighting it. For approximately 9 years we have to drag our sorry, lazy asses out of bed in the morning and show up at school to learn something. To read about wars and great philosophers, to learn algebra and to play out our wildest scientist dreams in the chemistry lab. One good thing has happened. No need to hand over a fuckin’ green apple to the teacher to assure a good grade in the future. I call that evolution! Who in their right mind would do this voluntarily for so many years, without getting a dime for it? The truth of the matter is – without an education we are hard pressed to find a job. At least that’s what we are told. It’s not entirely true. Thousands of people have managed to get jobs without an education. Most go through with the compulsory education though, because it’s just that – compulsory. Compulsory as in you don’t have a fucking choice so don’t you start any rebelling! Some quit after elementary school, others continue to high school or vocational school, others go further and get themselves bachelor and master degrees. The latter ones are the ones that we particulary look up to.

Education is not a bad thing. In fact it’s, in my opinion, a neccessary thing. At least the compulsory nine years. After that it’s more up to oneself and one’s goals. Who am I to pass judgement on someone who are happy and satisfied with a ”low status job”? Not everyone is made for high school, college or university. Not everybody wants to. They don’t have to either, that’s the beauty of it. The thing is, however, that society more or less provokes us and forces us to do more than those nine years. When I say society I don’t only mean the media and the politicans, but also friends, family and whatnot. That’s when it becomes wrong. When you do it because someone forces you to do it. It’s a choice you have to make on your own. And it’s a tough call. High school can feel frustrating after spending so many years in school already. Maybe it’s a good thing that friends and family pushes us to our limits. Maybe. College and university though – well, that’s another matter. I think people who go there should be motivated and enjoy their studies. It’s not easy to decide what to study at first, but it’s okay to try. You don’t have to get it right the first time. Maybe you realise that you want a bachelor in English at age 40. That’s fine too. No one should tell you when and what you should do. Ever. At least when it comes to education. Try to follow your heart.

Wow, this is some heavy stuff. I could go on for pages and pages, but I’m going to try to wrap it up now. I think we are born as good people. We have good in us. Our environment plays a huge role in our upbringing though. If we live in a bad environment with bad people, well, we learn bad habits. We learn a certain way of living. Maybe we continue to make bad choices. Choices we do create our character. A good environment is crucial for us to stay good. We need good people around us. Parents that lie to us and treat us bad will have a negative effect on us and our future life. That’s common sense. We know that. People can change though. Oh, that was useless. I feel I just mentioned a lot of things people already know! Oh well, moving on...I think a lot of us try to get an education or/and a job just in order to survive. Think about it – without an income it’s hard to survive. Unless you are filthy rich. However, I also like to believe that we have potential. We are not just lazy. Many of us want to develop ourselves. We want to leave a print. Most likely most of us will go by unnoticed, we won’t leave prints in future history books, but we can try to fullfill our dreams. We can reach our goals. If someone wants to become an engineer, they can do it. A 15 year old girl who loves languages and wants to become a teacher – she can do it! Education helps us. It’s a tool for us to develop ourselves. It’s not something we should be too cocky about, we can be proud of the hard work and effort we have put into reaching our goals though. We shouldn’t use it to separate ourselves from those who haven’t spent 15 years in school. Education doesn’t mean we become better people than the rest. It’s just a way for many to reach their goals. It’s their ticket to a better and more fullfilling life. I truly believe knowledge is power. Not power over other people, but power as a source of happiness and maybe a sense of purpose.The more knowledge we have, the better we understand ourselves and the world around us.

Hope you enjoyed reading this post. It became a bit messier than originally planned, but that’s how it goes when I try to be philosophical. I certainly could have written a lot more and made this whole post more structured, but I hand it to you like this. Raw and pure.

Stray leaves

What's up, readers? Are you feeling the cold, dark winter sneaking up on you? I am. It's pitch black outside, the trees are soon left naked, pretty leaves are flying restless alongside the pavement, the air is cold and crisp and the shops are already selling Christmas decorations. It's just a matter of weeks before good, ol' Santa breaks into your home - pipestyle! Some people don't fancy Christmas that much, but I for one actually like it. I like the atmosphere - it's truly magic. Gingerbread, julebrus (a red-colored soda sold only during Christmas in Norway), marsipan, Santa, Christmas movies. All of it! For most people it's a time spent with the people you love: girlfriend, spouse, family, kids etc. Some like to escape the cold winter in the north and go south. I've been on Gran Canaria once during Christmas. It wasn't bad, just different. I did miss the snow though, but with global warming and whatnot, who's to say we even get snow this year? The last years there's not been a whole lot of that white lovin' on the ground. Christmas just isn't the same when it's raining outside. It should be snowing! Let's wish for lotsa snow this year.

The last couple of weeks I've just been doing what I always seem to be doing. My life isn't exciting enough to write a whole lot about. I study and when I don't study one can usually find me at home in front of my beloved computer. Sounds boring, doesn't it? Truth is - I love it. I do miss having a social life, though. Just so that's clear. I hate spending too much time alone and only with the computer. It's fun for some time. Everything in moderation! Last week I actually went to Helsinki to see some friends (at that point I felt I really needed to see people, not only the ones I run into at the uni and in the city). So I went on Tuesday, but I already returned on Thursday. I got sick, so I decided it was better to just go home. Besides, I had an important assignment that needed to be worked on. Not to mention that my time schedule didn't exactly match that of my friends. I hate it when it becomes hard to see friends because of time schedule crashes. One is working, the other one is free. Stuff like that. Oh well, it was still good for me to see friends. Things are looking up socially; I'm getting to know people at school better and a good friend of mine is coming to Vaasa this week to spend over a week here. He's actually from Vaasa, so his family lives here. At least I'll have someone to hang out with for some time. My birthday is getting closer and closer. I'll be going to Estonia to celebrate it with another friend of mine plus a bunch of other friends (from mine and from her side). Looking forward to that.

I have a new addiction, people. It's called "Dexter". If you watch TV at all, you know he's America's favorite serial killer. You read right. Serial killer. One who kills people. A lot of them. And I support him! Sue me. Hear me out first, though. Dexter is the kind of serial killer that only kills bad people. He kills scum. He simply takes out the "garbage". His victims are murderers, rapists, pedophiles and so on. I don't see anything wrong with that. Besides, Dexter is so brilliant that it's impossible to hate him. The show is full of black humour. Gotta love it. I watch so much of it I feel like I'm part of the show. It's a great way to kill time though. And as if I didn't spend enough time on the computer already, I recently downloaded a SNES emulator. Only a true geek will know what that even means. Put shortly: It's a program that lets you play old Super Nintendo games on your computer. I've heard of it many years ago, but I never thought it would be anything for me. How wrong I was. I'm addicted to that shit now! It takes me back to when I was 10 years old and Mario was my favorite plumber. My little hero in red. My little ass-kicking fireball-yielding Italian. It's great to play those old games again. I find it so entertaining I easily spend hours on it. It just proves that gameplay is king.

A different chapter

Things have happened. I have moved. Moved from Helsinki, which was my hometown for three years. That means I had to leave some really good friends behind. That's what hurts the most. Helsinki is a great city too - it's the city I've enojoyed living in the most this far. Somehow it just fit my personality, although I gotta admit it wasn't perfect either. Sometimes it just felt too stressful and depressive to live there, amongst hundreds of cars, thousands of people and companies. Helsinki never really slept. Despite that, I still liked living there. I think a lot of it was due to my friends. Those were what really made Helsinki a place to love. I often find myself re-living those memories: the movie nights, the crazy nights in the bars, the freak-outs, the game nights and simply all the great, crazy stuff that happened over there. I'll always keep those memories close to my heart. I still remember walking into Eira High the first day, scared and nervous of how things were gonna go. After a few months however, I had already made plenty of friends, so the remaining time there went fast. Almost too fast...

Now I live in Vaasa, which is a city on the coast of Finland. I study at a university here. The first weeks are usually a bit awkward: you don't know anyone, you don't know the city and you miss your friends. That's how it felt for me too. Still feels like it to some degree, especially the friends part. But it has gotten better. I really hope this is the place for me to be. I enjoy my studies so far, more so than the nursing studies. Still there is some restless part in my soul that feels something might be missing. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a normal part of student life - maybe a fear of committing to a certain education. Freud only knows. I wish he could psychoanalyze me. I also miss my dear Norway. Maybe I'll go there for Christmas though, to see friends and family. If things go well, I will be able to study in Norway next year too! That would be great for me. I just feel I've been gone too long. Besides, the last summer spent in Norway has been great. It's left me wanting more of that Norway goodness!




Not much else going on. Studying mainly, and of course keeping up my nerding hobby (playing games, listening to music, chatting, watching movies and so on). A dude has got to keep busy when he's alone! It's weird not to have friends around...there's just so much more time for myself. Don't get me wrong - I like being alone, but I miss being able to call to friends to go out for a cider or go to the movies. One thing is for sure though - I'm going to Helsinki at the end of this month (if not before) to celebrate my own and Vivian's birthday! The plan is actually to go to Tallinn! I'm really excited about that. A friend from Germany is coming over too. It'll be really great to catch up with him.



That's all for now, folks.

Fjords, fishing and all that

Around mid-June we left Finland, heading for the land of trolls, viking sagas, fjords and steep prices - Norway. The reason for taking on such an adventure was mainly to earn some hard, cold cash working in Norway for the summer. Now we (to clarify matters I refer to me and my wench when I use the word "we") have been in Norway for over a month, so I thought it was about bloody time to write some notes about our time here.

Now me being in Norway don't really say much, does it? Okay, so it's clear that I'm in the actual country, but where exactly? The answer is Alta. Alta is a small city on the tip of Norway, about a two hour drive from Hammerfest (which is the northernmost town in the world), so that should give you a clue. If not, look it up on a friggin' map. To be specific, we are staying at my dad's place. He resides about 10 minutes from the center of Alta (by car). It's sorta on the countryside. The view is great: mountains surround us and the Altafjord is right in front of the house. Nothing to complain about when it comes to visuals. TV reception and internet access however, isn't all that great. The internet works fine for surfing, but not much more. We get the basic TV channels (dodgy image quality from time to time though, because the TV signal is blocked by the mountain(s)). Because of this we read to entertain ourself. It's all good though. Reading is good for you! Thus it must be good for us too. So far I've exploited Elf secrets with Artemis Fowl and done the Reapers work on Discworld. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about - google it. Okay then. You now know a lot about my whereabouts and what I do. I think I've supplied you with enough information, so let's move on.

One of my best friends, a person who goes by the name Joel Francis Peart, decided to go visit me in June. I honestly wasn't sure if he would actually come, but he did. Me and him did fish a lot (and we actually caught quite many fishes), we watched football (that's not normal for me!), and generally had a good time. Unfortunately my work prevented me from spending a lot of time just doing fun stuff, but I like to think he had a good time here anyway. He also ate some Norwegian specialities. I also like to believe he enjoyed them. He stayed here for about a week, then he left for Finland by airplane. Thank you for visiting and please come again!

So my summer job then. Well, I work at ICA. It's a chain of supermarkets that operate in many of the Nordic countries. I don't run the shop or anything, I just sit at the counter most of the time, scan the products they buy, and ask them for money and if they want the receipt and a bag. That's it, really. Occassionally I fill the store shelves with products and so on. I'm the stereotype salesclerk. It's an okay summer job though. It really is. Maybe mainly because of a good work atmosphere - my colleagues and I get along well. It's also fun to see the different kind of people that come to the shop - you have the granny that ALWAYS needs to get the receipt, you have the families with kids always begging for candy and new comic books, you have the drunks who only come in to buy beer, you have the foreigners who don't know how to speak English and talk to you in their native tongue, hoping that you understand what they say. These are just a few of the shop stereotypes. Of course we also have the occassional underaged kid who comes in trying to buy beer or tobacco. We try prevent them from getting their greasy hands on "the forbidden fruit".

That's all for now. I don't want to write a novel tonight. Main point - we are havin a good time, and it's going to be bitter to leave.

When does adolescence end?

As a youngster I often perceived the people that were three to four years older than me as really mature compared to me. When I started attending upper elementary at an age of 13, I thought the 9th graders (the 15 and 16 year olds) were scary and well, as already mentioned, much more mature than me. Funny thing, isn't it? 16 year olds are nothing but kids in the big picture. Naturally then, when I was 16, I saw 18 and 19 year olds as big boys and girls. I thought they were close to being adults with cars, real jobs and all. I was so wrong. I mean, some actually have aquired all those things at that age, but they are still far from being adults.

I am now 24. Twenty-friggin-four. Wow. The 18 year old me would consider that pretty adult. The current me, however, considers it pretty young. I like to think I'm smarter and more manly than ever before, puberty is also a thing of the friggin' past, but 24...I like to think of 24 as the new...err...18. It's so strange. Now I can see 30 year olds as equals to me. I have friends that are that age and we get along well. It just blows my mind sometimes. Age is such a peculiar thing indeed. According to a book I'm reading, the age of adolescence or youth in today's society (or at least in our western culture), can be from 15 to the late 20s or even stretch into the 30s. That actually gives me great relief. I'm really not that old.

According to the famous psychologist Erik H. Erikson we all go through something called psychosocial development. Erikson claims that there are eight different developmental stages for human beings, each with a new challenge to confront or master. The succesful mastering of the task at each stage will eventually make you complete as a person. Put differently; you will simply create your own personality by doing them. Failing to complete a task can lead to difficulties later in life. Here is an example of one of the eight stages in Eriksons theory.

The adolescent stage:

Psychosocial Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion

"The adolescent is newly concerned with how he or she appears to others. Superego identity is the accrued confidence that the outer sameness and continuity prepared in the future are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for oneself, as evidenced in the promise of a career. The ability to settle on a school or occupational identity is pleasant."

The adolescent is supposed to find his identity by, for example, expressing and arguing his different opinions and try to find where he stands on certain issues. The adolescent can identify with others or completely disagree with them. Naturally the social aspect is important here; does the adolescent agree with what his/her parents think or stand when it comes to such things as, for example, religion? That's just one example of many though. The adolescent is supposed to create some sort of image of who he/she is.

I bring this particular stage up cause I feel I haven't figured it out myself quite yet. Who am I? Who is hiding behind this face I'm wearing? I'm not completely lost here, I know myself quite well, but there are definitely areas where I'm uncertain of things. I often find it hard to decide things and decide where I stand. Sometimes I find I'm too easily persusaded by other people's opinions. Choosing the right education also proves harder than I had imagined. I hope that gets better with time...I have my own theory as to why this stage might be causing problems for me, but that's not something I'm going to lay out here now.

I hope I will get what I want from life. The last couple of years have definitely been better than some of the stuff I've gone through earlier, and hope is the one thing that has kept me going. The hope that things actually get better. Sometimes I just compare myself so easily to others my age. So many seem to have their lives sorted out - cars, bachelor and master degrees, permanent jobs and so on. I hate that society is the way it is. I wish we valued other things more; family, friends and silence. Nowadays money and a great career seems to be the most important thing. It's quite sad, really. I wish we all could just slow down and enjoy life. I do hope things get better. The stress of today's society doesn't do us any good.

A doglife

I'm so tired of being treated like this. Why do I always have to wait until you wake up before I can go out to do my business? It's bloody horrible to walk around with two litres of urine in the bladder, while trying to tighten the anus desperately to prevent shit from coming out. And if I, for some reason, can't keep it inside and happen to spread it all over your brand new carpet, you go bloody nuts. Be honest here; could you live with expectations and demands like these? It's hell.

Oh, and the food. I'm so tired of eating the same food day in and day out. It doesn't taste very good, you know. It doesn't get any better when I see you carrying in bags filled to the rim with all kinds of delicatesses. *Drool* Where do you actually get your food from? Is there any magic involved in the whole process? This is one thing I've never understood. I think you and your kind are wizards. You can fill a fridge with food in a flash. Everything from chocolate pudding, steaks, sausages, chicken to beer and fine wines. Why then, do I have to settle for this crap? Canned delicatesses. Give me a friggin' break. It can hardly be called delicious. It tastes like crap, no matter how "jaw-droppingly awesome" the text on the can claims it to be. Sure you give me leftovers every now and then, but I want more. You can't just give me a taste of heaven for then to give me canned crap the next day. It's a grave injustice. How come you can sit there and devour juicy steaks and flush it all down with a cold beer, when I have to perform tricks just to get a bloody dog cookie. Yummy (sarcasm). Life seems so unfair.

You have no idea how limited my life is. You can go wherever you want to go. And if you are too lazy to walk, you can choose from a range of different ways to get to your wanted destination; you can use your bicycle, you can take a cab, you can drive, in extreme cases you can even cross continents in a matter of hours by using an airplane. The whole world is your playground. My playground, however, is this little apartment. This is where I spend most of my life. Sometimes you spoil me with the occassional walks in the nearby forest or the hike we do once every year. That's the few times I feel I live. I want to go outside to play. I want to taste beer and hit on drunk bitches in the bar. I want to know how it is to be human. Even if just for one day.

A good laugh prolongs life

Comedies are being produced all the time, but only a few of them are good. Comedy, as a genre, is a difficult one to approach. How do you make sure you produce a comedy that's sure to please the big crowds? As with everything else in life, people have different taste and it's a hard task, if not an impossible one, to please everyone. Instead of trying to satisfy everyone, the people behind a comedy, especially the writers, aim at pleasing the biggest amount of people possible. Utilitarianism.

I love a good comedy, but it's really hard to find good ones. I often check the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) to see what the general consensus about certain movies is, but even IMDB can't be trusted all the time. I watch lots of movies, but few movies can create such a happy atmosphere as a solid comedy, especially if you watch it with friends or family. Sadly I've had to endure many a crappy comedy in my search for the good ones. Some of the movies that come out of Hollywood bring a new meaning to the word "shit". A few weeks ago me and my friend were looking for a comedy just to kill some time, well, his suggestion was a movie by the name "Let's go to Prison". Now I had my doubts, but not even in my wildest fantasy could I have imagined that the movie would be as horrific as it was. It was pure torture to watch it, and I almost fell asleep. The dialogue was bad, there was nothing funny about it and the people in the movie should be kicked in the nuts for even choosing to star in it. I've seen many bad comedies, but this one was really, really bad. Trust me, folks. It gets a 1/10 rating from me.

So what makes a good comedy? Wits and good, funny and clever dialogue, that should be the core of a good comedy. You need actors that can pull it off too, but if you have all that, you should already be well on your way to making people laugh out loud. Comedies also benefit from having a plot, but it doesn't need to be Oscar material here. I just consider the plot a nice bonus. Seriously though, think about - Ace Ventura : Pet Detective, one of the most popular comedies of all time, yet the plot isn't the most exciting, now is it? No. Dialogue, funny faces and great actors come together to create a comedy diamond.

Enough ranting now though. I thought I'd just like to share my thoughts about this with you, as well as give you my personal "Top 5 comedies of all time" list. Without further ado:

Top 5 Laughs

1. Dumb and dumber, the story of two good, but very stupid, friends that embark on a journey across the States to return a suitcase full of cash back to its owner. This movie is great in every aspect. The dialogue is memorable as are the characters, played by comedy genius Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. This is without a doubt my favorite comedy of all time. I try to watch it once a year. It's pure gold. If you haven't seen this, you owe it to yourself to do so. You'll laugh so hard your bladder will burst.




2. Ace Ventura - Pet Detective, Jim Carrey shines in this movie as a very eccentric and weird pet detective. He's good-hearted, but people often misunderstand him or freak out because of his special way of, well, being. The movie really starts when Ace is hired to track down a sports team's mascot - a famous dolphin. As with dumb and dumber the dialogue is good, but this movie is funny in itself if just because of Jim Carrey's famous rubber face.


3. The 40 Year Old Virgin, the title really is self-explanatory here. The movie centers around a 40 year old guy (Steve Carrell) who works in an electronics store. One day he's invited to play poker with his work colleagues and the truth comes out - Andy (Steve Carrell) is a virgin. His co-workers are shocked and they continue to give him advice on how to finally score and get down with a girl. The movie is hilarious and deals with some taboos, but it never becomes dull or too raunchy. It also has a sweet ending and great music to boot.





4. Superbad, this movie mainly centers around two friends in their last year of high school before heading off to college. They are set on losing their virginity before leaving for college, and they get extra hopeful when they are invited to one last party at the end of the school year. This movie might not be for everyone, but I love it, even though I gotta level with you - the dialogue shocked me at first. It's a bit too rude for some people, but if you can handle some explicit language - you should love this movie.


5. Knocked up, this movie was very well received and not without a reason. The movie follows Alice (Katherine Heigl), a succesful TV-journalist, and unemployed Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), who uses most of his time to get high with his friends. How do these very different persons then meet? Well, Alice gets drunk one night on town and ends up having sex with Ben, who is exstacic about the whole thing and finds it hard to believe his own luck. Unfortunately Ben didn't bother using any protection when sleeping with Alice, which eventually leads to Alice getting pregnant! How does this work out? Can there be a happy ending? Watch it for yourself and see. It should be noted that this movie also contains some rough language, still not reaching the same level as Superbad, but anyway. Producer Judd Apatow is behind this movie, as well as the 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad. You can sense his presence in all three movies.

If you can recommend any decent comedies to me, please leave a comment. You can also leave a comment without doing so, if you want to.

Rory and Lorelai

I can thank Rory and Lorelai for giving me entertainment when I need it. Those names may be totally new to you, unless you are a Gilmore Girls fan. Lately I've been watching shitloads of Gilmore Girls. It's a great way to kill time. Most guys don't seem to understand that a guy can like such a serie, but that's their loss. There's plenty of love, drama and intrigues in little Stars Hollow, which is the little town in which most of the action take place. I have grown quite fond of the charming, little town in Connecticut and its inhabitants. I wish it existed in real life. I'd be eating at Luke's and attending Taylor's humourus town meetings. It looks so cosy and peaceful. There are seven seasons of Gilmore Girls, I've watched three of them, but I'm well on my way through season four.

Not much else going on. Summer should be right around the corner, although I was shocked to witness a little snowstorm here a couple of days ago! It's still quite cold outside though, but at least the sun is gracing us with its presence every now and then.

Things are going well at the gym. Soon I've been going to the gym for half a year - who would have thought that? My weight has even increased and I like to think that's because I'm getting some muscles. Last week I even got a new program, so now I have two different programs to do at the gym. Pretty cool.

Winter as it should be

So I'm in the countryside and I've been here for over a week now. I love it. No big city stress here. Just me, my woman and our four-legged friends (with the occassional guest visits). Yes, I'm talking about dogs, not mutated human-beings. I've been craving for snow and minus degrees since October, and now it turns out winter has been hiding here, in the middle of nowhere. Well, I found Mister Winter and he's everything I've come to expect of him. Cold, charming and white. Being here reminds me of my earlier years in Norway. There was never a lack of snow there. I used to be out playing in the snow for hours with my toys. Yeah, I admit, I don't do that anymore, but it's still lovely to be out in the woods with the dogs while the snow keeps falling down upon us. It's winter magic and I love every second of it.

Now my fiancee's parents house is huge, in fact it used to be a school sometime during the 13th (?) Century. This big house needs to be kept warm as well, especially during the winter. This is where the boring part of winter comes into play. During the day, wood has to be put into the oven in the basement every 1.5 hour or so. This is often a tedious task, but one that has to be done. I have taken it upon myself to do this task to the best of my abilities and with great success! It's still boring though. And no, thankfully this method of keeping the house warm isn't used during the night. During the night and the wee hours of the morning the house is kept warm by an oil burner. If that is the right term. I'm sure you understand anyway. Thank you, oil burner. Without you life here in the countryside would be hard.

Let's talk about school or how it's no longer in my life. Yeah, that's right. Me and nursing ain't happening. I've actually had my doubts since the summer, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway, since I'd already gotten into school and all. Well, turns out it's not for me. The consequense of this? Wel, I quit and try to study something else this coming autumn. No biggie. This, however, means I'm moving from Helsinki in April. Well, at least my stuff is moving. I'll be visiting friends there now and then. The apartment is just way too expensive to keep without any student allowance. I've applied for some summer jobs, so we'll see what happens. I'm going to Norway this summer with or without a summer job. I miss me family.

"but there's no sense crying over every mistake
you just keep on trying until you run out of cake"

Seacrest out.

I'll see you in another life, brother!

It's finally back. The wait is over. The daddy is back. Now I can enjoy the pure genious that is "Lost". Yeah, you heard me. It's true. "Lost" is back and I watched the first episode of season four last night. It was pure gold. For me, season one and two were great, season three got me doubting, but thankfully it got better toward the end. Season four starts where season three left of, that's basically it. The island is still a mystery, the characters are still interesting - each one with their distinct personality and background. I friggin' love "Lost". I'm eagerly awaiting the next episode. If you haven't gotten lost yet, do it!

This winter has been crap. Is global warming to blame for the lack of snow? I don't like this at all. Instead of living in a winter wonderland with beautiful, crystal-clear snow on the ground and snowmen in the backyards, what do I see? I see rain. And lots of it. Rain is cool in it's own way, but not for winter. Geez. It feels like all the angels are taking a piss at us at the same time. If this is how the future winters are gonna be - I don't know. I might fleed the country and go somewhere where I can throw friggin' snowballs and ride on polar bears. Oh God, how I miss Norway...

Public transport freaks me out a bit. So many different people use it every day - you are bound to end up next to some weirdo at some point. It's written in the stars. It's gonna happen. I swear to God. I have a problem with it, okay? How do you DEAL with these freaks of nature? A few weeks ago I ended up next to some freak that had to sing. He sat opposite of me. Jesus Christ...gimme an 'effin break here. At least he didn't try to talk to me, thank God. I don't know if there's anything worse than ending up next to some urinestained, shit-smelling, drunk friggin' bum that absolutely insists to talk about how great things were before, or how much today's Finland and its politicians suck. If I was brave enough and if it wouldn't cause too much of a stir - I'd piss on that person. Instead I pretend to be nice - I nod and give them the occassional "yes yes" and "mhm". Sometimes I walk away though. That might be the easiest choice. If they by any chance follow you - tough luck. After a breakfast consisting of three liters of vodka, their skills to keep their balance must be doubted. Oh yeah, another thing still - nothing to do with bums, but where are you supposed to look when you have people sitting opposite of you in, say, the tram? It's annoying when people stare at you. So it's either looking out the side window, on your shoes or to the roof. Sometimes these things annoy me...I wish there was a more "comfortable" way of travelling. End of rant.

Lidl. I see these kids going to Lidl (the cheap-ass German store chain) buying friggin' Freeway coke. How can they drink that? It's like drinking sewage water. Go for quality, kids - buy the real deal.

Have YOU seen "25th hour" with Edward Norton? If not, see it ASAP. It's a movie from 2002. I just watched it a few days ago and it blew my mind. How could I have missed this great movie? I had to show it to my friends too - it was pretty well received amongst them too. The other day I actually had to get it on DVD (I found it in the bargain bin). See it!

Dude.