THEY ARE ALL THE SAME
{^\^} O' MY PAPA {^\^}
LAST UPDATED: July 16th 2000
... my journal
WARNING: YOU COULD FIND SOME PERSONAL DETAILS ABOUT ANDREAS HERE, EXIT
IF YOU'RE NOT PREPARED FOR IT! Any resemblance with living creatures
(including humans) in this text may be accidental and unintentional!
Friday, December 15th, 1995
Day started with some work at home, my new baby (a Pentium computer)
had to help me with a problem at work. Sat here until lunch. The
problem was finally solved! Doing big edits in a 120 Mb file was
tougher than I thought. By Monday it will be installed and running at
work. I'm relived. :)
Miss the sound card on my old computer, have to buy one for this too.
But the speed makes up for the sound...... several times over!!!!!
Chatted with Halrog and ZiddiZ on IRC, had some beers, Føyn called
about CorelDraw, now I'm just relaxing. At last, it's weekend!
Got a parcel from my sister in Oslo (Nina), lots of small
presents!!!!! :) One for each day until Christmas. GREAT!!! Really made
my day! Especially some drawings from and pictures of her children
(Karoline and Joakim). I miss them...... Looking forward to meet them
in the Christmas holiday.
A nice letter from James Randi also arrived, with membership card for
The 2000 Club. I've made a pledge to pay 1000 USD to anyone who
establishes a genuine psychic power under proper observing conditions,
in accord with the rules outlined in the challenge of James Randi and
found at http://www.mamboland.com/randi/randi.html. I don't se this as
a risky thing, so far everything has been hoaxes. But if our challenge
leads to the documentation of new science, my contribution has been
worth it.
Total sum of pledges are at this state over 500,000 USD!
Frode came by later in the evening, home for the weekend. Complaining
about the military service he's now doing. Occupied my computer all
night. I said he could borrow my laptop for a while, poor guy has to
have some encouragement in these hard times.
May have a party tomorrow, talked to Trond about that yesterday. Both
Leif and Kjetil said they would drop by sometime during the weekend as
well. Well, I guess I have to clean up here then....... don't like that
(the cleaning up part I mean).
The quotation of the day:
"Humanity's first sin was faith; the first virtue was doubt."
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Sunday, December 17th, 1995
Busy weekend this ended up being, what a start for this journal!
Slept until 1 PM Saturday, poor Tinka (my dog) got her trip at last.
Called the family, nice having free phone in the weekends when they
live so far away.
Saturdays present from Nina was a small Christmas angel, on Sunday it
was a small candlelight. Nice. :)
Cleaned up and washed the dishes (conscience at full level now). Later
Trond and Rune came, I made a reindeer dish. They said it was good, and
I'm not that modest that I can't say I agree.... Played some cards and
solved all the "world problems" (mostly meaning girls and what to do
with them;). Drank beer and something we Norwegian call 'Coffee
Doctor'. You put a small coin in a cup, and fill up with coffee until
it's covered. Then you add vodka (or usually what Americans call
moonshine) until you see the coin again. Dangerous stuff.... I
preferred to stay home while they went downtown to look for some
action. Meanwhile I meat Halrog and Nikkki on IRC. Frode came by and
later Stian (4 am). Stian totally glued himself to the keyboard,
chatting with lots of strange people.
Kjetil H. came by Sunday evening, after I've had a really relaxing day.
We looked through his CD's and I bragged about my new computer. Also
talked to Meco, better buy him a present to cheer him up before
Christmas....
My neighbour (Laila) dropped by later and dragged me out for a walk in
the neighbourhood. Talked for some hours.
The quotation of the day:
"There is a God, but He drinks" [Blore]
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Wednsday, December 20th, 1995
Some busy days since Sunday. Most presents was bought today and I'm
almost bankrupt..... On Saturday I head for Oslo, over 500 kilometres
of driving. The winter came to Stavanger yesterday, it's minus 5
degrees Celsius and everything is white. I think the kids and I are the
only ones not complaining.
Sent almost 30 Christmas cards, only got 4 myself so far.
Met Kjetil J. and Stian at Kvadrat (big shopping mall) today. They were
kids I knew from when I worked at a youth club some years ago. Now they
are grown up....... strange but very good feeling.....
Have started planning next years confirmation course, which starts week
4. In Norway we have the worlds biggest secular humanist organisation
and I am engaged in offering their alternative to the church
confirmation. Very excited about this challenge, this year was my first
try and I got lots of new ideas. Learning philosophy, ethics and moral
to 15 youths can be a test in patient and self-conciseness. Especially
when all they have learned about this is related to laws and commands
in a silly religion.
Now I must go to sleep, have a meeting tomorrow with my boss.
The quotation of the day:
"In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians
called it "Christmas" and went to church; the Jews called it "Hanukka"
and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People
passing each other on the street would say "Merry Christmas!" or "Happy
Hanukka!" or (to the atheists) "Look out for the wall!"
[Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"]
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Friday, December 29th, 1995
The Christmas is closing in, the days are getting longer, 1996 is just
around the corner, and I have to return to Stavanger soon. Have visited
most of the family, eaten lots of food and have got some present.
My car broke down, fortunately I found a garage that was open. Don't
know how to pay them though...... :(
I finally got some minutes in front of my computer today, used it to
reply to loads of mail. Now I have to be going, have to visit my aunt.
I'll probably write some more about my Oslo holiday later.
The quotation of the day:
"I still went to church regularly, though, until I was eighteen years
old. Then suddenly, the light bulb went on over my head. All the
mindless mobidity and discipline was pretty sick - bleeding this,
painful that and no meat on Friday. What is this shit?"
[Frank Zappa]
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Tuesday, January 9th, 1996
1996 just came and didn't ask if I was ready for it! The Christmas
holiday is special to me, but at New Year's Eve I rather stay home
alone listening to nice music and eating a good meal. And that was what
I did this year too. Of course Tinka and I was out and watched all the
fireworks and then phoned the family, but afterwards I chatted on IRC.
Have been helping Sara and Rune moving to their new house, what a
house!! If I say it has about 20 rooms and that they bought a own
weighing 1.2 tons, you may get an idea.... It's going to be fantastic,
but right now it's a building area.
Also visited Kjetil H. in his new apartment, a bit smaller than his
last but very nice.
Once again my car broke down, this is getting silly (and I'm getting
even more broke). And on the top of that I got a letter from my
insurance company saying my auto insurance was terminated November
30th! They have been sending the bills to an address I had over 4 years
ago, and of course got them all in return. It made me pretty shaky,
I've been driving over 1500 kilometres since it expired, if I had
crashed I would have had to pay it all!! Fortunately nothing did
happen, and the insurance is valid again now. But the car is still at
the garage....
And now I got the flu, this year starts out great! Being home from work
at least gives me time to do some work on my computer and home page.
Implementing Java Applets is the latest hot thing.
Working on a suggestion for a logo for The 2000 Club (you see it at the
bottom of my page), but have problem sending it to James Randy for him
to view. Something sounds wrong with his browser. I'm especially proud
of having his signature in my guest book! :)
Anyway, happy new year to you all. May this be a prosperous and
rewarding year for us all! In my case the only way is up.... ;)
The quotation of the day:
"What the hell are you getting so upset about? I thought that you
didn't believe in God?"
"I don't," she sobbed, bursting into tears, "but the God I don't
believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean
and stupid God you make him out to be."
[Joseph Heller]
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Sunday, January 28th, 1996
Just arrived back home from five days in London. Great trip, learned
lots of stuff, got more inspiration and seen new sites. Gian and Dave
took good care of me, introduced me to their dangerous English
culture..... It will be hard to become familiar with the Norwegian way
of life again. No more lunches in pubs and party even on weekdays. Life
is hard, and then you die..... One thing was really great - having
breakfast in bed! I feel so spoiled!! :)
Hopefully I'm prepared for doing the big changes at work, time will
show if I'm worth the confidence and trust.
Tinka had obviously not suffered living with my neighbour Laila, she's
fit for fight and was very happy to see me again. It's nice to have
somebody who loves you that much, even though it is a dog.
Now I've checked and answered most mails and been on IRC for a short
time. Better go to bed now. Tomorrow is a new day at job and work has
probably piled up.
The quotation of the day:
"We must not hold back in the battle for children's minds"
[Church of England spokesman]
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Sunday, February 4th, 1996
I'm tired!! :) On Friday I went on a trip to a cabin in Melsheia with
33 14-15 years old boys and girls (and two other leaders). Don't know
if I have mentioned it earlier, but I'm involved in arranging
confirmation courses through Human-Etisk Forbund (a Norwegian secular
humanism organisation). The course is an alternative to the Christian
confirmation course that most Norwegians go to. Instead of almost a
full year we give them a course of total 15 hours education about how
it is to become a grownup. We try to talk about things that interests
them and that is not very good covered by the public school. That could
be the worlds religions (Norwegian school system is committed to
Christianity), ethics and morality, social responsibility, criminality,
narcotics and alcohol, philosophy and difficult stuff as suicide,
racism and sexuality. The goal is to differ to the teacher/pupil roles
and offer an extension to that. It's sad to find out that most of the
kids haven't learned the must basic stuff. It really makes me mad at
the school system.
Anyway, I was talking about this trip we did. It wasn't far, but felt
like it because it was in the woods. Great weather and fabulous nature.
On Friday we stayed in, played and talked to get to know each other
better. Of course many had no plans sleeping that night, and those who
wanted to had no chance. On Saturday we talked about the human rights
and ethics. How we as kids often do what we want within the limits
other make, but when you are grown up you have to really think for
yourself and set your own sensible limitations. So how do we make such
decision? To make this more interesting I used role play and other
practical experiments. Then we went hiking to the highest top where we
got a great panorama of Jæren. Even saw two elks! Then we had two more
lessons, one which was about racism. I wanted to test out what they did
in the movie "The Wave". I separated them in two groups, on for those
with blue eyes and the other for those with brown. I had brown and
slowly I started leading the debate to the statement that those with
brown eyes often was smarter and much more successful in life. I tried
telling them that most great and famous men and women had brown eyes,
and things like if one of their parents had blue eyes I only asked what
bad things they had done. And then concluding that it was typical blue
eyed people. One girl was really mad at me, the others tried giving
examples of nice and clever blue eyed people they knew and stupid or
failed brown eyes. I was hard on the blue eyed and very nice to the two
brown eyed, the last had their own chairs but those with blue eyes had
all to sit together in one bed. I started asking if it was right to use
so much money on the blue eyed if the scientific evidence I said I had
was true. If brown eyed could get further with less effort and money,
wouldn't it be best if we supported them the most? It was great
listening to them, I was surprised how they fell for the scam. Almost
all of them had seen the film I mentioned, still only a few knew what I
did. At the end of the lesson I told them it all was a lie, there was
no such scientific proof or anything like it. We talked about the
feeling they got, the anger and frustration they felt and tried
relating that to racism. We all got friends of course, and I hope it
gave them at least one new perspective to the problems with racism and
other problems.
What I've done different this year is keeping it less formal and
letting the debate take of in another direction than I had planned if
they want to. To me it feels very unstructured this way, but they seem
to like it. Many of the subjects are closely connected out there in
real life, an important lesson is being aware of this complexity. I
really look forward to meeting some of them later in life and get a
honest evaluation and if they feel they learned anything.
Saturday evening was fun, more games and talk. After dinner people was
getting very tired. Later in the evening we made a bonfire and grilled
Marshmallows. People didn't sleep much that night either, but there was
almost no noise. I had fun, and I think they did too.
So now I'm back home, Tinka is asleep, very tired after a weekend with
so many active people. I haven't heard anything from her in five hours
now! I've had a whiskey, relaxed on IRC (Holmboe asked an interesting
question today; We've all heard of religion wars, but have you ever
heard of a philosophy war?) and I'm now evaluating the weekend in my
head. But work also troubles me. Big things have happened, and I'm not
sure what to feel about it. The details will come later because of
certain circumstances. But the next months will be very hard, I only
hope the sleeplessness will disappear. I will need all the sleep I can
get!
I forgot to mention that on Wednesday I was asked to join the group
that arrange the humanist confirmation here in Stavanger, which I
accepted.
Monica was here Thursday picking up the perfume I bought for her in
London. Later that day Oddbjørn dropped by to test Internet (and he
brought a program I have been wanting for a long time!!). He said he
was going to buy a scanner, which will solve my big problem!! At last I
can realise the last project for my home page.
News on the page is a Java drawing applet, it can be tested if you
press the signature on the bottom of my main page.
Now I've better go to bed, think most thoughts are out for now..... at
least until tomorrow.
The quotation of the day:
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher
esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
[Nietzsche "The Dawn" (1881)]
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Saturday, February 17th, 1996
Quite and lonesome Saturday, the way I like it. Need time to think and
just be free. I woke up with a long days work of cleaning up awaiting
me, I must admit it looks a bit messy here. So I went down town,
checked the newsagent and strolled around. Meat Kjetil N. and gave him
a list of 16 new members for 'Ungdom Mot Narkotika' (Youth Against
Drugs). They I went to my local pub, had a pizza and some Kilkenny
beers, read the newspapers and my newly purchased copy of Heavy Metal
(haven't read that magazine for years). Nice way of relaxing, I should
do it more often.
Big news on the page; I now mirror Dylan Green's Windows 95 Starting
Page! Anything you need for the best os is linked from there, take a
look.
A friend now has three pictures (from my last hiking trip) and as soon
as he gets them scanned I will put them on my home page.
Been having some deep talks with Halrog on IRC today, life is
complicated and we have a hard time figuring out how to organise it....
It's good to have someone to talk to, to many guy's are to scared to be
emotional. I get sick when I hear people talk about "the strong sex"
and "guys don't cry". I think it's hard to find ones role today,
wanting to be a male outside the typical role model of a strong
provider for wife and kids and having only blunt emotions. I've met to
many who try to live up to that (even some girls believing that is the
way to get equality between the sexes), I don't think they are happy.
Anyway, it's not me! Thanks for having friends on the net, like Halrog
and Zieku. :)
Last Sunday Sara, Rune and Oda was here for dinner, I served a reindeer
roast, and if I may say so; it was great. They are still working on
their big new house, poor people needed some real food! Oda is so cute,
talks a mixture of Norwegian and English. I get a little jealous when
meeting children of friends, but it's a good jealousy. Since I have no
children myself, I get very connected to those who are close to me,
that makes it hard to live so far away from my sister and her children.
One day I will move back to Oslo.
Bye for now..... maybe I'll clean up tomorrow......
The quotation of the day:
"The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends
and fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while
we are drifting side by side to our common doom."
[Clarence Darrow]
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Thursday, February 22nd, 1996
At work I'm starting to get the hang of Oracle and the new Sun Sparc
Server, but next week Dave comes over from London and I probably have
to work a lot in the weekend to be as prepared as possible. Dave and me
will be taking a trip to Oslo.
On Tuesday there was a confirmation course. We had a visitor that is
infected with HIV and he talked how this is and how one can protect
oneself from being infected. The reaction from the youth was very
positive and they asked a lot of questions. When it was over they asked
very polite if it was okay if they all shock hands, and he politely
replied affirmative. They are great "kids"! :)
On Wednesday I was keeper of the minutes at Human-Etisk Forbund's
annual meeting.
And on Thursday we had an evaluating meeting for all the confirmation
leaders, and then I was elected leader of the confirmation committee.
This means less time on the net, but I really feel this work is
important. The net will probably still be there when I get more
time.... I hope.....
I've had two sleepless nights this week, still got problems emptying my
mind of an old love. When the clock shows 3 am, I guess it's no use
going to bed. The time now is 3:40 am, at least I get to update my
journal. Tomorrow is Friday anyway, I'll go to bed right after work and
I can sleep as long as I want (or untill the phone starts).
Because of my busy schedule I have tried to keep away from debates on
the net the last months. But recently I found a debate about The
Norwegian Heathen Society and had to join to stop some idiotic and
false accusations. Of course that escalated and now I have even more to
answer. I like it, but I think I'll save some money for either a
housemaid or a secretary. :)
I did actually get one hour to clean the house today, what provoked
that was a potential visit, let's call the person X. I wouldn't say any
more than that, except that the visitor never came. But my apartment is
clean!!!
The quotation of the day:
"To make sure that my blasphemy is thoroughly expressed, I hereby state
my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition, that there
is no evidence for the existence of any god(s), that devils, demons,
angels and saints are myths, that there is no life after death, heaven
nor hell, that the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and
that the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and
derision. I accuse the Christian god of murder by allowing the
Holocaust to take place -- not to mention the "ethnic cleansing"
presently being performed by Christians in our world -- and I condemn
and vilify this mythical deity for encouraging racial prejudice and
commanding the degradation of women."
[James Randi, challenging blasphemy laws in several US states]
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Sunday, April 21st, 1996
Damn, I just wrote this piece and then exited without saving.... stupid
me! :((
The spring is really here now, had some really great weather the last
weeks. Tinka has almost lost all her winter fur and I've actually done
some vacuuming. Had to, didn't want to. But everything else here is a
mess, guess it's how it's supposed to be when you're a bachelor. The
mood has been poor lately, mostly been at home feeling sorry for
myself. Just can't seem to get my feelings sorted out, love is really
shit sometimes.... But hey, compared to most of my fellow humans on
this small green globe I have no right to complain. Life is the best
there is, but sometimes we just need to live out some self-pity. That's
not related to how we are, but what we are.
Done some serious remodelling on my home page. Added forms and some
Java scripting. Made the Black Scope Gallery with some of the pictures
I've made the last few weeks, had lots of fun making them. Hope I get
more time to draw, I really enjoy it both on paper and on the computer.
The photo album is also updated, Oddbjørn needs a big thanks for
scanning them!
Also got some new awards, this is crazy. And like that wasn't enough my
page was included on Internet World Exposition.
Work is still pretty demanding, since the general manager quitted
awhile ago. A fun experiment was installing Apache HTTP Server at work.
Thanks to the almighty Mike from Hays in Cardiff. ;)
The quotation of the day:
"About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had
earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican
hill ... Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis
(the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He
was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and
was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black
Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the
resurrection."
[Gerald L. Berry, "Religions of the World"]
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Thursday, June 20th, 1996
One thing makes me wonder.... actually several things make me wonder,
but now it's this thing. Friends can't understand how I love, my former
girlfriend left me several years ago and since I still love her it's
not possible to find somebody else. Then they try to help me by saying
I have to go on, forget her and find somebody else. I try to tell them
that feelings doesn't work like that for me, if I love somebody it's
100%. I can't help it, I just have to learn to live with that. Bad luck
for me if the one I end up loving does not love me back.... It scares
me when people talk about love as something that can be controlled or
talked about as something rational. People try to tell me they have
loved someone just as strong as I have, but when their love was not
returned they stopped loving this person or started loving someone
else. What kind of love is this? When I look someone in their eyes and
say I love them forever and life will never be the same without them, I
actually mean it.
We are different, it would be sad if everyone reacted the same. It just
makes me a bit sad and irritated that they can't understand that my
feelings may be a bit different from theirs. They keep telling me they
have felt the same as me, and still they managed to find someone else
to love after a short time. Sorry friends, that's not love as I know
it, that doesn't even sound like real love...
Got that of my mind, can't imagine who would be interested in reading
this though.... ;) Long time since I wrote here now, let's see if I
remember everything that has happened.
In May Alice (Arkana on IRC) had a party, Semtex and Eivind was there
too. Many believe computers and Internet is an anti social activity
only for nerds. For some it maybe is, like TV also is for some, but my
experience is different. The net have given me lot's of new and
interesting friends. Many of them live to far away and I may never meet
them in real life, but still I feel I know them very good. I even feel
closer to some of them than many of my friends who I see regularly.
Argh, that reminds me! Alice and her daughter is leaving soon to go on
a crazy vacation, travelling almost to the other side of the world! Me
jealous? Nooooo........
The other day I finally got Jordana's snail mail address, now I can
send her the postcards from Norway and some surprises. Also sent
Norwegian postcards and a book about Hávamál (wise words from the
Viking age) to Peter (Holland), Daniel (Germany) and Marilia (Brazil).
If everything works all of us will come together in October!! I
definitely want to save up some money and go to Brazil (maybe next
year?). Marilia already sent some postcards to me and not long time ago
I got a letter from Jordana. Would be fantastic to meet Jordana one
day, we have been through some strange and hard times together on the
net. Some day I may be allowed to write about it.
Two weeks ago 19 colleges and me went to Molde, a town in the middle of
Norway. Great trip, lot's of partying in the hotel. When you get this
far north it never gets real dark this time of year, further north it
is daylight all summer and no light all winter. I've never been that
far north myself, but I plan to take a long vacation some day and drive
all over Norway.
On the web front things are still pretty busy. The page for Youth
Against Drugs is taking form. Also was contacted by Michael Rosenblatt
who wanted to set up a page in appreciation to Dr. Carl Sagan. Have
made this page, now we are waiting for Dr. Sagan to reply to us.
On my personal page there has only been minor changes. Working on an
icon with a tour of the site and a page to show what kind of work I've
done for others. A Norwegian magazine called 'InterNett Guiden'
mentioned my page as one of the five best pages in their June issue.
1st of July I'm of to take Oracle Database Administration 1 course in
London, after that I hope to get a vacation. Probably have to buy a new
tent, but I need to get a hiking trip in the mountains this year.
Last Saturday I was interviewed on Æ-TV, a local TV channel. It was
about The Norwegian Heathen Society, what we do and why we feel it's
important to have an active atheist organisation that dares to ask all
the "forbidden" questions in this country where we have a state church.
Thanks to Sman on IRC that made this possible. :)
The quotation of the day:
"Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin."
[Anatole France]
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Saturday, July 13th, 1996
Here is my report from one week in London (June 30th to July7th):
Sunday
Arrived at Heathrow in the evening, they really had prepared my visit
well. I've never been to Heathrow alone before and was scared I would
not find the way out, but these nice folks parked the plane as close to
the tube as possible and lined up lots of people leading me straight to
the correct platform. There on the wall a small machine shined at me,
offering pocket maps for only one pound (this map really helped me a
lot during the week!). Since all the direction I had was to head for
Victoria station, from where I planned to take a Taxi to the hotel, I
bought the map and jumped on the first tube. Some voice in my head told
me to get of at the station before Victoria, and when I came out of the
underground; there was my hotel! Now I am not afraid of anything,
London here I come! ;)
Small room in the hotel, but fair enough. Well settled I went out to
investigate the area. Walked for one hour (have to remember to bring
proper shoes next time!) and ended up almost where I lived the last
time I was here. Found a nice restaurant and had a simple meal. Found
out after a while it must have been a gay restaurant, some of the guys
there looked like they were more than good friends.
Monday
Woke up this morning with a big smile, with breakfast in bed i feel
like I'm on the top of the world. Even though what they call breakfast
here is not that at all. Toasting bread is OK, when it's 3 days old.
And what kind of sane people eat white bread and jam for breakfast? The
inhabitants here are cute and harmless, but their habits are very
strange.
First day at the course was a bit hard, probably need some time to
adjust to the terminology and thinking relation database
administration. Today I stayed in all evening, still worn out after all
the walking yesterday.
Learning the culture and language is very important when you travel to
strange places. Three words that are very important in England
is "thanks", "cheers" and the more sleek "ta". These are used by the
English in any situation imaginable, and even more. Wherever you go
it's "ta" here and "thanks" there, one even thanked me for asking him
the direction to the tube. I almost feel uncivilised walking around in
London with this wild Viking blood in my veins......
Tuesday
After the course today I went to The Natural History Museum, which is
not far from the hotel. I had 25 minutes to run through the building
before they closed. Some great exhibitions, fossils and stuffed
animals. Also bought some presents for Karoline and Joakim there. Then
I went to a restaurant called Garfunkle. Had an American barbecue dish
which tasted much better than it looked. Stayed in my room for the rest
of the day, trying to study.
Another extremely important thing about the British is how to respond
when they ask how you are (I promise you that they will ask). Being the
honest guy I am I would say it as it was, use the opportunity to get
out some of the things in life that troubled me. But be aware; this is
not polite! You must always tell them you are just fine and give a
smile. You may wonder why they ask (it may be more of a ritual than a
question?), but keep that mystery and your problems to yourself (at
least until you get home).
Wednesday
Today there was a strike at the Underground. A bit hard to get to
Richmond, but it worked out fine in the end. Nice taking busses for a
change because then you get to see much more.
Since they love us tourists so much, they have written helpful
reminders for us in the streets, For those who does not know, on this
island they turned wrong in a roundabout some centuries ago and still
haven't managed to get their cars over at the right side of the road
(they try their best, at least the car makers adjust the cars for them
by making them the wrong way round). When the rest of the world looks
to the left just before crossing the road, in Britain this could give
you a free ticket to your creator (or whatever). So in the road they
have written "LOOK RIGHT" and I take it as a nice gesture to us foreign
pedestrians. The problem was that I found myself walking around looking
down on the ground for new messages all the time..... Lucky I'm still
alive.
Thursday
The strike only lasted for one day, so no problem getting to Richmond
today. The final day of the course went okay I guess, but there are
surely more to Oracle administration than I thought.
Mike came today and booked in at the same hotel. As usual he got the
biggest room, wonder what he does with the receptionists when he checks
in??? Anyway, Mike, Gian, John, Dave, me and a couple of others from
Hays went out to eat in the evening. Bill Wyman (from Rolling Stones)
has a restaurant called Sticky Fingers. And wow was that good, really
recommendable if you are hungry and want to have a great time. But be
aware; it's not called "Sticky Fingers" for no reason!!! Then we went
to a pub, but after that meal the atmosphere was pretty relaxed around
the table... Ended up in the hotel were we sat for a long time talking.
Friday
Me and Mike went to Stockwell (Hays main office in London) and had a
meeting with Gian. Mike later went back to Cardiff and I started
exploring the city. Went to Victoria where there is an internet cafe,
sat there for an hour talking to friends on IRC. Have also taken some
pictures and hope to have them on my page soon.
Saturday
Today I did the big tour of London, think I've been everywhere (on
foot!). Visited a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at Buckingham Palace and
went to one of those cinemas where the seats move when you watch.
Walked up and down all the main shopping streets and had a meal at
Pizza Hut. All I bought though was a shirt and two videos of Monty
Python. And I don't even have a video player...
As mentioned earlier it's very important to show gratitude here, but
it's just as important to be sorry for absolutely everything. If you
complain about the weather, you can be almost sure someone sneaks in
a "sorry" before you get to add that it reminds you of home. Going
through a crowd can be an ordeal , not only do you have to watch where
you are going and what you step on, but all the time you have to
go "Sorry..... thanks.... sorry... thanks... sorry... thanks........."
Sunday
Planned to spend some time to shop at Heathrow, but the check-in queue
at SAS was so long that when I finally finished checking in I had to
run to the plane.
Heidi and a friend picked me up at the airport and now everything is
back to normal, pretty boring in other words....
At least I survived, and I learned to know the Brits a little bit
better. Hope all my comments don't sound like complaining, I had a
great time. :)
The quotation of the day:
"I would shoot the bastards if I was allowed, because a woman can't
represent Christ. Men and women are totally different, that's not my
fault, and Jesus chose men for his disciples."
[Church of England vicar Rev. Anthony Kennedy, March 9,1994 regarding
female CofE priests]
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Sunday, July 13th, 1996
Another weekend, why am I not shouting with joy? Before I went to
London I sent an application for a job in Oslo, this week they called
and asked if I could come for an interview. So I'm off to Oslo on
Thursday evening, taking Monday and Tuesday of. This makes me glad, but
still life gets a bit hard in the weekends. Gee, must I complain today
too? Shut up and smile Andreas! :)
Frode and Trond (and later Trond M.) visited yesterday, helped Trond
with some HTML coding. He bought my laptop by the way, at last I got
rid of it.
Haven't been much on the net, but edited some on my home page. Added
a "Tour of the site" which brings the visitor through the most
important pages easily. Worked some on the layout and the animated gif,
the first drafts was terrible. I'm close to do some serious
refurnishing on my first page, have to cut down on the images and some
other stuff. It will come to me, just have to let it fly around in my
head for some days.
Got a BIG surprise in the mail the other day! A big book about Holland,
lots of great landscape photograph’s by Martin Kers. It was a present
from Wenda and Frans III, they are crazy! It was real nice of them, I
owe them some big hugs. :)))
Think I forgot to mention that Monica came by the other day, she moved
to Oslo now, back together with her old boyfriend. If I move back to
Oslo it will be nice to have her there.
Bye for now my dear journal, hope to see you soon....
The quotation of the day:
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or
Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify
and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
[Thomas Paine]
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--------
Saturday, August 17th, 1996
Back to reality, it had to come to this...
On Monday I started one week of vacation, packed my ruck-sack and said
goodbye to everything. Drove for two hours up in the mountains. Some
years ago a former construction road from Sinnes to Setesdal was opened
for public trafic, after two hours I reached the highest point (1052
meters over sea level) and was ready to make the final escape. Some
guys asked for a lift to their car some miles away and that made me a
little late.
Before Tinka and I left she to have some pain in her back legs, so I
decided to take it easy this year. The last 10 summers or so I've had
at least one week in the mountains, sort of need it to "recharge the
batteries". Because of Tinka I did not plan to go far this year, and
being lazy suited me good. Even though the weather report was
promising, on Monday evening it didn't look very good. But I parked the
car and got all my gear on, after scaring of a very annoying sheep.
Just over a hill I found this nice lake, and a fine spot to make camp.
Planted a big steak on the grill and made myself comfortable outside
the tent. It's impossible to explain the feeling you get when you sit
there. No noice, people, tv, radio, clock or work. Just me and Tinka,
with an interesting book by James Randi and a fantastic view.
Tuesday came and the sun with it, the weather could not have been
better. I'm not in a situation where I like to show off my body, being
a little embarrased because I weigh to much. Being alone and not caring
about any of those things that you have to live with all year, gives me
a special kind of freedom sunbading with no clothes on. In the
beginning I was a bit afraid someone would come over the mountain top,
but soon relaxed. I must have been a sight there I lay, with a big
smile from ear to ear and a cup with cognac in my hand. When the heat
was to intense I had a bath, and when Tinka was to restless we went for
small walks to the hills nearby. Beside from that I read two books or
just sat there smiling and thinking about life. Anybody out there
feeling the stress or any frustration; this is what you should do! I'll
live on this week for a whole year now.
The plan was to stay untill Sunday, but on Friday I was so burned by
the sun that I either had to stay in the tent or get dressed if I
wanted to stay. Instead I went home. Now I've found a nice place to go
even for a short weekend trip, I'll be back.
The quotation of the day:
"The ancient poets animated all objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling
them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods,
rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged
& numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the
genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity; Till
a system was formed, which some took advantage of, & enslav'd the
vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from
their objects: thus began priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from
poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast."
[William Blake, from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"]
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--------
Sunday, October 13th, 1996
Sitting here alone listening to The River by Bruce Springsteen. It's 1
am and only few hours before the big event. Peter from Holland (Zieku
on IRC) and Daniel (Halrog on IRC) is now on the ferry between Denmark
and Norway, on their way to visit me!!! The last two days I've been
washing the apartment, I can't describe all the strange things I found
in that project. To sum it up: IT WAS NOT TO EARLY!
As I said Peter and Daniel are on their way, probably just as nervous
about this as I am. We have know eachother a long time but only talked
via mail and IRC. Lots of people shake their head about this, meeting
two strangers (in their eyes) like this, to them Internet is a cold and
unpersonal media and nobody can get aquainted that way. I know
otherwise, Peter and Daniel mean a lot to me and are defenitely two of
my very dearest friends. We've been through a lot of strange things,
more than I can explain here.
I've taken the week of from work, what we plan to do all depends on the
weather. Not looking good at the moment though. :( I guess they arrive
in Kristiansand 7 am and will probably need 3-4 hours to get here (if
they don't drive in the wrong direction and end up in Oslo). Because
they've been driving all day I figure we'll take it easy and just talk
and eat. Been out shopping and plan to make Gulasj for them today.
Another friend of ours from the net, Marilia from Brasil, is now in
London with her boyfriend Joao. We really hope they can make a detour
to Stavanger, would be fantastic if all of us could meet at the same
time. Hope we hear from them during the week anyway.
I better finish this mug of beer and go to bed. Had hoped Wenda
(another IRC friend, a colleague of Peter in Holland) joined me on IRC,
but she's probably at sleeps now.
The quotation of the day:
"Ask youself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be
waiting for us in our graves--or whether it should be ours here and now
and on this earth."
[Ayn Rand]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Friday, October 18th, 1996
The week is over, time goes so fast when you have a good time. :( Peter
and Daniel just drove of, they are taking the evening ferry from
Kristiansand to Denmark. Drive carefully my friends.
When they arrived on Sunday we walked some in the town but mostely
stayed inside talking and eating. Got a nice elk from Daniel and a big
box with lot's of stuff from Holland. Germa had made a fantastic red
tshirt for me (!), she had drawn an image from my home page on it (the
one saying "Through my MIND..."). Wenda sent a survival kit and lots of
glasses, she sounded a bit sceptic about Peter and how he would manage
the trip. Now she can rest, they both handled Norway and me just fine
and lived up to the expectation, and the Peter-instructions from her
came in handy.
On Monday we drove up the mountains and down Lysebotn in the end of
Lysefjorden. There is a tradition to build small varde's (a pile of
stone to mark a path in the mountains) up on the top, and we could see
thousands of them there. The weather was not very good, but I managed
to get them out of the car and make them collect some stones for their
own personal varde. An experience to remember for the rest of their
lifes.... ehhh..... On the way back we stopped for coffee and cake on
Sinnes hotel and visited the place I work.
Tuesday we walked around town again, including the older part of
Stavanger.
Wednesday the compass pointed north, after driving through tunnels
several hundred meters below sea level and taking a ferry we ended up
in Skudesneshavn. Walked in the old part of town and took another ferry
back to Stavanger.
Thursday was supposed to be the BIG day, everything was planned and
prepared to take a flight with a small plane around the county and in
Lysefjorden. On one side of the fjord is the Pulpit, a very popular
tourist attraction 600 meters above the sea. On the other side Kjerag
with a sheer drop of 1000 meters and the famous Bolt. Walking up here
is a great experience, but in October the weather is a bit cold so we
dropped that. The weather turned today and with a blue sky and a
shining sun I started looking forward to the flight (must admit it was
a bit scary because I've never been in a small plane before). But in
the last minute the pilot had to cancel because of other flights.
Instead we went to a shopping center and later the beach. The only
light was millions of stars in the sky, not enough to easily find our
way back to the car.
Now it's Friday and I'm sitting here alone thinking. How strange life
is, many months ago I started a channel on IRC called #Valhall with the
topic "A place to go after a hard day (or night...). All friendly minds
welcome! :)" and these two guys from Germany and Holland stumbled over
it. Long nights with chatting proved we were interested in more than
shallow chatting about meaningless subjects. Other people came and went
like clouds on the sky, while we always returned; the 3 musketeers was
reborn. Peter and Daniel both live close to the border and only two
hours driving from eachother. They met some months ago but always
talked about coming to Norway in October. I must admit it sounded a bit
far fetched, who would drive all the way from Holland and Germany to
meet Tinka and me? I always knew they were special guys, now I'm only
more sure. Our friendship means a lot to me and our contact and
especially this week is something I'll take extra good care of in my
memory. Early 1997 I plan to drive down and visit them, I just have to
meet Germa and the kids, and I have to fulfill my promise to Wenda and
take her and our donkey out on a date. :)
Bye my dear friends, hope your visit in Norway was worth the long ride
and that you one day come back so I can take you on a flight you never
will forget! Pictures from this week will follow, look out.
The quotation of the day:
"God says do what you wish, but make the wrong choice and you will be
tortured for eternity in hell. That sir, is not free will. It would be
akin to a man telling his girlfriend, do what you wish, but if you
choose to leave me, I will track you down and blow your brains out.
When a man says this we call him a psychopath and cry out for his
imprisonment/execution. When god says the same we call him "loving" and
build churches in his honor."
[William C. Easttom II, ske...@icon.net]
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--------
Sunday, June 22nd, 1997
Life is full of wins and losses, some of the reports to this journal is
lost because I saved an old file on the new one. That's life, you can't
give up whatever happens.
The last 8 months has been incredible. I've created Operation Clambake,
which is my contribution to the fight against the "Church" of
Scientology. It's a long, but simple, story how I got mixed up in that
fight. The main thing is that I have no regrets that I dared to stand
up and do what I thought was right there and then. I was well aware of
the danger, there were good reasons to suspect that this cult would
both sue me and do everything possible to stop me. It turns out, so
far, that they seem to be paralized by all the problems they have
around the world, they haven't tried to do much with me so far. I keep
hearing rumours they are working on something, but time goes.
What I did was make public on my homepage a lot of their secret
scriptures, revealing their founder to be a real mad person and the
cult he left to be a dangerous mafia who is a threat to our society.
Whatever they do to me, I will fight with all I got. Since they may sue
me and maybe even win because they got more resources. The more eager
they get to silence me, the more they will see of my face. Too many
people have been hurt by crazy cults and madmen, it's about time we
dare to stand up for what we believe in, even though we have a good
life. If we don't want to risc somebody for others, what will happen
the day we are in trouble? I hope someone will be there for me...
It's finally summer again. I love walking around in shorts and without
shoes. I'm so proud I finally managed to quit smoking 2 weeks ago,
problem is that I start gaining weight because of that. Well, smoke is
worst than weight I suppose, so I I can learn to live with that. :)
I've not had time to update my personal page, the time I get to do some
work with HTML goes to Operation Clambake. Alse got a dog to take care
of and a job that demands more each week. I love the challenge, but it
would help if the private life was a bit better. I'm not made to be
alone, and I still have problems with old feelings regarding my ex
girlfriend. I will probably always love her, I can't help it. Even if
she is long gone now.
"Fear believes -- courage doubts. Fear falls upon the earth and prays --
courage stands erect and thinks. Fear is barbarism -- courage is
civilization. Fear believes in witchcraft, in devils and in ghosts.
Fear is religion, courage is science."
[Robert G. Ingersoll]
--
the real
PAPA
PICTURE OF MILHOUSE (MY INITIAL ASSUMPTIONS OF THE GUY WERE CORRECT)
http://members.aol.com/milhouse481/myhomepage/fanboy.jpg
"To hide, to piss us off, to get away with it, and make Zappafans look
stupid. It looks so utterly stupid, it's actually pretty smart." -- Geir
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