It's the first month of a New Year and usually this call for New Year resolutions. This year I won't bother. I know that within the year I'll have forgotten about them and come next year I'll be writing the same resolutions over again because I failed to keep them.
Instead I want to reflect a little over the long term goals I have and the ones I've already fulfilled. Not the huge “I wanna be an astronerp when I grow up” ones, but the little ones.
In example. When I was younger (I'm talking toddler) I remember seeing my Mam fixing my Daddy's tie. To my four years old mind this was a really cute and romantic scene and I remember thinking that “when I grow up to be a wife I wanna be able to fix my man's tie”. (True story).
(I was also going to marry my Daddy, but he calmly explained why that couldn't happen. He also explained why Grandpa couldn't be my second choice as that marriage was out of the question too)
When I was around ten I remember finding a recipe on how to tie a tie and I practiced this knot over and over again. And I'm proud to announce that I can tie a perfectly ok tie. So there. Goal reached. Mission accomplished. (It's good to see that not all goals crumble to pieces).
I even saved Seb's neighbors the other month. The mother and the two teen sons were getting in their car. Both sons were dressed nicely in suits, ties in hands. And the mother came over to us asking Seb if he knew how to tie a tie, because father wasn't there at the time and they were going to some fancy event. Seb shook his head and said “sorry, I rarely wear ties” and they all looked disappointed. So I raised my hand, ahemed (that is now a word) and said “I can, I know how”.
I, a little curly filly (yup, I'm a horse now) from the forest of Norway, I too can be a hero.
(I know I've posted this song earlier, but it's relevant for this entry so I'm posting it again (plus: I love it so it's allowed to be posted twice).)
Another role model for me would be my aunt on my mother's side. Whenever we were having some sort of big event or party she would be wearing her bunad and in her bunad-purse she would always keep band aids and a tiny sewing kit. So whenever you got hurt (during the run under the decorated tables or hide behind everyone's fancy coats in the rented wardrobe -games) or your clothes ripped, she would be there for your rescue. I have wowed to myself that when I “grow up” I will be Aunt Safe with an unlimited stack of band aids and other useful items. I already got band aids in all my bags and purses and I hope that when the time comes I'll be ready to save either my own kids or whichever nephew/niece/godchild or random kid in distress. (or grown-up, should that be the case)
Other goals for my life would be to learn to cook my family's traditional Christmas-dinner so that my kids can eat it sauce and all, and to stand on the top of the Eiffel Tower at least once.
I also wish I could play music of some sort so some day before I die I want to learn a music instrument. It shouldn't be too hard and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. I hear it takes no time at all to learn the ukulele so maybe that's what I'll learn, I dunno, either way I will eventually play something.
And I want to get better at knitting. Aaaand maybe I'll learn by heart the Rubik's cube, if I ever get the time. (All the cool grown-ups in my family have at one point known the Rubik's cube)
I think that in the end these little “trivial” goals are the ones that really matters. Who cares if I ever reach the “ideal” weight and status or the top of any career; I have band aids and I can tie a tie.
lørdag 28. januar 2012
fredag 27. januar 2012
I'm alright
It was just one of my wisdom teeth being surgically removed. No big deal at all if it weren't for my silly phobia. I still refuse to let anything (including my own tongue, toothbrush or food) touch the relevant side of my mouth. The stitches are supposed to be gone now, but I don't know if they are, I can't bring myself to check.
Seriously. stitches in skin and/or surgically opening/parting skin with knives or needles are the most disgusting things. Screw spiders.
funny thing though; I don't mind scars. Or accidental cuts or the like.
hm hm. The mind works in mysterious ways.
On to a more fun topic!
..... I got nothing. January is a boring month isn't it? In my head it got this sort of warm, somewhat dirty yellow color. Like #ebc44d. (that is a color code used mostly in html. If you google it you should find a color sample).
I have no idea why January is yellow. It just is.
"And if you knew nothing could replace you
if you were sane
your heart wouldn't ache."
[So What by The Cure]
Seriously. stitches in skin and/or surgically opening/parting skin with knives or needles are the most disgusting things. Screw spiders.
funny thing though; I don't mind scars. Or accidental cuts or the like.
hm hm. The mind works in mysterious ways.
On to a more fun topic!
..... I got nothing. January is a boring month isn't it? In my head it got this sort of warm, somewhat dirty yellow color. Like #ebc44d. (that is a color code used mostly in html. If you google it you should find a color sample).
I have no idea why January is yellow. It just is.
"And if you knew nothing could replace you
if you were sane
your heart wouldn't ache."
[So What by The Cure]
torsdag 19. januar 2012
Dark but shining
It's 10pm, it's January and it's Norway. Does that mean it's pitch black dark?
No.
There's twinkling stars and sparkling snow, like a glittering painting on a black colored canvas.
Sure half the stars I see are probably dead, the snow is just frozen H2O and the curls tumbling around my field of view are just dead cells growing out of crooked hair follicles.
But it's still magically beautiful.
And tomorrow I'll put on my superhero-costume, bring my sidekicks and endure my panic attacks the best I can.
I'll close my eyes and pretend I know nothing of needles or knives against my skin. And if I can just avoid thinking of the stitches in my skin afterwards maybe I wont throw up every minute.
I know. It's just a tooth and I'm gonna be ok.
But I'd rather go bungee jumping.
Gee, I wonder why I'm not a doctor or why I'm not a fan of Grey's Anatomy? I'm not phobic about this at all, I love such things.
For this song to work its real magic you need to turn up the volume until your ears might just burst.
That way it's easier to ignore the world and pretend it's not there.
am I being melodramatic?
No.
There's twinkling stars and sparkling snow, like a glittering painting on a black colored canvas.
Sure half the stars I see are probably dead, the snow is just frozen H2O and the curls tumbling around my field of view are just dead cells growing out of crooked hair follicles.
But it's still magically beautiful.
And tomorrow I'll put on my superhero-costume, bring my sidekicks and endure my panic attacks the best I can.
I'll close my eyes and pretend I know nothing of needles or knives against my skin. And if I can just avoid thinking of the stitches in my skin afterwards maybe I wont throw up every minute.
I know. It's just a tooth and I'm gonna be ok.
But I'd rather go bungee jumping.
Gee, I wonder why I'm not a doctor or why I'm not a fan of Grey's Anatomy? I'm not phobic about this at all, I love such things.
For this song to work its real magic you need to turn up the volume until your ears might just burst.
That way it's easier to ignore the world and pretend it's not there.
am I being melodramatic?
fredag 6. januar 2012
Books I finished in 2011
Well, here we are again old love, here's to me and thee...
I did this in 2010 and enjoyed doing it so I’m doing it again. Here’s a list of all the books I finished reading during last year and I’ve written a tiny review of the books I think deserves special attention. Since this blog is mainly in English (If people are wondering why I can explain that later) I’ve used the English titles in my list and whenever I couldn’t find a title in English I used the original title. One exception would be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve read it before and this time I deliberately read the Norwegian version so I added the Norwegian title to my list.
16 books. That's just like last year...
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
To me, this book is THE book. I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was the very first book that kept me reading the whole night despite my mother’s bedtime rules. I’ve been up reading books the whole night many times since, but no book or allnighter really succeeds that one first time. Besides holding this memory the book itself is awesome. I’ve read it several times and its magic hasn’t bleached one bit. It is everything a good fantasy ought to be. Twelve years later I’m still somewhat in love with the clumsy Schmendrick. I still adore the Unicorn. And I can still relate to Molly (maybe even more now, when I think about it). Oh and the cat! I love this book. Lovelovelove.
- Little Lord Fauntleroy - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coraline & Other Stories - Neil Gaiman
Coraline was the first story by Gaiman I ever read and it’s still my favorite. It’s a great story about courage and gratitude. This book also included some of his short stories and in my opinion they’re all good. I especially liked “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”. They’re all marvelously strange. Need I say more? It’s Neil Gaiman after all…
Another Way to be Young - Per Nilsson
I remember reading another book by Per Nilsson when I was around 14 or so (Yes, Let him smile … huh?). There’s something about the way he captures the casual everyday life of youth and combines it with the weird thoughts and ideas of teens. This book is both thrilling in some ways and comfortably philosophical in other ways. Like many books for teens it rotates around finding your identity and role in life, but it’s not cliché at all.
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
It’s a story about the real vampires. Not the glittering ones. Not the raving predator ones. The real ones. The whole book builds on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and weaves a story about the actual Vlad Tepes (aka The Impaler, aka Vlad III, aka Wladislaus Dragwlya, aka count Dracula) and his librarian minions (heehee XD). I have two minor issues; It is too detailed to make sense (how can a grown woman remember that when she was young her father told her that when he was young his teacher told him that when HE was young, on this specific day he was wearing this specific sweater and eating this specific dish at this specific time?) and it stops being scary too soon (The whole book is entertaining and fascinating but only the first part is really scary, I missed that as I read the actual climax of it). Otherwise it’s a good book and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books where you learn tons of funfacts about subjects you didn’t know you were interested in. I loved that.
- Deathvariations - Jon Fosse
- Alice i eventyrland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, translated to Norwegian by Zinken Hopp) - Lewis Carrol
- Teori og praksis - Nikolaj Frobenius
- The Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis
- Bli hvis du kan. Reis hvis du må. - Helga Flatland
Kafka on the Beach - Haruki Murakami
Oh, what a bizarre book! I’ve heard so much praise for Murakami, but I never heard or read anything about his specific books. Ergo; I knew nothing about this book when I started. I work in a library and I usually pay attention to the authors and titles people “have to read”. Once in a while I read some of the titles myself and most often there are good reasons why people recommend them to each other; they’re mostly good. But most of them seem to follow the same patterns and genres so when I started reading Kafka on the Beach I expected some kind of bland book. Probably very good, but bland. I was surprised. Even to me, who loves nonsense and weird stuff, at first this book felt just too weird. And I was like “why is he naked all the time?”. But it hypnotized me and kept me reading and I wished the book would just continue forever. It’s really enjoyable. And there are several philosophical moments where I just felt like “this book gets me” or it made me think. It was fun.
- Downfall: a love story - Per Olov Enquist
- Kjærlighet - Hanne Ørstavik
The Book of Dead Days - Marcus Sedgwick
Do you understand what I mean when I say sewer-fantasy? Or maybe graveyard is a better word than sewer. This book is dark and wet and you’ll definitely get dirt under your nails. Still I’d say it fits children of, I dunno, ten years and up. It’s got magic and illusions and orphans and gravedigging and mad science. All wrapped up in an alternative Victorian atmosphere. It’s kind of like a fantasy-version of Oliver Twist, except it’s not like that at all. I liked it.
- Morning and Evening - Jon Fosse
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley
If I were twelve, this book would be the perfect kind of wicked. The kind that would scare me just right, without being too grotesque. Seeing as it’s been twelve years since I was twelve (How did that happen?!) it didn’t really scare me at all, but I still enjoyed it very much.
I did this in 2010 and enjoyed doing it so I’m doing it again. Here’s a list of all the books I finished reading during last year and I’ve written a tiny review of the books I think deserves special attention. Since this blog is mainly in English (If people are wondering why I can explain that later) I’ve used the English titles in my list and whenever I couldn’t find a title in English I used the original title. One exception would be Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’ve read it before and this time I deliberately read the Norwegian version so I added the Norwegian title to my list.
16 books. That's just like last year...
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
To me, this book is THE book. I read it for the first time when I was around twelve and it was the very first book that kept me reading the whole night despite my mother’s bedtime rules. I’ve been up reading books the whole night many times since, but no book or allnighter really succeeds that one first time. Besides holding this memory the book itself is awesome. I’ve read it several times and its magic hasn’t bleached one bit. It is everything a good fantasy ought to be. Twelve years later I’m still somewhat in love with the clumsy Schmendrick. I still adore the Unicorn. And I can still relate to Molly (maybe even more now, when I think about it). Oh and the cat! I love this book. Lovelovelove.
- Little Lord Fauntleroy - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coraline & Other Stories - Neil Gaiman
Coraline was the first story by Gaiman I ever read and it’s still my favorite. It’s a great story about courage and gratitude. This book also included some of his short stories and in my opinion they’re all good. I especially liked “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”. They’re all marvelously strange. Need I say more? It’s Neil Gaiman after all…
Another Way to be Young - Per Nilsson
I remember reading another book by Per Nilsson when I was around 14 or so (Yes, Let him smile … huh?). There’s something about the way he captures the casual everyday life of youth and combines it with the weird thoughts and ideas of teens. This book is both thrilling in some ways and comfortably philosophical in other ways. Like many books for teens it rotates around finding your identity and role in life, but it’s not cliché at all.
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
It’s a story about the real vampires. Not the glittering ones. Not the raving predator ones. The real ones. The whole book builds on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and weaves a story about the actual Vlad Tepes (aka The Impaler, aka Vlad III, aka Wladislaus Dragwlya, aka count Dracula) and his librarian minions (heehee XD). I have two minor issues; It is too detailed to make sense (how can a grown woman remember that when she was young her father told her that when he was young his teacher told him that when HE was young, on this specific day he was wearing this specific sweater and eating this specific dish at this specific time?) and it stops being scary too soon (The whole book is entertaining and fascinating but only the first part is really scary, I missed that as I read the actual climax of it). Otherwise it’s a good book and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of those books where you learn tons of funfacts about subjects you didn’t know you were interested in. I loved that.
- Deathvariations - Jon Fosse
- Alice i eventyrland (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, translated to Norwegian by Zinken Hopp) - Lewis Carrol
- Teori og praksis - Nikolaj Frobenius
- The Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis
- Bli hvis du kan. Reis hvis du må. - Helga Flatland
Kafka on the Beach - Haruki Murakami
Oh, what a bizarre book! I’ve heard so much praise for Murakami, but I never heard or read anything about his specific books. Ergo; I knew nothing about this book when I started. I work in a library and I usually pay attention to the authors and titles people “have to read”. Once in a while I read some of the titles myself and most often there are good reasons why people recommend them to each other; they’re mostly good. But most of them seem to follow the same patterns and genres so when I started reading Kafka on the Beach I expected some kind of bland book. Probably very good, but bland. I was surprised. Even to me, who loves nonsense and weird stuff, at first this book felt just too weird. And I was like “why is he naked all the time?”. But it hypnotized me and kept me reading and I wished the book would just continue forever. It’s really enjoyable. And there are several philosophical moments where I just felt like “this book gets me” or it made me think. It was fun.
- Downfall: a love story - Per Olov Enquist
- Kjærlighet - Hanne Ørstavik
The Book of Dead Days - Marcus Sedgwick
Do you understand what I mean when I say sewer-fantasy? Or maybe graveyard is a better word than sewer. This book is dark and wet and you’ll definitely get dirt under your nails. Still I’d say it fits children of, I dunno, ten years and up. It’s got magic and illusions and orphans and gravedigging and mad science. All wrapped up in an alternative Victorian atmosphere. It’s kind of like a fantasy-version of Oliver Twist, except it’s not like that at all. I liked it.
- Morning and Evening - Jon Fosse
Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley
If I were twelve, this book would be the perfect kind of wicked. The kind that would scare me just right, without being too grotesque. Seeing as it’s been twelve years since I was twelve (How did that happen?!) it didn’t really scare me at all, but I still enjoyed it very much.
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