Seriously

Listen to this. We all need to listen to this.

A reflection. (on my socializing capasity)

I haven't blogged in ages.
But I have done some thinking. (And I've been through my annual autumn-depression, during which blogging feels hard and redundant.)

Here's the thinking I've done:
I kind of want this blog to be filled with... thoughts. You know like my "If you garden them and water them"-post or the post about synesthesia. And filled with events like when I went to Edinburgh and such.

These thoughts and events doesn't happen every day so there's gonna be gaps between posts.
I feel that for trivialities (you know like pictures of my food and what TV-show I'm watching) platforms like tumblr, twitter and facebook are more fitting.

I wont start using my facebook.
This may sound as if I'm opposed to facebook as a concept, but I'm not, I'll try to explain:
I am somewhat weird when it comes to socializing. I can only handle it in limited doses and in certain forms.
I am capable of pushing myself out of this comfort zone, but if I do this for an extended period of time, I collapse, I black out, I freeze. And then we get weeks where I isolate myself, to the distress of friends sending me texts I never reply to, until I feel fit to go out and socialize again.
Facebook, for some reason, makes me feel uncomfortable and have this paralyzing effect on me.
I don't know why. There's something about the way it works.

It's like.
With twitter or tumblr or this blog it feels like I'm hanging my thought up on a billboard and whoever is interested can come and read it.
With facebook it feels like I'm standing in front of my new class, wearing only a bathing suit.

It's pretty irrational, I know.

I'm not comfortable in a bathing suit.



BUT I have been hanging around tumblr lately, and found I quite like it there.
So (and finally I get to the point) for those people sick of the gaps between my composed thought-posts, who just want to know how I am doing, what I had for dinner and what TV-show I'm watching... I made a tumblr:

meanwhileinreallife.tumblr.com

where I will share trivialities and probably reblog silly pictures of cats.

vintage chocolate

You know how everything sounds better when it's made from an Old Recipe?
They love using that in commercials, don't they?
Here's my favorite chocolate commersials.

I move slow and steady, but I feel like a waterfall

So I was gonna write a blog about how I'm getting one year older and that time runs too fast and that it's scary to look for jobs. (which I think I do every July)

and now I have.

They are complicated feelings that I'm unable to elaborate without sounding whiny. So instead I embed a song I love atm.

Little Talks by Of Monsters And Men are being used everywhere and Mountain sounds are on the radio so their songs were constantly stuck in my head to the degree that I had to listen to them. And now I'm in love with their album, My Head Is An Animal.

And this song, Slow and Steady, feels so right these days.

Ich habe Sauerkraut in meine Lederhosen

I have acquired an extra family (potential in-laws) that love Germany.
And I have decided that if I am to go on vacations to Germany every year in my future (and bring my future kids?), I can't keep having my boyfriend translating the restaurant's menu for me every single time.

So I'm teaching myself German.
I'm not going all out, I just want to be able to read signs and menus and to understand what the lady behind the counter is asking me (other that if I want a bag, I know that one. Eine Tüte bitte).

I feel mighty clever.
Though the thing I thought would make things easy (that the language is so similar to Norwegian) is actually making it harder. I have to learn which words are just versions of the Norwegian ones and which is completely different. And I'm no good at choosing the correct article (das, der, die), but I'm getting there.

Soon I'll be able to tell you more than that I have pickled cabbage in my leather pants.

Look. A picture that shows how committed I am (the German word sticker) and my boyfriend's painting skills!
(I got it as my Valentine gift this year. It's originally a painting by Picasso that means a lot to my boyfriend. Isn't he clever? :) )

Theatre is Evil

For over a year ago I mentioned Amanda Palmer's kickstarter in a blogpost. And later I posted how I was waiting for her new album. But I never blogged about the album itself after it came out.

I think the reason why is I don't know where to start and I feel like I have to say something about Amenda Palmer the person too. This is a person that I really admire. There's so much to say about her (biggest girl-crush ever). But I need to tell you that her album rocks so I'll make this post about that.

Theatre is Evil is different from her earlier work, but it's still her. And the whole thing feels so real.
I have already shown you my absolute favorite track (Want It back), but I'll show you some others. This to me is the kind of album where one song jumps up and hooks you completely and the moment you're starting to feel done with that song another song jumps up and do the same. Even now, it's been over a year since I heard the first released song from the album, I'm still stuck on it and have now been swept away by the b-sides.

Here's a really sad and beautiful song. Which I love. And even though Want it Back is my personal favorite, I think this one is her best and most beautiful work.
The Bed Song - by Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra




This is the B-side song I'm currently obsessing over.
From St.Kilda to Fitzroy - by Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra




And I love Melody Dean and Massachusetts Avenue and Olly Olly Oxen Free and and and...
You can get it all here. For whatever price you want (even for free).

And I'll embed a video illustrating how cool Amanda Palmer is. And a link to her blog which really is worth reading.

Nøtteknekker

Well I promised you an epic commercial.
Here's one.





One thing should be said though. When a commercial is epic like this it rarely tries to sell a product (unless it's a car-commercial but those are mostly just bizarre). This one is promoting Aker ASA as a good and challenging workingplace and a promising investment.

It even has a sequel.

WIPs

This is sort of an announcement for everyone wanting to see my crafting projects in progress.
I usually like to show off my pieces when they're finished, but since people have been asking to see my progress I have made a wip-page at my crafting blog, collecting all my unfinished projects.

You'll find it here.

(And did you know I have a crafting blog? fruitsofmymagic.blogspot.no)

:)

You're amazing

I think maybe Edinburgh is my favorite city of them all (of those I've visited at least). The climate is familiar to me, the people's accent is adorable, every wall reeks of history, the buildings are beautiful and the people are super friendly.

My sister already made a good resumé of our adventures in Scotland, but I thought I too should share some photos (even though they were taken with my phone and thus hold terrible quality) and highlight moments.

First of all. This is a view of Edinburgh New Town and Calton Hill seen through the battlements of Edinburgh Castle. One of the buildings you see contains our hotel. The Royal British Hotel (the picture on this page shows exactly how our room looked), and I must say that, even though the hotel was somewhat worn down and they were in the middle of renovating, the service was great and we couldn't have asked for a better location.

Next is a picture taken during our visit to Edinburgh Castle. The building is the Royal Palace and contains the Scottish crown jewels. (I've now seen the Scottish and the English/British ones, but not the Norwegian ones. kind of ironic?)

On our way down from the castle we met a nice lady with a vibrant lipstick who wanted to promote a book called Edinburgh Shorts. I thought I'd share this for with the way she told about this book (apparently it's a collection of shorts in different styles that's all centered around Edinburgh, there should be crime, drama, romance and comedy) it sounded really cool. I think I'll put it on my wishlist.

Not far from the castle is this old cathedral which is not used as a church anymore, but it is really pretty and I have eaten lunch inside it. How cool is that? It's called The Hub.

Also. just down the street from The Hub, near St.Giles Cathedral (which we of course visited) we were surprised by some street performers. Walking down Karl Johans gate in Oslo during summertime you will encounter people playing the accordion or playing guitar and singing Wonderwall by Oasis or Knocking on Heavens Door by Bob Dylan (usually they are good and you get in a summery mood, but it's always the same). Or maybe you meet people jumping around their cd-player. I don't know what the traditions on Scottish streets are, but to me this group of musicians was a welcome change from the accordions and cd-players. And they were really good! (it should be said that I love this kind of music.Cheerful strings). The sound quality in my video is horrible, but I hope you get the picture. (And at the very start you'll hear me say "...there's a man in the way though..."

Also! Silly me didn't think of filming this, but every day there was a man, in a kilt, playing the bagpipe at the street outside our hotel. And not just the kilt itself; the whole get-up! (I admit it. I have a thing for kilts).
It was really cool. Even though it resulted in us having bagpipe music stuck in our heads even after we left the country XD

About the superfriendlyness of the Scottish people. They say "thank you" ALL THE TIME. I'm astonished. The waitress even thanked us for letting her clear our table as if we were the ones doing her a favor... (no, thank YOU for bringing us food and cleaning up after us.)
Besides. On Norwegian walls you can find drawings of willies or sentences like "[someone's name] is gay" (that's how childish we are). On Calton Hill you could find stuff like this:

Maybe it's the other way around. Scottish people aren't extraordinarily friendly, Norwegians are just extraordinarily... cold.

Anyways. It was a great trip and I would love to return and see more of Scotland some day. It is a lovely place.
And I leave you with a picture of some doves taken in St.Andrew Square.

(For other dove-pictures, go here XD )

So I am gonna blog about Scotland

soon, when I get around to sort my pictures and stuff.
Meanwhile; I stumbled over this and just had to share it.

så skal jeg ikke mase mer.

I'm a librarian.
But 10 years ago I was certain I would work with commercials. I wanted to be an Art Director. I wanted to make short films to amuse people.

Now, I know most people change the channel once they cut to commercial, or mute the TV or go to the toilet while waiting for their program to start again. But I'm weird; I actually watch the commercials. And I'm fascinated by them. Not the "Bang, and the dirt's gone"-ones. But the funny ones or sometimes epic ones  (yes, commercials can be epic, I'll show you some later).

To me most of them are just as good as the silly/weird/totally illegible short films you'll find running in art museums. If the museum ones are considered art, then why not the ones that make sense.

So. I'm gonna show you some of my favorites. I promise there wont be any "trust pink"-ones ever. Just the good ones. (There will be mostly/only Norwegian ones of course, 'cause I'm mostly watching Norwegian TV)

And since I'm going flying soon I'll start with this one (even though I'm not traveling with Widerø):

SPEAKING OF

Ewan McGregor.

Aren't grown men cute. With their little games and toys. I love this.
It kind of reminds me how "Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional".
And thank goodness for that.

We can be us

Moulin Rouge is one of my absolute favorite movies.
For multiple reasons.

I've met people who think it's a bad movie because it's "just pop songs". I guess they think it fails as a musical because of that.

I think that's one of the great things about it.
Having been raised on music, and being a apart of the social group that I am (The "I'm SO not a hipster"-group) where 60% of our interactions and entertainment revolves around cultural references; I find this a brilliant movie.
How satisfying to sit and get reference after reference!
And how fascinating to discover the ones you didn't know!
I love that.



Also; I do hold a fascination for cover songs (as long as it's done in a respectful manner, art is supposed to be interpreted and shared). Maybe that's why I enjoy the movie. Besides being a cute love story (/tragedy) in a sparkling wrap-up it works as a tribute to so many good artists.
That's what I think.


I recently watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Partly because I wanted to see Emma Watson as someone else than Hermione (She did good).
Mostly because I've seen the book in the stores and heard people recommend it. I picked it up time after time, but never brought it home. Being caught in the atmosphere of High School through a whole book didn't tempt me, but I can bear it for an hour and 43 minutes (and I don't regret it).




Anyways, my point isn't really the movie itself or ms. Watson. What struck me was how Heroes by David Bowie became such a meaningful song for the characters in the movie and gave me an equally meaningful feeling. It took me back to my discovery of David Bowie when I was young and my daddy would play his concert-DVD and praise Gail Ann Dorsey's beautiful voice (which deserves praise; it really is out of this world. And that version of Under Pressure really is the best one). And it reminded me of how I fell in love with Ewan McGregor during the Elephant Love Medley in Moulin Rouge the first time I watched it.

It's a good feeling, remembering feel-good moments and being reminded of good music.

If you garden them and water them

As a kid I was utterly useless when it came to houseplants. I once killed a cactus in less than a week. (Because I decided that this time I wouldn't forget to water my plant ...It drowned).

15 months ago I found a tiny Saintpaulia. It looked so lovely I decided to give plants another shot. And, worst case scenario; I would at least have some fun while it lasted.

I still have it, it is thriving and occasionally blooming.

My grandma loved houseplants. Her window sill would always be full of them. She and Mum would regularly go on shopping sprees dedicated for plants. And even though she liked lots of colors and would go into the shop with an open mind to what she'd get, she always came out with a pink one.

I have discovered a sort of ceremonial behavior within myself. When someone dies I want to do something that to me hold a strong connection to my image of that person. When my grandfather died I surprised my boyfriend by asking for a cup of coffee, which I usually didn't care for (now I kinda do, it's been two years), and when my grandma died I told my mother I would go out and buy a pink houseplant.

I didn't buy one; I inherited one of my grandma's (a Kalanchoe). And I still have it; It's growing at the speed of Alice and blooming merrily.

Watering my plants now, knowing it's been over a year, I can't help giving it some extra thought. I inherited two more plants of my grandma's and I've bought myself some more. They seem to be thriving, which makes me happy.

I guess as you grow older these things happen. You loose things. And you learn to take care of things.

Synesthesia

Maria Mena was on Skavlan (a Norwegian/Swedish talk show) some weeks ago. And she has synesthesia.

Hers is not the same as mine, she can actually use it to make her music; by putting the right colors, corresponding to musical notes, together. I just associate a color to each letter in our alphabet and numbers. And to the weekdays and the months. I also have a strong visual perception of abstract concepts like years and weeks.

But by listening to her talking about it I managed to finally catch the name of this condition (even though I've known about it for a while, I've never managed to remember the name of it), so I wikipedied it.

On the top right corner of the English Wikipedia article there's an image illustrating how a person with synesthesia might perceive the letters of this word.

This is when I discover that my Grapheme → color synesthesia might be stronger than I thought. 'cause I found this image somewhat uncomfortable to look at.
All the letters are the wrong color.
(Which is fine if there's some aesthetic reason and the colors match, but this combination of colors was just a mess and to me without reason or order).

Maybe it's my ocd colliding with my synesthesia. ...XD

For those curious, this is how I perceive these letters:

Does this make anyone else uncomfortable like the Wikipedia image made me?
I find it quite fascinating that people with the same condition will assign different colors to different concepts (even though it makes perfect sense; we are different persons after all).


Oh, and while we're at the subject. Some weeks ago I was chatting with some friends (my boyfriend and my girlfriend's boyfriend) and I mentioned that I like some numbers better than others without knowing what determined if I like them or not. We wondered if the ones I like might be prime numbers, but when I reflected on this later I quickly discovered they were not (not exclusively).
Then, while researching synesthesia I got the idea that it may have a connection to the colors.
And it does!
I really like the red or otherwise warm-colored numbers. The blue ones are ok. The yellow ones are kinda special and fun. I don't like the pink ones and the white ones are neutral. And then there's 11, which is sort of a light beige-gray and one of a kind and (therefore?) my favorite of them all.

Then again, this doesn't answer why I like the ones I like 'cause I do not know why they got their respective colors...

(Isn't it weird how specific numbers got a different color than their contents? Like 10 being yellow even though 1 and 0 are both white. And 20 (being blue) is a greener shade than 2.)

So.
Synesthesia.
Anyone else?

This is a blogpost.

First, an explanation regarding the layout:
I thought the green and red layout was ready, but after launching it I discovered several things that still need adjustments and, seeing as I had already put down quite the time, energy and effort into it, I don't have any time, energy or effort left to spare when it comes to blog layouts. It will have to be saved for another time.
Meanwhile. I took the time to customize one of the templates provided by Blogger.com and am quite pleased with the colors at least, so this will be my layout now.

Then I want to apologize to anyone that might feel neglected, forgotten or ignored by me. My Bachelor is due in just 10 days and I'm not even halfway done. I am stressed as hell and will break down in tears by the silliest things. That is why I'm difficult to get a hold on these days. I am truly sorry.

Furthermore; Allowing myself some distraction I thought I would share with everyone my new crush in music. Then! while wondering which of their songs to present I discovered that they just released a new album! And although I didn't care that much for their last one, this one is kinda lovely. So comfortable, uplifting sounds!

So, ladies and gentlemen. Born Ruffians is a Canadian indie rock trio. They are super cool. And this is my favorite song from their newest album.

With Her Shadow





And this is the song I chose for you before discovering the news. Barnacle Goose (From my favorite album right now; Red, Yellow & Blue), because it's so much fun.




Post-punk revival must be one of the best things ever to happen. :D
(Well of course I would say something like that, being a person who names The Cure's debut album one of her all time favorites XD
...But seriously.)

There

Maybe...

Layout!
I got something up at last.
Though I may adjust a few things still. We'll see.
(I'm not completely sure I like the color of my background and the front page do look a bit messy)
I've also added quite a few links at the top of the site that doesn't really lead to anything of interest yet, I'll have to fill up the pages gradually.

But. Even though I'm supposed to do my bachelor and therefore must do the layout adjustments a little at a time I do promise to try and post more. I actually have some blogposts ready (I tend to write them even though I don't post them, as a diary or something while I ride the train and such) so there will be some updates soon. (I should proofread them first).

mata ne

Standby for maintenance

I felt like changing the layout of this blog a bit, just to spice things up and to motivate myself so I would maybe start blogging again (and contact my friends, and all the other stuff I haven't been doing due to exams and stuff).
But it didn't turn out how I wanted it.
And now I must go to bed, so we're stuck with this nice, simple red layout until I fix it again.
(I got a backup of the old layout, of course, but I'm to tired and lazy to change it back, I just clicked on one of the default layouts instead.)

Red is a nice color. It'll have to do for now.

!Year New Happy

This blog is a complete mess, isn't it?
I find I'm always surprised when people leave comments for I can't really see how anything I put here is of any use or entertainment for anyone but myself.

According to tradition I am to list the books I completed last year and review the ones I liked.
But I can't seem to find any motivation for it. I don't know why, but my head is constantly in a turmoil these days. And Christmas and New Years just flashed by. I managed to cling onto some branches and follow the flow, and I had a good time, but I can't say I was that aware of the things happening as it went...

Christmas is/was weird this time (I guess it had to be with a key-person missing).

I could list the books though. And add a sentence about each. If anyone wants to know more about one, they can ask me.

I didn't really read that many books this year anyways. It was a silly year. It had of course it's beautiful moments, but overall I didn't care that much for 2012. Glad it's over. On to better times! (with less sugar, more exercise, proper sleep, yadda yadda yadda).

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
        A fun read, though not as fun as I had hoped.

The Gallows Curse - Karen Maitland
        Same as above really. I love Karen Maitland's style, but this one didn't quite measure up to i.e. Company of Liars.

Perfume - Patrick Süskind
       Loved it.

En dåre fri - Beate Grimsrud
        It's just brilliantly written.

Her Fearful Symetry - Audrey Niffenegger
        Niffenegger is great at portraiting people's relationships and I couldn't put the book away for a second, but I strongly disliked the ending and that sorta ruined the whole thing for me.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
        I really enjoyed this.

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
        This may be my favorite of all the books I read this year. It isn't necessarily any better (you know, when it comes to quality, whatever that implies) than the others, but it contains all my favorite elements (magic, love, mysteries, historic settings, and so on). It was a joy from start to finish.

Ett öga rött - Jonas Hassen Khemiri
        This one is so deliberately and well executed, I enjoyed it very much.