A Roll in the Universe

Far more common on a Norwegian than a pair of skis, is a rucksack. This is the fence of a local daycare center and the colorful bands belong to the children's little rucksacks hanging on the other side.

This has been such a weird day at work, for many of us. As we left today, we took home any personal must-have items. We turned off all computers and photocopiers. We transferred our phones to the switchboard. We put an auto-response on our e-mail. We left employer-owned cell phones and PCs at the office. Not until after midnight today will we know if this was all unnecessary. If negotiations break down tonight, we're on strike tomorrow. And if we are on strike tomorrow, we will likely be on strike for a couple of weeks. In which case, I will be on the picket line Friday from 8 to 10 am at the north entrance to our subterranean parking, sporting a wordy sign about our right to veto changes in pension plans. Honestly, I've never been on strike and would love to find out what it's like. But I do have mixed feelings. I don't like picketing my employer. I like my employer. Many co-workers understand the conflict in emotions; they feel it, too. But it's the principle ...

I just saw the oystercatcher chick! Woohoo! In case you've missed this spring's act of voyeurism, read here , here and here . The first egg hatched yesterday. The parents are still incubating the other two eggs, but in the meantime, the eldest chick wanders around, and is colored and patterned very much like the egg it was in, but with the parents' white belly. I just saw the chick minutes ago, when the parent got off the nest. The chick did, too, and wandered off, but came back as the parent returned to sit on the nest. Awfully cute little thing! The chick, I mean, not the nest. And certainly doesn't look just 24 hours old. See a picture here: http://tjeld.uib.no/snapshots/1148910787.jpg

In the US, I'd probably be a Republican (I was, back when). Here in Norway, I've joined a labor union, partly because my union is non-political, and partly because labor unions in Norway are the rule, not the exception, and even encouraged by employers. Labor unions in Norway nowadays tend to work in concert with the government and employers organizations, but still have their watchdog function. It was union efforts in the 1930's that paved the way for federal laws governing vacation time and vacation pay, sick leave, maternity leave, and overtime regulations. This is the road most union work took in most of Europe. In the US, the labor movement shot itself in the foot (and I am so sorry it did). I have to go back in a week to pick up my US passport , and have mused on whether or not to take a vacation day for that. I have 25 to choose from, thanks to my union, which has added another 4 days to the federal vacation law's 21. And then it occurred to me: We could be on ...

...I renew my passport. Having renewed said passport, I then must go to what was formerly known as the alien office to get my residency visa stamped in my passport. Since I do this only once every ten years, I approached this with complete cluelessness. At least I had the forethought to phone ahead and get the office hours, but not much else. I walked briskly to our local police headquarters, wherein are all things passporty, Norwegian-style, and saw about 70 fair-skinned people milling around entrance B. I scanned the sign and finally realized what the A, B, and C stood for which jogged a vague memory from 10 years ago. I walked around the corner to entrance C, and was instantly met by a couple of dozen dark-skinned people, and a door I recognized. I went inside, more definitely-foreign people, and eventually realized there must a queue system, and sure enough, there was the machine dispensing queue numbers. I then went back outside, because outside was coolish but sunny while insid...

I got a good look at the eggs just as the parent bird got off the nest for a minute.

The Norwegian University newspaper has published an article about the oystercatcher pair , but only in Norwegian. The article says it's really a love story. The oystercatcher couple have been together for years. Last year, their eggs hatched in the very beginning of June, and this year the eggs are expected to hatch at the same time. Both parents are equally involved in tending the chicks. When they hatch, you have to pay close attention, because it'll only be a matter of days before the chicks are able to wander off away from the nest.

I'm trying to get caught up. I have what the Norwegians call a "luxury problem": One of those problems that isn't really a problem; it's insignificant and often a result of abundance. Mine is having so much material for blog posts, that I a) can't choose, and b) can't find the time. I found a common theme for a couple of items, so here you go: Shooting birds My new camera has a 12x zoom and I wanted that so I could take bird pictures. I'm not sure if it's the camera or the camera settings, but this picture of a fieldfare (in Norwegian, "gray thrush") shows some artifacts around the bird. The picture itself is good, though. I was walking around Ortuvann (the pond near where I live), and was mostly focused on the birds on the ground. Then I got the impulse to look up, and looked straight at: I took several shots of this bird and then noticed two more just like it in another tree. Those two seemed to be having a dispute; I'm assum...

At the end of April, I decided to make a point of doing something new at least once a week. I wanted to break out of my mold, avoid more boring weekends, and also see if I couldn't meet people. I have been acting like an introvert for a quite a few years now, and I've decided that I need to reach out and get some social skills. So, in addition to the International Worker's Day parade , I attended the monthly member meeting of our union's local, and got a free treatment through an organisation and system started by a Norwegian, called Still Point . The consultant "read" me using a pendulum and dripped various tinctures under my tongue. After an hour and a half of tuning my physical, causal and astral selves (the areas that he said needed tuning), I got ready to leave. The thing is, the treatment center is on the second floor of what was essentially a boathouse, and access was via a winding metal staircase with grated steps and landings. Another woman there fo...

Nothing like messing around with a new camera. Testing out features and functions and discovering... My goodness, but I do have a lot of cat things! And what you see here - in my window, my coffee cup, Grandma's painting - isn't all. All photos are right from the camera, only reduced in size. The last two are experiments with the PowerShot's "effect color" function. The original is a painting done by my grandma and given as a housewarming gift.

I bought a Canon PowerShot S2 IS via mail order and picked it up today. (Yay!) The above is my very first picture taken with it - without reading the manual (just to see how intuitive the camera is) or installing software (yay, iPhoto!). Yeah, I know, it's out of focus. So here's my second picture taken with my new camera: The photos are reduced in size, but otherwise unretouched. Now, to go read the manual and maybe install some Canon software since iMovie can't recognize a USB-camera. My intuitiveness has taken me only so far.

We had a light covering of snow and 7 weeks of freezing temperatures through February and March, and then we thawed, but just barely. Finally, this first week of May, weather mild enough to encourage growth appeared. In fact, as I write, we are enjoying summer temperatures! Rather odd to have 22C and still-naked trees, but neither will last long. At long last - signs of spring! I found several, including the delicate white wood anemones, the birch's "mouse ears", and some assorted other buds and new leaves, even a tree with yellow flowers. Enjoy!

May 1 is Labor Day, international style. It's celebrated, often as a day off from work, in many countries around the world, except in the nation that was the reason for May 1 becoming the laborer's own day: The United States (can you say "ironic"?). See Wikipedia's entry on May Day for that particular background story. In Norway, May 1 is a national holiday and traditionally labor unions, labor/socialist parties and special interest groups gather for parades, demonstrations and speeches. My impression is that it's very left-wing even for a left-wing nation, and I, with my American background, always end up feeling dark blue on such a day. But I attended today, for the first time ever, walking in the parade with the local plumber's union. (My friend's a plumber; no cracks about his crack, thank you.) According to the speeches, the "man" is still out to get us, Israel is out to get Palestine, and the non-leftist politicians are idiots. In ...