A Roll in the Universe

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday morning I was making myself coffee, when I noticed a starling couple on the lawn outside my kitchen window. Both birds were pecking away at the ground, looking for edibles. Suddenly, the female hurried over to the male, they "kissed" (touched beaks), then the male mounted the female - for one second. (Had I blinked, you wouldn't be reading this.) Then the male moved about 4 feet away and the female followed him, keeping that distance between them. Even in a tree, they keep that distance: This may be the same couple of birds, spotted this afternoon. Here are some close-ups of the male (more uniformly black with some a gorgeous iridescent "ruff") and the browner, far more speckled female.

Today I rediscovered the joy of being forced to stand still for a few minutes and do nothing but wait. The waiting was for the bus. I worked late today, and since it was both windy and raining and I wasn't really dressed for both wind and rain, I decided to take the bus home. I stood in the entry area of my office building, keeping out of the rain along with co-workers who were taking a cigarette break. On the wall next to me hangs a sign which reads "No smoking by entrance". Two of the smokers were actually waiting for a taxi. When one showed up at the taxi stand, they headed for it. That's when I noticed that the long black fence between the taxi area and the street had a gap. The fence is simple, with two horizontal rails placed at heights that make it uncomfortable to crawl under or step over, and the only way to get its other side is to take the long way round, which is also where the cross walk is. I had noticed earlier that a bottom railing had been bro...

Nicole B. has invited me to join InterNations , a sort of Facebook for expatriates, wherein one, among other things, can "Find reliable information and tips from other members about your local living environment". That sort of thing makes me balk. Merlyn Trey Hunter has written about the culture shock a foreigner typically experiences when adjusting to a new country. Interestingly, Nicole B. has left a rather aggressive comment on the whole matter of being foreign at Trey's. Are they wrong to have such negative reactions? Heavens, no. You can't go by me, you see. I have felt some of the alienation and frustration but rarely more than a twinge. This is because I have spent part of my childhood in both California and in Norway, and so I've never had to struggle with either language or either culture as an adult. I have some of the common cultural rites of passage necessary for "getting" what bonds people, like grade school and having only one TV st...

Taken from Paula . What was the last blog you left a comment on? Victoria's . Favorite black and white movie? Young Frankenstein , which has the distinction of being the first movie I laughed out loud at in a movie theater. What’s in your freezer right now? Assorted veggie mixes, left-over chili, bread. My freezer's actually too small for my current needs. How many pillows do you have on your bed? Only the two relatively flat ones I sleep with. I don't get that whole smother-the-bed-in-pillows thing. Do you regularly share your bed with anyone? Only dust mites. Do you sleep in pajamas, undies, nude, or other? Other, which means either nightgown or T-shirt. I cannot sleep with a draft on my shoulders. If you won $50,000, what would you do with it? Pay off my mortgage and take a year off work. Something nice you did for someone today? That would be myself. I had a nice soak in the tub and had a lovely meditation while I was there. Something bad you ...

Sometimes I have to remind myself it's still only April. But we seem to be really wanting spring this year. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Naw, we really want spring. That's it. We had a very dreary winter. We want light and flowers now. Bergen just had a nine-day run of sunny weather (and the accompanying brush fires). That coaxed a number of plants into budding including the cherry tree and birch tree right outside my living room windows. The cherry tree is just starting to bud. The flowers will be pink and the buds have a rose sheen to them. The birch tree has, just in the last 24 hours, busted out in delicate fresh points of green, known around here as "mouse ears" because of their shape. The nice thing about winter is that you can see through the trees, and get views impossible in the summer. The nice thing about summer is all the lush foliage that can block other stuff from view. Every season has its charm.

I've had a four-month grace period on the credit card I got to buy my new iMac with. I now have a choice: Pay the whole thing off, interest-free, or start in with monthly payments and interest. There is definitely some Capricorn/Cancer in me because a part of me is saying "No!" to paying it all off because that will deplete my savings account! My wonderful fat-and-supposed-to-get-fatter savings account! It's going to take months and months to get it back up to today's level if I pay all that bill off now! And I'll lose interest! Whiiine! Thank goodness for the voice of reason. I have no clue where it comes from or if it even has an astrological association, but I like the way it sounds, all calm and manly firm and reasonable. It's saying that if I owe myself the money instead, as it were, I won't be charged interest; I will instead slowly regain it, with interest increasing right along - a lovely win-win situation. Are you listening, Keera? Yea...

Wordless Wednesday

It has been an exceptionally lovely day, warm enough to crowd the lawns of the parks with people in short-sleeved garments. I took this picture in our city park on my way to the Picasso exhibit. The Japanese cherry trees are starting to bud, and I like how the gardeners planted a yellow flower snake. So this year Bergen is host to a Picasso exhibit. Our trade union likes to treat its members to a monthly dinner and talk and this time the talk was a guided tour of the exhibit. I was fascinated by the pure vata / ectomorph body of our guide and the bold statement she and the room made together, colorwise. The large painting on the left is on loan from New York's MOMA and is as wide as I am tall. Just thought you'd like to know. The shadow this glass case cast on the wall was as much a work of art as the bust inside the case. (The bust is of one of Picasso's lovers, Françoise Gilot .) I was not so fascinated by Picasso. I know he's famous and why, and I also...

I'm currently reading "The Moses Code" , and it's a fascinating experience. The book is about using "I am that I am" (God's name) and just saying that phrase puts me in a much calmer and happier frame of mind. In general, reading the book has that effect. It's also reminding me that I am not alone, that I always am and always have been continuously guided. For example: As I went to bed Sunday evening, I noticed that my alarm clock wasn't showing the correct time. The battery is running down. I couldn't be bothered getting a fresh battery so I went and got my cell phone and used its alarm function. And that's when I realized the wonderful synchronicity of the alarm clock's timing: It was the only alarm I heard Saturday morning at 4:30 am. Had it not rung, I might not have had a pleasant half hour getting ready to meet Torleif for our birding adventure . I hadn't reacted to my cell phone's alarm which was set for 4:25. (Had t...

I remember when I lived in Los Angeles, a friend of mine and I drove on the ridge of the Hollywood Hills on Mulholland Drive, a road that devolved into a gravel single lane at the ridge's narrowest part. We parked and got out and enjoyed the views to both The Valley to the north and the Los Angeles basin to the south. Looking down onto some newish (at the time) homes climbing up from the valley side, we noted each one had a pool. A bright cyan spot in varying ovoid and kidney shapes. Little blue ponds of prosperity, I called them. Pools are a far surer sign of wealth in California than the car a person drives. You not only have to be able to afford a house, but the land around it to accommodate a pool. Odd blue dots showed up on this picture from Google Earth, from my friend Torleif's neighborhood. My first thought were pools (of course), but Norwegians don't do pools. Not the climate for them. I pondered a bit what in the world people would have by their homes and in t...

For the third time, my birdwatching friend Torleif and I went to the recreational area and former fort called Kvarven , which looks out over the city harbor and fjord and various mountains and islands to the north and west. Those islands are what make Bergen a safe harbor, protected from the worst of the North Sea weather. We were parked by 5:30 and on our way up the paved foot path. The woods on either side were full of sound. It was like standing in the middle of an orchestra as it played. Torleif is used to identifying birds by their song, the equivalent of being able to pick out each individual musician in the orchestra. I was in the position of not hearing the difference between a bass and cello or a sax and clarinet. But no matter. I could still stand in awe at being so completely surrounded by the sounds of birds, as the dawn sky slowly brightened from a yet unseen sun. I had made the sandwiches, Torleif brought the coffee. Breakfast was at 6 am, with a view over the isl...

One sign of spring around here is the return of the migratory bird, the white wagtail. It's a pretty common sight here in the summer, and it has a striking monochrome coloring , and that characteristic and cute flipping of the tail that gives it its English name. In Norwegian, it's called "linerle". There is a superstition associated with the bird. Basically, you need to take note of where you see your first wagtail of the year. If on stoney ground, you'll have an unfavorable year. If on grass, you'll have a prosperous year. I know that superstitions should never take the place of good ol' common sense (and personal effort), and besides it's all just chance where the bird happens to be just when you happen to spot it, but I do take note. You never know, right? I started making a note of where I see my first wagtail after I heard about it being a portent. So two springs in a row, I saw the bird on rock. First time was on a brick sidewalk (dumb bird ...

Look what I found on I Can Has Cheezburger just now: My "black cat crossing path" photo, now wiff kapshun . So I sent them this e-mail: Hi! This is my photograph. I did let a student use it for a collage, and I guess somebody found it and LOLCatted it (is LOLCat a verb? It is now). I'm OK with that, but I would be tickled if you credited me as the photographer. Thanks! Keera Ann Fox, Norway Stay tuned! Whoo, got a reply already! Thx so much for letting us know! We have updated the picture with your name as the photographer. Sorry about the missing credit and great picture! kthxxbai Tofuburger So now the credit reads: Keera Ann F. That's a new one for me. :-)

I saw an illustration someplace, which basically had taken a photograph and turned it into a stained glass window. I am picky about some details with this production here, but I like the effect. The original photograph was taken in Lake Tahoe last summer.

I bought books. Actual printed books. Expedited shipping from Amazon. In New Zealand, of all places. Took a week to get to Norway. Lookit: I found my camera's manual and managed to take a macro picture of the address label on the Amazon box. You are looking at a first. Please look again. Thank you. Oh, the books I bought? That were so all-fired interesting/important that I bought actual printed and bound books and ordered faster-than-a-snail mail? These: The only thing left to do is decide which to start reading first.

"Office hours Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 9 am to 1 pm." "Phone hours Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12 pm to 2 pm." They aren't making it easy for me to find out when I need to show up to get my "settlement permit" renewed. When I renewed my passport in 2006, I had to go get the usual rubber stamp in it, showing I'm a permanent resident of Norway. That usually just required showing up at what used to be called the alien office on any weekday during regular office hours and some worn bureaucrat would look at the passport and stamp it. But they had changed the rules and their methods in the ten years since my last renewal. I had to bring a photograph and what I got back a week later was a slick, laminated holograph of my smiling face. The worst part was waiting in line for on average two hours twice for what took me no more than seven minutes all total for the two visits (handing in and picking up). Granted, you pull a queue number, but it...

I woke up feeling good, even though I woke up early on a Saturday. But since I had a hair appointment in town at 10:30, being up and about for a few relaxing hours first was a good thing. Last night I checked a few things online, fiddled with a trial version of Photoshop Elements , and made a few decisions. (I'm such a nerd.) So after my hair cut, I went straight to our local Apple store. But first I passed by Bergen's famous fish market, which was very empty of both booths and people. Shockingly so. I was relieved that I could see no tourists. We are actually fighting to save our traditional open-air fish market, because the direction it's heading in is no longer about fresh fish, Bergen or traditions any more. The vats that contain our live fish and crabs were closed. Those are one of the main reasons for the market. But there was one fish stand open for business, displaying a variety of caviars. I've never really been into fish eggs, though I do like cod roe, w...

The addition to our office building of one extra floor has given those of us on this new level an excellent view of the sex life (and nest-building and child-rearing abilities) of the gulls that like to breed on our roof. This couple is madly in love and expressed it this afternoon by sitting very, very still very, very closely, matching each other in both looks and moves. They reminded me of human teenagers in love. PS: I downloaded a trial of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and have had fun fixing a few pictures tonight, including a quick-and-dirty blurring of the background in the gull picture. Just to see if I really want Elements at NOK 999 instead of Photoshop CS3 at over NOK 8000. ;-)

Today it started to rain as I was on my way home from work, without an umbrella. I decided that since I was carrying groceries, I had no free hand for an umbrella, anyway, and it wasn't raining that hard, and so I was going to have a happy walk home. Which is about when I saw a bird that looked exactly like the logo of my county, Hordaland's birding site . It is the endangered white-backed woodpecker (in Norw., hvitryggsspett), aka dendrocopos leucotos . Even if it should turn out to be the far more common (and likely) great spotted woodpecker (in Norw., flaggspett), aka dendrocopos major , it was still an amazing moment in time and space. I was surrounded by apartment buildings, other people passing me by, never noticing why I was stopped in the path, and never noticing the pretty black-and-white-and-red bird exploring the bark of a birch tree only 10 feet away from me. But I noticed. And I realized as I watched the little woodpecker that had I had an umbrella, I never w...

I went up to the co-op office earlier this evening, to complain about/replace a non-functioning laundry card, a plastic card with a chip that starts the washing machine and dryer in our communal laundry rooms, charging NOK 6 for each load. Last Thursday, I got one load of laundry washed, and went to dry it and start the second load, when all I got was "E00005" on both machines. Well, one load's better than nothing, so I took it all back to my place and hung up the wet. Our steering committee keeps office hours every Wednesday from 7 pm to 9 pm. So I went to the office at 7 pm (it's just about a block away from me), and the doors were locked. That was a first for me, but not for an unfamiliar neighbor I ended up talking to while waiting for someone to show up. In a fit of honesty, I her that I felt the place was going downhill. With a smirk she replied that I was far from the first she'd heard that from. When I first moved to this co-op in 1986, we had a very p...

Do you ever get to a point where you feel like you need to just stop everything - stop what you're doing, stop commitments, stop routines, stop time - just so you can think? Because you need time to think to identify what's rattling around in your brain? Because what you're really trying to do is give form to your thoughts? That's where I am these days. So many fragments looking for something to join with are floating in and out of my awareness. There is a theme of sorts, a recurring theme that seems to be the common link between these fragments. And that is why I feel they can be gathered together and finally coalesce into cohesive, conscious thought. But I have to give them the peace and quiet to do so. I have to give myself that peace and quiet. I realize that it has been too long since I meditated on a regular basis. Too long since I let myself commune with myself, without interruption and without hurry. Too long since I let myself simply be, just read, think ...

I don't know how many years I've passed by this tree and only just now noticed it has five trunks coming out of one, like five fingers coming out of a palm. Oh! It's a palm tree! (I crack me up.)

I think I know why I am always surprised by the junk that shows up in my photos. I don't have ADHD (I don't quite fit all the criteria), yet I tend to see the world the way they often do: Either I notice all the details, or I don't notice them (or at least not the ones other people notice) at all. I'm probably just your garden variety scatter-brained, but this tendency to latch onto to the stuff nobody else does, while missing some pretty glaringly obvious things, is something I've always done. I've become far more aware of it in later years because I finally figured out that it influences how I do housework. Or rather how I don't. Today it is sunny, breezy and a balmy 10 Celsius (that's an even 50 Fahrenheit) so off with the long johns and on with the sneakers and out with the Powershot S2, which has basically been in hibernation all winter, not being a camera I can easily hide under my coat to keep dry between snapping pictures. So the camera and I t...

Sparkling Red has awarded me an E for Excellence for being whimsical. Thank you, Spark! Here are a couple of bloggers I'd like to pass the Badge of Excellence to: Alice over at 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera for being topical and for darned good photography. Chenpheng of Mekong River Tributaries for her photography and for being one of the few Western bloggers describing life in Asia without the culture shock getting a front seat. Paula over at Light Motifs for her mix of topicalness, whimsy, shoes, cupcakes and kitties! That sounds disorganized but she's very good about not throwing the cupcakes in the with shoes or the cats. Badaunt over at Present Simple for excellent writing and rib tickling. And for being one of the other Asian blogs that mixes "culture shock" with delight quite well. And some good photography to go with it.

It is almost imperceptable, but at some point, the silhouette of the trees change and get more filled in as winter ends and spring cannot be denied, as evidenced by the birch outside my apartment building.

I rediscovered an old favorite, User Friendly , and started poking around in the archives. I came across this: I got the joke/pun and laughed out loud, but then I started wondering what a brane actually was so I went a-lookin' (using define:"whatever" you need defined without the "" in Google's search box) and found this definition at good ol' PBS: brane: any of the extended objects that arise in string theory. A one-brane is a string, a two-brane is a membrane, a three-brane has three extended dimensions, etc. More generally, a p-brane has p spatial dimensions. P-brane. LOL! Geddit? Peabrain. Oh, those physicists! I wonder what a no-brane(r) is? *gigglesnort* Whadya mean, I must have one?

Småsko , literally "little shoes", is a rather odd word in the Norwegian language (well, I think so). There is no storsko (large shoe), for example. But it has a very specific meaning: Småsko is simply any kind of regular shoe that doesn't cover your ankles, and is generally used of children's shoes. That's one meaning. But that leads us to another, more significant meaning: The first wearing of småsko signifies spring, because there is no surer sign of warming and the end of winter storms than a day that is warm and dry enough for you not to need to wear something to keep your ankles warm and dry. As winter gives way to spring, Bergen enters into its most vulnerable season for fires: April is generally a dry month and the withered grass of winter can easily catch fire. But those same dry and warming days make it possible to shed heavier footwear. Shoes are lighter than boots, and it is wonderful to feel how much easier it is to pick up the feet - in more w...

Imagination prompt generator has asked if I was ever rushed to the hospital and what for. My visits to the hospital total two my entire life: One was the day I was born, the other was at about 9 months old, when my mother woke up in the middle of the night and had an impulse to go check on me. I was burning up. My parents rushed me to the hospital and they worked to bring my fever down. I stayed overnight but there was no more fever and no sign of why I even got it. Anyway, thanks, Mom! I have been rushed to the emergency room a few times more. What kid hasn't? I've observed that we all seem to end up with scars over an eye, under the chin, on a knee. Very standard. I have all three. The tiny scar under my chin I got at age 3, when I tripped on concrete steps and landed on my chin. I don't remember this. The other two scars I remember getting very, very well and if you are squeamish, stop reading. I was 7 and living in Twentynine Palms, California (yes, there reall...

I don't know about you, but I'm rather awestruck by the idea that there are 2.5 billion bacteria in a capsule this size: 2.5 billion . Here are their names: Lactobacillus acidophilus , Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium longum . In other news: I spent April Fool's day serving the gang at work cupcakes (hi, Paula !) to mark my actual anniversary which is today.