A Roll in the Universe

Ah, yes, the world of belly-button lint and pure trivia, coming together in graceful order for embarrassing reveals on a blog near you. Here we go: The most difficult part of this meme is, that you can only answer the questions with a single word. (And considering that I grew up in more than one country, miss more than one person, etc., what follows is first impulse.) Where is your cell phone? — Bookshelf Where is your significant other? — Future Your hair color? — Brown Your mother? — Nevada Your father? — Dunno Your favorite thing? — iMac Your dream last night? — None Your dream/goal? — Published The room you’re in? — Messy Your hobby? — Blogging Your fear? — Unknowns Where do you want to be in 6 years? — Better Where were you last night? — Here What...

Wordless Wednesday

The snow that started to fall Thursday, fell some more on Friday and Saturday, then it stopped, and left us with a frosted, white world bathed in muted, peachy sunlight. The best part? Some left-over Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix for when I got back indoors. Nom!

I should call it a snow day, but on my way home, the snow came at me from all directions, making it pure guesswork which way to angle the umbrella. But when it's snow, it doesn't matter in the same way as when it's rain. I tried to capture the thin layer of snow, enough to turn the lawns white, before the light faded completely (it's not 4:30 pm yet, and already it's dark out). The asphalt is bare because the janitor has already sprinkled salt on it. Snow and fading light make things look black and white. This close-up of the trunk of the cherry tree in front of my building looks more like a study in pen and ink than a color photograph.

Wordless Wednesday

It's downright distracting to have arms whose protests against too much typing and mousing can no longer be ignored. I am doing better, and my increased awareness of what is good for me is definitely helping. But it doesn't take much abuse to get the arms protesting again (they're very mutually supportive that way, my arms: They both protest even though only one has a problem; well, I need the reminders). There's a lot I want to do - at the computer. But after a whole week at work, I didn't feel up to doing a lot of typing during the weekend. I need to give my arms that rest. Happily, today at work went better than expected, with me rearranging stuff so I could have a mouse on the right-hand side of one keyboard and a mouse on the left-hand side of another. (I have two computers on my desk at work. See? ) Then it was move one computer over so there'd be room for two mouse pads. Only to discover that moving one computer over had me leaning against the button ...

No, that's not a typo. In Europe, the week starts on Monday and this week that was the 10th. I sometimes get American calendars and have to remember that on those Sunday is to the left. For some reason, it's not as confusing as I thought it would be. This week, my arm is better, I did more core exercises (and enjoyed them), and I seem to be on the right path. Mac users trying to prevent RSI may want to try this little time-out app that reminds you to take both micro-breaks and regular ones. I donated to Wikipedia . See badge at bottom right column. I keep linking to it so I figured why not. Nazis are on the loose in Fyllingsdalen, my neck of the woods. They've tagged the church earlier, and on the 70th anniversary of Crystal Night , they tagged a kindergarten, an elementary school and an apartment building. Last night, there was a meeting between the youth of Fyllingsdalen and the municipal politicians, and I hope something concrete came out of it. The kids don'...

After a delayed lunch (through no fault of our own), we finally arrived in Berlin . It was a long drive into the center of town because Berlin is your typical large metropolitan. We drove by the Berlin Wall , and I tried to make a note of what boulevard we were on. When I finally got a map, I learned that we had been driving through the old East Berlin part, right up Karl Marx Allee to our hotel, the Park Inn Alexanderplatz . Our guide joked that Berlin could be considered one of the largest construction sites in Europe. The view from my 22nd story hotel room confirmed that. (I was actually facing Karl Marx Allee from my room.) But what I really wanted to do was get out and look around. Unlike Dresden, the drive through Berlin whetted my appetite so I grabbed my camera and went out. It was late in the afternoon and getting a bit dark, but my pictures turned out better than I expected. Between the hotel and the TV tower is a plaza with shopping centers. I was told that Galeria ...

Wordless Wednesday

The river Spree runs through Berlin. Halfway between Dresden and Berlin is Spreewald (Spree Forest). We were told we were going on a boat ride and imagined a large motorized passenger boat with large viewing windows. But what we got was a ride in large, low prams, propelled by German gondoliers, through a very quiet and lush series of canals, now on UNESCO's world heritage list. It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing morning. A characteristic haystack The business end of the the gondolier's pole. There was a little stop at a restaurant area, which also had a small museum, an aquarium, and a souvenir shop. The latter featured miniature "Trabbies" - the infamous Trabant car that the former DDR used to produce, and which is as much a symbol of the DDR-era as the Berlin wall is. In fact, we did do our fair share of Trabant-spotting from the bus. There aren't that many of them left, so my fellow travelers got excited every time they saw one.

The most beautiful thing I've read lately is this: Rosa sat, so Martin could walk, so Barack could run, so our children could fly. (It seems have first been said on NPR/BBC.)

There is a hall monitor in my building. OK, not like in school, but basically those who live in a building take turns being the go-to person for complaints and light bulbs. That last is very important, especially in winter. Our stairwell has landings on each floor and halfway between each floor. There is a single light fixture with a single light bulb on each landing. My landing gets light from the landing halfway above, its own bulb, and the landing halfway down. Now, if one bulb goes out, the other two still help one see. Two went out, and I could still manage to tell if the daily newspaper was left on my mat, but not enough to identify anyone through my peephole. But when all three went out, I started waiting for the upstairs neighbor who is currently in charge of changing light bulbs (he gets them for free from our co-op office) to change these light bulbs. A couple of weeks passed. Finally, I took matters into my own hands. I could have gone upstairs and asked my neighbor to c...

Sometimes the sweetest things show up unexpectedly, like a note from Mom. That was the title of the e-mail my mom sent me today. Actually, it was notes from Mom. One of them was a healing prayer for me. It is now laminated and resting by my keyboard as a reminder that both life, body and family are all good. Thanks, Mom!

Wordless Wednesday

Yes, I've been missing in action, without saying why. Nothing serious. A bit of idea drought, RSI, and happy moments that involve friends that are not comfortable with being blogged about. About that latter, I will merely say that I made a new friend on my trip to Trondheim this summer. About the RSI (repetitive strain injury): My mouse arm (which sounds terribly dirty in Norwegian because, well, where in American one refers to a certain female body part as something akin to Tom , in Norwegian it is akin to Jerry ) has been acting up. For quite a while, actually, and now so badly that I finally realized it was time to seek help. And it turns out that my company has a new health plan (actually, a medical treatment plan) and a new physical therapist with office hours in my building on Mondays (as far as I know). So last Thursday, while discussing the matter with my boss (every time I said "mouse arm" we both tried not to giggle - sheesh), it occurred to me to call the co...