Skip to content

Stuff.

October 26th, 2011

Change.

4 years ago:
I had room for ALL my cd’s on my iPod… (lol)
I just started working at -nille and my feet got soooo tired after 2-3 hours at work…
I had lots of headaches all the time…
I was a “Miss”.

Stuff change.

If I hadn’t gone to that concert 5 years ago…

July 31st, 2010

there wouldn’t be a sleeping Kiwi on my couch right now.

this sleeping Kiwi

Because:

If I hadn’t gone to that concert, I wouldn’t have met Arne Martin.

If I hadn’t met Arne Martin, I wouldn’t know his family.

If I hadn’t known his family, his sister wouldn’t be visiting me right now.

If she wasn’t visiting me, her fiancé wouldn’t either.

And he’s the Kiwi on my couch.

Small decisions, like choosing to go to a concert or not, some times have big consequences.

Earth Day and laziness.

April 22nd, 2010

Happy Earth Day! Now go listen to this song: Devin Townsend – Earth Day. (Spotify link)

Husband is accusing me of being extremely lazy today. What happened was:

I opened Spotify so I could find the link to Devin Townsend – Earth Day so that I could tell people to listen to it.

Now, we have the cd, in the cd rack. But now Spotify was already open so I pressed play.

Husband’s comment on this was “So you’re listening to music on your laptop when we have a stereo to 15.000” (kroner, not dollars people)

I tried to explain…. Why get up when it’s already there? But noooo then he asks if I don’t have the cd in iTunes? Of course I do, but iTunes wasn’t open, was it?

So: I’d rather listen to something in Spotify, with crappy laptop speakers and with commercials, than pressing a couple of extra buttons or get up.

How does that make me lazy? I could try to find out, but ehhhh

verilyyyyyyy

March 3rd, 2010

Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna write something in my blag.

By now you should’ve somehow realized that I’m not so good at doing this.

I don’t believe that anybody really misses me writing here, but I do love writing, I’ve just gotten lazy.

Backbeat the word was on the street that I’ve let many things distract me lately.

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before but I don’t care, I’m saying it anyway.

I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do about this blog.

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding

And all the lights that lead us there are blinding

There are many things that I would

Like to say to you

But I don’t know how



Maybe

You’re gonna be the one who saves me ?

And after all

You’re my wonderwall


Sorry ’bout that. But I do love writing, and I have let mindlessly surfing on the ‘webs distract me from reading (books, I mean) and writing (other stuff than forum posts, I mean). I have to fix this. Some day.

I LOVE disaster movies!

December 17th, 2009

The way they just narrowly escape from fire/earth quakes/squishing/crashing/drowning/heartbreak/you get the gist. At least 5 instances of this should be present in a disaster movie.

The way the main characters start kissing when one of them really should GO GO GO YOU HAVE ONLY SECONDS IDIOT THIS IS NOT A ROMANTIC COMEDY YOU’RE THEIR ONLY HOPE STOP BEING ICKY! ARRRRRGH.

The way a really bad person does something really redeeming…and then dies.

The way science is a big part of the movie but still very very wrong (mutating neutrinos, wooo)!

The way only the men are counted in when someone says “hey guys, you should really look at this”. The women are left caring for their children/hair/boobs or something. When ALL of them Really should “look at this”.

The way the crazy guy really was right all the time. AND he has a plan. That plan isn’t escaping or living, but it is a plan.

The way BIG STUFF crashes down, cities just disappear in the ground, the white house is taken by a flood… It’s beautiful!

The way a car (i.e a voice driven Bentley) can withstand so much more crashing/catastrophes than an air plane, if just the right people are in the car.

It’s heart warming, really.

Yes, I’ve just been at the movies to see 2012. I’m sorry if you feel this post should have a spoiler warning, but come on…it’s a disaster movie, it’s pretty predictable!

In the words of Devin Townsend: It’s just entertainment, folks!

With a smile upon its face…

September 4th, 2009

“Innocence and undying love will reign.
The world will soon be right again.”
(from part V, song 1 on SMPTe)

So, right now I’m listening to a so-called “super group”. Transatlantic.
Lots of people find Transatlantic a bit boring or bland, I kind of thought that about their second cd (Bridge across forever) as well. That is, until I gave it another shot, on a long bus ride, and found myself almost crying by the beauty of it.

“There – walking into walls
Piercing through the pain
Here we are”

So yeah, now I’m a Fangirl, I guess. But how could I withstand this band project with the members that it has?

The members and why I love them:

Roine Stolt: The brain and muscle (that’s my words, not theirs) behind The Flower Kings. I don’t love that band, and that’s because of the vocals. Roine’s vocals. But I’ve gotten used to it. It does help that on some of their CDs, Daniel Gildenlöw sings a little bit. Gives me a break. Anyway, Roines musicianship is undoubtedly very good. I liked him much better when I got to see them live at Blæst.

Story: When we were waiting to get in to Blæst, I was blocking the whole entrance door. Some guy said “ursäkta” (Probably spelled that wrong. It’s Swedish for “excuse me”) and I moved so he could slip by. Husband said to me something like “you saw who that was, right”? And I went blank.
Why should I recognize some random Swedish guy? …oh.
So that’s how I blocked the way for Roine Stolt and didn’t even recognize him.

I didn’t say it was an exiting story!

Neal Morse: ex- Spock’s Beard. He went solo after God told him to (basically). He has continued with prog, but the lyrics are really God-focused now. He does church tours, and so I’ve seen him live three times. He does one Transatlantic song live:

“Hey you on the brink
Waiting to fall
To become human surplus
The movie’s still shooting
You might still get the roll
And man it’s all just a circus”

I love Spock’s Beard, I like his solo stuff (I’m just a bit ambivalent, heh. It’s all good, but not all of it fully tickles my ears) and I admire his guts.
He’s why there haven’t been a Transatlantic cd since 2001.

Story: When I first heard Spock’s Beard it was a friend who told me I needed to listen to this brand-new album, Snow, and shoved it in my hands. So I borrowed it a couple of weeks. Devoured it. Read the lyrics so many times I think I still know most of them. And I read the name Neal Morse in the booklet, the guy who wrote most of the lyrics.
And then I had a thought. “He needs your prayers. Big transition. He’s on the edge of something. Pray for him”.
So I did. I had no idea what was happening to him, but hey, it couldn’t hurt!
About a year later the friend I borrowed that cd from told me he’d heard Neal Morse quit Spock’s Beard. Even later I read about the fans of Spock’s Beard’s fury about this. (Somewhere in between here I became a fan) Even later than that I heard Neal himself talking about that time and how difficult that was.
I haven’t told him I prayed for him back then. I’ve wanted to every time he’s been in Trondheim, but I haven’t. Maybe I should just find some contact info and send him to this post, heh.

Yes I know I’m weird thankyouverymuch.

Mike Portnoy: Drummer of Dream Theater. My gateway to drugs prog. No, I’m not a big fan of their latest efforts, people have different tastes and all that.
But I still remember sitting in front of the computer (an old compaq presario) the summer of ’99, downloading (Shame On Me!) Learning To Live and Metropolis pt.1 because a friend told me to.
The metropolis download never finished, so I only had until “The third arrives”. Didn’t get to hear “Before the leaves have fallen”, which now is my favorite part of the song.
Learning To Live was so freaking long! I mean, 11 minutes!
It turned my musical life around.. (and I did buy all of their CDs after that)

Story: I met my Husband because of Dream Theater. The Norwegian Fan Club Forum. Concert in Oslo 2005. Pre-show fan club meeting.

Wow, that’s a short story.

Pete Trewavas: Marillion. I love some of their stuff. Their newer stuff I find boring. I still named my new MacBook after their vocalist. Steve Hogart, H for short. Husband reacted when I told him I was gonna call it Steve. “How many people do you think have named their Macs “Steve”? I thought “now why would they name their macs after Steve HogaOooh I’m stupid”.

Story: Well, my little brainburp when I named my mac is a story. Fun fact about Pete: He jumps. Up
and
down.
And
up
and
down.
At the stage, I mean, while he’s playing bass. What’s not to love about a guy like that?
Also, he’s an excellent bassist.

Remember I said Neal was why there haven’t been a Transatlantic cd since 2001? Well, he has never said “never again” (as far as I know anyway), but as he has followed the path he feels God put before him, I guess he felt God said no, not now…not now…
Finally, God said yes. And wonders of wonders, with how busy all of these guys in this band is, they managed to find time to do it shortly after.

In the words of Mike Portnoy about how Neal finally said “ok, I’ll do another one”:
Thank you, God.

Their new record – The Whirlwind – is coming soon. It’s a good time to be a fangirl.

Disclaimers:
All facts that that are incorrect is because of my air-headedness.
My opinion of music is just that: Opinions.
All spelling errors are because I wrote all this on my iPhone, without the advantage of the red squiggly lines.

Easter

April 8th, 2009

is here again. That’s all I’m going to say before I send you to my husband’s blag to look at the best easter video ever. GO.

september 2009: As my husband’s blag/site got completely borked and he moved to tumblr, the video isn’t there anymore. But it’s stillhere

Moving and good timings.

March 26th, 2009

So, we’re moving Monday. Have to be out from here before Wednesday, since new people are moving in here then.

Everything must be out from here, and everything must have been cleaned/scrubbed/disinfected by wednesday morning. No problem, right? I even started packing on Sunday.

Yeah, about that… My back didn’t like that. Sudden pain, doctor’s appointment the very next day, sick leave and inflammation pills. What great timing!

So now I’m bored half to death. I’m usually good at sitting around doing nothing all day, but it’s not that fun when I have to. Also I’m freaking out looking at all the stuff that has to be packed and thinking about how we’re going to get everything moved and washed when I can’t carry stuff (well, maybe I can carry pillows) and I definitely can’t scrub any floors. Bah.

But still, I feel that it’s going to work out… Weird, but everything else around this moving has worked out very well.

So I guess there’s nothing I should worry about, and nothing I should do except making some more coffee and figure out what I’m going to listen to next.

And tomorrow maybe I can manage to go all the way down town without my back being a mess the rest of the day? That would be a great step ahead.

What’s been up?

March 20th, 2009

Well, we’ve bought an apartment. 57kvm (square meters?), with:

– A living room with room for TWO sofas, those who’ve visited us where we’ve lived so far will understand why that’s such a big deal.

– One HUGE bedroom, at least for our standards.

– Another bedroom that will be a library/fish/guest room.

– A separate toilet room, the toilet has a lid with cow spots -my mother, and Arne’s mother both think this was a sign, heh.

– A bathroom. Doesn’t look great, but it’s big enough, and nothing wrong with it.

– Dish washer. This should almost be the first point, since it’s kind of a big deal :D We could never buy a place now where we’d have to redo the kitchen to get place for a dish washer.

– Lots of closet space in the kitchen.

Moving in (and out from here) march 30th. *flails arms*. I’m really really exited and exhausted, and we haven’t started packing yet! But it will be good.

Also, april 8th, my best friend Tine is coming to visit :D (So we’ll have to have at least the guest room, living room and kitchen up and going by then :P ) I haven’t seen her since july. Shame on me.

So life is good.

 

Oh, and if anyone wants to buy us a laundry basket, trash cans, or shower (I know just the one I want), that would be greaaaat.
Then we can worry about the “bigger” stuff like a refrigerator and washing machine ;)

Vacations are awesome

March 5th, 2009

So, we’ve been to Australia. Actually it’s over a month since we came home but I guess it takes time to get out of vacation mode after a trip like that. Since it’s been so long, and I’m lazy, I’ll give you our trip as a list and some pictures. (I can’t remember how to make a bullet point list. D-oh.)

– We went to visit my sister-in-law, Kristine, who’s been living in Caloundra for half a year now.

– My other sister-in-law, Ragnhild was there when we came and left earlier than us.

– My father-in-law traveled with us to Australia, and left again the same day as Ragnhild.

– Everyone is so polite there, I got quite used to that so when we came home to Norway and a man bumped into my back without saying “sorry”, I was taken by surprise.

– They sure love their air conditioning over there! Yes, it was nice ’cause EVERYWHERE was hot, but I got sick because of it. And then I got well again.

– Kangaroos everywhere :D And they’re fluffier than they look like in pictures.

Kenguruuuu

– Koalas are even nicer.

 

Koala in action

– But the thing we saw most of was lizards. I got so sick of lizards that you’re not getting a pic of them.

– Cairns was very wet.

The Asylum, Bacpackers in Cairns

Behind the fence, on the left there, is a pool. You just can’t see it because EVERYWHERE WAS WET! (This is the place we stayed in Cairns, btw. The Asylum! Fitting.)

We left a day before we had planned, and that was good, because all the roads out got blocked and they got 250mm of rain the day after we left.

Kristine, your feet are wet!

– We still went diving and snorkling, though!

On the boat, still dry

Mmm, ocean water

– We went to Australia Zoo. That was so awesome. Loved the coffee there.

I'm so totally hip.

– We visited Brisbane. Nice enough city, but nothing special. Except for their botanical “garden”. That was really nice!

– We rented a car a weekend and had some day trips. In a random small city, that has it own cheese factory but we still can’t remember the name of it, we found an awesome playground.

Arne and his sisters had fun:

WE'RE UP HERE! UP HEEEEERE!

So did Leif Olav (Yes, this is really my father-in-law!)

Woooooo

I had fun as well but I didn’t look good on those pictures so you won’t get any. HAH!

– Kristine bought a kite

Onos! It crashos!

– Arne and I borrowed a car and drove around for 5 days after the others left.

We did lots of other stuff as well, but you’re getting so much pictures now that this post seems waaay to long already ;)

Also, if it looks like I’m wearing the same shorts on all of these pictures, you’re right. This is just a coincidence. I did not wear the same pair of shorts for three weeks.