NEWS |  ARCHIVES |  LINKS |  SITEMAP |  CONTACT

That's what I forgot! To post the last five pics! Here they are:


Lemonade, please
Part of a series called Elvis in the Sun



Flicking through my podcasts, I hear a POOOOF! sound
Guy was alright. Chased by secret police (car on the right). Almost got killed by debris. What can I say? BeyondPod is a killer app!



Fuck everything and rum!
Nuff said. Genuine pirate graffiti!



Sun-Powered Super Villain!
Lady C got this rain coat for Elvis, that makes him look like a super villain:)



DON'T JUMP!



Bonus photo: The New Couch ®™
We invested in this "new used" couch for a saner living condition. Totally worth it!

Whoops, gotta go. Elvis is trying to hump my leg here. You have to nip it in the bud, else you'll find him outside my German classes wholesaling crack cocaine before long.. Or eying Poland. Never can tell what this dog is thinking.

I stumbled onto a link on a blog I read which said: "Top 10 Most Influential People to Follow on Twitter", and I immediately thought: «It will be a list of douchebags, compiled by a - or more douchebags, for the sake of douchebaggery.» And believe me when I say, that I was right. A Top 10 Most Influental people to follow on Twitter would be Obama (actually present in the article), Putin, Jesus (his account is rather dead, but his followers make a lot of noise) and the Prophet Muhammad, those guys in charge of US foreign policy, the World Bank, G20 and allies, South-East Asia, and some more. No actors, no television faces, no cruft. Not even me. But then I'm not on Twitter. I'm on identi.ca! Yay!

.. I just realized my thoughts are apparently so important that I put them in quotes. «No, you didn't.» Oh, shut it.

So, yesterday I began working on my first exam, which is just great because: a) Deadline is noon, Monday b) I have a fever and c) tomorrow's the national holiday of Norway. I should have started Sunday, but I wasn't feeling well. Monday I was even worse. Yesterday I was dead, but reading curriculum, and today I actually started writing.

German. Meta. Grammar.

That's right. Meta grammar. Of German grammar. As if the regular kind was not enough. You can just hear Xzibit coming in his pants: "Yo dawg! I heard you like grammar, so I put some grammar on yo grammar so you can boggle while you struggle dawg!" (Xzibit) As if I didn't have enough to do, I decided now would be a great time to move my T61 from regular Debian to pimped-up #! Linux (also Debian), using a worn-out NTFS formatted external USB 2.0 drive to move my 70 gigs of pr0n. Can you say Click-of-death?

I've got my German Thesaurus (heh, I wrote Theosaurus, which would be like a religious dinosaur -- from Germany) for LibreOffice up, so I'm good to go. I should be reading right now, I've got some unperzönlichen Passivs to tackle, but I thought about blogging something about something that I can't remember any longer. Like my aunt recently said: "There is no such thing as multitasking." I'm half-asleep, drooling, and my thoughts keep interrupting me. Here's a good time to log off, dial down, or whatever you hip kids say these days. GET OFF MY LAWN! I'm a sick man. Sick man.

In my German 1300 course I am currently writing an essay on interpretations of Franz Kafka's In der Strafkolonie (In The Penal Colony). As a philosopher I naturally research Kafka like I do other meaningful material, with the supposition of truth. And there is no ambiguity in this particular work of Kafka, it can only support one interpretation and still make sense. I am currently leaning towards the thoughts of Ingeborg Henel, on this one.

It also made me realize that Kafka had a (or more) literary project(s). From my own prejudice, I always thought he wrote semi-automatically. On the contrary, they are very well thought-out. He just lacked the confidence to follow through. His projects are philosophical in nature, and as such, I am quite capable of shooting them down.

Before I started this tiresome adventure in German, I found Kafka an interesting storyteller, but a poor writer. See: Thoughts after reading Kafka's "The Trial". Today I stand corrected. His stories are profoundly ignorant from a philosophical point of view, most probably from his life defining father issues, but quite competently executed. Let us not forget the goatse either. And so, having delved further into the tales of Kafka, this time in is own language, I am further strengthened in my conviction that he was a pathetic and decadent fucked up little twat.

But this superficially gruesome metaphor of his is the key to understanding that, so it comes highly recommended from yours truly. After you've read it, you can move on. Kafka does not matter to you any longer.

EDIT 12th of May 2012:
The English translation provided above is pretty simple. For example, the tell-tale quote "Die Schuld ist immer zweifellos." has been moderated to the literal: "Guilt is always beyond a doubt.", when I find it should be "Guilt is always beyond question." To say that it is beyond doubt indicates prior investigation, which is exactly what Kafka indicates is NOT the case. It is unquestionable from the outset, in that it does not make sense to question its truth. We are talking about a universal always valid truth here and not a "Basic principle". But what do I know, I'm just a philosopher:)

Last week I turned 28 years old, while Lady C turned 29 this week. I had bacon pancakes on my birthday, and Lady C had pork steak on hers. I was very happy to receive a Raspberry Pi computer while Lady C, however, was very sad to receive NOTHING AT ALL. Because I am dead broke, it was in the middle of Easter and I was 110% focused on my Thomas Mann hand-in on Tristan. In German. 5 pages.

Also, it rained on her birthday, and not on mine. Must be karma.

Anyway. I had decided to give her a nice dinner out on the town, which completely overshadows my gifts (from a financial POV), but it didn't appease the strong lower lip and furrowed brows situation. I tried the same strategy that I do with the dog, which amounts to just ignoring the hell out of her, but that only pissed her off. Then I was all like: "What, are you menstrual or something?!" and she was all like "####!!§!!!""#FGEDF#ER#"... I guess she was.

So I gave her a free-meal ticket, essentially. But in a V Nice Restaurant.
Probably one that will leave me broke for half a month.
Sooo... Check out Mr. Sensitive over here!

Also, I heard on the radio that my favorite channel on the radio NRK Alltid Nyheter turned 15 years today! It's the Always-News channel in Norway, without (commercial) advertisements, it plays BBC News stories and transmits news roundups every 30 minutes over the ether. I essentially DON'T listen to the radio because I've always got Lady C on in the background. So, a radio station that keeps repeating itself so I can get it the next time around is just amazing. We must learn to appreciate these kinds of public services, before we are utterly engulfed by our corporate overlords. Or Angry Lady Friends.



If this post sounds bitter, it's because I'm on a new low carb diet. Whop-de-fucking-woo.

For the three persons following my photostream on Flickr (hi mom!), it will come as no surprise that we have been "blessed" (read: blessed) by the gracious though somewhat sudden appearance of a Boston Terrier puppy named Elvis von Rosenhoff. Elvis was born 20th of December 2011, and came to live with us in our Rosenhoff apartment one cold 10th of February, after an hour long drive from his comfortable estates in Eidsvoll. *cough* Or at least its close vicinity *cough*.


Elvis von Rosenhoff, Day 1:
I've ate, pooped and pissed. What Would Jesus Do Now?

Over the past couple of years both me and Lady C have been clearly over-worked, so eventually we thought; «What the heck, let's throw a dog into the mix!» I grew up with dogs, but being that I was growing up, I didn't really understand much of all the work my parents laid into bringing them up. I can tell you, I was taken by complete surprise as to how much the little puppy relied on us, on Lady C and on me, for every inch of security that it has built over time. Every day equals new adventures, and I think "dog parents" are not really recognized for the time and effort it takes. Except by the completely honest love and adoration of the King himself, of course!

My mother asked what the hell I was thinking, and all I could say was; «I'm a dog person. A person with a dog. Only without a dog. Until just now.» Nuff said.

Elvis is a well-born Boston Terrier of Norwegian and Italian descent, and we named him Elvis because he was the straight forward, easy going and quite the charmer of the pen. This was mistake number one. When you select a dog you want the middle ground, viz. the dog that is not rushing to meet you (Elvis) but not the one that is thin and nervous (Dead Meat), but the one in the middle. Despite his honorable heritage, large estates and titles to his name, Elvis is quite the rebel, who early broke off with his upper-class family and started the infamous punk-rock band called Rage Against Aberdeen that never made the studio. It didn't go very well from there, mostly due to the problems associated with split personality disorders.. Elvis is Dr. Jekyll on Happy Pills and Mr. Hyde on acid, as illustrated by the following couple of photographs:


Cuteness trumps $300 shoes


OH MY GOD I'M FULL OF STARS!

The constant intake of triple espressos doesn't help...


ANOTHER TRIPLE EXPRESSO TO GO! FASTER!

Timing is also everything, and at the time (really bad pun intended), it couldn't have been any worse. It was February. In Norway. Freezing cold with chilling winds that howl through the soulless streets of Oslo. Puppies barely have skin let alone actual fur, so Elvis picked up the tunes from his punk-rock days and yelped and moaned and made sounds that reminds me of ET getting hurt. You know, from the movie called ET. TWICE I have been accused of animal abuse because some schmuck on the sidewalk thought the sounds coming from the little puppy couldn't possibly come from a healthy puppy. He sounds fucking hurting!
«God dammit, leave him alone, he's a punk-rock singer ffs!»
Nobody understands. Life is pain. So is shitting in minus ten degrees with a bare bum half an inch above the icy snow. Elvis is all like: The grass may be greener on the other side BUT I WOULDN'T EFFIN' KNOW BECAUSE I'M CHIN-HIGH IN SNOW HERE! No big surprise he loves our English style fireplace:



Elvis' favourite geo-location..


Yeah, just leave me here, terrible humans. Can't be bothered, can you? Ehh...

Boston Terriers don't bark. What the brochure doesn't tell you is that they emit all other possible (and impossible) sounds that will freak you the hell out. Even when he's sleeping, Elvis will be mumbling like a gremlin, only to suddenly appear behind you when you're brushing your teeth, like the girl from The Ring, just staring at you. Because that's what he does.

We have umpteen dog books, of which I've read .20%. But Lady C has read them all, and continues to re-run old episodes of The Dog Whisperer in the background when I'm home. He keeps talking about calm and assertive energy but it might as well be that dogs instinctively know not to fuck with chubby Mexicans. I wouldn't either. Those dogs aren't just smart, they're street smart. Now every time I try calm and assertive energy, Elvis is all like: Me no hablo Ingles..


Elvis Jung-Il is not amused

Life becomes a mess when you have a dog. Your brain will smooth over the hard parts, like parents forget the post-natal hardships, or the 75th time you wipe up some hitherto unknown bodily fluid from the floor, so I have made sure to detail the event with photographs and Android video flicks to prove it.


1 dog 1 cup

It has almost been two months now, Elvis is twice as big as in February, and the weather has changed for the better. He's learning FAST. Boston Terriers are intelligent dogs. Which is sort of the point. I want a dog to the effect that I can walk into class at University and say: «Look, teacher. The dog did my homework. Better than me.»


Elvis was happy to discover the sun
It currently constitutes his favourite pastime

Anyway. It's been a long day, Elvis is snoring in the background, Lady C is cursing at the tellie, and I feel ready for the sack. I'll keep you posted on current events as soon as they're a couple of months old! I kid, I kid.


Warhol Much?

Oh, and there are more photos here: Photos tagged Elvis

(P.S. We really spent about a year going back and forth, reading lots of books and talking with vets and so, before we decided upon race and found a serious breeder. You must not buy a dog on a whim. You wouldn't get a kid on a whim. Or a massage from an old man. Or herpes. Well, perhaps herpes.)

 

Released 19th of December, these refreshingly beautiful songs caught me by surprise about a week back. It's delightful to hear something this beautiful in the otherwise busy schedule that life is. Leedskalnin wrote that the Secret to the Universe is 7129/6105195. I disagree.

The weird running man also known as or known to also call himself as or hereforewith referenced to as mr or mrs ScaryDuck has released his latest provision for those annoying trapped-on-a-desolate-island or sick-inna-hedge situations: SAMUEL PEPYS: LUST FOR GLORY



He recently got a new webdesign, and I told him: I like your new design.
But I lied.

That has nothing to do with this book, however, which is 100% approved. Like the others. I would like a paperback of THE BIG BOOK OF CONDENSED MOVIES though.

The book can be bought from a mythical female warrior or a French prostitute, if you like.

As I barely mentioned before New Year's, me and Lady C headed to the historically significant 2nd Rome, a.k.a Istanbul, for New Year's Eve 2011/2012. Here are some of our photos:


Not an especially great photo but THE FIRST of many Aya Sophia pictures taken on our evening strolls.. Magic!



Just another day in Istanbul, specifically Eminönü, where we bought our travel card.



The Original Trams to Taksim Square
Funny story, these old trams only run some 500 meters. That's it! Istanbul people have a deep-rooted hatred for walking uphills, as the cable cars prove on the steeper hills. But this? It's barely a slope! An affront to public health!



Original Gate of Ishtar (see the reconstruction) pieces... Amazing!



Our view of the Blue Mosque on New Year's Eve!



Strolling through Güllhane Park on January 1st 2012



And here's another Aya Sophia shot! Jabba's Palace, anyone?



The Ceiling of the Baghdad Pavilion in the Royal Palace



Istanbul Silhouette



As Lady C promptly put it: "Those are some big ass biblical sheep, considering the size of a palm tree...." She's right, of course. The biblical sheep were much larger, and would feast on palm trees every other day.



Inside of the Aya Sophia.. I can hardly capture the scale of it. It's ENORMOUS!



Without a doubt the most impressive building I have entered in my entire life!



Mosaic in the Khora Church, scenes from Iesu life



Genuine Goose Kebab made from a 1539 recipe (visit Asitane restaurant)



Deniz Dündar Trio at the Nardis Jazz Club



Bosphorus Bridge, as seen through restaurant window



There's always one...



The Blue Mosque



Blue Mosque Ceiling



On the last day we just hung out and did some Bosporus boating. It was really beautiful!

If you want more, you should find some 60 photos here: Istanbul New Year's 2011/2012

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged about this before now. I mean, it's been only what, THREE MONTHS, since we returned! But with my hellish German studies, a new job, and everything else, there just hasn't been any right time to do it. So today I just made time for it!

We had a great trip to Istanbul. It is, I suspect, among the more western-oriented places in Turkey, and even so it was very much an atmosphere of the East, Orientalism, Islam and the Middle Eastern conflict not very far away. It is always nice to go somewhere where your money goes a long way, and Istanbul is no exception.

Turkey is going through a transition, and even though some things cannot be said or written publicly (anything negative about Atatürk for instance, whose photo is everywhere), the newspapers at least try to deal with the current issues they face in an open and serious manner. The front pages of the English papers in Turkey were littered with cases about violence against women, the recent air raid in bordering Syria, the real number of prostitutes in the country, as well as the struggles of the free press.

There is certainly want of change in the city, but also strong repressive forces, even in a modern city like Istanbul. We experienced some backwardedness that will probably die out in a generation, but it makes me wonder how things are on the countryside.

We stayed at a nice hotel in walking distance from the old Palace, right next to the Güllhane park, but we also tried to make excursions outside the Old Town and into the modern parts of the city, as well as the more poorer areas. The contrasts are huge. Lady C says it was Boutique Maywood Hotel, got 'em through booking.com. It was really nice hotel, just DO NOT ask them for transportation to the airport. We did it and was scammed, almost losing our flight. Take a taxi instead.

Just like in Rome, you will find archeological sites scattered everywhere in the bustling city, almost by chance. The City of Istanbul has with varying success tried to take care of these treasures. I find it a shame that the last remains of the former Imperial Palace are completely ignored by the inhabitants of the city, and used by the homeless as shelter against the cold winds from the strait, in both senses.

Being winter, it was dark around 5 p.m. So we aimed for 1 major attraction during the day and a nice restaurant or bar round in the evenings. We had some great experiences and varied meals, to say the least, in sum:

Thursday Dec 29th 2011
Arrived at 5pm, it was already dark. The ride from the airport was interesting, with a couple of stops, and no one speaking English. Slept and ate a Kebap at Sirkeci, next to a taxi driver and his interesting date. He was interested in the horizontal tango, but she needed superficial persuasion. Lady C had the Mixed Grill Platter, while I had an unsatisfactory Roller Döner, too small for a man my size.
We followed the tram lines up to Aya Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Ate some Köfte kebap at a touristy place just before closing time.


Friday Dec 30th 2011
Went to Taksim sq. to buy me some pants. I like wide pants, but the guy in the store kept rolling his eyes. TIGHTER! must be TIGHTER!
I insisted: Big man. Big pants.
Clerk: no no no no!
Brought me a jeans that would barely slip over my arse. There be dragons.

Later that day, we ate at a lovely quasi-Italian place called Faros, on Sultanahmet. Recommended!

Saturday Dec 31st 2011
Went to the Archeological museum where they had gathered a lot of really old stuff in the same place. Neat. We saw the Babylonian gates (above), the Hammurabi Code as well as a bunch of sarcophagi and tomb stones. Kick ass!

In the afternoon we arranged with the Hotel Pierre Loti (romantic adventurer), so we could join their New Year's Eve dinner party at the rooftop restaurant, with retired Germans and Russian mafia. That's a story in and of itself.

Sunday Jan 1st 2012
National holiday in Turkey, so nothing is open. Had pizza for breakfast, then we strolled in the Güllhane Park, had tea beneath the Palace overlooking the strait, which was a cold and windy affair. Later we ate at Sarniç, a Byzantine cistern turned Car Repair Shop turned Restaurant. Overpriced and overrated cuisine-wise, but nice atmosphere.

Monday Jan 2nd 2012
Topkapi-Palace. Thanks to New Year's Eve with a lot of Turkish people visiting Istanbul, we stood some 45 minutes in line outside the palace, and then queued inside the palace. We went for the Museum Pass (72hrs), and recommend doing so. Buy it at the Khora Church, so you skip the queues everywhere! Note: You will not gain entrance to the Palace Harem, however. We decided we would see it later.

Had lunch at the palace restaurant Konyali, which was alright. You get the same view at Güllhane-Park though. Was thrown out of the bathroom by Secret Service people who were protecting the Prime Minister of Turkey. I later snapped this photo in the Palace, with the Hamas Leader accompanying the PM. Here's the Hurriet Daily News article. Locals in awe:)

Tuesday Jan 3rd 2012
Aya Sophia and the Church of Chora. The most enormous building I have ever sat my foot in, it was a truly awe-inspiring experience just to walk around the domed church.. After a kebap, we headed to the Church of Chora where you'll see some amazing mosaic.

We ate at Asitane Restaurant, which lies next to Chora Church. You get what you pay for here, great gourmet dishes that are mostly from recipes found in the Topkapi Palace. We had Stuffed Spleen and Trotter Stew (1469-1471), and both had the Goose Kebap (1539). Exquisite!

In the evening we saw Deniz Dündar Trio at the hottest jazz club in town, called Nardis. This is where jazz meets jazz, and you could just as well be in Oslo or New York. Friendly staff and the small size of the locale meant we got to meet all the artists afterwards. Real nice and great music! I recorded some for later:)

Wednesday Jan 4th 2012
Spent all of the day haggling the price of 2 leather jackets at the Grand Bazaar. Spend at least 1 day here. Later we ate at Feyrie in Ortaköy. Posh place, steep prices (buy wines by bottles not glases!) with dishes that were good, but nothing special.

Thursday Jan 5th 2012
We rounded up the visit with the Blue Mosque (not very impressive after the Aya Sophia..), the Basilica Cistern, Hippodrome and a boat ride across the Bosporus to the Asian side. Since we caught the wrong boat back, we got quite a lot of boat rides, but it was a nice little adventure. Had THE BEST döner kebap in a small one-man joint in the over built street between the University of Beşiktaş buildings.

The Top 3 Meals:

1. Asitane: Goose Kebap 
2. Faros: Lamb Casserole (Lady C) or Grandmother's Purse (Sigg3) 
3. Beşiktaş University: Döner kebap 

The last evening we treated ourselves and headed to Faros at Sultanahmet again. They did not let us down. Then we took in the sights of Aya Sophia one last time before we headed back to the hotel. The following morning we left the city and the country, but we'll probably be back some day, because there is much to be seen! And who can say no to the prospect of kebap every day?

I could swear I heard Dart Vader's familiar breath as I was taking a piss in the WC just now. Must've been down by the bins outside, checking something out.

Anyway. Happy Women's Day!

There's no deep thought here, just a lot of coffee.

Today is the Sami international holiday. Leave your sincere congratulations in the comments!

Btw, I'm available for days-long fist fights in Wordfeud; search for Sigg3.net

I'm getting a job again, since the meager state stipend and student loan just won't cut it. Instead of returning to the old job, where I am always very welcome, I decided it was time for something new. Allthewhile reading up on modern German History and Literature as well as Syntax, of course.

I was thinking about herding sheep or categorizing ancient norse poetry index cards, but it so happened that my resumé ended in the hands of an IT consultant firm, who immediately gave me a call. I am now in training for one of the greatest telcos in the country. They've got a massive glass building just outside the city, where I am surrounded by the 4000 other zombies on the way to work. It reminded me of the factory scene in Joe versus The Volcano. Or perhaps more fitting, something with a little more office over it:



Something new and exciting is very refreshing, even though I am sort of over-qualified and under-paid. But it helps reviving some old people skills, that I didn't need when I locked the door behind me at my last office. This is a modern open office setting, with a lot of like-minded, be'glassed nerds with wallpapers from sci-fi series and cheeky hentai-wannabe anime. Nerds in all ages, sizes and genders! Gotta love it!

Last training session we had to setup a mobile broadband (3G) connection on a random OS (Win XP/Vista/7 and Mac OSX). PIECE OF CAKE!11! I must have exclaimed non-verbally, because my socially superior peers sent some annoyed glances at "the old wolf in the puppy pen". (And yes, I am one of the two Elders!)

I took out the little plastic cover from the USB device and popped in the SIM.

WHOOPS!!

I admit I blushed. The plastic cover had a little slot in it, into which one was to slide the SIM card. While I, on the other hand, being so cocksure about it, had put the SIM card directly into the electronics. Where it remained fastened and out of reach. The instructor was just going through how it was important to study the details in front of us, and how (haha) often regular users resort to all sorts of physical violence to make the pieces fit.

At the back of the room I was banging the USB device at the table to get the SIM out.

"Oh, sorry. Is it too loud?"

Then the instructor casually remarked that each device cost 1800 NOK to replace (circa $300 USD).

"Oh, sorry. Bang a little lighter?"

FINALLY! getting ready to resort to the old let's poke a knife in there and see what happens routine, it somehow came loosr and within reach of my finger nail. I put it in the right way as fast I could, kept my head down and ran through the tests.

Apart from the sweat I worked up right then, we've been treated with silk gloves. They even pay our lunch throughout our training, whatever we like, veggie chicken burger or true to life Italian Pizza. That's multi-billion dollar evil corporations for ya, kid! So most of it has been a walk in the park.

Except for the job interviews. Plural.

I must tell you, I have had the same steady job for about 7 years -- which is actually very long in IT where you'll usually go somewhere better paid every 3-4 years. But I had a great time at my last job, it was very nice socially and I had a comfortable existence. Except it was just too much of it, and not exciting enough to keep me there, yet too much responsibility to stay at a smaller position. After all, I am supposed to be studying Philosophy at the University, so this 20% position will do great for me!

But I digress.

The long term employment has given me a lot of great recommendations from some brilliant people, but extended the period since I last had a job interview. Now, if you're in the sysadmin line of work, your social skills are not top priority (even though they help a lot). However, in support and the kind of uneducated work that I do, you must learn to talk with people because their problems are usually what you're paid to solve. So to land this kind of job, you would have to not only point and tell about how social you are, you must show it. It's just like acting, or role playing. That's the road to staying patient and helpful. You'll be screaming on the inside.

Anyway, aside from the repeat questions (What's your 5 best qualities? What is an IP address? How much is Pi squared? Can I have a slice of Pi? Where did she touch you? Can you show us on the dummy? How to display your current IP address?) they asked me what, if anything, I would like to improve about myself.

*Crickets chirping*

- Errrr.... Change?
- Yes, Sigg3. Name 5 of your worst qualities?
- Five?
- Uh huh.

*Crickets playing cricket*

After the awkward silence died out, I had firmly established my complete and utterly unquestioned belief in myself. Which may or may not go well together with the concept of social antennas. But what the heck. Have you seen my resumé?

I got the assignment, and so did 3 other really cool people, and these days we're training as a team every available hour. In my last job I had flexible hours, but didn't know coming in to the office whether it would be a 10-12 hour shift or just three and a half hour day. This job is 100% punctuality because we're on the clock, and they don't tolerate late-comers at all. So, I've taken good care to be there on time so far. Time will tell if I can keep it up. But then, that's what we all did in the days before the cellphone. I'm starting to sound like an old-timer, already.

Speaking of appointments, I gotta get up early in the morning. I'll be attending work from 10 am and if all goes well, celebrate reaching another Saturday alive, with my pal Freddy when Lady C is partying with her friends. If you can think of five things to change about me, you or the world, feel free to leave them in the comments! You only have 30 seconds to think though. Have a nice weekend!

.... but we're not dead yet!

The U.S. Congress is currently considering the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), that are among the two most anti-global and anti-social law proposals to appear before congress since the Patriot Act (which was the end of one of our civilization's greatest principles - Habeas Corpus). If passed, the laws will grant powers to the US Government that only the US Government perceive themselves to have, thinking about "the Internet kill-switch", however the side-effects to the practical realities of the way the Internet is run will pose a threat to its statelessness, as well as pave way for enlarging corporate control over Internet content. Read more here on Wikipedia: Stop Online Piracy Act and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act.



Other sites, such as Wired.com, reddit and Mozilla followed Wikipedia's example today. As did Google, 4chan, Vimeo, flickr, Miro, MineCraft, PostSecret, and many others, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation!

The Acts' names are misleading, even if you are an adherer to the notion of "intellectual property", these laws will introduce Government censorship that invariably and inevitably hurts the common man's interests and favor those few at the top, the large corporations, and those that'd rather see an Internet akin to cable television.

Michael Park's domain is expiring in about 2 weeks, but he has decided to not renew the domain. I am sad to see such a long term online friend disappear from "the neighbourhood" -- Michael has been dear help to Sigg3.net since 2003 or so -- but I also understand the reasons why he wants to shut it down.

Good luck to you, my friend, all the best!
Thank you for your friendly advice and regular comments on my blog. Please stop by in the future!

Here's the quick and dirty way to get the proprietary ATI 'fglrx' driver up and running on OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit and 32-bit systems. Why blog about this when there must be hundreds of great wikis out there to cover the issue? None of them worked 100%. Here's a way that works:

1. Download latest driver from AMD/ATI driver page 
2. Open Yast2 and install: kernel-devel,kernel-desktop-devel,Gcc,Gcc c++,Make 
3. Reboot, and add this to the GRUB startup options: radeon.modeset=0 blacklist=radeon 3 
4. When you boot into console, become root and run: # mkinitrd 
5. Afterwards, cd to download directory and run installer: # sh ati-driver-installer-*.run
6. Select default options all the way, then: # aticonfig --initial 
7. And last: # /sbin/shutdown -r now 

Please note the GRUB boot options that blacklist the open source radeon driver. Without these parameters the driver would install but I would have fuzzy graphics and no way to change screen resolutions and so on. I added these instructions to the unofficial AMD wiki: wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/SUSE/openSUSE. Also note that AMD's display driver no longer require kernel sources if kernel headers are present (hence the kernel-devel packages).

Please note that in time there will be made an RPM one-click install available for the new ATI drivers on the OpenSUSE wiki, but since I want to play some graphical games I need the latest and greatest. Also note that OpenSUSE policy dictates that the 'radeonhd' driver is phased out in favour of plain 'radeon' open source driver and 'vesa'. If I wasn't supposed to be gaming, I'd stay with the defaults.

We've just popped a bottle of Champagne in our hotel room and will soon be leaving for a six-course all inclusive evening at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Blue Mosque, Haga Sophia and the Bosporus strait towards Asia.

Thanks for 2011. It was quite eventful, detailed report to follow. But now: belly dancers and kebap! We welcome 2012! Have a happy new year!

Bollicks to this, I'm off to Istanbul!

That's right, folks. If you're going to celebrate New Year's Eve, you might as well celebrate it in the Ottoman Empire. Or the remnants thereof. That's why me and Lady C are traveling economy class to Constantinople tomorrow at noon! There's free wifi at the hotel, no viruses, surveillance ++! so if I can remember it, I will up some images to the blog, or my sigg3.net flickr page!

Right now I have a lot of packing to do, so I gotta go! Cheers!

While the video was made by the atheist organization TheThinkingAtheist.org, and focuses on the American Christmas celebration, I think it has quite a lot of interesting historical facts:



With this freshly in mind, I can go eat at the Winter Fest with the good conscience only a warm-hearted non-believer can. Have a Happy Yuletide and Frohe Weihnachten!

I've been working with large video files lately, files that are too large for regular storage media. I've come to learn how much better ffmpeg is at these jobs than the graphical tools. Mainly because the graphical ones draw more resources and require more fiddling about, in total taking more time than a short command. Here's the only command you'll need to create new files from one source video:

$ ffmpeg -i INPUT -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss START OF VIDEO -t DURATION OUTPUT

So, let's say I have bigvid.mpeg that's 50 minutes and want to split it in files that are 30 minutes and then another with the next 15 minutes, discarding the last 5; respectively small1.mpeg and small2.mpeg.
Here are the two commands to deliver what we want:

$ ffmpeg -i bigvid.mpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:00:00 -t 00:30:00 small1.mpeg

and then

$ ffmpeg -i bigvid.mpeg -vcodec copy -acodec copy -ss 00:30:00 -t 00:15:00 small2.mpeg

As you can see the start of video operand is relative to the input file (source video), while the duration or -t parameter is not. The -vcodec and -acodec options aren't strictly necessary, ffmpeg's default output codec should match the input.

ffmpeg and audio delays
However, I have experienced that videos created without codec specification will have audio delays or audio that is not synchronized to the video stream. Specifying both the audio and video codecs as exact copies using -vcodec copy and -acodec copy as in the examples will give you less headaches. That's all!

Just before I forget, congratulations are in order for Lady C, Vixen and me, but more importantly to their brother A and his girlfriend T who gave birth to a baby boy today! Yes, you can call me Uncle Sigg3.

Happy Birthday [untitled] !




I've been dusting off my vast historical knowledge in order to rightly name the child, still untitled or it, if you want to be personal. I think my late reading of Prussian kings can be of great help, especially if they allow descriptive names; such as "the wise" or "the crooknosed" granted that he sports such characteristics, of course. "The gifted" is vague enough to fit anything. Use "the plump" if you want to have something that fits the baby right now. Or "the pink", perhaps.

Preferably, you should call the kid something you like. Not as in "something you like" but as instantiated by something you like. Take Guiness for instance. I think it's a great name. Just consider: "Here, have a Guinness, Guinness!" Got a nice ring to it. And it's not going to get your kid into any trouble either, like Marijuana or Doobie most certainly will. Just a tip. Cheers!

I've done it! The two worst class room exams this year have been idled through and delivered. The first one, Tysk 1101, was 9 o'clock Monday, and I had looked up all the nearby cafés around campus to find out when they opened in order to secure a cup of coffee. I found a good spot staring into the backs of the American Lit section, with my back against the rest of the library. Then I started farting.

Around an hour into the four hour ordeal I couldn't take it anymore and asked to have someone follow me to the restroom. I don't know how they do it in other countries, but in Norway you are allowed to take breaks and walk outside, as long as an exam warden follows every step you take -- sometimes even checking the WC stalls.

And if you ever notice a lack of retired people in your immediate vicinity, you can bet there's an exam going on somewhere. The very temporary (4 hour) positions are mostly filled with retired people. Solemn, long-nosed men and knitting grandmothers. But I digress!

I had remained calm during the morning, which is important in order to rightly comprehend the tasks in front of you. If you panic, you'll certainly overlook something important (such as a negation at the end of the sentence -- always funny). But you can be too calm as well.

I was like: Remain calm. Just be calm.
'I am calm' I thought. 'Caaaaallmmm.. Soo veryyy caaaaaalmmmmzzzz... zzz.. zzz.. zzz-*! naCHTUNG!' One of the retired wardens walked over and slapped my across the face. "Shush!" People who lived through the war knows how to use violence for peaceful purposes. If you're good, they'll reward you with candy.

We got a text about Martin Luther (the Reformist, not the King) and how they had done archeological excavations in what has been established as his childhood home. The point of the article was two-fold; 1) his father was very rich -- contrary to popular beliefs in Germany, and 2) they may have found the Toilet on which his Turmerlebnis unfold itself.. don't ask. I really enjoyed the read, and answered the comprehension questions, in Norwegian, as best I could.

"DO NOT WRITE A NOVEL", the lady had said at the last session of the course.

That's exactly what I did. I even wrote in my own Norwegian interpretation of the questions I then answered, totaling some 8 pages! What's worse is that I completely lost track of time, so that after the 4 reading comprehension tasks I still had some 8-10 tasks of very time consuming grammatical analysis to do!

Needless to say, I just barely made it in time. Then I headed home, knowing I had to read for the next exam, Tysk 1100, which was today. German Syntax 1.

Let me just add in here that all of the courses I take this fall have a recommended prior education of High School German, sporting at least a C. I didn't have German in High School at all. Zippo. Zilch. I had French. It's Latin based, not even Germanic. But I mostly played Quake II: CTF II instead.

In order to stay on a positive note, let's just say I have been setup for quite a lot of Eureka! moments this fall.. Especially since the first exam ended, and I have learned how many errors I did, which could have easily been avoided. I went from being satisfied to questioning my very academic existence in a few pages.

But I can't give up either. With a little luck my classmates, of which many come straight from High School, panicked and really screwed up. If the statistics work in my favour, I can still avoid having to do it over again. If not, then I'll just have to do it. The bar for a Master in Philosophy's set to C, but I'd like it to linger around B if I can. Right now, I feel that I'll need a lot of luck to avoid an E!

Enough of the alphabet soup!

The exam today didn't start until half past two in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to not be nervous. As usual, I remained calm. Almost too calm. In fact, I overslept, and didn't get to read through the pages I had planned to, and instead barely made it to the library just before the exam started with only 5 minutes to spare!

This reminds me of gym classes in my childhood when we were counting our pulse strokes after anaerobic training, and they could't find my pulse because I was so calm. For the rest of the year I just wrote 'In a coma' in the report book to skip gym class, and the Physed teacher couldn't argue against the science. The following year, alas, he had changed batteries in the pulse-meters.. but I digress.

Today we had German Syntax and despite my calm prior to the exam, I was rather stressed out when we finally started. Who knows what sort of misunderstandings I have conjured up along the way?

First we had to recognize 5 Genitive cases in a text about electric cars' success in Norway. I have been so focused on the Accusative and Dative cases (direct and indirect objects, mainly) in my German training, so it was really hard to turn my brain around to notice ownership- or description-like appositions. But I managed to find all 5! At least that's what I think..
I actually nailed the last one on account of Mark Twain's «Wegen des Regens» below. Talk about basing my education on happy happenstance!

Then we had some verbs that had to be located and shown in the Infinitive, as well as a translation of a text from Norwegian to German, also about electric cars, sporting a lot of Modus Conjunctive (indirect speech).

As usual, my non-existing vocabulary made this pretty hard. But I at least delivered something that meant something going in the same general direction as it was supposed to be. It really bothers me that I know historical words such as Sword, Horse carriage and the like, but not Airport or Pollution.

I see now that I missed on the latter. I didn't know what pollution was, so I just used a German sounding of the Norwegian 'forurensning', that is, die Verureinung. The correct word is die Verunreinigung. Bad luck.


The last task, however, was complete hell.

As I wrote about earlier, our German Syntax professor is quite the geek, and he had stated that he "wanted to make things interesting". So today as the final task we were given a foul text written by some Norwegian girl living in Germany, who could not for the life of her form a German sentence. She wrote Norwegian in German, had bad punctuation, and sometimes just blurted out nonsensical statements. The task read: "In the (genuine) text below, there is one type of mistake that is occurring more often than (all) the others. What type of word are we talking about and what kind of error(s)? Could we give this/these type of error/s a nickname?"

Pure evil.

I have no idea what kind of statistics the professor is going for here, but he's setting himself up for a lot of misunderstandings and -- let's not trivialize people's feelings -- angry retorts.

I based my comprehension of the task that he used the word -flexion, which rules out verbs (conjugation), and focused on the Flexive (plural endings) of Adjectives and Nouns, but I have no idea whether this is right or not. Time will tell. In the meantime, I can only look forward to learning more German, so that I more easily can identify all the errors I put on record as of 6:30 pm today. Cheers!