You know, sometimes life feels like throwing a complete wtf moment at you. Some days ago, I experienced such a moment, and it was even a good one! Here's the deal:

Thursday, I got on the bus to school as usual. Since it's a long way to school (30-40 mins), I usually do something on my laptop when I'm sitting there, be it watching anime, playing games, doing homework or something else. Adn on the laptop, I have this really cool pic from Naruto. Anyway, I take on my earbuds, and start listening to some lovely J-music. It doesn't take long, however, before I feel someone tapping my shoulder. The first thought that runs through my head is that my music is too loud and that sound is 'leaking' out. So I mute the sound, take off the earbuds, and look over to see this girl standing there. Of course, now I expect to hear something like "could you turn donw your music?", but no, instead she asks: "That picture on your desktop, that's from Naruto, right?". I, being compeltely baffled, mutter "um... yeah?". She replies "that's awesome! Do you watch it?". She was obviously an anime - or at least a Naruto - fan. And such the conversation started. She ended up seating herself next to me, and we talked about anime and Japan and whatnot during the whole bus trip. I found out she's actually attending the same school as me, but she's taking Arts. We met again at the bus Friday morning, and, well, I feel like I've made a friend (and a girl at that =P) in a pretty peculiar way.

As for other stuff, there's not a lot to say. I'm still friggin' sick, but I'm getting glasses, which may actually help (yeah, starting tomorrow I'll be using glasses =D). I hope so, because my grades have fallen to Bs/Cs instead of pretty much straight As >_>

And that's about it for now. Later, folks!

Song of the blog: Ritsuko Okazaki - For Fruits Basket (opening theme for the anime Fruits Basket)

EDIT: I completely forgot to tell you that today is my 16th birthday =D

I think the title pretty much speaks for itself. I do not know why, nor do I feel like finding out, but the inescapable truth is that the world just bores me. Nothing I do is particularly fun anymore. Be it watching a new anime, going to school, playing or listening to music, surfing on the internet, heck, even being with friends is boring. *sigh* why did I have to be cursed with boredom?'

Anyway, I raced through Code Geass during the weekend, and, well, it was a small flicker of light in these horrid times. It was okay, but in the end, I'm still indifferent. I don't recollect being particularly entertained, and its soundtrack just makes me even more depressed. But if you are looking for a great anime, check it out.

Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor's to see if some light can be shed on the sickness I've been struggling with the last two months. It's completely ruining me - and may even be the cause of the aforementioned problem -, and right now there's nothing more I want to do than to get healthy again.

*sigh* forget my emo rant and go on with your lives, okay?

So, long time since that last blog, but nothing special to report on. Except, I've gotten a B on three tests in a row now =( I feel like my stupid head sicknessorwhateveritis is ruining my chances of getting straight As, and I don't really like that. I do hope I get well soon though, because I've signed up for some national math contest, which is to take place two weeks from now! It's gonna be really fun, as long as I get well again =P

Lately, I've also been listening a lot to the song We're in Heaven. I love that song, because it's about love, something which I've never really experienced. So the bittersweet sensation brought out by hearing about something so beautiful, but which I've never really experienced, I guess it's just taken me in completely.

here's a link to the song: We're in Heaven

Just thought I should update with a new entry, just to let you know I'm not dead =P

Life stuff: I had my big comeback on school last Thursday, after three weeks of being sick.It went okay, but I can't brag about my form being spectacular =P I managed to catch up quickly to most of the stuff I've been falling behind on (since one of the weeks I was sick was a vacation week, I didn't miss that much, luckily), and I took a Science test on Friday, the subject being Ecology. It went fairly well, so I'll be surprised if I don't haul in another A. I had an Electronics test today too, which the others had last Wednesday, and it's the same with that one too; I'll be surprised if I don't get an A.

Also, during the weekend the community band (that's the adult version of school band if you didn't know) I play in had a concert, with lots of practice beforehand. It was really fun, and especially since we had some other people performing during the actual concert as well. The local Ten Sing (beat it up on Wikipedia if you don't know what it is) group had various performances, with great songs, funny dancing and one absolutely hilarious sketch. And they had this really funny guy as the compere; he's the kind of person that makes you laugh no matter what you say =P If you're interested, here's the concert programme:

Indiana Jones theme music
Springdans
You Raise me Up (w/ singer)
Ten Sing performance
Les Miserables theme music
Hallelujah I Love Her So (w/ singer)
Performance by a really talented 16-year old guitarist/singer
Fantasie on a Danish Theme
RECOMMENDED: Bergensiana (this song is really great! It's just a bunch of variations over my city's "city anthem", Udsigter fra Ulriken (aka. "Bergenssangen", "Bergensiana", "Nystemten". Listen to the original first: LINK)
Pinchcliffe Grand Prix Medley

Anime: Still haven't watched much anime lately, though I decided to re-watch Elfen Lied. Despite being a depraved mess of blood, gore, nudity, cousin love, cruelty of all kinds imaginable and whatnot, it's one really great series. And seeing how the only time I've watched it before was during the night one Monday in spring, I decided to re-watch it. Oh, and the Bleach fillers are over! Finally! Not that they were bad, but now we can finally get back to the canon storyline and all the epic win it has from this point out. Just hope it's done well in the anime too =D And the new OP and ED themes were cool, but nothing really special.

Football: Many things have happened to Brann (the city's premier division team) lately. It all builds around the bad performance this season, and whether or not their coach ahs done a good enough job. It ended with him resigning his position last week. Even though he has led them to bronze, silver and gold in the league as well as gold in the cup during the 6 years he's been their coach, he had to go now. That stinks. Though, if the players have lost their faith in him, what is there to do? Oh, well. At least he'll be the coach until the end of the current season, which is good, because most coaches are fired on the spot when their career in a club is over. ... Now I just hope they'll find a good coach for next year's season. Later, folks!

No time long blog, and now I have to pay the price; I've got too much to talk about =P So for your convenience, I'll bold out the beginning of a new subject, in case you're not interested in it all

Still sick: You probably read in my last blog (i think) that I was sick with a flu. Guess what? I still am sick, though the flu symptoms are gone. On Thursday I went to the doctor's, as I'd been sick for just above a week and a half. (if there's any words you don't understand in the following part, hit it up on Wikipedia or something) According to the doctor, I've got some kind of inflammation in some whatsamooey in my throat (epiglottis, maybe? Not sure), which has lead to my eustachian tubes (the canals going between my ears and my pharynx) being blocked. This results in an inability to equalize pressure in my middle ear, which again results in a heavy, giddy feeling in my head. So while I don't have any "normal" sickness symptoms, my head feels really heavy, making thinking too much and concentrating a hard task. And since it's all caused by viruses, it can take some time before one gets well. I'll have to be prepared for at least another week's downtime.

Football: So, the city's football team, Brann, played their return game against Deportivo this Thursday. With a 2-0 victory from the first match, everyone felt confident about advancement. One goal scored by Brann, and Deportivo would've needed 4 goals (because of the away goal rule). However, they were too self-confident that we could protect that lead, which permeated their playing sty-le Too defensive, not willing to attack; a disaster in other words. They didn't even take the counterattack-opportunities, which is where they are so good. Not even when Deportivo got one man expelled could we do anything. We lost 2-0, and with the overall score from the two matches being 2-2, extra time was required. With no goals scored, it ended in a penalty shootout, which ended up as a total disaster. Brann put 2 out of 5 penalties, whilst Deportivo put 3 out of 4 (they didn't need to take the fifth). So Brann ended up not advancing. Now they have nothing left to play for this season -_-

Computer games & LAN: Since I've been sick, I've caught the opportunity to play some computer games. My lack of concentrative powers has been a slight hinder, but I managed to play through a few games without messing up too many times. I completed Assassin's Creed, a marvelous game, with astounding graphics, awesome fighting and even more impressing free-running abilities. The end was pretty cool, with coded messages to solve as well as loads of references to other cultures, historical events and whatnot. Of course, I had to read it all on the Web to understand, due to me being sick.

I've also enjoyed playing Spore these days. it's a game in which you control a creature through evolution, from a small cell to a massive galaxy-spanning empire. I really like that there's so immensely many planets to expand to, I love the ability to create and design your very own creatures pretty much the way you want them, and of course, the fact that it's all mutually shared with other gamers; you encounter the creatures and civilizations other players have made, and they encounter yours. So it's kinda a MSO (Massive Single player Online Game), which is pretty interesting.

Lately I've also found out that one of my friends really loves to play games via LAN (Local Area Network), and he also likes many of the same games as I do. So he often comes over (or I come over to his place), and we square it off against one another in many a game. It's realyl fun, sicne I also like to play via LAN, but no one else I know does so (before I found out my aforementioned friend does, of coruse).

Anime: Lately I haven't been watching much anime (as my MAL profile reveals), because I've just not been in the mood for it. But then I impulsively decided to rematch The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, a real anime cla-ssic. I managed to watch it all in one go, and afterwards, I suddenly felt like watching other anime series too. It's great, because now I have a series to watch whenever I lose my desire to watch anime =P

Piano: I've also used my sick days to improve my skills on the piano a bit. I thought my concentration problems would stop me from being able to learn any new songs, but instead it kinda helped me, because I've been able to play without any thinking about the notes hindering me; with a kinda subconscious, instinctive understanding of the notes. This is a good thing for me, as I often have troubles playing songs straightforward because I linger on much on the notes. Anyway, here's the songs I've learned these past two weeks.

Scarlet (official piano version of the anime series Ayashi no Ceres' only opening theme)
Tori no Uta [Song of Birds] (official piano version of the anime series Air's only opening theme)

It's not me playing; those are the original versions of the songs. I think I'll record them soon though; while i don't have a video camera, my (electric) piano has a USB hub, so I can probably record the songs straight to my computer.

Marathon: Today the usual movie marathon gang had a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon (the "usual gang" being my brother and some of his buddies, his girlfriend and a few of her friends, and me. I'm kinda like the only one who isn't 20 out of the bunch =P). With lots of candy and snacks, lots of soda, a great pirate-themed cake and good lasagna for dinner, we had a great day gastronomically in addition to the enjoyment of watching the movies, which are great, by the way. Yeah, I know I'm sick, but I'm not a fan of playing half-dead because I am =P

That's all for now, I think. Cheers!

You all probably don't know a lot about Norway, right? The land of trolls and fjords, situated on the northern part of Europe. We're a small country, only 4,7 million inhabitants and a total area that's the size of the states and Texas and Mexico together. You wouldn't think such a small country was anything significant, yet we're one stinking rich country - one of the richest in the world actually - with a GDP of at least 400 billion dollars. The national oil fund - which consists of money Norway's earned from oil and gas - has enough money to buy out eight of the largest corporations in the world - including Walt Disney and General Motors. The GDP per inhabitant is the second highest in the world, at almost 50 000 dollars. I just find it funny that such a small country as Norway is so rich.

Another thing I find funny - and disturbing - is that the politicians of Norway talk so much about how Norway is going to be a big environmental-and-peace nation in the world, giving lots of money to various environment-friendly organizations and working actively for peace in war-struck areas in the world, yet we're the third largest exporter of oil and gas, and the seventh largest weapons exporter in the world. I was really shocked when I found out about the latter of those, but the former didn't come as a surprise.

There's more things that are peculiar about Norway, one of them being our tall mountains and deep fjords. In just a kilometer or two as the crow flies, the terrain can elevate from kilometer-deep fjords to giant mountain plateaus that're from a kilometer to two high.

Moreover, our climate is very warm, even though the southernmost parts of Norway aren't much more south than the southernmost parts of Alaska. We've got warm summers, often with temperatures close to or past the thirties (90s if you use the Fahrenheit scale), and mild winters with snowfall mostly in the inner and northern regions of the country, and only very little of it in the more southern areas, especially along the coast.

And while most of it has its natural explanations, I still find Norway to be a peculiar country.

For fun, here's some pictures from Norway:








On a side note, I've been sick with a cold and slight fever lately.

EDIT: If you can't view any of the images completely, right-click and do either of the following: press 'view image' if using Firefox, press 'open image in new tab' if using Google Chrome, press 'properties' and then copy the url listed into your web browser if using Internet Explorer

So, the city football team, Brann, played a big match against the Spanish team Deportivo la Coruña in the UEFA cup. Brann was the underdogs by far, partly because they've beaten the star club Real Madrid, and, well, because they're Spanish and Brann's Norwegian. And add Brann's extremely poor performance this season, and everything says: Deportivo > Brann. However! Brann surprised everyone in the match, with a form and quality that was on par with what we performed last year when they won the Norwegian premier league, and maybe even better! We won 2 - 0, which is a good result when we're playing the second leg match in Spain in a few weeks' time. Of course, we could've easily won with 5 or 6 goals, but I won't complain I think this match is going to be a major lift-up, seeing as we've lost many matches to some of the worst teams in the Norwegian premier league lately.

Here's a picture of the player of the match, Eirik Huseklepp, in action.

I'm gonna save you of my thoughts on the new tv.com layout...

So, I told you I found out that one of my memory chips was broken, right? And that I could still use one of them while I got the other one replaced? Well, I was wrong. Since they both came in the same package, I had to send both of them back, so I had to live an extended amount of time without my normal computer. When I got new ones on Saturday, I didn't hesitate to put them in, put I soon found out that something was messed up on my copmuter. So I used Saturdayevening/night and Sunday morning/evening/night to figure out the problem. I still don't know what it was, but after I installed some new Vista updates, it all worked perfectly again. So now I'm back for full! Prepare yourself, tv.com

Anyway, I've often found it funny how many parents and whonknowswho all over react to even the slightest amounts of indecent content in any form of media (even stuff that's not explicit), especially when there's kids who can be exposed to it. Yet, there's someone who's managed to live through all this censoring and godknowswhat, and that's a small, half-naked duck who's popular with kids all over the world. I am, of course, talking about Donald Duck, arguably one of the most popular characters created by Disney.Say what you want, but he's as anthropomorphic as a duck can get, yet he's only wearing a shirt and no pants at all. I find it strange how no one's complained about him that much.

Earlier today I took a sponaneous decision and decided to shut down my computer, and go out to do something. So I went out in our garden, walked around a bit, laid down, got up again, walked some more. Then I spotted some blueberry bushes at the edge of the "forest" below our house. So I went in to get a cup, and got out again, and went down there to pluck blueberries.

And as I did that, I suddenly felt a relaxed feeling inside of me that surpassed anything I had ever felt before. Sitting in the grass, plucking blueberries, while enoying the warm shine of the setting sun, feeling the warm wind blow strongly, fluttering my hair and rustling the leaves on the trees around, finding pleasure in something insignificant as a small stone, withered leaves and small spider webs. It was just me, and nature. The modern world with all its hustle and bustle was just gone. And that's when I realized how much I acutally love nature, and how glorious it is.

So right now I'm a happier person than I was before, all due to a random, spontaneous desicion =)

I've found out that I experience nostalgia upon listening to the song Heaven by Bryan Adams. When I hear it, I'm just reminded of the good times I had with my friends - though not so often, they were good when they were there. I realize now that I do actually miss them a bit. But what it reminds me of, first and foremost, is the girl I've had a crush on for the last few years. It's just something about the song that reminds me of her and the deep feelings I've had for for her these past few years. But I've never managed to confess my feelings, because she's had one or another boyfriend, and becasue i'm just plain shy =/

Anyway, I'm gonna ask those who've palyed the Final Fantasy games: Do I need to play all the games to understand what's going on, or can I just jump in and play the latest game and quickly catch up on what's going on?

Okay, that's a rare thing coming from me. I am of course talking about the REM concert yesterday. It was awesome! I went there with my bro and his girlfriend, having buyed a ticket at half price from the latter (she had an extra). So, we came there at around 6.30, and the warm-up started aroudn then. The warm-up was sdone by a band whose name continues to elude my mind and another band called "Editors". Around 8.30, the warm-up was done, and around 9, REM came on stage. And in front of around 18 000 more-or-less fans, they delivered a spectacular concert, with awesome effects, funny lines and of course, good music. They didn't play their really good songs (Losing my Religion, The End of the World as We Know It, Man on the Moon) until the end though, so they had me worried for a while

After the concert was done, around 11, we had a lot of time until the last bus home departed; at midnight. Therefore we decided to eat some night food from one of the McDonald's restaurants in town. It was very full though (lots of people coming from the concert to eat, I think), so we decided to but take-away, and we ate it on a bench on the square outside the restaurant

On the bus home we ended up talking with some girls in 10th grade from my old school, whom my bro know (since he worked at the school last year), and that was a perfect way to round off the evening

Today we had really bad weather here, for the first time since May Yeah, so we got a small taste of autumn. Not that I'll complain, since it's normal with bad weather here in Bergen around this time. And people elsewhere have much worse weather anyway.

So... I guess I haven't told you a lot about my work yet, eh? (For those who've missed a few blogs - I work two days a week as part of my school's education program). So, I work at a company called ClampOn; a company making sensors for oil pipes. The sensors measure things like the quantity of sand in the oil (which can jhave big consequences), and we build them from the bottom up, we test them and we ship them. So I get to do various stuff. Today I pretty much sat in front of a computer screen, monitoring that everything was going okay when testing

My wage isn't that high though... 45 bucks (~9 USD) an hour, which accounts for 360 (~72 USD) a day. With two days work each week, my wage is at 37 500 a year the first two years (~7500 USD). From then I start to earn much more (from third year I'll get paid for the days I'm at school too),and I get a gradual increase in the hourly wage as well, and the last semester (6 months, not 12 also), I earn about 100 000 (20000 USD), so it's a lot in the end - more than enough to fund my university studies, and it's much easier to move by myself if that's needed.

I'm talking about my computer troubles here. The reason was, as I had thought, one of the memory chips. So I have to get an ew one. Luckily, it's within the guarantee period, so I'll get it for free. And guess what? Since I have two, I can still use my computer. Just had to remove the defect one, and my PC's up and running. That's wonderful! I didn't really like using the lapotop; I had to wire it up with so much to make it somewhat usable, and it was still nto that good to use. But now I'm all good! Well... half the memory means slwoer performance, but for anime and foruming it's totally fine

Computer trouble: So my computer is messed up now... it doesn't start up. I'm suspecting that it's an error in one of the memory chips. So my dad is going to take a look at it, since he's skilled with the stuff. Luckily it'll be fixed. "But where is Espen writing this blog from?" you might wonder. The answer: I've got a laptop! All students in 11th grade in Norway get a laptop (for the small rental fee of 1 000 NOK (180 USD)). I didn't plan to use it for anything but school stuff, but it's good to have in an emergency like this.I just installed Firefox, uTorrent (so I can get my anime) and VLC Media Player, so I'm good for now

Work: Anyway, I had my first days at work on Monday and Tuesday. T'was really cool. I'm working there with a girl in class, so I'll have some same-aged company. Anyway, we got right to working; we started building our own PSU (Power Supply unit) for the sensors the company makes (sensors which measures the amount of sand in oil inside oil lines). Luckily there was a senpai there to help us They have a guy from fourth grade (secondary ed) working there, and he helped usto build it. As I said, it was really cool, and I still can't believe that I'm gonna get paid for doing something that fun

REM: Also, I manged to secure a cheap ticket for the REM concert in town next Thursday. I really wanted go, but the tickets were too expensive. Luckily, my brother's girlfriend had a spare ticket, which she sold to me at half price. Of course, I couldn't turn down that offer, so now I'm 300 bucks poorer and totally excited about the concert next Thursday. REM is one of my favorite bands (only beat by Travis), so it's going to be awesome!

English song: Everybody Pays - Martin Knopfler

Japanese song: Scarlet - Iwao Junko

No, the title isn't at all random.

Anyway, I got my new monitor today - and it's a vast improvement from my old one. The old one was a 17" CRT-monitor, which means that it was a big, fat lump with bad quality. My new one is a 22" widescreen LCD monitor - which means that it's smaller, slimmer and has much better quality. It cost me ~2 500 kr including mail expenses (if you want to know how much that is in your currency, search for "2500 NOK in [currency]" on Google). It's a Nec AccuSync WMGX 22", and looks like this:

Nice, eh?

Anyway, I just watched a movie named "A Fish Called Wanda", which was a really hilarious movie, with lots of complications, theft and accidental "animal" murder... among other things. Two of the actors (John Cleese and Michael Palin) in the movie were members of Monthy Python, if you've ever heard about them. Anyway, it's a really hilarious movie, and you should watch it sometime!

I just watched the Olympics final in women's handball between Norway and Russia, and Norway won 34-27 Yup, Norway is now Olympic masters in women's handball! The team has played exceptionally well during the whole tournament, and our win was definitely a deserved win. Today it's also the finals in taekwondo and javelin throw, and Norway's got finalists in both events. If we're lucky, this might be a good Olympic day for Norway

Today was both fun and boring. The class ate breakfast at the school, and our teacher talked about a lot of stuff. He had to leave early though, leaving us alone for an hour or so. When he left, everyone was really quiet. Then I, of all people, stand up and suggest that we all introduce ourselves; hobbies, interests, name, where we come from etc. To some it may not be a big deal, but that's something you really won't ever see me do. I'm just too shy. Yet I did it today. And after that, the class got along like they'd known each other for much more than one day. It's really cool. On the bus home I also got to talk with a girl in class, and I feel I've made a new friend

Anyway, today I also started in a new band. I'm still going to my old school band, even though I've started a new school. However, I wanted new horizons, so I decided to join an amateur band (amateur as in we do it without getting paid). A lot of people I know go there - mostly adult people though. Anyway, we got a couple of songs to play, and believe me, they're really hard. This one song is just a lot of variations over the city anthem. Two of the variations are insane for us tuba players - just a ton of semiquavers with no breaks between in both variations. Add in lots of accidentals, tight, hand-written notes and the fact that I've only played the tuba for half a year, and I have an enormous challenge. Anyway, here's the songs we played today.

Bergensiana (variations over the city anthem, mentioned above).
Music from Indiana Jones (this is really cool, as the soundtrack for the movies is amazing).
Highlights from Chess (Okay songs, nothing special).
Northern Landscapes (piece containing four induvidial songs).
Medley from Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (cool songs from one of the best Norwegian movies ever).
Hallelujah I love her So (very catchy song).

That's it. Now I desperately need some sleep. 'Night, folks!