There’s not been much happening on this site the last months – this is mainly because I’ve (finally!) managed to get a fulltime IT-job, so there’s been a lot of other things on my mind. Hopefully I’ll manage to update more often as I get more settled in the routine and get used to working full days, getting up early every morning and going to bed much too early from what I’m used to 🙂

Anyway – for those interested, my new place of employment is a large administrative state office, working as a system administrator for the IBM WebSphere series of application servers. The servers run on a lot of different hardware – there’s UNIX, Linux, Windows and also there’s the Mainframe system, so there’s always tons of new things to learn every day and also there’s lots of different projects going on, being tested or going into production.

So for those who have been wondering what I’ve been up to lately – at least now you know… and hopefully I’ll be able to update this little weblog of mine on a more regular schedule as well…

Some rotten bastards stole my bike yesterday from right under my nose – I was stupid enough to leave it unlocked outside for five minutes while I went upstairs to get something and when I got out it was gone. Just like that..

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The heartiest congratulations to my dearest friends Morten and Therese who got married this weekend!

Morten and Therese

I was Morten’s Best Man so I had a couple of duties, and was a bit nervous, but all went fine. I had a wonderful time and hope everyone else did as well.

I wish all the very best for the happy couple!

I’ll post more pictures from the wedding as soon as I get them, since I didn’t use my own camera that much…

Some good news – I’ve gone to the very mature (for me) step to buy an apartment here in Oslo! The place is in Vøyensvingen at Ila, and it’s a small 1-room apartment with kitchen.

Not very big but just perfect for my modest needs, and it’s conveniently located – just 10 minutes on bike to the center of town and the area is very nice, quiet and close to the river. It was not all that expensive either so I didn’t need to take up a large loan, which helps a lot.

The apartment is quite old so it needs a bit of work, for instance there is just a shared shower in the hall at the moment, but there will be work to fix all the apartments here during the coming winter. Other than that I’m really satisfied with it and it’s nice to finally have a place I can call my very own. More info later as I get more settled in…

Morten with a colourful drink

This weekend was my good friend Morten’s stag night/bachelor party, and since I’m the best man, I had arranged for us to play paintball, followed by dinner and going out for more drinking and dancing afterwards. The paintball was lots of fun, and I hope to arrange a trip up there again soon.

After the paintball we went for a refreshing swim in a nearby lake where the water was just perfect to wash off the dirt and sweat from the game. Then it was back to Oslo for dinner and lots of colorful drinks, we even got the Groom a ‘special dance’ which I guess is kind of obligatory 🙂

I think the day worked out really well and hope everybody had a really good time, I know I had!

Destruction in Aceh

My deepest sympathies go out to those millions of people affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Why is it that stuff like this always seems to happen to the poorest and neediest people in the world?

When I’ve heard or read about Tsunamis before, for instance like the one in the aftermath of the Krakatau eruption, somehow I never thought the world would actually see one of this magnitude happen anytime soon.
Like someone once said – Mother Nature can be one cruel bitch…

I hope people around the world are doing whatever they can to help those in need, for example by donating to some of the organizations doing relief work in the area. Here is a list of Norwegian organizations with account numbers.

The numbers of people dead and affected by this are just unfathomable – the last thing I heard there were over 120.000 confirmed dead, while about 460 Norwegians are still missing. This tragic events of this last week of 2004 is something that will be felt and remembered around the world for a long time to come.

The first snow arrived today, coating streets, cars and trees with a white powdery layer, and creating a beautiful ambience in the streets. I have a feeling everyone’s spirits are lifted with the first snowfall, especially kids, who finally can get their sleds out from storage. But soon enough we all get used to it, and in the middle of winter most can’t wait for the cold wet stuff to be gone again. The first days with snow are still special, as the world somehow gets transformed to something entirely different in a few hours.

And, as is usual with the first snow every winter, chaos ensued on the roads …

I’m proud to announce that I now have a veterinarian in the family – many congratulations to my sister Hege, who today finished her final exam at the Budapest Faculty of Veterinary Science!

She’ll receive her diploma in about a months time, and of course I’m going down to attend the graduation ceremony with others in the familiy.

My heartfelt condolences and sympathy goes out to the Spanish people after yesterday’s cruel attack on innocent civilians in Madrid. In the honor of the dead and their families I display this Spanish flag with a black ribbon:

My first thought on who might be responsible for the atrocity was, like many others, the Basque separatist movement ETA, who have used bombings in their campaign for several decades, but it now also looks like the case for Al Qaeda being responsible is strong as well, which is a much more worrying prospect from a European perspective. Whoever it might be, I hope they catch the bastards…