The bulwark against Simon taking over the world [entries|friends|calendar] Pengolodh (s.c) [ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ] [ calendar | livejournal calendar ]

[28 Sep 2009|11:11pm] [ mood | curious ] For some reason, most of the spam I receive these days is German - mainly it is advertising industrial quality vacuum cleaners ("Profi- Gewerbe- und Buerostaubsauger fuer Ihre Grossflaechenreinigung!"), but I also get spam from a German online flag shop ("vor jedem Haus, vor jedem Tor, vor Sporthallen, bei Festen"). Still not as weird as the spam I received for a Chinese translation service in 1999 or thenabouts. 1 comment|post comment

[16 May 2009|11:56pm] [ mood | happy ] So certain victory, with 11 countries yet to cast their votes - and the song isn't half bad, either. Not sure what to think of the wet t-shirt show from the intermission, though. And Norwegian TV's commentator is suffering from oral diarrhea.... 3 comments|post comment

Computer woes update [24 Apr 2009|12:17pm] When posting the latest I was borrowing a computer at my employer's (at the moment I'm borrowing my mother's computer at her workplace). While doing so I did find advise on a thing to do when NTLDR won't load on start-up - basically boot with the Windows CD/DVD, copy the files NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the CD to C:\, and then reboot. However, my computer won't let me copy NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM over, and it also refuses to let me delete the existing NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM on C:\, and it refuses to let me change attributes on said files, too - the administartor account apparently doesn't have access to do that. Hmph. Anyway - while online two days ago, I did order new harddrives, just in case, and they should arrive today or tomorrow. Once they arrive, I'll take out the offending harddrive, install a clean install of XP SP3 on one of the new ones, and hook the old one back up to copy off it any files I might need/want. Hopefully I should be online again in just a few days. 2 comments|post comment

Computer fall over, go BOOM! [22 Apr 2009|12:59pm] Well, strictly speaking my computer has not fallen over in the literal sense, nor has it gone BOOM! - however, it does appear that my primary harddrive has committed suicide, and bled zeros and ones all over the place. I simply can't start the computer, as it claims it can't find NTLDR. Until I have fixed this issue, I'll be pretty much offline. I will, most likely, take the opportunity for a clean re-install - Windwos has been a touch wonky for me the last year or so. post comment

In other news.... [15 Jan 2009|03:17pm] I have moved. This is mainly related to work. I work as a guide at the Viking Museum here, and we are cooperating with Hurtigruten (a passenger- mail- and cargo ship service along the Norwegian coast) on a project to increase passenger numbers on Hurtigruten and winter visitors numbers to the museum. For Hurtigruten, this cooperation is part of a bigger project called Hunting the Light, where Hurtigruten-passengers are to look for how light can be experienced in the dark season in North Norway - this includes the project with the Viking Museum, visits to the Northern Lights Observatory in Tromsø, dogsledding in the night in Finnmark, etc. At the Viking Museum, we try to take the passengers back to a Viking Age midwinter night and the midwinter sacrifice. The passengers leave their ship in Stamsund and board a coach that takes them to the Viking Museum. During the drive, a guide from the museum - most often me - speaks to them about the situation in the late Iron Age, and how the disappearance of the sun every winter was viewed by people then, and what they did to get the sun back (a sacrifice/midwinterfeast called Jólblot, which seems to also have been a holiday of the dead - I believe it was a bit similar to samhain in being a transition from one year to another, and a time when the dead were in our world). At the museum, the passengers are taken into our reconstructed longhouse, where they're dressed in wool cloaks, and taken into the feast hall to witness the Jólblot ceremony (toned down perhaps a wee bit - no human sacrifice, no splattering of blood all over the people, etc.) . Following the ceremony, there is a meal based on roast leg of lamb (so delicious that one guest commented that she loved the meal, even though she hated lamb meat), with vegetables, bread and assorted trimmings. Finally, there is a dance around the fireplace, and the opportunity to buy various souvenirs, including replicas of Iron Age jewellery, Iron Age drinking glasses, etc. The coach then takes them on to the ship's next port of call (Svolvær), and the guide (again, most often me) explains about the history of the museum and the archaeological digs that led to the reconstruction of the longhouse, some aspects of the Lofoten fisheries, production of stockfish, and other topics. As I don't have a car or a driver's licence for cars, it was difficult for me to get to the start- and endpoints of these tours - local bus connections have their limits, as this is a rural area, and I'm typically done at 11pm when there are no buses. I do drive a scooter, but this part of my job takes place mainly in winter, and there is no way I'm driving 30+ kilometers on scooter on winter roads. So I started looking in the newspaper ads for apartments in in Stamsund (which is where the coach-company we use has its depot - so that's where the buses return after the tour is done) - and I found one. And the one I found is in fact only about one stone-throw away from the coach depot (not that I have done practical tests to verify this, mind). The apartment is furnished and includes satelite TV, and is about 40-50 square meters (~440-550 square feet), at a guess, has bathroom, separate bedroom, a single space that's combined livingroom and kitchen (not kitchenette), and a small storageroom. I pay NOK 2600 (at current exchange rates USD 361 / GBP 248 / EUR 275) per month - power, phone and Internet are not included in the price; I opted for broadband telephone, as it doesn't add to the fixed monthly expenses when I have DSL. Electrical power is ca. NOK 0.70 (USD 0.095 / GBP 0.065 / EUR 0.075) per kWh - we don't do gaslines in Norway. 3 comments|post comment

Is there life on Mars? [15 Jan 2009|02:57pm] [ music | News bulletin on the radio ] NASA has announced they are going to hold a science update to "discuss analysis of the Martian atmosphere that raises the possibility of life or geologic activity" - the update will be made today, Thursday January 15th at 7pm GMT/2pm EST. Edit: The story has been picked up by, among others, Fox News and Sky News, which seem to have a more tabloid focus on the possibility of life. This is not really new, though - BBC News has a more thorough and sober article on this topic from 2004. post comment

[08 Oct 2008|12:15am] [ mood | bloated, etc ] Lovely. Reading through the leaflet coming with the antibiotics, it is noted that side effects with high occurence (greater than 1 in 100) include nausea, diarrhea, and excessive stomach gas. And of course I couldn't be among the less than 99 in 100 who escape it. post comment

[04 Oct 2008|05:55pm] [ mood | sick ] For some days I've had some mild fevers, a bit disorientation, etc. I thouhgt I had a cold - I do not. I realises suddenly yesterday that it was probably an infection related to an abscess I've had some days. Today I was with a doctor, and he decided to lance it there and then (the local anaestethic is giving out as I'm typing), and put me on a ten-day antibiotic cure. I'll spare you the details, they're in TMI-land - if you feel for regurgitating dinner, lunch or whatever, you may look at this Wikipedia-article. Yuck. And ow. 14 comments|post comment

Meme, taken from lots of people [01 Oct 2008|02:45am] [ mood | peaceful ] * Grab the nearest book. * Open the book to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST. "The after tubes appear to have been landed before the ship went to Norway in June 1940." From Cruisers of World War Two by the late M. J. Whitley. On a different note, the past few months I have noticed that on several occasions some Russian LJ-user adds my to his/her friendslist, only to remove me again a few days later. In all cases, the other person's LJ is entirely in Russian, as are userinfo and interests - we have no interests, friends or communities in common, except perhaps some of the official LJ communities like lj_maintenance or news. Perhaps there's something about my username - I have that on MSN. It turns out that my MSN username i apparently also is the word for a specific type of jewelry worn by the bride in traditional weddings. That will explain, I think, why there are so many Turkish men ready for marriage that want to be my rather close friend on MSN. As for the dog (called Ailo), he is settling in, with all his quirks - he is now around 3 years old, if I understand correctly. He is, one could say, a dog that is kind and loving in his own brutal way. He is also putting on weight nicely - he was very skinny, and was apparently so underfed that he'd twice needed hormone-injections from the vet to ensure normal development. He likes to play, but it appears that through his life he hasn't actually learnt how - having actual toys seemed puzzling to him the first several weeks, and while he wants to do the tease-and-run routine, he hasn't got the hang of it. He's also a bit too fond of suddenly going all-out in trying to dominate me. On the joint birthday-celebration for me and my father (at which day I worked so late that I got home 10 minutes before the last guests left), Ailo managed to break my aunt's hip, just by being playful. He doesn't bark very often - when he wants to get in, when begging, etc. he normally makes a sound that's more like crying or weeping. When he is frustrated, he'll sometimes resort to grumbling. He mainly barks when he wants to be taken for a walk, which he wants from around 5 pm or so. Right now my parents are away, and - as the last time my parents were away several days, he started marking territory inside the house - he's been in a kennel for the duration. I wonder how he'll react when my parents pick him up again - as he's been passed back and forth between so many families before, there's some potential for complications, but at the same time I don't think there was much choice given what happened the last time. And at the kennel, there's no-one trying to integrate him into a new family/pack, so at least he doesn't get that confusion. post comment

[13 May 2008|11:41pm] It's stopped snowing. Also, new dog in family. As mentioned earlier, we had to have our dog put down in December, as she got seriously ill. Back then my parents were determined not to have another dog, and gave away all the things (leash, foodbowls, waterbowls, etc.) to a relative running a kennel. This, however, did not last, so they recently started looking for dogs needing relocation. Today they got the new dog. It's two years old, and the owner suffers from bipolar disorder, and has frequent and long periods in mental hospital, while her husband/partner apparently does not want to have a dog. We are the third family to try that dog in six months - it apparently did not fit in too well with the other two families; with one it wreaked havoc ont he house when elft alone for some while. Not sure how well it fit in with its original owners, either - it has a good temperament, but it is, to be honest, a touch too skinny; it apparently was raised to be fed at table, and I think it simply didn't get enough food that way. It doesn't really have a handle on eating from its bowl on the floor, it seems. And did I mention its size? It's a Leonberger. Leonbergers are large huge - weightrange for grown males is ca. 105-165 lbs, with height at shoulders typically 28.5 to 31.5 inches (72 to 80 cm). Hopefully it'll fit in - once it learns to understand us, anyway; it currently only understands Dutch. 3 comments|post comment

[13 May 2008|01:17am] It's snowing. 7 comments|post comment

[24 Apr 2008|12:50am] [ mood | random and curious ] [ music | Something with Kim Larsen on the radio ] Why are so many aliens naked? 7 comments|post comment

[05 Dec 2007|06:53pm] [ mood | sad ] We had to take our dog - named Fanny - in to the vet yesterday, to have her put down. She'd started developing a tumour ten days earlier - by yesterday it was the size of two clenched fists put together, and she was an old dog; I believe it wasn't long before that one, and another large one inside her, would have begun harming her lungs and digestive system. She was already having trouble getting up and lying down. She didn't know what was going to happen - she was just as excited about this trip as any other trip in the car, and she had a field-day at the waitingroom, checking out all the treats and toys for sale, looting the box of complimentary kittie-treats on a table (I managed to rescue most of it), and so on. When we were driving there, she repeatedly stuck her head forward to nuzzle my head. My father couldn't bear it; he ended up waiting it out in the car - my mother and I were with her, though, as the shots were set, and cuddled her until she stopped breathing. It will be a strange Christmas and New Year's Eve - she was very excited about both. She absolutely understood that she'd get presents for Christmas - the one year we didn't have any, she was very confused and searched through the pile of discarded paper, as she was sure we'd just misplaced it. And on New Year's Eve she'd always go out with us to watch the fireworks - she loved that, running up and down the front yard barking at the fireworks. Last year she barked particularly much at our neighbours - because they weren't at home, so they didn't launch fireworks like they used to - so she was barking to make them start launching fireworks. 8 comments|post comment

In (Soviet) Russia Livejournal read you? [03 Dec 2007|04:05am] [ mood | Up too late and surprised ] I'm half wondering if I've been sleeping so long that I missed Christmas and went straight to the first day of April, but... It will seem from this post in news that Six Apart has sold Livejournal to SUP, the Russian partner of Six Apart. SUP has set up a California, US-based daughter company called Livejournal, Inc. to operate Livejournal. SUP states that it will generally maintain a minimalist approach in managing the site, but it will also "establish clear and concrete policies with regard to communication and consultation on issues vital to the community." Livejournal, Inc. will apparently also form a Livejournal Advisory Board, composed of "both industry experts and members of the LiveJournal community" - Brad Fitzpatrick will be one of the members. Read the whole post at news, and also see lj_2008 for more information - the posts there are phrased a bit differently than at news. Livejournal, Inc. also have a 100 Day Plan.... Post title taken from this comment by nova_one post comment

[24 Nov 2007|02:04am] I indulged in a Meme: ( What American accent do you have? ) post comment

Among things one might want to won, were they in production [04 Nov 2007|06:10pm] [ mood | amused ] I present The Abduction Lamp. With thanks to FIAWOL for giving me the link. 2 comments|post comment

[09 Oct 2007|06:00pm] Snow has arrived - it was here briefly last night and this morning - but it is completely outclassed by hail right now. In fact, the hail is so dense it is making it dark here. 2 comments|post comment

[08 Oct 2007|03:10pm] For anyone despairing about how all the cords associated with computers somehow seem to tangle themselves all on their own, be assured that science is looking into it: Science Daily: Physicists Tackle Knotty Puzzle. It is actually a fascinating article, and less whimsical that it sounds from the title. It also touches on reasons for why umbilical cords between mother and fetus rarely tangle, and a bit on how knots also apply to DNA. In other news, I may have neglected to mention that a few weeks ago, I bought a sword. I was apprehensive before the sword arrived, as it is in the lower price range, but it turned out to be a good one. No rattling, and it looks right, with no "bling" (for lack of a better word) like one sees a bit too often on lower price swords. The blade is flexible, and looks sharp without actually being sharp (important for me, as I intend to use it when at work at the Viking museum - it simply won't do to accidentally slice open guests). The one thing with this sword that isn't wholly up to snuff is the scabbard, but one gets what one pays for - I'm informed that a truly good scabbard would probably come in the 200-300$ price range. The present scabbard is serviceable enough until I can get a proper one, in any case. ETA: Now, I'm fully aware that the description of the sword contains quite a lot of nonsense - for instance, Ulfberht wasn't Nordic; the name probably originally was the name of a Frankish bladesmith from the Rhineland, whose workshop produced such good swords that it survived to use the name Ulfberht as a trademark for more than two centuries, and was pirate-copied as well in that time. The actual sword sold on that (and other) websites is pretty good, though, and it is based on a real sword, found probably in Spain and featured on pages 124-125 of Ian Peirce's book "Swords of the Viking Age". Now I do think the inlays on the sword I bought aren't laid in in the same way as on the original, but it is still pretty good. The producer Windlass Steelcrafts apparently has a good reputation in this price-range, beaten only by Generation 2 - but those tend to produced with razor-sharp blades, which of course is impractical when in cramped confines filled with paying guests. post comment

I'm a king? [15 Aug 2007|12:27am] [ mood | amused ] During my time as a guide at a Viking museum, it has previously come to light that I am both a superhero and Robin Hood. Last Friday it was also revealed to me that I am a king. I am walking - dressed in Viking clothing - on one of the paths in the museum area, in something of a hurry, and walk past a family with a little girl. Upon being seen by the little girl she starts shouting: "Look, it's a king. Look at the king, Mom! Look at the king!" There seems to be one of these incidents every year - I wandoer what I'll be enxt year? 3 comments|post comment

Ragdolls and antipodes [18 Jun 2007|02:29pm] [ mood | amused, with a day off work ] Ragdoll is a silly, though fascinating, little flash animation of a female (in a bathing-suit/bikini - this might not be entirely safe for work) falling and bouncing off bubble-like things. The Antipodes Map uses Google maps to show you what is the antipode to your location (i.e. the point diametrically opposite to your current location) - in the upper map you choose your current location, and the lower map shows the antipode to it. The antipode to my current location is at the Southern edge of the Southern Pacific, or perhaps the Northern edge of the Ross Sea - I seem to end up roughly in the area centre of the New Zealand Antarctic claim (including claims to sea territory), with Scott Island as nearest landfall. 5 comments|post comment

[18 Apr 2007|03:45pm] [ mood | blank ] Am without Internet-access at home for the time being - in fact, I have been since midnight between Sunday and Monday. The last I heard from the ISP was that they hoped to have it fixed by late afternoon on Friday. I am currently on 15 minutes of borrowed time on someone else's computer, so I will likely have trouble keeping up with people's LJs for a while 1 comment|post comment

[14 Apr 2007|11:56pm] [ mood | curious ] I am looking for recommendations on MP3-software, both for playback and for making a copy of my CDs on my computer. Currently I am using Musicmatch Jukebox, mainly on account of it happening to be what was installed when I started playing music in any quantity on my computer. I just realised, after having ripped most of my music CDs to my harddrive (I don't have any CD-player in the room, and the computer's DVD-drive is a bit loud) that Musicmatch has one annoying "feature": It pads each soundtrack with a short moment of silence, about 1/2 second long. For most of my CDs that makes no difference, but I have some CDs - particularly those with live recordings - where the sound by design is continuous from one track to the next, and it is a bit jolting to then have a forced half-second stop in the music/sound. So - can anyone recommend software that does not add silence at the end of a track when ripping CDs (and which will play back the mp3s without taking a break to figure out where the next file on the playlist is)? The software will need to be usable on Windows XP. I'd appreciate any help. 2 comments|post comment

Singapore has defriended all of us? [11 Apr 2007|03:22am] [ mood | blank ] [ music | Mio min Mio by A. Lindgren, performed by Göteborgsmusiken ] It seems the Republic of Singapore has blocked livejournal, seemingly following on to China's similar act in early March. 3 comments|post comment

News from Livejournal - permanent accounts for sale [15 Mar 2007|10:30pm] From news (whihc all of you should watch, if you aren't already doing so) come an announcement of changes and new features. They are tweaking the main homepage and logged-out page - tweaks will also come to the logged-in page (which you see once you've entered username and password), eventually. The Horizon sitescheme is tweaked a bit, also. MyLJ will apparently no longer have a link, except in the sitemap. They will shortly introduce the new Vertigo sitescheme in public beta-testing. It is visually similar to Horizon, but instead of having all the links to friendspage, memories, userinfo, scrapbook, settings, etc. in dropdown menus along the top, they will be as textlinks down the left-hand side, just as in the oldest sitescheme Dystopia. In the near future (a month or two) they're planning on doing a purge of livejournals that have been deleted for more than 30 days. There will be a limited-time sale of permanent accounts within the next few months. Permanent accounts are in essence paid accounts that never expire, but with more userpics (137) and more storage-space (10 GB) in Scrapbook. Last time they had a sale of permanent accounts, the sale was open for 24 hours and the accounts cost $150. I expect the exact time of the sale and new price of the permanent accounts will be announced in news a few hours before it opens. For more details, see the news announcement. Edit: They are also planning to introduce voice-post numbers in a few countries other than USA. post comment

[08 Mar 2007|01:43am] Livejournal has done some changes again, and some of them are siginificant (and have been longed for by many): Firstly, in news it says: Go Forth And Friend Some of the database improvements we've been making have finally allowed us to up some of our limits! Starting immediately, we've raised the friend limit from 750 friends to 1000 friends for Basic, Plus, and Early Adopter accounts, and 2000 friends for Paid and Permanent accounts. (That sound you hear right now is fandom and RPG participants shrieking with delight. Hi, guys!) Also, Livejournal has introduced a mass privacy editing tool. The details are described in paidmembers, in this post - note that the feature for now is unable to deal with custom friends groups. I suspect this feature is likely to remain available only for paid users for the time being. post comment

[14 Feb 2007|04:38am] [ mood | unromantic ] Anyone who's feeling unduly invaded by hearts on LJ's site-schemed pages (user-info, login-page, etc.) - there is a way to avoid them. One can still change back to one of the older site-schemes, and those are not edited/prettified for seasonal heppenings like Valentine's Day or Christmas. To change, go to: www.livejournal.com/manage/settings/ There make your choice, and click [Save]. For those who don't want to switch, have hope! Current indications suggest that the hearts will remain in presence only until Friday (inclusive). (And if you don't ahve lj_releases on your friendslist already, why not?) Give me Proteus, I say! 2 comments|post comment

[13 Feb 2007|05:08pm] [ mood | content ] The winter weather is gorgeous right now. The sky is a deep azure, with not a cloud on it - already some stars are showing - and there's not a stirring of the air. The colour of the sky is partly reflected off the snow on the landscape and the ice on the sea, which gives off the appearance of bleu celeste. Only streetlights, with their orange hue, offer contrast of colour, strung out like small gems along the roads - no house with light in it can be observed from our windows. This is certainly the blue hour. 2 comments|post comment

[18 Jan 2007|07:43pm] [ mood | dissatisfied ] AIM has recently from v5.9 to v6, but I can't say I like it too much - the UI doesn't appeal to me. I guess it is meant to embody the ideals of "Web2.0"? The emoticons have become uglier, the handling of HTML and hyperlinks has been changed, and the text in the IM-windows got tinier. Upgrading also restored many of my settings to what apparently are the factory defaults, so I had to search out those settings (and not all can be found in the same menus any more) and get them back to what I want. And Viewpoint is back, of course. All in all, using AIM suddenly seems much less attractive to me. On an only remotely related note, why do I keep getting added to the friendslists of French and (apparenlty) Turkish users on MSN Messenger? I currently have 7 or 8 persons asking permission to put me on their friendslist, and I've been fending off a lot of similar requests earlier. Does the word kirdan (possible optional spelling may be cirdan or chirdan or khirdan) have some special meaning in French or Turkish? post comment

[29 Dec 2006|11:57pm] [ mood | amused ] I don't do very many memes, and I never do new year's resolutions, but ( this one's actually quite fun ) 5 comments|post comment

[22 Dec 2006|12:13am] [ mood | tired ] There seems to be a meme of sorts, about Shakespearean insults. I had a go at the generators, and found several fun ones, but I'm not sure if ( this is an insult or an invitation ) 4 comments|post comment

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