Archive for August, 2008

Gone fishing

By oyvind – 31 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Life


The young master of the house tends a sport school for juniors once a week run by our local sport club. It is a great offer to youths that don’t want to take part in one particular type of sport. The organizer do a great job and the kids gets to go fishing, hiking, spend nights in tents, climb, swim, ski, dance, paddling and lots of other fun activities. I think this is a great alternative, especially when they put so much work in it and care this much for the kids. Its great fun for adults too, I try to go with them as much as I can and when they ask for adult assistance I can’t say no.

This season started with a fishing trip on the motorboat Rover, a faithful boat with 38 seasons on the Barents Sea. 13 years ago it was bought by a teacher who wanted try something new and to give youth a break and let them experience the ocean and how it is to work on such boat. His organisation funds this by selling commercial trips for tourists and private groups – like us. His ultimate dream was that the schools exchanged the 7th grade with a year of practical school. Not only to give school tired youth a break but also to give kids experience and bring more realism to school. I love the idea, but getting this through a conservative school system would be though. Unfortunately. How is this in your country?

This time we were just over 20 kids and 5 adults, the second we all entered the boat I noticed how experienced he was with kids. He got their attention and they listened carefully to what he had to tell. He gave thoughtful instructions that everyone could understand and answered questions in a great way. He even had time for my curious questions about the different radar and radio systems on board. I learned a lot.

We were out a few hours, trying fishing spots on different locations on the local fjords. We didn’t get much fish but the kids loved the trip. Many of them are in the same class, I think this is a nice way for them to be together and maybe help some to bond. The captain also demonstrated how modern fishing systems worked, I had no idea how advanced it has become. I guess it is necessary if one want to have a chance in the competition.

What a great day.. No wonder that ship and its captain is popular.

This year the 6 year old in the house joined the sports school as well, tent trip next. :)

mb_rover
fisketur1
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Trying out ViralBlogAds

By oyvind – 28 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Internet

I have always one spot free which I can experiment with. Last one was Performancing ads which had a great GUI and system but I felt it were a bit unfair that they got to display their ad on my blog for free all the time. Since this is a new subdomain with few backlinks and other stats it was difficult to get people to try me.

I am now trying out ViralBlogAds (afflink) which also is a 125×125 ad system, you can also use 468×60. Its still in pre-launch but you can add 3 free ads which will be displayed in free spots.

As a participant in the ViralBlogAds pre-launch contest, you must add your website to our database in order to display the publisher code on your site. Eligible publishers will then be selected at random as winners of our selection of prizes. The contest will begin on September 1st.

It took me 30 seconds to sign up, it looks good and it has several tools for checking performance on ads. It it Paypal based and you can withdraw money when balance is $25. Balance will be updated each 14th day, they have a function to prevent click-fraud, which is very nice.

I look forward to check it out. Btw you can approve and disapprove incoming ads.

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Wordless Wednesday – Grønskjæret

By oyvind – 27 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Wordless Wednesday


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Full HD – HD Ready

By oyvind – 20 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Journalism



Do you find this confusing? Why are they calling a Full HD TV HD Ready? What are they up to? Are they trying to confuse people on purpose? To let people think that all TVs are labelled HD Ready and lure them to buy TVs with lower resolution? The example above is indeed a Full HD so…

This is Elprice in Norway.

Lots of questions, no answers. Hmm that remind me of Lost, I look forward to next season.

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Weird world – bike theft

By oyvind – 17 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Weird world


My fiancé and a friend of her went to the cinema in the city centre last night. After the movie they decided to walk down to the warf to by baked potatoes. They sat down on a bench, relaxed and enjoyed watching people going by. Suddenly a strange person, probably highly intoxicated, came near them getting his bike. Near the bench were a place where you can park your bikes, he mumbled something and picked up a cutting tool. He parked his bike, cut a nearby lock on a nice bike and cycled away with the new bike.

There were lots of people around but he did not mind any of that. Can you believe that?

They didn’t dare to say anything to them, they sat there frozen and shocked. Its not wise for two ladies saying wrong things to the wrong people late at night. Especially since he was very intoxicated by something. I understand that they didn’t say anything to them.

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Wordless wednesday – Autumn in Bergen

By oyvind – 13 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Wordless Wednesday



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Tall Ships Races 2008

By oyvind – 12 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: General


I didn’t get to see much of the Tall Ships’ Races this year, I checked out some of them at the harbour of Bergen. Those ships are beautiful and all but I’ve kind of seen them before. Though in nice weather in Bergen they all look awesome. One thing I thought was fun was the visit of Hämeenmaa (02), a Finish mine layer, escort and logistical support ship. A huge contrast to the good old sailers. It participated in the Nordic Cadet Meeting (NOCA).

Hämeenmaa (02) had a turbulent birth, it was supposed to be built by Wärtsilä Meriteollisuus (founded 1834), but it went bankrupt and the project were transferred to Hollming. Hollming merged with Rauma Yards. Later it were bought by the Norwegian Kvaerner and became Aker Finnyards. Finish shipyard industry struggled as in many other Nordic countries. Power play, big money, foul play, unemployment etc but that is a different story. (My theory is that Kvaerner inserted negative expectations in 1998 to ease new purchases)

Hämeenmaa (02) were upgraded in April last year to be compatible to modern systems and to be used in international operations. It has an ice operating classification of ICE-1A and can operate around the year (check out her bow – they powerdrive the bow up onto the ice and let the ship’s weight crush the ice). The upgrade trial is active, which is why I think its fun it came to Bergen, and estimated to be transferred to service later this year. They are testing the new Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) Sonar Systems and the new South African Umkhonto-IR SAM system. It will then be used in European security operations (ESDP) and defence policy. Lets just say that it will be a very important ship in northern areas in near future. It is part of the Headline Goal 2010.

The Tall Ship’s Races are extremely popular here in Bergen, almost 100 ships attend this year with over 4000 crew members, tens of thousands visited the city centre and created an atmosphere only to be seen when we celebrate our Constitution Day. Next stop is Den Helder Holland via Fedje where the race ends.

Photo by Eivind Senneset.

Our precious local Statsraad Lehmkuhl, winner of last years Tall Ship’s Races companied by Christian Radic and Sørlandet. The little Class C there called Gediania is from Poland and were built in 1973. It has attended the races on several occasions.

Photo by Robin Strand.

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On daddy leave

By oyvind – 8 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Life



I am finally on daddy leave, I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Not to get away from work but to spend quality time with my 10 month old daughter. Today we took a long walk, she loves sitting there in the roller and observe the world that surrounds her – cars, people, buses, birds, cats and dogs. When she sees cats or dogs she burst out joyful sounds and want to talk to them. When she once in a while is allowed by the dog owner she pets them gently and smiles wide. Then we move on to our next adventure. She suddenly noticed the shadows she could do when we walked down a hill today, we stopped and had lots of fun with the shadows.

I got 6 weeks daddy leave, and I think I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. I get to be 100% part of these important months, where she explores and expands her knowledge about her functions and suddenly knows how to stand up and walk. That will be a whole new chapter for both her and us – and I will be there.

When I was born my mother had a few weeks off, and my father had nothing. Later they added more weeks to the mother. It kept expanding and suddenly the father got a few weeks too. I had two weeks birth leave (1 obligatory and 1 week vacation). Those weeks were gold to me, it is my first born and I it was a whole new world to me, I was in heaven. :) I still am. Especially when I have 6 weeks to have home-alone-time with the little one. Not only that, my girlfriend has 2 kids, so when she is on work I can spend quality time with them too. Life is good.

Thank you system for being considerate to life and human beings.


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Be careful where you surf

By oyvind – 4 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: News

On saturday in my area this weekend a young guy called the police. He was worried about his father. He told the police that he was locked in, in his room and house, with no food or water. The 60 year old man had been locked in since Friday.

The police went to his house and found the man locked in as the son had reported. And they found out why – his wife found out that he surfed on sites that she didn’t like much and decided to punish him…

Poor guy. :D He didn’t file any charges, the policed talked to them and got them on better tracks..

I think I would file a charge… Especially now that the whole world knows what he did this weekend.

sources : Dagbladet, BA, BT.


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Its a sick world

By oyvind – 1 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: Weird world

Someone planted almost 30 sharpened poles near a wharf at a bathing place a few days ago. They were 1.5 meters long. A family discovered them and pulled up 10 immediately, what would happen if the kids jumped in and hit the poles?

We live in a sick world…

Check out the image here.

At first I thought this had to be some boys doings but.. It had to take a lot of work to set the poles in under the surface. Who could do such a thing? I hope they catch them.


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We have water!

By oyvind – 1 August 2008 Active testNorwegianPosted in: News

NASA writes tonight that they can confirm finds of water on Mars.

“The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil.”

Finally they have hard evidence, I’ve been looking forward for this.

Check it out here.
Norwegian article her.

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