24th January 2009 (Date of the foundation of the Nazi Party in 1920)

I suppose 89th anniversary celebrations of the date would be insensitive. It also happens to be Ben Miller's birthday (Get Smart). Happy Birthday to him.
So, my blog is officially up and running, more or less. It is missing a shoutbox, and I would like to include links to other places somewhere, perhaps, but right now I can't be bothered, because I would be tempted to do it all pretty in pictures which would a) add to the loading time of these already incredibly graphics intensive pages b) mean a lot of time required to make pictures and organise them into links, or to use the map tag (which, if anyone is interested, I am *very* happy to have been able to use on the photos page, for the link to "home". Yerp, no fancy splicing and saving-for-web by PSCS3 there (PS=photoshop), it's plain trial and error to get the corner pixels for the clickable area right :D). I should also include a link to the Sparta Webdesign I did, which is fancier than this with mouseovers which make things look like they're moving (because I can't be bothered to learn flash), but I'll put one here for the time being. It was originally designed for Sparta House, whose theme that year was safari. I really like it, but it was a really involved process (e.g. creating those bird silhouettes from photos, not brushes, or painting in "camouflage grass" as I termed it to hide the fact that I had plonked a lion on top of a picture of grass, or creating lifelike shadows and reflections in the "water", which I'm not sure was water in the first place...) so it didn't happen this time. This time is just a pretty frame for the blog.

You may also like to note (in case you hadn't notice, I am now providing you a full tour of my website) that I am using lightbox for my photos ^^ I began using lightbox on the Sparta website design, and thought I'd just use the same javascript for my photos. Also, there is supposed to be some clickable stuff in the Sparta Website, but it's gone now - I got rid of the photos since graduating from MLC. I may go and clean it up later, if I feel like it (which reminds me, I have some cleaning up to do on my css)

Well right now, I'm in Norway (bet you couldn't tell from the theme) where it is currently quite warm at an entire 2 degrees above zero during the day. Unfortunately, this means that the snow is melting, which means a) no more nice fluffy snow and b) it's cold because of the heat of fusion of water. Still, it is noticeably warmer.

I would also like to notify those of us who used to attend the Eurovision get togethers at Steph's annually, that this year there may be an entrant from Norway named Alexander Rybak (who has his picture plastered all over the magazines and newspapers, I noted today) who happens to be a friend of a friend of mine. Which means I will be clearly biased this year when I watch Eurovision. He *is* very good, so please be biased too ^^

What I'm reading right now: Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It's really very good. It's about the decline of an Empire, and Hari Seldon's plan to shorten the Dark Age which will inevitably come after it through various manipulations of politics, education, knowledge and religion. It's really a very good read (i.e. I highly recommend it), and considers matters which I am particularly interested in, like the use of language, knowledge and religion to control, and the instigators of the fall or rise of a civilisation. Can't say I'm knowledgeable on such subjects, I just really like to discuss that sort of thing (god I must be boring - but I think it's to do with my whole mindset of "knowledge is power" <- quoting Artemis Fowl now. Or did he say gold was power? I really can't remember now...) After that I plan to read Prelude to the Foundation by Asimov and A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. Unfortunately Bekkestua Bibliotek did not have the second and third books of the Foundation saga (which is annoying, because I really want to know what the second Foundation was all about!). Perhaps after that I will read God Created the Integers or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or finish Einstein's Greatest Works :S.

P.S.: if you could be bothered to rummage through my photos, you would notice that the "postcard" above is a composite of about three photos. Can't really tell where I had to paint stuff in, ey? Oh and btw, in case you didn't get it, the photos page can be accessed by clicking the picture of me below (ahh...vanity...)

St. Valentine's Day 14th January 2009

So yep. My blog is soon to be up and running again. This is what the new one is gonna look like, but I still need to make some tweaks to it, like adding the shoutbox and preparing the photos page.
Have fun, all!