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 :P 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...