Finally got to give blood today. They figured I’d be allright now with the iron reserves up for this long. Also remembered to register for the bone marrow register. Feeling nice and useful.

As mentioned before, in addition to making me feel useful, giving blood in Norway is good because you get to pick a goodie of some sort when you’re done. So I now have yet another mug, this one from Arabia (Finland) with Little My:

Yay me.

Sound of the moment: VH-1 muted (so, in fact, silence)
Age of the moment: 10

Got to bed WAY too late last night. I got a bit hooked on the new Bokprat forum and then realised that since cable is working again I could watch Parkinson – which I proceeded to do despite the fact that it was one I’ve already seen (Martine McCutcheon, Terry Wogan and Jennifer Lopez – hilarious show). And then I read a few chapters in my book, and suddenly it was the sort of time when the chariot turns back into a pumpkin, and I should have been fast asleep.

Had a guestmap entry from Theresa, so obviously I had to have a look at her blog – she’s done a 100 things list, too. It’s funny how fascinating reading other people’s list is. In any case, finding another blogger in Norway (even if she’s not Norwegian) is quite good fun. She also likes Pooh, apparently. At least I assume she does, seeing as her URL is “spellingtuesday”.

Had a lovely weekend in Arvika (well, had some icky moments Sunday morning after the night before, but otherwise it was good fun). Linda and Lene have just moved in, so naturally everything was basically still in boxes. They had also had a pile of furniture from IKEA delivered. So I got to spend some happy hours putting up flat-packed furniture (something I actually really enjoy doing), which was great.

I love having Linda an hour and a half away by train. Makes a big difference from 7. Or 3 hours by plane.

Sound of the moment: VH-1 (cable working again! Touch wood!)
Age of the moment: just about 28 and a half

It’s nowhere as good as the 1997 edition.

Having a home-computer-internet-link hiccup situation at the moment, hence the lack of postings the last couple of days. Tomorrow evening I’m leaving for Arvika, to visit Linda over the weekend, so the pickings may continue slim until some time Monday. On the other hand I’m working on a ‘picture a day’ blog (as oppsed to the picture of teh day, which isn’t, much of the time), so your patience will be rewarded.

For some years from when I was about 17 I used to have a world map up on the wall with pins in the places I had pen-pals and other places of interest, and pictures surrounding it with a string connecting them to the appropriate pin. I’ve been considering doing something similar again – it’s useful for getting a sense of geography in a world where my father calls me on my mobile and it sounds like he’s standing next tome at Obs! (big Norwegian supermarket) and it turns out he’s calling from Panama. Technology makes the world seems smaller, but at the same time it seems even more confusing. Anyway, until I figure out how to fit a large enough map on my already over-crowded walls (the few bits not covered by bookshelves are generally covered with pictures), I’ve aquired a Guestmap. It rocks, but it will rock even more once you’ve “signed” it. Please?

Just received the programme for the Whisky festival…

Ah, life is sweet.

Sound of the moment: office chatter
Age of the moment: definitely over 18

The Yankee Blogger has started a 100 things about 100 bloggers in 100 days project. So, in case you missed it first time round, go here for my 100 things you might not already know about me list.

Book cataloguing software… Combining computer gadgetry and books, what more could one ask?

The one I use is called BookCat. Very happy with it. The database is easy to set up, easily customisable and you can store things like author profiles and publishers’ details in separate entities and tie them to the books and there’s room for cover pictures (up to three for each book). There’s decent importing and exporting functions, and lots of reporting functionality that I’ve yet to look into much.

You can download the program to try it out, but it will only let you register 40 books. If you like it you’ll have to fork out the shareware price ($39, I think) to get a licence file which will “unlock” the program for you. There’s a user forum at ezboards and the author (who, incidentally, is Norwegian) is pretty good at answering questions promptly.

Sound of the moment: You Came (Kim Wilde)
Age of the moment: just about correct

8 things people apparently believe, and that are not, in fact, true:

1. Sigarette butts magically disappear when thrown or dropped.
2. The closer you stand to the person in front of you in a queue, the sooner it will be your turn.
3. Anyone who holds the door open for you actually enjoys being a doorstop and there is therefore no need to thank them or even acknowledge their presence.
4. Using someone’s name repeatedly when talking to them denotes sincerity.
5. If you don’t feel drunk, you’re perfectly sober, and therefore able to drive a car and to make rational decisions.
6. A mobile phone makes you more interesting.
7. If you’re on a bike, the highway code does not apply to you and in the event of a collision the person in the car will come off worse.
8. A person in slightly grubby clothes who comes into your shop obviously has no money, and so does not need to be treated as a potential customer.

A couple of notes:
Re: 2 – This may be true in some instances; if you make the person in front of you uncomfortable enough, (s)he may leave.
Re: 4 – This practice freaks me out. If you want to sell me something, don’t use my name more than once or twice.
Addendum re: 7 – For bike, read: bicycle, you know, the kind with pedals rather than a motor. Though to a certain extent the point I’m trying to make appplies to a lot of people on motorbikes, it was occasioned by the fact that I am the only cyclist in Oslo who actually stops at red lights. Seriously. Also, I overheard someone on the bus yesterday advising someone else that you’re “supposed to run the lights” when you’re cycling. “Supposed to”? Well, yes, if your aim is to commit suicide in a rather really messy way, I guess.

To be continued…