December 11th

I'm busy

Too busy making sausages for christmas. This is going to be a short one. Just do something nice for someone or something.

Daily Calendar

The imaginary kommune of Høssing is having a wonderfull Calendar.

Christmass Mystery

 

December 10th

WBF

Because of mass deforestation it is thought that up to half of the 1200 species of bamboo is almost extinct. The average panda ha a diet consisting almost entirely of bamboo shoots and will eat from 9 to 20 kilos every day. The bamboo only flowers every 20 to 100 years (depending on species) then dies. Because of this the bamboo is vulnerable to deforestation. To save the bamboo we should therefore kill all the pandas.
The WBF(World Bamboo Fundation) is a NGO working to exterminate all pandas. For just $10 000 WBF can buy enough wepons and ammo to exterminate all of the pandas.

 Please see thei campaign "Save the Bamboo"

Calendar of the day

This calnedar is the calendar I made last year. I made an effort to do something new every day for all of advent. It was hard work but I'm quite proud of it.

Christmas mystery

The child angel alighted right in front of Elisabet's feet. "Hi!" he excleimed. "My name is Impuriel and i'm coming with you to Bethlehem."

December 9th

PLPS*

Many animals suffer from the dangers of deforestation, we have all heard of the faiths of the tiger, the mountain gorilla, the giant panda and the golden lion tamarin. What have all of these animals in common, they are incessantly cute.
There are many animals that are left out of this group even though they are decreasing in big numbers. This is mainly because they are evidently not considererd cute enough to be saved. Among these are the pubic lice, derived of there habitat so cruelly cut down by more and more people, the pubic lice is in dier straits.
This year the people of the PLPS(Pubic Lice Preservation Society) would like you to remember these little critters. Why not adopt one of your very own? At least join our let it grow December.

 The Daily Calendar

This little gem is not only instructive it is also quite good fun. Every day they show how Christmas is celebrated in a different country. It never stops to amaze me how often the celebration of the birth of a jewish is celebrated by eating treyf (not kosher) food and breaking other tennants of the old testament.** I hope this Christmas calendar will bring you cheer however you choose to celebrate.

Christmas mystery

They were about tho hurry on through Europe and even further back into history, when a sheep came running toward them along the road and joined the other sheep. Now they numbered five.

*It Should be said that although there is a rumour going on that the Pubic Leïce are going extinct from "deforestation" this is pure conjecture. We do not have any statistics showing cases of pubic lice because it is usually discovered and treated witout the involvement of doctors. There might be a decline in pubic lice decline as result of grooming but we have no numbers to support this teory.
** My own country is as guilty of this as most.

December 8th

PETRDJ 

Christmas songs (some under the guise of carols, others, not) are generally played on the radio all day long. At the moment I have a job where I listen to the radio for about 8 hours a day.

My goodness there is a lot of bad music out there, and the poor radio dj's who have to listen to it several times an hour for hours all week.

I can at least change the channel. No such luck for the radio dj. They go through a horrible existence without any chance of relief before mid January. That's why me and the people of PETRDj (People for the Ethical Treatment of Radio Djs) want to give you this little challenge: the next time you hear Whams Last Christmas; turn of the radio and enjoy the silence in sympathy of this magnificent beast.

Cc of the day

Today's Christmas Calendar I try to undo the damage of yesterday's calendar that outed me as an enormous  nerd. To that end I bring you the hobbit calendar. For what else screams coolness than an over interest in all things J.R.R. Tolkien. This is gonna give me all the cred with the bitches. 

Christmas mystery

December 7th.

I'm away

I'm visiting family. Go and meet some yourself. See you later

Daily calendar

As some may know. I am huge nerd. This doctor who calendar should be a nice thing to give a try.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01mj6k8/features/doctor-who-adventure-calendar-2013

Christmas Mystery

December 6th

On this day in 343

Saint Nicholas died. This is 1670 years ago and I think that it might be said that this is the day when the story OF St Nicholas actuaaly started. The avtual saint Nicholas of Myra was a really popular saint most famous for his act of giving three daughters of a poor peasant presents of gold on their day of reaching adulthood.
The interesting thing about St Nicholas is that much like Christmas and the Christian religion, or possibly even more so, he has changed to fit the area and time he was told about. Now he is kind, but he has also been dangerous. Now he is purely Christmas symbol but he bears the symbols of his mixing with heathen symbology(The name 'Nisse', the reinder, the minegoblins cap, the mistletoe etc.). Now he is fat but he has also been thin. He has been accompanied with dwarfs, witches, goblins, elves and for some reason black servatns(I'm looking at you Netherlands). In Norwegian Santa isn't even human.
Christianity, much like all human philosophy has changed a lot through the last 2000 years and I'm wondering what it could look like in another 2000 years. Much like Santa I imagine that some parts will be added to, and some parts worn away (hopefully we will at least be rid of the racist depiction of africans, what do you think Netherland?)

Daily Calendar

This Calendar I found by generally searching around. It is possibly the most stylish and definetily the most hip of the calendars in this calendar. Every door in It's a shape Christmas is made by a different designer from somewhere in the UK. Thay are all quite low down and simple, some maybe over simplistic others marvelous in their minimalistic outlook.(after writing that last line I think I shall go wear a beret and smoke a pipe while reading sartre because even I'm a bit neusiated by the pretentiousness of that last sentence.)

Chapter 6 of the Christmas Mystery

"Greatings to you, my child, and welcome to Sjaelland. My name is King Caspar of Nubia"

December 5th

Can't we...

...just be nice to each other. I know world peace is damn near impossible, but basic friendliness. Come on people, we can do it!
That is all I have for today. See you again tomorrow.

The Calendar of the day

A couple of days ago I talked about Christmas and alcohol and alcoholism. I talked about how drinking ruined lives in several different ways and about the importance of drinking responsibly, especially in front of children. Today I'm showing you a calendar with a sample of whiskey for each day. They are good whiskey's as weel but you might think about the cost of a new liver on the 26th.
In any case I think that a whiskey calendar is quite possibly the best and indeed the worst idea ever.

Christmas mystery Chapter 5

"The trap was probably set for a hare or a fox," he said.
He loosened a cord from the sheep's leg and added, "But now the sheep shall come with us to Betlehem."

December 4th

Do not believe everything you read. This is something we in our daily lives have a tendency to forget, especially when what you hear corelatesto your own preconscieved ideas. These last few days I've read qt least to stories that are at least not entirely honest. The first story was on the front page of my local newspaper the headline reading: "4000 people use the training centers in Førde" Now this story gave me pause, Førde is a relatively small town with only a population of ca 12000 people. That would mean that about 1/3 of the goes to these gyms. Knowing that it was unlikely that 1/3 of the people living in Førde goes regularly to the gym I found this story very unlikely. There could however be that people from the larger region of Sunnfjord trained in førde. Sunnfjord ihas a population of ca 40 000. That would mean about 10%, or lets say 20% of people in Førde because they would presumably be overrepresented, regularly goes to the gym which is still pretty high.
Reading the story it said that the gyms in Førde has 4000 registered members. this made suddenly a lot more sense. Only a fraction of people who is a gym member regularly use the gym. 90% of members of a gym will have stopped going regularly 90 days after signing up (although, I couldn't find the original source for this). This taken into consideration shows that the story that 4000 people from Førde goes to the gym is at least a slight exaggeration.
This first story is quite easy to falsefy. the facts lying beneath the story was in the article so you could spot the weak points without much trouble. I also didn't have an invested interest in believing this story so it was easier for me to hold a critical eye to eit. This second article had a bit more trouble conected to it. I have a slight antagonistic relationship to Chinese Alternative Medicine (also known as Eastern Medicine or Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM) so when I read that "Chinese eat human baby for health and sexual pleasure" I was inclined to believe it. TCM has a culture of eating some rather unhealthy things or endangered species because of some percieved benefit usually without any evidence to show for. The western black rhino went extinct beacause of poaching, a big reason for this was the price for rhinohorn as a TCM treatment for just about any disease you can think of. So my first reaction was "Wow TCM really is crazy. People need to know this!" but as my finger was hovering over the 'share' button on facebook i thought "wait a minute, do I know that this is real?" I gave myself 30 minutes on google and it seems that this article had grown out of a small newsreport about apparent selling of dried baby flesh, an art piece of the shock-artist Zhu Yu, some anti-abortionist propaganda, and a lot of hype and conjecture. I also found ouut that this story has been printed in many different online newspapers all around the world.
A good source for the whole story is this article here.
So to sum up "Think critically about what you read on the internet" I write whilst in the nude.

Daily Calendar

Todays calendar is one of my favourittest online Calendars of all time. QI is short for Quite Interesting. a program that talks about the weird things. Their stories usually hae real science behind them but arent necesarrily all true. In any case they do take knowledge seriously but with a good dose of humour.
They have made a fantastc calendar with some of their best clips.
PS. If you win the two tickets to the show I expect to be invited along.

Chrismas Mystery

"Peace be with you who walk on the narrow way along the Göta River. My name is Joshua the shepherd."
"Then you are one of us," said Ephiriel

December 3rd.

The nostalgia of yor first readership

Advent is a time for introspection and retrospection. In this mood I started thinking on what started my interest in reading. Like many people in around the world and maybe especially in Norway, the first thing i started really reading was comics. Norway is among the biggest consumers of comics in the world. Most people when they think of their first comics, at least in Norway, think of Donald Duck &Co but for my it was always the Phantom. It was fantastically entertaining with a superhero without any superpowers at all, unlike even Batman who even though is technically without superpowers seem to have an endless supply of gadgets (or Batgadgets as he would probably call them) all the Phantom had to rely on was peak physical fitness, a flair for theatrics, his guns and his wits.
While the Phantom was mortal, his title was heredetary from father to son, therefore the stories was quite often set in a historical context. Even though the specific story was often fantastical they were often very strict about the context which followed the storybooks with some degree of accuracy. I think this was how i started to enjoy historical fiction or at least welll researched fiction whenever it was set.
As my reading ability grew I started to read the midpage articles in the magazines, these were generally written about a subject which was touched upon in the main story in the magazine. were the main story set in history it would talk about the events you see in the backdrop. Was the main story set in the present they would talk about politics in that area. Here I see my emerging interest in non-fiction litterature.

The start of my reading life, a great influence in my choice of favourite genres, and the start of my reading of non-fiction for enjoyment, The Phantom, I don't know where I'd be without you. As a tribute to this I'm going to enjoy this comicmagazine I bought today.

December 3rd Christmas calendar

Todays calendar is a calendar ment to amuse children. I don't know which Children though. Firstly they must enjoy the screeching melody from the calendars main page. It is both soulcrushing and repetitive but not least LOUD. Every game is meant to be fun, the only problem is that they would be more fun if they weren't on the internet. Noone can find joy in coulouring in a picture if there is no posibility of crossing the lines. I think this calendar encompass everything that is wrong with society.
Here is the link to this aweful calendar(If you're at work, turn of the speakers).

The 3rd Chapter in the Christmas Mystery

 In this chapter Elisabet and the angel Ephiriel reach the swedish right after Norwegian independence.

"There's our lamb again. But now there's a grown sheep as well."
The angel nodded. "Verily I say unto you, that sheep iws going to Betlehem, too"

2. December

Thought of the day-alcohol and christmas celebration.

On Saturday I went to my workplace Christmas party. It was very enjoyable and a great oppurtunity to get to know thee people I see all day better. However there was a lot of partaking of alcohol as you say. Now I'm no stranger to alcohol and do enjoy it if not regularly then occasionally, meaning I go out as many single men of 24 tend to do. However there is also a trend here in Norway that we bring up and discuss alcohol use and alcoholism in the runup to Christmas.
This made me realize that I dont really know what alcoholism is or maybe made me realize that there are to types of alcoholics, these to might overlap to some extent but I believe that they do not necesseraly do so.

1. The person who just gets drunk. Now this one is quite straight-forward. We've all seen a couple of these guys. They buy alcohol because of some need to feel the alcoholic effect. I've heard that this group often take a long time to admit or even show externally that they have a problem.
2. The mean drunk. The guy who gets angry or abusive when he druinks alcohol. When we talk about this group we often say things like "he has a problem with alcohol" or similar. Are these people also alcoholics, I often hear storys from people who call themselves ex-alcoholic or recovering alcoholics (I use both terms here because I do not know whichone both groups would settle on  if they should be put under one term, pleaso don not take offense) that they were violent or abusive when drunk

Now, are these to groups the same? One group seem to have a problem with consumption of alcohol while the other seem to have a problem with their consumption of alcohol but they seem to fall under the same umbrella term, alcoholics. I do not know how to answer this but i do think that without a good definition of the terms we will never have a proper public debate or understanding regarding these topics.

In any case I want to encourage all to drink responsively this Christmas, especially in the company of children and people under age.

2. December Christmas Calendar

Now on to something a bit more jolly, Zebras and Children, what does these to things have in common?
obviously its the Liverpool Advent Calendar.
This Calendar brings a new picture every day with something related to Christmas and their first door includes a fantastic pictures with a holiday twist. an example is the first picture showing the childrens ward at Liverpool Stanley Hospital during Christmas. It shows the Lord Mayor and nurses with some of the patients from the ward, including one child seated on a zebra mounted specimen and is quite fabulous!
You can find this fantastic Calendar here.

The Christmas mystery photo shoot- Elisabet meet Ephiriel

"Fear not!" said the angel in a gentle voice.
Elisabet raised herself halfway up. "Don't think I'm afraid of you,"

1 December

Christmas Calendars. There are lots of them. Last year i decided to do something completely new every day. That was a lot of hard work so this year i thought I'd take an easy route. instead of creating content myself i thought i would find other christmas calendars and introduce them to you all one by one. I will also have my own little project and I will also write something here every day. Now to my project and to the first Christmas calendar I will be sharing with all you good people.

Calendar For December the first.

Jostein Gaarder is most known for his book Sophie's World which follows events that force Sophie Amundsen into learning about the history of philosophy. We however are not very concerned with this story because it has very little to do with Christmas or christmas calendars, however Jostein Gaarder also wrote a book called the Christmas Mystery. The Christmas mystery starts with joachim buying an antique Christmas calender. Inside it he finds little pieces of paper describing the  travels of the 20th century girl Elisabet Hansen to the birth of Jesus. As she travels southward towards Betlehem she also travels back in time through the history of Europe and the history of the spread of christianity. Along the way she meets a number of important characters in the nativity and they follow her on her travels.
The book is quite beautiful and gives some great insights.
The book is available in english at amazon

My project, day 1

Now to my project. Every day in the Christmas mystery Elisabet hansen meet a new Character with importance to the the Nativity scene. Therefore I'll make each character as they arrive in the book and I'll post pictures. but first I'll introduce Elisabet:

Elisabet Hansen being bored in a shop right befor christmas

I've never really gotten the hang of faces but im pleased i managed this well.
Sheep on the other hand I can do in my sleep:

.

Suddenly a toy lamb comes to life

Elisabet Hansen decide to follow the lamb