Bjørn's blog

Funny quotes of the week 124

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." (Thomas Brackett Reed)

"It is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase 'As pretty as an Airport' appear." (Douglas Adams)

"He had delusions of adequacy." (Walter Kerr)

Funny quotes of the week 123

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it." (Stephen Vizinczey, An Innocent Millionaire)

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." (Oscar Wilde)

"Winston has devoted the best years of his life to preparing his impromptu speeches." (F. E. Smith (1872-1930) on Winston Churchill (1874-1965))

Excuses...

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

It's time for the usual blog post insisting that the blog is not, in spite of appearances, dead.

Here's my current excuse: a high workload, combined with an effort to keep up Homonytt fra hele verden, the gay news blog that has also suffered badly from my workload these last several months.

The blog will not go anywhere - it still gets more than 30,000 hits a month - and I will certainly try to pick it up from time to time. But when?

Roskilde nude run 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:21:00 +0000

As usual, as part of the Roskilde music festival, the festival radio has arranged a nude run, in which lots of participants get naked and strive for the first prize: honour and a free pass for next year's festival.

Hans Kristian Andersen won for the third year in a row.

Information on this year's nude run can be found here:
Danish TV2's photo gallery
Danish TV2's video
Se & Hør's photo gallery
Ekstrabladet's video
Ekstrabladet's gallery
Gaffa.dk's video

... and an article about the qualification boxing...

Pride parade 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:18:00 +0000

Here are some photos from the Oslo pride parade of 2011. Enjoy (and note that all the photos have Creative Commons license.

10 best games for iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Yes, I love playing games. And the iPad has the advantage of always being around when I'm bored and want to play - in hotel rooms, at airports or on the couch. And after having my iPad for a few months, I start to know which games I prefer. So here's my current ranking of my ten favorite iPad games:

1. Fifa 11
Yes, I've been playing soccer for years - on the computer. And I really like to play soccer on the iPad as well. Of course the graphics are not as good as on the newer Playstation versions, but I played International Soccer on the Commodore 64 in the mid 80s, so I think Fifa 11 is just fine. And deserves 1st place.

2. Super StickMan Golf
At the moment, SSG is the game I'm playing the most. It is a golf game, but actually more of a strategy game where you have different tools to get to the hole. And those of us who don't want to spend too much money on a game, get the pleasure of earning new courses and tools as we go along. The reward system is half the fun.

3. Wordfeud
Wordfeud is as close as you can get to Scrabble on the iPad - without actually buying the official Scrabble game that is inferior in important ways (for instance, it does not support Norwegian, as far as I know). The best thing about Wordfeud, though, is that you can play as many games as you want at the same time. So who cares if your competitor calls it a night and goes to bed - there will always be another game where it's your turn. The game is also available for Android.

4. Harbor Master
I haven't actually played this for a while, but I did play it a lot for a few weeks when I first got my iPad. Boats enter the screen, and you have to get them to the harbour without injury - and then back off the screen. The game is so simple to understand that it is ridiculous, but also extremely playable. You can't lose your consentration for long before two boats collide and you've lost. The game takes full advantage of the touch screen technology, of course.
Det er en stund siden jeg har spilt dette nå, men jeg spilte det

5. Snooker Club
I love snooker (as a TV sport) and think this game is actually very entertaining, although the players are scantlily clad girls instead of suit-wearing guys. After the last update, the game doesn't even freeze as before...

6. Shredder
Everyone needs a good chess program. I'm not a grandmaster, and therefore I like the fact that you can start on a moderate level and let the software improve its play as it goes along. (Or stay on a moderate level, possibly...) At the same time I know that the game can play as good chess as I could possibly wish for. The problem solving part of the program is not as good, and Shredder is not for free. But well worth the money anyway.

7. Trainyard EX
A cool puzzle, where you have to lay the track on the board to make sure that the trains will end up where they should. It may sound simple, but the difficulty increases rapidly.

8. Slice It!
Almost a "mathematics game". You have to divide a given figure in a given number of equally sized parts with a given number of lines. It's easy to begin with, but gets progressively harder, especially when additional rules are added.

9. AgeOfCurling
Curling is a tiny sport but still fascinating. I'm not sure this game is really difficult enough in the long run, but at least at the beginning I'm having to work to win the games. Cool. (Can also be played directly in your browser: http://online-curling.com/)

10. Angry Birds
I've never really had a crush on Angry Birds, but it's rather okay anyway...

Also check out:

Doodle Bowling - simple and addictive bowling for the iPad. e
Air Hockey - a classic in all its simplicity.
Sudoku Tablet. KakuroLite, KENKEN Lite - good Sudoku-, Kakuro- and KenKen-games.
Set Pro HD - a bit expensive and very demanding logical game, but also fascinating.
Tap The Frog - something entirely different. This is a game of speed. You simply have to push the screen as quickly as possible. Simple but interesting.
Parking HD - do you love to park cars but can't do it as often as you'd like to? Here's your chance. Quite funny, actually.
SwipeSoccer - something else than ordinary soccer games. Quite okay.

Of course there are a million other cool games out there as well. I'd love input on good games which I should test! The kinds of games I like, you can see from the list above, I guess.

But there are also some games I'd really like to have, but which doesn't exist (yet), as far as I know. Here's my wishlist:

Railroad Tycoon for iPad. Of course I'm referring to Sid Meyer's original game where you start a railroad company and wants to dominate the continent.
Great Britain Ltd for iPad. Preferably a bit more advanced than the ZX Spectrum classic where you run Great Britain's economy but tend to be thrown out of power after three or four elections...
A good tennis game that is actually possible to navigate using the iPad.
Pottit for iPad. Probably noone even remembers Pottit for Commodore 64, the game where two players are in control (?) of one pool ball each, and want to get the other player's ball into the holes. I can't remember how many joysticks were distroyed when we played this game, and I have no idea how it should be controlled on an iPad, but I still hope it will surface somewhere... :-)
Seterra for iPad. Seterra is a wonderful geography training game which I have used to learn where countries in Africa are placed, for instance. It only exists in a Windows version - I'd love it on my iPad as well.

PS: While I was making the wishlist, I realised I wanted a version of the logic game Sherlock for iPad. I haven't seen this game for years, but luckily I was intelligent enough to do a google search before writing it in my wishlist. It does exist: Sherlock. Så jeg kommer tilbake med info om hvor bra det var...

Which games do you wish existed on the iPad?

Photo of the week: Oslo Town Hall Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Oslo's town hall is a remarkable building, standing between the city and the fjord. The paintings on its walls are of several kinds, including one big wall depicting how a nude beach looks like on a warm and beautiful summer day.

Funny Quotes of the Week 122

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:34:00 +0000

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." (Moses Hadas)

"What other man within the walls of parliament, however hasty, rude and petulant, hath exhibited such manifold instances of bad manners, bad feelings, bad reasonings, bad language and bad law?" (Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), British poet, on Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), British statesman and author)

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." (Jack E. Leonard)

Photo of the week: Helsinki beach

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Yes, I am looking forward to summer. Winter has been long enough already. So when I'm picking a photo for the "photo of the week" post, I choose this one from a beach in Helsinki a couple of years ago. Warm, lazy and beautiful.

Funny Quotes of the Week 121

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:33:00 +0000

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." (Abraham Lincoln)

"To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity." (Oscar Wilde)

"Attila the Hen" (Clement Freud on Margaret Thatcher)

Photo of the week: Pride

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:54:00 +0000

It is spring. In just a few months, there will be pride days and pride parade in Oslo again, celebrating the diversity of the Norwegian society. So I post a photo from a few years ago reminding me of that.

Funny Quotes of the Week 120

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 12:31:00 +0000

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." (Groucho Marx)

"We did not conceive it possible that even Mr Lincoln would produce a paper so slipshod, so loose-joined, so puerile, not alone in literary construction, but in its ideas, its sentiments, its grasp. He has outdone himself." (Chicago Times (1863) on Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (19 November 1863))

"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born." (Ronald Reagan)

Photo of the week: Rovinj

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:42:00 +0000

I had a wonderful holiday in Rovinj (Croatia) some years ago. This photo was taken on one of many walks by the sea. It's probably all wrong when it comes to composition and such things, but I actually like it.

Movie: Ui-hyeong-je

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:34:00 +0000

The fragile relationship between South Korea and North Korea should be perfect for movies about agents trying to infiltrate the other country. This is such a movie. It tells the story of a young North Korean agent who is stranded in South Korea when his boss is arrested. He then comes across the policeman in charge of that arrest, both thinking that the other guy does not understand who the other one is. So they start to befriend each other, while keeping on their toes.

The plot is not very complex, and although the movie could be said to be about loyalty, international politics and love, it will be the small scenes that I remember, scenes in which a nascent respect is visible while the two guys are trying to do smalltalk.

Ui-hyeong-je (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Funny Quotes of the Week 119

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:20:00 +0000

"Wallowing in corruption like a rhinoceros in an African pool." (E. L. Godkin (1831-1902) on James G. Elaine, American politician)

"The enviably attractive nephew who sings an Irish ballad for the company and then winsomely disappears before the table clearing and dishwashing begin." (Lyndon B. Johnson on JFK)

"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years." (Oscar Wilde)

Movie: Made in Dagenham

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0000

There are many reasons to like this movie. For me, one of the main reasons is that it gives an opportunity to see Rupert Graves again. He is my favorite actor, based solely on his effort in my favorite movie, A room with a view. (And supported by his work in "Maurice".)

But "Made in Dagenham" also has its pleasures for people not that into Rupert. It is a good, oldfashioned "the working people against the powers" kind of movie. This time, it is the girls in the Ford factory - those who sew the car seats that are rather important when driving the car - who demands to be paid as semi-skilled workers. Things turn into a strike, and things are not easy...

In addition, the movie is often funny, the actors are good, its an important part of history being told, and so on.

There are also reasons not to like it. For instance, it feels as if I've seen it all before. I also don't particularly like the naivity of the strike leader - although it may be historically accurate. And I don't even want to talk about the end.

But if you are in a good mood, you can really enjoy this movie...

Made in Dagenham (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Movie: Buried Land

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:48:00 +0000

This is a documentary about some new (imagined) pyramids in a village in Bosnia. Or rather; it is a documentary about making a documentary about some new (imagined) pyramids in a village in Bosnia. I usually find that there are few things as pathetic as journalists writing news stories about journalists, but at times, filmmakers making films about filmmaking comes close.

The basic history - about the bosnians who walked up a hill and came down a pyramid - is a bit interesting. The background of the "filmmaker" - returning from exile now that Bosnia is once again peaceful - is also moderately interesting. However, those two bits together, added to a few personalities that are depicted, does not add up to a great movie. Not even close.

Buried Land (2009)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Photo of the week: Sculptures in the National Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 09:42:00 +0000

In the good old days, the National Gallery in Oslo exhibited a collection of copies of some of the most important sculptures of the world. Today, they feel too important to exhibit copies, it seems, and these copies are gathering dust in some storage room. Here are two Davids, Donatello's and Veroccio's, photographed before they went to the basement.

Movie: Abel

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 16:33:00 +0000

Abel is a little boy who does not speak much and who is generally unhappy. He lives with his mother and sister - his father has left long ago. But one day, he starts to behave as if he is the father of the household. Actually, he does it in a very good way. The rest of the family goes along with this, afraid to say something that will put him back in his former condition.

I don't know if there is much more to say about this movie - the somewhat strange premise that I have described gives lots of opportunities for funny situations, which the director takes advantage of. Moreover, the actors are quite convincing, at least until the movie draws to an end.

The fact that the movie made me think of Pedro Almodovar, certainly says something of its qualities.

Abel (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Funny Quotes of the Week 118

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:19:00 +0000

"I believe that Ronald Reagan can make this country what it once was - an Arctic region covered with ice." (Steve Martin)

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." (Winston Churchill)

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." (Charles, Count Talleyrand)

Movie: R U There

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:21:00 +0000

I have seen that someone has compared R U There to Lost in translation. I see that similarity, but sadly, I didn't really like Lost in translation much either. Of course, as both these films try to portray lives that are boring and pointless, the movies have a way of becoming boring and pointless too.

But I must admit that I was a bit tired when I saw it after seeing four movies already that day...

R U There (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Photo of the week: Mr. Gay Norway

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:40:00 +0000

The pride parade is always an important event. Here's a photo from the 2007 parade, with Oslo's political leader at the time, gay conservative politician Erling Lae, headed the parade together with the Mr. Gay Norway winner that year.

Movie: The King's Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Nominated to 12 Oscars, this movie needs no presentation. I, however, had the pleasure of watching it without knowing too much about it before - and even with the added benefit of not knowing too much about the British royal family in the early 1900s.

The movie is simple, but very enjoyable. The actors are great and there is a lot of humor. And the English are very, very good at "costume dramas"...

The King's Speech (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)

Funny Quotes of the Week 117

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:17:00 +0000

"If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he surely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday." (H. L. Mencken talking about Franklin D. Roosevelt)

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination." (Andrew Lang (1844-1912))

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written." (Oscar Wilde)

Movie: The Parking Lot Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Bjørn) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:53:00 +0000

I've mentioned that I saw eight movies at the film festival in Gøteborg, Sweden. Whenever people ask me what I saw, I return to The Parking Lot Movie. "The Parking Lot Movie?", people ask. Yes, I explain, it is a movie about a parking lot. And about the people who work at the parking lot.

Of course, documentaries could be made about anything at all. Even good documentaries could probably be made about anything. But for some reason, making a documentary about a parking lot is actually quite a good idea. It is not so far-fetched to say that the daily rhythm of the parking lot mirrors the rhythm of the society around it, and that the small conflicts in a parking lot also have a lot to do with the world at large.

Conflicts? you may say. Isn't this just a space to park your car? Well, yes. But the guys working there, who has hours of spare time to think about the world, draws quite far-reaching conclusions based on the fact that people in big, expensive cars spend time arguing whether they should pay 1 dollar or 75 cents for their parking. For instance.

If you will see only one movie about a parking lot this year, choose this... :-)

The Parking Lot Movie (2010)

(See a register of all movies I've seen at Collectorz.com.)