Fire! Fire! Uh-huh! Uh-huh!

We've FINALLY lit a fire in our fireplace WOOHOO!!!

sometimes I wish...

...that Pingu was a Pinga. Then I could dress her up in pink and glittery stuff, and buy her pink Legos and Hello Kitty and stuff. Just to piss off the so-called "feminists" who are anti-pink and anti-anything girlie. Because they hate being women and femaleness and girlieness so much that they will deny anyone with XX chromosones the right to want to wear pink, be pretty, etc. because misery loves company and all...

Oh wait, or is the real reason why they want to get rid of pink that they will actually have to defend the boys who choose all that pink crap? It's OK for girls to like "boy stuff" but for boys to like "girl stuff"? Is it really OK? Where is the outcry against the tyranny of blue? Think about it...

(One of these days I'll actually dive deeper into this topic.)

By the way, am I the only one who has noticed that the result of the 70s "make everything gender neutral" experiment seems to be a greater than ever division between the sexes?

Back to work...

Today was my first full day of work since... last year. Pingu is seven months old today. Husband of feitpingvin has his work cut out for him for the next four months... muwahahaha...

As expected, work was a bit chaotic. After reorganization and my group moving floors, I had no workspace and all my crap was missing. By the time I left, I had a desk and I found a good amount of stuff but I'm still missing things like a monitor and docking station and other devices that would make it possible for me to... um... work :-P

Things should be OK tomorrow. At the very least I have a meeting all afternoon, and I was able to get a nice stack of papers to read prior to the meeting, so I don't need my stash immediately, although it would be nice to have ASAP...

I'm still without a proper computer to use. I have so much to write about Pingu, who can crawl and climb small barriers and sit up on his own, among other things. He's a clever little thing. You can't take your eyes off him or else he gets into some sort of mischief. I'm looking forward to the peace and quiet at work :-P

I haz shiny new passport!!1!!1!

Wow, the new passports are really nice. I really like all the different pictures and quotes on the pages as opposed to that old boring design.

What's also great is that I could order a 52-page version right away, so that I won't have to deal with getting extra pages well before my passport expires...

comfort food

Today is one of those not-so-nice spring days. You know, the one that is more of a winter day than a spring day...

I'm making meatloaf for dinner tonight, served with mashed potatoes, green beans, and brown gravy. I haven't made meatloaf in ages, and it's the right kind of day for a meatloaf meal...

What comfort foods do you enjoy? And what's for dinner tonight?

I hate daylight savings...

I really need the hour that I have now lost. Because of it, I probably won't be able to take Pingu out in the pram so that he can get some fresh air. I'm off-schedule and in a bad mood because of it. Everything feels so wrong today...

I didn't make it to the gym until noon; I had been hoping to go between 10 and 11. Grrr. I did mostly upper body work and I'm still pathetically weak since I'm only able to do proper strength training once a week. My hips will be screwy for quite some time, or so they say, so no heavy squats for a while. Not sure what to do about the evil legs. I'll figure it out. Not this moment though... *grumble*

Running is getting better. I did some treadmill work yesterday and it felt pretty good. I warmed up for 10 minutes on the elliptical again, and I think next time I can cut that out and warm up on the treadmill, or cut it down to five minutes. We'll see. I was also able to run faster this time. But still too slow for me. Nonetheless, I think I'll be ready for some Tabatas next week. And hopefully in a few weeks it will be possible to run outside. It's starting to get warm enough, but it's rather dirty and nasty - lots of sand and gravel and leftover snow and other crap. It gets windy this time of year and all that crap blows into your eyes and you have to breathe it in too... yuck. They really need to clean up the streets soon...

Pingu is 11 weeks 1 day today, and I hope to get some photos taken since we didn't do anything last weekend. But as mentioned earlier, this daylight savings crap has thrown off the timing of everything... :-(

10 weeks of Pingu-related facebook status messages

Not all of them, but most of them ;-)

Jan 9: Pingu is here! He decided to show up 8th of January at 23:17. He has blue eyes and lots of dark hair, is 49 cm long and 3232 grams. Now... to find a proper name for him!

Jan 10 feitpingvin loves the smell of newborn baby ♥

Jan 13 feitpingvin walked into the bedroom to see Pingu and husband of feitpingvin sleeping in the *exact* same position! ♥

Jan 15 feitpingvin has a feeling that little Pingu is going to end up with a career as professional competitive eater... :-P

Jan 16 feitpingvin has given Pingu his first shampoo and rinse. He really enjoyed having warm water poured over his head... ♥

Jan 22 feitpingvin and husband of feitpingvin have just been out and about with Pingu. First to the curry house for lunch, followed by a nice walk through the botanic garden, and then tasty apple tarts at the Munch Museum café. Pingu slept the whole time ♥

Jan 28 feitpingvin wonders how it's possible for a nearly 3 week old baby to stay completely awake the whole night and most of the day. Don't babies like to sleep?

Feb 4 feitpingvin has milk puke all over her neck...

Feb 5: The joys of parenthood: power puke followed by power poop all over Pappa, power puke followed by power pee all over Mamma, and now rather pleased with Himself after a bath...

Feb 8 feitpingvin and husband of feitpingvin have both been blessed with big wet milky "kisses" from Pingu :-)

Feb 11 feitpingvin was at the clinic earlier today, to weigh Pingu. He's turning into quite the RoF baby: 4050 grams today, up from 3630 grams last week.

Feb 19 feitpingvin asked Pingu if he wanted to take a nap. Pingu raised a fist, stuck his thumb out, and then turned the thumb down...

Feb 27: Pappa: Pingu, are you going to gulp all over me?
Pingu: *smile*

Mar 3 feitpingvin has taken Pingu out to a café, so that he could flirt with some pretty girls... ♥

Mar 4 feitpingvin is holding Pingu over her shoulder; he is sucking her neck! OH NOES VAMPIRE BABY!1!

Mar 12 feitpingvin thinks it's amusing how babies sleep sometimes - flat on their back with their limbs all over the place. Kind of like dogs... :-P

Mar 15 feitpingvin is rather impressed with the belches and farts that Pingu can rip...

Mar 19 feitpingvin is watching Pingu happily play with a plush penguin ♥

Excellent...

At this moment, my 10 week old son is happily playing with a big plush penguin that I placed in his crib. He's grabbing the penguin's flipper and stroking its back and making these really cute cooing noises...

This is a good thing. It's now possible for him to be awake without either me or husband of feitpingvin having to constantly entertain him. I might be able to start getting stuff done now :-)

10 weeks ago...

...my son was born. That is, he was born the 8th of January, at 23:17. He weighed in at 3232 grams and was 49 cm long, with a head circumference of 35 cm.

As you can see in the photo below, when he was about a day and a half old, he was also born with a rather impressive head of hair, and this is something which draws a lot of attention. I love his hair; it's very obvious who he got that from ;-)



The actual birth was OK. I didn't get the water birth I wanted due to a bunch of crazy circumstances. But it wasn't that bad either. I had to use some laughing gas since I didn't get the water, but other than that I didn't feel that drugs were necessary. If you breathe properly, you can manage a good amount of the pain. And it's true that you forget about it rather quickly. To be honest, I think it was much worse getting my broken nose snapped back into place than giving birth...

Of course life with a baby is a bit crazy, and rather trying at times. Being a first time mom, I sometimes feel completely clueless and even useless at times. The first few weeks were difficult because I always felt like I had no idea what I was doing much of the time. But my little Pingu is growing and thriving. He's becoming a properly plump baby (5780 grams yesterday), gurgling proper baby noises when he's awake. He smiles a lot. He loves it when I go out to cafés because he gets to meet new people. He loves to play. And he loves to gulp all over me and Pappa... hah!

By the way, how is it that something so tiny can belch like a burly truck driver?

Anyway, I'll be writing more in the future...

Here's a photo of the two of us taken when he was 8 weeks one day old :-)

the war on pink

So pink is damaging for girls but blue is not damaging for boys?

I think some of these "commentators" take themselves too seriously. They go on and on as if every single thing out there for every friggin' female is pink. Sheesh...

29...

After the 9th time, I think I have the hang of it :-P

Alternativ jul

It was the same procedure as last year - husband of feitpingvin and I spent julaften (Christmas Eve) and 2.juledag (Boxing Day) at Alternativ jul doing the dishes. Husband of feitpingvin sent stuff through the industrial dishwashing machine while I did a lot of manual washing, mostly of pots and pans, and cleaned up the dishwashing area every chance I could. At one point during julaften, husband of feitpingvin disassembled the dishwashing machine and he scrubbed down the whole thing while I hand-washed all the parts. We spent all of last year doing dishes, and our experience came in handy, as we were able to systematize the procedures, ensuring that everything ran smoothly. It seems like our efforts were really appreciated; lots of people commented on how good and efficient we were at doing our work...

There were a lot of guests on julaften. The doors opened at 4 pm; when we took our dinner break around 7 pm, it was difficult to find a place to sit and eat. When some of the volunteers dressed up as Santas to give out presents at around 9 or 10 pm (don't remember when they did this), I went out to take a peek at the action, and the main dining area was completely full. It was not that full last year or the year before. Good thing there was lots of presents. And food! Sheesh... it seems like every year we get more food than the year before (and we've been doing this for eight years). Among other things, we got more marzipan pigs from Nidar and individual-sized cartons of orange and apple juice than anyone knows what to do with. The volunteers were allowed to take as much as they wanted to home with them (and there's still lots left over!). We also got to take some leftover smoked salmon and free-range eggs and cream (hah! we have the ingredients to make ice cream now!). Yummy :-) Oh, and I also managed to snag a plush Pingu (leftover from last year's gifts) hehe. Just what we need here. More penguins... ;-)

On a sad note, Alternativ jul did have a nasty incident. Gypsies showed up, and while many of the guests were sleeping/resting, the gypsies went around and stole from them. WHAT. THE. FUCK. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with them?! The "regular" guests are people who don't have much to begin with. The gypsies, on the other hand, are tourists from the EU (Romania - they can come here on a 3-month tourist visa). So while we've more or less always had an open-door policy in the past, we were instructed to not let them in. It really, really sucks that they have to ruin things like that. Seriously, is it really possible to stoop so low?! Aaarrrrgh...

The guests were otherwise well-behaved, polite, and very appreciative of our efforts and all the presents and all the food. As always.

Anyway... it's all over for us this year. We're tired and happy, and will most likely do this again next year. Now... what on earth are we going to do with 2 kg. of marzipan?!

ah yes, the usual "holiday food will kill you" stupidity

As usual during this time of year, lists like this one show up and tell you that you are going to get really fat and all kinds of nasty health problems and die if you eat typical holiday goodies.

Well, geez. I thought a good part of helping people lose weight and get healthy and fit was to give them a healthy, angst-free attitude towards food. That is, for example, that you don't tie in negative emotions (guilt, anyone?) with eating, or that you don't instill irrational fears of any kind of macronutrient, whether it be fats or carbohydrates. Take the example of the turkey. "Choose white meat, not dark meat." If you look at the nutrient information, dark meat does not have significantly more fat or cholesterol or kcal than white meat. Or am I missing something? Are we supposed to get all anal-retentive over 20 or so kcal?

(And didn't they debunk the cholesterol-animal fats myth anyway?)

Oh, and I ate lots of pork ribs with crackling at Alternativ jul last night. It was a great source of energy for doing dishes for 8 hours. I also ate more baked goods than I should have, but I only do stuff like this once a year. Sure, I'm bloated now, but it won't last. Things will be back to "normal" in a week or so. So bugger off, "naughty list" Nazis!

today's good deed...

Husband of feitpingvin and I had just finished a workout at the gym. When we were going to cross a rather busy road to get home, we saw a young gull - one of this year's chicks - on the other side. Something wasn't right about it; it was holding its left wing in an awkward position, and it wasn't flying away when people walked by it. When we crossed the road and approached to take a closer look, it was quite apparent that it had an injured wing. By then, several people had come to take a closer look, and the poor thing freaked out and ran out into the busy street. As it didn't have the "green man," it nearly got hit by the cars driving by. Luckily, the drivers were paying attention and avoided the gull...

We had to do something, and I ran out and picked up the gull (for a good-sized bird it was very light!) and decided to take it home with me. Well, not inside the shoebox, but outside in our back yard area, where it would be a lot safer than on a busy road. (And damn, it bit me! Hard! Several times! Until I managed to hold its beak shut while carrying it carefully to the safe haven.) While husband of feitpingvin kept an eye on it, I first called fuglehjelpen and asked what I should do. I was given another number to call, and I waited for around an hour and a half for the guys to come and pick up the injured gull...

I suppose I could have waited in my warm, cozy apartment while waiting for the guys to come. But there were kids outside, and I didn't want the kids to find and pester the bird. There were also a bunch of magpies that would try mobbing the poor gull from time to time. And I just wanted to make sure it was OK in general; I could see that it was frightened and not doing so well. It stood under a picnic table most of the time, its injured wing shaking...

When the guys finally showed up, they approached the gull, who flapped its wings and tried to fly away, but couldn't get the required liftoff. One of the guys caught the gull by approaching it from behind and grabbing it by the neck; the expression on the poor thing was of shock. I wish I had a photo of that moment. It was priceless! The gull was packed up in a cardboard box, and it was taken away to a veterinary central...

It didn't seem to be a very serious injury, so the little thing should (hopefully) be out and about in the near future :-)

Do NOT give money to street children!

Sure, there's an "economic crisis" and you may see more beggars on the streets, including child beggars. But before you give that urchin with the big, sad, hungry eyes your loose change, keep the following things in mind.

Money given directly to street children:

• promotes a lifestyle of begging


• is frequently used to buy harmful substances


• is given to adults who force the children to beg for them


• encourages crime

If you want to help poor children, support legitimate non-profit organizations that do that task.

oh, and speaking of cluelessness...

I saw this gem the other day. It's so full of fail it's unreal, and it's typical of "journalism" these days, especially in matters relating to science, nature, health, and medicine. And if that weren't bad enough, you should read the comments. People actually wash their produce in bleach. Fascinating. I'll bet these are the people who are sick all the time...

It really makes you wonder how human beings managed to survive so long. Now excuse me while I go feast on some raw eggs and "rinsed just to get the dust off" fruit..

Bigotry baiting under the guise of political correctness

The more I read about something-or-other Christmas being banned because Christmas "offends" other cultures - the whole "War on Christmas," for example shit like this (OK, we're talking about housing association twats and they're by default a pack of dumbasses, and they took back their petty demand, but still) - the more convinced I am that it has nothing to do with "offending" other cultures and all to do with inciting "Christians" (and some others) to hate people of other cultures, religions, and whatnot. I doubt anyone has asked what Muslims, Hindus, Martians, whatever think about the Christmas lights or other Christmas crap...

Here in Oslo, a lot of Muslim businesses actually decorate their establishments with tinsel and lights while spraying god jul on their windows, with that white fake snow stuff. It's usually pretty garish, but at the same time kind of funny and cozy...

January sales in December

So there's this so-called financial crisis, and all the stores are having sales now. Yep, in December. Right before Christmas. Supposedly, this will get people to buy more stuff to give as presents or whatever. Just what we all need. More stuff. Yippee...

I have never seen anything like this before, at least not here. Sales are for January, not December. I wonder what's going to happen in January, when it's time for me to hit some of these sales (I recently purged my closet of some winter clothes that are too worn out to wear to work, or use for anything else other than dusting rags for that matter, so I need a few things, unfortunately). Will the clothes I would have bought been already sold out? I really don't have the time, or the desire, to shop now... sheeeesh...

Elephants 'die earlier in zoos'

According to this article in the BBC, elephants die earlier in captivity than in the wild.

Well, duh! Elephants are highly intelligent herd animals with close-knit kinships, and need a lot of space and intellectual stimulation. They get stressed out and depressed quite easily. Wouldn't you want to die sooner if you were stuck with monotonous days and boring routines, and perhaps even abuse, with no way out?

After seeing elephants in the wild in both South Africa and Namibia, I can't stand seeing elephants in zoos. In fact, it really bothers me to the point of boiling rage. Don't even get me started on the work elephants in Asia, for example on the streets of Bangkok. Although that Burmese project that was mentioned in the article seems interesting. Like all wild creatures, elephants need to live their natural life...

Anyway, I can't end this blog without showing off one of my favorite elephant photos. I took this last September when I was in Namibia; it's from the Damaraland region and these are desert elephants ("regular" African elephants adapted to desert life). If they look kind of angry, it's because they are. They attacked us not too long after the photo was taken. I'll write the whole story in the travel blog when I finally get to it ;-)

midweek report, rants, raves...

• I can't stop eating pepperkaker and clementines...
  
  
• Martti Ahtisaari of Finland received the Nobel Peace Prize 12:49 in Oslo today. Congratulations!
  
  
• Last night was the last formal Krav Maga training until next year. Grading is tomorrow, but not for us. We have to wait at least a year until we are allowed to go for G1. This is a good thing, because I'm nowhere near ready for G1 grading now...
  
  
• High to very high intensity training is quite nasty when you have a cold. I was hoping last night's training would be relatively "easy" because of the upcoming grading. I was wrong...
  
  
• Aside from the pepperkaker and clementines feeding frenzy, I've been quite indifferent to food and drink since getting food poisoning about three weeks ago. Nothing really tastes good anymore, for some odd reason. It seems like the only reason I bother to eat at all is because I need the kcal for training, and pepperkaker and clementines aren't really optimal for that...
  
  
• So unlike Oprah Winfrey, who is now well over 90 kg if you follow the tabloid press, I have managed to keep my weight stable. What's up with that woman anyway? Always a drama. And always excuses... "I hate exercise," "I have a thyroid problem," "I'm so stressed," blah blah. With expensive (and apparently useless) personal trainers and chefs at that. Is it really so difficult for her to admit that she simply loves good food, and thereafter live the lazy gourmand lifestyle she wants to live, and tell everyone who doesn't like it to piss off?
  
  
• I really need to find some winter tops and sweaters, but it seems to be impossible to find anything I like this season...
  
  
• Not too long ago, I was made aware of a BIRD CAM from Brazil. It is one of the best I have ever seen. I am so addicted to it!