Dell is a wonderful company. Period ^^,

A bit over two years ago I bought my laptop from Dell through the fiancé's company. Some time around may I got worried 'cos it was very noisy and it seemed to be literally falling apart. I held of calling support for the longest time (upwards of six months at least), not wanting to send it of for repair. When I finally called them I met a very nice man, who sent (!) another very nice man home (!!) to me with a brand new fan, and a brand new DVD player and new screws to fix it. I was so happy, my baby was fine again.
Well, for the last couple of weeks there has been something wrong with the crocodile key (the one that makes these: < >), and for over a year there has been colour errors on my screen. So I called them again today, to inquire very nicely if maybe someone could come fix the broken heap. Which somebody will. Tomorrow. I love these people. They are so nice, and so polite, and I love them. Wonderful, wonderful company. I can't wait to be able to write again (I'm on the fiancé's laptop at the moment).

When we are talking about nice people, I called ups earlier to clear up some import tax problems. You see, the stupid people at cafepress have decided that books should be marked with the same label as everything else they send out. Ceramics etc. Which makes the customs people think that we are importing ceramics etc. instead of books. Now, in Norway, importing books are free, everything else aren't. So of course we got slammed with a huge import tax bill that we did not care to pay. So I called them up and met a very nice lady who laid all the blame on carepress and told me we would not have to pay anything, she even took away the late charges. She was extremely nice, which was great because I sometimes have a hard time calling for stuff like this, and people like her and the man at Dell makes it much easier for me^^,

I just got to show you some videos now. Or mashups to be exact. There is this Norwegian dude on the tube that has understood that when mashups ar concerned less is certainly more. He has made two wonderful Bertine Zetlitz/Kraftwerk mashups that I just have to share:

I like the first one best. But they are both wonderful^^,

Word of the day:
素晴らしい - subarashii - wonderful, magnificent, splendid

Midnight premiere

Me and the fiancé went on the midnight premiere of Hancock last night. We were walking around Oslo last night, and wanted to do something fun, and since none of us wanted to go get hammered we decided to check what they were showing on the big screen. And there was the midnight premiere of Hancock, a movie which we have both wanted to see. It was a great movie, but it kinda fell apart in hindsight. Some things just didn't make sense when we thought back at it. Not too surprising thou, it has apparently been in development hell for the last ten years. But I really enjoyed it, I thought it was a very entertaining movie. My heart broke for Will Smith's character many times, and I have been convinced yet again that he is an amazing actor.

I went bananas in the CD store yesterday. I got vacation money from my gramps, and decided to go in and check for one CD I have wanted for ages. They were having a campaign, so I came out with 5. XP It felt good buying music again. Music is soulfood, and I need new soulfood from time to time. I bought the new albums of three artists/bands that I love; Bertine Zetlitz, Kaizers Orchestra, and Lumsk. These all came out at least 8 months ago, the Lumsk album more than a year, and I have wanted them since they were released. Now I have them, at reduced price even^^, Life is good today^^,
I also bought Liv Kristine's album Enter My Religion, which was sorted as hard rock. This puzzled me, 'cos it does not look it at all, but I took it to the counter to listen to it, and it was beautiful music. It was not hard rock at all, I dubbed it hard pop and the fiancé calls it poprock, either way it didn't belong in the hard rock category. But I loved it, and the lyrics were great, so I had to have it.
Lastly I bought the Juno soundtrack. I loved the movie, and I love the music in the movie, and it was at campaign price, and I wanted it, and it's my money, so there XP
I haven't listened to all of them yet, so I don't how I feel about them yet. I am listening to the remix disk of Bertine's best of album right now, and even thou it's very fine music, a the songs sound a little... off. But I think I like it, not really sure yet.

Still not a fan of Becoming Madame Mao, it's not really getting better. I'm about halfway through, and I don't like her. She was partly likeable at the beginning of the book, but she is more and more showing her true colours as a powerhungry bitch (excuse the language), and I generally like the main characters in the books I read to at least have some redeeming features. This woman just simply haven't any. And I am more and more annoyed by the details the author could have no knowledge of. Conversations behind closed doors, feelings, things she says "will later be denied". Some of the things she can have dug up proof about, but she describes how Madame Mao's first husband liked to be treated in bed for crying out loud(!), she can't possibly have found records of that. I realize she has probably made these things up to better the flow of the book, but for me it has the exact opposite effect. I have decided to just finish it, maybe have an end rant, and then never think about it again. And I don't think I will ever recommend it anybody, except maybe people writing biographies, as a "how not to do it" example. A little harsh maybe, but I really don't like it.

Words of the day:
映画 - eiga - movie film
廉売 - renbai - bargain sale

Weekend wishes

I am sitting at my friend L's 'puter at the moment. I just discovered there is a bug with my last post, but blogger is bugging as well, so I can't fix it right now TT_TT
I got L a jigsaw puzzle for her birthday, which she loved^^, I was unsure if she liked jigsaw puzzles, but she loves them, so I am so happy^^, I bought the little box thou, so that it would fit in my suitcase, but when we opened it last night we discovered the pieces are miniscule, so we kept dropping them on the floor. Hopefully none of the pieces hid themselves under the sofa XP
I am going to a birthday party on sunday, so I am going to buy present for the birthdayboy later today. I am bringing my Baileys, and I expect to have a smashing time XD It's actually a friend of a friend, but I know him too, and he is a great guy^^,
I strugling through Becomming Madame Mao at the moment, and I have decided I don't like it. The story is very intriguing, but it's told in supershort paragraphs and the viewpoint keep jumping from thirdperson to Madame Mao telling her story, and that makes it really bothersome to read. In addition it goes indepth in the feelings of the persons in the book, which I think biographies should not do. I don't know if it was ment as a biography, but that is what I expected it to be. The author describes things she could not possible have any knowledge of, and that annoys me, because either she can see into the past or she is making it up. Again, things that has no place in biographies. Oh well, I have started it, so I will finish it. So there >.<

Word of the day:
煩わしい - wazurawashii - troublesome, annoying, complicated

Simon's cat

I just have got to plug this man. He knows cats, that's for sure. Now, Tullerusk doesn't like walking on people so she doesn't do this, but the jumping right back up, I used to know a sweet little kitty that used to do that. She could lie on your lap for hours, and my fiancé, who was the cats human (you don't own a cat, it's the other way around XP) use to tell the story of how she used to growl at him when he wanted to go to the bathroom when she wanted to stay exactly where she wasXD I miss Askepott... Well anyways here is the video, and I urge you all to watch the rest of his videos. He knows cats...

猫 - neko - cat

Saving the birdie

This wittle creature sat under my stairs when I was going out this morning. She was terrified, poor thing. (I have decided it was a she, so there XP) I was kinda in a hurry and she was flying around on the floor, plus what I presume was her mother was hopping around above the stairs, so I thought it best to leave her be.
When I came home she hadn't managed to get up thou, so I tried to get her to sit on my dustpan, but she was so frightened she just flew off. I was afraid of touching her, in case my scent would rub off on her and her mother would reject her, so I took a pair of socks on my hands and caught her. I carried her gently out on the lawn a good way away from the stairs lest she should fall down again. She was terrified, I had to cage her with my hands, 'cos when I didn't have a hand over her she just hopped down, and she was screaming, the poor thing.
I hope she made it okey, and that her mother still wants her. If she keeps falling down I might have to contact someone to come take her somewhere where she can be safe and grow up. I don't know if they have places like that in Norway, but it's worth a try.
She needs a name thou. She looks like a Marie, don't you think? Really a pretty little thing=D If anyone knows what kind of bird she is, I would love to hear it=D

Word of the day:
小鳥 - kotori - small bird

(I have decided to include Kanji in the word of the day, or kana if no Kanji is available)

Birthday partay

My darling little sister turned 17 today. She's growing up fast^^, She got lots of great gifts and I think she had a good birthday. We woke her up with soda and Seigmenn at 6 in the morning. I got her sunglasses in Barcelona, she looked amazing in them, of course. We have a saying in Norway that roughly translates to everything looks good on pretty people, which is very true with my sister. She has this mass of golden hair that makes her look gorgeous in sunglasses. I wish I had her hair, but it probably wouldn't look as good on me. My sister is one of the most important persons in the world to me.^^,

I updated the book list. 5 books finished: Chain Mail, Halfmoon Investigations, Kitty goes to Washington, Drømmer, lengsler og mørke skoger, and one more I as a matter of course forgot after I removed it from the list. I will add it when I can think of it. Typical.
I also broke my promise to myself and bought books. Two of the books I bought at the airport on the way to Barcelona, in case I ran out of books, which I almost did. Those would be The SEANCE, and Throne of Jade. Plus I bought NANA essentials and NANA 11, the latter of which I finished the same day, and both of which I was "allowed" to buy, seeing as the fall into the "ongoing manga series"-clause. ^.~
I thought Chain Mail became worse as it went, even thou it started out very good. The ending was kind of blah, but it was overall an okey book, not too long, and not all too boring.
Halfmoon Investigations was very obviously written for people younger than me, but I would recommend it to 13-15 year olds. I had very high expectations thou, seeing as I really liked the Artemis Fowl series by the same author.
Kitty goes to Washington was very good. I like the fact that the Kitty series follows almost like a TV series, the books follow on to each other, and could not be read very well separately. I really like Carrie Vaughn's style of writing, and she has a good flow to her stories. I am very much looking forward to when my list gets short enough for me to buy the next book in the series.
Drømmer, lengsler og mørke skoger was a wonderfully whimsical book, but I felt very keenly that it is the last book from a world that I have not read anything from earlier. I felt that I would have liked to know more about the workings of this world, and maybe I will read more from this world sometime. And maybe not, we'll see. There were illustrations in this book too, beautiful ink on white paper illustrations, I liked them the most.

Word of the day:
tanjoubi - birthday

Travel, cold and rivals

Lets start with the rivals, shall we. At my place my Tullerusk is an indoor kitty, due to my landlord owning an outdoor doggie. He lives in a big cage at the end of the backyard. I have an agreement that I can have Rusket out on a leash when the dog is not out in his cage. I have spent the day with my Grandma today and have thus been away since eleven, while Rusket have been a very good kitty spending the entire time home alone. So when I come home and the doggiecage is vacant I treat Rusket to a few hours in the big out doors. She has been out from three hours when I hear cats hissing and Rusket scrambling get inside. So I get up to see if the dog is on it's way out, but when I get to the door (which is open, in case she wants to go in, and so that I can hear when she gets stuck, which she does frequently) Rusket is standing all submissive at the bottom of the stairs, with this huge black cat at the top of the stairs. And when I say huge I mean enormous. Now Rusket is a fairly large cat with fairly long fur, now this cat looked twice as big as Rusket, with looong well groomed fur. A beauty actually, and Rusket was trespassing on his or her turf, and she knew it. So I took her inside of course, and now she's all hot to get out again. I suspect she wants to make this her turf.^.~

Now to the travel. I got home from Barcelona last Wednesday, and of course got a great big cold the moment I get back. I guess laying in the breeze from an air condition is a bad idea^^,
Anyway, the trip was great. The concert was amazing. It was hot and I almost fainted, but I had a great time. I spent most of the time sitting on the floor fanning myself, but great music can be experienced just as well sitting as jumping.^^,
The city was great too. We spent 5 days there if you count the day we spent sitting and line in the blazing sun^^, We lived in this cute little apartment, with a sundeck and everything. I was so spent in the evening that I drop down really early every night, and thus I woke up much earlier that everybody else every morning. I spent those mornings on that sundeck, reading and drinking tea and enjoying myself.
We went to see Sagrada de Familia cathedral. It's was a construction cite, turns out that even though they started building it in 1826 it still it's still only about 50% finished. I hope I can go back some day when it's done, if it gets done in my lifetime. It's was beautiful.
We also went to this park, where they had this huge, life sized replica of a mammoth. E dubbed it Manfred, after the mammoth in Ice Age. Very fitting name.
The street next to the one where we lived was called La Rambla. It had a huge sidewalk in the middle with street salesmen all the way up and down it. They were sorta parted up in categories, with art in one end, going to restaurants, "statuepeople", flower shops, and pet stores in the other end. I am not kidding you, they sold live little critters right there on the street. Birds, fish, bunnies, chipmunks (I think), hamsters ferrets, and probably some I have forgotten. The ferret babies where so cute, I really wanted a few to take home with me, but I really do not think my "Queen" would enjoy ferret underlings XP
The "statuepeople" work differently in Spain than in Norway. For those now confused, "statuepeople" is the name I use for the people who stand in shopping streets or crowded places, absolutely still, usually on top of boxes. In Oslo when you put money on them (or rather, in the jars or boxes in front of them they move, wave of does a little trick or something. Not so in Spain. We went past this really cool girl dressed in sodabottles, and I thought she looked all spaced out, so I put some money on her, and then stared to walk away. But then she asked if I wasn't going to take a picture, and then I realized I got to take my picture with her^^, Sooo much fun^^,

So... I had a great time. It's 10 past midnight now. I think I should go to bed... I am going to visit V tomorrow, we're going to have so much fun^^,

Words of the day:
teki - enemy, rival
byounin - patient, sick person