Archive for July, 2008

The Ghost of Trafikanten Future

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

If you’ve ever visited Oslo, you’ll notice that the subway stations and stops are littered with fancy modern-looking equipment for a fully-automated ticketing system.  Meanwhile, we all stamp our little paper tickets with an ancient mechanical device that uses actual ink and board the trains.  I’ve actually seen this mentioned on a travel blog once, when [...]

Visitors from Abroad

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Erin and Mike are coming tonight!
Aside from sustaining various cycle-related injuries and exhaustion, we spent a bit of time cleaning and trying desperately to air out the apartment.  One fantastic thing about our place is that it’s so well insulated that last winter we never used the wall heaters and relied only on the gas fireplace [...]

All Cross-Country, All the Time

Monday, July 28th, 2008

It’s kind of an accepted truth that in the winter in Norway, a huge amount of TV air time is dedicated to showing cross-country skiing competitions.  After all, it is very much the national pastime (I’ve heard that over 50% of Norwegians cross-country ski, and that includes everyone from age 0 to 120).  However, I [...]

Freezing Fjords and Bicycle Bruises

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Saturday was a day with a few firsts for me.  Lucas set off with Mohamed on an ill-fated expedition to try to cycle to Sweden (they made it 140 km before the crazy heat, hills, and heavy packs made them stop and jump in a lake before catching a train back to Oslo), leaving me [...]

Chart and Graph Humor

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

And my Milkshake graph of the other day segues nicely into this link, which has also been collecting dust for a while:
Pie Chart Humor
Of all of those, I have to repost this one here, because it’s such a classic.  Funniest graph-related joke ever:

And for even more chart/graph humor, check out Demitri Martin’s flip-chart standup routine.  [...]

My Milkshake Revisited

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

This is something Lucas stumbled on many months ago, and it’s been in Post Purgatory for a very long time.  Since it still makes me laugh, I’ll go ahead and post it.

And if you want something a little more involved than just laughing at a ridiculous hip-hop song, check out this cool site to create your [...]

I ♥ Caffeinated Fanta

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

We have a habit of brightening our afternoons by running next door to the supermarket for a bottle of soda, a snack, or just a chance to get out of the office for a few minutes.  I was very disappointed last year when the shop stopped carrying Diet Coke with Lime (apparently it’s not available [...]

The Rainbow Spot

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Today has been a stressful start to what is bound to be a gruesome week at work.  I’m tired, it’s getting late, and I still some things to plow through before I’ll let myself go home.  A minute ago, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed (in spite of eating a handful of chocolate from Dee’s office [...]

Flickr Meme

Monday, July 21st, 2008

So this is kind of silly, but I’m drawn to pretty pictures and saw this on Kevin’s blog this morning.  It looked fun, so I thought I’d give it a try…

The process:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each [...]

A Box Down Memory Lane

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

I was looking for something today in our storage room, and in my search, I thumbed through my “memory box.”  This is an old Whitman’s Sampler box that contains all the little knick-knacks that I’ll never use, but that I still don’t want to part with.  In the spirit of my recent school reunion, I [...]