Summer Vacation Part II

View from the room at Hotel 47

Moving on to the second leg of the summer vacation, destination Rome. This was monumental for several reasons. First trip abroad with E, and first trip abroad for me in years. If any who read this ever go to Rome, I can highly recommend Hotel 47, the service was impeccable, the rooms superb, the roof restaurant/bar awesome, and the view; perfect. 5 days in Rome, much was seen, the fountains, the Vatican, Castel St. Angelo, and much much more. Also it was nice and warm, 35 degrees on average which was not objectionable. Of course the Red Man does not bow to the heat, but from the two next pictures, the long lines did take its toll. Anyhew, great trip which merits a repeat.

I have been in this line for how long

It can´t be long now

Summer Vacation Part 1

Some may have noticed the lack of blogging going on this past month, and it is without regret that I say, ´well you have to live to write´. So as my buss meanders through Drammen on its ostensibly well paved roads, I can safely put my time to blogging use. This summer started as most summers do, a trip to the homestead that is Kambo. And I have to give a lot of credit to my dear mom who made this homecoming a pleasant one, what with all the heavenly Mexican home cooking and all her and B´s help with the house, washing, painting, and so on. I finally got my tenants out, and it took no time at all to find a a new one. That thorn in my side aside, I could breathe a little easier.

Anyhew, I also had the opportunity to host a little BBQ for one of the classes. The weather notwithstanding I think it was a pretty good day. There is little better than the company of good friends, sharing some beer and good food. Like the saying goes, "and man hath no greater pleasure under the sun but to eat, drink and be merry". But so ends my short two weeks in Moss.I am actually on my way there as I write this but that is a story for another time=).

Expect Vacation Part 2 shortly!

Train as You Fight!

Sometimes you commit yourself to outrageous feats of endurance (others call it stupidity) without really knowing why. I choose to see it in the spirit of the Academy as testing your limits.

The Nijmegen March approaches, and although I am not attending this year, I have found where my limits are and intend on joining full force next year.

After 3 days of 20 km marching each over the span of 4 weeks, we concluded with a treacherous 40 km march from Trondheim to Stjørdal. A little bit hilly but overall quite a good stretch.

Start time 0420. Thanks to MG I could use his room for the night and have a little less distance to the starting area, which proved invaluable seeing as it took me exactly 40 minutes from wake up time to get breakfast, and get ready. With all that that implies I have over the past month learned the ancient and time honored knowledge of proper boot soles, proper socks, where to apply powder, salves and ointments and how to tape your feet. My hat off to our coordinator CWW. Also my hat unhesitatingly goes off to EMSB who really showed how much pain a soldier can be in and still walk through Hell (No seriously the local town is called Hell) without a complaint uttered. After 25 km I started to feel it a bit, but during the last 5 km the pressure pain started so now I am limping here and there, but hopefully like all bad things, this too shall pass.

This has been a new experience and I am confident with a few modifications I can and will complete Nijmegen next year with the best people!

Finish time: 1140

On Values and questionable ethics

There is no denying that on occasion, the universe is a fickle mistress with little regard for anybody but itself. Nevertheless, I live in the universe and feel privy to bend, twist and convolute reality into a version of what might have happened. I refer of course to a mishap concerning my brand new, somewhat pricey Mac laptop. It is the dawn of a new era and what happens, the universe causes minor collateral damage to it, through my hand and a 99,NOK Ikea lamp. You know the saying in physics about what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Well the same holds through when an idiotic lack of force meets an inconceivable fragile and expensive object. After some soul searching I figured I would let the corporate world throw itself on this grenade, seeing as how much red tape there is and how often people have been screwed over by the man.

Short story short, Apple Inc folded on the river, with the result that apparently, you can fight city hall=)

Now, on to other matters. The year is coming to an end, well the school year, and the fledglings are off to greener pastured and eventually a new class will begin. All brimming with hopes and dreams and expectations. Well as for my future vocational options and ambitions, I think another year will be secured for me. Pending some organizational changes, which might be good or quite frankly a disaster. The universe is trying to say that "you can have it your way, but not really, there is always a catch, some fine print, a hitch, a bend in the road".

Pressure Schmessure

Recently I have pondered and drifted within the thought waves on the topic of volcanoes and their impact on everyday life. Normally one thinks of mount St. Helens or Krakatoa, inland or island, these vast mounds bring on a new level to the "Don't build on top of water" saying. Water or no water, lava is not exactly much better.

Consider every natural disaster movie you have ever seen, I am talking from Dante's Peak, (Which even James Bond could have stopped) to 2012, especially the last one. First of all you have John Cusack (had it been Downy Jr, we would Iron Man our way through the crisis) flying around in various plane throughout areas where there is clearly more than few particles of volcanic ash on its way into the atmosphere, which by the way is really impressive when you consider the force needed). But nowhere in the film does his plane go down.

Riddle me this. Would it not be just plain fair (no pun intended) to perhaps portay this film in a way slightly more realistic. Take what is happening throughout northern Europe as of yesterday. Left and right flights are not only being cancelled but airspace itself if closed off tighter than post 9/11 White House. No commercial traffice despite Norway being way far from Iceland. Modern radar and meteological reports which could aid in the navigation of some flights around the ash cloud are available. By all means I am not saying we should take air safety likely. But when not even the rescue helicopters can go out flying or the low level ambulance choppers, then we got a problem. But maybe 2012 isn't wrong. They were smart enough to create boats, but ofcourse they foresaw the shifting of land mass ultimately causing tsunamis, so why not. But coastal ferries have seen a massive passenger surge since yesterday, as well as busses and trains. It's a jungle out there.

But if we are seeing these kinds restrictions, especially in the prevailing climate, why not pour more research funds into developing engines that could operate in harsh in environments? I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, but best case scenario we get choppers and planes that can operate in sandstorms. Also, come doomsday apocalypse, we could airlift the lucky few (I foresee that the genetically superior will survive, much as Darwin predicted) without the fuss of all this volcanic ash getting in our way. Also, it should have occured to the good folks at JPL or NASA that eventually we might run into a habitable planet but with less than friendly atmosphere. Wouldn't it be find and dandy to have some sort of craft capable of thrusting through those little ash flakes.