Friday, September 30, 2011

Siv Unplugged

A couple of days ago I challenged myself to unplug from technology for a day. What started out as a test of endurance and a way to measure my addiction taught me a valuable lesson. Sometimes we have to unplug ourselves in order reconnect not only with ourselves but with others. I turned off my computer; put away my cell phone, and resisted Kindle and the TV for little over 30 hours. Not only did I survive without these things, but to my surprise I actually had a wonderful day.


Instead of eating my lunch in front of my computer, I enjoyed a beautiful picnic by the sea. Larvik is amazing this time of year. The changing bright colors of the autumn leaves glow in the sun, and cast their reflection in the water. Later on in the day I made friends again with my notebook and pen. The smell of paper and ink were familiar and comforting. I spent more time with my family then I have for a long time, and when the evening stars came out I spent time with them as well.

On top of Larvik

So my friends, I highly recommend to unplug and reboot yourself back into your life. Have a wonderful week-end and try to have your eyes glued elsewhere for awhile.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

TURN IT ALL OFF


Can you live without it?

I question myself, really I do. Can you live one day without a computer or cell phone? Some of you may have a job that depends on it, but when you get home, is the computer the first thing you turn on? How many times a day do you check Facebook or your e-mail, how often do you type away in a word document, and do you even remember how to write with a pen and paper? Do you have your cell phone constantly glued to your side? Well I am going to test myself and try to go a whole day without my computer or cell phone. Sound interesting? Do you think you can do it?  Honestly I am not sure I can do it. Well here you go people, I have a challenge for you! Pick a day, any day and see if you can do it. My day is the 29th of September. I will not turn on my computer or cell phone on that day. I am very curious to see if any of you can do the same. Are we really addicts to this technology? I think not and I am making a stand. Let’s see who among you are brave and even dare to try.



Friday, September 23, 2011

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION

My Brother Michael Di Gesu, in timely fashion as always, has put together a blogfest in celebration of summer. What did you do on your summer vacation? Is summer really over already? I guess I am in denial even as I hear the sound of the fire in our wood stove.


So I will tell you what I did this summer and you are not going to believe the vacation I had! I went on a heart and mind trip like no other. I won the most wonderful trip to what could have been an episode of “This is your life.”  I spent my summer getting to know a son that I thought was lost to me at birth. He found me 34 years after I had given him up for adoption, so I traveled through cyber space with the help of Facebook and Skype. I also got to watch my daughter meet her brother and her sister for the first time. You can read about that here. Not your typical vacation I agree. No airplane tickets or packing required, no hotels or vacation resort, no money was spent. I can tell you though that this has been a summer that I will never forget, a vacation that was unlike any other, and I can truly say that I had the time of my life and I believe in miracles!


What Happened to Fur-Gum?

,
 Here we go people with the finished story of Fur-Gum...Find out what happened to him!


No one told Fur-Gum to slide behind the couch and hide. Rats and tiny peasants with rubber band weapons patrolled the floor looking for another ticket or something good to chew on. Fur-Gum watched as they....  


Paused briefly and their motley commander said, “I smell something good to chew on.” He called to this fellow peasants and little rat friends seeking volunteers to scout ahead and report back with their findings.... Fur gum broke out in a cold sweat and held its breath...

He knew they were after his mother and ex-wife--The Avenger!

Suddenly a flock of moths took flight around him and the rats turned in his direction.

A strange light surrounded Fur-Gum and an odd whistling sound caused a vibration to rattle his ear drums. The rats began to shrink. The food disappeared with not more than a single crumb visible. Fur-Gum blinked. The light and noise vanished. Fur-Gum had joined the giants and was still growing.

His head rose above the clouds and bumped the moon. Little aliens spilled onto him and ran toward his underwear. Fur Gum wiggled and itched but his hands became numb. The aliens used laser guns to stun him still. Fur Gum wondered what would happen next. His day started out strange and it was ending just as weird.

To his dismay the aliens began to shave all the fur off of him. He shrieked and goose bumps rose all over his hairless body. The aliens collected the fur and began to spin it into yarn creating warm coats to slip into to escape the icy cold. Uncontrollably shivering Fur Gum felt humiliated and heat bumps now blotched his body ...

turning him once again into a small hairless piece of gum. Not knowing what gum was the aliens threw him back into space, until he finally landed in the middle of a rats open mouth.

Please excuse any small changes that I made in order to keep the grammar and sentences flowing. I did however let the change in reference from “it” to “him” stand. My wonderful friends and fellow members of C.P.S.W.A that contributed to this little story are as follows, and please note that I put myself in red, and each paragraph is a new writer in the following order:


If you have not taken your award and still want one do so now.

Have a great week-end everyone and speak Gibberish as often as you can!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Saving of Fur-Gum

Time for some Gibberish people, let's have some fun.

The rules are easy. Minnie starts a story line written in Gibberish and those that want to play continue on the storyline from the last comment posted, in the same style. If you decide to play along there is a certificate at the end as well as membership to my elite group called the Controlled Patriots of Standard Word Abuse. (CPSWA) If you don't understand or have not played this before you can click on the following link to see more about how the game is played. GIBBERISH a game for silly fun.

No one told Fur-Gum to slide behind the couch and hide. Rats and tiny peasants with rubber band weapons patrolled the floor looking for another ticket or something good to chew on. Fur-Gum watched as they.... 
 (Your Turn)


"Time to rattle those brains of yours. I did my part, lets see what you got!"


Completed story posted soon. How soon, depends on you guys.
Now on to some other news while I have your attention. As most of you know I will soon be traveling to the states. I leave on the 8th of October and before then I have so much to do. We also have carpenters here working every day so that this house project of ours will someday be finished. With travel plans and the constant sound of saws in my head there is not much room for the creative juices to flow. Not only that but half naked men running around in my garden are a bit distracting. My blogging brain is somewhat unstable for the time being. I will however be making the rounds and visiting as many of you as I can. Once I get on that plane and across that ocean you can be sure you will be hearing and seeing more from me. Don't forget, I have a traveling duck for a companion who I am sure will have lots to say as well.

For now have fun saving Fur-Gum, I am looking forward to see what my muses have in store.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Worst Movies Ever Blogfest

So Alex J. Cavanaugh has come up with another question for us on his blogfest . Name the worst movies you have ever seen. 

This has been a challenge for me because I actually do not watch bad movies. I am very picky when it comes to movies and if a movie is bad I almost always know before it starts that I will be wasting my time. However, there are a few occasions when I have been drawn in, maybe by star quality, director, producer, etc. to  watching a movie that I already knew was going to be bad from the get go. There is a certain fascination with morbid reality. Like watching a car crash, you cannot help but stop to look and watch. There are many books like that as well. You know the author, you love the work, but you are so lost in the history of that work that you deny the fact that your senses are telling you that you hate what you see, you hate what you read. Fiction as well as life is like that. So are the movies.

Now you need to know what I like to see and read in film before you can understand what will turn my popcorn to bile in my throat.  I read everything from Dr. Seuss to Stephen King. I love old and new movies, everything from Hitchcock to David Lean,  John Houston to Frank Capra. I love everything from musicals to science fiction. I still think Sean Connery, Michael Douglas and Robert Redford are sexy, I would love to have the chance to dance with Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, and Jimmy Stewart would be my ideal father and Katherine Hepburn my mother. In todays world Ron Howard and Tom Hanks rule. That is why The Dilemma and The Lady Killers were such a disappointment to me, and Tom Hanks in the movie Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts was downright embarrassing. Another Actor who I had a lot of respect for is Nicolas Cage. Then he made movies like The Weather Man, Season of the Witch and Ghost Rider (they are making a sequel, yes they are.)

Well there you have my picks for just a few of the movies that I considered a waste of time, money and popcorn. Looking forward to seeing what you have on your list of movie nightmares.


Friday, September 16, 2011

Meet Frk. Reisende Duck

Translate her name to English and you have Ms. Traveling Duck.


We who know her call her by her first name which is Anne. Anne lives in Oslo with my niece and her husband, but even though she lives there she never unpacks her suitcase for long. You see, Anne loves to travel so whenever she gets the chance to hitch a ride with her friends on vacation she gets all excited. When she heard I was going to the states in a few weeks she started to make plans to come along. No one can say no to Anne and who would want to. She is the perfect travel companion. She never complains, she sleeps anywhere, and she doesn’t eat much. Here are some pictures from her last trip to Paris, sadly I was not with on this trip.
Anne loves to fly!

A little freshening up and she is ready for Paris!

What a view...ahh, Paris....

Hanging out with the locals

Site seeing 

New friends

Time for cafe visit



Anne will be making appearances from time to time on my blog telling about her travels. We will be leaving together for the USA on October 8th, destination Denver, Colorado and Mpls. Minnesota. There will be stops along the way and plenty of adventure. We might even meet another blogger friend, who knows? Want to see Anne dressed up as a zombie at Denver’s Zombie crawl, or how about what she is wearing for a big Halloween party in Minnesota?
Anne is a little nervous about meeting my son and living with a wolf, but she is excited at the same time. She also gets to meet my daughter and grandchildren and is a little nervous about their pets as well, although a small dog and kitten are not as threatening as a big wolf. I am looking forward to this trip and to having Anne along for the ride. I hope you all are looking forward to reading about it, and yes there will be lots of pictures!

"Good-day Mates"...Anne has been to Australia as well and is having a bit of trouble getting rid of that accent.

Have a wonderful week-end everyone.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

If I Could Be Anyone...

Today is the 'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...' web splash for Talli Rolands new book, Watching Willow Watts. Almost 150 bloggers have signed up to post about who they would be, if they could choose anyone. Pop by and visit other participants, if you have a chance.

So I bet you all recognize this woman. Yes if I could be anyone this would be the woman I would want to be. I never did get to finish my college education but as a  student of Journalism , this was the woman I aspired to be like. Barbara Walters is an amazing  woman. She was the first female co-anchor of network evening news. She was first known as a popular TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on NBC's Today, and later spent 25 years as co-host of ABC's newsmagazine 20/20.

On June 14, 2007, Walters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has won Daytime and Prime Time Emmy Awards, a Women in Film Lucy Award, and a GLAAD Excellence in Media award. In the fall of 2008, she was honored with the Disney Legends award, an award given to those who made an outstanding contribution to The Walt Disney Company, which owns the network ABC. That same year, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Women's Agenda. On September 21, 2009, Walters was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards at New York City's Lincoln Center.

In the late 1960s, Walters wrote a magazine article, How to Talk to Practically Anyone About Practically Anything, which drew upon the kinds of things people said to her, which were often mistakes.Shortly after the article appeared, she received a letter from Doubleday expressing interest in expanding it into a book.  She published the book in 1970, and to her great surprise, the book was a phenomenon. As of 2008, it had gone through eight printings, sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide, and had been translated into at least 6 different languages. In 2008, she published her autobiography, Audition: A Memoir.

Barbara Walters has been married four times to three different men. "I'm convinced that you stay married when the sex is bad, only because you really want to be," she told The New York Times in 1996. "But I always had an out. I had this job, and this life and enough money. I didn't have to fight the bad days." She has been around the world and met the most interesting people in her travels. Kings, queens, politicians, religious leaders and movie stars have all been met by her charming voice and interesting question.

Like me she believes that to "not sing with an orchestra, to not be able to communicate through my voice, which I`ve done all my life, and not to be able to phrase lyrics and give people that kind of joy, I think I would be totally devastated."

If you could choose to be anyone else other than yourself, who would that be?







Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Feeling at Home

The art of a craftsman can be debated. The pride of a craftsman and his integrity is a lost art form. It is all about saving time and money now.  This is something we have discovered during the building process of our house. 

Tools are important, here is saw-man with his latest 

We have contracted out a lot of the building but saw- man has been busy redoing most of their work. The roof tiles need to be replaced. There are many that are broken, bad quality and workmanship. Then we have the windows that have been installed improperly causing broken window panes. The terrace doors have been installed improperly and are impossible to close enough so that they can be properly locked.  The list goes on. There has to be something said for doing everything yourself, but who has the time? That is the conclusion that the saw-man and I have come to lately. It may have taken a long time to get things done, but at least what we have done has been getting done properly. 


Enough is enough and finally we have decided to get more builders in here and get this house done. We will probably have to go pick up a few pieces afterwards, but this living in a closet has got to end. Check out here if you want to know more about this crazy house. The actual building process has been going on now for over a year, we still have so much left to finish, and with winter closing in once again, time is even more important. It gets darker here every day, the rains come and goes more often, but I have to believe that through all this darkness we will eventually see light. Someday we will move out of this closet and have instead a closet to hang our clothes in. The saw dust and building materials will not be a constant floor obstacle and I will no longer have to search through boxes to find my things. Someday I will know where I am and finally feel at home. 

Tell me, how long has it taken you to feel at home?

Friday, September 9, 2011

TGIF?

The magical week-end is upon us and I hear many of you shouting out—“Thank God it’s Friday!” 



There is however those voices out there that do not share the same scream. Even though there are many of you that are working a shift, society puts the norm in a large pocket and tells us to celebrate the week-end. God made the calendar, oh no, I forgot the Romans did. We are supposed to work a 5 day week and on the 7th day rest.  Well that is just not true and I for one am tired of being forced into the week-end box. I have spent most of my adult life working shifts, but for some reason the week-end rules and “Thank God it’s Friday” is strung on a banner across the sky. Who cares and what does God have to do with it anyways? Have a nice week-end can just as well be have a nice mid-week. Who decided that Friday is the end of the work week?  Was it God, or the Romans? Yeah ok I get it, majority rules but take a look around you, is that still true? How many of you are free tomorrow and on Sunday? What makes these days so special and who gets to decide the rules? Do we really need week-ends? Sounds like book-ends to me but I decide where to put them. So for all you that are working tomorrow and have to endure the “celebration” of someone else’s week-end, have a happy midweek.



T

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Quick fix

Sometimes we just need to walk away and put some distance between us and the things that are bothering us. Unpaid bills, problems at home or at work…Frustration….Stress…Illness… Avoid these things and run away from it all. 

My dock of the bay and "quick fix" in Larvik

You need a vacation from what is bothering you, you need a break. Computer games and TV are easy fixes. You could go to a movie or read a book. We all have our little escape plans. A month from today I am making the great escape and travelling to the states to spend time with my son and daughter who I have not seen in over 25 years. I need a vacation. I haven’t had one for years. Do you need one too? As for today, I need a quick fix and there is only one thing to do, and that is to go sit and watch the tide roll away. What kind of quick fix do you have?



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Insecure Writers Support Group

This is my first post for the Insecure Writers Support Group. What we write about are concerns, fears, and struggles and/or recent breakthroughs or words of encouragement for other writers. You will find the other members of this group at the bottom of my blog. It is still not too late to join!



My biggest fear is that I will lose interest. Life makes so many demands on me that it is not easy to just disappear into a world of paper and pen. Some people seem to think that I can just spit out words and ring them up into the money machine. Writing does not come easy, and despite what others might think I do not write because I think it is fun. I write because I have to. Whether I am painting with oils or with words, self-expression is important to me, and built into my DNA. You might be asking yourself right about now, how I could lose interest if writing is so essential to my being. That is where this blog is so important to me. The friendships and encouragement I have gotten here in this cyber world keep me going. So here is a word of thanks to all my muses out there. I could not do it without you.

 In the real everyday world encouragement is attached with a price tag. How much money you can make, if you should self-publish or not, if blogging alone will get you sponsors…the list goes on. There are many ways the real world will stamp you guilty for not doing something that is financially productive straight away. It would be nice if I could just spit out those words, publish a book and let the money roll in. So here is the book I am working on now, The Troll Inside. I have hit a dead spot. Inspiration has left the building and the pressure of life has killed my muse. 

Contributing to society and the money machine could make me feel less guilty for the hours I spend splashing ink around. Maybe I will get tired of feeling guilty and that will make me lose interest in being what I am supposed to be, a writer and an artist. I could spend my time and conform myself into a sales clerk with a pay check or something like that. If I could join the matrix of mankind and be “normal, “If I could just delete that part of me that needed to be creative, would I? Would you? Sometimes I think it would be easier to just put on a uniform and go to work. Been there, done that. Now I am taking time out to explore this creative side of myself and I feel guilty. I guess women are born to feel guilty, to feel like they have to do everything to please everyone else. So my friends, that is my biggest fear. That my writing will not be enough to please everyone including myself and I will lose interest. That I will succumb to the matrix, my creative self will just wither up and die.

----So I fell onto the sidewalk and a man in a suit reached out his hand to help me up. I hesitated when I saw his face, so like the face of my father. A smile rested there, the kind of smile that said, “I told you not to run. I told you so!” It was so easy then to stand up on my own and smile back. ---- 

Sometimes we just have to fall down in order to practice getting up again. Sometimes we need help and sometimes we just have to do it ourselves.


Saturday, September 3, 2011

LABOROUS YET REWARDING

Many of my American friends and family are celebrating Labor Day week-end. We do not celebrate that here in Norway and to tell you the truth I am not sure how one celebrates Labor Day or what it is. Must have something to do with work… right? For me Labor Day reminds me of childbirth and being rewarded for a lot of hard work. Let me know if I am way off track here. What does one do on Labor Day? 
One thing I know for certain is that you do not wear white pants after Labor Day. At least I seem to remember that being a dress code of sorts. Then again, I am not known for following the rules of fashion so I conveniently forget such things.


This week-end I am going to a Barbeque party at Karens Coming down the mountain. Bring some food to the party and have some fun! I am bringing Norwegian Lefse. Folded potato pancakes spread with creamy butter, sugar and cinnamon. Hope you enjoy!



 I do seem to remember that school starts for many after Labor Day week-end. Not for me though because I got some math homework to do today after the party. Karen at Following the Whispers has awarded me with the assignment of figuring out what 7 x 7 is. You think the answer is 49 don’t you? No…No…No….I need to dig deeper and find the root of 7 questions and link them to my past blog posts. Then I get to multiply by 7 bloggers. Oh I do so love a good challenge.


 Here we go, Linky ding to the following questions regarding previous posts of mine:


1.    Most Beautiful: Out of love, a letter to mygrandchild. I picked this one because it was written from the beauty of the heart.



2.      Most Helpful: The art of being invisible. I do not really consider my blog a “How to do it,” Most of my posts are self-help, but I find this one quite humorous. 



3.      Most Popular:  7500 page views Thor and his hammer beats all other posts time and time again. All my posts on Norwegian Mythology have been very popular, most likely due to the movie Thor.



4.      Most Controversial: Norwegian Soil. Terrorism and War, always heart wrenching and controversial.



5.      Most Surprisingly Successful: Games blogfest s right up there alongside Tor, guess we all love our games! Thanks Alex.



6.      Most Underrated: Your Mothers Heart. This post had hardly any views and I found that surprising. Maybe people are bored with their mothers and trying to understand them.



7.      Most Pride worthy: The other part of me. This post was the most difficult one to write. It stripped me bare and opened a lot of old wounds. I am proud of myself for having the courage to write it.



There you have it. I'd like to pass this award (assignment) on to the following 7 Fantastic blogs that you really should visit:


·        Stranger in a strange land  
·        Writing in the Crosshairs 
·        Everything Emerald  
·        Dafeena  
·        My Inner Fairy  


Have a continued wonderful week-end friends, and stay safe.



Friday, September 2, 2011

Completed New Moon Gibberish

 As promised here is the final result of "New Moon" that my friends and I created.


New moon lost her last sliver as she does every month but this month was different. The air had changed into something that space did not understand. Star raced across the sky and stole


the last of her parents' money. The universe was in trouble and she was the only person who could save it. 


but she had better things to do. As ADHD ran in her family her attention would wane as quickly as the moon. A pickle caught her eye 


and she had no choice but to0 shoot after it. She knew it would taste


garlicky... it would go perfectly with CHEESE, but that reminded her


of a time so much better than this one, when she was full and bright. The night sky lighted up in her presence. 
Suddenly, a duck appeared with a gun!


"You're all driving me quackers!" he exclaimed.


That is when New Moon suddenly found the courage to face the ridiculous star. Taking the gun from the duck she shot the pickle into stars mouth, shutting it forever. Old Space returned and New Moon was finally stuffed with enough cheese and garlic to light up the sky. 

Controlled Patriots of Standard Word Abuse (C.P.S.W.A.) that contributed to this story in order are:

Myself   
Elisabeth Hirsch
Craziness abounds
Summer Ross
Hart Johnson 
McKenzie McCann
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Alleged Author
Myself



These are for you, my talented and playful friends. Thanks for playing and see you next month.



Have a wonderful and playful week-end everyone!