It is time for a second entry of this weeks most disturbing or just plain stupid events reported in the media.

Iranian women are getting warnings and being arrested these days for wearing clothing that doesn't adhere to Islamic dress rules. The reason given is that a man who sees these models on the streets will pay no attention to his wife at home, destroying the foundation of the family.
Iran warns women over slack dressing

Then again, Amnesty recently did as survey which found that half of Norwegian men think that if a woman flirts or dresses sexily that she can be blamed for being assaulted or raped. Seems like half of Norwegian men haven't evolved a whole lot more than their Iranian counterpart.
Women to blame

Oh and remember to pick your reading material carefully before you go out flying! Seems like security personell isn't able to think clearly at least in the case of Neil Godfrey at the Philadelphia airport which was stopped with a novel which had a picture of a bomb on the cover. He was refused entrance to the flight. After going home, booking a new ticket, and replacing his reading material with what he thought was safe, he was stopped again and his Harry Potter book was carefully examined. He was then again refused entry.
Novel Security Measures.

For some unexplained reason I started talking about the fact that I was a member of the Icelandic church on my way back from the post office yesterday. Since I am quite obviously an atheist that conversation ended in me claiming that I need to resign as a member.



When I came home I found something in my mail box that I have never received before and that gave me a slightly creepy feeling. A invitation to masses of the Icelandic congregation here in Oslo I couldn't stop my silly head from wondering whether this was some kind of sign.



This morning I managed to sleep through the church bells that have woken me up every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock since I moved here. I happily ceased the opportunity to decide that this was a sign that yesterdays letter meant nothing.



I have freed my head from believing in things like religion. Next on list has to be superstition!

And yet again I am prejudiced! This time because I think the new song with Paris Hilton sucks big time! This is according to her own statements. It couldn't be that the song is (to put it mildly) mediocre and that she has a dull and flat voice? If I had been truly prejudiced I wouldn't have put myself through the torture of listening to the entire song but just said before hand that it was bad. Or am I getting this wrong? Am I supposed to like all music or otherwise I am prejudiced?



Ok, this is a little not so serious instance of a Paris Hilton brain fart which we can laugh at and ignore. Far more serious is the increase in people shouting prejudism, rasism, discrimination in cases which clearly aren't and that actually do impact security and people's lifes...

I can feel the blogging cloud coming over me...

Summer has been so great that I simply haven't had the need to blog (nor time). This has made me realize that I usually blog because I either have to complain about something, or if I feel like airing my opinions. It just doesn't feel right to blog about happy stuff to much:-). Sure I have had things to complain about this summer but only so much that I have been able to relief my brain waste on friends.

This summer has probably been one of the best summer I have ever had but now when it has become gray and rainy outside, the bitter, frustrated, opinionated me is re-emerging. To spare my friends from having to listen to all I need to get out of my head I think it is time to dust the keyboard and start blogging. At least then they can safely ignore what I am saying/writing without me noticing that they don't give a damn. Aren't I nice:-)?

I might need few more days of rain to brew some frustrations to blog about or maybe I just need to think up some ways of disguising few of my recents frustrations...

By all means, do not talk to me...

Mediumgeek is going extra geek soon. Mediumgeek is flying to Finland attending her first demoparty this week! Assembly '06 to be more specific.



For the ones of you that don't know what a demoparty is, it is gathering of people that come and produce non-interactive audio-visual presentations, which are run real-time on a computer. Sounds a little complicated doesn't it? To put it simpler, it is a party where people do cool stuff with graphics on their computers. In addition, they play games, chat and generally just have fun.


Opera is sponsoring the event and will be setting up a stand there where you can try some of our products, ask questions, and be recruited by us. Opera is also organizing the Widget competition and sponsoring the Browser Compo.



While I am slightly worried that I will feel a bit out of place (that my geek genes don't quite measure up), I am just happy to try something new, travel to Finland, and I really hope I will get the chance of having a beer with my friend Daniel! If there is anyone else there that I know please give me a shout or come and visit our stand at the party!



The group of people going has started a Assembly blog on my.opera.com and I will probably be blogging from there during the event.

Only in Norway will they neglect to inform you that the swimming pool is actually closed when you pay the entrance fee.

Now why in the world would I get upset after having paid, showered, put on my swim suit, and walked to the pool only to find it closed? Stupid me for not seeing the little poster (among all the other posters) stating this fact.

I am now officially at war with Tøyenbadet!

I wrote about Jennifer Smith last week. A girl that was kidnapped at the age of 14, kept hostage in a brothel for six years or until a man she later marries saves her.

I got one good comment to my blog entry which said many interesting and intelligent things. Not surprisingly it said pretty much what I had expected. The comment brings out the important fact that there would be a lot of emotions involved so it is difficult to predict the exact outcome but the general theme in the comment was compassion for the girl.

My simple prediction doesn't involve too many emotional details. I would think that if I were Jennifer's parents I would be overjoyed and try to do everything in my power to help her get back on track with her life and to help her heal her wounds. In addition, I would make sure that the police made sure the people responsible were punished. If I were the police I would do anything in my power to make sure they get the punishment they deserve. In the shoes of John Wilson's family, I might be a bit more skeptical. I would probably worry that she has gone through too many difficult things to be able to give my beloved son a happy life. At the same time I think I would think it was romantic (after I got over the shock that my son had been in a brothel that is). So some skepticism, lots of relief and happiness and enormous anger towards the criminals.

Now what if I told you that Jennifer couldn't go back to her family and even had to hide from them because they want kill her? What if I would tell you that the police is trying to send Jennifer back to the brothel since the brothel owner pretends that he was married to Jennifer? And that John Wilson's family isn't much more helpful and that his brother-in-law is threatening to divorce his sister just because of this. Sounds like bullshit doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the girl I have been calling Jennifer is really Aisha Parveen and John Wilson is Akram. They are live in Pakistan where traditions are drastically different from what we know.

The worst is to read about this and know that there is nothing that you can do to help her. Such cruelty towards a young girl which has been kidnapped and abused is incomprehensible. The entire story is sad and cruel but the biggest monster in my minds are her family. How is it possible to want to kill your child which has done nothing but be at the wrong place at the wrong time?

The year is almost over and it is time to look back and see what I accomplished. Last year I made some New Year's resolutions which I was determined to stick to. Some might think it is a bit too personal to post your resolutions online, but I will keep doing it since this is the first time ever I actually stuck to some of my resolutions and reviewed them at the end of the year.



1. Work less (and maybe improve my efficiency).
Accomplished during the latter half of the year. Started the year out in a bad way but managed to cut down on work towards the end of the year.



2. Speak fluent Norwegian at the end of the year.
Well it depends on how you define fluent but I think I will say I passed this one. I at least managed to fight my real estate agent and get them to admit to their lying all in Norwegian.



3. ** Secret **
Failed. Will remain a secret as I plan on trying this one again next year.



4. Revive my long lost Spanish knowledge.
Passed. Took a class this fall and have signed up for new one in the spring.



5. Become a better friend.
Failed miserably but will keep trying.



6. Find the purpose for my life (tricky one).
Not yet but I still hold onto the hope of finding it one day.



7. Improve my English (especially writing).
Failed. Resolution number 2 and 4 kind of made my English worse than ever.



8. ** Secret**
canceled. Something I wanted to learn but decided it would be a waste of time.



8. Read more books.
Passed. My count says 41 book which I am pretty happy with since the year started out slow.



9. Stop being too nice and be a bit more bitchy (when it comes to work).
Passed with flying colors. It has hurt my karma so I need to find a better balance.



10. ** Secret **
I wanted to increase my knowledge of history, politics, etc. I will say I passed this one or at least made a reasonable attempt.



11. Keep on blogging regularly.
Passed even though I would like to blog a bit more often.



12. Become a better person.
Failed! This didn't work to well with resolution number



Oh well, we live and learn. More than 50% success. Could be worse:-).



Now I need to work on next year's resolutions. Until then I wish you all a Happy New Year and thanks for sharing last year with me!

It is unbelievably liberating to let anger out that you have been bottling up for a long time. It really feels like you have being stuck in the bottle yourself. It is the same miserable being trapped feeling. Even though letting the anger out can be a pit stressful and difficult, just like squeezing through a bottleneck, it feels sooooo good afterwards!

I will probably explain this outburst of anger in detail later but I first wanted to give the person a fair chance of fixing their errors before I hang them out.