Little Corner of Ania

I must admit it. Whenever someone notices that "Hey, you're from Oslo aren't you?" because of my dialect (yes I've still kept it thankyouverymuch!), they're so making my day. It makes me beam, feel more happier & kinda radiate (I think :p). I've lived at these parts of the country (Bergen that is) for close to seven years now, and although some evil people (you know who you are!!) claims that I've been.....assimilated into a Bergenser (or worse, Askøyværing), I simply refuse to believe that. I don't wanna! And just even saying something like that to me is so mean!

I'm also really totally devastated that my oldest kid seem to not notice my dialect at all but rather go for the local one.....poor kid :( So the baby is my only hope left I guess....hrm...now I'm sad again...grr..

Norwegian journalists are becoming more and more lazy. VG Nett have the last few weeks started to headhunt their own, custom-made interview objects, with headlines like "Were your baby made at a music festival?" "Are you between 25-30, single and going aboard to Asia this summer with friends?" "Have you experienced trouble complaining at storebought stuff?" --- all ending with "We want to get in touch with you!", linking to the emailadress of whoevers on the case.

Actually, headhunt is a wrong word here, it's rather -- they want their objects to come to them. Personally I find this interesting - it sorta allows the journalists to picture a specific case then by simply just view through the replies they get until they get the right person(s) that corresponds with what they were picturing. I'm sure this isn't new at all, I mean, big companies and stuff usually send the media a couple of people with this and that kind of experience, and give them a pretty much custommade story - like, if the government got a paper or new rule or whatever they're about to publish, they tend to do this - find a couple people with a nice story that's interfering with whatever they want publicity about, and send them to the journalists. Or the jorunalists are searching various interest-newsgroup or board, to look for specific objects and ideas, and/or maybe even advertise at the respective newsgroup/board for their case/story. The new thing here however is the openess about this customthing. They're totally openly searching for this and that specific kind of story, sittin down waiting for people to come to them. And anybody can read this as long as they drop by their webpaper, and think, "oh, but I got the story they want", or "oh, I know someone who's...."

*shrug* This isn't really a big deal, I'm just noticing a(nother) new trend which I find sorta amusing.....soh :p And because they've been advertising like, four times a week or so it seems to me and it's simply not anything I've seen before =)

Daytime television. Just thinking of that word makes me shudder. What's on the TV at daytime? Nothing! Oh, apart from the daytime soaps, if you consider that television at all - which really, really bugs me.

It's however quite somewhat amusing to watch these shows if you do so with a little distance. Take "The bold and the beauty" or whatever it's called. My grandma used to be an avid follower of this show, telling me things like "Oh, that guy is so mean!" and "You better watch out for that woman, she's dangerous!" with a serious and often very indignant face on behalf of the poor victims on the screen. It was almost so I wondered if she was aware that it was just a television show. And a not too good one either, imho.

So, what's going on in a daytime soap? Well.

• There's always secrets and underlying alliances going on. (well duh!)

• When two people talk about a secret, you can be damn sure that there will be someone overhearing that conversation, and this person will either be a) the person the secret is about and who's not supposed to know about it right yet, or b) an evil person who's so gonna use this newfound knowledge to his or her own adventage. (cue: closeup montage of either a teary, bigeyed, shocked woman or an evil smirk that just tells you 'uhoh trouble incoming')

• If someone becomes pregnant, you can never be sure who actually fathered the baby - usually it's not the one the woman officially is dating.

• Everybody is dating everyone. Even doubledating. Or trippledating. A lot of recycling going on :p

• The innocent victim is always helpless, got huge puppy eyes and always crying (think Krystle from Dynasty). Don't forget oh so innocent.

• The evil antagonist is never trustworthy. If for some reason this person should happen to speak the truth for once, noone will ever believe or help him/her until it's too late.

• There's a lot of crossediting. A lot. It's like, hey, let's dwell five seconds at this situation, then show five seconds of another then go back and show another five seconds of the first situation and allow one setence to be uttered before going back to the second situation and so on and so on. Personally I think it's because they doesn't want to spend too much on too many scenes, so they try to milk the few scenes they got for whatever it's worth. And they think the viewers really loves to see the actors breathe only. Or watch the cute, little tear slowly emerge from the corner of the actress eyes before rolling down her cheeks. Suff like that.

• There's a lot of monologues uttered by people completely alone. It's as if the writers either thinks that people actually do speak out loud for themselves or they doesn't bother finding actors able to communicate such things silently.

• It's not rare that these monologues happen while the actors are holding a picture or a letter or something in their hands. Like, "Oh why oh why did I ever let you go.....I promise, by God, that I'll never ever do the same mistake again!"

Anyways, I'm aware that these are like, well used concepts (or rather, clichés) in any show on television, but somehow it just seems so.....well....easier to catch in daytme shows...it's so...obvious and not as subtle...than in other sorta.

And no, this still doesn't mean that I'm actually watching these shows...I'm just sayin cause it bugs me how easy it is to find such clichés in these :p

I briefly watched this danish documentary on TV the other day, called "Modern addiction" - about two gamers who were addicted to the net. Lots of blah blah blah which I've heard or read several times before, so I was swapping back and forth a lot. One quote catched my interest though - there was this guy saying how he wasn't sure who or how the real "him" was - the persona that surfaced on the internet, or the real life persona. On the internet he was easygoing, upfront, chatty and bold. In the real life - well, he was and felt shy and preferred to stay home 24/7 so he could continue his social life on the net. He hated to be forced out to shop groceries, and wished he could just order food and get it delivered at his door all the time. So, which side showed the real him? The shy one? The social one? He looked kinda sad when he asked about that I think..

Now that's an interesting issue, in which Sherry Turkle, a professor (I think, she must be that by now at least :p) who's been into people and computergames also have touched several times in her researchs throughout the years (ever since the late seventies!). In her book, "Life on the Screen - Identity in the Age of the Internet", she tells about several people with similar experiences - they're a completely another person on the net - some claims that this net-personae is their real self, others aren't sure and struggles with the same doubts and identity-crisis as this guy. Others again claims that the net-personae is just a (staged) play, they're pretending they are someone else just for fun, but know very well who they really are themselves. There was this girl who was shy in the real life, but when she was on IRC she was bold, outgoing, she said things she would never have dared to say in the real life, etc etc etc... she said that she hoped that the real her was the one she was on the net, but she didn't really think so - the real her was the personae she was in real life.

I've also written a paper on a similar issue myself, where I was looking at some EverQuest players and how they chose to pick their own personalities ingame, and well, although I limited myself to the game and their game-character, you can draw similar lines into any other activity that's done on the net where you meet other people - boards, chatting stuff like IRC or MSN and well, stuff..

What I think about all this? Well, I guess this is a well known cliché - we all carry situational masks - the person we are at home with our parents usually differ from the person we are at work, at school, with friends... how can you say that the person you are when you're with your mom is the same as the person you are when you're with your best friend, or the person you are when you're with several friends? We usually adapt without thinking, and I believe that the person that's you on the net also is a part of the real you - or maybe more correct - just another part of you. Hm. Which makes me think of that Nicky Yee dude and his facets. Anyways. A very interesting issue methinks :)

Sleepytime now :)

Haha, this just made me laugh - Million Dollar Question;

A young boy went up to his father and asked him, "Dad, what is the difference between potentially and realistically?"

The father thought for a moment, then answered, "Go ask your mother if she would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars. Then ask your sister if she would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars, and then, ask your brother if he'd sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars. Come back and tell me what you learn from that."

So the boy went to his mother and asked, "Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?" The mother replied, "Of course I would! We could really use that money to fix up the house and send you kids to a great University!"

The boy then went to his sister and asked, "Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?" The girl replied, "Oh my God! I LOVE Brad Pitt I would sleep with him in a heartbeat, are you nuts?!?!?!"

The boy then went to his brother and asked, "Would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million dollars?" "Of course," the brother replied. "Do you know how much a million bucks would buy?"

The boy pondered the answers for a few days, then went back to his dad.

His father asked him, "Did you find out the difference between potentially and realistically?"

The boy replied, "Yes... potentially, you and I are sitting on three million dollars... but realistically, we're living with two sluts and a queer."

Sooo, I was talking with an old friend on MSN the other day who's gonna get married and was overjoyous about all this stuff and had to share... and then we both realized that we've known each others for like, nine years or so, ever since he ambushed me at the Crossroads in this little MUD called Final Realms when I was a wee little battlepriest (who never hurt anybody) & he was one of the biggest, meaniest assassins around (well, he was pretty mean but he was also quite neutral considering he didn't seem to care who or what side he assassinated). Being quite new in that game and only knowing a handful, I just couldn't fanthom why anybody would be so mean and kill me just for fun...I was just running from one place to another, minding my own business....and I couldn't understand why my boyfriend back then kept chatting with him like they were friends, cause....he was mean & killed me!!

Anyways, we eventually got to know each other, and actually met once too at the MUDparty in Texas like, way back then (although at that time I still didn't know him that well), and he's the reason why me and my hubby started to play EverQuest.... and we've stayed in touch ever since & now he's gonna marry and it's all really wonderful .....and at the same time a tad funny.... cause when we realized how long we've actually known each others, I also realized I'm....like, old..... not that I really am, but.... it feels weird when you realize you've known someone over the net for close to ten years and it's....just weird! :p I started fooling around at this MUD when I was seventeen (hm..or well, maybe 16 I guess) and now I'm soon 26.....and that's like, more than 1/3rd of my life so far.......weird...=)



Speaking of EQ, here's some seriously hilarious stuff - I just *love* episode one and episode two is *the* best, while number three is okay but can't compare to one or two :p I'm not sure how funny they are to non EQ players, or non-players at all, but trust me, they really are hilarious...

Episode one
Episode two
Episode three

It's funny how you get used to only getting four hours of sleep at a time....





NOT.



*yawn*

Can't wait til this period is over :p

Yes, praise my genious brain (& self :p)! =) I joined this "become a candy tester" thing in winter (for Malaco Leaf), and I've gotten the first mail full of free candies that I'm gonna test...or...was gonna test (hey, I had to do my duty :P) It's something childish amusingly about recieving lotsa candies in the mail for free...hell yeah, me like =)

Oh yeah, I've popped out the baby now by the way...a little girl named Amalie Kristine :)

*sigh* it's now 12 more days until the baby is due, and (s)he still have not shown any signs as to wheter s(he) wanna leave my tummy or not... yeah, I know I've pointed out how utterly *boring* it is to be this big before (allow me to repeat: you can't get into or outta the bed without a lot of groans making you feel like a pig sorta, taking on socks or shoes makes you go *ouch you're in the way tummy*, it's so much easier to collide with walls and doors and stuff with your tummy, your kid loves to run straight at you and collide with your tummy...and so on and so on - you name it), but I really cannot do that often enough. Like this afternoon, I was gonna wake up Simen from his nap with a little nuzzle & stuff, and halfway over the bed I found out that I needed to crawl a little more closer to him. Alright, so I did so and he started to laugh - telling me how I looked like a seal trying to squeeze my way towards him...:p *sniff* I just wanted to be nice & nuzzle & smooch a bit, not being teased (although friendly) and called a seal :p And oh, my back have started to hurt more and more, especially when I have been standing or walking around for a while..bleh! So yeah, it's *so* about time this little one popped out..chop chop!

Oh by the way....it's spring and as usual in the spring I keep recieving a *lotta* Victoria's Secret catalogues, like, twice or thrice a month or so.....VS - STOP TORTURING ME!!!!! *grr*

Boring, boring, boring! This is prob old news, but still hilarious enough so I thought I'd put up this link for rainy days like this....the Star Wars trailer with 1337 close captions :p

Whats 1337 (alternatively; 1337, l33t, 133t, any combo of 1 3 7 and t....and l i guess ..derived from lewt, which is derived from loot...aka phat lewt..which alternatively have become the symbol of the jargon, or "1337 speech" :p)? *shrug* the jargon that's supposed to be oh, so cool & smartass & actually just used by kids (who think they're so cool) or ironic/sacrastic adults (or adults pretending to be sarcastic)..or something like that =) Check out this cute little dr00d & his language :p

(imagine the SMS vocabulary..this is like, the game vocabulary :p)

Anyways...hilarious if you understand it :p

Jeg har forresten presentert bloggen min på Bloggurat.