Sunday 30 August 2009

Piracy vs. willingness

Ok, so today my girlfriend and I decided we wanted to rent a movie at home. We had just been to my brother and his girlfriend, and they had a particular cable-box that allowed them to rent video-on-demand directly through it.

So we get home, and we had picked a movie - "Men who hate women (Män som hatar kvinnor)". So we start up Windows Media Center, go to SF Anytime (currently the best available VOD service), and see if we can find it there. No dice.

We decide to google for more VOD services available in Norway. We found a couple, searched them, and we only found one that had this particular movie. I googled that VOD, and found a large amount of negative critique, particularly about problems with playing in full screen. Which is part of the point when you watch a movie.

The point here is: it's saturday night, we want to pay for watching a movie (which we will not own afterwards), but we can't find a service that provides this. Out of curiosity we search TPB, and yes, it's there in full DVD quality. On another torrent-site, we found it in 720p resolution as well.

Take a guess what we did. Who's to blame?

Monday 27 July 2009

How to tell time

Today I found out how to keep track of how old you are. As in, not how many years has passed since you came to be, but in the "oh, that band was popular when I was young" kinda way.

I was watching some random sports show that summarized the previous year in sports. And then it hit me. You can tell time by how sports stars shine and then fade. Like, there was a time when Mario Lemieux was the greatest hockey player ever. Now you can see him in the VIP lounge in Civic Arena at home games. And you can tell he's getting old.

I can still remember Björn Borg on the telly. He's old now. The first footballer I remember looking up to, was Bruce Grobbelaar, for some odd reason. Gary Lineker, Peter Schmeichel, Cantona, Shearer etc. Faded names (compared to active footballers). I mean, most people even think of David Beckham as a fading star.

So the next time you're thinking "I wonder how long it's been since ...", just think of sports starts. Who was popular at that time? Then you'll know. "I wonder how long it's been since Spice Girls released "Wannabe"". Well, it was back when Hierro was at his best for Real Madrid, so must've been about 1996 or thereabouts. See?

Sunday 19 July 2009

The King of "How Low Can You Go"

The past three weeks, I've been on vacation in Denmark. And the day before we left, Michael Jackson died. I expected a lot of news coverage sure, but what I got, was a sad indicator of how media works and in terms, how easily mankind forgets.

Michael Jackson was a legend in music, at one point. I will conceed to that. But from the mid-90s up until he died, there has been almost purely negative news connected to him, and for what I believe to be good reasons too.

One can speculate about his trials, but in my mind, there is no doubt he had inappropriate dealings with children. The pictures from the secret rooms etc, seems to me to paint a pretty standard picture of someone who is a pedophile.

Now then, about the music. Yes, he revolutionized music. He was everywhere and then some. Sold more than this and that, bla bla bla. That's all very well. But so did a lot of other artists who died, except they did NOT (as far as we know) molest children.

So what happened, people? Did we just forget the past 15 years of MJ's life when he died? Was all of it gone; forgive and forget? NOT TO ME! He died, I say good riddons. The quality of the world actually increased by a little, as far as I'm concerned. None of his music or goodwill can make up for what he (allegedly, they say) did to children. Also, don't put the last 15 years of his life on anyone else than him; he drove his own life into the dirt.

And for the love of all that is good, THREE WEEKS OF CONSTANT NEWS COVERAGE is taking it a bit too fucking far. MJ and the tiniest details surrounding his family, death, funeral and memorials were aired as fucking BREAKING NEWS, overshadowing fairly important news. Shit that actually means something in our lives.

If you were an MJ fan, sorry for your loss, but don't even try to defend him, or the news' coverage of this whole debacle either. Lay his soul to rest and be done with it, and let's get back to living in the real world.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Been a while now.

It's been a while since I last wrote now. A lot of stuff has happened.

My girlfriend's father passed away a few weeks ago. That was a hard hit to take. More so for my girlfriend than me, naturally, but still. Went down there and was there for a very respectful and nice funeral.

In other news, my exercising is going well. My arms, shoulders and pecs are starting to get some shape to them, and I can actually physically feel them growing stronger as each week passes. The funny thing about pumping iron, is how utterly drained you feel after you're done. I mean, I can hardly lift my arms up when I shower after a hard set.

And yet, an hour later, after you've gotten some decent food into you, you feel extremely energized. I can't help but be awestruck at the way our bodies work sometimes.

Also, I am following the Stanley Cup Finals. My team has always been the Pens (Pittsburgh Penguins), and at this moment, they're battling to get a seventh game in this series. 1-0 lead at home in Melon Arena, and what a fantastic game.

Anywho, I think that's all for now. Sorry, I didn't have any rants lined up for today, but stay tuned, there will definately be more in the future!

Thursday 21 May 2009

Elitist?

This post will probably be considered either discriminating, hateful, ignorant or stupid by a lot of people. Good, maybe it will spark a debate.

I started giving some thought to donations the other day. Like Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations. It was a news story that triggered it. Someone was interviewing Sarah Ferguson about her charity work, especially her work with kids who are being mistreated, locked up, chained, raped etc.

And yes, it's an absolutely horrible thought that this is going on. And yes, it's horrible that people are starving, or getting killed by civil wars, terrorists, hunger, diseases, earth quakes and other bad things. But then it struck me. Is it really? I mean, if the western world - if we can call it that - dig really deep, and think about preserving ourselves, is it really that bad?

It's a fact (go google it) that at the current growth rate, Earth won't be able to support the number of people living on it, in a foreseable future. Unless, of course, we come up with some ingenius plan to grow food from stuff that doesn't take anything out of the Earth's resources. Ok then, that means we have to take a long, hard look at what's going on in the world.

There are literally hundreds of thousands dying every day, to some of those causes I mentioned above. And we - as decent human beings and fellow citizens of Earth - try to help out by donating clothes, food, money and other material to alleviate the situation of those who need it. Which means, the growth rate continues.

Now, I know, this sounds extremely cynical, bordering on lunacy. But this entire post is just a mind experiment, and possibly an explanation to why certain influential contries don't seem too willing to help out countries in proper need - unless they have oil.

Think of it this way: by not helping third world countries, the death rate goes up, which means growth goes down. Thus, putting less stress on the question of whether or not the number of humans on the planet is sustainable. Less for them, more for us - so to speak. I mean, it's a very simple logic to follow, really. Turn away from the bad stuff, ignore it, and you're home free and don't have to worry about the environment etc.

Do you guys think that's what it's about? Do you think any western companies actually act that cynically? I mean, to save a huge percentage of lives in certain African countries, all we would need is about $10 million worth of equipment for cleaning water. Hell, even small time millionaires could cough up that much, yet it is not happening. Could this be the reasoning behind it?

I don't know. I really am in a state of shock when I look at some of the problems in this world, the possible solution, and the defiancy to give people the help they need.

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Something fun, which is also free!

Remember all those casino machines (slot machines) that used to be placed all over the shops? The ones that had all the blinking lights and robbed you of your student loans? Cough. Well, I remember them. I used to win quite a decent amount on those. Was a nice contribution to the freakishly small student payments.

Anywho, since they were removed from basically all shops in Norway, I've been half missing them. Saw a few online, but they were mostly for playing with real money. And there's just no way I am going to risk real money playing cash machines online, that could easily be programmed to not pay out.

My joy was therefore great when I found this online casino, which let's you play on all the machines on several casino sites, without risking a penny. Several of these are quite fun actually, especially the Devil's Delight, which has some incredibly fun bonus features.

Most of the mini games are available as "play with real money" machines on certain sites, like Betsafe etc. I just enjoy the time killers though, and the fun of it all.

Enjoy!

Tuesday 28 April 2009

My beloved team is going down..

After countless years of rollercoasting in Premier League, it looks like my beloved Magpies are going to get relegated to the Championship.

Years of idiots selling and buying, firing managers more often than Real Madrid, has put it's mark on the pride of the Tyne.

Thanks for the years in PL. Thanks for the thrillers. The ups and the downs. The 5-0 victory over a beaten Manchester United on Old Trafford. The 4-3 loss for Liverpool, and a match that almost broke me. For the Ginolas, the Shearers, the Toon Army being louder than anything, even on away matches, the Brown Ale jerseys. The tears and the laughs.

Maybe Championship is what we need. Big Al gets some time to sort us out. Mike Ashley sods off. Old, worn out players like Butt, Viduka and Owen can finally put their shoes in the rack. Yes, they were great in their time, but there is no room for them on todays pitch, sadly.

Bless you lads, for giving it your best. And bless you Alan, for having the guts to try. Let's get better next season.

Thursday 23 April 2009

"Embracing" technology isn't easy..

As this article clearly shows. In an attempt to follow the times, some of the people who conventionally don't really mingle with the grass roots - have started hanging around on Twitter, Facebook etc.

Now, some have done this with great success. Several artists are posting snippets of new material, that (at least to begin with) only those who follow the artist on twitter have access to, this includes celebrities as well. I am myself following Stephen Fry, who is one of the smartest and funniest people alive, and Eddie Izzard - just to mention two.

The point of all this, is for the "famous" people to be able to communicate more directly with their fans and audiences. It's also a very good way to pick up trends, how people feel etc. But there are trap doors set along that road.

Twitter is a very easily used, and very unforgiving medium. It's almost as "immediate" as chatting, which has both an upside and a downside. The upside is that you can actually have conversations, allthough slightly delayed. The downside is that it's so easy to post, you can post a reply - like in the above mentioned article - in anger.

For someone of my caliber - someone who doesn't have a following of thousands - it doesn't really matter if I fuck up; I would be fucking up on a private basis. But when you represent a big company like Warner, everything you say in a public space - even if it's intended to be a personal opinion - will still be credited to said company.

So should some celebrities read this, please take heed to my words. Be careful, think before you post, and consider the consequences. Done correctly, both facebook'ing and tweeting can be a great way to communicate with your followers. Happy tweeting!

Sunday 19 April 2009

Torrent technology - evil?

Or is it more than that? The PirateBay trial has ended - for now. Judge found the 4 accused guilty, and sentenced them to 1 year in prison and 30 million in fines.

On one side, you can claim that these people knew exactly what PirateBay would be used for - hell, even the name suggests the use.

On the other hand, you can make a comparison that one of my friends made: sue the road makers! They provide a road, on which people break laws by driving fast and recklessly. Or how about car makers? They provide the means to do it.

Actually, going by the ruling in this PB case, one could almost sue every ISP, Computer Brand, MP3 player brands etc etc etc, for providing the means to break copyright laws, and it would make just as much sense.

The issue here, isn't just PB isolated. It's every torrent-page out there. Yes, of course we know that probably most of them will contain torrents of copyrighted material. But there's also tens of thousands of torrents to legal material. Heck, several companies, including Blizzard, use torrent technology to distribute their own content.

Is it technically wrong to spread copyrighted material for free? Yes. Technically. But how come, when asked how much the net and piracy has meant for their music and revenues, most artists concede "a lot"? Established brand names (which you indeed may call Britney Spears, Kanye West etc) don't need the net, since they already have billions invested in marketing campaigns.

But for the "little" ones. The J.U.S.T.I.C.E's, the Kaizers Orchestra's, Kutuman's, Datarock's, Detektivbyrån's, the Basshunter's, et cetera ad nauseum. Sure, some people think their music is crap, but thanks to piracy and net distribution, these artists have made names for themselves. Some of them got picked up so quickly by the mainstream (through analyzing web trends), radio stations etc will still claim it was "their discoveries". Others simply would never have been known outside their countries if it wasn't for net distribution.

It's a way to discover new music, new tastes. If it wasn't for the net, I wouldn't have bought - well - about 75% of my CD collection. I would never have known about El-P, Dieselboy, Dry Kill Logic, Atmosphere, P.O.S., Aesop Rock, Herbaliser, DJ Shadow etc. By sharing with others, one discovers new influences.

Also, most studies conducted in the past 4 years, show that people who download music and movies - IN GENERAL - buy more music and movies than those who don't. Want links? Go google it.

In conclusion, the industry is desperately clinging to their old standards where the artists get fuck all, and the big shot companies take it all. Just imagine it, so many of those greedy bastards would be out of a job if more artists discovered they could distribute their own productions online, without their expensive help.

Just look at Spotify - it's brilliant. I pay 99 NOK a month, and I can listen to tons of music in excellent quality. Some record companies are of course resisting this, and in doing so they limit the content available to Spotify users. The more companies and artists embrace this, the sooner they can start making money in a new market. Not as much money as before for the companies - more money for the artists.

Sunday 12 April 2009

The Sweet Embrace of Spring

Yes, even I, allthough cruel, can admit to softening up in the tender, sluggish warmth that is the easter sun.

Flowers are poking their heads up through the wet grass, dog and cat excrements are starting to smell, dust from the roads gets caught in yer throat. But most of all, the snow and ice is melting away. It's warm enough to not wear a jacket when the sun is out, people are generally more cheerful.

It's just that time of year. Enjoy.

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Victimization on a grand level

Earlier I've written some comments about how Israeli jews seem to have this idea of Norway being a massive anti-semittic force. This past week though, has seen unprecedented stupidity rise up.

According to Dagbladet, Jerusalem Post has printed an article sketching out Norway, and in particular SV's party leader Kristin Halvorsen, as not only anti-semittic, but actually hating jews so much she allegedly shouted "Death to Jews!" in a Gaza peace rally. Prominent norwegian jews were also badly misquoted, and their names used in ill intent, like Imre Hercz.

This is taking it too far. We're not talking "cry wolf" or "the pot calling the kettle black" anymore. This is serious shit. Allegations of that calibre, is just plain sabotage. It's so destructive, they probably don't even know the ramifications it could have. Those Israelis I've met as a tourist guide are already pretty much wary and prejudice against western countries. Now throw this on top of that, and you'll have portions of the Israeli jews hating Norway and norwegians, for no reason at all.

Even worse, after having made a fool of itself, Israeli media will be taken more lightly in the future, when it may need to world to really listen. This farce really doesn't server anyone any good at all.

Extremists are creeping up in every culture. Make sure they don't get a foot hold.

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Spring should get fines for slow driving.

So what's up with the winter this year? It's just fighting, tooth and nail, to hold on. It desperately struggles to maintain it's fragile grasp on us. The last bit of chill in our bones. That last period of "damn it, still too cold to sit in the living room without a blanket".

Couple of weeks ago, most of the snow was gone from Trondheim. We had close to 15 degrees celsius, sunshine and blue skies. People were starting to think we might actually get an easter where we could sit in a t-shirt, barbecuing hot dogs and enjoying the warmth along with the fresh air. Alas, winter wants it differently.

I'll keep my hoodie on, probably my hat as well, and pray that the cold snap of winter leaves me be.

Friday 27 March 2009

Twitterfeed test

Just testing some compatibility.

Jail time proportional to the crime?

Not fucking likely in this case.

If I read the story correctly, the man in question was 51 when raping a 10-year old girl, in a fashion the court labeled "severe". So a man of 51 rapes a 10 year old, in a severe fashion. You'd expect maybe 10 years or so in prison? Think again. 2,5 years.

This is fucking ridiculous. Economic crime, like say stealing 100k from your company, often leads to 5+ years in jail. Sure, that's a crime as well, and worst case scenario someone loses the job, or the company goes under because of it. But jesus christ, raping children should, and I almost want this to be true, be punishable by death. In most cases, it ruins that child's life. Forever and ever. It should at least get you a solid 10 years behind walls, with psychological evaluation every year until release, and strict supervision after release.

Raping a child isn't something that "just happens". It's not like you "whoops, sorry I stuck my dick in you, little one". It's dispickable, wrong and infuriating. If the people who do these things are mentally ill, then for the love of all that is good, put them somewhere where they cannot harm others.

2,5 years. Ridiculous, is the only word I can think of.

Thursday 26 March 2009

Turbo Journalism

Today, I see the headline "Women must wear burkas - this is how Stortingets politicians (the legislative branch of our Government) defines radical islamism". I'm thinking "wow, that's pretty direct".

Turns out, it's actually just Dagbladet who have been calling random politicians and asked them for their opinions. Furthermore, the person who they paraphrased from, is a nobody, a random representative from FrP. In addition, the quote is taken out of context. What the representative is actually saying is "Radical islamism is the wish to bring Islam in, with it's Sharia laws, on top of Norwegian laws. They are fundamentalists, with their view on women. They demand that women wear burkas, and not show anything."

My translation might be slightly off, but I think I got the general jist of it. In any case, it's a ludicrous butchering of a quote, from a person who doesn't speak for any majority, is not the spokesman or woman for any party or movement, and it's blown way out of proportion.

Headlines are supposed to catch your eye, sure. But when the headline is this misleading, I almost want to report Dagbladet to PFU.

This is Turbo Journalism at it's worst. Creating something from nothing.

Builders on Speed

I am grumpy today. Goddamn builders that are setting up the new student houses (which in itself is a great thing) are doing so on an area that is extremely close to the bedrock (I think this is the proper term for the norwegian "grunnfjell"). So how does this annoy me?

Well, I am a night person. My biological clock seems to be set on staying up very late, and waking up very late. However, when you at 8 in the morning feel like there's an earthquake, and your entire house is shaking so hard things start falling off the dressers and night table, it's hard to stay asleep.

In addition, some of my neighbors take gaming a tad seriously. One of them spends his entire day shouting at his screen, for all kinds of retarded reason. Mostly he's calling other players retards. Extremely annoying when the walls are thin as paper.

So tired now.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Has The World Gone Mad?

I get being "critical" of science, and not just gulping everything down and accepting it. I get asking tricky questions and trying to disprove theories; after all, it's what usually has to be done in order to confirm a theory. I get all that. But this teacher took it just a tad too far.

Writing about the theory of evolution as "just a theory"? The theory of Big Bang as "just a theory", and liken it to pure fiction and fantasy? Remember, this guy doesn't appear to be fronting Creationism or anything, so from what we can tell, it's just an article showing pure ignorance.

Here's what I got to say to that nimwit: Galileo had "just a theory", Sir Isaac Newton had "just a theory", Albert Einstein had "just a theory" (well, he had several). Most of the prevailing building blocks in today's science started out as theories, generally laughed at by the societies they lived in.

And how about this: who the fuck are you to shovel ignorance into children's minds? If you're trying to teach kids to be critical and analytical, show them how to conduct research, how to check for sources, how to break down arguments into theories and hypotheses and prove or disprove those. THAT'S science. Taking a piss on the theory of evolution, isn't. Now fuck off and get a real job. Or an education.

NEW: Also, have a look at my buddy's blog, where he presents a few interesting points, backed up by sources and credible scientists.

Additional sources:

Forskning.no
Dagbladet.no
What you'll end up with

Sunday 22 March 2009

The Revolution Is Now!

Ever wondered how YouTube could evolve even further? How it could take creativity to a new level? Well, Kutiman is it. This is the revolution. This is how it happens. You will be here to witness it.

What Kutiman has done, might not be so revolutionary music wise. Several others have done this before, like 2 Many DJ's, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Kid Koala and god knows how many more. But not like this. Not through this medium. Kutiman seems to use YouTube clips only, making interesting, original and funky tunes, out of what separately seems to be random clips.

He uses sounds, pictures, entire clips, raps, verses, anything and everything he needs, from the massive universe that is YouTube. So what's so revolutionary? It's going to create a debacle the likes we have seldom seen. Who has the copyrights? Can it even be a copyright case, since all the clips are put out publicly for the world to see? What does the YouTube ToU say about this?

One thing is for certain, there's going to be heated debates over this. Dagbladet has already noticed it, and (thank god) seem positively amused by it. I hope a lot of people will contribute in various media, to spark a debate around this.

Bottom line, the music sounds good, regular John Does get featured. But whose music is it?

Friday 20 March 2009

Semittism or not?

Working as a tourist "guide" every summer for about 8 years, I've met my share of Israelis. Now, I am sure that those who have enough money to come visit Norway, aren't exactly a cross section of the Israeli people.

However.. What I see in this article, and this one goes far on the way of confirming my impression of Israelis. Judging from personal experience, news (and yes, a lot more than just the mainstream press) and books, it seems a fair share of Israelis (and very often those that have some media coverage) always shout "Anti-semittism!" every time someone criticizes Israel for anything. Or jews. Which is funny, since a lot of jews don't consider themselves Israelis.

Now, the Israel vs. Palestine conflict is not black and white, will not be solved in quite some time, and basically only has victims. That being said, I'm pretty sure the majority of people in the world would agree that building a massive wall between the two states, draws remarkable resemblance to another wall we've seen in the 20th century.

Certain things about Israel and the way they are handling the Palestine conflict, is absolutely questionable. The major difference, the way I see it, is that more "John Does" in Israel identify with their governments actions, than "John Does" on the Palestinian side identify with what the terrorists are doing.

Allright, let's just stop there. My points, which got lost somewhere along the line, is that I think Israelis, allthough somewhat justified, are crying "Wolf" far too often, resulting in real anti-semittism being shrugged off. Which is a bloody shame both for them, and the rest of the world who aren't anti-semites, or whatever the word would be..

The Perfect Criminal = Identical Twin

In Germany, a pair of identical twin brothers have this week been released from custody, after it was determined that they couldn't determine which one of them had taken part in a robbery.

Really. So basically, if identical twins decide to start doing crime, they won't ever be charged on DNA evidence? That opens up a whole new world, I'd say. I mean, of course I understand the logic of it. Two brothers share the exact same string of DNA. When interrogated, they both deny taking part. Police knows that at least one of them were there, else there would be no DNA.

But the law clearly states that to get a ruling in these cases, it must be proven beyond doubt that the accused was there. And since they can't prove which one, or if indeed both, were there, they're at status quo.

Funny, and yet scary.

Thursday 19 March 2009

The Future Is When?

So back when Minority Report came out, a lot of us thought "holy crap, that technology is going to be available tomorrow". Well, tomorrow is here.

Pattie Maes and her student has now made a device that is no less than tantalizingly futuristic, and by the looks of it extremely handy and practical as well. The best thing? It's not a giant silver robot trying to find your son..

Wednesday 18 March 2009

The White Moose

This animal is fantastic. A freak of nature, the white moose or albino moose has as near as makes no difference been shunned from all other packs of moose in Scandinavia.

But not here. Not in the border region between Värmland and Hedmark, between Eda and Eidskog. Somehow, in some extraordinary manner, they settled here. White and normal moose. Side by side.

I've only been lucky enough to see white moose once myself, and strangely that was also a calf and her mother. We had been on a sort of exploration trip throughout Eda and were returning home when they stood at the side of the road. The mum looked at us as if she was showing off her baby, saying "See, here you go". I don't think I'll ever forget that.

Piracy and a possible solution?

I've been thinking a lot about piracy lately. Why? Well, I've done my fair share of downloading. Do I like to be labeled as a criminal? Of course not. Do I understand that it is criminal? Yes.

See, the thing about buying music and movies, is that it's so ridiculously expensive. Let's say I buy a new DVD release. That's 200 NOK right there. Almost the same price for CD's. How much, exactly, goes to the artist? I'd venture a guess and say "not much".

Last year, I found Spotify, which was just a whole new world for me. I mean, paying a monthly fee to get access to decent quality music streams? I was delighted. I found quite a lot of the music I usually listen to there, and it wasn't long before I didn't even bother to keep Winamp up. You could just queue hours and hours of music, and not grow tired.

So the concept is valid. However, it would need some slight changes. First of all, it needs a wider selection. For this to come true, the industry needs to cooperate. Which they won't, since the whole concept of Spotify renders several links in the chain obsolete, which in term makes those links earn no money on the music, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is definately something they will fight for.

I think basically the only thing holding the Spotify-concept back, is the expensive chain between the artists and the consumers. The powers making money off of artists, are too overwhelming, and too strong at the moment, for the consumers themselves to dictate the terms.

A lot of people I've spoken too agree that paying a monthly fee of, say, 200 NOK for music and movie access online, is an agreable option. Of course, it wouldn't be expected to gain access to "new things" until a fair time has passed since release. I.e. movies are available when the DVD is released, and music albums maybe X amount of time after they hit stores. I don't know, I'm sure something could be worked out.

Other issues that would need to be adressed are:
  1. Whether or not we would be allowed to store data locally for personal use.
  2. Pricing on the subscriptions, different kinds of subscriptions etc.
  3. Online/offline problem.
The point is, the technology is pretty much there, the consumers are pretty much saying yes to this solution (ref. Spotify's user base, and how many of those are paying subscribers), and artists are warming up to the concept.

I just wanted to let it out there, for people to think about. Do we really need the money hungry middlemen?

(Related article from db.no here, from itavisen.no here)

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Concerned?

Sometimes, it feels like I am the only one who feels like the world is coming apart at the seems. But every now and then, I get confirmation that there are others who have indeed spotted our current predicament. Come now, don't get scared by the big fancy words.

This is my way of expressing myself. I like using words that might have more to do with academics than oral-style blogs. But that's the way I work. Language to me, is like a canvas. Or rather, the tools you would use on a canvas. There is such an abundance of words, so many words to describe even the smallest of nuances in meaning. But that's the point though, isn't it? To as accurately as possible describe what I am thinking.

I know I probably come off as a self-righteous bastard, throwing fancy words around with no intent. I am not though. Sure, I might be a bastard at times, but I do try my best to be fair when judging. I also try to not sound like a stuck up something..

And I do care about normal things as well. I listen to music, I watch movies, I watch reality TV shows sometimes (usually to laugh at how stupid the contestants are), I drink, I enjoy nicotine (not as cigarettes though), and I generally mistreat my body. No, I don't cut myself. I eat shit I shouldn't eat, and I don't eat what I should be eating. That's another therapy session though.

The point I'm trying to make is: even though it might sound like I want to be all political and philosophical, I'm actually quite "normal", if such a thing exists. I'm not raising myself above others by trying to sound all current and updated. And I don't pretend to know how to fix shit. I just voice my thoughts on how things work. Sadly, I don't give enough praise to the things that do work, and the things that are good.

Double standards.

Why is it that people whine so much over the national television license in Norway? Fine, if you own a TV set, you have to pay something like 1000 NOK per year. These money, go towards funding NRK1, NRK2, NRK3/Super, P1, P2, P3, the web service etc.

The channels in question, provide what I believe is an important cultural alternative. It's government funded, and publicly available. Nowadays, people are joining facebook groups and what not, to protest against paying this fee. "Because we don't watch the channels, or listen to those radio stations".

Ok, so let's investigate this claim. A large part of the same people also have either cable or satellite TV. And I am willing to bet a large sum of money, that they pay a monthly set fee, for that service. I would also be willing to bet they don't watch most of those channels, maybe half at most. Where's my empirical data you say? Fuck empirical data, there's such a thing as common sense.

So why then, are they so willing to protest against paying for something that actually provides (at least partly) decent TV? Sports casts, balanced news, debates etc. There's plenty of things that are needed, important and valid, as an alternative to the messed up reality tv-shows, the annoying advertising, and all the fucked up shows telling you who you should be, or planting ideas in our heads that everyone needs to be and can be celebrities.

Most standard subscriptions to cable or sat tv, cost about 199 per month. Which amounts to about 2400 a year. Of which they might be watching half the channels, if that many. 1200 down the drain then.

I don't get these people. Going by the same logic, taxes should be individually set. You have a child that goes to school? You should pay more then. Are you a hermit living outside society? No taxes for you. The hermit probably wouldn't protest (he probably isn't paying taxes anywho), but I'm pretty goddamn sure most people plan on having kids, and wouldn't like paying twice the taxes of people not having kids in school.

Maybe they would stop whining if the general tax went up by say 0.01% (or whatever the number would be to compensate for the TV license), so they didn't get the bill in their mailbox. Maybe then it would be fine, since they didn't have to think about it.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Here we go, then..

So this is apparently a blog. And this is apprently my first post. Is it called post? Or topic maybe? Who cares, really. This is just going to be somewhere to vent my frustration at this fucked up world. I doubt anyone will even read this. I need to write it none the less, though.

Call it therapy, call it madness. Somehow, expressing my views to the general populus seems to be the only thing that can set my mind slightly at ease. Ok, so, more to come when I figure out how this thing works.