Cold football

It`s cold to sit watching football match on March. Even when we win. It almost reminds me of the year they tried something called winter league. But playing football in snow storms never catched on. They are starting earlier and earlier though. And now we have started! Well, technically i guess we started last weekend, but since we lost it doesn`t count…

The guy who tried to take my seat parts of last years season did a new try today. I must have a good sear. But i plan to hold on to it this year also, though I guess i should rather be standing today. Easier to keep warm. Another reason to look forward to May/June. Good match! Good win! Good day!

Winter sport and summer sport together

Football season start earlier and earlier. But this is the first time we have ski jump in Holmenkollen, and first round in the norwegian league at the same day. In a few years i guess we can incorporate football matches in the Christmas traditions. Would be interesting seeing them in -20 celsius and two meters of snow. They could dig snow tunels on the field where they could play. Would give the game an extra twist.

We`ll take gold this years of course. As we should have done every season from 1989, when we last time actually did. I still believe, atleast until round 2. More realistic i guess around place 5-8 is where we might end. Still better than last two seasons, atleast.

Internet killed the encyclopedia

No, i can´t blog about the weather every time i write someting here. That would be boring. Let`s talk about something more exciting, like encyclopedias.. Eh… Well…

In the corner of my old room, atleast it was there last time i looked, there is a big pile of books. Big books. Heavy books, where the top of the pages are covered in a golden colour. They take too much place to be in any of my bookshelves, that are overfilled as they are. But i have a hard time throwing them away, also. The books in the corner is an edition of the norwegian national encyclopedia. If i remember correctly i bought them while in military, maybe being a bit too over-confidence getting some money while i was there. Now i`m not sure how long it has been since i looked anything up in them, but it must have been some time. Even though i have bought several of the yearly updated books that they rung and offered me around newyear every year.

Maybe their golden age had gone allready by the time i bought them, btw. My best experiences with encyclopedias are more from libraries writing essays in junior high. Yes, this was the age before Internet. They where not for loan, but in a reading room. And since the door was closed i kind of always was unsure whether i really was allowed in there. But concquering my fear of someone throwing me out i opened the door, and sat down with all the encyclopedias and world histories that wasn´t supposed to leave the library. It was a bit special, and i read lexicon articles, wikipedia-entries i browse more or less. I might miss that, but nostalgica doesn`t change the fact that the age of the big books are past.Last years they have only been standing there, as in many other households i presume .Or in other households – even older editions, back to the first one from the beginning of the 20th century around the days of independence from Sweden.

Because once they were a sign of status in every bookshelves, a national golden standard of knowledge, even part of nation building. And not just in Norway, most countries had their version of the national encyclopedias. But now it´s over. Even though it might rise from  death in some other form, the two publishing companies that has been responsible for the encyclopedia is now saying: enough is enough. The competition from free content on the Internet, read Wikipedia, was a competition that was just too strong. Last years they have only lost money on it. Now they hope that a foundation, perhabs with public funding, can take over.

That people don´t want to buy an expensive pile of books, even though they smell and look nice, which takes a lot of place seems reasonable. I love books, but within limits. Paper might be sexy, but not very environmentally friendly. And looking at their webpage for the first time it`s almost sad. Last entry at the moment, seems to be isogon. It`s a line that connects points with the same magnetic “misvisning” (means something like misleading). It´s verified by be a section at the university, quality marked. And then there is a gigantic commercial directly under it. Talk about cheapening your service. The whole page looks like some sort of daily rag. Which is ironic, since some of the people behind it has been very sceptical to the “folksy” image of wikipedia. Other entries might be better, but all in all Wikipedia wins most of the time, even witout quality-marked verification. (And yes, i am aware of problems with Wikipedia-articles as well).

One of the suggestion about what we should do with the encyclopedia is to open up, and merge it with the norwegian wikipedia. That would give a chance to combine the thorough process that the entries in the national encyclopedia has gone through with the possibility of constant re-editing tin wikipedia. If the scientists and others could follow their work and continue monitoring the entries it would continue to give a quality mark on it. We do need somewhere to go to where we can rely on the sources. Like i trusted the books looked away in the reading-room. A guide in the wilderness of information. That sounds like a good solution, best of both worlds, though im not sure it will end there. Too much historical stubbornness and traditionalism stands in the way for using the possibilities that Wikipedia offers. And some seems to be more content ending up on the historical dustbin, than continue to evolve it in modern medias. But the books are out in the open, and out of the reading rooms for good. Better get used to it.

Signs, but still just signs

Even though it`s difficult to say it feels like spring there are still new signs -

1. Mostly walking on asphalt from railway station on the way to home today. No difficult ice or snow to pass. My legs are not made for walking in snow and ice.

2. Almost no ice on the stairs at home eihter. For the first time in weeks i can walk in and out without risking life and injuries.

3. Yesterday all of the snow and ice on the roof towards the street glided of. Luckily not hiting any cars or people. By the sizes of the ice blocs, that would not have had any good outcomes. The snow on the other roof has melted somewhat, and i guess that will soon glide of also – destroying the plum tree as usual.

Still feel very tired, though. Need some more sun to recharge batteries.

The proof!

Yep, the temperatures has barely risen above 0. It`s been awhile since the last time. Maybe there is hope after all?

The annual financial report frustration.

It`s kind of the same every year. Another tradition we don`t need. The closer i get to finish the financial report, the more confused i get. This year in addition the surplus is suddenly quite big. OK, that`s perhabs not too bad. Its nothing that can`t be explained. Much of it is because of things that have happened in the end of the year. Money that we didn`t expect that has arrived, and some tasks that we where supposed to do, that has been postponed to 2010. And missing the budget because of a surplus does feel better than missing the mark because of a deficit. But still -  i like things to end up where it was supposed to end. Then it atleast appear like we have this under control.

And then there are posts that appear and disappear, and need to be moved to other accounts. A couple of project reports that are part of the main report which also needs to be finished, and people outside who don´t want to pay their bills and mean that we have done something wrong. That also takes time. Somehow this has become more complicated by the year. Everytime i think i`m finished with this something happens. Grrrr….

Calender – not in 2010 either.

It`s March, and my calender is still empty. No meetings written down, no other tasks crossed out. That certaintly doesn`t mean that it has been a dull and quiet year so far. But it does mean that my calender-project also this year seems to have become a fiasko. I´m just not very good at writing things down. This years try – buy an expensive one, and buy it early in november (instead of runing around in february trying to find one) was a good thought, and the feeling i had when the calender was bought was good. But apparently the feeling was not enough.

There is a lot of good things one good say about writing things down, though. I have managed atleast so far to get all my notes from meeting into one notebook, which is progress. The tasks do seem to be fewer when i get them down on paper, than when they are spining around in my head. So why i am not able to use a calender i`m really not sure. Need to work more on structure.

Optimistic?

I was told i looked optimistic today. It`s almost as so you wonder what might be wrong. Maybe it was the first day of spring, or the first day of the first spring month. Not that it really felt very spring-like. It seems that people in general are more fed up with winter than usual this year. We might see a plus grade soon, maybe next weekend if the forecast is right. That would be the first time in 2010. And that is perhabs something to look optimistic about.

The fish are still alive, or well – most of them atleast. There is a lot of death around aquariums. I have bought them a aquarium heater too make the water a bit more comfortable for them. It felt somewhat cold, and after all – these are tropical fish. Atleast i think they are. Whether that makes me more of an optimist i don`t know. Fish are not very plesent animals, though. You might think so, but after one of the pregnant fishes eating the new-born children of another fish i kind of lost faith in fishkind. I doubt we have much to learn. There might be other species, i havn`t ruled out dolphins yet (hm maybe not a fish?), but all in all we should probably look elsewhere for wisdom.

I`m sorry this blog havn`t been outdated much lately. Only one time in februar. That´s too bad.  And when i now go back to bloging, i again end up writing about fish. There must be somthing else outthere. If more people tell me i look optimistic, i might try to look for it.