Hey, dear readers of my random thoughts and analysis!
This is the time of the year when you can get cynical – Christmas is not quite here yet, and if you were to achieve anything special this yea the time for that probably was sring, when everything looked brighter and lighter each day. Instead, at least here in Oslo, Norway, we have the equivanet of the amound of rain that we have during the rest of the year, and it’s cloudy most of the time – although still not resembling anywhere close to the level of bad weather that one can experience in Schuby. I said fall is nice and the colors are bright and warm? Well, yes, they are, but when you’re close to run out of money (like me), things look a whole lot different. Every drop of energy that I am loosing due to exposure of my skin to the weather turns into another post on the budget in the form of food.
Of course I have tried to move things around in the energy/food/money-equation by trying to convert some of the consumation of food into intake of pure heat – or “energy” as it’s also called. And why? Well heat is simple, and heat doesn’t cost anything for a person living in a student house. Unfortunately did it only take me a day to figure out that cranking up the heat to the maximum (in my room, the kitchen and the bathroom) as well as leaving an open oven blow air that supposedly is close to 200 centigrade right into my living space only makes me dizzy and the huger doesn’t quite disappear…
And it’s not only me. One of my friends met me yesterday at the food court at the university: “I have to confess, I’m not the considerate and reflected perosn you think I am,” he started, “I really am rather neurotic.” As he explained, he had stopped paying his electricity bill since January, and either that included his internet bill or he ddn’t pay that either. “They first turned the internet speed down, but then they turned the entire electricity of, “he was about to give me an overview og his situation, “yesterday I was sitting there which a jacket and a scarf warming myself with a candle.”
He now spends most of his time at the univeristy in order to get as warm as possible during the day. And although the bill has been paid, it will take quite a long time before they will turn electricity back on. “And they’ll take 2000 kr. for it!”, my friend is outraged, although 2000kr (roughly 125 USD) is the “slow and cheap version”, which will turn his energy back on much slower than the “expensive and fast version” for 3000kr.

Ah, seems like I have become a hate object for some!

Here is what one guy send to Universitas through his mobile:

Forsøkte å lese kronikken til wilm. 1/3 sa hvorfor han skrev den 1/3 presenterte kandidater 1/3 ??? Noe om frihet, markedsfundamentalisme og inndeling etter politisk ståsted. Hvis han søker å engasjere bør han skrive norsk og ikke retardert. Maken til intetsigende svevende fjas! Får han stipend? Anonym

which renders to something like:

Tried reading Wilm’s “kronikk” (a sort of long extended letter to the editor). 1/3 he wrote why he chose to srite, 13 he presented the candidates, 1/3 ??? Something about freedom, market fundamentalism and divisions according to political standpoint. If he’strying to activate people, he should write Norwegian and not retarded. Pure contentless flying crap! Does he get a stipend?

Well, the writer is probably right that it looks a bit like what any politician would write in wording, etc.- but to my defense I’d say that I actually came up with arguments why one should vote for those candidates I endorsed based on their political plattforms.

But anyways, I support any effort to dethrone figures of seeming authority, and so I can only say: more power to you!

Juh! (Sydslesvigian scream pronouned “yooh” which means “and the world continues turning… go on, give us more mono-national hell, we’ve had so much we’ll survive some more as well!”)

Ok, I admit it, this one is _old_… but hose of you who haven’t listened to it yet, you really should. The Telecrapper 2000 is an invention which will let a computer answer calls from telemarketers – by playing a loop of little sound bites of speech and listening for breaks in the telemarketers efforts where these might be applicable.
Now the cool thing is that they actually put out real sample recordings of the machine speaking to real telemarketers! You really need to listen to examples 5, 12a1 and 12a2…

It really shows what telemarketing does to you – probably one of the activities that comes closest to prostitution in our capitalist society…

Which brings me to the follwoign “funny item”: I noticed today that someone from the Marishi University of Management has been visiting my site recently. Never heard about them? On their site they describe they describe themselves:

All students and faculty practice a simple, natural procedure — the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Extensive published research has found that this technique optimizes brain functioning, dissolves stress, and improves learning ability. The daily experience of transcendental consciousness strengthens the brain circuits that integrate expanded awareness with the ability to focus sharply. This is called total brain functioning.

So now you might be thinking that this can’t possibly be a respected university, but think again:

The University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

And not enough about that:

95% of the University’s students receive Federal, State of Iowa, and/or other forms of financial aid. The typical award for U.S. students covers 80–90% of the tuition and fees.

tsss, tsss. What a Halloween!