A long and painful stay at Kastrup

Torgersen is back in Europe. After some fifteen - twenty hours of traveling, I'm now at Kastrup waiting for my plane to Amsterdam. Long journey.

I've had some fantastic days in Vancouver and Seattle, me and Torhild had a little bit of illness in our team the last week, but yesterday we shook it off and joined T12s tour de chambres. The themes were Christmas, baby shower, Team 11, Japan and mental institution. Here is some photo evidence and a couple of other pictures from before, after and in-between.

Chronological order or tastefulness is not guaranteed.

Vancouver and Seattle

I've been nine days in Vancouver and Seattle. Here are some pictures from my stay so far. It's been a fantastic vacation so far. The next week will be more work-oriented. I will work on how we shall use the internet to strengthen our project and have meetings with different relevant persons.

But here are the pictures.

Short tutorial before Curling action in Richmond
Beer - Curlings best friend
'Hard Rock Minors' Sing-Along' a fantastic hard rock alternative to karaoke!
Frosted jugs at 'Railway'
Top notch seats at Vancouver Canucks match from Pourias uncle. Pouria, Malou and lots of Canadians at the picture
The bus that took us across the border
Arriving at the Seattle Central Station on Wednesday evening
Breakfast place at Capitol Hill in the Emerald City
Seattle street life
Talking to some new friends at 'Winners circle in Seattle - RayRay is a big collector of vintage Nikes
A wonderful night at a Moroccan-Palestinian restaurant in Seattle
Recycling day and Jo with his no-purpose-Ray Bans
Watching 'Reefer Madness' about the dangers of Marihuana smoking from 1938

Jo in Vancouver

Last weekend was fantastic with Martin, Kaspar, Henrik and Bjørn visiting from Bergen. We did everything four gentlemen in the Capital of Sin should do - and think thats all we need to say about that matter.
And now, less than one week later, I'm in beautiful Vancouver with Torhild and the rest of Team 12. The flight over went really smoothly, much thanks to an inspiring and bright-minded seventeen-year-old from Munich and too little sleep prior to the journey.

The two days I've been in Vancouver, have been spent getting over the jet-lag, enjoying Torhilds company and shopping for vintage tees.

Hotel Singel and Vinyl Extraordinaire

I was pretty sick on the last days before the weekend, but for some miraculous reason I felt better by Friday evening. Beats me.

Since Rolf was going to Copenhagen to celebrate his birthday I invited my sister Anna and her friend Marit to stay in our apartment during the weekend. Also our friend Arpi is visiting this weekend with a friend, so with Anna and Marit at Hotel Singel, they could borrow their rooms.


This morning we got up late. After an hour or so of relaxation and morning small talk, we went to a little place in Jordaan where they have amazing sandwiches. We all ordered the Italiana with pesto, mozarella, olives, tomato and parma ham.

After this delicious meal we went to a market in the northern part of Jordaan. Last week I was there with Rolf and bought some stickers and vinyl. I was hoping to find some more golden tunes today - and boy did I! Here are some of the catches.

"I-sajd-hip-hop-and-you-don't-stop - be-atch"

Volvo just launched their new Volvo C30. Togeter with it they launched this site, where you can play some games and hear what comments people had about the car when they were spontaneously introduced to it.

My favorite game or function is the one where you can write a text and then a giant mouth in the trunk of the car reads it out loud in for example Swedish, Japanese, German, English, Spanish or Greek. Great way to have a conversation if you're not allowed to talk.

And to say a few words about what's going on with me, I'm sick. Hard cold or flu. I can't really decide. The timing is not very good since we're hosting a couple of workshops this week. Yesterday we celebrated that one of the teams at our company won the contract to develop a daring and new site for a Dutch newspaper addressing mainly people between 25 and 35. Champagne tastes nice even when your nose is stuffed.

SuperDeluxe is pretty super

Not too long ago Turner launched their new online spot for comedy, SuperDeluxe. I haven't had a lot of time to check it out, but Dave Hill is funny, there are some good animated series and the site also allows for interaction with the talent and uploading your own videos if you register.

Dave Hill is by the way on Variety's list of ten comics to watch.

Since we're already talking about comedy on the net I will mention that Channel101 is a nice place to discover some new American comedy talent. For example I like Chad Vader - day shift manager about a pathetic relative of Darth Vader who works at WallMart or something.

The history of sampling through one breakbeat

If you're interested in music in general, this should be interesting for you. The Amen Break is a six second sample from a record released by The Winstons in 1969. After being recorded it has moved through a bunch of newer music tracks and commercials to become one of the most well-known beat samples we have. This very audio based video tells the story of it's journey and how it's related to legislation and culture connected to sampling.

What the world looks like

This thing is pretty interesting. Instead of showing the traditional world map or merely presenting statistics, this combination shows e.g. alcohol consumption worldwide by sizing up or down the square kilometers of each country.

I guess it's in line with what Hans Rosling talks about so passionately and examplifies in this TED Talk - how to make statistics more fun and easier to get excited about.

Do this and you won't regret it! + memories

Mel Gibson's new film Apocalypto, may or may not be a masterpiece, but I think you will enjoy the trailer. About three quarters into it there's a baboon flashing it's teeth. Pause and go back ca. five frames with the 'frame-by-frame' button in the lower right corner. Enjoy!

This second part of the post is probably not very interesting for those of you who are not Norwegian.

My friend Bjørn sent me this golden nugget today. It's the old introduction to the Norwegian Barne-TV - the only show for children back when we only had one broadcaster.
Bjørn also noted that the music might as well have been used in twin peaks. I can't really disagree.

I also came across the Christmas intro to the same program. Strange how these things can evoke so many strong emotions.

Now I'm hooked and can't stop bathing in beautiful childhood memories. How I love YouTube!

Classic - this might even be funny for others than Norwegians.

And how about this guy from my home town!

For those who have managed to keep up their interest all the way down to the bottom.. here you can have the pleasure of watching my dad when he had a guest appearance in the same show. I must say the performance is a bit dull, but the 'rottehale' is unforgettable.

It's THAT easy!

Are you lacking a hobby? How about cone juggling? All you need is three balls.. and a giant glass cone!



Ok.. so maybe the cone will cost a couple of hundred dollars, euros or yens, but think of all the chicks you'll get!!

Does this seem familiar?

For those of you who know Rolf Arne a little bit, you've probably seen him in the middle of a circle a couple of times. Today he entered the circle again, but this time not voluntarily, without a great deal of control and in the middle of Dam Plass, the center square of Amsterdam.





The only big shame is that I missed the moment were Rolf unexpectedly slapppps the street performers ass while he's in chains.