News:Current

From Alexander Krivács Schrøder.NET

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The ten last news items will be listed on this page, as well as the calendar for the current month. News may be continuously updated on the day they are written on. I.e. you can never be sure I'm done with a news item until the day is over.

Contents 1 April 11, 2008 1.1 Where GNU/Linux triumphs 2 April 10, 2008 2.1 Introvert! 2.2 Music! 3 January 7, 2008 4 January 6, 2008 4.1 Food tracking 5 January 5, 2008 5.1 Food tracking 6 January 4, 2008 6.1 Food tracking 7 January 3, 2008 7.1 Exercise 7.2 Snow 7.3 Who cares about wasting electricity? 8 January 2, 2008 8.1 Early morning of the close encounter 8.2 The year's first eating mistake 9 January 1, 2008 9.1 Happy New Year! 10 November 23, 2007 10.1 Why do we send people to jail?

April 11, 2008

Where GNU/Linux triumphs

I read an article today about a school replacing Windows with Kubuntu on their older hardware in their library, which not only resulted in better performance, but also gave the administrators better control over the system, effectively preventing students from cracking the security and installing unauthorized games and applications. My being a fan of GNU/Linux and a Free Software Associate (join!), I'm always happy and a little touched when my system of choice is embraced in a public place like a school/library.

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April 10, 2008

It's been a while since I last wrote here. I am seriously not good at keeping a blog. I've come to discover why recently though. In fact, I've known that I've been this way for a long time, I just didn't know what an impact it could have on my blog-writing abilities. That being said, it has an impact on most socially connected pursuits I might be interested in.

Introvert!

For you who don't already know it, I'm an introvert. I take pleasure in being alone, and being social wears me down. Feeling a pressure to keep any kind of social indication updated gets bothersome, and I eventually quit caring. For instance, on instant messengers, I constantly keep my status to busy/away or similar, to avoid people from contacting me. See, it would be very likely that they would interrupt me right in the middle of something, and it would cause me to lose my train of thought. It's not that I don't want to talk. It's just that I can either talk, or do something else, but not both. Ideally, if somebody wants to talk to me, they let me know beforehand, so I can prepare myself for the conversation and not be busy with something else.

I avoided Facebook for the longest time. After all, it's a social outlet that requires constant updating to be any use. Once I joined, I tried my best to keep up, but I quickly lost interest. Last time I was logged in was on my birthday because people had written on my wall and I felt it would be customary to reply. Then again, I only replied to the three first before I lost interest, haha. For a long time I've contemplated just deleting my account.

Anyway, enough of the examples. We introverts are often misunderstood by extroverts. Amusingly, the other way around is hardly the case. I'm not so good to explain this. Instead, you should read these two articles:

• Caring for your introvert
• Instant Messaging for introverts

What's most important to notice is that I'm not anti-social or depressed or whatnot. It's just that given a choice, I'd rather be alone or with a small group of friends than at a big party.

Music!

I'm a huge fan of music in all kinds of different languages. Off the top of my head, I can mention that I have songs that are sung in Russian, French, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Dutch, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Swedish and Danish. I also have some Norwegian music and a lot of English music, and although there are great songs in both languages, it's not the languages themselves that cause the excitement. Well, actually, it's not the languages themselves that cause my excitement for these songs, typically, it's more that I like the music so much that I don't care about the lyrics.

I'm always looking for new music outside of English (and Norwegian). Youtube is a great place to go. You can find anything there, really. However, I'd also like to have some suggestions from you if you know any good stuff. So send me a mail or leave a comment here, or do something to let me know!

Here's one thing I found recently:

• Min Hyo Rin (민효린) — Touch Me (터치미), I love the synchronized dancing in there. Even though it's not that well synchronized, hehe. (Korean)

Anyway, it's time for me to go. Catch you later, won't promise when!

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January 7, 2008

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January 6, 2008

Food tracking

Breakfast

• 1 small baguette with caviar and cheese
• 1 small baguette with black sausage

Mid-day meals

• 1 slice of cake
• 1 slice of bread with peanut butter

Dinner

• 2 pita-bread homemade pizzas

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January 5, 2008

Food tracking

Breakfast

• 1 bowl of grain cereal with a few blueberries and a sliced banana

Mid-day meals

• 2 white baguettes with a thin layer of margarine, one slice of ham, and two slices of cheese
• 2 chicken wings

Dinner

• 1 chicken leg

Snacks

• 3 servings of different chips

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January 4, 2008

Food tracking

Breakfast

• 1 bowl of grain cereal with a few blueberries and a sliced banana

Mid-day meals

• 3 slices of bread with a thin layer of margarine, one slice of ham, and two slices of cheese

Dinner

• approximately 10 chicken wings
• a handful of french fries

Fruits

• 1 banana (included in breakfast)
• a handful of blueberries (included in breakfast)
• 2 clementines

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January 3, 2008

Exercise

I've been wanting to exercise these last few days, but I haven't been able to for some reason or another. I've concluded that it's actually for the better, seeing how I'm not perfectly well yet. I've been ill a good while, and I will probably stay ill a few days more. Hence, I think Monday next week is a good day to try again.

Snow

The first true snow hit Oslo today. I'm really glad I had put my car cover on (about like this one) earlier, so that I could just pull it off and all the snow would be gone off the roof of my car. It's still snowing, and I'm sure I won't regret the fact that I put it back on when I got home after work today tomorrow morning.

Who cares about wasting electricity?

At least not the other people working in my office building. December 25th, I went to work a while there, and although I'm certain that I was one of only, say, ten people in the entire building (and it is rather large this building) lights were on everywhere. Nearly every office one could spot from the outside had their lights on, all the hallways were fully lit, heck, even the lights in all the toilets were on! I really wonder what causes people to leave their lights on when they leave their office at night. It's just one single little tap of a button, and it's off. Voilà! Heh.

I was at work today, and every time I went to the bathroom area (there are about five toilets there, two for men, two for women, and one handicap toilet.) I would see if the lights were on in any of the free stalls, and if they were, I'd shut them off. Returning to the toilets a wee bit later, they'd all be on again, or at least all but one. Now, I turned them off again right before I left, at a time when the building was pretty much empty, and thus nobody should be able to turn them back on, except perhaps a few people who stayed longer than I. Yet, I'm positive that when I return to work tomorrow, early in the morning, they'll be back on and shining.

Makes you wonder what people do in their own homes as well. Leave their lights on when they go places? When they go to bed? At any time? Or perhaps they just don't care, simply because they don't pay for the electricity at work? Regardless of how they behave at home, and whether they do it because they don't have to pay or not, it's the totally wrong attitude, and I'm going to make some signs to hang up in the stalls saying "Please turn the lights off when you leave", just to see if it'll have any effect.

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January 2, 2008

Early morning of the close encounter

First day of the year that I get up at 06:00. It was no trouble at all, seeing how I went to bed at 22:00 last night. I sure can get used to this. Of course, as my sister so dutifully pointed out, at this hour, nobody is awake, so talking to people on IMs is pretty much fruitless. I don't know many people who live farther east than me (a few in Finland, one in Russia... that's it), but I know many people who live farther west than me (Americans and Canadians at least). They're all asleep at this hour. That's okay though, there's plenty of other things to do.

The plan is to work out this morning. Cardio only. However, on my gym's web site, it doesn't say anything about the opening hours of today. They speak of Christmas times, from around the 18th to the 1st, but nothing about today. Perhaps I should just assume that they have ordinary opening hours again. In that case, they're already open, and I should be going in a little while. Well, I just had breakfast; might want to wait a while to let the food settle first. I think I'll be going in a couple of hours.

On second thought, seeing how I don't have clean clothes to work out in, I'll wait another day. It's no big deal. I don't want to work out in ordinary clothing.

The year's first eating mistake

I had some crap food at work today. I also had too much food. Thus, I failed eating healthy for the first time this year. That shall be the first and last mistake I'll allow myself this month. I am going to make it!

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January 1, 2008

Happy New Year!

The year 2007 has ended, the year 2008 has begun. I've decided to really take charge of this year, really be on top of myself. My first step towards this goal is to write down my main goals for the new year. Then, in order to force myself to keep them, I'm going to register my progress every single day, on my site here, in my news items. This can be seen in the box over there. This box will be updated throughout the day as I feel like it, but by the end of the day, it should be finalized.

I started the whole improvement spree by cleaning my room, changing my bed sheets, and setting up a new finances file for this year. I have some money to spend now at least. Keeping last March fresh in mind, however, I do not want to spend too much money until March is through, as March is the month where all the large bills come, such as the road fee. Besides, I'm not really able to tell how much money I really have until around mid-month.

I'm getting better, but I'm still a bit ill. I mean, my nose is still a bit stuffed and my throat isn't at its best. I just cleaned my ears out, as they were getting near painfully full of goo. You know, so much it was applying pressure inside my head. Now I feel nice and clean, though.

I've had a little snacks today, so I cannot say "yes" to that item. It was the left overs from last night that I finished. Just a little bit, and now that's gone, I'm starting the no-snack quest tomorrow. I'm also going to exercise tomorrow. However, since my right shoulder is a bit fucked up, I might just have to stay away from strength exercises.

That's all for today; may you all have a happy new year!

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November 23, 2007

Why do we send people to jail?

I came across an article on why judges send people to jail, and to summarize it , the reason was to scare others from becoming criminals. It was also argued that this has no effect, and should not be done. I don't think criminals should be sent to jail to scare others, even if that is a secondary effect. I think people should be sent to jail to prevent them from keep on doing criminal activities.

I think people should be sent to jail when they do crime, but the time they stay in jail should differ substantially based on what they've done. A kid or poor person taking a candy bar from a store doesn't deserve time in jail, at least not more than perhaps a day or two. A person who kills and rapes half a village, on the other hand, should never be allowed to walk the face of this country again. In my opinion, prison time in Norway is a big joke. The longest time you can spend in jail in this country is 21 years, something which basically means you get 16, and then you're out on probation. And it takes a lot to get 21 years. Not even killing a cop gets you 21 years in Norway. You have to really make havoc to get "that much", which suffice to say, isn't really much for the amount of crime you have to commit.

Stealing can get you as much as three years. Killing a person gets you minimum 6 years. Intercourse with a child younger than 14 years of age can get you as much as 10 years. *shakes head* It's insane. Only ten years (and that is the maximum!) for ruining a poor kid's future sexual enjoyment as well as their self-respect and honor. Raping an adult only gets you one year. The list goes on... Makes you wonder why many immigrants come here and perform criminal activities that earn them lots of money and in the end only gives them a few years of prison max, huh? When they're out, they're rich.

Although I have serious doubts about it, I hope this crappy system gets fixed sooner or later. After all, as it is now, being a criminal pays off in Norway. American punishments ring better in my ears, although I feel they sometimes are *too* strict. Getting fined millions of dollars for downloading a few songs just doesn't seem reasonable. Getting 1000 years of prison for killing a bus load of people, though... that works.

Source for jail times was the Norwegian Common Civil Punitive Law

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