The light at the end of the ...

Door closing
Leaving my apartment behind

Entering the light
Enter the corridor

A fresh scent left behind
A sensation of warmth

An awakening
An enlightening

So this is how it's like
This is how it feels

In to the light - Karlstad, August -06

Come sing for me my morning bird

This cuckoo is calling: cuckoo cuckoo

---

The weekend's trek draws near.
Excitement is rising.
This will be an awesome experience.
I haven't really been on higher altitude than some +500/1000m before
as far as I can recall.

Shopping and preparations are about done.

Just need to stack up on some hot dogs and tortillas,
for the infamous Pølsemiddag on friday.
A nation that actually has a word for HotDogDinner puzzles me :)

Huge backpack to carry some extra stones just for the fun of it - check
High leather boots / low coarse runners - check
Headlight, thermos, random jazz - check

Galdhøpiggen - 2469m above sea level

And that would make it Norway's highest peak.

The world's highest mountain is Mt. Everest @ 8.848m -
but this is only true measuring the height above sea level.

The world's tallest mountain is actually Hawaii's Mauna Kea
Which is some 10.203m tall measuring from the base
on the ocean floor up to it's peak.

The point farthest from the earth's center
(which would grant a third way to measure how tall a mountain peak is)
is the peak of Chimborazo in the Andes.

Source: hypertextbook.com

Til Topps!!

PS. Förlåt ... det var jävligt klantigt gjort av mig.

180º

Mosaic window art @ Oppsal Kirke, Oslo

Having attended my baby sister's confirmation this sunday in church
some thoughts struck my mind.
a) what are other people fed in their schooling and culture?
b) the actual saying and wording in some of the psalms and prayers is quite scary.

Islam is a religion that comes to mind so monday morning I headed straight in to Bokus to order some literature to ease some of my curiosity
"What Everyone Should Know About Islam And Muslims" (2005) and
"Islam och Europa" (1995)

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take.
If I should live to future days,
I pray Thee, Lord, to guide my ways. Amen.

Evening Prayer

The core of Christianity - to invoke fear in it's believers.
To keep the people in check. To serve them their opium.
It is the way it goes, u need the whip and the carrot.

This is in not a very large extent the case here today,
but the wording in the prayers and the book behind it is
I can imagine "younger" countries going through the same Christianization
would have more of that today. I won't touch US of A and their relations with religion.
So I'll leave it at this with a short oxymoron:
(Can't really come to an answer,
just wanted to ventilate some thoughts that spring to mind.)

Thank god for for our secularization

---

The day yesterday also held a world première -
A debut for me on the squash-court, and a merry one as well!

Hopefully that can be a re-ocurring event.
(Pricing in Oslo for the curious one - 130NOK/court/30mins)

And to return to the title and fill in the unexplained word left there - bike - I'll just repeat what I've said earlier on the convenient success a bike in the city is. Distances shrink to zero suddenly. Giving me time for other stuff :)

Marrow&Bone

One should always strive to surprise oneself is my motto.
Not to sure I always live by it. Did try today at least.

Checked out http://www.detskjerioslo.no/ and found an interesting art exhibition: Signal from a modem by the Duo Marg&Bein (Marrow and Bone)

The art was mainly done with acrylic paint on canvas with
some additions of metallic pigments to add structure and depth.
In addition to this Bein (Stein) had been using a uv-fluoroscent paint
on a large canvas - making the colors turn slightly more purple
when viewn from a different angle.

There were also two installations made -
both with the purpose to show the beauty in everyday junk we see around us.

What I like about the exhibition was the fact that I had
the opportunity to actually meet and discuss the works with the two artists.
And (un)fortunately there were at the time no other visitors but me.


There were especially two works I appreciated.
(All pictures published without explicit permission)

Marg (Rune) - Mother is wathching you

The picture has a genuine warmth about it and peacefulness. Hence the title "Mother is ..." instead of it's counterpart "Big brother is ...."
It was inspired by an (apparantly) well known Norwegian motif called
"Elg i solnedgang" (Moose in sunset)

Marg - Celtic Night

This one appeal to my logical sense with the symmetries and the
use of stencils makes it clean. In this case I suppose it is some kind of document holder.