turbanslife

Yet another book

2007-07-18T15:51:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I come across books that are so good I wish I had read them the moment they got published and in that spirit I will mention one book here before I’ve even finished reading it. The book I “talk” about today has been waiting for me since (as fare as I can figure) 2004, but the stories in it have been waiting longer, some of them as long as half a century. I, of course, borrowed my copy from the library and I was surprised to find a copy seemingly untouched by human hands. I cannot for the life of me understand why this book have been a secret, but maybe all the wise guys and girls bought it to place in their bookshelf, which of course is an action I find very agreeable. The book is a compilation of short stories by one of the best American writers last century and for those of you who follow my blog on a sort of regular basis, it should come as no surprise that I am talking about Truman Capote. The book is titled The complete stories of Truman Capote. Buy it, borrow it, steal it, I don’t care. Just read it.

The truth for once

2007-05-09T00:11:00.000+02:00

So I’ll be honest. What I am trying to do is hard. And more over, being honest and all, I am quite sure that I will fail miserably. And even adding to this, I will fail over and over again. There are many out there who will say and have said, that you’ll make it, give me the good old pep talk. The truth is neither you nor I know that. This is a blind leap of faith (or stupidity, if there is a difference between the two) over or into the abyss. That’s the thrill of it all. But I will fail, of that I am certain.

Why mention this now? Why all this talk about failing? I guess everything have to come to an end and seeing bankruptcy coming closer, but still not completely eminent, every day is a constant reminder that I am once again running out of time and that I soon has to return to my other life and my other job. I must say I do feel the pressure for some sort of success, some sort of hard evidence that this was indeed a correct choice, though actually I should have no need for justification at all because I have enjoyed this time. I guess that is what should matter the most.

To close these ramblings: is this a depressing sob story or will it end well? I don’t know the answer to that. I only know this: I have failed a thousand times before. If I ever believed in failing I would never be where I am to day. Because it has never been about how many times I have failed. It has always been about hanging in there and not giving up. So for all of you out there who are wondering how the writings are going I will tell you the truth for once: I have no idea. I can only tell you this: I haven’t resigned yet.

I got facebooked

2007-05-05T18:59:00.000+02:00

So, like pretty much everybody else, I got facebooked. Time passes very fast.

Book recommendations

2007-03-06T17:19:00.000+01:00

Yeah. Life is good or bad or what ever. I thought I should write some book recommendations again. One real American classic, a philosophical novel from 1943 by Ayn Rand called The Fountainhead, and another American book called Music for Chameleons, which is a collection of both fiction and none-fiction texts by Truman Capote. Don’t be too scared about the length of The Fountainhead (752 pages long). It’s both entertaining and meaningful at the same time, which is a rare commodity indeed. I couldn’t put the book down. None of them, actually.

Disaster

2006-09-10T22:02:00.000+02:00

Okay, so this is quite embarrassing. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out a good cover story, but the true story is like this: I was out jogging. I was coming to the end of my run so of course I was speeding up to use the last remaining energy. I was running really fast. Like a cat through the dark and this is an important point and I cannot stress it enough: It was VERY dark. As dark as it gets. Anyways, I was running along with the speed of light and I figure I should blame the city of Oslo for what happened really, because they had turned off the street light and don’t maintain the roads properly. Okay, so I trip in a hole in the road and off I went. You remember that I was running very light-speedy-fast? Now I’m sort of doing the same thing except it is more or less some sort of flying. It is all going so fast that I don’t really have time to think of much at all, but if I had had the time, I think I would have thought something like this: “I have not fallen like this for twenty years. I am no longer qualified. I no longer possess the skill to fall like this without causing serious damage (read: pain) to the body.” Did I remember to say that I was running down hill? Hm. I guess I wasn’t running anymore at this point. I go on my hands and knees, leaving as much skin as possible behind, and I do remember this thought quite vigorously: “Not the face! Not the face!” It was a good thought. Finally I stop. I am still alive, but my glasses are broken and there is a lot of blood in odd places. I hump myself home and realize that I have to go to the emergency room where a surgeon can remove the rocks that have embedded themselves into my body. Joy.

Breaking down my reader

2006-08-16T00:08:00.000+02:00

So I got real excited the other day. Out of nowhere I provoked a comment out of my reader. Can you feel my excitement? Out there, there is somebody reading my blog. Wonderful wonderful people. You feel my excitement now, doncha? So driven by this pulsating enthusiasm I signed up for google analytics so I could really start understanding what his (no I'm not a sexist, he has a male name, if you bother to check the comment) interests are. You know stuff like: "Which links does he press?", "Where does he leave my site and why? (WHY??!)" The good old clique-flow analysis. Get the basic break down of my user demographic. It feels so good just to be able to write a sentence like that. I'm not sure what it means, but it does feel wonderful to write. Can you feel my enthusiasm? Can you feel me?? Anywho, I'll let you know how it goes.

PS! So I guess I'm lying. It is all part of that 10 - 20 % lies thing. The thing is that I met my reader on the street a couple of weeks back, so I guess I already knew about him.

Yeah yeah...

2006-08-12T18:45:00.000+02:00

Turban returns

2006-07-18T10:11:00.000+02:00

I should apologize to all my wonderful regular readers. I’ve not been a great blogger lately. The last two weeks I’ve been on holiday and before that I was working, I guess.

I spent five days at the lovely Quart festival as usual. It was better than ever. Better food. Everything was nicer. And the drink – none drink fences was long gone replaced by a bracelet. The music was of course also great. No surprise there.

I’ve taken a thousand pictures of different bands on stage. Since I just came back, I haven’t had the time to look through them, but I guess they are pretty boring like holyday pictures usually are. Maybe I will post some highlights later. Here you go, a thousand pictures from my vacation. Enjoy. Maybe not? I’ll save them for close friends and family. The poor bastards! ;-)

I beefed up my home insurance before I left, but no thieves found their way to my apartment. I guess that’s good news for me as well as them. I’m sure they would have been quite disappointed. So you stay away now, you hear! Seriously. Money is always a concern. Every month I do my accounting. How long can I hang on without making any money? That’s the big question. I haven’t done June yet and I’m already halfway into July, I think. Oslo – Kristiansand return ticket by buss was cheap. 300 NOKs. The taxies in Kristiansand were another matter. I learned to appreciate the fact that I usually can walk home in Oslo. Life in Kristiansand without a car is no fun. Public transportation in the summer holiday is so so. So I do my accounting and I do my linearization and predict my bankruptcy. I await the catastrophe that will mess up everything. Pluming going to h… or some major electrical fault or something else that will halt my writing quest. Anyways. I’ve returned. There is more to come.

Fat weekend

2006-06-11T19:47:00.000+02:00

Low fat. No fat. Sugar free. Low carb. Tasteless food. I've been on diet for something that feels like eternity. I'm fed up, to put it that way. Thursday I also put my book on a diet removing an entire chapter. These two things brought what I like to call a fat weekend on. Fat in size and fat in content. It included Friday, Saturday and Sunday and ice cream, big burgers, snacks and beers. A fat weekend is a good weekend. Now I feel both fat and inspired. Let the fat diet week begin!

The unfaithful sun has also come for a visit. Hopefully she will stay for a while. Anyways, I celebrate this summery event by including some pictures of yesterdays walk with Andreas the photographer. You'll see a couple of pictures of Andreas and a royal guard. Then there is a picture of people in the park and a picture of Andreas in Café Sara’s back yard. Enjoy!

Books & Saturdays

2006-05-31T22:29:00.000+02:00

I'll tell ya one good thing about being a writer. I get to choose Saturdays and I've chosen today. Which day is it? Saturday. Enough said.

I thought that I should educate my regular readers about books. ;-) Once and again I'm asked, not to recommend a book, but say what my favorite book is. My favorite book? I find that question very difficult to answer. Of course, often it feels like I'm asked which book is the best one. EVER. Since I spent so much time writing and all, I should know, right? The most mind altering, life changing book? I must be honest. I haven't got a clue. I leave that to the critics. What I thought I would do is to give you the title of three books I've read recently and that I recommend. All American classics. Two by Charles Bukowski: Ham on Rye (Norwegian translation: Nedenom og hjem) and Post Office (Norwegian translation: Postkontoret). One by Nelle Harper Lee: To kill a Mockingbird (Norwegian translation: Drep ikke en sangfugl). I believe that's her only book, but what a book it is?! :-) Read them!

Big Brother

2006-05-23T23:44:00.000+02:00

Last night I was unable to sleep. After a very long line of thought (that I couldn't repeat even if I wanted to) I came to the following conclusion: There is only one problem with Big Brother. They let people out.

Connection time out

2006-05-22T21:34:00.000+02:00

I’ve discovered a couple of things. Yesterday I was cleaning the all mighty Rancillio coffee machine. I’ve not made espresso for some time and a good thorough cleaning was in order. For a long time I’ve been annoyed by the fact that I couldn’t get the espresso strong enough. I’ve been blaming the machine. Then I’ve been blaming my technique (as you should now, it’s an art making really good coffee). Now I’m back blaming the machine. I was studying how the water was leaving the machine and I realized that the water was not evenly distributed, as it should be. I’ve used the proper tools to make sure that the machine is in the correct position. It turns out that the whole machine is tilted inside. Now I’ve shifted the machine to take his into account my espresso is finally getting there. This has been bugging me for years.

As you may have noticed (optimistic as I am), I’ve not updated my blog for a week now. I guess this is normal blog behavior, but it does bring me to my second discovery: My productivity increases by about three times when I turn off my Internet connection. I’ve always said that since I’m used to work with Internet I was not affected by emails and chat request and all the possibilities the Internet gives me. That is bull. So now I start the day checking email, chat a bit with friends and such. Then I pull the plug and get down to business. Excellent.

Featured photographer

2006-05-14T18:31:00.000+02:00

I went out and bought the cheapest Leica camera on the marked. The C-LUX 1.

Apparently it is brand new and it is really selling well. I literally saw it get sold out from one of the most used camera web shops in Norway, so I had to run to another shop and buy it there. I got the last one. That’s how I spend Thursday. The exact same camera has been on the marked for a month or two now and the only difference is that it is by Panasonic. This one is, as fare as I can understand, also made by Panasonic but it has a Leica design. Maybe Leica makes the lens, for both of them. I don’t really know. The Leica model is of course more expensive. All for vanity.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time playing with the camera. I now understand that it will cut seriously into my writing time.

Yesterday evening I went to visit a friend of mine, Andreas. We watched Corpses Bride by Tim Burton on DVD and ate pizza:

The DVD was all right, I guess. Not the best movie I’ve seen. The pizza tasted a lot like kebab, and that makes sense since we bought it at a kebab place. Here are some wonderful pictures of the featured photographer Andreas (Yes, he is the featured photographer, not me):

BTW, you will find a link to his photoblog to the right. It’s really worth a look.

I came back home to my apartment a bit before midnight and decided to take a few more photos before going to bed. I wanted to test the camera in the dark. It turned out that they where having an out door cinema at Grünerløkka library. That’s what I like about Grünerløkka or Løkka for short. There is always something going on.

My blog and I

2006-05-14T14:57:00.000+02:00

When I meet friends and old colleges they all seem to want to know how I spend my time as a struggling writer. First of all: Am I a published author? No, but I hope to be one day. I now live on saved money from my IT-consulting job and try to spend as much time as possible writing. I used to write code. Now I just write.

Back to the initial question that everybody ask. Well actually, what they all ask is what do you write about, but I will not reveal that here, as I usually do not reveal it in real life either. However, I will dedicate this blogspot to answering the question they all should be asking: What do you do as a writer? So, the next time they ask I can say: “Go to turbanslife.blogspot.com and see for your self.” Easy peacy.

If I ever get regular readers to this blog, they/you will eventually ask: “How does he ever expect to be a writer? This blog is full of typos and bad grammar.” Well, I find comfort in the fact that English is my second language and that my novel is written in Norwegian. If I get a bunch of regular readers I will start having ads on the blog and I will earn a shit load of money. Well, writing is all about daydreaming, isn’t it?

When I get around to it, I will buy a camera and my blog will be full of pictures from my life. I will use more pictures and fewer words, so that I don’t spend all my writing energy on this blog and not on my book. If there is nothing happening in my blog, you should all be happy for me because then I probably am busy writing on something else. However, if I update my blog frequently, you know that I am in trouble.

Is what you find here “the truth and whole truth so help me God?” Noh. My rough estimate is that turbansblog.blogspot.com will contain ten to twenty percent lies, but I guess that is the beauty of the Internet. You can lie as much as you like. Almost.