I was just rereading my latest blog entry about getting things done before Christmas. At first, I thought it was a fairly current post, but the I realized it was from LAST YEAR October... How little have changed since then. I'm still working the same way, trying to get ahead, and reach some kind of conclusion on my work backlog. Something needs to change.

I have had an epiphany this year. A few months ago I returned from a two week trip to Taipei. It was mostly a business trip, but there was also time to experience the city and the local people. I had never been to Asia before, and did not really know what to expect, even though I have been fascinated with oriental culture for as long as I can remember. Suddenly, the Far East was not that far away anymore. And I knew I wanted to go back.

I don't want the next year to be just a copy of this year. I want something different to happen. I have tried to live by the principle to learn something new every day. But next year I will live by the principle to do something radically different each year. I want to move somewhere else; to do something different; to learn a new language or skill; and to permanently change my life. Not to the exclusion of my current way of life, but to permanently enrich my existence. And to avoid looking back at my life and concluding that I have not moved an inch from my initial birthplace.

Oh, and 聖誕快樂！

Winter is comming to Trondheim. Yesterday I had the first snow/sleet combo in my face biking to work. In some ways winter is a peaceful time; the mind calms down, enjoying the crisp air and shiny white snow.

I'm also starting to feel more and more fed up with the sprint methodology at work. It feels like I'm a little hamster running around a fixed track, at high speed, all the while reporting where I am on the track, and what steps I'm about to take. All the while the list of actual things to do gets longer and longer.

I don't know if it is winter setting in, but I feel an urge to shut the metaphorical door to all this, and just get things done. For more than a year now, I have tried to practice the Getting Things Done methodology of David Allen, and I have gotten pretty good at the collecting and organizing todo part. But the Doing is still lacking, and as the list grows, my fatigue is starting to build up during the review process. So, the rest of this year, I will Just Say No, and start chipping away at the items I have already collected.

I'm gunning for a clean slate by Christmas :)

Oh, and Happy Spanish National Day/Colombus Day!

Today was the first day of JavaZone, a Norwegian Java conference. A couple thousand java developers from different parts of Norway gather in Oslo for two days to hear about core technology, experiences and methods.
I have not attended a lot of conferances, and never JavaZone, so I did not know really what to expect. And it started with a BANG! At 0800 (AM!) Rammsund was live on stage featuring Pain Solution. Rammsund is a Rammstein tribute band with the lyrics translated to norwegian. I was very powerfull. Impressive to be able to perform like that so early :) The flame juggling by Pain Solution was a great low-key substitute for the typical Rammstein pyro effects, but the piercing part of the show was just disturbing to watch...
The java presentations where good to great, but with the entertainment factor and presentation style contributing more than the actual learning-something-new factor... Maybe I'm actually knowledgable after all :/
Tonight it was free beer and food at a number of pubs downtown. I chose to go to the place where Monomen where playing live. Having seen them a few weeks ago in Trondheim, I knew what to expect, and I had even convinced a few of my colleagues to come as well. The concert was a bit short, but high on quality. A number of hits, and the sound was crystal clear throughout. The vocal parts are really special, providing a unique sound that sets the band apart.
Tomorrow I will try to attend a few of the "experiences" sessions, and it looks like Rammsund is playing again. If only I can get up as early as they can :)

So, I have had 100 profile views. A major milestone for a new myspazR. Thank you all for viewing my profile; I'm not sure how you got here :) I assume most of those are related to the reqs I have sent out (to make sure I'm not a spamr), and from people skimming the comment lists of well-known artists to seek out new recruits to their own communities. And hopefully a few random and non-random actual people as well :)
I think I'll cut back on the metablogging now, and revisit my impressions in a year...

This year it is the regional elections in Norway. The election day is the 10th of September; just 5 days from now. And I am already tired of it. It's not that I don't care, but I think especially the media is taking a too active rôle. The central politicians are constantly arguing about whom did what, or more importantly whom did NOT, in the governement and central politics in the last few years. And it is bloddy irrelevant. The media is giving these people 24h coverage. I understand, because the competition in TV today is such that you have to have either a dedicated new channel, or at least news on the hour, every hour. TV NEED people always talking, to provide fresh news. To bad it is irrelevant...

I really like a good remix. I can even like a crappy remix. I'm more of a trance/goa type than straight-up radio-friendly disco, so the album tracks usually often feels bland. I ordered a few Client cds the other day, and have put them exclusively on my ipod shuffle, running nonstop. "In it for the money", "Here and now", "Rock and roll machine", "radio", "zerox machine". I especially like the "Pills (Half Dose Mix)", as that song, even in the album version, is one of my favs. Looking forward to the new single "It's not over" coming 5. Oct.

I am often a bit disappointed that bands outside the electronica genre are not as prolific in providing remixed, or altered/alternative versions of theirs songs. And I really enjoy a nice, long, live version of a song when going to a concert; I'm not going to get confused if you stray from the album version. One of my greatest live experiences was seeing a 19 minutes(!) version of "A Forest" (with The Cure) in Oslo. It felt unique and special; it was like a pocket of bliss outside my normal existence. I want more of that, please! ;)

So, I bought a bike. Not a motorcycle, like first intended, but a regular, manual bike. It's been almost 10 years since I parked my previous bike, due to it falling apart. Not anymore; I decided to actually buy a bike that is supposed to last. I had one demand: hydraulic disc brakes. Everything else was subordinate. The brakes have always been the number one annoyance with my previous bikes, and ultimately what turned me of biking. Bad brakes makes it dangerous, i.e. not fun, to ride the bike.
I got a good deal on a new bike; $1000, down from about $1500. It even came with 3 years free service.
Yesterday was my first real test-run. The bike performed superbly, the brakes where marvelous. Not so much the rider. I am seriously out of shape. In my youth (way back when) I was fairly athlethic; I even got accepted to the army officers school at one point. I have lived under the impression that I still am able to perform at that same level. I got a severe reality-check... After 15 minutes of pedaling the local forest tracks, I was at 170bpm, and I could not keep it up for much longer...
So now I'm just casually biking to work, setting myself a goal of slow progress. It can only get better :)

ok, I'll stop metablogging about myspace soon; just had to get this off my chest.
Being a long-time internet user back when usenet/email dominated, I am very experienced when it comes to spam. I have got them all, viagra, enlargement, work from home, lucrative stock offers, and the odd Nigerian prince. So having heard about myspace having a spam problem, I was expecting much the same.
And I got a few of the "hi, I'm a lovely girl, want to meet you", and "my naked dare pics can be found at www.random-porn-site.com" But I have gotten more of another variety, and I am actually a bit reluctant to call it spam. This kind is apparently small bands/remixers who look at the comment section of bigger bands with similar sound, and then send friend requests when they see someone new. So far I have friended a few big electronica acts, and I have got double the amount of friend reqs from unknowns back.
And they have real profiles, with real people, and actually some of them have real good music on there. In some ways this is just as spammy as the porn, they want more friends/followers to generate more buzz and promote themselves. But it is also akin to very targeted advertising. Since I voluntarily have shown my affection for similar bigname acts, they are actually providing me a service by showing me alternatives that I have a reasonable high probability to like. Advertising in all markets are moving this way; highly targeted marketing campaigns are valuable. Granted, you get less subjects, but the ones you get are much more likely to provide value. I work in the internet-search-ad business, so I know a lot about targeted advertising.
So I am tempted to actually respond favourably to some of these friend reqs. Maybe. Someday. But today it still feels too much like spam...

Having heard a lot about the spam problems at myspace, I was reluctant to trust the message system. And, sure enough, after a few hours as a new user, I received a nice message from a beautiful girl telling me she loved my profile (which had no content at this point). Her profile has not been updated with any content, and she has no friends either. This was obviously a spammer (I assume); and after only a few hours... Was this how life on myspace would be?
Then I received my second message; it actually had content! and the sender had an actual profile! Turns out I had made a mistanke when posting some photos, but the details are not that important (...to other people than me), the main point is that I am now at 50% legitimate messages. I had feared much worse...
I'm still not liking myspace as much as facebook, but I think my impression have been overly negative. Now, if I only can get the hang of navigating around...

So, I started my first day on myspace (yesterday) with sending friends reqs to a few of my favourite bands/artists. Client, Ladytron, Avril Lavigne, Depeche Mode. Actually, I just cared about the first one (or two), but decided to branch out a bit. And today I got added as Clients friend; they never say No!

My purpose for joining myspace has been fulfilled; now I can just relax... (just kidding, but only just...)