Author Archive
I just got back from a peaceful protest against nazism and all forms of racism. It was a peaceful demonstration until we were almost done. A nazi started shouting and hit a young girl who was peacefully listening to the speakers.
At the same time, the “Norwegian Defence League” was hosting a demonstration of their own. NDL is a group of racists who want to eradicate Islam and throw muslims out of Norway. They’ve had a nasty history with a lot of nazi members, and strong ties to their sister organization, “English Defence League.” The nerve of hosting a nazi demonstration on this day is unbelievable.
On a side note, when I tried to immediately upload this short clip, android whined about the file being large and needing wifi. The file was a whopping 21mb large, 22 seconds of hd video. Really, Google?
Anyhoo, demo was awesome, we were many, the nazis were few, and we won. Pics to come.
Song of the blog: Skambankt!
Yours truly
Bjørn
So it’s been a while. I’ve been thinking about what I want from BRBcoffee, and what you want, dear readers. That’s why I made that poll you see on your right. Sadly, the participation was low, and the results inconclusive. Therefore I turned to analytics, and found an interesting fact: You guys are crazy about unicorns.
Now, while I like unicorns, it’s not something I like to, or can, write about at length, so I choose to disregard that statistic, and instead I choose to focus on what I want, and what I want to give to the people who enter this humble corner of the web. Politics has taken an ever larger role in my life, as has music; I work at concerts at least once a week these days, and will be putting up more than a few of my own later this year.
The more perceptive among you will have gathered that I’m talking about a rebranding of sorts. We average at around 40 visitors per day now, and while I’m proud of those 40, I think we can go a lot bigger if we don’t spend quite so much time confusing them by writing with no coherence. When you blog, you’re supposed to focus on a niche, and if that’s a target, we’ve been shooting in the opposite direction, adding new authors and categories consistently, spreading ourselves thin. Most of our authors are what would be considered political radicals, and quite a few of us are in the Norwegian communist party, or it’s youth organization. You see where this is going, don’t you?
Now, without further ado, I present to you my glorious concept:
“BRBcoffee, the lives, thoughts, and coffeebreaks of the revolutionaries.”
Expect redesigns, fewer categories, and more offensive posts!
And now for a private public word with my cohorts. I know we’re not all revolutionaries, and some of you will probably disagree with this new concept. I’ll be sad to see you leave us for my egotism, and you’re more than welcome to stay and write. You can even write blatant right-wing propaganda, I’ll be happy for the discussion material. So, with me?
And to kick it all off, in Norwegian only, sadly, here’s my public speech on the data retention directive:
Ah, and our cat being cute.
Yes, our cat is also a revolutionary. Hers will be the claws that tear through the bullshit of the bourgeoise once and for all. Our cat is that badass. And her claws are very sharp. Seriously, ow.
Song of the blog: We Are Sex Bob-omb – Sex Bob-omb
Yours truly
Bjørn
It’s late, I have a meeting early in the morning, and I’m waiting for this damn printer to speed the hell up so I can get my vandalism overwith and walk home, which takes at least 90 minutes, and get a few hours of sleep. I have a feeling there will be a lot of caffeine in tomorrow’s diet. Luckily, I have Kindle for PC running on wine on my Linux-powered netbook, Kindle for Android on my delicious smartphone, enough juice to last me till tomorrow night, and I have discovered a delicious book series!
Now, you should know that I haven’t read fiction in at least three years, so my taste has probably dulled since my heyday, back when I was making good progress through Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Those who have attempted to make it through that dreadful journey will know that the endeavor is enough to deter anyone from ever picking up a book again. But that is another blog post entirely, this one is about Rachel Caine’s series: The Morganville Vampires.
Please ignore the godawful pun.
I could make this very, very short, and tell you that this book is like the Twilight series, and that would be all. Luckily, I would be lying, at least a little. At a distance, this series will indeed sound exactly like Twilight, it features an uncertain girl, Claire, of 16 years who moves to a new town, Morganville, Texas, where there be Vampires. Teen crushes ensue, etcetera etcetera.
What makes this series enjoyable for me is that, while not as rich as the lore in Anne Rice’s works, there is enough depth in the history of this uncharming little town to keep me interested, and wanting to learn more. The beginning of the first book is a little annoying exactly because it misses this, the protagonist has to discover what’s wrong with the town before you as the reader can start learning about it. Luckily, this part of the book passes before you grow tired and put the book away, and by the time you’ve started to have your fill of Morganville (heh heh), you realize that you actually want to know what happens to the wretched little girl. It’s really quite clever, the girl gets you interested in the town, which keeps you distracted while it gets you interested in the girl. And yes, there’s a love story in there, but it never quite takes the top priority, which is nice, because really, if you wanted a bad romance novel, you should just pick up Twilight anyway.
Pictured: The goddamn Truth!
So, that was mostly the good so far. The bad? Like I already mentioned, this isn’t an Anne Rice masterpiece, this is pretty light reading, Rachel Caine loves to throw in a deus ex machina or two, and sometimes you distinctly get the feeling that a paragraph or sentence has been jammed in after the rest had already been written, in order to close up a gaping plot hole, like for instance why Claire isn’t just using the cell in her pocket. Another point of mild annoyance is that a few of the major characters are left largely unexplored until the third book, which leaves you wondering why you should care what happens about them, and the minor characters are so psychologically thin they wouldn’t be able stand up to a warm summer breeze (I’m looking at you, Monica…)
All in all though, at least halfway into book 4, the good outweighs the bad, and I enjoy reading again, and this was the series that brought an end to the dark times, for which I will for ever, or at least a long time, be grateful!
You… You’re still here? Oh, you want a rating, don’t you? Everyone expects a rating once they realize that they’re reading a review. Hmm, alright, on a scale from 1 to 11, I’m giving it a sheep.
Song of the Blog: The Birth And Death Of The Day, by Explosions In The Sky.
Toodles,
Bjørn
Mondays are not at all like fridays… not at all! The weather sucks, I overslept a lot because I was up till 4 watching videos about the holographic universe, and this time I really did leave the headset at home. Oh, and to top it off, my buss is filled with annoying little firstgraders. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate kids, it’s just that when they band together, each individual’s annoyingness goes exponential…
Anyway, that’s the intro. It’s a little long, but I’m ready to move on. The only problem is, I really just got on here to whine about how badly my day started, so I’m not entirely sure how I should follow up.
I guess I’ll talk a bit about Israel, it’s been a long time since it’s been mentioned on this here site, which is a bit out of character for us, so someone has to make us predictable again, and it might as well be the chaotic one.
Israel, “the only democracy in the region,” is of course rabidly supporting “President” Mubarak of Egypt, the dictator who has ruled for three decades. This seeming contradiction of a democracy supporting a dictator is very surprising to absolutely no one at all. Why is that? Maybe it’s because Israel is hardly democratic at all. Any country that systematically opresses part of it’s people with a given ethnicity has no right to call itself a democracy!
But Burie, how can you say such horrible things!? There are surely Palestinians in the Knesset! That is true, there are a few, however record shows that they have never had a decisive vote in a single case, in if such a situation has ever been imminent, the vote is not held, and the matter has been decided in back rooms in discussions where the Palestinians have not been present. If that is hard for you to believe, I shall append links at the end of this blog to prove my accusation as soon as I get on a computer.
Furthermore, in order to continue their blockade of the Gaza strip, Israel is completely dependent on Egypt upholding their blockade, as Gaza has a small border to Egypt in the south. If Egypt were to develop into an honest to God democracy, which it will, mark my words, then they might not be so keen on ruthlessly oppressing an entire people any more. So you see, Israel is terrified of democracy spreading in the region. If it can no longer falsely call itself the only democracy, it can’t expect to be the only friend of the west either (although the US did support Mubarak, but that’s a subject for another blog). In Israel’s eyes, no longer having a monopoly on telling us the truth, we, the west might start to hear certain truths that do not agree with the truths that they’ve been feeding us. Most importantly, that Israel isn’t a democracy, and that Palestine is even worse off than even the most liberal media has dared to whisper of to date. For these reasons, the democratic revolutions in the region are extremely exciting.
This is my end station here, see ya!
I love Friday! There are no meetings on Friday, I only have one lecture on Friday, and I realize that my headset is in my pocket after all on Friday! Friday is the day that socail class ceases to exist, cake is free on fridays, the weather is always fantastic on fridays, and Friday is the day when NU saves the world! Ah… everyone loves a good Friday, because everyone remembers that life is good after all!
What do you do on fridays? I just realized that after I’ve had my one class, I have absolutely no plans. Maybe I should just sit back and do absolutely nothing? But wouldn’t that be a waste of such a wonderful Friday? Meh, it’s Friday! Something is bound to come along and make it amazing.
I think that’s all, actually. Hope you enjoyed this short declaration of my love for fridays!
The song of the blog is Friday I’m In Love, by The Cure, of course!
Love
Bjørn