Hi.
I just came home from an 18 hour train ride from Oslo to Bodø. In Oslo i attended Red Youths biennial country meeting, its highest political and organizational authority. I will not discuss what happened there, but rather something else entirely.
It amazed me how something as simple as a small crush can be so profound in its effect. They say that love is giving someone the opportunity to hurt you and hoping they don’t, and that you never trust anyone as easily as you did the first time. I like this definition because it means that at the end of it all, when you are standing in the ashes of what used to make you smile and your heart beat 10 times faster, the pain you feel means that no matter how fleeting or distant it was, it was real but for a moment.
I have recently experienced a heartbreak. For a while, following my earlier trail of thought, I did not feel that much at the end. So I figured maybe it had not really mattered to me after all. But what thoughts and feelings your mind is able to suppress, comes to light when you are weary and alone with your own thoughts. And suddenly it mattered more than anything, and you feel all alone in a world that is just a little bit too harsh.
I purchased a replica death note and wrote your name in it. I do not know if I hoped it would work, but at the very least it meant the death of whatever good feelings I had left for you.
Vegard
I realize that most of our blog’s readers are Norwegian, but for those few who care, this is my take on some of the flaws of the American governmental system.
To me, it is obvious that the political system in Washington D.C. is a broken one which promotes greed and personal interests. The politicians we send there are focused mostly on reelection and sticking with the party.
Our “representatives” have lost touch with their constituents and themselves. It seems that nobody in Congress or the Senate can think with their own minds or have their own opinions. The health care reform debacle is just one example of how most politicians are guilty of distancing the two major political parties as much as possible and therefore widening the gaps between us Americans. While it does not surprise me, it does always amaze me how Congressmen and Senators alike will make complete asses out of themselves in order to “stick together.”
Of course, the media does sensationalize every little thing to make us feel like some issues are more important than they really are. I have trouble trusting media, save public radio and television, because they all have plenty of motivation (i.e. being owned by big business) to have hidden 
agendas. Similar to the politicians themselves, news media has lost touch with its purpose; to sort through the wasteland that is politics and inform the people about issues they need to be involved in. Being a young person, I can say that most of my generation doesn’t even watch or read the news anymore. I don’t blame them, for it does seem pointless at times. The lack of involvement that is stemming from this is fairly dangerous to the future of American citizenship.
What we, the American people, could truly benefit from is having more
independent thinkers in Washington. Dare I say people who are rational and maybe, just maybe, have a set of moral standards that can’t be deterred by ny persuading or bribing? I’m not saying they all have to live up to any one set of moral standards, such as Christian moral standards, what I am saying is that we need honest-to-goodness people working for the betterment of our nation and its citizens. To think of politicians with some semblance of genuineness is almost laughable, but I truly do hope our nation’s government will, at some point, take a turn for the better.
Hope this incredibly disturbing picture gives you a laugh:
Good Day!
Elaine
Following is an exert of a conversation me and fellow brbcoffeer Elaine had:
(10:44:06 PM) Vegard: alright i can’t think of an awesome enough metaphor, so im gonna serve you with “drumroll” “trumpets” analysis of the norwegian society in 5 minutes!
(10:44:25 PM) Elaine: do it
(10:44:25 PM)Vegard: 1800s! norway is a poor farmer country. people live on potatoes and fish, family is important and there are manners!
(10:44:34 PM) Elaine: yay
(10:44:46 PM) Vegard: 1900s! norway becomes industrialized through a series of wars and a social democratic working movement
(10:44:59 PM) Vegard: 1960s! norway finds OIL, and becomes one of the richest countries in the world
(10:45:20 PM) Vegard: norway developes universial health care, governmental support and all such things so that noone ever has to feel alone and scarted
(10:45:23 PM) Vegard: scared*
(10:45:27 PM) Elaine: yay! oil!
(10:45:38 PM) Elaine: what a concept
(10:45:47 PM) Vegard: 1990! children are born growing up with the sence that everything will fall into their laps, and they never have to work hard for anything
(10:46:00 PM) Elaine: My birth year!
(10:46:15 PM) Vegard: 2010: the academical world is governed by people from all over th world working hard to achieve something, get a good career!
(10:46:41 PM) Vegard: while norwegians in academia abroad has this exact attitude: “i can always get a bachelor in something back home and work in some government corporation”
(10:47:28 PM) Elaine: hah
(10:47:28 PM) Vegard: norwegians socially end up afraid of black people, afraid of eachother, drinking too much alcohol, never greeting eachother, never standing up for old people on the bus, and if you dare smile at someone you don’t know you get labled crazy
(10:47:34 PM) Elaine: bahaha
(10:47:40 PM) Vegard: i present to you: norway. the most arrogant country in the world
(10:47:47 PM) Vegard: now with great fjords
(10:47:50 PM) Vegard: *conclusion*
(10:47:54 PM) Elaine: Wow
(10:48:04 PM) Elaine: *applause*
(10:48:08 PM) Vegard: *bow*
Social democracy: the wet blanket over society.
Until next time friends,
Vegard
Alright, so the headline doesn’t quite make sense. Allow me to explain.
Recently I have been using Youtube more and more to listen to music. I am using Linux, so Spotify is out (theres some bullshit with Spotify and Wine emulation). I can’t be arsed downloading entire albums, and there are simply some songs that only exist on Youtube. So wat do? Well obviously one would want to have these songs on ones mp3 player, or simply on the computer so you don’t have to actually open Youtube and stream it. Yes?
Well, I have been trying for a long time to find a program or a website that does this, and gets good quality. For a while i used Kickyoutube, but the quality was terrible, it often just downloaded 2/3 of the song and now the website is messed up. So today i stumbled across Dirpy!
Dirpy is a brilliantly awesome website, which allows you to simply copy the youtube link into the field, and then you can download it in 128 kbps quality. I am not an audiophile, so I can listen to this just fine. And the best part, when you look away from the fact that you actually get to download high quality songs, there are no irritating adds or popups. This site is awesome!
Enjoy it, darn you. Music to the people!
Matthew 6:1-4 reads “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”
Hide your good deeds. Do not broadcast what you have done for others, in anonymity it is even better. Essentially, these verses from Matthew say that those who broadcast what good they have done already have their reward in this life, and need not have one in the afterlife. Instead of showing others what you have done and what you will do for them, do it without reward.
As people we want to be treated well. We want other people to notice us and we have been taught that good things have rewards and bad things have punishments. This isn’t always the case. We should do good for the sake of helping someone out and we shouldn’t do bad because, hey, it’s bad. This reward system that we have set up is almost disgustingly sick. We are so greedy as people that we will not do good without a reward and will only do bad without punishments.
But I compel everyone reading to keep good deeds in the closet, hiding them from as many people possible. Do not broadcast something good for immediate reward if an eternal reward is crushed in the process.
Next, let’s talk about prayer. (It should be in the closet too!)
Matthew 6:5-6 reads “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”
I think that this verse kind of condemns out loud prayer, or at least for the purpose it serves today. In out loud prayer, who has tried to sound more spiritually minded than you normally are? Who has tried to impress others with the fantastic words coming out of your mouth? I know for a fact I have. Instead of having honest prayer, I am blending in a lie with fancy words to impress other people, not the Lord. I am glorifying myself in the eyes of others, but only condemning myself in the eyes of the Lord.
To be frank, in that action, I am being a douchebag. Out loud prayer is meant to be honest and true. It doesn’t have to be a well worded, spiritually arousing tangent about the good of others. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to come from the heart.
THIS IS WHERE THAT CLOSET PRAYER COMES IN. Instead of participating in douchebaggery, closet prayer makes us Kings only in our own eyes and the Lord’s eyes. We aren’t trying to impress any other human being. There is no need to lie, because no one will hear.
So essentially, the idea to impress others only screws you. Don’t seek attention and do stuff in secret.
I love you, have an amazing day.