Last week I was having lunch at Burger King (isn't it about time they get an award for their lousy burgers?) because it's reasonably cheap compared to the alternatives. Anyway, I was holding my tray of food, making my way through the people in line and this one guy is in my way. The very first thing that came to mind (without saying it mind you :P) was: move, bitch. :D Interesting because I would never say that and I've never thought it before so it's gotta be an outside influence...

I had my driving exam today and I knew that with a little luck I could pass it. But I didn't get the best start this morning.. on account of my bio clock being all screwed up, I went to bed early last night, at around midnight. I knew I had to be up at 8 so I was hoping to fall asleep right away but of course that didn't work. :rolleyes: At around 2am, I turn off the computer to try to get some sleep again and maybe at 3-4 I actually did fall asleep. Well at least I won't oversleep cause I got my alarm clock, right? Wrong. It did wake me up at 7.45 but that doesn't help when the alarm clock is in a timezone of its own.. :wallbang: It was actually almost 8.30 and at 8.45 I was supposed to meet my driving instructor to take it for a spin before my test at 9.30. So, of course, no time for breakfast and I get there at around 9.

Slight mishap, all is well, right? Wrong. I just get in the car with my instructor and after 4 minutes I change lanes right before a traffic light. "Okay, good thing you did that now, cause now you're done with that. Everyone should make a mistake right before the test, that way they won't make the same mistake at the test." So we get there and he informs me that I have to go pay a fee to do the test. Thanks for telling me in advance :rolleyes:, I don't carry that kind of cash around and didn't have enough funds in my account to cover it with my credit card. So I look like a dumbass when my instructor covers the fee for me, well no big deal, moving on.

Then comes the exam. Why is it that all these state officials always look roughly the same? Older men, 50ish, black, ragged clothes, compulsive coffee drinkers, a moustache and talk in a way that makes them hard to understand.. Well my guy was quite okay, took an hour's ride with him heading for the airport outside of town. It wasn't too bad, I was in good shape and I thought I did pretty well. Today is cold so I had to keep the ventilation on otherwise the windows would get foggy. Didn't give it much thought so I almost suffocated us when I drove through a long tunnel and forgot to turn the damn thing off.. it didn't seem to bother the guy in the least.. :D Finally I'm right at the end of the hour and I get to an intersection with a car on the right, same exact situation that I messed up on my mock exam earlier this week. So I brake a little late but I stop this time. So after it's over he asks me how I thought it went, not too bad, guess again kiddo, apparently I drove waaaay too far on the left, especially at high speeds, said he was nervous from time to time.. but apart from that it was fine, weee..

So I go back to the place to get the licence and again they want me to pay up. Well I'm still broke so again my instructor covers it, now I look twice as dumb. I *was* gonna transfers some money into my account this morning but since I was so late I never go around to it.

Funny how that happens. All day it seems the universe conspired against me but when it mattered most, I was lucky. I didn't do any howlers on the exam, I did fine (apart from the driving on the left but I would have done that anyway). So when you really need to be lucky, maybe you should wish for bad luck the day before..

5 regular driving lessons, a day and a half of compulsory driving excercise and about 8000 kr later, I'm licenced to kill.. erm.. drive. :party:

Note: I suppose it's about weekly that I feel I'm on the verge of an epiphany and this week is no exception. Here's some more alleged wisdom coming your way.

It dawned on me just now that what everyone wants is for life to be simple. I think all relationships that fail do so because things became or always were too complicated. And isn't that how it goes, when you meet someone and you hit it off, there is something unique about that situation, you're on the same wavelength, you're getting each other, that's simplicity at play.

But then time passes, new things come up and just maybe do you not always see eye to eye. Behavior is not understood, "I can't believe he did that", things are misinterpreted, signals are misunderstood, it gets too complicated. So you wanna straighten it out, get the cards on the table, map out the problem areas and make sure you get what's at stake. You think once you know what the problems are, you can fix them. Maybe so but sometimes you never get there, things are too complicated to be mapped out. The human mind is very complicated, especially so compared to the mind's comparatively modest ability to process information. Things have to be simple, otherwise the mind does not follow. And if there are too many complications, I just want to cut through it and start over. Sometimes there is no way to "talk it through" and map it out because there was never enough understanding to unite on the differences no matter the effort applied. One gets to a point where no matter what you know the person will never understand what you're saying. And probably vice versa, so what's the point of living like this? It's more harm than good.

Such is life..

Ps. Norway's leading paper (a tabloid) runs a story on how IE is insecure (big news :rolleyes: ). What they neglect to mention is any alternative browser. There is a reference in the article to a past story about computer security, where they among a plethora of references mention Opera (and predictably mention that it's Norwegian). But no mention of the leading browser these days or any mention of Mozilla whatsoever. Yet again, brilliant work, VG.. :wallbang:

The first time I saw it was a couple of years ago on Eurosport, they were showing the matches from the Euro tournament at the time (Forza Azzurri!) and a friend of mine was really into it so I started watching some too. Still, it seemed too different from the real thing to really be enjoyable.

But now the spirit has been rekindled, I was watching Iraq-Cuba from the ongoing World Cup in Taipei (that's Taiwan, kids) and I realized it's actually quite fun to watch. Unlike soccer, the end to end action is a lot more frequent and there aren't many long stops for free kicks and fouls. The game is still a lot different, but it's more exciting too.

I recall playing indoor, which I never liked. Too much friction off the floor, ball was uncomfortable on the parquet etc. But for watching it's nice..

Waking up, the first thing I see is the amount on snow on the balcony railing.. :(

• can't play soccer, pitch covered in snow :lazy:
• walking is about 2/3 normal speed thanks to the lameass friction of snow :rolleyes:
• biking is out, lock frozen, no friction, snow way too soft :wallbang:
• driving is stoopid, snow way too soft and slippery :mad:
• can't wait till my driving exam next week, no doubt on snowey/icey roads :wth:

And the dumbass award of the day goes to yours truly for trying to debug a dvd drive that wouldn't burn dvd-rw media for 2 hours only to realize that it's a dvd+rw drive that only accepts dvd+rw media... :wallbang: