The best of Carnegie Mellon

It is now more than three and a half years since I moved to Pittsburgh. I do not believe I have senioritis quite yet, but graduation is approaching at an ever-increasing rate, and I have already been considering my future for a couple of months. And while it certainly is the time to think about the future and the many great opportunities it holds, it is also the time to evaluate the past and appreciate the best of Pittsburgh and CMU while I am still here. So, here is my attempt to compile my best memories from four years at CMU.

Orientation

As an incoming freshman, you are required to attend one week of orientation before classes start. This week is packed with exciting activities, all aimed at getting to know each other better. I got a lot of great friends in that first week, and we had tremendous fun. We went bowling, went on a boat trip with big speakers and dance music, and we played "I gotta feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas over and over again. We even had a giant "rock, paper, scissors" tournament among all the (over 1500!) incoming freshmen at Playfair.

The atmosphere was simply amazing, and everybody felt comfortable randomly talking to everybody else. All without a single drop of alcohol.

The housing communities

From my first year in Henderson House, through my sophomore year at the Neville Co-op, junior year in West Wing and senior year in Morewood Gardens, an excellent community and great friends have always surrounded me. I have had some truly excellent roommates, which I hope to keep in touch with as I leave Carnegie Mellon and leap into the future. Who would have thought I'd be a best friend with one from the Bronx?

Yuva India Restaurant

This restaurant simply serves the best meal that a man could ever wish for. Located at Craig Street, this is where I end up whenever it is too cold or too wet to walk to Oakland. Frankly, I might end up here even it is warm and bright as well, because the Lamb Karahi is just amazingly good; at least when they get it right, which they do most of the time. At least 50% of the time. Oh, and the woman in charge who wears sunglasses indoors? Priceless!

The academic community

I have no other word than outstanding to describe the academic community I have found here at Carnegie Mellon. It was the rumour of great work ethics and friendly geeks that attracted med to this school in the first place, and the CMU community has exceeded my every expectation. This is a school were everybody takes deep pride in their work, and I have always been encouraged by my peers and teachers to give my very best in everything I do.

While we certainly had a superb community in my TAF class at Knarvik Vidaregåande Skule (high school), our focus on quality and work ethics was not quite at the level of CMU. The support that this community has given me in pursuing excellence is something for which I will be ever grateful. I now have an appreciation for hard work that I did not have before. It has grown on me this that Andrew Carnegie once said: "My heart is in the work."

The weather

Growing up in the Bergen Area on the west coast of Norway, I am acquainted to rain; thus, the rumour I found on the Internet about terrible Pittsburgh weather did not at all scare me. And when I got here, it turned out that the weather is excellent! Maybe a little too hot the first two weeks of fall, and a little too cold the first two months of spring, but generally: the weather is excellent. The sun shines regularly, the temperature is great and the rain comes in sudden thunderstorms rather than being spread thin across several days. It is great! It was particularly funny my freshman year, when 30 cm of snow fell on one night. The streets were closed for three days! It gave me time to make this video about Pjeff.

Volunteering at an old monastery.
We restored the building so it could
be used for after-school programs

The clubs and organisations

The variety of organisations on campus is tremendous, and I have been blessed to participate in several of them. My freshman year I went to the Dominican Republic with Alternative Break, and started my very own Floorball Club with a friend from Singapore. The university supported us by providing us with a place to play, and helped fund some of our equipment costs. I have also been a part of one of the many great Christian fellowships on campus, an ad-hoc soccer group, the table tennis club, and the pool club, as well as academic honour societies.

The educational flexibility

At Carnegie Mellon, we are allowed to pursue depth and breath sequences of our own choice, by putting together our own schedule every semester. As a student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I have been able to take classes from the Departments of Civil Engineering, History, Philosophy, Computer Science and Music that I find interesting. I have for instance taken several interesting courses in religion, and the music courses I am allowed to take counts towards my general education requirements. I believe it is an excellent quality of the education model that the students gain deep insights in more than a single field.

The ice cream

Pittsburgh, and in particular the Oakland and Squirrel Hill areas, are the Mecca and Medina of great ice cream. Carnegie Mellon, being strategically located between the two, is thus a great starting point when hunting for the sugar shot of the day: Go east to Squirrel Hill, and you will experience the deepest, darkest, most fulfilling chocolate milkshake that man has ever made at the Cold Stone Creamery; Go west to Oakland, and your taste buds will praise you in utter astonishment for the chocolate with hot fudge you got at Dave & Andy's Homemade Ice Cream.

The professors and teaching assistants

Getting to know the teachers and professors have been one of my great experiences at Carnegie Mellon. The vast majority of them do their upmost to provide plenty of time where the students may ask clarifying questions, and the professor or his assistants will answer general or specific questions to the best of their ability. While I was ignorantly unaware of how great this offer really was my freshman year, I really started appreciating this form of learning when I became a teaching assistant myself, first semester of sophomore year. Talking about course material (or even material that only is only vaguely related to the course) with course staff is simply one of the best ways I could possibly learn, and also a good way to find fellow students to work with.

One of my many favourite professors, Helmut Vogel

Having the opportunity to teach as a course assistant for three semesters myself was also a rewarding experience, both because of how well I got to know the professor, and also because of the rewarding interactions with students in the course. I sincerely hope I will have the chance to do more (that resembles) teaching in my future career.

Research opportunities

The research opportunities at Carnegie Mellon are wide and diverse. As an undergraduate in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I have been encouraged to participate in research projects with world-renowned professors, and one of the research projects I have participated in have already shown some quite remarkable results. Applying what we learn to a real research projects is immensely rewarding, and is an excellent supplement to the required Capstone project classes that I think everybody ought to take advantage of.

The game room

How often do you get to play as much pool as you want, on good tables and with excellent opponents? Answer: All the years that you spend on Carnegie Mellon. The game room community is diverse, and covers table tennis players, DDR –dancers, foosball players and pool players, as well as the many occasional flirters who attempt to teach their targets how to hold a pool stick, and those who just play randomly with a bunch of friends. Yup, there is an air hockey table and a curling –table as well.

In sum, I am very happy that I studied at Carnegie Mellon, and I would have chosen to study here again. I hope to maintain the best friendships I have made here, and I hope to come back to visit during spring carnival some time. It has been an honour staying here, and I am confident that Carnegie Mellon University will continue to excel in teaching and research in years to come. I pray that its students, staff and faculty will continue to see the fruits of their hard labour, experience personal fulfilment and live in happiness. As they would put it here in America:

May God bless Carnegie Mellon.

Unity and disagreement

When I was in the army, there was only one Christian fellowship in the garrison where I was stationed. The official Norwegian Lutheran church ran a chapel, and a Lutheran priest was employed by the military to hold service every week, which was all Lutheran psalms and liturgy. However, many of the young soldiers that attended the church, like myself, were not Lutheran at all. We were Baptists, Roman Catholics, followers of different protestant traditions, and non-denominational Christians. Yet, we all shared the same bread and wine, we all sung the same songs, and we all ate the same waffles. It was beautiful.

Many of the best discussions I’ve had were in the discussion group in that chapel. The discussion group was open for everybody, and many that showed up weren’t Christians at all, but adhered to different spiritualities, to quasi-philosophical agnosticism, or even atheism. Much to learn and much waffles to consume. I really got to know a lot of good hearts in those discussions. Honest hearts. We were not united in beliefs, far from so; but in mutual respect we built something as rare as a unity in heart. It was not a perfect heart; but I believe we were headed in the right direction. Those of us who simultaneously were intentional in seeking Jesus’ heart, were amazed how these discussions brought such light to our quest. Or at least I was.

I fell in love with unity.

So I was distressed when the Catholic Church didn’t want to share in communion with me. And as I left the army and moved to Pittsburgh, I was heartbroken to find that the Lutheran church, which I had come to love so much, didn’t want to share communion with me unless I was Lutheran, or at least something close. I probably could have passed the “test,” but then what I loved about the church was lost. On top of this, in a non-denominational church of the faith-movement I visited, they didn’t allow undergraduates to share in communion. Nowhere, it seemed, did they acknowledge me. I was rejected.

Mark 14:17-25 (NIV)
When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me — one who is eating with me." They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?"

"It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

Look at it: Even Judas Iscariot was allowed in communion. Man, if Judas Iscariot was allowed communion, then who should not be? And imagine the atmosphere at the table. Everybody is suspicious towards everybody. So much tension... Is it Peter that is going to betray Jesus? After all, Jesus called him Satan just a few chapters ago. Is it Simon the revolutionary zealot? Or Matthew the tax collector? It surely is not I, is it? Suspicion. Mistrust. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless. Because Jesus himself is what communion is about. It is not about the agreements between those who partake in it. Rather, communion is about looking past the disagreement in style, looking past disagreement in politics, and looking past disagreement in doctrine. Even looking past our suspicion that the other partakers are betraying Christ and his ideals. It is about looking past the dust and focusing everything on Christ himself. That is communion. That it is beautiful.

In the last weeks, I have realized this is difficult. You know those fundamentalist Christians that just make you so ashamed of your faith? Like when televangelist Jerry Falwell in October 2004 boldly proclaimed his support of the Iraq war: “You've got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops and I am for the President — chase them all over the world, if it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” How can I invite such a man to communion with me? Can I partake in communion with him? Really? Fact is I can’t stand the man, by knowing nothing more than that very quote. I just can’t. He repulses me, and I am highly suspicious he is betraying Jesus big-time. I do not want to be associated with that man. At all.

But pause for a moment. Is it not sad how I have made myself such a demonized image of Falwell? I most certainly am doing the man injustice. What do I really know about his heart? Well, nothing. I am still suspicious, sure, and I do not expect to agree with him in much. I am allowed to disagree; I am allowed to be suspicious. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless. (though sharing with Falwell truly is a tough reputational sacrifice)

What do you say: Jehovah’s Witness claims that Jesus is just one of several expressions of God. Should we invite them to communion? Really? Hard core Calvinists claims that God does not love everybody. Should we invite them to communion? Really? Are they not worshipping a different God altogether?

Should we draw a line?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gives the book of Mormon equal weight as the Bible. The Adventist church is obsessed with the Sabbath as opposed to Sunday. The Catholic churches pray to saints. Churches of the faith-movement emphasise emotional experiences. Some churches show signs with “God hates fags.” Some churches do that. Some churches do this. Churches disagree on everything, even on Jesus himself. And the churches are allowed to disagree. But Jesus made his disciples share the communion nevertheless.

Say we actually draw a line. That man is allowed communion, this man is not. That man is one of us true Christians, this man is not. By doing so, are we not making ourselves judges? Jesus himself, the only one righteous to judge, did not.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a good discussion. I am all for confronting views such as “we should blow them all away in the name of the Lord.” It was trough discussion (which surely was heated at times) that we gained this rare unity in the army chapel. It was through honest struggles with challenging questions we shed light on our path to a kingdom heart. But even as we usually ended up disagreeing at some point, we shared the waffles nevertheless.

How much more, then, should the church be able to share communion, we who all are intentionally seeking the heart of Christ...

Skydive

"Do one thing every day that scares you"
- Mary Schmich
Christian is this amazing guy that I don't really hang out with that much, but every now and then he invites me to do crazy stuff. Last semester, I stayed over at his uncle's house in NYC for Thanksgiving (which resulted in this video). Back then he invited me only a few days before break. Late last night he again invited me to impulsive action, this time to go Skydiving. Much fun :-)

I probably won't make a habit out of Skydiving, though, (expensive and environmentally questionable as it is,) but I hope to make a habit out of acting on impulse. I hope to make a habit of trying new things, make a habit of creating stories. Not always the most crazy stories, not necessarily the stories that everyone are talking about - the point of the story is not to be told, but to be lived. It is about staying alive.

By the way, this was an impulse my rationality considered pretty safe, despite my body's hesitance. Let me assure you, I do not think seeking a kick for it's own sake has a higher purpose - that would be stupid. So, yes, I think some skydivers are stupid. They are stupid when they do crazy stuff they can't possibly consider safe. I do not, however, think those many divers who discover beauty in the skies are stupid, as they simply jump to appreciate that. For them, it is not all about the kick anymore - it is about enjoying fresh air, the sun, the clouds, a magnificent view and an extra dimension of movement.

"Only skydivers know why the birds sing"
- Unknown
Read more:
Our host: Skydive PA

A beautiful break

The snow lay heavy as Spring break reached Pittsburgh. Luckily, I and the 14 other students who were travelling with “Carnegie Mellon Alternative Break” had no reason to care: We were going to the north-western Dominican Republic to volunteer for the organization Orphanage Outreach.


Orphanage Outreach (OO) is organizing western volunteers to serve in two different orphanages, local schools and an English institute. Carnegie Mellon, among other groups of voluenteers, was going to stay at the newer of the two orphanages for a week, in Jaibon (a small village along a highway of dirt connecting the major city Santiago and the town of Monte Cristi located at the north coast almost next to the Haitian boarder). “This is it.”

As opposed to countries like Norway and the US, “newer” is not always better, bigger and more shiny. While in the west we tend to complete buildings and facilities before we “open” them to be worn down, Dominicans use what they have even though it is not yet complete. In fact, using is not so much a process of tearing as it is a process of building. It was beautiful to see how OO adapted to this culture, teaching us how to build one block at a time and appreciate small steps of improvement. “Poco a poco.”

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

–— Edward Everett Hale

Spring break is volunteer season, so quite high numbers of beautiful people eager to serve was available to OO that week. About 250. In comparison, the Jaibon orphanage was at the time housing 27 kids. It was obvious that numbers were out of proportion – so OO asked the local schools if they’d like some “Americanas” to teach English to the kids. The schools were incredibly enthusiastic, since English educators – as valuable and appreciated as they are – are a rarity in the area. It turned out 250 volunteers wasn’t nearly enough to fill all the requests from the schools. But it was still beautiful how OO served their community not by imposing some outside idea on them, but by assisting the community with competence the community were calling for. “Serve, don’t help.”

OO has the same attitude towards the orphanages – which are not ran and organised by OO, but supported by OO. Beautiful local Dominicans run the orphanages, and OO was careful to respect their ideals and the principles by which they ran them. The application of this attitude included an over average strict dress code and a ban against any non-Christian music. But it was beautiful, precisely because of these sacrifices. “It’s not about you.”

Our group was sent to teach 6th and 8th graders in one of the schools not affiliated with the orphanage. I hoped the kids would know some English to start with, especially since these were pretty high levels. But no. Me knowing no Spanish whatsoever, except “gracias” and “la factura, por favor,” I was going to hang out with kids speaking only Spanish for a week. Luckily, fun is a language of its own, and we could play volleyball, catch, frisbee and something that vaguely reminds us of football (a beautiful sport you play with your feet, in case there was any doubt) without any worries as far as language was concerned. The kids even made me play baseball with them, which must have been pretty entertaining, judging by the laugh I received as I waved seemingly purposeless with the bat (I was actually trying to hit the ball, but I’m not sure how well I managed to communicate that message). “Communicate love.”

But anyhow, our mission was to teach English. With my teaching group of fellow CMU students, we planned out some ideas for how to communicate with the class using body language, games and drawings. And with three of five team members above an intermediate level of Spanish fluency, we all found a useful role to play. Even when we split up into groups and I was alone with the kids, I did fine – the kids indeed got the message, because they really tried to get the message. OO says you do not need to know Spanish to communicate love. I found you neither need to know Spanish to communicate English. It was cool to see how excited many of the kids, especially my group of 8th-graders, were to learn. Students from other classes would even listen in on the teaching from the open windows; it was beautiful to see that we made a difference. “Acknowledge yourself.”


This is just a small fraction of what I experienced. I could have dedicated pages to every one of the ten, I must say beautiful, principles Orphanage Outreach is run by. They were all means by which OO was trying to fulfill its stated goal for the week: “Release the Hero within.” And so they did; OO facilitated heroism in the volunteers, the volunteers inspired heroism in the kids, and we all supported and cherished the heroism of those running the orphanage. And as we were fundraising for the trip, we also released the hero in everyone who chose to support us financially or with food or school supplies. I got many new heroes during this trip.

Now we hope to bring that sunshine from Jaibon to Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon. At the very least, we successfully brought the actual weather with us, because now summer is almost all over the place here in Pittsburgh; little is left of the thick winter coat we left behind. But more importantly, we want to inspire new generations of Alternative Breakers and spread the Alternative Break mindset across campus – ultimately releasing the heroes within many more.




Read more:
OO: Orphanage Outreach
Carnegie Mellon: Alternative Break
YouTube: Happiness in the Jaibon schools (DR)
veoh: Nathan and Liana's video
Our awesome trip leader: Nathan Frank

Footage from New York City

I had Bon Jovi's "I Love This Town" spinning in my head from my first steps there. This is the result.



As I hope you can tell, we had a lot of fun. Thanks to Christian for inviting me, thanks to friends we met up with or failed to meet up with, thanks to Christian's uncle, who provided shelter and a beautiful breakfast, thanks to Justin, who kept us company watching Mythbusters, thanks to Dad's old friend Michael, who offered us room in his apartment if we needed it, even though he'd never met us (Michael: I guess Dad appreciated that the most, as you really trusted his word of me), thanks to CMU for providing editing software, thanks to Greyhound for flexibly taking us there and back, thanks to Bon Jovi for making awesome music, thanks to YouTube for not removing the sound for some stupid copyright reason (for the record, I do have the record), and thanks to New York City for reminding me of home.

// Say hey (say hey) say yeah (say yeah) // You make me feel at home somehow // That's why I love this town // (...)

// No matter where you're from, tonight you're from right here // This is where it all goes down, down, down // That's why I love this town //

More:
New record currently in the mail: Bon Jovi: The Circle
Graffiti: 5pointz
Fun place: Central Park

Events of the G-20

As the world may have noticed, Pittsburgh recently hosted a G-20 summit. As a Warrior of Agape, I found that a major battleground had been established right beneath my feet! I sought to use this opportunity to fight the good fight, and I did so through the Pray-20 initiative. Maybe we'll get up a Pray-20 website sometime (Sept. 29 update: P-20 site is up!)

After we were done with the Pray-20 on Friday, we heard that the anarchists, or so-called "black block," were to protest against police violence just down at UPitt, so some of us decided to step up in white t-shirts and bring signs of peace and non-violence with us. However, the police took the threat seriously, and sent literally hundreds of policemen, outnumbering the protesters with about 10 to 1. Then the black block said they would project video of police violence instead of confronting them. So in the belief it would all be a peaceful demonstration, I got myself a jacket and a camera.

And it was all peaceful until the police suddenly, with no prior notice, advanced towards the crowd of various activists, black masks, students and curious photographers. No footage of police violence was ever shown.

I don't think the police handled this very wisely. The demonstrators was at no point a threat, and they did no damage to public property. The police, on the other hand, all stood showing off their batons and rifles.



Read more:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Protesters blast police response, Oakland arrests
UPitt: G-20 Pittsburgh Summit 2009
My act of warfare: Pray-20

Moving to Pittsburgh

Finally, here comes the blog post you have all been waiting for; the blog post that tells you everything about my new life in Pittsburgh, what I think of my classmates, how the dialect of my roommate sounds, which professor is the most disorganized... But actually, I still haven’t met anyone that I am sure to meet again. So I’ll just tell you the same things I told the guys at the international orientation ice cream social.

Yes, I am moving to Pittsburgh. I checked in to the Carnegie Mellon (CMU) campus today, where I’ll probably be hanging around at for the next four years. I’ll major in either civil and environmental engineering or electrical and computer engineering, but I’ll take both introductory courses in my freshman year. I come from Norway, a country that you can probably place approximately on a map, despite that I am the first Norwegian guy you meet. I have not been to Asia, at least if you don’t count the international orientation ice cream social.

I arrived in Pittsburgh two days ago, after a trip that lasted almost 40 hours; when I landed in Detroit, I had to check my luggage through customs, which made me lose my connection flight to Pittsburgh. So they put me on a plane to Philadelphia, but I didn’t catch the flight to Pittsburgh there either, and I had to spend the night. At least I was in Pennsylvania. I got on the next afternoon flight to Pittsburgh, and by the time I came to Oakland, where CMU is located, it was already sunset. Time had come to find the bed and breakfast –place I had found on Google Maps.

It turned out that the bed and breakfast was not bed and breakfast at all, but luxury suites. However, I appreciated that they had a vacancy; after all, I was walking around in a foreign city in the dark with 30 kg on my back and a big, unmanageable blanket in my arms.

The next day I spent exploring the campus area, setting up a bank account, talking to the student health service about my vaccinations, paying the tuition fee, handing in my final grade report and so forth. In the evening I went to explore downtown, and I found thousands of people dressed up in black and yellow, all gravitating towards a big stadium called “Heinz Field.” I figured I might as well follow them and see what happen. I bought a ticked from a guy who had too many, which saved me $20. More than 28 000 attended the game, but the stadium wasn’t even half filled.


It was a pre-season game between Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, the two Superbowl finalists from 2008. Like then, the Steelers won. I had never seen a game of American football before, but the kind, old lady that sat next to me explained the essentials, and by the end of the game, I’d figured out most of it. I bought a “terrible towel” in support of the Steelers, but I hesitated to use it when I was told that to wave it was meant as a curse on the other team.

My thoughts on American football: Way too much breaks. The players don’t even get tired! What is it about this fighting for four seconds -thing, and then having tactics for fourty? They should at least cut the “waiting time” in half; maximum twenty seconds from the down till the game must start again. And also, there should be fewer substitutes. What are there, three or four different line-ups available for each team? I think tired athletes would make room for more touchdowns, which, no big secret, is the fun part. Let’s call the new game “battleball” or something, and eventually the old American football would die, and even the Americans will forget that they used to call real football for soccer.

Today I moved in to my dorm, and I took the bus to “Waterfront” on the south shore of the Monongahela River to buy bed linens. I also got slightly lost when I tried a new route to the suite where I had my bag, but not more than what common sense and friendly Pittsburghers could handle. I have learned that 5th Ave and Forbes Ave are the two most useful references for getting around, and that CMU is located about as far from the shopping district in Oakland as it is from the shopping district in Squirrel Hill. My dorm is also on the completely opposite side of campus of the building where I’ll have my early morning classes in math and physics. I’ve decided to get a bicycle. I still haven’t seen a grocery store.

Read more:
Pittsburgh: Best place to live
Tartans: Carnegie Mellon University
Wikipedia: Heinz Field
Wikipedia: American footballl

The Infantry

My national service is ended, and time has come to summarize the year. How was it? Do I recommend the next high school graduates to apply for the infantry, or do I not? I’ll tell you my answer to the last question right away: I do not know. As for the first question, I’ll need a few paragraphs to express the wide spectrum of feelings and experiences that make up the minimum of a decent answer.


Let me start off by telling you that a year in the Norwegian infantry is varied. It is actually very varied; two days are seldom alike. Or, actually, two days may well be very alike. But the year as a whole has been quite varied. It started with basic infantry training for a few weeks, before we got into specialising within our field, learning how to drive the unnecessary complicated military vehicles, and attending other courses that teach us how to act our role in war. Then a series of increasingly complex exercises started, ending with the famous, international NATO exercise called Cold Response. Famous in Norway, anyways.

These exercises taught me a lot about – everything. A little about myself, a few things about God, a great deal about Mother Nature, but most of all about man. It should be said that I have been lucky in such aspects, being even allowed to lead a squad on my own on one occasion, which gave me much valuable insight and experience. We didn’t accomplish our mission, though, as our power unit went out of oil, making our electric oven and liaison equipment stop working. On top on that, I destroyed our Optimus Primus (a gas oven) while trying to improve its mediocre performance, leaving us completely without heat in the cold winter night. The human mind acts in mysterious ways on such occasions.

After the period of exercises, we had quite enjoyable weeks with close combat, war technique and urban warfare, and also theoretical courses in international law, ethics of war and gymnastics. We went searching for unexploded ammunition, had different hikes in the local mountains, and ran different military races, like, for instance, the 30 km run with an 11 kg backpack (including weapon). And, of course, we cleaned and washed the barracks for the next contingent before we left the building (which is actually quite a job).

What most people appreciate concerning their year in the national service is the friendships that are built in the barracks. And I too made some good friends; yet I can’t agree that the atmosphere was that unobjectionably amazing. People were always complaining about something, life was never kind enough, the officers were shit bags, the exercises were pointless, and so on. I’d prefer the atmosphere in my class in high school; there, nobody threw shit at people, and nobody talked behind other peoples back.

Btw, which is the best word: Objectionaryless, objectionlessniary, objectionlessly or unobjectionably?

There wasn’t much to do in our spare time, so I spent much time in the garrison chapel along with fellow Warriors of Agape; we had a choir, a conversation group, quiz nights, and evening services. While the services were all Lutheran, the audience had a wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. This made room for many interesting conversations, in particular at the conversation group were also the non-Christians felt at home. We called ourselves the “friends of the priest assistant,” and in May, a few of us were lucky and alert enough to join the Norwegian delegation in the International Military Pilgrimage (PMI) to Lourdes, France, even though none of us were Catholics. The experience was overwhelming!

The best parts of the infantry was the exercises and the so-called “green days;” surviving snowstorms, driving snowmobile, working on the technical finesses of liaison, hiding in the forest and shooting blanks at the enemy. The memories of challenging runs like the 15 km and 30 km are also worth appreciating. Besides, some of the courses we had were kind of interesting, and the trip to Lourdes was awesome.

The downsides were the dreadful music that was played in the barracks and the slight tendency towards an unpleasant atmosphere in the platoon, with the mentioned whining and humour on the cost of others. It should be said that these tendencies never became more than tendencies, and that most of the soldiers thought that we had a pretty decent atmosphere.

I am glad I spent a year in the infantry.

More on this blog:
Experience I'll remember: Dangerous Mountains
A fun course: Snowmobiling
Thoughts on the ethics of war: Perfidy and Max Manus
A serious matter: Going to Afghanistan

Dangerous mountains

During my time in the army, Mother Nature has made its powerful impression on me on two occasions in particular. On one of them, the situation came inevitable upon us, while on the other occasion we brought the situation upon ourselves. One of the events were in a military context, the other was in our spare time. One was in the black night; one was under the midnight sun. But they both included a mountain.

I was with my squad at the Cold Response military exercise, and we were on the very top of a big, Norwegian mountain when a snowstorm suddenly occurred. It eventually became slightly disturbing to our peace of mind; the sight was limited to a few feet when using a flashlight, and I was at observation post more than 300 metres away from the tent. By pure luck, I had bought two simple walkie-talkies just before the exercise, so we could actually communicate through the storm. A tremendously brave teammate came out with a flashlight, which lit up just enough for me to navigate in the right direction. If he hadn’t done so, the trip to the tent could have been fatal; we were on an average steep mountain after all.

We were both somewhat distressed when we finally found the tent, after a couple of everlasting minutes moving undetermined around in the storm in what we assumed was the right direction. His steps were impossible to retrace – the snow had already covered them. Unwise as we were, we didn’t even move together (we didn’t decide to withdraw the observation post before I had found the tent and informed the sergeant about the disadvantageous weather conditions).

Such an experience ought to change you. My teammate became sort of paranoid, and began waking up at night in the belief that something evil and fatal was about to happen. Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest reaction; but it sure was healthier than mine. My subconsciousness had painted the event in amusing colours, making me unable to realise the gravity of it.

It wasn’t until recently, actually, that I got to know how I should have felt. I should have been afraid – terrified. I should have been almost as terrified as I got when a group of us soldiers ascended a local mountain called “Hattavarri.” We hadn’t assumed that the mountain would be so steep; suddenly it was more dangerous to look down than it was to move up. Only the sight down the mountain could make one faint, fall and die. All our attempts to be wise and calm ended up in some kind of hysteria. And when it finally became my turn to go mental over the frightening situation, I began running as fast as possible to a place as flat as possible, smashing my boots into the snow to make small steps in the icy crust. I just went on. As it turned out, I found the flat plateau just beneath the very top, and we could all calm down for like – half an hour, before we dared to think reasonably again. I spent the time calling friends and family, asking them to fight with me in prayer.

We did find a safer route down. We even took some pictures before we left.


Read (and see) more:
Flickr: Kristian Pletten
Tipskey: Mountain hiking tips
How stuff works: 10 ways to survive a snowstorm

Keeping up with programming

How many times have you told yourself to do something, bought the book that tell you how to do it, started to read it, and then given it up after a few sessions? For instance, I tried to learn programming; I bought the book, read a few pages, wrote a program, and then... I never opened the book again.

That was a few years ago. Now I’ve started over. I attend a Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) course called “Programming Methodology,” which is a very recommendable introduction course in java. It is quite handy; I carry the lectures around on my iPod Touch, and I get all the software and handouts I need from the SEE website.

Right now, I’m at a critical moment – it has been a while since I last attended a lecture, even though I find the lectures to be really interesting and engaging. I also couldn’t remember what my last assignment was about when I was talking about it with a friend.

It is obviously time to get a grip, and convince myself that programming is fun. Not as an attempt to deceive myself, but rather as an effort to recognise the truth. Actually, I believe most of us sometimes have to sit down, take it easy and tell ourselves the truth about our daily warfares. It is so easily twisted...


Read more:
SEE: Programming Methodology

Busy times

Not a single blog post in over a month! There are a few different reasons for that, the most important one being that I haven’t felt the same urgent need of expressing myself that I felt at the beginning of the year. This post is dedicated to those other reasons.

Not that there has not been plenty to write about, of course it has. For instance, I participated in a great exercise called “Cold Response,” in late March. Forces from several different NATO countries participated in a giant attack against my battalion and the Danes. We were the “enemies” in the exercise. My squad was at a point stuck in a storm at the top of a mountain 500 meters above the landscape. A frightening experience that I’ll tell my grandchildren about; a story that may well have been published here at the blog. But at the same time, we had no Internet access on the mountain, and I didn’t bring my laptop either. So I couldn’t write anything then.

When we came back, I was kind of tired. But I had to hand in an assessment in philosophy before the end of the week, as a part of my exphil exam (I am taking a university course in philosophy while being a private in the army). These philosophy assessments are of course interesting – I enjoy thinking about stuff like that, and my toughs on such matters kind of belong on a blog like this. But when I am done writing my assessments, which inconveniently enough are in Norwegian, my need to express myself is kind of fulfilled. Besides, I don’t feel any excitement at the though of translating all those difficult words into English.

I was of course home for my Easter holiday – as a warrior of Agape, I would indeed love to write a post about Easter – but there was this bunch of unfinished paperwork waiting for me, as I am currently applying for a US student visa. Even though I spent hours reading about, and filling in, the application, I didn’t manage to post it before yesterday – a trip worthy a blog post of it’s own. All this visa stuff caused me a little stress, and if I were to use the computer, I would always read the visa application instructions one more time, rather than writing some sensible blog post.

Additionally, I have a hard time finding the online housing application at the university I am enrolling at. I still haven’t figured it out, and the application due is approaching... I guess I should have called for some assistance before I leave for the next exercise tomorrow. But then again, it’s Sunday.

Just so you know, I didn’t spend all Easter stressing around – we took a vacation from Maundy Thursday to Monday, spending time at the Internet free zone of my grandfathers’ farm. We went for a cross-country skiing roundtrip in the surrounding abrupt mountains, and brought the dog. Which didn’t turn out to be the best of ideas, as the dog wasn’t as up for the challenge as it used to be, and the snow wasn’t excatly dry. Besides, cross-country skies in abrupt mountains is only a good idea on the way up... Sunburnt, exhausted and tremendously satisfied we returned to civilization after five hours at almost 1000 meters height above sea level.

Another Revelation

Just recently, my view of George W. Bush was completely turned upside down, an experience I shared here on this blog. Today, another person I have been demonizing through the years blew me away with his engagement in agape goodness: Bill Gates suddenly became a hero.

I have always sworn to different platforms than Microsoft. Well, I did use Windows for a few years, but I always had Linux installed as well. And the recent years, Mac has been the favourite. But that choice might not have been solely based upon objective reasoning; I did not like Bill Gates. He was the incarnation of evil – I even remember playing a game called XBill on Linux; a splatter game where small Bill Gates –figures tried to install Windows on my computers, and my objective was to kill them before they did so.

I was convinced that a man that made such amounts of money and almost had monopoly on the market, had to be bad. I had never even read an article about him, much less heard him speech or got to know him. I just hated him, and a group of us made up all sorts of conspiracy theories. We heard that he gave away thousands of computers to children in Africa – market investment, we named it, blind to the goodness.

That is years ago now. But I kept my groundless scepticism towards Gates, even through my transition into agape warfare. So it was with a slight hesitation that I decided to watch a TED Talk with Bill Gates today. A talk that opened my eyes.

Read more:
TED Talks: Bill Gates Unplugged
Prejudice-creating game: XBill.org
Brad Templeton: Bill Gates Wealth Index (outdated, but funny)
Warrior of Agape: A Dumb President?

Warfare Experience

We got t-shirts from the battalion today. Really cool ones, kaki coloured with the famous griffin on front, and “Norwegian ARMY” printed in big, black letters on the back.

In hoc signo vinces – in this sign shall thou conquer. The griff is the sign in which our battalion shall win. It is our victory mark.

During my first weeks in the military, a while ago now, the priest said something that’s been burned to my memory: Yes, in the sign of the griffin we shall indeed conquer in these earthly wars – but in the sign of the cross, we have already conquered in the far more important war.

I have chosen to fight my primary war under the sign of the cross, and become a warrior of agape. Yes, I believe we have won the decisive battle; yet there are still battles left to be fought. It sure takes the enemy some time to admit defeat. Listening to the February 15, 2009 sermon from Woodland Hills Church, studying Luke 17:22-37, I tried to think through what I have learned about warfare during my military service so far. I came up with two important lessons.

First: Mastering. The whole passage in Luke 17 suggests that tough times will come. And handling tough times is an important part of becoming a good soldier. We have gone through days without rest and food, we have been exhausted, we have felt despair, and yet been required to give another 100 percent for the next day, and for the day after. Experience that may well be valuable in spiritual warfare. We have also had wrestling matches, were sensible and thorough gentlemen like myself for once get to know what a real fight feels like.

Second: Ready for battle. It is a military principle to always have the backpack packed ready for battle. If the alarm goes on, and it happens to do so sometimes, it is important to be ready. You can’t fool around and look for all your stuff when the alarm is on! No, you have to be packed and ready to go at any moment. This is also a principle that is important in agape warfare.

Always be ready for combat – the next fight might be right around the corner. Suddenly you stand there with some extra change that the checkout lady gave you, and so the battle is on. You need to be prepared for these sorts of fights, or else you might loose them (as I did earlier today. I have prepared revenge, though).

This is how to be prepared for spiritual warfare:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.
Ephesians 6:10-18 (TNIV)

I am thankful for what the army has taught me about mastering and preparedness. I do not look forward to use my soldier skills in a worldly fight, because I understand killing men as evil. It is not like there is nothing worse than war, sometimes there is, but war is never agape good, and I hope it never comes to that. But I do look forward to combine the divine armour with experiences done in the army, and continue our fight in the war against evil.

A dumb president?

I guess most of us left-oriented Europeans have at least a few times judged the former president of the United States to be quite dumb. But how can a man that graduated from Yale and served as a pilot in the US Army for six years, be that stupid? The rumours state that he has an IQ close to 91. However, people interested in such matters have found that Bush actually has an IQ of about 129; check out this Google Answer:

George W Bush's ACTUAL IQ

When I read this, I guess had my own prejudices thrown back at me. I suddenly felt like I had to respect the guy, despite our disagreements in politics. Which in turn led me to this question: Do I really respect and value people on the basis of their intelligence? Yet another defeat for the Warrior of Agape.

(...) whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Matthew 18:4-5

Read more:
Wikipedia: U.S. Persidential IQ hoax
YouTube: Bushisms