Christmas wishes

I used to distribute my Christmas wishes to my family as a neatly organized list of nice things for a boy my age to have. It was only the latest years the list included actual useful stuff, like clothes, and most items were usually way to expensive for anyone to buy. Thus, also included in the wish list was a step-by-step procedure for how to collaborate when buying presents. I was always ambitious writing the Christmas wish list.

I have stopped distributing these. I no longer feel they are appropriate. In fact, I am kind of ashamed I sent out those lists for so long. They were more than slightly materialistic, and totally without any self-awareness of it. Now, I am still materialistic in nature, and would be happy to receive a lot of expensive stuff, and I enjoy unwrapping those packs with nice things in them. However, this Christmas I’ve decided to wish for something more noble:

Support for my spring break trip to Monte Cristi in the Dominican Republic, were I am going to help an organization called “Orphanage Outreach” alongside a bunch of fellow Carnegie Mellon students.

So, instead of buying me a sweater for, say, 200 kr, then buy me a cheap pair of socks or a fair-trade chocolate plate for 30 kr, and then donate 170 kr to Orphanage Outreach. Or, instead of buying me a fine vintage wine (dunno why you would do that, but if so), then buy me some exotic soft drink you found in the Asian food store, and donate the difference to Orphanage Outreach.

You can donate and read one of my very short scribblings about the trip here:
Donate to Orphanage Outreach

If you want to donate, beware that the amounts are in dollars, not in kroner. Adjust accordingly, I don’t want to ruin ya’ll so you can’t afford lamb ribs for Christmas! And you are of course most welcome to donate even if you didn’t plan to send me a present this year.

Orphanage Outreach: Donate
Calculate amount: Valutakurser (Norwegian)
YouTube: Villanova University on similar trip
Carnegie Mellon University: Alternative Break
Charity Navigator: Charities with the Most Consecutive 4-Star Ratings

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

New design

It is not too much to say, really. Maybe I should mention that it was a bit of a battle to get the same picture to show up correctly everywhere. But though several individual defeats, in the end I was victorious in the war on CSS. In case you can't tell what's different, here is a snapshot of the previous design for comparison. Maybe the pictures will turn out more colourful from now, also.


On the screenshot: Warfare experience

Hugs

I’ll like to dedicate this blog post to all those hugs you guys have given me over the last week. Sometimes things are hard to talk about. Sometimes talk it is tiring, because so many loving and caring people are all asking the same questions, or at least questions to which I must give similar answers. Sometimes a hug is the best there is.

As most of you know by now, my Dad was just diagnosed with cancer. They discovered this big malicious brain tumour, which they successfully removed by surgery last Monday. He is now recovering from the big cut they made in his skull. While still waiting for those wounds to heal, he is being transferred to the cancer department at the Hospital for further treatment. Please visit Dad’s blog to read more about my hero’s journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

Last summer, I was travelling the Midwest with my parents. Dad was having a sabbatical at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and happened to just finish a conference in Salt Lake City when I had my vacation. Our road trip back to Ann Arbour went through Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone (which turned out to be my favourite place of all time), Minot, Edmonton, Minneapolis, Chicago, and many smaller places along the way. In Chicago, the plan was to spend two nights before I would board a flight back to Europe, and Mom and Dad would return to Ann Arbor.

However, as I tried to check in at O’Hare International Airport, the machine kept telling me that I had a void reference number. It wasn’t until the lady in the desk told me, that I realized I had missed the flight – by a day. It was my fault. I had messed up. So many times, I had told my parents, “my flight is leaving the 3rd. I’m positive.” Not so. I deserved someone yelling at my blown up self-confidence. As I turned away from the desk lady to tell my parents, I knew that any scold, anger, frustration or evil eyes would be totally justified.

But Dad just hugged me.

So, when I Skype-chatted with my brother the previous week, the most important thing I could tell him was to give Dad a hug from me. The moment when we then ended our chat with two of those CMU-invented smiley-faces, was the moment when I first felt the gravity of the situation. Woh. Dad could go away. What if my kids won’t get to meet their wonderful grandfather? Oh no....

Read more:
Dad's blog: Rapporter fra Stein Arild (if you don't know Norwegian, you can read the Google-translated version in english)
Free hugs: Free hugs campaign

Change we can believe in

I asked Professor Rouse if he believed things could get better.

We had just watched a documentary (China Blue) on child labour and exploitation of manpower in China, at a factory that produced pants. We had been talking about the difficulties of implementing regulation and minimum standards for how the companies treat their employees, and how widespread such problems are – they are not only present in the clothing business, but also in markets of food, diamonds, toys and electronics. As a teacher of courses in globalisation, Rouse pointed towards the new shape of capitalism that has evolved in the last thirty years as a cause for such conditions’ continuous deterioration. (I don’t know what exactly type of capitalism Rouse is aiming at, but I still think it sounds perfectly reasonable. To me, practices of the European Union such as open borders and same currency comes to mind, and also a high pressure on developing countries to open their markets)

Did Professor Rouse believe things could get better? Yes, he did. He knew from his own experience and his own life, things could indeed get better. Before the late 1970’s, things were getting better. What hinder us from improving again? Rouse believed in change, so it was worth the effort for him to come and talk to us students about this in his spare time. Professor Rouse’ heart and effort made him a beautiful person; his faith – his confidence in what he hoped for – was allowing him to be so.

Al Gore was asked the exact same question concerning his campaign to stop global warming. “Do you believe the world can change?” And Al Gore did believe. His belief that things can change allows him to be beautiful in fighting for that very change. Just as Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Henrik Wergeland and Martin Luther King Jr also were warriors of beauty when they fought for changes that they believed in. Now, none of these I have mentioned took the change for granted. None of them were certain change would actually happen – the only thing they knew for certain was that it was possible for change to happen if a sufficient number of citizens would decide to join their faith, be beautiful and “get the finger out” (an anglified expression from my gorgeous home country right there:-).

Let us consider for a moment what it means to have faith in Al Gore. Then you obviously also have faith in Al Gore’s project, and believe that it is actually possible to stop global warming. However, this belief alone does not automatically make you beautiful; in fact, if you believe that Al Gore is going to save the world single-handedly, or by the help of all those other people, is that not hypocrisy? To be beautiful, and “follow” Al Gore if you will, you need to actually make an effort yourself. You actually need to sort the garbage – because you are confident it can make a difference.

I also consider to put Jesus on that list. May give the phrase “believe in Jesus” a new flavour.

Learn more:
Teddy Bears Film: China Blue
TED: Al Gore's new thinking on the climate crisis

Wean Hall Artspace

Ever been late for physics or math recitation because you just HAD to read that comic strip? Wean Hall is a world of distractions.

I went on a journey to photograph every single comic strip on the office doors in Wean. The distractions are now also available online! I apologize for those pictures that are slightly out of focus, but I think most of them are readable with a little effort.

Access the Wean Hall Artspace here: http://gallery.me.com/torsteins#100015

The best way to view the pictures online is to click on the slideshow button in the lower left corner, and then pause the show so you'll have time to read the strips. Alternately, you can download all the pictures and view them in your favorite picture-showing software.

Read more:
xkcd: Centrifugal Force
Dilbert.com: Strips
Calvin and Hobbles: Calvin for President

Healthy homesickness

A returning question that I get asked from time to time is whether or not I’m homesick. It surely is a legitimate question, as the distance from home is greater than any other place I’ve lived, and never before have I been continuously away from my roots for this long. “However,” I usually tell my friendly inquisitors, “keep in mind that I have lived away from home for five years already.” I moved in to my first apartment at age 16 to go to high school in Knarvik, which was a prolonged one-hour drive away from home. After four years at high school and two more apartments, I spent a year in the barracks of the Norwegian infantry, far north of any sophisticated civilization, before I ended up in Henderson House here at Carnegie Mellon.

So in general, I am used to be away from home, and I am not homesick. At least I am not as homesick as one of my roommates in the army was, I mean, he was seriously homesick; he was on the phone with his family for at least two hours a day. Occasionally he would smash his head against the wall and scream in frustration of not being home. While others said “anywhere but here,” he would say “nowhere but home.”

He had my sympathy, and I learned a lot from observing him. I learned that there is value – real value – in loving your home. The more I think of this guy, the more impressed I am with how much he appreciated home, and the more I realize that value for myself. He inspired me to draw my beloved home city Bergen and post it on my cork plate. The Bergen drawing followed my plate throughout my time in the army, despite changes in room and roommates. He also, though more indirectly, inspired me to bring a camera to Stoltzekleiven and Fløien to take pictures of my favourite trail before I left off to the states. I now use one of those photographies, one with the exact same motif as the drawing from the army, as my desktop wallpaper. See above.

I regret that I don’t have a photo of my Bergen drawing on this computer, but if it happens to strike me as a good idea to post the drawing whenever I come back to our family computer, then maybe you will have a chance to see it. It won’t be soon, though.

I haven’t talked too much with my parents, and I haven’t smashed my head to the wall. I don’t feel like I’m missing my pre-college life, and I don’t at all consider to transfer to the University of Bergen. Yet, I am proud to announce that I, at least a little bit, miss home. I love to talk about home with my friends – I like to portray for them the beauty of Bergen. I enjoy to explain what the narrow streets looks like, how they climb from the fjord up the abrupt mountain sides, twisting and turning as they were shaped by time and topology; I like to describe how you can bath in the sea in the middle of the city, and how the taste of the salt water compares to that in the fresh lakes only 30 minutes of hiking away. And of course, I am super-excited to show people my wallpaper, point out all the different places, buildings and restaurants, and tell why they matter to me.

However much Pittsburgh is a fabulous place – it is not home.

Read more:
Warrior of Agape: WeHe
Wikipedia: Bergen
Visit Norway: Bergen