Alagaesian

I like watching the Oscars, and rooting for the actors / movies that I have watched the past year.  Despite it being shown worldwide, it is still predominantly American.  It is impossible to watch all the movies produced by hundreds of countries and decide which one / who are the best in their fields. 

Nevertheless, the Oscars is still an interesting spectacle to watch. 

There were a lot of good movies up for awards this year.  I was actually rooting for Babel, but the Departed (which is also a good movie) won Best Picture.  Martin Scorsese also won Best Director (I can’t be happier) for that film.

For Best Actor I was rooting for Peter o ‘Toole for sentimental reasons.  He’s an old guy with a lot of movies up his sleeves - he should have at least won one for all the work he’s done…  Forest Whitaker won for his role in the Last King of Scotland (he’s ok).

Helen Mirren won Best Actress.  There were a number of them who deserve the honor, but I was rooting for Mirren for being English… hehe.

Hudson for Supporting Actress - ok… but I was actually rooting for Cate Blanchett.  Alan Arkin for Supporting Actor… no comment as I didn’t see his film.  But he has an outstanding acceptance speech I understand…

Yes - unfortunately I haven’t watched this year’s Oscars, after it being held 3 days ago!  I do not understand why the networks here in Norway don’t show it live, or at least the next day.  It’s supposed to show tomorrow though, Thursday.  Why does it take that long?  There’s no more suspense to the guessing game of who will take the statuette home! 

Then again, I’m also looking forward to the host and the program itself as the host this year - Ellen DeGeneres - I’m sure it will be a quirky and funny show.  But I miss Billy Crystal - he’s the best I’ve seen who’s hosted the Oscars.  Forget Letterman or Chris Rock (who?!).

Oh yeah - and a Happy Feet won in the Animated Feature.  I was rooting for this because it’s is a good film, and my cousin worked on that film as well.

So I’m definitely coming home early tomorrow from office to prepare for my own Oscar night.

Technorati Tags: oscars, happy, feet, babel, departed, helen, mirren, forest, whitaker,

The rest of Norway is experiencing bad winter weather at the moment with heavy snowfalls / storms.  Southern Norway has motorists stranded in the main highway, and a number of roads are closed on the mountains due to strong winds.  And this week is the start of winter holiday which means a lot of people are actually on their way to their cottages this weekend. 

Bergen on the other hand is having it really good.  No snow, no rain… who said Bergen gets the worst weather in Norway?  I’m heading out for a walk after I get this published.

Ha det!

I have recently uploaded a couple of videos into youtube.  It didn’t take much of my time, it only took me just about the same amount of time to post a blog. 

But the question is - is it better to make video blogs than text blogs?  Video blogs have a certain level of personality that comes with it as you actually make contact with the viewers (so to speak…).  It’s more real time, more spontaneous…  On the other hand, text blogs gives you the chance to think first then write what you’d want to say. 

As I said, I have uploaded some youtube vids today - which if i have not, I would’ve written about what I talked about in that video here in my blog site. 

So - which one is better?

I guess it differs from each person.  I prefer blogging more than vlogging as this works more of an online dagboken (diary) for me. 

When I was a kid, I never really got into journal writing or diary writing - even when our teachers forced us to.  I guess the internet (and the thought of sharing things with people) gives more interest to it.

It’s Sunday early morning - my friends just got out of my flat after a nice dinner.  I cooked chinese.  If of interest, you may visit my youtube channel to see the vids i made tonight about the dinner.  It’s in one of the links to the right or click here.

Technorati Tags: blogging, vlogging, chinese, dinner, bergen, norway

These are the irish guys who wouldn’t let me sleep back in the hostel. Saturday night was a real good banter with these guys.

We started off bar hopping along the Reeperbahn and somehow ended up with Monica leading the way to the town hall (in the dead of the night) and later the Elb River Tunnel.

Technorati Tags: Hamburg, Germany,

Second day backpacking Germany.

I was in Hamburg yesterday to watch a concert called Film Symphony by the Global Symphony Orchestra.  The program includes the masterpieces of John Williams, among others, from movies such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.  Memorable soundtracks from Gone with the Wind, Dr. Shivago, Goldenfinger and the Godfather were also played.  The laser and light show accompanying the orchestra was simply amazing!

Got back to my hostel late (early German standards apparently).  It was 2am when i finally got to bed.  Unfortunately - you have to remember that when living in hostels, you sleep in the same room as other guys. 

One guy was knocking on the windows at 3am coz he’s been locked out.  Another guy was snoring so hard.  You can imagine the amount of sleep I had last night - and then I have an early train to Berlin.

Spent the good part of the day in Berlin on a walking tour around the city - mostly within the former East Berlin.  Stories by the tour guide were exceptional and it was just something else to hear the stories that people had to endure during the Nazi era and the Cold War. 

Tonight I met some friends Eline and Einar who are both studying in Berlin.  Had some wine and amazing dinner at an Egyptian resto.

My hostel tonight sleeps 8 persons in my room - but looks really decent.  The place is pretty new and actually looks like a spaceship - but it is relatively harmless.  Hope I will sleep well tonight after downing some glasses of wine. 

Technorati Tags: backpacking, germany, berlin

Ever heard of backpacking Germany in the middle of winter? 

I’m not really backpacking - but perhaps you can also call it that as I only have my backpack and I’m sleeping in hostels for the next 3 nights.  (Hostels are actually a good place to meet people from all over.)

This quick holiday started coz I bought a ticket to a concert in Hamburg - so I’m watching that tomorrow.  After that I’ll probably just hop on the trains and see where that leads me.  The plan is to also stop by Berlin - being the cultural and bar hopping center of Germany.   

I’m meeting some Norwegian acquaintance down in Berlin.

For the past 2 hours, I’ve been trying to organize a bit on my transportations in Germany.  The country has one of the most efficient train system in Europe (I’ve been there before as well - so I’m talking from experience - plus my Lonely Planet guidebook says so!).  And the best thing is that you can easily plan ahead (or not) by going to their website www.db.de. 

Technorati Tags: germany, berlin, hamburg, deutche bahn

This day is unheard of in Norway about two years back.  Suddenly, the stores realized that they are missing out on business compared to their foreign counterparts.  Last year’s valentines passed by with a couple of stores (mostly chocolate shops and cafes) with that sort of banners and promotions.  This time almost all the shops and the malls, and the papers, have such advertisements.

Celebrating the day is sweet.  I just hope it doesn’t get as crazy as in Manila - where you wouldn’t bother going to a restaurant coz you won’t make it in time anyway due to the traffic jam.

No valentines day for me here tonight as busy packing for my quick holiday (again…) to Germany.  

Technorati Tags: valentines

Apart from being famous for being hospitable and accomodating, the Filipinos are also known for ingenuity - of making the best out of their resources and means. 

Here’s an example - ‘the Call Center’.

The Philippines - with more than 7,000 islands - still has areas which has no or low mobile phone signal, despite being the text messaging capital of the world.  The picture was taken in Jolo (island south of the Philippines) and apparently this particular area gets the best signal on the island. 

Technorati Tags: cellphone, mobile, philippines, ingenuity, filipinos

Hva?  Hvor er Brann???

Animation by Lasse Gjertsen 

Heia Brann!

Technorati Tags: brann, norwegian, football, soccer, tromsø, molde

Up in the mountains last weekend (again). 

I was in Geilo (second time this year) for a skiing trip.  I’m surprised that all the bruises and falls haven’t discouraged me enough from taking up further skiing. 

It was a bit icy - surprisingly warm for the middle of winter (it was about 4 degreed celcius middle of the day Saturday).   The snow on the roofs are literally being washed away. 

I was on the downhill slopes the whole Saturday trying slalom (alpine skiing) for the first time.  It was good fun and made me realize that I was wasting my time on cross country skiing.  Downhill was 10 or 100x easier as the boots give more stability and leverage to control your feet.  I need more practice though and have scheduled to go back to the mountains mid-March.

After 4 hours of skiing Saturday, I thought I was confident to try out cross country again on Sunday morning.  I thought I have learned the basics from downhill skiing.  Unfortunately, after only 2 minutes down a slope - I fell.

And this time it hurts!  Coz everythings frozen and icy - including the roads. 

I cross countried for an hour and ended with a some bruises on my kneecaps.

I’ll stick to downhill next time.