SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW FUCKING SNOW.

• I'm sitting at my desk by the window and watching a little toddler trying to climb up a snowy bank out on the piazza outside. He keeps sliding back down. His mom, bless her, just stands him back up and encourages him to go again. Patient kid and mom. Norwegian moms tend to be pretty cool, not too coddling, but supportive of their kids figuring things out on their own. I think that's cool. That's what my mom did. If I hurt myself, she was like, "Well, you won't do that again will you?", after first checking for breaks, broken arteries or lost eyeballs. No mollycoddling! Fall on your ass, make sure it ain't broke, and then try again.
  

• I'm also watching a rerun of an awesome documentary on heavy metal. I saw it last night, and now Rich is watching. Really well done. A logical historical disection of heavy metal music and fans from an anthropologic perspective. (Helps that the guy making the doc is a total metalhead himself.) The doc does sort of lampoon the whole Norwegian black metal thing, which I think might be justified. At least, in the interviews here, they take themselves SO SERIOUSLY. I mean, sense of humor much? You are entertainers, metal guys, not standard bearers for cultural and religious change. (The interviewees being totally wasted didn't help.)

• The doc reminds of, in the 80's, when Tipper Gore campaigned to put parental advisories on music. Remember that? I remember the very name "Tipper Gore" being the absolute essence of lame grown up censorship and close mindedness. I remember HATING HER. So when Al Gore was running for President, even though I was for him? I knew there was a reason I didn't like Tipper, though I couldn't remember why. Hah. Now I remember. She totally was the "the man" keeping us kids down and not understanding anything we did. This documentary really captures that time well, and was Dee Snyder awesome or what?
  

• Seems I am guilty of blog neglect, as some other bloggers have also admitted. In my case, it's not so much that FaceSpace has taken over, more that life is pretty boring and I am just trying like hell to claw my way to spring and activity and better weather. Plus, things are a bit Groundhog Day (the movie) lately and I don't really want to blog about how I got up and went to work and then came home and fixed dinner and had a bath and read a bit, every day. Currently reading an autobiography by Stephen Fry, "Moab is my Washpot". Such a frigging good writer!
  

• I AM, however, completely besotted with Twitter. It's amazing who you can follow. And who might follow you back! It's a bit like having a direct line to the Gods. Stephen Fry is an especially thoughtful and interesting tweeter. As to be expected from his writing. Also? He's lost, like, 50 lbs. He looks FABULOUS!
  

• Today is the day we celebrate St Patrick's Day in Oslo. There will be a parade and a rugby game and some fun with the Irish. If you can't have fun when hanging out with Irish people, you are either dead or seriously mentally depressed.
  

• I've already got 'hangover' on my calendar for tomorrow.
  

• Just a week until Starbierfest in Munich and then a week after that I get to go home to my parents! Yeay! Travel! Shopping! Beer!