I’ve been toying with this idea of asking people what they listen to for a few years. But to get it going, I’ll have to start myself.

I don’t know if you remember the line of albums called Artist’s choice?

Some well known singers were asked to put together an album of music that had meant a lot to them.

Well, the list I’m about to unleash on the world isn’t that profound. It’s quite simply my shortlist that I keep on my MP3 player at all times. I’ll probably get tired of some of them and remove them at some time, though. A collection such as this is likely to see some movement over time.

Secular songs:
Amy Grant: House of Love
Celine Dion: River Deep
Joshua Kadison: Jessie
Vince Gill: Go Rest High On That Mountain

CCM:
Bob Carlisle: Baby Baby
Bob Carlisle: The Truth
Imperials: Change The World
Margaret Becker: Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful (P)
Mary Mary: Hold On
Rachael Lampa: It’s About You
Rachael Lampa: Savior Song

Praise and Worship:
Brian Doerksen: The River
David Ruis: Break Dividing Walls (P)
Harvest: The Warrior
Glory (this one’s a theme song from a festival. No special artist. Download)
Mal Pope: This Is Your Land
Matt Redman: Nothing But The Blood (P)
Richard Smallwood: Total Praise (P)
Victory Chant (not sure of the artist)
And I’ve been meaning to put this one on:
Michael W. Smith: Let it Rain (P)

In addition to this I’ll normally have some more songs that fall under the “power” category. What I mean by that is that when I hear them, I feel as though God is present. That presence feels powerful, and can be a real help in situations where I feel out of my center. For me, getting centered is easiest done by getting the guitar out and playing and singing worship songs for a while. And having some of those songs on a small music player that can fit in my pocket sure is an improvement on earlier times. It takes a lot to get me off center, but even so, it’s nice to have. I’ve marked those songs on my list that I’d consider for this category with this mark: (P)

These are the artists/albums I usually listen to in the Power category:
David Ruis
Michael W. Smith: Worship
Matt Redman: Facedown
Passion

Not everybody will like this style of music. It’s geared towards gutsier music (more rock) than the old fashioned praise music.

Some of the songs on those albums are a bit tedious to listen intently to, the way you do on an MP3 player. Some albums are better as background music over a long time. So if you put songs on there from one of these albums, pick out the best ones.

So… I’ll have plenty of space on my new 256 Megabyte player, as opposed to the old 128 Megabyte one. I guess my list is likely to grow over time, so I’ll load it up with at least one whole album at a time, and see if any of the songs stick before I get tired of the album and load another one on the player.

Google offer a lot of language choices.

But I didn’t expect Elmer Fudd to be one of the choices!

I wonder who came up with that one?

OMG, they DO have a sense of humor. How about Hacker?

Maybe this is why?

Gigli was released on DVD here in Norway under an alternate title.

On the back of the cover, it says (in translation):

“The film that made a clean sweep at this year’s Raspberry awards.”

Tell me, do they think Norwegians are STUPID????

They’re advertizing winning the Razzies as though it were an achievement? Yeah, my bad, of course it is, winning for worst movie (or actually, worst onscreen couple)!

Tell me guys, do marketing people often try to get ahead by relying on people being stupid?

Oh, of course, they send spam, what was I thinking…

I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person that gets irritated when subjected to so called motivational speakers. The kind that jumps up and down and tries to get the people in the audience to jump up and down and shout as well.

I can dance and I can sing - to a soundtrack, but the kind of speakers that try to jack up my enthusiasm profoundly irritate me.

So when Brian Klemmer was due to speak at a sort of club I usually go to, I was sceptical. Another friend had been hyping him up the exact way that irritates me…

But I was wrong. What he said made sense to me, and he said straight out that the kind of motivational speaking that irritates me - doesn’t work. Yay!

Anyway, his stuff impressed me as usable enough, I bought his book.

I’ve been reading parts of it now and then, and last night I came to his chapter on balance. What he wrote made so utterly sense, it’s frightening. I’ve been formulating my own theories for a few years, on why some people totally alienate the people around them - all because their pride gets in the way (I guess Brian would consider that being low on the Emotional score, and that they have “glasses” on). I’ve been wondering about things like that.

This book will help anyone who’s willing to work on their life, to get more out of it.

And it might help people who are caught in destructive thought patterns. Brian Klemmer helps you identify your preconceived notions that make you act the way you act. By showing you that they may be there even if you don’t realize it. Even if you’ve never been without them.

A friend of mine lost 20 pounds and released an album after attending one of Brian Klemmer’s seminars. And she’s somewhere around 45, overweight, and had never released anything, though it had been her life’s dream. His seminar acted as a giant kick in the behind, to spur her into action.

I can’t promise that this book will help you quite that much. It’s all up to you how much you’ll let it affect you. But it does help you understand concepts that up to now may have been hard to get your mind around.

Like for instance the chapter about Balance. He likens balance to a square, and says we consist of the Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual. And then proceeds to explain all sides, and tell you the goal to being balanced is to balance how you score on all these 1-10 scales and then try to improve the areas where you are lacking, instead of focusing your energy on the areas where you’re already doing well. And he explains the Spiritual in such a sense, you could well score relatively well even if you’re not active in a religion. It’s about your perspective on why you do what you do, why your goals are what they are.

So, guys, you should definitely get this book however you can get it.

I’ve put a link to Amazon here (I’m an associate, so it makes sense. I get a small percentage of any sales).

You can also read more about Brian Klemmer on his company’s website.

I saw this on another blog. Can be quite funny.

Of course, right now a lot of people are searching for Thomas Reece, Alexander Marazov (sp?) and Atrivo.

I especially liked this one:

help ! atrivotechnologies

And then I pasted into notepad those I thought were funny and off context. Examples of how search engines can deliver unintended results:

Slightly fishy
bullet proof hosting guestbook spam
looking for chain guestbooks for 2005 singapore
blog anonymizer
munged pc

Say what?
mozilla fireworks

Plain funny
i ve got to get rid of this stuff booklet
i have too much space on my hard drive and i need to fill it up with stuff
minidisc stuff should be free
made cat house in tree

Why would I have this on my page?
email address of pastors in norway
east navilla place
www.fur.blanket

I spent the minutes around midnight on New Year’s Eve on the balcony with a tripod and a digital camera. Trying to capture fireworks.

The Norwegian people had been admonished to not send up fireworks this year and instead send money to the relief work after the tsunami. But either the people at home had already spent their money on fireworks, or they felt a need to focus on something more festive this year.

There were as much or more fireworks this year than normal…

I felt a bit guilty about ignoring the party inside, but these are the best fireworks pictures I’ve gotten so far, and I’m sure they’ve already forgiven me…

Some time during Christmas, I noticed something late, late at night. I thought, is this an earthquake? Then I thought, no, it’s not that marked.

But I wonder? Was that what the scientists have been talking about, that the earth wobbled on its axis?

Here’s one story on Aljazeera about that.

Remember, I’m in Norway, clear on the other side of the earth…

I just had a talk with a friend who’s allergic to Parabens (actually, it’s a friend of my mother, she’s over 60 years old).

What that means, is that she will look like she has the measles after using a facial cream with methylparaben, butylparaben or any other paraben. Not the first time she puts it on, maybe not the second, but the third time she’ll have a problem.

She’s found something that works for her by now, after a lengthy and expensive testing phase (let’s just say her husband has very nice, well moisturized skin for his age…).

But you never know when you’ll need to change your facial cream, so I’ve been on the lookout for stuff for her, unconsciously.

I found a booklet at a store chain called Panduro here in Norway. It’s got Scandinavian language facial cream recipes. Stuff you can make yourself. It’s possible to order that booklet via mail or web
Norwegian version
It’s also available in Swedish and Danish.

They sell parabens in a jar by itself, so it should be possible to find recipes without them. They also sell everything else you might need.

OK, for those of you who don’t read Norwegian, it’s possible to find a lot of recipes online. Here are some places:
Eaudrey, care2, Pioneerthinking

Fact sheet on Paraben Allergy.

EDIT: For those of you with paraben allergy, you don’t have to forego makeup:

There are many different companies selling Mineral Makeup, and most of them do not have parabens. This kind of makuep contains only or mostly minerals, and foundation is generally in powder form (no talc). Most of them sell their lines through the internet, and if you decide to try out mineral makeup, go for a company that lets you buy inexpensive samples. Read the ingredient lists, and read up on what they mean. Most of the companies have different ingredients, and different “feel” to their makeup. Check the Mineral Makeup Mania forum for lots of information and a list of companies.

I park my car on the street in Oslo, and it’s usually parked there for at least 4 days, sometimes more. It’s a pretty nice neighborhood, but there are some hostels within easy walking range. So… there’s a risk of car theft and car break ins.

My car has been broken into three or four times. All times it’s been ransacked, but this last time they went further.

I could see the headlights were on way before I reached the car, and there was some kind of panel on the ice beside the driver side door. I assumed it was mine and threw it into the car, and got the lights off. I checked the car a bit more, and noticed they’d really ransacked it, including throwing stuff around.

So I tried to start the car, and realize my key won’t go into the ignition! So I assume they’ve broken a key off in the lock and given up.

Coming home, a long phone marathon starts. Because if I can’t get the car started, I’ll have to tow it or transport it on a hanger. I arrange for transport, but the guy can’t do it until the next day and I want to go to the country TODAY. So I tell him I’ll try fishing out whatever’s in the lock and get back to him.

I think to myself that maybe I can use a few paper clips, and find two to take with me. As I’m about to turn the computer off and head out again, I hear a voice saying: “Don’t you usually go on the net?”

It’s my own voice, inside my head. Which usually means God is reminding me of something. Sort of dry humor, in my opinion.

But it’s correct, I usually go on the web if I’ve got a problem. I go on Google, refine my search terms until I’ve got the right ones, and find out if others have had the same problem I do before me, and find out how they’ve solved the problem.

This time I find that pliers and forceps are useful, along with glue and a long piece of metal to glue the errant piece onto. Some have even used magnets.

But I bring out all my different pliers and forceps and throw them in a bag along with a camera.

Coming to the car I photograph everything. And find out that they ripped the covering off the top of the steering wheel, exposing the bolt that fastens the wheel to the car. Don’t know what for. I also discover that they’ve left keys somewhere they’re easy to spot, and somewhere I knew there were no keys before. I photograph and bag them. They might be possible to identify. Imagine that… A thief leaving an identifying key at the scene of the crime. Shakes head…

So, time to see if I can get home today. I bring out my tools, and discover that one of them is thin enough to fit deeply into the ignition. And I fish out the outermost piece of a really long needle nose pliers! They must have tried to start my car using that thing!

Really wild stuff!

But you know, even though it’s second nature to go on the web to research stuff, when something dramatic happens, it’s way too easy to stop thinking and just fall back on calling for help.

The damsel in distress…

Ugh, not my scene. I impressed the mechanic by fixing that ignition, I can tell you. He told me straight out he didn’t think I could do it. Same with another mechanic friend. He also wouldn’t have thought I could do it. And he knows me, knows what I’m capable of.

I probably wouldn’t have made it without the net, though. THANK YOU!

I’ve heard of cats climbing Christmas trees, but never seen it before. Enjoy!

Cats trimming the tree