A good list to start from…

If you are ever bored and by the computer, maybe like right now (since you are reading this I mean), then check out some of these links. I guarantee it you won’t be able to keep a straight face for long…

http://www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com
http://www.dontevenreply.com
http://failblog.org
http://oddlyspecific.com
http://www.wired.com
http://www.engrish.com

Well people, I’M BACK!…

Well, I have decided to kick start the blogging scene again. Stay tuned for more posts in the time to come…

Change is gonna come…

It reached me yesterday that my old workplace, InFocus Corporation, is down-sizing yet again to cope with the ever so challenging economy and its sales numbers. It brings my thoughts back to that place. I worked there for ten years, in all corners of the world – Norway, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, China. Hell, I even swung by India in service to InFocus. It was a great place to work and i owe a lot to that company and to the people that I worked with over the years there. The people I worked with taught me a lot and they were great peers to have around.

It is with sadness that I now understand that the Singapore office is closing down, and that headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon will be severely reduced.

I do, however, understand the need for this. But at the same time, I cannot but to think about the guys who will now have great change thrown upon them and have to deal with it. I wish them all the best of luck.

Keeping up appearances…

Hmmm… Definately not as easy as it may seem. Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, Friendster, Hi5, you name it… I can hardly keep up with it all. Being an avid follower of new technology I feel these are all important tools in todays society and the way it is going, but boy, it is not something that is easy to keep track of. Keeping it all updated at the same time has proven quite some job and honestly, I don’t see the benefit of sticking to them all. In addition there are IM’s such as Skype and Yahoo Messenger, both for which I use. It is a lot of stuff…

I am sitting here now after browsing through most of them and I am trying to think about the amount of time spent every day on things like this. Makes you wonder if there isn’t more to life than all that.

Anyways, all of the above was sort of a digression. What I wanted to write about was that I am contemplating to shut down my wordpress blog. The reason for which is related to the above, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a digression after all. Anyways, I see all the time that I either blog the same entry on both the wordpress blog as well as the blogger blog, or just one of them. Maybe I’ll simply turn this blog into a different type blog, like a travel blog of sorts, or more centered on the life here in HK. We’ll see. I’ll think about it.

Anyways, hope this finds everybody alive and well.

The HK chronicles…

Hey there people!

It’s sure been a while now since I’ve blogged, and most of the reason for that is that I have been busy moving to Hong Kong. It has been a slow and tedious process, but it has worked out and I am now formally residing in HK, just waiting for some formalities to come through.

I hope to be increasing the blogging too as time goes by, as it’s far easier to blog from HK than it is from mainland China due to the web-censorship there.

Here I am, at least, in my new crib in HK and so far I am loving the place.

Hope this finds everybody alive and well…

From all of us, to all of you…

Well, there we have it folks! Christmas is here and for most of Scandinavia, Christmas i over already. In some parts of Europe there’s still boxing day, but that’s gonna be over with soon too. This year has been a short Christmas for me. I didn’t have hardly any Christmas spirit at all, and I got home about 3 days before Christmas. Not exactly lots of time to get into the mood.

Anyways, I hope all of you had a great celebration, and if it is still going on or still to come, I hope you have a good one.

Here in my hometown in Norway there was no snow this year (big surprise). We’re close to the coast, so we usually don’t get that much anyways, but some years have been extraordinary.

Now, there will be a few days of family gatherings and dinners, then some days to just relax, then New Years Eve is coming up. Will be interesting to see what will happen with that… I have no plans at the moment, so we’ll see, I guess.

Hope this finds everybody alive and well…

Almost home…

Sitting here in Amsterdam airport waiting for the connecting flight. Not exactly lightspeed stuff, have to wait another four hours, but anyways, it’s for the better I suppose.

Looking forward to get home…

Family cabin…

Went to my parents new cabin in Sweden today. What a nice place. It’s one of those places where you feel right at home right away and you can just sit down and relax. It’s a place of reflection and tranquility, indeed.

So congrats folks! Hope you get many more memorable moments there.

So I am back in the old country…

Well, I got back to Norway on Tuesday afternoon, local time. Long haul, but I’m used to it I suppose. The next day I linked up with the new company and it has been a very intensive rest of the week. Mostly administrative stuff to nail down, but still, there’s A LOT of stuff that needs to happen to get going.

It’s good to be back again. It has gotten a lot colder since last time I was back (this summer), but it’s fresh. I just can’t believe how fresh the air is here in Norway. Maybe it’s because I spend most my time around the world, and usually in industrialized areas where sunshine is no longer a given, but there’s just something about this place. The first night here I had to go for a walk just to take it all in and rinse my lungs. He he he…

Anyways, I am well off in my new job now, and it is exciting indeed. Next week is when I will really get “the Matrix experience” and have my head stuffed with all the inputs from the rest of the engineering team here. Then I am off again and it’s time to deliver. Good stuff.

I can see busy times ahead but I am pretty stoked about it, and I’m looking forward to hitting the field again. I will try to keep the blog updated through all of this but can’t make any promises.

Hope this finds everybody safe and well.

Back in Hong Kong…

So, here I am, back in HK again. Jobless for 4 days, basically… I didn’t plan sufficiently and overlooked the fact that it would be the weekend by the time I got back here. That means that applying for a China visa is out of the question, and consequently, I am “stuck” in HK for another 3 days.

Fly out for Europe again on Tuesday morning.

I’m sorry…

Well, so I’ve gone and fallen victim to sleep again. Still being jetlagged from Asia timezone, I have been waking up at no later than 03:30 (if I could sleep at all) for most of this week. Today, I was supposed to meet my friends at around 18:00 at the hotel lobby, and we were supposed to head out to a Halloween party downtown.

By the time I got back from work, I was feeling drowsy. Next thing I know, after sitting down on the bed for just a 5 minute break before I get ready to head back out, I pass out… I wake up at 23:30 with my clothes on, and with 6 text messages on my phone, same amount of missed calls and some voicemails.

I don’t know what to say but this: I’m sorry.

A new chapter…

So here goes. I have been waiting to break this news for a while now. It’s been a pretty crazy period for me, as I have been thinking about changing jobs. This might not sound as much of a big deal to you, but it is for me. I’ve been with my existing company for a decade, and obviously there is a certain sense of belonging, call it pride, personal ownership, or what not.

Anyways, after a long and hard thought-process I have come to the conclusion that the time is right for me to move on. I therefore tendered my resignation last Monday. It was with a heavy heart, but I think it’s the right thing to do.

I now move on to a new and interesting chapter in my life – the post-InFocus era, I guess you can call it

It is certainly a strange feeling, as my company and my job has been such a big part of my life for so long, and taken so much time and effort out of my life. In return, it has brought me all over the world, and let me meet some remarkable people. It has allowed me to see things that most people will never get to see, and to experience and see things that I consider myself lucky to have been part of.

So, here’s to you, InFocus. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

I am now moving to Hong Kong where a new chapter is already waiting for me. More on that to follow, so stay tuned.

Hope this finds everybody alive and well.

Back in the US once again…

So, after about seven months, I am finally back in Portland, Oregon, USA.

It’s weird, but good, to be back. The air is fresh, the place looks the same, the dishes are huuuuge as always, the local beer is tasty and the grocery store looks exactly the same. I have to admit, I have missed some of this. I had somewhat of a rough start to the visit as I decided to go out on town the same day I walked off the plane, and the jetlag was still there, but I pulled through. It was a long haul, but of my own making, so I guess I have nothing to complain about

Had some Thai-food with friends and later some drinks. All in all a very successful evening and it was good seeing the familiar faces again.

Tomorrow is office-time. Time to get down to business and get stuff taken care of. Stay tuned for some exciting news soon.

Hope this finds everybody alive and well…

Funny how life can change in an instant…

Here I am, on a plane, going around the world once again. I don’t know how many miles I have put behind me over the last years, and how long I have been travelling, but it feels like an eternity. Always on a quest for the new and exiting. Work has brought me many places. I have met so many people. Seen so many things that I know some people will never get the chance to see or experience.

I am grateful for that.

I have had my ups and downs. There’s no doubt about it. The funny thing is how it all seems to happen at once. Like if some big changes happen at work, there seems to be a lot happening in my personal life as well. I wonder why that is. In the heat of it all, I never have time to reflect upon those things, but sometimes, after things have settled down a bit I begin to realize that this is always true. I wonder if it is some sort of test to see how much I can handle before I loose my senses, or if it’s just a coincidence. God only knows…

Sometimes it is as if the answer to everything is right there in front of me. So close I can almost taste it. Then, before I have time to think, it is ripped away from me in nothing less than a blink of an eye.

Also, sometimes, when everything seems to be going well, when there is nothing but happiness and good things around you, that’s when the troubles seems to come. Just when you think you have found what you were looking for, it is taken from you. I often wonder if this is just because we get too comfortable with things and it’s just life itself trying to tell us to wake up and make a change. After all, change is inevitable. Sometimes you see it coming a mile away, sometimes it’s lurking around the next corner like a lightning strike from clear blue skies.

Sometimes, even the things you trust the most can deceive you. I often trust my instinct. I believe that people are fundamentally good. Most of the time that works well for me. Then again, sometimes I make mistakes that are so big, so big that I can’t even comprehend how I could be so stupid in the first place, when I look back at it. That’s just being human, I guess. People make mistakes. It’s as simple as that.

Lately I have come to a crossroad in my life. I have been at many of these before, but I have always had a sense of direction, or at least an idea of what awaits me down at least on of the roads. This time feels different. So what do I do? Where do I go? Is this when people say they are lost? I don’t know, but it sure feels like it.

What I really know is that I have to choose. Choose a road to walk, a path to take. What I can not do is to stop, if only for a minute. Just to catch my breath, clear my thoughts, focus, then walk on…

I choose to keep moving. It is the only thing that keeps me from falling apart. As I get along, that great suitcase full of memories is with me, and sometimes, I have to stop for a while to get an even bigger suitcase, cos the old one grew too small. There are just too many memories to carry. Some friends come along, some fall behind and vanish into the night. To those who choose to walk with me, I say thanks. Some stick by me, and walk with me through fire if need be. To you guys (and you know who you are) I am eternally grateful. I will not hesitate to walk beside you as well, through the gates of hell, if that’s where the road leads us in the end. I know we’re going to a much better place than that, though.

But for now, I try to focus on the path in front of me, the road just up ahead. I know that what awaits me will only make me stronger. More memories to collect, more friends to make, more accomplishments to achieve. We are all destined to do so. We all have our ambitions. It’s how we rise to the occation and seize those moments, grab those chances that are given to us, that can really make a difference. Not just if we make it or not. I really believe that.

So when we get to the next one of lifes many crossroads, we have more understanding and lots of other stuff in that suitcase of ours to know which path to take. It is our destiny also. For at the end of the day, when the lights go out and the curtain finally closes, we are all just travellers in this great journey called life.

Happy Constitution Day, Norway…

So May 17th was Norways big day, and the parades were on and people were out once again. This year apparantly was the worst weather in 50 years or something, but that’s pretty typical stuff in my opinion. For some reason, it’s always some rain or something like that on that day. This year even had snow in many places and people were freezing off course.

As for me, I celebrated the day in my own way here in China. We are about five Norwegians that all live in the same building (just by coincidence, actually) as well as few others that live elsewhere in the area. We arranged a Norwegian party at the rooftop of the building (30th floor) and had a small barbecue and listened to Norwegian music.

It turned out to be a very nice evening with friends. Some of our friends here in China also showed up.

Hope all is well with everyone.