Oda Rygh

I visited my sister the past week.

She walks everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
In addition to this she left cooking to me. During our time together we ate:

Sausage and vegetable gratin
(fry sausages and vegetables. Add soured cream. Pour over broccoli, cover with cheese, oven, done)

Curry
(fry onions in spices, add chicken and veg, add coconutmilk, wait, done)

And we ate out. At a chinese.  Chinese thick soups are usually thickened with Agar Agar, not starch, and are atkins-safe. And ONE tiny little piece of ricepaper kinda drowns in the amount of filling in a spring roll. Yes, I had two starters.

I got horrendously drunk one night there, but avoided the snacking that comes with drinking.

So when I returned to my Mums, I weighed myself and, voila. 6 kilos less.
The combo of excersise and eating right actually works.

Damn.

Dear Sarah Boyack,

I am writing you with grave concerns regarding the digital economy bill.

My concerns are on many levels. First of all the issues regarding the recent amendment: a UK vertion of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), a stain on the UK as a liberal democracy where one cannot be punished untill proven guilty by court of law.

Secondly the strain being put on the ISP industry to protect the wilting copyright holder industry. Sacrificing an industry of the future to protect the industry of the past is akin to banning industrialisation to protect weavers.

Thirdly I am shocked by the level of ignorance regarding technical issues displayed in both houses, by all parties, regarding how the internet works. It is allowed to not be informed on all things, but most MPs, especially frontbenchers, should be able to find a person who can brief them in laymans terms, before there are major debates.

I am a norwegian national, but your constituent. I have educated myself in the UK, found a british man, and bought a house with norwegian money in the middle of a housing crash. I have subsidised UK students through my paying of tuitionfees for four years. I am a taxpayer who have never claimed benefits.

-And this travesty of a bill is making me want to take my taxmoney, my education, my man, and leave. Not just for this one bill, but for which signal this bill sends regarding the priorities of their elected officials: Who is more worth, what liberties can be curbed, and how much research we can be bothered doing before voting.

Please vote no.

Yours sincerely,

Oda Rygh

Dette er ett av diktene jeg har skrevet opp til et manuskript jeg har plassert på Lulu for å få diktene til min grandonkel publisert.

Så fort boka er klar for bestilling (den må sjekkes av min Onkel først!) skal jeg si ifra.

alle rettigheter: Helmer Rygh.

Juletanker

Snø som faller, fnugg på fnugg,

lydløst fra det fjerne,

hektes i en guttelugg,

vokser til en stjerne.

Gutteøyne, fuktig-blå,

glinser mot det nye.

Av et jord med nysnø på,

venter han seg mye.

Skumring over skog og fjell

Skumring over grender.

Langsomt glir en julekveld

ut av dagens hender.

Klokkeklemt i vær og vind,

malmtunge og spede

fanges i et guttesinn,

vokser til en glede.

Guttetanker, varme, brå,

smiler mot det nye.

Av en jord med freds-klemt på

venter han seg mye,

- Julen 1948.

As I am too ill to think, have not slept at all, and am feeling the stress of not going to have any money next week due  to being off work, I am making one of the cheapest soups possible: Mushroom potage.

In it: an onion. Some closed cup mushrooms. Some chestnut mushrooms. (any mushrooms will do, but I have a ting for the flavour of the chestnut mushrooms…) some worcerstershire sauce. a spoon or two of sour cream. Salt. Pepper. This is essentially Umami on a plate, and very high in protein and all the other things that mushrooms have in them.

Being ill is the single most boring thing to happen. Last time it was parmageddon/hamtrax, but this time it is plain old cold. I technically could go to work, but I would be unable to do my job (talking at people) and I would infect the entire office with my slimy chesty coughs. But! exiting thing! I have lost another pound since I started low-carbing. So far four pounds down. BMI down to 30.14.

Primal Soup is essentially pale green scum. It came to be after I bought myself a kenwood handblender.

In the freezer I had an old bag of broccoli and cauliflower florets. I boilt them in a vegetable stock with half a leek untill tender and zoomed it with the blender. After which I added some old cheeserinds from a wedge of Dolce Latte I didn’t manage to finish a month ago, and some lumps of hard cheddar that had been left out. And zoomed it again, then added salt and white pepper.

For garnish in the primal soup there is the emergence of life in the form of simple proteins (in this case some smoked ham in very thin slivers in the middle of the bowl).

Let there be life!
(omnomnomnom)

So we have decided to go Atkins/low-carb for various reasons ranging from a BMI of over 30, my love for food, and the promise of the wedding dress in a year or two. The boy has refused to get a Kilt till he is slender and slim as well. So, onwards to skinnyness!

Why Atkins (Or South Beach, or Fedon, or Low GI, or whatever)?

Well, here follows a breakdown of reasoning:

Efficiency: It works. It works fast, it works steadily, it gives measurable results week for week. It, like all diets, works perfectly as long as you stick with it.

Sticking with it: I love food. But that is not why I gained weight. I gained weight NOT eating the food I love. I gained weight eating takeaways that were sub-par, chips that were soggy, drinking beer that was cheap and flavourless, eating large piles of icecream in depression that I didn’t even think about eating. I particularly remember a week I had gorged myself on cheap, fatty, carby foods and ordered a kebab. I didn’t manage to finish it, because the first thing I ate was the side salad. I hadn’t had vegetables in a week. This is not the food I LOVE. This is the food i eat when I am feeling too ill to love anything. It is comforteating. It is placing myself in a food-trance. It is Hyper-Stimuli in order to drug myself into a food-induced stupor. And I got over it six months after my degree when i got a job, had financial stability, and got a clue about the future. Sticking with eating the food that I love is not going to be difficult.

Love of food: What I cannot eat on this diet (every day or in large quantities that is): Stuff that when is broken down in my body turns into sugar. Or simpler: Stuff that is white or contains stuff that is white (sugar, flour, rice, potato).

Things that are ok to a varying degree include: Steak with asparagus, mushroom omelette with a side salad, stir-fry with cashews, steamed salmon with broccoli and hollandaise, carpaccio, greek salad, cream of cauliflower soup, cheese and ham salad, tuna steak with roasted peppers, Salade nicoise, Falafel, scottish breakfast with bacon/egg/sausages/fried mushroom/baked tomato, crudites with raita dip, deviled eggs, Fårikål, meatballs in gravy with stewed cabbage, smoked sausage and cheese, vinaigrette, gin and tonic, sour cream, chilisauce, grilled mediterranean vegetables… and so on. There is a reason why Nigella Lawson called atkins the diet of foodlovers. Imagine a diet that lets you avoid all the filling up bits and just have the tasty stuff. It is like that. If you can cook. If you can’t, you may resort to eating nothing but bacon and fried eggs, with good results in term of losing weight, but rather poor results in term of health.

Health: Being fat is not really that unhealthy. If anything a slight overweight increases your lifespan (yes, really: Orpana, Heather M. et al. (2009) BMI and Mortality: Results From a National Longitudinal Study of Canadian Adults) Living in the ways that make you fat however IS unhealthy. And once you are a little bit fat, you are likely to become VERY fat, and that is not at all good for you. Things that are unhealthy: Massive fluctuations in bloodsugar, high levels of stress hormones, grazing on things that are essentially fat and salt and sugar, not getting enough veg and vitamins and minerals, drinking too much, not having enough water, not having enough fibre, not moving enough.. So other than making me slightly less fat which is vanitybased and not at al because I am healthconcious, low-carb makes me not snack on bad things, makes me eat non-starchy vegetables at every meal, keeps my bloodsugarlevels even, and got rid of my anaemia due to not having enough meat and leafy veg. Oh, and I don’t drink beer, but am thirsty for water all the time.

TMI: Horrible periodpains? Constipated? Deadly farts of doom? You may not be eating very well. I digest far better after only one week on atkins. And I am no longer needing to drug myself down with codeine to keep periodpains off. My spots are reduced, my skin is more colourful in the right way, and I am loving it.

The bad side of Atkins: The first week is hell. Your body will resist losing the addiction to sugars. You will be hungry ALL THE TIME. You might get a headache, you may get bad breath untill you realise just how much water you need to drink, and nothing you eat will feel like enough. The first week is not fun at all.

Then on the other side of it you feel better. You get more energetic (May even feel like going for a walk..), you sleep better, you digest better, you weigh yourself for the first time and realise that after a week you have lost a pound, or two, or three. The first weeks you lose all the weight ever. Most of this is water (If you like me have a water-retention issue, this is amazing in itself.), but some of it isn’t. And your lunchbox is envied throughout the office, with its bits of cheese and cucumber and tomatoes and eggs and ham, and bits of grilled vegetables. And you feel good.

I will blog about this fairly regularly from now on. From the point of view of a foodlover, and in hope of being unable to quit it due to having it all on the internet. My BMI started at 30,74. It is now 30,30 after 5 days. I have set myself a six month target of looking amazing at the Discworldcon Gala Dinner in a tiny corset. And staying that way till I get married to a young strapping lad in a tailored kilt.

Nyheter!
@dbno
@Aftenposten

@frjohnsen Sermotilknyttet. Deler masse sos-medier kunnskap!
@tonegu Engasjert, og en av de beste eksemplene på fullstendig integrert nett-innvandrer.
@nicecap Nisselue. Underfundig og til tider frekk, men på en distingvert måte.
@TomArildHaugen Verdt å følge både som journalist og pga sterke historier
@mad_mullah Den nest mest berømte mullahen i Norge. Men absolutt den beste.
@roshauw Gluping! Tar ting på kornet, og skriver i NyssMag
@idaaa Twitter-evangelist, journalist, blogger, og jevnt over flott kvinne!
@bstandal Jurist. På høyresiden av politikken med gode kommentarer på både ditt og datt.
@IdaAmin Eldgammelt fossil. Mulig stam-mor. Har de flotteste One-linerne!
@eugenebl Twitrer fra desken til Dagbladet. Godt innblikk i en nettavis.
@SteinarJOlsen Gründer og blogger. Driver stormberg og kvitrer om meget.
@elisabethDL Gode samtaler!
@dagegil Deler mye, samtaler mye. Krangler litt.
@voxpopulinor Verdikonservativ og økonomiliberal, blogger godt, twitrer like godt.
@nakrissimo Grafisk designer, typograf, og gærning.
@orjas Elin Ørjasæter. Kommentar i e24.no, og enda et utmerket eksempel på nettinnvandrer som er som fisk i vann!
@dentvilsomme Den Tvilsomme Humanist. Blogger og kvitrer om så mangt. Verdt det!
@hegeulstein Kommentator. Følg henne for gode innblikk i ting som skjer.
@vrangest Vakre vrangest skriver mobbeboken, er mor til prinsesser og derfor Dronning.
@virrvarr Nettet, feminisme, puling, politikk, og samtaler!
@jon_lien Høyreblogger og smarting.
@undreverset Enda en gluping og kommentator.
@hobbykokken Matvrak! Yay!
@ordentligmat Blogger om Ordentlig Mat
@MacGeeky Mac tips og teknologikvitring.
@kniv Forfatter. Ordkunstner. Koselig.
@Bharfot Den Andre Odaen. Collect them all!
Flere som mangler?

I just had a tweet of mine, regarding Nick Griffin appearing in Question Time, quoted by the CNN on “International Desk”.

Typically, I missed it, and there are so far no posted vids or transcripts. But it happened, and I have a few million viewers who saw it happen and was told by a CNN anchor.

So that goes onto the CV I guess…

Over 130 bloggere oppfordret partiene generelt og regjeringen spesielt om å ta stilling til EUs datalagringsdirektiv, og si et klart og tydelig nei til at direktivet skal bli norsk lov. I tillegg ble partiene oppfordret til å si ja til om nødvendig å bruke reservasjonsretten i EØS-avtalen for å stanse direktivet.

Av stortingspartiene har Venstre og SV programfestet å bruke reservasjonsretten mot direktivet. FrP og SP har landsstyrevedtak om det samme. KrF er mot direktivet, men vil se konsekvensene av å bruke reservasjonsretten. Høyre er ikke villig til å bruke retten, mens Ap ikke har tatt stilling til direktivet ennå.

En rekke partier utenfor Stortinget, organisasjoner og enkeltpersoner har tatt klart og tydelig stilling mot at direktivet blir en del av norsk lov, og oppfordrer regjeringen til ikke å ta direktivet inn i norsk lov. Siden januar 2008 har det eksistert ulike former for opprop, epostaksjoner, Facebook-grupper som alle er motstanderen av datalagringsdirektivet.

I juni 2008 sa to av våre fremste jurister på europarett Finn Arnesen & Fredrik Sejersted ved senter for europarett, UIO, i en betenkning bestilt av IKT-Norge at det ved bruk av reservasjonsrett materielt sett synes å være svært beskjedne deler av EØS-avtalens Vedlegg IX som vil bli direkte ”berørt”. Samtidig sa regjeringens egen personvernkommisjon at de ikke kunne støtte en innføring av direktivet fordi grunnlaget for innføring av direktivet ikke er tilstrekkelig dokumentert.

Gjennom bloggstafetten tidligere i år og Borgerinitativet nå forener vi kreftene for å stå sterkere sammen. Vi synliggjør en uvanlig bred politisk allianse for personvern og mot datalagringsdirektivet. Alliansen strekker seg inn i regjeringspartiene.

Datalagringsdirektivet er et angrep på den retten hver og en av oss har til å beskytte vårt privatliv. Personvernet innebærer en rett til å være i fred fra andre, men også en rett til å ha kontroll over opplysninger om seg selv, særlig opplysninger som oppleves som personlige. Etter EMK artikkel 8 er personvern ansett som en menneskerettighet.

Med en mulig norsk implementering av Datalagringsdirektivet (direktiv 2006/24/EF), som pålegger tele- og nettselskap å lagre trafikkdata om borgernes elektroniske kommunikasjon (e-post, sms, telefon, internett) i inntil to år, vil nordmenns personvern bli krenket på det groveste.

Datalagringsdirektivet ble vedtatt av EU 15.mars 2006, men fremdeles har den norske regjeringen ikke offisielt tatt stilling til om direktivet skal gjøre til norsk lov eller ikke. Gjennom EØS-avtalen har Norge en reservasjonsrett. Denne har aldri før blitt brukt, men så har man heller aldri stått overfor et direktiv som representerer en så stor trussel mot demokratiets grunnleggende verdier som det datalagringsdirektivet gjør.
I februar iår ble det klart at EU-direktivet må innføres, efter at EU-domstolen avsa dom i saken Irland hadde anlagt mot EU-kommisjonen.

Vi som publiserer dette oppropet slutter oss til “Borgerinitiativet mot EUs datalagringsdirektiv”, og er enige i oppfordringen om å be be Ap, SV og SP gjennom regjeringsforhandlingene si et klart og tydelig nei til at EUs datalagringsdirektiv skal bli en del av norsk lov.

Dette verk av Per Aage Pleym Christensen, Lars-Henrik Paarup Michelsen, Carl Christian Grøndahl og Knut Johannessen er lisensiert under enCreative CommonsNavngivelse-Ingen Bearbeidelse 3.0 Norge lisens.

The youth of today:

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for
authority, they show disrespect to their elders…. They no longer
rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their
legs, and are tyrants over their teachers.”

“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have
no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all
restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes
for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are
forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.”

Quote: Well, both are commonly attributed to Socrates.

Some things never change.