anderstornvig.dk

This is going to be my last post for now about ways in which I want to change my life style – yes, I just realized that’s what I’m doing with all my plans. I simply can’t squeeze more into my weekly schedule and I guess it’s not that interesting to you anyway.

I’m going to take up running. At least four days a week, probably from monday till thursday. It’s no secret that I could stand to lose a little weight but that’s actually not my primary motivation. Inspired by this post on this blog which I recently stumbled upon, I want to energize my mornings by getting up early around 6 am and run. At least I want to try it because I’ve been so freaking tired in the mornings last year. It made it hard to stay awake during lectures, and hard in general to get anything done the first one or two hours at school. By running I want to change this, and according to the before mentioned post it should also boost my energy level and thereby my productivity the rest of the day. A downside is that I have to be in bed early too which doesn’t suit my nature well. But I reckon around 11 pm will be fine, giving me seven hours of sleep.

The first day of this experiment will be monday September 1st and the route will be 1 km (planned on http://www.iform.dk/polopoly.jsp?d=1756&a=10447, please enlighten me if you know better sites for that). Laugh all you want but be aware that I’ve never willingly excercised before and I have to start somewhere. After two weeks – that is 8 days of running – I’m going to add another km and so forth. If I’m not able to run all of the distance in two weeks I’ll instead add another week to the same distance.

This is my plan to energize my mornings and, as stated in my previous post, hopefully I’ll make it, keep it up and eventually grow to like running.

Due to increasing back pain over the summer I was finally forced to do the inevitable, join a gym (advise from an osteopath and a masseur). There’s many different options in Aalborg and since I have no experience whatsoever with equipment, facilities etc. I decided to go for the cheapest. UniFitness is a relatively new gym owned by the university and it is therefore reserved for student as well as employees and employers of the university. It’s only 90 dkr a month – half of any other place in town.

Because of the price, this place is obviously attractive for students who aren’t the wealthiest. And it is indeed very popular. But apparently the university doesn’t at all meet the demand. The spaces are limited and to get in, interested had to meet up at the office personally this morning 8:30 am. A hopelessly old fashion way of signing up to something these days, I think. Hopeless or not, I had to obey the system, drive to Aalborg and get up early, earlier than I thought. Yesterday I spoke to a mate who signed up last year, and he said that I’d have to be there long before 8.30 to get in. I figured 6:45 would be all right.

So.. Got up 5:45 am. Put some early Smashing Pumpkins in my ears and drove through heavy rain on my bike. I made 6:45 and there were about 15 in front of me – complete silence when I got there obviously because nobody knew each other.Nothing wrong about that, it was just a bit weird : ). So I threw my jacket on floor and sat on it up against a wall for nearly two hours, listening to some This will destroy you and eventually Karl Pilkington. It wasn’t the worst queue I’ve been in, but it was boring and painful to sit there on the floor struggling to get comfortable. After an hour no position was comfortable.

Anyway, I got a spot and right now I’m glad I did it. Good choice to meet early – I’m not sure everyone of the 150, still queued up when I left, got a spot. Last year only 50 of about 200 got in. Crazy popularity which the university clearly should take advantage of. But maybe there’s some problems with a state-subsidized gym competing with privately owned gyms. I assume it’s state-subsidized.. And technically the privately owned support the state-subsidized financially through taxes – unfair. Talking over my head now so I’ll just stop.

I hope it’s going to be good and I actually look forward to trying it. My plan is to go at least twice a week. Hopefully I can keep that up.

Some days ago I got an idea. Maybe it’s because I need to get back to school, but I really want to expand my knowledge. Make it wider. As it is right now it’s quite narrow, limited to specific things that I know a fair amount about. I have only digged into things I needed or were forced to know something about. It could be due to interest or schoolwork. My narrow-mindedness has become particularly bad since I started on the university last year. Before that I was regularly learning new stuff in school.

The way I am going to do this is make a list of topics of my interests, pick a topic, process it to an unknown extend, finish it and pick a new one. There has to be no pressure. The picking of topics I haven’t really sorted out yet but it can be anything – science, space, history, biology, psychology, people. I probably won’t pick something that involves computers. There’s enough of that in school. I don’t want “news”-knowledge either. I have no particular wish to know about stuff going on in the world right now. Sure, I’ll inevitably pick up on some stories here and there, but it won’t be knowledge I’ll focus on. It is too flightily, isn’t it?

I reckon some topics will be quite big, and of course my intention is not to become an expert in them. I just want to know the basics, excite myself, be able to explain a bit about it, gain some perspective, use it in crosswords, Trivial Pursuit, quizzes, etc. My sources of wisdom can also be anything – e.g. the library, books, the Internet, magasins, documentaries, TV in general. I’m probably also going to take a few notes to the topics to connect things in my head.

I imagine that each topic will take about two weeks to a month to research to a satisfying extend, an hour or two every other day. It all depends how interesting I find it.

Actually, the idea originates in the Ricky Gervais radio show where they talk mostly drivel and amusing stories but also about many interesting topics. One topic which I found particularly fascinating was evolution. How we, the world, scientifically got to the point where we are now. I have picked this to be my first topic to explore.

For now however I’m going to postpone the take-off of this plan. Just till I get settled in Aalborg and school again.

Today I finished five weeks of work at Supergros the Herning department – the same place as last year. Great to be moving on. Supergros is a big, danish grosserer that delivers food, drinks and loads of other goods to all of Denmark and various other countries.

What I have been doing there is driving around on a truck and pack these goods from the huge store room on pallets. There’s about fifty others of my kind and we’re basically at the bottom of the hierarchy. But it’s all right. I like that the only worry you have is which order you’re going to pick the next time – is it too big, too small or does it fit. It’s all about timing so you won’t have to work over – even though I haven’t been afraid of doing overtime. Most of the people out there are all right, and when you come home, you can forget all about work and just do nothing – something I’m not used to from school. My mate Morten – who has also been working there, for a year actually – made a video using his cell. I’ll see if I can get that sometime soon and maybe post it to give you an insight to the everyday life at Supergros.

I’d also like to tell something about what kept me alive out there. It is pretty humdrum and usually it is the breaks that keep you alive (a pre-caution: to workers of Supergros, don’t get me wrong here, it’s a great place to work and I’d like to come back next year) but I found something else to boost time a bit.

A couple of years ago I started listening to the pod cast of the Ricky Gervais show and when I finished that, I moved on to the radio show. There’s many episodes since it ran every week some years ago. So I never finished it. But then a few weeks ago when I sat on my truck at Supergros and scrolled down on my ipod, I came across The Ricky Gervais radio show. I started to listen to it again, loved it and didn’t stopped until every episode was heard. I really love this show, it’s just brilliant even though it’s just three blokes talking. It stares Ricky Gervais obviously and Stephen Merchant, the brains behind The Office and Extras (which I also love), and Karl Pilkington, indescribable. Sure, it may work best when you do stupid work that doesn’t require much brain activity, but I’d still recommend you to listen to it or at least try it. I’ve attached a small audio clip here as an appetizer. Enjoy!

Contact me if you want to know where to get all of the shows.

I like to watch movies, especially good ones. Lately I’ve become more passionate about finding these, watching them and dig further into them if they’re worth it. So what kind of movies do I like? I don’t really have a clear, unambiguous definition of my taste. I do know what kind of movies I don’t like though, and also what movies I probably won’t like. Knowing that, why not just invert it to figure out which movies I like? But there’s also the middle ground, isn’t there? Different levels of good movies, movies that one doesn’t hate but also doesn’t love.

What I’m searching for is the very peek. The best movies of all time in my opinion, and it is this taste I can’t really define. But I want movies that leave me dumbfounded and completely blown away, like when the credits start rolling and you just stare at the reflection of the screen for minuts. I want movies that don’t lose their energy no matter how many times you watch them. Movies that are too good to be slapped on a DVD, stuffed in a box and stashed on a shelf only with its back visible, disappearing in the crowd.

So, I decided to share my findings so far in form of a top ten. I don’t even know if I like the idea of “boxing” pieces like these but I’ll do it without ranking them, so I guess it’ll be fine.

This is my top ten. For now at least, I reckon some it’ll change over time. All highly but also subjectively recommended by me of course. As said, they aren’t ranked by anything, just listed randomly. The “top ten” limit is just there to set a limit, so don’t put too much into that. I’m be able to mention loads of others but I won’t.

• Into the wild
• Garden State
• Dogville
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Trainspotting
• The usual suspects
• Once
• Cashback
• One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• La Vita è bella

That’s it. I actually had a hard time deciding on these, but bit of an anticlimax to this entry, right? I guess it would have to be read aloud by David Letterman or someone like that : )..

My vacation from the university is coming to an end. And there sure has been some great times.

Roskilde Festival 2008

The first week of my vacation, I spent on the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. I decided to go despite my wet experience last year. Fortunately I was lucky this year. In the morning around 9 am I’d wake up in the tent literally swimming in my own sweat. No matter how wasted I’d feel after a long night out I’d have to rip of my sticky sleeping bag, get up, struggle with my shoes – if I could find them – and eventually fiddle with the zipper desperate to get out. This would save me a few hours to peacefully hang in my chair (if it hadn’t been stolen) with a gentle wind in my hair… Till noon – then there would be absolutely nowhere in the entire area to hide from the burning sun. Gee it was hot.. But I shouldn’t complain. We had a great time. Some of the best concerts I went to would be Radiohead, Band of horses, Veto, Lulu Rouge and Tina Dickow. The programme wasn’t that good but there really is more to come for – the people, the primitiveness, the dimly lit, vivid camps and just the whole atmosphere. Sounds pretty, right?

Moving on. Another great part of my vacation was the caravanette trip to Italy with my family. It was basically the six of us stuffed in the car, 14 squaremetres of space tops, for two weeks. We decided to go south and – to mention the main destinations – ended up in Venice, Lago di Garda, Milano and the mountains in Switzerland. Great trip with a lot of beautiful sights.

On this vacation I also read a couple of books since I had a fair amount of time to kill on the road. I’ve never been much of a book enthusiast but if it’s good I tend to get quite hooked. One thing I like about reading books is that it really gives you time. Time to pause and wonder. Think about certain sentences you’ve just read. Anyway, the books I brought from home was Into the wild by John Krakauer and The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. I knew Into the wild from the excellent movie by Sean Penn and I really think the story is amazing. So was the book. The Lincoln Lawyer however turned out not to be my cup of tea. Sure, it was clever and all – just not my kind of book. I finished it because I had nothing else to read at the time. Later when we came to Milano – right to the centre of it actually – I found this great, quite charming bookstore. In the basement they had loads of English books. I decided to buy a couple of classics, The Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I finished The Animal Farm quite fast. It was clever, funny, grotesque – depicting the Russian revolution. Huckleberry Finn I’m still reading..

Unfortunately it hasn’t all been music, road tripping and fiction. I’ve also worked. In a week I’ve finished about five weeks in Supergros the Herning department. Like last year when I worked there, it’s been a struggle because I’ve had to get up at 6 am – which I’m not used to – and well, because the work isn’t the most exhilarating. But pushing the moaning aside, I’ve earned some money and that’s really all that counts.

What’s also made the working period a bit tough is the other job I’ve had and still haven’t finished. Among other things my dad imports these different kinds of floor sweepers and scrubbers, and in Denmark it’s required that a danish manual follows stuff you sell. So these are the ones I’ve literally spent hours maybe days translating. It’s really time consuming and a bit stupid. Flipping back and forth between Open Office and my dictionary translating stuff like “when you turn the wheel to the left, the machine goes left”. Whoa!? Really?! Not what I expected… Anyway it has also been a source of income, so it’s not so bad.

Even though I’m slowly getting used to wandering around in Supergros, I’m also looking forward to getting back in school. I feel like I need a break from my so-called vacation. That’s why I’ll soon be “Going on holiday” again.

My reason for writing this little entry occured recently – a week or so – when I attended a LAN party. At this LAN party we use this old school giant IBM hub we got for free – 12 ports, 10/100 MB/s. We have become quite attached to it over the years and we refuse not to use it. It’s gone through a couple of pimping sessions resulting in a golden colour with a silver text on the top saying “KCP”. We also installed a blue fan on the side to make it look even kinkier. It’s great, and it has this switch making us able to switch the speed to 10MB/s which we occasionally use when we get all nostalgic.

The network transfer

OK but back to business. At this event I had to copy a lot of gigabytes through this hub. So I did what I had to do – start Samba to smbmount, fire up mc and so on. I wasn’t far into the transfer before I realised that this went slower than a turtle on drugs. It certainly wouldn’t finish in my life time. Of course I reckon that it was an old hub, slow too and with games being played through it. I don’t really know where the bottleneck is. I still however blame Samba or some other Linux related issue. Transfering to my Windows partition when booted up in Windows didn’t cause any sluggishness.

The USB transfer

Later on I also copied files from an NTFS formatted external USB hdd (not mine). I plugged in the disk, fdisk’d, mounted and started the copy as I normally do with USB storage devices. Once again the problem occured. I experienced transfer rates just exceeding 4 maybe 5 MB’s per second. It was so annoying because I really couldn’t get anything done. And mc kept asking me questions about permissions for this and that. So there I sat for hours (while watching the Elephant Man actually) and hit Return.. Quite stupid.

The problem

Afterwards I did some research – some would call it completely unreliable and superficial but what the crap..

To access a NTFS formatted partition in Linux with writing permission one will have to use the ntfs-3g driver. It has become stable recently (2007-02-21 actually) and is still under heavy development. This is all good, and it sure is great with better Windows compatibility to the task of spreading Linux all over the universe. But like many other drivers for Linux this driver is reverse engineered. It’s not a popular term but when it’s the only option – because some companies won’t share their precious secrets – then it’s actually a quite admireable quest.

They have really done a great job with this driver. It works and it’s stable. Sadly – as I learned at KCP – it still lacks a bit behind on performance. Which I also read later here http://ntfs-3g.org/performance.html. It says “Please note that ntfs-3g is NOT optimized yet“. And of course it’s perfectly fair, just annoying. As a result the transfer – like with the network – went OK in Windows reaching tranfer rates 30-40 MB/s. Defragmentation (which NTFS occasionally wants) should help a tad. But that’s just too much trouble, isn’t it? So.. What’s a boy to do? Switch back to Windows aka. the bright side? Never!.. Wait for an improved version of the ntfs-3g driver? Sure.. Or just never put myself in a position where I have to deal with NTFS? Oh yeah. It’s an evil file system for Linux and there’s always an alternative way to go..