The Election: Introductory comment

The election is over, the Democrats “won,” and Rumsfeld’s gone. Please, oh pretty please, do not let the newly elected Democrats rest on their non-existent laurels. For the past few years, the Democratic Party has taken beating after beating without much protest. The Daily Show provided a good analogy through Vance DeGeneres, who compared the Democratic strategy for victory to waiting for a drunken assailant to hit himself with his own bottle (the “victor” eventually falls unconscious due to the continuous beatings). Nancy Pelosi’s call for the Democratic “mandate” is reminiscent of Bush’s “mandate” in the 2000 elections; some of the differences are that Bush’s “mandate” came through a skewed perspective on the US voting system, the indifference of the US voting population at large, and the administration’s penchant for providing alternative perspectives on reality, while the current Democratic mandate comes from the US population’s distaste for the war, recent scandals that exposed some of the excesses within the Republican Party and “conservatives” that brought about massive resentment, and the Democratic adaptation of the administration’s “spin alley.”

The Republican Party lost, which can hardly be counted as surprise. The Democratic Party was merely there to pick up the spoils.

One month into the life of the working person...

I have now worked in a non-student capacity for approximately a month. It is a change in terms of work hours and in terms of the severe reduction of my spare time. Beyond the three hours I have at home after work each weekday (I get home at approximately 18:00-18:30 and aim at going to bed close to 21:00), I have only got the weekends for good ol' relaxation. Oh woes!

Granted, I spend about an hour working out after work each day! It is quite nice as I have my own office and the structure of working for seven and a half hours helps me with maintaining discipline for keeping it up. The progress is coming on gradually, and I look forward to seeing the change come Christmas-time. I have attained the habit of eating three meals per day, along with two snacks (usually fruit, soup, and a protein shake).

Hmm...must find something more...interesting...for the next post :-D

Nick Vikør Green working? Say it ain't so!

Yes, I have now started my first actual outside-of-the-home-and-school job :-)

I began this past Monday (yesterday) and am now working for KILDEN, a sub-section of Forskningsrådet ("Research Advisory") that focuses on women and gender studies. It is a temporary position that lasts from (and including) October to the end of January (a four-month position, or, as I like to think of it, a semester-long position). My work primarily consists of maintaining a national database for candidates for corporate boards of directors and assisting the customers registered within the database. Beyond this I will also participate in and assist various projects within KILDEN as best as I can. Unofficially, my work includes odd-jobs such as watering the plants, maintaining the copy machine, etc (menial work that just doesn't cross anyone else's minds).

It's a full-time job (or close to) at 37.5 hours a week (which include a paid half-hour for lunch each day). I've got a few holidays in December (Christmas Eve, First and Second Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and one day of my choosing), and the work is thankfully the kind that gets done at the office (meaning that I won't have to take any projects home or work overtime). The pay is the nicest part though, which is (I believe) approximately $4,500.00 (prior to income taxes, 30% in Norway) per month. I look forward to my first paycheck :-D

That's it for me! My spare time has been drastically reduced by this development, so I must make the most of it :-)

- Nick

My Return?

Greetings Whoever-May-Be-Reading-This!

I have had a long hiatus from my Blogspot and am now returning to write about current events, thoughts, and rants (primarily focused on or based off of yours truly; other people can start their own blogs if they want :-) ). I recently moved back to Norway and am enjoying the post-Miami-conclusion period. I spent seven years in Florida and have much to make up for this side of the Atlantic Ridge.

I currently have three blog and blog-esque spots that I use/want to use. Hence, I will split my information along three lines: first, there is Blogger/Blogspot where I will blog and talk about my general life and all things PG-rated; second, there is LiveJournal where I will post pictures that I deem to be fit for mass-consumption; third, there is NormalGay (Warning! NG contains information and pictures not suitable for minors and contains a warning page to that effect) where I will blog on the more risque :-)

My LiveJournal - http://potentialhope.livejournal.com/

My NormalGay - if you want a link to my NG blog, you can e-mail me for it. Please make sure that you are of majority age (whatever age you are considered an adult; commonly 18) before asking. If "younglings" are looking for risque and naughty stuff on Net, they can find it without my help.

I don't intend on using Yahoo! 360 (Xanga) for either of my Y! accounts, and the MySpace tick has yet to infest itself in my scalp.

Beyond this general update, today I have discovered that I will not finish watching Serial Experiments Lain (the story and action move far too slow for my tastes and I am irretrivably bored by abstract discussions of reality and what reality consists of) and that I am keen on the comic-made-comic-video-with-voiceover Broken Saints. To summarize it from what I've seen thus far: picture a Terminator-style apocalypse guided by a Christian Satan (who is, in this case, cold nothingness instead of pride-before-fall) with the Christian God's seemingly unorthodox candidates for sainthood gathering to prevent this end-of-the-world; all of it takes place in a contemporary setting, invoking the current US occupation of Iraq and other current events. The art is attractive, the music is effective, and the story is right up the alley of things I like.

Hope all is well with everyone and people are taking care of themselves and theirs.

- Nick