I will whisper..

Journal entry – September 19th, 2010…

A corpse in the alley this morning, 3 gunshot wounds to the gut proves his guilt in the gang battle last night.

The world is afraid of me.
I’ve seen it’s true face.

The streets are extended gutters, and the gutters are full of blood.

… and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.

The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists, and when all the whores and politicians will look up and shout: “Save us”

I’ll look down and whisper…

No.

First day of internship.

Well, here we are. The most crucial part of my education. To be an intern isn’t easy, I can tell you that without hesitation. There were kids everywhere. It’s easy to understand why there’s a teachers lounge. Let’s make some rules for Norwegian teacher interns:

Nr.1: The moment you step into a school as an adult, teacher or not, you become a role model. Behave like one.
Nr.2: You should speak directly to the kids, they usually don’t understand irony all that often.
Nr.3: Don’t hesitate to ask for help, that’s why you’ve got the intern teacher.
Nr.4: Remember: you’re not alone.
Nr.5: Don’t talk down to any student, they don’t like it, and it might create a “domino” effect.
Nr.6: Don’t try to eat gum or any other form for “candy” around the kids.
Nr.7: Try to think about your oral hygiene, coffee might not fall in the favored smell for a 12 year old.
Nr.8: The 7 P’s : Proper planning and preparation prevent piss-poor performance.
Nr.9: They are here to learn, not to play.
Nr.10: Always be able to explain why you did as you did.

That’s all for now, I’m not able to write much more right now, but hey, it’s my birthday!
But by god, I hate mondays…

I want a milkshake.

/Fluffy

Lectures.

I can’t really wrap my head around some of the professors at school. It seems like they are living within their own personal bubble, which exist outside our understanding of time and space. I have one professor, a great guy by all means, a bit awkward maybe, but still. He’s one of my lecture holders in Norwegian, he’s renown for his great use of rhetoric in his language, and is overall a great guy.

But it seems like he doesn’t grasp the basic concept of human social relation. He doesn’t understand when people aren’t interested in exactly the same thing he talked about last time, nor when he’s reading the entire two pages (Wall) of text that we’ve just read moments before.

It’s not like I feel this is a bad thing, he’s just strange. But I like his intelligence. It’s one of the things I’ve always liked about people…

A thing that I respect…

I respect people with intelligence. I feel rather appreciative when I meet people with genuine understanding of their own opinions on various subjects. But most of all I enjoy people with a strong personality. Like we say in Norway: People with bones in their noses.

That sentence probably didn’t make much sense for my English readers, but it’s relevant nevertheless. But my point is, when a person’s able to talk and converse with genuine understanding of the subject, without having to pause with “eeeeeh” all over the place; I relish in the moment.

When time pass without me getting any intellectual input of any kind, I become a subject of withdrawal for the stimuli. It’s strange to feel alone with nobody to talk to when there’s only empty eyes in response to my inquiries…

But hey, happiness!

Quote of the day

Lady Gaga appears on the cover of a once renowned and well respected rock publication. We’re pretty sure that means music is dead…

She’s hot though.

PS:

Ask me a question, I’ll gladly respond in my next post.
Please!

/Fluffy

The university of Stavanger, Norway

Hay,

I’m currently writing for only one thing. I’m a student at UIS, the university of stavanger, norway trying to get my degree as a teacher in Norwegian and a few other classes. The point of me writing this will more and more be shown by my posts, but mostly trying to keep an update on how I find it at this place both socially and theoretically.

I’m to this date a Senior Officer at the humanistic faculty board, a member of the “PS” board and a proud member of the GLU 5-10 2010 class.

At these different jobs I do various things. In what we in norway call SFS HUM, the humanistic faculty of the university, I’m charged with the responsibility of keeping track and handling student complaints and to investigate if there’s anything wrong for the common student. I haven’t been charged with a concrete responsibility at PS, but I will at the next board meeting.

It’s been intense this far, but I’ll get deeper in the future.

Question of the day

There have been questions about usage of phones in class (for minors, i.e 1 – 10 th grade schools). And I’m not going to let it go. My best friend,  and co-writer of this blog, sister got her phone taken from her by the teacher because (her POW, but that’s the only one I know, and as a result, that’s what I’m writing.) her phone signaled a message once while in class. She wasn’t using it.

Still, it got removed from her possession. I argue that this is one of the most raw examples of behavoristic pedagogic psychology I’ve witnessed in the passed years.  For those of you ignorant of the behavoristic pedagogic psychology, here’s basics:

Stimuli – consequence.

For every action, there’s a consequence. And for that consequence, there’s an action and another consequence, and so on and so forth. And during my education in the practical uses of this science we’re warned of the behavoristic practice. Because it’s easy to overdo the punishment for a broken rule to a degree that the child don’t obey because it respects the rules, or because it’s feeling of respect to the people with authority, but out of fear.

The fear of the punishment that will come it’s way once the misdeed has been done. And that’s not good pedagogic practice. A student of any grade should not be forced with fear to be obedient. The entire point of me saying this is that it requires something to be corrected in the mind of the oppressor: It require the oppressor to think of the student as an animal. An animal that will only learn when something is taken or given to it. Which is one of the key parts of a behavoristic practice: Every action ends with a consequence.

On the other hand it’s a cruel practice, which I’ll illustrate in the following paragraph:

We tried to reason with the teacher in question using hard-hitting arguments like: In norway it’s illegal for schools to keep property of a student or other human being over night. It goes under the same law that prevents them from keeping students back after the school day is over. Unless they write it in the school’s rule and order manual. Which have become more and more  usual, frankly.

But to the case at hand: Our most hard-hitting argument was the most honest one: It’s the only means of communication between my best friends mom and his sister. She’s got friends she’s hanging out with over 2 miles away, which means that there’s no way she’ll be able to communicate with her mother, unless she’s got a cell phone. Think, what if something happened to her? What then? She wouldn’t be able to call for help, because her phone would be in her teachers’ drawer!

I would have let this slide if it hadn’t been for his in your face attitude. I even discussed this with the inspector at another school. Where they both replied with: That’s the rules, we can’t afford to make any exceptions. but to me it’s absurd! Why are we putting people at risk just because they forgot to put their “silent mode on”?

I’ve got one reply on why: Because phones these days have cameras. Which means that they’re able to take pictures of people in uncomfortable situations. Hard argument to discuss right there, isn’t it? But I’ argue of the fact that when i was a kid, we still got our phones taken from us, and back then they didn’t even have cameras on them.

The reply on this is just the same. They create noise and they’re able to take pictures. And for that exact reason, we can’t allow phones in a learning environment where taking pictures would create a distraction and / or become an uncomfortable situation.

But to me, it’s not answer enough. Why keep the phone over night? Wouldn’t make more sense to let the student have it back after class? Or at worst after the school day is over? The inspector smiled as I asked the question, and the answer followed: “That would make a harsh enough punishment for not following the rules.”

After this I were tumbling around in my own head thinking about what kind of a society we’re living in. This just wasn’t making any sense. In a family like my best friends’, it’s crucial with cell phones, they need it simply because of his mom is a single mom. It’s impossible for her to keep track on both my best friend, being the same age as me, and his little sister being a few years younger. I’m a big brother over two teenagers myself, and I have problems keeping track on where they are every day myself. I know how it is.

And is it really something we should risk?
The day where she’s been in an accident and there’s nothing we can do, or her, for that matter, because she don’t have a phone to call for help with. We’ll be sorry.

I’m just sorry…

/Fluffy

What does it all mean?

We live today; with a probability where we think we live. But I beg to question who really know if we’re living or if we’re just pretending to? This question was brought to me by chance, but it’s still quite relative. I wonder, who makes the rules? Who told you that real love is to live, faithfully with the one you love / loved and feel happy for your partners success?

There are 143,5 cm between two rails on the rail-road. And you may use this as a metaphor of how we’ve been presented to real love. IF we differ from these 143,5 centimeters, you’re a deviant and an outsider. But is that a bad thing? Who made it this way? And what’s the point of following rules without a physical manifestation in our world other than; “they have existed for centuries” and “that’s just how it’s always been.”?

The reason it’s 143,5 cm between the rail-roads is because of the Romans during the roman empire. If you put two roman horses beside of each other in front of a chariot, you’ll get 143.5 centimeters in total. This way, people would not need to change their tools of measurement from making the Roman roads and those required for the rail-roads. As a result of this we have the same measurement to this day, making all kinds of complications. During the assembly of the Columbia space freight, the scientists realized that they had to reconstruct the fuel tank because of the transport complications the current design would make in transit.

This way, the Roman empire still make its mark on the society of today, but is this really the way we want to go? Do really people know why we keep it this way?

Do you know why things never change?

It’s because people don’t want to spend money on it. We have too much going on to care for the expansion of railroads in America and Europe. Another thing that would have to be modified because of this is the entire rail road industry. Every train made today is made with 143,5 centimeters between each side of their wheels.

Back to the original statement; The original comprehension of what a "perfect" relationship is today where they stay together for ever and the love never falters. But is not this a problem when people go as far as turning themselves unlucky just to keep their partner happy? I question this philosophy as there will be more and escalating problems of depth as the persons resolve inevitably will falter.

SSB (Norwegian Statistic Bureau) lately released statistics proving that 2/3 of all marriages break before 10 years.

Does that mean that our perspective on perfect is about to fail?
I would certainly say so.

On the other side, we’re alive. Or are we just thinking we’re alive? What if the life you’re living are just an illusion? The universal truth seems to be that the only thing that’s real is what other people tell you. Do you believe what the "news" tell you, or do you filter out what you feel is the point of it?

Do you realize what you’ve been considering as the news the past 15 years?

Let me recap:

• A person kills a lot of people
• Nature kills a lot of people
• A show that just aired experienced a bigger success than expected
• The conflict in the middle east still haven’t got any closer to an end
• A celebrity breaks up / and or get engaged
• A new war
• Politicians acting like idiots

That’s about it, isn’t it?

Is this every thing that matters in this world? Is that all that seems to be mentionable?

I find this horribly saddening…

Sincerely,

Ole Henrik Berg

 

PS:NOTE

UGPP will be making a Beer review page, just for kicks.
starting in January 2010. Let me know what you think!

Christmas

And finally, it’s here, same as last year, and the year before last year, and the year before that.
December 24th 2009, Christmas eve.
I’m assuming that everyone knows how Christmas started, but I’m gonna tell you anyway.
As of now, due to religion, we have this tradition, and it all started 2009 years ago according to religion.
It’s the 24th of December, year 0 (zero) and on this day, baby Jesus was born.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth, born from the virgin Mary, and assumed around the 24th of December.
He was born in Bethlehem, and although people believe he was born on the year 0 (zero), some claim he was actually born some time between 6-0 BC..
Now here’s a dilemma, if he was born 6-4 BC, he’s actually born before his time period.
Since BC is short for Before Christ.
The reason we live in 2009, and not 2015 is because of early medieval attempts to count the years from his birth.
Therefor giving an unaccurate result.

As you can see, I’ve highlighted “Christ” in Christmas, the word Christmas originated as a compound meaning  ”Christ’s Mass”.
And now you know that aswell.
Mostly, Christmas is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday, also in countries where christianity isn’t very known.
And as you know, Christmas is celebrated with gifts, good food, and good company.
The gifts we give to each other is a symbol on the gifts we would give to Jesus Christ, it’s his birthday after all.
This is what Christianity says.
The other person involved in Christmas is good old Santa Clause, the old man with the white long beard, and the fantastic red suit.

Originally, Santa Clause was developed out from the 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre), Saint Nicholas.
I’m not gonna write much about him, but Saint Nicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, and thus being the model for Santa Clause’s gift-giving phenomena.
And one funny thing about Santa Clause, is that many parallels have been drawn between him and the well know god from Norse paganism, Odin.
“According” to  Snorri Sturluson, one of the parallels drawn between Santa Clause and Odin, is that his horse could leap great distances, gives rise to comparisons to Santa Claus’s reindeer.

With this in mind, a little information on Christmas eve wont destroy your celebration.
Merry Christmas to all.

Written by Daniel Lange

Videogame and movie violence, and how it influences us.

Many people react towards what their children is playing, watching or interacting with in terms of videogames, movies or online content.
Does this really do as much damage as they believe?

There is plenty of violent content in this world, and it wont stop until it eventually will look and feel like the real world.
Bringing emotions into games is something the latest greatest games try to inflict. And with titles like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, they really pushed it far, they pushed it so far that people reacted negative to the result..

Mass murder of civilians, and apparently teaching the players wrong rules that apply to real war.
And some wonder, is this really okay? Well, some people think not, and when I mean people I mean Trial and Pro Juventute, which is two Human rights organizations.
But for the more casual gamers, we really don’t care this much…

When it comes to feelings, and emotions, this is just getting implemented inside of the newer games.
The producers just figured out that playing with peoples emotions pays of, as it gives a more immersive, and exciting experience.
In movies however this have been something that movie producers have thought about all the time.

But, how does this really act back at us?
How are we influenced about what we see, read  and hear?
Well, it’s not a big surprise that people react to different material in different ways, and some people react stronger, and get more influenced by the material they either see, read or hear.
But when it comes down to one thing, it’s all about who to blame is someone was influenced by a movie, or videogame if they committed a crime..

For those in their late 10′s this can also be a problem, even though these people have a strong mind, even the most disturbing games can do damage, for example the murder of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who got repeatedly battered and stabbed, and died from the brutal event inflicted by his older friend (17).
According to Giselle Pakeerah, Stefan’s mother and also a research nurse, the killer had mimicked a game called Manhunt.

Manhunt is a violent game where the objective is to execute people in various twisted ways in order to survive throughout the game.

Another example in how content might influence us, is the case about Jamie Bulger.
This is a sad case where three-year old Jamie got brutally murdered by two older boys at the age of 10.
His body was found decapitated in half near Walton & Anfield railway station.
Jamie went to the New Strand Shopping Centre with his mother on February the 12th, 1993.
They went into a shop inside the mall, and a few minutes later little Jamie wondered out of the shop.
Not long after he was approached by the two older guys, they won his confidence and took him for a 4 km walk and then attacked him.

The two boys was said to be influenced by the movie Child’s Play 3, where the doll named Chucky goes around and inflicts terror.

But, what does these examples say? That movies, and videogames like these makes us killers?
No, we choose what we are, and we choose our actions.
People say that we will all get influenced by what we see, read, or hear. But I remember that I read some place that the once that play violent first person shooters are the once that are the calmest.
And I really agree. I myself play a lot of first person shooters, but I’m not influenced by it.
I’m not an aggressive person and I’ve been told that I am to kind some times.

And in these two cases, who are the once to blame? The videogame, and movie? Or is it a higher power?
And when I mean higher power, I mean parents, and the once who has shown this content to the once who committed the crime.
A 10-year-old isn’t really conscious for their actions, and therefor isn’t aware of what’s right, or what’s wrong.
Therefor the person who is responsible for their actions, are their parents, or the once who have shown this content to them.
The age restriction on movies and videogames are there for a reson, and should not be overlooked..

And like I said, we are responsible for our actions, it is wrong to put the blame on a movies and videogames.

Post by Daniel Lange

The fear of my peer

As of late, my mind has been buzzing on why people group up together, and we may all see the easy and obvious reasons why we all do, at some point in our life, but I mainly wonder about the reason why we band together and at some point become agressive.

Well my own story may not be of much help, as I had a great adolscense, with mostly no negativity in it. I still stand by that statement, as my foot has been embedded in the spirit of positivity with a great tattoo. But as of late I have begun noticing group-voilence between people. Both Norwegian and immigrants have these tendenzies, but I mainly refer to immigrant youth societies. This is because we all tend to generalize these types of groups right from the start, which in most cases is overrated. As seen through my young eyes I feel that I can bring another view to the table, which older men and women can’t include themselves in. 

“We are strong together, we are one together” a friend said to me once, and I never really got that one, untill now. Alone we are nothing, only a mere chicken for the pickings, and when a young boy, white or black skin colour is of no importance, we all band toward eachother. We group up in fear towards the other man, who is different, in both colour and culture. things that are strange to us, like different views of religion especially a Religion which may include more gods than the one we are carrying, may feel strange, and even wrong. This is natural as when different viewpoints in Religion defines the culture. The Indian man may be more indifferent to things that we value and the other way around. We all claim to have the right lifestyle, and claim to best everyone in every aspects of life. This is problem number one.

Media also tend to blow up stories that include the minority in our Nation, even going as far as refering to gang-voilence or the persons skincolour. This creates this basic fear of the unknown, and suddenly we all spawn a terrorist out of the harmless Imam on the bus. You have all read that in an educational book somewhere, but I am not joking, this really affect all of us. This makes an ignorant and fearfull son-of-a-bitch out of us automaticly.

This makes us group up with like-minded persons, who share the same opinions. And when we are strong we tend to be braver that we would be when alone, and in some cases we become so brave that we neglect strange ways, even start to mutually hate it. We start to not tolerate it, rather pushing it away than facing it, fearing it even more. At this point there is no going back, and it all usually ends in voilence to some degrees.

This may be the cause that we all pit the other man against eachother so often, and even makes us “hate” the other man. The other man is not like us, invades our land, taking our work from us, and lives of what would be ours. This is bullshit, as we are all actually equals, in both heritage at some point, and righ to live the life we all want. But if we really are in a big family then why do we hate eachother so much? The older generation seem to be the blame in this. Ignorance and fear grips us all, but it is actually stronger in the older generation. Thank you mom for bringing me up to be this responsible, but I fear that you are overreacting! You have told me from the beginning to stay away from the scary world, in hope of shielding me from alle the “dangers” of this world, when in fact this world is my playground. I am glad that you brought me up not fearing the odd and new, but the “other man” was not the barberian that you would have me believe. There was no need to fear him, only embrace him, and his strange ways. For one day, his ways will not be that strange anymore, and rather familiar. I will not fear him, nor hate him. I will love the other man as my brother, and treat him with respect as I would my own kind.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Written by:
Espen Dyrland

Emo-ism

A scene that are as ever growing as they’ve always been, have rose up to show, yet again after a few years of dormant slumber in Norwegian streets. There are still a few of us who remember how it started back in 2005 when people first prehended the fab, and some of them changed rapidly over night. At first it was only the “hardcore” that converted, and some of those who had been in the scene suddenly became “famous” and trend starters here in Norway.

But strangely enough there were people that found the newly initiated fab. hideous. And the bad thing is that they were right. If we look what way the “emo scene” took the youth of today, there would be evidence to prove that youth shrink visits have increased and furthermore, wella is making more money than ever on black hair color.  But, as the evidence provided shows; There have been absolutely no positive outcome from the emo scenes arrival.

A usual myth within the emo crowd is the behavior of self hurt. Lots of uninformed souls still think of this as a rite of passage to becoming an emo. Thus it’s become a usual occurrence in the emo community to do so as a reaction to the common opinion. We find also the fact that as a reaction on the emo scene there have been a slight increase in body piercings in the common youth. But the question I beg to answer is if we can all trace back these encounters back to the coming of the emo scene?

What possibly may be the only fact that can be re-traced back to the emo scene would be the need to make a break from parents and people of authority. This is a punk inspired act, confined to the emo / punk scene after the “ending” of the public punk scene in England anno 1970. But as the emo scene have been adapted to each individual it’s hard to clearly define the degree of punk pollution. As it seems, the scene have been adapted to fit more to the younger parts of the national youth population.

Evidently, most punks were in their early twenties and up to the early thirties. In contrast, most emo kids are in the ages between 13 to 19, as most people get to their senses at that point. Another recurrence would be the more frequent use of alcohol or other synthetically produced substances to quench the drag of their “unique”  feelings. As this differs from the other scenes, there are just no way to understand where this fashion originated from. Going out on a limb, a person might say that the probability of this action would be given the same attributes as the earlier mentioned; self hurt “rite of passage”.

To be on the right side of the tracks here:
No one in our administration does carry any kind of grudge against these lost souls out there. But it seems like the mixture of these radically different kinds of people, have created more problems than it originally solved. There are just no other scene that might even come close to compare against the rapid growth and stubborn tendencies found in the members of mentioned group, but as someone surely would mention, there have been harsh reactions on the genre.

As a closing quote;

“Isn’t being put in a genre of people punishment enough?”

Sincerely
Ole H. Berg

Johnny Cash, and what a bitch he was

After watching the movie “walk the line” with a friend of mine, I’ve been thinking. Wow, what a bitch Johnny Cash was. God forbid, he’s a good man, by all means, he fitted perfect for the time period, but what would he be if he grew up in the world of today? He’d be just like the Norwegian singer “Sissel Kyrkjebø”.

Which is a person well famous in certain groups of people, but she’s just for particularly interested beings. 

Thus, it’s rightful to say that he does not deserve his fame. Especially after his death. He would have been labeled as emo, partially due to his depressing and dark themes in his songs, but mostly because of his “life is worthless” attitude and/or constantly black clothing.

He started playing in a band back in Memphis (since all great music comes from Memphis; Ref: Elvis), Tennessee, the man in black signed for the same label Elivs had signed for years before him. But before he could sign for Sun, the music label, he presented gospel music. Tragically enough, rumor have it that the producer: Sam Phillips told him to go home and sin, then come back with a song he could sell. But Cash refused to confirm the allegations against his old producer in the interview in 2002.

Even before this, he married Vivian Liberto in Santi Anne’s catholic church, only to file for divorce 12 years and 4 kids later, due to Mr Black’s constant alcohol and amphetamine abuse, constant touring and affairs with other women. It seems that he’s a really good guy, or is it just me? Let us backtrack, the year is 1950’s early 1960’s, where Christianity (conservatively) ruled as a general “moral code” in USA.

By the time he released his most famous songs; he was 27, married, 4 kids, and soon to be divorced. As he carried on into the 60’s he got an even worsening image, during the late 50’s his addiction started to spiral out of control into a problem that he soon could not keep hidden. Publicly notice came in 1965 where he were arrested in El Paso, Texas for trafficking narcotics, but the charges was laid of as the nature of the drugs was prescription amphetamines hidden inside his guitar.

He went on to driving his career into a halt around the 1960’s where his drug addiction was at his worst, creating a few “concept albums”, but nothing that really matter in the general opinion. The same period he parted with his Vivian Liberto, due to his worsening addiction and destructive behavior. Thus, after a highly (drug induced) Christian experience in the Nickajack Cave where Mr. Black wanted to “just lay down and die”, he came out a new man, throwing his addictions behind him and begin a new life.

In 1968, two years after divorcing his former wife, he remarried with his career long companion June Carter, co writer on the song Ring of Fire.

After following years, he began the 70’s with a world that was moving to fast for him and people began to loose interest after the song “Man in Black” aired and found it’s place with the number one badge for over 20 weeks on the top twenty in the country.

After this there’s just not been much to say about Mr Black, other than what I think; What an ass. After this brief  explanation of his career, it’s obvious that this is not what we would like to show our kids as one of the greatest people in history, is it? It’s like putting Lady Gaga’s Love Game on a “Hits for kids”.

Oh wait. We have…
(Ref; Hits for kids 22, if I remember right.)
But that’s for another post.

Point is, I don’t understand that we wanted this much moral decay in a time that stood for the Christian values that should provide a deep moral ground for the youth at the time? Since it’s pretty much the same story with both Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Sadly.

Sincerely
Ole H. Berg