Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in ravyngyngvar's LiveJournal:

Thursday, December 18th, 2008
7:13 pm	Well, I'm an uncle! I never planned to write much on my LiveJournal at all. I only got an account in the first place so I could read my friends' protected messages. I see that it's been close to three years since my last message -- one out of very few. Still, when my sister calls to tell me that I've got a nephew, I've got to spread the word! Current Mood: jubilant (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 12th, 2006
6:21 pm	Blasphemy, Arnulf Øverland and "Christianity, the tenth plague." When solarbird wrote about the controversy surrounding the Mohammed caricatures that were originally published in Jyllands-Posten, and later reprinted in the Norwegian Christian weekly Magazinet, the Norwegian blasphemy paragraph (§142) came up. ( This is my personal translation: ) I notice that according to the footnote it has been altered in 1934, and later in 1973, but regardless, it has not been used since writer Arnulf Øverland was charged in 1933, and acquitted. It does not specify Christianity, and indeed, those who have been most vocal about resurrecting the law have not been Christians, but Muslims. The last time was during the publication of the Norwegian traslation of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Now, as a result of the cartoon controversy, the Muslim Al-Jinnah Foundation have reported Magazinet's editor Vebjørn Selbekk to the police, for endangering the lives of Norwegians, and also accuse him of blasphemy. So what was it that was not enough the last time? I have found the text on Oslo University's web site, but no English translation. I'll try to rectify that here, but so far, I've only gotten through Part I. I don't know if I'll continue. I'd welcome any help I can get, both with any mistakes in the translation, and if anyone would continue with the rest of the text. ( Christianity - the tenth plague, Part I ) Note the expression "executing baker for smith." This refers to Johan Herman Wessel's poem Smeden og Bageren, or The Smith and the Baker. Fortunately, I did find an English translation of this, so I don't have to do that as well. I've often suspected that poem of being a satire of the tale of the crucifixion of Jesus, but I've never heard anyone actually saying so. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 26th, 2005
2:11 am	Travelling to the USA, my first entry. Well, it might be time for me to make an entry, after having had a LiveJournal account since this summer. What prompted me was the news from Aftenposten this Wednesday. It seems like Herman Friele, coffee baron and mayor of Bergen, fell into the same trap as me. OK, I don't think I feel as bad about the screw-up any more. Readers of annathepiper's LiveJournal may remember my woes from last summer. technoshaman asked about the whats and hows of passing the moats surrounding Festung USA. Not being a blogger to speak of, I didn't talk about it. Then. Still, now that I've finally made the passage, and no longer feel that it was just my own stupid mistake, I think I'll go through the details. The details should apply if you're a citizen of Norway, or any other country that qualifies you for the Visa Waiver Program. The details can be found at the U.S. Department of State web site. First, there's the passport. It's got to be of the new machine-readable kind. It doesn't help if it's years until it issupposed to expire. If it's not machine readable, the U.S. won't accept it. For Norway, I think any passport issued since June 2004 is valid. This is the most important gotcha. Have the right passport, and visa if you need it. I should probably also mention that before entering the plane in Amsterdam, I got a pretty thorough interrigation about the contents of my luggage. They were particularly interested in knowing if I was the owner of all my luggage, and that no one could have slipped anything in since I packed it. They also asked me specifically about what electronic equipment I had. When I said, a digital camera and a cellphone, they asked if I also had the chargers for them. I didn't (wouldn't work with U.S. 110V sockets anyway), but I wonder why they were that specific. Know your luggage. On the plane was the thing I had prepared myself thoroughly for, having almost been bitten by it the last time. I had to fill out the green so-called I-94 form. In particular, I had to fill out the exact address where I would be staying. Last year, when I visited Paula Ford in Pennsylvania, I didn't think about carrying the address on me, as I would be picked up at the airport. Major mess, that. Fortunately, the nice people at KLM (as opposed to the grouchy staff at Dulles International Airport) knew what to do, and passed through security, found Paula, got her address, came back to me with it, which enabled me to fill out the form properly. I think the whole thing took me a better part of an hour. Apparently there's a different form for visitors with a visa, but the same thing applies. Know the exact address where you will be staying. A second thing about the I-94 form. There is a stub which will normally be stapled to your passport upon entry to the USA. This stub should be returned when you leave, as it proves to U.S. immigration that you left when you were supposed to. Apparently, forgetting this can get you into trouble if you enter the U.S. again later. However, the airline ahould take care of this for you. I didn't think about it until I was already on the plane back, and then I realized that the stub had already been removed. They must have done it when I showed my passport before entering the plane at the airport. Return the stub from the I-94 form. And this was also new: When I entered the U.S., I was fingerprinted and photographed. Wow. John Carpenter's vision is coming true, 8 years after he said it would. Keep your face and fingerprints with you at all times. Okay, that's all I can think of now. Current Mood: sleepy (4 Comments |Comment on this)