The lawn, since evidently melting snow is interesting.  ^_^

The news from the world are mostly unpleasant: Banks collapse, millions lose their jobs, bacteria become resistant, capitalism is dead, Mugabe lives and continues dictatorierating, and Barnes & Noble have bought Fictionwise. Oppression in Tibet goes from worse to even worse, and the world doesn’t much care because it is weeping over its lost wallet.

But here in my cozy rented little house, there is nothing of all that. As a Norwegian song from my much younger days put it:

“Bare jeg får kose meg i bingen min
kan de andre gjøre hva de vil
ja bare jeg får kose meg i bingen min
er det ikke noe mere som skal til”

(As long as I can enjoy myself in my pigsty,
The others can do what they want.
Yes, as long as I can enjoy myself in my pigsty,
There is nothing more that is needed.)

OK, I would feel better if my sinuses dropped the low-key infection that keeps sending great gobs of green gelatinous goo down my throat, there to choke me at random times of day and night. Hacking like crazy to get the stuff up before I drown in it is rather scary and unpleasant. But apart from that, I really enjoy myself in my pigsty.

The package from Amazon.com arrived yesterday, about a fortnight earlier than expected. (A book, strangely enough in these electronic times. “Integral Life Practice.” I have not read it, but it is by Ken Wilber and friends, so it is probably interesting for the abnormally intelligent, less so for anyone else. I’m somewhere in between there, so I plan to read it someday. So far I have not opened it though.)

I have moved on to the industrial strength HoloSync that I wrote about when it arrived two days ago. I am supposed to do only the first track (“the Dive”) for the first two weeks. The only problem with this is that I fall asleep fairly early during that first track, and when I wake up it is already a ways into the second. This is probably not a problem at all, especially given that I am asleep, but I should probably set up some kind of beeper to go off after half an hour just to be sure I get it right. If it is like the demo, I will be able to stay awake gradually longer through it. Whether it takes as little as two weeks, however, remains to be seen. Perhaps if I actually sleep enough at night… Fat chance!

There are just too many fun things to do if I shouldn’t sleep too. The beta testing does not get as much attention as it deserves, and my sims run with only half an eye of attention. (I have a second Prosperity Challenge, for those who are into the terminology, and it runs on the other computer here in my home office. At least I am not blogging it, the way I do Micropolis.) I have been thinking about starting a game of Civilization IV again – it has been a year or two since last time – but I just can’t find time for it. (I mistyped this a “O just can’t find time for it” which is probably at least as accurate, although it will only make sense to readers of One Cosmos or at least of Bion.)

Have I mentioned that I got another of the new rye breads made with sourdough (leavening) and plenty of sunflower seeds? Just today I read someone complain about the spreading practice of putting sunflower seeds in the dark breads. But the truth is that I like it almost too much. Now that I can only eat a few grams of fat every six hours, I have a constant low-key craving for fat. After I regained much of my lost weight, the desire no longer manifests as pangs of need, but virtually anything fat still tastes delicious. And sunflower seeds are full of oil, delicious yummy oil! It is supposedly fairly healthy too, as fats go. But it is still fat, which means that I need to be aware of it and eat that much less of other fats. It is still worth it though. Mmm, yummy bird seeds! I hope this itching is not my wings trying to grow out…

The snow is melting quickly, although it could come back any day. Today it was hot in the living room when I came home, like a greenhouse. I think that is the first time this spring, although it was pleasantly warm another day or two before. It was a totally sunny, shiny day, although the sun went down around the time I came home. It is still Norway, after all. But then again Norway is the best place to live, so I’m not complaining. Or at least not today.