Thursday 28 October 1999

Pic of the day: If you still are not reading Strangers in Paradise, you should know that it is not just extremely well drawn and told, but is widely acknowledged for being non-sexist. The comic book of choice for nice guys and the girls that love them. Also mandatory reading before going to the website above, where you'll find the afore mentioned nice guys and the girls that love them. If you live in or near the USA, you can also easily buy back issues and stuff there. The worlds best comic book about more or less requited love? Possibly.

Another productive day! Finished the thick book of questions from Gallup. It was kind of weird to answer questions that were so blatantly made for stock humans. A4 people as we call them here, after the paper format which is standard size for business letters in Norway and (as far as I know) continental Europe. If it doesn't fit on one A4 page, you either edit it or continue on the next page. There is no other choice than A4 for most purposes. That's what I thought about when diligently crossing off that yes, I'm the one in my household that has the most influence on buying a new TV and video recorder and camera and contact lenses (!) and washing machine and and and. I skipped the ladyshave, though. I think I have very little influence on my buying ladyshave or not. The insanity rules supreme there.

I signed on for the Gallup panel for 1999/2000. Expect Norwegian statistics to become gradually more skewed and weird as we enter the new millenium. Ah, the power and the glory!

It probably doesn't exactly help that I kept playing The Corrs while filling out the forms. Spesifically "Love to love you". Waah. It's so sentimental. "I would love to love you like you do me." I think it could have a positive influence on my novel though. And I like it, which counts for a lot in my choice of music. I am perfectly able to play a song fifty times in a row if I like it.

I think I mentioned that the leading female character of my novel in progress (post-reboot) is a paleontologist . Only today did it dawn on me what paleontologists actually do, and I nearly laughed out loud in my office. They date fossils! I found it hilarious. If this were an autobiographical novel (which it really is not) that would be wishful thinking. As Superwoman occasionally says to me: "In your dreams!"

Before taking the bus home today, I went into the Mega supermarket to buy groceries. I had barely arrived when I saw a woman. Now, this is hardly surprising, there must be tens of thousands of them in Kristiansand and the surrounds. It was more the way I noticed her. She did not look spectacular in any way. Her most appealing feature was probably the brown hair, which was shoulder length and fluffy. She had brownish trousers, more than wide enough, and her pullover wasn't revealing in any way either. In short, she looked purposely unexciting and mundane. Yet there was something about her movements, which I can only describe as languid. The slow, relaxed way she moved, leaning on her shopping cart occasionally, yet moving quite healthily in between. While she seemed to have all the time in the world, yet she had a lot more stuff in her shopping cart than I had when we came to the exit to pay for our stuff. Strange. I will probably never see her again. I have no idea if she's married or have children or whatever. She was obviously younger than me, but then again I'm no spring chicken! :)

Well, I just wanted to share. Isn't it strange how the most ordinary person would stand out like a color character in a black and white picture?