Grisen

Cappelen lar deg laste ned Lars Saabye Christensen's novelle Grisen helt gratis.

YogaBear

I just came across the coolest thing: YogaBear is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing cancer survivors with more opportunities for wellness and healing through the practice of yoga. By partnering with individual yoga studios, they offer free yoga classes to cancer survivors. Yoga has been know for its great impacts on stress, depression, and both mental and physical well-being - definitely something a cancer survivor needs and deserves!

What a great opportunity to help another person through something you are passionate about... This could surely be done in other countries as well? It is highly doubtful that I will ever become savvy enough in yoga to be able to teach, but if anyone is or know someone, take the challenge!

YogaBear also keeps a nice blog.

Om å le av Ari

For det gjør JEG, når jeg leser hans dårlig skjulte forsøk på å fremheve seg selv og sin "originalitet".

Men det betyr sikkert at jeg og er et kjedelig furubord - jeg synes Ari Behn er full av floskler og dårlig skjult selvfremhevelse og det er vel ikke akkurat en radikal mening i disse dager.

Forresten, er det fortsatt noen som har furubord?

A good deed - for free!

Hi, all you animal lovers. The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals' for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

And while you're at it, why not take a minute or two more to click on each of the links at the top of the page - that way you can also make donations for breast cancer, literacy, hunger, child health, and the rain forest.

Steder der vi bor

Over en milliard mennesker bor i slum. I utstillingen "Steder der vi bor" viser Magnum-fotografen Jonas Bendiksen 20 hjem i fire slumområder.

Utstillingen utfordrer publikum til å tenke på hva vil det si å leve i en by i det 21. århundre. Bendiksen har besøkt fire slumområder - Kenya, Indonesia, India og Venezuela - valgt ut fra geografisk spredning og variasjon av slumformer. Han skildrer forskjellige aspekter ved slumtilværelsen, fra samfunnets dårligst stilte til slummens ”stormenn”.

Hadde jeg bodd i Oslo skulle jeg tatt meg en tur på utstilling. Mer informasjon her.

Breathing

In yoga, we learn to breathe in ways that facilitate our practice, protect our bodies, and quiet the internal noise of the mind. Since breathing is an involuntary function, it can be a mental shift to think consciously about every breath you take. You don't need to shift into conscious breathing overnight, but slowly begin to bring more awareness to your breath during your practice.

Start by breathing in and out through the nose, not the mouth. This practice will ensure cleaner air, because the nose functions as an air "conditioner" by humidifying and filtering inhaled air. In contrast, when you breathe through the mouth, the air that enters the body doesn't gain the benefit of this filtration process, so it may be drier and contain more pollutants. As yogis say, "The nose is for breathing, the mouth is for eating."

You can learn more here (a bit long and winded...).

Obamania

George Bush

I am really happy his Presidency is almost over, but will really really miss all the laughs he has given us. This is hilarious!

Happy New Year!

I hope 2009 will be a fantastic year for all of us! 2007 and 2008 were both a bit tough for me, so I think 2009 will be a great comeback.

Cliff and I spent Christmas in Norway, which was wonderful. It was so nice to see family and friends again! Special thoughts to Bitten&Frode and Marie&Ronny who became parents to beautiful Aurora and Eirik. Look forward to spending more time with them as they grow up!

New Years Eve was spent in Amsterdam, which was fantastic! Almost a war zone there with all the drunken people shooting fireworks all over the place, but it was so much fun. We also got to do a bit of sightseeing (Red Light District, Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, wandering along the canals). Amsterdam is a lovely city, if you haven't been there you should go! Though maybe not in December/January, I have to say it WAS a bit cold..

I hope to put out some pictures soon, I am just the world's slowest person when it comes to uploading my photos...