Oslo bombing and Utøya shooting - the day after

This morning I woke up and found out that the total number of people killed now stands at 92.  Most of my day was spent in front of the TV just watching the news and reading news online.  It's been a pretty crazy 24 weekend.  My parents were in Malaysia and they didn't even know until my brother told them around 4pm local time.

The Norwegian news websites are vg.no, afternposten.no and nrk.no  You can use google translate which isn't a perfect translation but you will be able to understand most of it.

I went to the city later tonight with a friend and scoped out the atmosphere.  There were military personnel along Karl Johans gate, and the surrounding area where the bomb blast occurred had been cordoned off.  I took a walk along Karl Johans gate all the way to Oslo Cathedral.  People laid wreaths, flowers, candles along various parts of the city.

Karl Johans Gate just outside the Parliament building (Stortinget)

May the victims never be forgotten

Junction along Grensen Street

Another spot along Grensen Street

Just outside Oslo Cathedral

Oslo Cathedral.  There were quite a few people gathered there and the atmosphere was sombre to say the least.  Some people were crying.  The weather didn't help either.  It was already raining but really started to pour shortly after I took this picture.  I was there for probably 5 minutes or so then left because it started to pour.  I arrived home soaking wet and after 1am, it didn't help that I could not find my bus stop as the bus routes have changed but I eventually I got home using a different route.

All in all it was a night to reflect on.  I feel the pain just looking at the pictures and having it hit home so close is just unbelievable.

Tonight I will sleep and hopefully wake up to see the sky in the morning whereas the 92 victims will never awake to see another day again.  Life is really too short and you should be glad you are alive.  Always maintain good relationships with the people you care about because you never know when your last day could be.  For all I know I could've been one of the 7 victims from the bomb blast.  Forget about all your prejudices for all of us are the same and if you hurt others you only hurt yourself.  No matter what religion or creed you believe in, in the end all of us desire the same things, it does not matter if you are right or wrong, because we are all one.

Oslo bombing and Utøya shooting

I'm in shock.  At 3:30pm today, Oslo central was hit apparently by a car bomb.  Seven are confirmed dead and two are currently hospitalised.  Near an hour later, there was a shooting attack at the annual summer camp for the youth organization of the Norwegian Labour party.  The camp is held on an island in the Tyri Fjord.  Currently 10 persons have been shot from this incident.  The blonde haired suspect was dressed as a police officer and he was shooting with an automatic weapon.  People were swimming from the island in order to get away from the gunman!

I was in my office when it happened which is just outside the outskirts of Oslo.

First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families who have been affected.  Another senseless attack on humanity.

Secondly, I pray that this will not further divide people based on religion or race.  Remember all of us are the same.  Remember the media tells you something for a reason.  No matter what you hear, you must seek the truth yourself.  Sadly I think this is just going to cause more racial tension and lead to a crackdown of racial groups, but I hope I will not be correct.

Thirdly, I pray that people will not give up more of their rights and freedoms in order to pursue this "fight against terrorism".  The chances of getting struck by lightning are higher than being a victim of a "terrorist attack".  I suspect this is a false flag attack to distract the debt issues which are happening right now in the Eurozone and the US and for the bankers to even consolidate more power.  It doesn't make sense, even if it was a real terrorist attack why would it be on a Friday afternoon.  As a terrorist wouldn't I want to cause a huge amount of casualties?

I'll update this post as soon as I get more news.

11:22pm  What a crazy day.  A manager from work rang me about half an hour ago checking to make sure that I was okay.  I'm supposed to have norwegian lessons tonight but my teacher has gone missing.  A woman was on TV saying how her daughter hid in the toilet for an hour to avoid the crazy shooter (apparently a 32 year old Nordic man) on the island of Utøya.  At least 10 have been killed from that attack alone.  17 are currently dead in total from both attacks.  I sure wouldn't expect Norway to be attacked but we live in interesting times.  I suspect the attacks are funded by the globalists because Norway is withdrawing troops from Libya (and if you believe the war in Libya is for freedom then you need to investigate more) and they choose to not bail out the Greeks.

The Graveyard Month

It's July, the beginning of summer holidays in Norway.  During this month many Norwegians often go on leave often up to a month or more.  My entire team is on leave and I'm the only person working throughout this period.  Everyone in my team has children and it's school holidays for them so parents often take this month off to go on vacation with their children.  Right now it feels like I'm working the graveyard shift.

I've never seen a workplace with as few workers as there is right now at any time.  It's amazing.  It's quite different from Australia and completely different from Singapore where people often work on the weekends.  In Australia you work 3 months and get 5 days of leave and in Singapore it's 14 days of leave a year.  In Norway the paid leave is from the previous working year.  So when you first start work you don't get paid at all for the month of June.  You are however still entitled to your leave it's just that if you choose to take it it will be unpaid.

At our workplace we get 6 weeks of leave (30 days) out of which 5 of which are paid by the company and the rest of the days are from your earned holiday pay.

Time for my Norwegian lessons!

Sketching Debbie Gibson

I haven't sketched in a while so I thought I'll take an hour or so to sketch.  I really like sketching, it provides patience training, makes me ponder and pay attention to details and makes me more skilful with a pencil.  And it also makes me put lines to paper that have a purpose.  No stray lines when sketching.  Call it jedi mind and focus training.

When I was sketching during art class in Secondary school we used a wide variety of pencil grades to sketch, these were HB, 2 HB, 3 HB, etc.  The higher the number, the softer the lead and darker the marks.  I don't have that luxury right now, instead I'm using a mechanical pencil that I have been using since 1992 (I take good care of the things I have) with 0.5mm lead.

In school I was the best sketch artist, hands and paws down.  All my art pieces were always taken away by the teacher.  Too bad I never made a career out of it.  Maybe you can judge and see if I still have the touch.  I sketched it on the back of my Norwegian lesson minutes, so that's the printing on the other side of the paper.

Debbie Gibson sketched with a Shaker 0.5 mechanical pencil.

If you don't know who Debbie Gibson is, she was a popular music artist back in the 80s and holds the Guinness record for being the youngest artist to write, produce, and perform a billboard number 1 single ("Foolish Beat").  She's probably also the hottest woman on the planet despite her age, she's 40.  In my biased opinion anyway.  80s music is the best, today's music is just nonsense.  That is also my biased opinion.

Flipping Perspective

Last night I stumbled upon this song called "Jij bent zo" which I found out some minutes later is the dutch cover of this Spanish song called "Silencio".

Watch both videos, they sound similar but the meanings of both songs are completely different which I thought was rather interesting.

Jij bent zo music video versus Silencio music video.

Jig bent zo lyrics versus Silencio lyrics.

It got me thinking that life is like a sheet of musical notes and what we do with those notes and how we interpret those notes is up to us.  It can be positive, or it can be negative, or it can be neither.  Each person's life is different, and each person's view points are personal and can only be viewed through their eyes.  And how we interpret those notes, is up to each of us to decipher.  And that can be hard, if you can't understand yourself it's impossible to understand others.  If you understand yourself, you only cling to people you can understand, because we're all tribal by nature.  But you learn a lot great deal more by thinking about how other people think, other people with different interpretations, and in doing so you push your own boundaries, your own understanding, and your horizon broadens.  You will feel like you are looking from the outside of a fish bowl.  It takes courage to learn about others and to understand them.  I'm always trying to understand other people, and that is hard.  It is because I am biased and I may not always be consciously aware of those biases.  My biases have created my interpretation of the music and therefore, it is hard to change that interpretation.  It is hard to be accepting of others different from you.  Do I wish I was in a purely English speaking country?  Of course I do.  It would be familiar.  But I would not learn as much, and I would not grow as much.  I would be a common fish in a fishbowl blowing the same bubbles as other fish.  Today I had dinner with a person who had no idea how to use chopsticks and never had sushi, and it suddenly dawned upon me that I am a complete observer with a different interpretation from the other.

That brings me to mainstream media.  I dislike mainstream media because it's never unbiased.  And the more I agree with them, the more I suspect what they're telling me.  A long time ago, I would not even question what is being told.  Today I question everything.  The mainstream media tells you all these things that are specifically tailored towards the mass majority, towards what people want to hear (their "interpretation").  But what if you switch around and look at things from a different perspective?  Most people believe that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is for peace, for the people, for democracy, but is that the real truth?  What if you flip around and look at the underlying facts (the "notes"), that more civilians are killed than troops in wars, that governments are the ones who wage war?  Would you now believe that it's for peace?  Imagine if you were one of the people there who has suffered loss, would you believe the war is for peace?  Your interpretation will change.

Why do news publicise people in beards, or who believe in Islam as terrorists?  What's the main motivation?  Again do we simply believe what the mainstream media says, what is being shoved in front of our faces?  Or do we flip around and go "Wait a minute what are they really trying to convey here, what is message they are trying to pass on?  Have I been misled?"

Which brings me to.. financial advisors.  Many financial advisors advise you to take on more debt.  Why?  What if I do not take on more debt?  Does that mean you can't get wealthy if you do not take on more debt?  Does it make sense?  To get into debt to get rich is a complete contradiction itself.  Borrowing money to buy shares anyone?  Which is fair enough, but what if the shares go down?  What if housing is not the way to get wealthy (Americans would know the answer to that one.)?  In fact, what if all this western wealth is only the result of the greatest credit growth the world has ever known and nothing else?

I'm always trying to see things from a different point of view.  To be outside of my own being, if that makes sense.  I feel it is important to think about different perspectives, it makes me learn more and want to know more.