Hello there!

(the "thing" on the left is a 'phant - ok, an elephant - that I got for my b'day today :)

Dog in snow

Today, Corto had his first serious experience of snow:







I guess you can tell that he likes it! And, as a result, started turning into what my daughter aptly called "an inverse Dalmatian":

Snow!! (February 2007)

Garden buried in snow - as my son said "it's hard to recognise that thing as a bench". Let me add that I didn't hurry over to sit on it ;)



One of the drifts in the driveway was 50 cm (20") deep...



Which made for a lot of shovelling to be able to get the car out. It took 1½ hours!
(and yes, I promptly got stuck as soon as I got out on the road - but did eventually make it out in the world)



Trick question: What is this big white pile next to Corto?



A big pile of snow, you say? Partly right - but to Corto, is a new primary escape route. It took him 2 (two) minutes to find out that he can now run over the fence to get out and talk to the cocker spaniel from down the road that just had been walking by...

Me expressed in 5 factors

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have medium extroversion. You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time." Conscientiousness: You have low conscientiousness. Impulsive and off the wall, you don't take life too seriously. Unfortunately, you sometimes end up regretting your snap decisions. Overall, you tend to lack focus, and it's difficult for you to get important things done. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness. You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly. Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high. In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas. You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits. A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

My evaluation of this would be -

• A few things are a good part of the way off
• A lot of it is reasonably close
• A few things are uncomfortably close to probably being very true

I'll leave the deciphering up to you, dear reader.

Scouting 2007

Tomorrow is the annual Thinking Day - since 1932, every year on the birthday of Lord Baden-Powell, scouts use this day to "think about their peers in other parts of the world" (from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts web site).

Also, there is a tradition to collect a small amount of money per scout/guide - in Denmark, it's 2 DKK (0.25 EUR / 0.35 USD) per year you've been a scout. The money is used for projects helping scouts and guides in other countries.

The theme of this year is "Discover your Potential by taking the lead, growing friendships, and speaking out." To me, this sums up a lot of the good that the scouting movement represents.

And this year is a bit special as it is also the 100 year anniversary of the scouting movement. So, at least in Denmark, Thinking Day is also the first marking of this - we'll all (more or less) be wearing a small pin (above) or bracelet with the typical knot, proudly showing that we are scouts :)



Due to the special year, the donation idea has been extended into activities for all scouts in Denmark with the aim of collecting approx 7 mill. DKK - enough to build 100 schools in Angola. Let's go for it, I'd say!

Am I surprised?

One more of these wee funny things that az always seem to dig up (yep, I know the site, so I could go look, too - but wouldn't that be cheating? ;)

You Are 55% Normal

While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

I initially thought I was surprised - I'll leave it to you to figure out if the surprise was due to a hig or a low normality ;)

Reflecting, I'd like to have seen the individual points scored - where, in this list, do I qualify as reasonably normal and where as an internet weirdo of the kind your mother warned you about? And how many of the normalities or weirdnesses could be due to "simple" cultural differences - such as being a Dane rather than, say, American?

Hmmm...

Sutera Harbour Resort - it's kinda nice :)

(sent some images like this home by E-mail - isn't modern technology great? -- with the likely result that the kids now have expressed a clear interest to go to Borneo on vacation :)

A heavy purse

Saw this on the street in Melbourne - thought it was a brilliant little thing (although it actually wasn't that small - some feet and legs in the background as reference)

It was temporary...

Back to "Minimal". Like it better.

Obviously, this lost me my feedburner link that I can't immediately remember how I did - and it seems that the comments feed that I should be getting isn't there.

Hrmpf!

Face change might be temporary

...I was experimenting a bit to see if I could make Blogger's drag-and-drop layout work. Apparently it should be easy to change over - just click the "Customize layout" link under "Templates"

... ? ...

Link isn't there. It turns out, after having digged into help files for a while, that blogs published via FTP and not to blogspot doesn't get this feature.

Couldn't they have written that in the immediate pages you get to (and yes, I have sent that suggestion...)

St Kilda at night

Was out enjoying some Aussie evening temperatures in the mid-20s (Celsius) and stumbled over this small fair/amusement park thingy...




I like merry-go-rounds, especially classis ones like this. There was a rollercoaster, too -but the pics didn't come out very nice.

At the entrance there were these old turnstyles (odd fact: no Danish word exists for them). From a time where you took your time to produce things and let the world know who you were:

Planet

I knew that my head sometimes may seem a bit up in the sky - or at least not connected to earth - but from there to ruling a planet?

You Should Rule Venus

Venus is a mysterious, stormy planet - shrouded in a thick layer of clouds. You are perfect to rule Venus, because you are quite emotional and volatile yourself. Your emotions change as rapidly as the weather on Venus, and both you and the planet are incomprehensible to others. While you are not a logical thinker, you are quite empathetic. You can care for and understand others, but your emotions swirl too quickly to truly understand yourself.

What Planet Should You Rule?

"Stolen" from over at az's - who seems to get these things quicker than I do... :)