Halloween 2015 in Oslo

Carved pumpkin, check. Flashing skulls with different colored lights hanging in the kitchen window, check. Candy for the kids, check. Halloween decorations here and there in the house, check. Each year at Halloween, I feel like Linus in Peanuts waiting for the Great Pumpkin to appear. I wait for the kids in the neighborhood to ring the doorbell for candy. We actually got a few children tonight made up as zombies and witches, and that makes my Halloween. But some years there have been none. Nothing to do about it, except hope that next year will be better. I've written about Halloween before, about how I began to celebrate it here in Oslo and how much I look forward to it: http://paulamdeangelis.blogspot.no/2011/10/before-and-after-pumpkin-shots.html.

Halloween is now widely-celebrated in Norway; most people seem to enjoy it but there are always those who are against it. The pettiness of a few does not destroy the spirit and enthusiasm of the many, thankfully. A number of stores sell costumes, wigs, hats, candy, candles and all sorts of Halloween decorations and accessories. Nille is one of those stores; it's right down the road from where we live. I can't tell you how many times I've been there to buy one or another Halloween item during this past week. The candle holders shown in the photos were purchased at Nille. A far cry from 1997 when I bought most of the items I needed for a Halloween party in New York on one of my visits. I had to plan well in advance to make that party happen, but it did and it was successful. The convenience of being able to buy what I need here now is something I am quite happy about. 

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween!

Nille and its Halloween displays

Zombie hand candle holder

Spider candle holder

Birds have their favorite perches

If you look out our kitchen window (facing east), you will see a tall tree that is popular with the birds in our neighborhood--crows, magpies, thrushes, starlings, and sparrows. They each seem to have their favorite perch spots.This fellow enjoys his bird's eye view of our Oslo neighborhood. For the past few evenings, he has found his favorite perch high up in this tree in order to calmly survey the world around him. I managed to snap a few shots of him just sitting there watching the world go by.

The colors of autumn sunrises

I took some sunrise photos during this past week, and here are the results--a truly spectacular blending of light and colors. There is nothing quite like an autumn sunrise to inspire the soul.

Finnair ad: baby reindeer trying to find his way home

The holidays are coming, and this wonderful little ad for Finnair is a touching reminder of the joy of coming home to loved ones and the meaning of family.

You can read more about this little video here: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2005/finnair-reindeer-poro/

My WriteOn by Kindle author page

Check out my WriteOn by Kindle author page--https://writeon.amazon.com/search?headerQuery=paula%20mary%20de%20angelis&ref_=ign_d_tn_sr_ac

Two short stories so far, and more to come........

My second short story--An Unusual Offer--posted on WriteOn by Kindle

My second short story, just posted to WriteOn by Kindle. You may be getting the idea that I'm putting together a collection of short stories. You'd be right. I'm doing just that--a collection that I'm planning to entitle Survivable Losses. I'm on my way..........

http://tinyurl.com/o5sgnav

October morning and night skies

Some recent beautiful October morning and night skies--all of them remind me that we live on a planet that is part of an incredible universe. Imagine how the skies might look if we were standing on a planet further from the sun........

Music that leads to other music...............

Listening to Decktonic's music at the beginning of the TriClub2015 video somehow reminded me of music that my sister and I used to listen to when we were teenagers--the song Cosmic Messenger by Jean-Luc Ponty. Here it is.......

Drone view video of the TriClub 2015 triathlon

Just thought you might like to see a video created by the woman who has done the graphic design for most of the covers of my books. Her name is Paloma and this is her first drone view video. Give it a look! It's beautiful, and I love the accompanying music!

My first short story--The Kiss--posted on WriteOn by Kindle

I mentioned in my last post that I would be sharing some short stories that I have written, with you. I have chosen to start publishing them on WriteOn by Kindle, since I am both a Kindle fan and a Kindle author (and a fan of Amazon that makes this all possible). You can find the first short story I've posted, entitled The Kiss, here at this link:

http://tinyurl.com/o33sv5b

Enjoy, and if any of you would like to comment, please do so!

New ventures and new roads

It is often said that ‘truth is stranger than fiction’, and the events of the past seven months in my life can truly attest to that. I will not go into details except to say that much of what has transpired is connected to my brother’s untimely death in February. I have decided to turn reality into fiction and see where that takes me. My premise is that it is better to write it down than to hold onto the swirling and sometimes negative emotions that will only burden my heart and soul for the rest of my life. So I am embarking on yet another literary venture. My friends who know me, know what has transpired, and I am sure that they will support this endeavor rather than the (seemingly insurmountable) alternatives that will only cause more problems.

I continue to write this blog and to share my poetry and photography with you, as well as my reflections about modern workplaces and workplace behavior. For some of my readers, it may seem that I cannot decide on one focused theme for the blog. That may be so. This is not a fashion blog, or a movie blog, a science blog or even a workplace blog; it is a daily life blog. I share my life as I experience it, a New Yorker in a foreign culture. Norwegian culture (ways of looking at and doing things in personal and work arenas) remains somewhat foreign to me even after twenty-five years of living and working here. Norway has changed a lot in that time, as has the USA. Workplaces are now global arenas that have their unwritten rules based on the culture in which they do business, but are also the product of modern workplace theories that are adopted worldwide. In that vein, I had to laugh yesterday when my husband sent me an email with information about a new course offered by the university here to employees who are new to Norway and who are struggling to understand their workplaces. The course will describe what it means to work in Norway with Norwegians, and will teach attendees about ‘both the formal code of conduct and the unwritten rules of working in Norway. The Norwegian workplace culture has important elements that are not found in most other western countries, and this may cause misunderstandings and frustration’ (direct citation from the course offering). You could have taken the words right out of my mouth. I could have used this kind of course twenty-five years ago. But since there were few to no foreigners in my workplace at that time, this type of course would never have seen the light of day. I struggled along on my own, with explanations for certain aspects of Norwegian workplace culture from my husband and some caring colleagues who have remained good friends. Along the way I developed a thick skin and a sense of humor, as well as the ability to let go of irritations. Had I not, I would have become frustrated and angry and stayed that way; American and Norwegian workplace cultures are that different. It is no accident that many of the new (young) foreign employees that start working in my workplace find their way to my office after a few months. Many of them knock on my door to ask me about some procedure that they’ve heard I know a lot about, but what they really want is to chat and to release some of their frustrations about what they experience here. We talk and sometimes I offer advice, but mostly I listen. Because I’ve been there, and I survived. My office mate (a non-Norwegian) calls me his role model. I understand what he means.

Back to my blog. I’ve decided that in some future posts, I will be sharing some of the short stories that I’ve been working on, with you. It will be interesting to find out what you think and feel about them. It may be a new road for the blog, and I’ll be interested to see where it takes me.

Tonight's full moon

Supermoon lunar eclipse 28 September 2015

I set my alarm early this morning (at 3:45 am) so that I could watch the supermoon lunar eclipse here in Oslo Norway. The last time there was a lunar eclipse of a supermoon was in 1982; the next one won't happen until 2033. Strange to think about that--where will we be in 2033? So it was worth the loss of sleep to get up early to witness this beautiful and rare event. Night photography is not easy, as I've talked about before. While I took a lot of photos, only a few were good, and even they were not as optimal as I'd hoped they'd be. But I hope you enjoy them.

taken at 3:56 am

taken at 4:20 am

taken at 4:52 am 

Some of Ray Bradbury's reflections about life

The National Endowment for the Arts posted these quotes by Ray Bradbury on their blog the other day (25 September 2015). I thought the quotes were very good, and wanted to share them with you. Here they are reprinted from their blog http://arts.gov/art-works/2015/our-top-ten-ray-bradbury-quotes. 

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Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.

I spent three days a week for ten years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of ten years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

I'm never going to go to Mars, but I've helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

Don’t worry about things. Don’t push. Just do your work and you’ll survive. The important thing is to have a ball, to be joyful, to be loving and to be explosive. Out of that comes everything and you grow.

I don’t believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.

You've been put on the world to love the act of being alive.

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A very good poem--The Second Coming--by William Butler Yeats

The Second Coming



Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.




Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

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Why is it that I think that this poem by William Butler Yeats becomes more relevant for our world for each year that passes? Is it because I am getting older that I am beginning to really see the anarchy in the world and the blatant disregard for the life around us--be it human, animal, bird, fish or insect? We are polluting our planet with pesticides that are killing the bees and butterflies. Without the bees to pollinate crops, there will be fewer types of the fruits and vegetables that we at present take for granted. It will affect food production on a global scale. This is one problem. Another problem is that these pesticides are finding their way into our drinking water, and they will cause more damage to all life that way in the form of increased cancer risk and other health problems. We don't need these chemicals inside us, nor do animals, fish, birds and insects. The things we do in this life and the way we behave toward the life around us affect the lives around us. We are not the inhabitants of an island; everything we do and say has an effect on the life around us. We need to wake up and really 'see' that fact. If we see it, then it becomes a no-brainer that we need to take care of the life on this planet, for ourselves and future generations. I am glad to see that there are movements in society that are focusing on locally-grown organic farm products. I am also glad to see that many people want to know where their meat and produce come from and how they were treated before they were made available to consumers. Every bit of knowledge helps us to grow and to evolve into a society that is not preoccupied with making huge profits at the expense of our planet's future. Because we need to ask ourselves, as Yeats did--what is the beast that is moving slowly toward Bethlehem to be born? And what will happen to mankind when it is born?