I’ve been looking through my posts, and except for beer and hangovers, I’ve come to the realization that most people don’t know twat about what I do. I’ve always thought it uninteresting, but that doesn’t necessarily have to apply to you (if it does, skip this post:).
I’m currently serving the Kingdom of Norway. I’m doing a 13 month pacifistic military service at the FAFO Institute: Applied International Science (www.fafo.no). I’m supposed to be part of peace related research, which I am, but I’m also doing heaps of other things. The researchers I work with are great people, but some of them have found out about my understated technical knowledge in IT, and apparently they’ve found it relaxing to know that I’m around. Which is why I’m going to purchase this t-shirt, as soon as I get some cash.
How do I like it? It’s cool. Most of the days I just hang around, fixing network issues and surf the internet for free. Since I’m "in the army" I don’t get paid. I get approximately 200 NOK every day (in my last job at a grocery store, I had 110NOK an hour) but I also get a 18m2 bedsit downtown with broadband no extra charge.
Oslo is a diverse city, but as any other city with a noteworthy size it’s rougly parted in two: 1) the posh west-side and b) the urban east-side. I, naturally, live on the eastside in a neighbourhood called Grønnland, with mixed nationalities and according to the west-side alot of trouble. It’s probably the quietest part of town, the only violence I’ve seen in Oslo has been downtown or at the west-side. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked or stumbled along, pretty drunk, at 4 a.m in the morning. No one bothers you if you don’t bother them.
Now, this Friday, I’m fixing up a Dell Inspiron 81K, setting up a network park on the 4th floor and drinking free coffe. It’s mostly what you do out of it. If people don’t assign you to anything; read a book. I always carry two.