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Author Topic: Sandy Fjord  (Read 88993 times)

Cheeetar

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #435 on: January 24, 2010, 10:25:46 am »

Shopping Cart Hero? That game sucks.
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I've played some mafia.

Most of the time when someone is described as politically correct they are simply correct.

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #436 on: January 24, 2010, 03:43:24 pm »

Shopping Cart Hero? That game sucks.

You are simply envious of my 104,000 point run.

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #437 on: January 26, 2010, 09:50:56 am »

Sunday was wrapped up with another serving of storebought pizza, some "pepper-flavored" potato chips, a handful of Bamsemums (essentially a chocolate-coated marshmallow bear...  It's been an important symbol of John Smith worship since early on in the school year {possibly longer}), and the first half of the film "Slacker" (it freaked out after a while and crashed the computer it was playing on). 

Later that evening, one of the gals living in the complex came over to make use of John Smith's rolling expertise, and then everyone chilled out to a few funny animal compilations on YouTube.  Beyond that, I can't remember anything outstanding aside from the fact that I went to bed before midnight.


On Monday I slept in a bit and watched videos while Smith attended a lecture.  After that was finished and dealt with, we headed out to Bergen University to check out the digs and have lunch at the famously low-priced cafeteria.

We sat down with a few random individuals that Smith was acquainted with, which led to plans for crashing a "German and Jazz night" by dressing up in Lederhosen and bringing along a tuba, and also the obligatory discussion of what Las Vegas is *really* like.

Returning from lunch, I had a while to go before my bus would take off for the airport so we ended up watching the tail end of Slacker while I packed up my stuff.

AB came along at one point and ended up watching the last five minutes of Slacker along with us.  After that, I grabbed my stuff and we all filed out the door on our quest for the bus station.


A couple quick goodbyes, a fairly uninteresting bus trip and a surprisingly comfortable plane trip later, I was back at my granddad's.  Time to eat something substantial...

During dinner-for-one, I got a call from Hatman.  We chatted for a bit, exchanged stories of what we'd done over the past few days, and then discussed my plans for the remainder of my stay.

To be honest, I don't have much of anything planned.  I was thinking about poking around again for the possibility of another weekend spent with school pals, but trying to plan anything with this crowd is a daunting task...  Really the only thing I've got firmly set on my agenda is what's up for tomorrow.


...namely, my interview for the Norwegian military.  Whee.

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #438 on: January 28, 2010, 11:24:32 am »

Well, that was unexpected.


Let's start with the obvious fun...   Since the meeting was set up for 9:00 AM in a different town, I got to enjoy the rare pleasure of waking up at seven in the morning for a long drive along dark winter roads, helping my granddad keep an eye out for wandering moose so that we wouldn't have any special surprises at 60 kilometers per hour.

When we were there, we had a little touch of confusion dealing with which direction to go in.  Sure, there were clear signs point out what was where...  But there were two things that looked like they might be what I was looking for, and they were in different directions.

Once I made my way into the building, more confusion arose from an utter lack of signs, compounded by plenty of poor direction-giving abilities (that, or poor direction-taking abilities...).

Then, finally, I made my way to a promising area, which contained a desk, a small waiting area, and a healthy number of similarly-aged people.

Now it was the military's turn to be confused.


You see, nobody in that room was actually supposed to be there.  Yes, that was indeed the place where people should meet up for their military orientation/interview...   The only problem was that there wasn't supposed to be any orientation that day.

They'd sent out (or thought they had sent out) letters to each of the chaps in that room some time ago, telling them not to meet up that day because the orientation had been canceled.

Now they had around 17-18 people there, from many different places in Norway, all of them ready (to some extent) for their examination.  Well, so much for calling off the orientation...


We waited for a while as personnel scrambled to set up an examination for us, then got straight into the action with one of those lovely military recruiting videos (those things are always hilarious).


We went through a written quiz, a vision/hearing test, a cursory physical/psychological examination from the one doctor they managed to pull into service on such short notice, and finally an interview with an officer, where the final decision was made whether to take us in or kick us out.

I ended up getting ranked far higher than I had expected, but I suspect this may have been because of the hacked-together nature of the whole deal.  The physical examination ended at a stethoscope check, a blood pressure test, and an external examination of my spine.

No running, no jumping, no pushups, nothin'.  Not even a urine test.

And my hearing and vision (both of which I know are not perfect) both got top marks for some reason. 


The written test, of course, was a bit more difficult to pass than the physical.

The test was broken up into three different categories, each to be taken separately.  The first was a mathematics test, which went so-so...  I didn't quite understand a few of the questions, and some of them I simply didn't have time to work out.

The second was a pattern recognition test, which I pretty much aced.  Out of 36 questions, only the last three gave me any real difficulty in figuring out.  And I ended up solving one of those three before the timer finished.

The third section of the test, however, was a word similarities test...   Each problem was one base word, and then a field of six other words.  You had to pick the word which meant the same as the base word.

Now, as a person who's known as something of a walking thesaurus, you may think I had an easy time with this test.

Well, the test was of course in Norwegian.


I think I may have answered half of them correctly...    If I was lucky.



Once everything was said and done however, I found that my total ranking for the written test was 6 (out of 9), which isn't so bad.  4 is the minimum to get in, and I think 5 qualifies you for basic officer training.

So with that, and the cursory physical exam which placed me at near-perfect for some peculiar reason, there weren't many numbers that shouted for my being pushed out of service...


Then came the interview with the officer, and I think I actually ended up impressing him somehow.  Again, not very conducive to getting yourself booted out.

Everything was tallied up, a couple items were discussed, and I have now been officially declared capable of service.  So from the looks of things, there's a fair chance I'll get called in for service in August.  Woo.


Well, like I said, it'll be an experience either way...  And with any luck, I'll get into the communications battalion, where I can tool around with old military radios from the sixties and more modern communication devices, not to mention the snazzy division symbol they get:



And if I end up in the engineer battalion instead, then there's an even snazzier badge in the works:




So, as you can see, it all works out.  By the way, I'd just like to note that the weird differences in image ratios is the military's fault, not mine.

Like I always say; "If you can blame it on the army, go ahead and do it".

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #439 on: February 04, 2010, 10:23:19 pm »

Well, this is my second-to-last night in Norwayland, barring any unexpected explosions or the proverbial alien invasion.  I'm currently back at Hatman's house, having come around for a second run in order to fill out my last week here...   A decision which was heavily encouraged by Hatman himself.

Saturday morning promises great fun, seeing as my flight takes off at 6:30...

AM


My time here has been just as entertaining and comfortable as the first stint I spent at Hatman's, filled with instant cocoa, insane cats, some very peculiar clips on YouTube, a few deeply personal revelations and a smattering of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Goddamn juggernauts...).

Oh, and also a trip to the theater to see Men Who Stare at Goats.  Yay.


We also dug into the two final bags of Inka Corn, which had managed to stealthily remain unnoticed until this time.  Couldn't have asked for more.

It's been loads of fun here in Norway, but I do think it's about time I went back to Vegas.  A nudist at heart, I find it very difficult to spend any extended amount of time in any location where you actually *need* to wear clothes.

...yeah, I suppose that's as good an excuse as any.


In all honesty though, I just feel that it's the right time to go back.  I've been here for over a month now, and I've expanded my character just that little bit extra through the experiences I've had.  I think I'd like to dwell on that for a bit.  After all, I've got some pretty big changes coming up right quick.

And besides, it'll be nice to go back to a place where you don't have to visit a curiosity shop in order to find a can of black beans...  Jreengus Christ people, it's a legume, not a bleedin' alien artifact!


Anyways, that's it for now.  I'll see about getting in another summary-type update tomorrow.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to wake up in six hours.  Ciao.

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #440 on: February 05, 2010, 04:28:42 pm »

As usual, whenever I set a date for another update, it gets pushed out.  I knew this was going to happen as soon as I wrote it...

The Month of the Hobo summary, which is also the last update of Sandy Fjord, will have to be taken once I've returned to Vegas and rested up a bit.  I am in no position to write something like that now...


But y'all were probably expecting this anyways, so nyah.

Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #441 on: March 19, 2010, 02:37:19 pm »

Welp, to be perfectly honest, I really wasn't expecting it to take me over a month to get this thing done.  Just goes to show the accuracy of my psychic hobo powers (bad psychic powers, no biscuit!).

So, time to write up a nice little summary of my trip, now long after the fact.  I'm sure I can manage it.  I mean, hell, I've fixed a toilet before, how hard can doing something completely unrelated be?


It was fantastic to get back home to all the comforts of exotic food and king-sized beds, but I am glad I took the time and energy to head back to the cold country for the reunion.

I'm also rather glad that the flight times didn't match up, so I ended up staying far longer than expected.  I got to experience quite a few things which were new to me, and I got to take a look at the deeper, inner self of some of the people I know. 

We're all remarkably human, it sometimes just isn't that obvious.


So here I am, wandering the Nevadan desert again, trying to find some direction to ramble towards and, as always, looking for a little Water of Love (cue Dire Straits guitar solo).  I haven't the foggiest idea where I'm going next, and I've only got a slight clue of where I am now, but I'm pretty damn sure I know where I've been.  That's something at least.


I've done some things I'm not proud of, and I've not done some things that I'm even less proud of, but that's all part of becoming a wise old man-hobo who the kids will gather around in order to hear grand tales of adventure, absorb sage words of advice, and warm themselves in flowing folds of beard hair.

My year at Skiringssal may not have been the candy-coated funbath that some of the others experienced, but it was a poignant and important period of learning in my life.  I'm quite glad I experienced it, and I'm ecstatic that I got to experience it along side the nutters who just happened to go there at the same time (seriously, last year was fantastically lame, and this year they're all a few apples short of a turnip.  08/09 forever, people).

I remember being sick to my stomach with nerves those first few days, I remember acing a fire safety test because I had a cold and wanted to be done with the stupid thing as quickly as possible, I remember correcting my psychotic film teacher on his own subject, and I remember sitting in a dark room while wearing a gas mask so that I could jump out and scare a couple unsuspecting gals.

...I also remember someone telling me about the third rumor that was circulating around me...  Apparently, I am sexually attracted to rabbits. 


Wait, what?




This is your Crazy Psychic Bestial Hobo-Plumber signing off.  Have a good one, everybody.

Cheers,
--Kagus

Kandi Apple

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #442 on: April 08, 2011, 01:00:12 pm »

Quote
Hmm, when your old and have nothing else to do, you should make a film. called Sandy Fjord. And have it struck by an epidemic of nothing. And have some experts called in on the topic of nothing. It'd be a hit, and i'd go see it.

Old thread, new fan...Do this ^

Lol, after reading your stories, I'd probably want to read anything you write!  Good luck in the Military, and never stop filling us in on your adventures!
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Angel Of Death

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #443 on: April 08, 2011, 01:01:51 pm »

Mrrrr.... Necro thread needs BRAAAAIIIINSSS...
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Kagus

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #444 on: April 09, 2011, 02:05:02 pm »

Oh shush, it's just a timeless classic...

...and it's most likely looking for that other B-word, a little ways down from the brain on certain specimens.  Not that I would know anything about that...

Heron TSG

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Re: Sandy Fjord
« Reply #445 on: April 09, 2011, 02:49:21 pm »

Oh shush, it's just a timeless classic...

...and it's most likely looking for that other B-word, a little ways down from the brain on certain specimens.  Not that I would know anything about that...
Biceps?
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