Saturday Urban Life - Solvang Kolonihaver

Something just happens.
During the last weeks the board of the "Green Society" at Solvang Kolonihaver 4 have installed digital network, prepared for a lot more TV channels than we have at home, and Broadband Internet!
The expected TV and Internet Free Zone is left over to us to decide. The possibilities are there and we must be strong and leave it alone. Or act natural and live as usual.

So here we are with this year first Breakfast in the Garden. Temperature at nine: 24 deg C.

Slovang 4 is located closer to the geographical center of Oslo than our home at Frogner. It takes us ab. ten minutes to drive up here, but the urban lifestyle is completely different. The cottage of 40 sq.m is an appendix to our city-house. This is our 31st summer up here, the children has almost been born here (first appearance after seven weeks), and have had an additional dimension to the growing up in the middle of a big town.

The possibility that more posts from Oslo´s urban life will occur here is now stronger than a few days ago.

More than 10.000 visitors in 4 months

17 weeks ago, on thursday Jan 31. I decided to swap from Norwegian to English text in my blog. I made the conclusion that if I wanted to communicate with the world, I had to write in a language that is more common to the world than my mother tongue. During this 4 months I have had an increase of 25% or 10000 visitors. My blog has been active since March 21 2005.The weather conditions have also changed during these four monthsThere will always be a question if it is the topic you cover that makes other bloggers visit your site, if it is your participation in memes like ABS Wednesday, Odd Shots Mondays or i.e Sky watch Fridays or if some other bloggers refer to you in their own postings.
The use of Mr. Linky gives us a unique opportunity to get visitors, with or without commenting, and the importance of being part of a blogroll cannot be underestimated. And you need to visit others to be visited.
You need to be known.

That takes time. May be these tips from Ianiv Schweber and Arieanna Foley may help you if you want to increase your blogging trafic:

-Write 25-40% original content. For some blogs this will mean reading news feeds, as well as other blogs, to catch news first. You can also consider non-RSS content research to find items or to connect the dots between topics.

-Use pictures. They draw the eye. Look on Flickr or Google Images. Take what is Creative Commons, but be liberal with your link of thanks. Ask when unsure.

-Know your area bloggers and link to them. Make sure to comment too.

-Send emails to big blogs in your area. Pitch a story, write something interesting about your blog, and make that link prominent.

-Break up paragraphs and use text effects - bolding, underline, etc.

-Use comments to start new threads.

At Squidoo you can see Things I wish I knew when I started blogging, and especially What they didn't tell you about blogging...

1. It's easy to start but hard to maintain.

2. People expect consistently good content or quality readers walk away.

3. You can't be famous just by blogging.

4. You can't get rich blogging.

5. You can extend your brand via the blog but you can't build a brand by blogging.

6. Blogging is an addiction and sometimes it can be serious.

7. If you want to succeed, you HAVE to start making others succeed.

8. You don't climb up by pulling down other people.

9. It takes time to produce "Timeless Content." But "timeless content" produces results (traffic included) in the long run

10. Traffic is important but "Quality" traffic is more important


The next 40 "didn¨t tell" can be found through the Squido link together with even more interesting matters.

At this time of the year I would normally move into a TV and Internet Free Zone. May be that will be changed this summer, but until you hear from me again:
Have a wonderful Summer.
(and do not forget me)

ABC Wednesday - S

On Monday I was challenged by anemone to

"Pick up the nearest book.
Open on page 123. Find the fifth sentence. Post the next
three sentences. Tag five people, and acknowledge who
tagged you."

So first I have to send greetings to all bloggers and possible readers around the world by inviting them to take the challenge and pass it further.
S is for SKÅL to Selected SentencesBut when planning for this ABC Wednesday I thought there was no other interpretation of the meme than
S is for Summer Residence

The following photos are thus a presentation of my Cottage, inside and outside with some the flowers we have around us during the few summer months in Oslo.
Click on photos to zoom.The roses are climbing up the wall of the appendix.

"Living room" decorated with my own paintings
"Dining room" and entrance to the bedroom
Japanese apples?
The first to come
"Forglem meg ei"
Roses
Pink Peonies smells good
Hundreds of FlammenTanz Roses
and beautiful pink single roses
Natural motive for painting
and the result a la van Gogh
But most of all we look forward to the warm sunshine and temperatures like last year.
Have a nice summer.

Tuesday facts - Mobile phone development

Yesterday I showed you one of the gaps we have noticed between today and the past regarding Data Storage and Memory Capacity within computers. I was active on Internet when staying in Singapore in 1994, but my first mobile phone I acquired four years later in 1998.

Before that I used in my car for a short time in 1983/4 one of my employers Ericsson NMT Radio SystemThe real market development of mobile phones started in 1984 when Motorola presented their "Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage Unit"DynaTAC8000X.
From then on we have all been in the middle of the Mobile (Cell) Phone development. This evolution can be watched on this YouTube Video.

My mother-in-law died two years ago at an age of more than 100. I often think of the changes she had lived through, but the volume of changes we have to adopt today must be even more difficult to understand for those coming after us.
Yesterday NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander had a successful touch down at the planet Mars. Will my grandchildren think of that as odd when their next door friends are planning their summer vacation at the Moon?

If some of you feels that we are left behind in this rapid changing world, relax a few moments with the photo of my neighbors Falcon-Knight Six (2 doors) from 1927. It is only 80 years ago this "wife"-car became a sensation.

Odd Shots Monday - Magnetic Tapes

Some of us have lived some years.
Forty years ago I joined the pioneers in the Development of Data Processing in Norway after being employed by the Norwegian Ship Classification Institution DNV - Det norske Veritas. My career has given me a lot. Personal and professional (and total kidney and heart failure).
But the almost twenty years within Human Resources, Leadership and Management, as a continuation of more than ten years of development within IT or EDP (as we called it in late 60s) have been fantastic years. I never would have been without.

These Monday Odd Shots was taken during that period when data storage, short term and long term, was saved on Magnetic Tape Data StoragesFor many of you using todays laptop computers, the web, e-mailing, photo manipulation and databases called servers, these volumes of sequential data storage may perhaps be a little odd.
When I started with EDP we used Punched Cards as the medium for input of programs and data. The computer IBM 360/20 had 128Kb memory (K = 1000) while my present MacBook Pro has 2Gb internal memory (G = 1 000 000 000).
However, I will save you for more of the historical details and only which you all the best for the week after you have visited Kathney for her and all others Monday Odd Shots

Solvang Pictures

Home after a working day at our Summer Residence. Flowers planted at the balcony and in the flower bed. Last clean-up and preparing for sleeping-over and watching the fruits growing.
The blossom comes from:
Apple three James Grieves Origin: Scotland from 1890 but in our garden since mid last century. Medium to large, conical fruit. Size medium, round conical slightly ribbed shape. Almost solid crimson over yellow. Savoury, juicy yellowish flesh. Crisp yet melting.Red Current will give us ab. 40 kg berry.Blackcurrant which normally only is for eating direct from the bush.And in the air, a veteran aircraft (LN-WND Dakota Norway Sandefiord Norway) flying just over our heads:

Almost summertime and a new Stetson Hat

The summer is close. Yesterday I bought a new hat.

Stetson Genuine Panama Hat hand-woven in Equador from the fine fibers of the Jipijapa palm and blocked in the US by Stetson. Black silk grosgrain band. Pinch-front crown. The fine mellow classic natural color panama hat that can be used for both dress and casual wear.

Wearing hat in bad weather I normally do. The umbrella can be left at home and the bold top of me is protected from the cold.
During the summertime I often use the pirate scarf, but from now on when strolling the city, the off white retro style Panama Hat will be preferred. Because of the lightness, Panama hats are worn in warm weather and the wide brim provides sun protection.

Saturday Urban Life - Market in Bogstadveien and Down Town

"Når Kastanjene Blomstrer i ..........", When the Horse chestnuts blossom and the scent of lilac is all over Oslo, it is time for the Car free market in one of our neighborhood streets.The weather was not the best, but in party-tents a lot of products could be yours.
Pastries, Halfpriced modern cloths, supporter-scarfs and some winter fabrics

The market day also gives odd activities a free space of selling their products. Rubber hats for children and Health studios motivation campaigns
The pavements of the Norwegian Capital´s main street Karl Johan are covered with sayings from our writer Henrik Ibsen,and at "Kunstnerforbundet" you may see Reidar Kraugeruds colage
What else do you expect from Oslo in May. Lunch at Cafe Christiania? Of course.
Have a nice weekend.

Eating out?

Due to the fact that anemone must have hit something in the air through her thursday post (based upon comments), and the weather in Oslo invites to a very short experiment within this extrovert behavior, I present one of the documentation from last summer within the same topic - Eating out!However, when touching the topic and not being too passionate to this activity physically, this blog must also take the opportunity to include one of Picassos versions of E.Manets Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe and the original if you prefer that versionThe very big question regarding Manets Breakfast in the Green, and only one month till midsummer (St. Hans) is:
Can you find the Frog?

I have also been younger - years ago

Lately some of the bloggers I visit daily have presented old pictures of themselves or their parents, grandparents etc. Due to the fact that I got my new scanner CanScan 4400F this week, I am also able to present old memories from Ålesund.
Here you see photos of my grandparents
(father side) Peder Kristian (1880-1961) and Jetta Jacobine (1878-1975) are probably from 1949 and
(mother side) Sevrin (1886-1960) and Sofie (1892-1967) taken about 10 years later.
But photos of me and my mother and me and my sister taken early 1950s are also interesting images. You can easily se the post-war clothing in the first, and the National Costume on my sister (from 1951) we still have in the wardrobe. Rikke was the latest user and now we wait for Helene to fit into the Bunad from Sunnmøre.Around eleven I joined the shoolband (Nørveguttene) playing the Trombone for more than five years,
whereafter I started with sport (Rowing) together with Anton, Even and Åke, and took my GCSE before leaving Ålesund and settled in Oslo.

The last photo is of me and Asbjørn on the "Russetur" to Copenhagen, Berlin and Hamburg in 1966.