Contemplations by Thor /tɔː(r)/

A family with two kids and a large dog often face the challenge of finding a car big enough. By car I then exclude the bus category some peope resolve to buy. When we knew a couple of boys were on the way, we contemplated buying a VW Caravelle or a MB Vito. We came to the conclusion that we'd rather buy a trailer and use it whenever needed rather driving a bus year around. Still, there's only a handful of station wagons to fit the dog cage and a twin cart. My lovely '01 BMW 520iAT (two seater, "green" license plates due to odd tax rules) could be converted, but the car was simply not big enough. I decided that only MB E-class, the new BMW 5-series and Volvo V70 were the list I could choose from. I should mention that some brands like Ford, VW and all french cars were excluded by obvious quality considerations. Still, I was not sure whether my station wagon slash trailer would suffice. To avoid putting too much money into this project (cars are generally bad invest...

It's always been a dream of mine to drive a Cadillac DTS. The Northstar V8, the four chromed exhaustpipes and the majestic exterior has always attracted me about this car. So when me and my friend decided to go roadtripping from San Antonio to Miami we settled for a DTS. At San Antonio International airport I picked up a '07 black DTS. I could not get it confirmed, but I belive it was the 272 bhp version. It was really fantastic to take the car out from the lot. It definately gave the feeling of excessive luxury you fail to find in most American cars. The next morning we set out for Austin, and we discovered soon the comfort of this car on the highway. It is definately a car for the long stretches; very comfortable. For a person used to a fairly tight BMW 5-series, this car felt very loose. I had read to my surprise that this car had a front wheel drive, and this was certainly noticeable when hitting the accelerator. Both me and my friend normally drive rear wheel driven cars s...

It has been an issue for me for some time that the dual athlon was ready for decommisioning. Especially certain Adobe products as well as the installation of Internet Explorer 7 made it obvious that it was time to enter the Core2Duo era. When the PS3 was presented with a price tag og 6k NOK I seriously considered returning to the PC gaming platform a couple of years and wait for the PS3 to become cheaper. I have been waiting for a while to make sure Vista was available when I bought a new computer. I have so far never purchased an OS other that the ones that came with the computer. A decent gaming PC cost easily 13k NOK. As I have a "hjemmePC" deal with SINTEF I was able to buy a Dell computer that cost 10080 NOK and basically pay half of that. I got a decent Dell with E6400 processor 2 GB 667 MHz RAM, a couple of 320 GB SATA drives in striping mode, Vista Home Premium and a 19" LCD. The LCD was not an issue as I have a 21" CRT EIZO I'd stick to for gaming purpo...

This fall, a trip to US involved meetings in Elkton, Maryland, Cleveland, Ohio as well as Los Alamos, New Mexico. Since we were three persons travelling, a fullsize car was not fitting all luggage. The first leg, driving from Washington D.C. via Elkton to Cleveland was done with a Chevrolet Trailblazer LT 2006. This car has a 4.2L inline six with about 290 bhp. It was supposed to be fuel efficient but an average of 15 miles per gallon did not impress us. Neither did the 4x4 (although set to 2x4) cruising on the I-80 West. When we arrived in Albuquerque in the evening I was so fed up with the thought of driving another 4x4 so I asked the guy at the counter for alternatives. He offered me a Chrysler 300 Hemi C 2005 for 200 bucks extra. We agreed on 125. The Chrysler has a 5.7L V8 with 340 bhp and 530 Nm. This was the first time I'd driven a V8. The sound of the engine was of course smooth; one does wish the car was not so soundproofed. The torque was instantaneously noted, and not bu...

the last couple of years the garden work has been scarce. the lawn is moved; the basic maintenance. but no real effort has been put in. for this year, it seems that both me and Sissel are more interested in having the garden look nicer. not only is the lawn moved more frequently, but the dandelions are removed by the root as well. the flowerbeds are a pretty sight. one problem has emerged: goutweed. I think our neighbour is the source of the problem. he is a professor, unfortunately not in biology. the birches there gives enough shade for nettle and goutweed to dominate the undergrowth. I started cutting the weed down. no luck. it grows surprisingly fast and it would take continuous garden work to keep them out of sight. reading up on goutweed on the net, I learned that they are very persistent. no luck cutting them down. no luck keeping light out for one year. the only thing that works is to dig down at least half a meter. removing every single root is a must to ensure you ...

Today, I had a fantastic hike. The weather was great and 15 cm powder snow made the hike simply fantastic. I visited several hills and found three geocaches. I started the trip from Tømmerdalen. This location is about 10 km outside town and a dirt road takes you there. Normally, I am not fond of driving my BMW E39 there. I have realised the limitations of the 5-series in winter. When I got there at 10:30 am there were no other cars around. When I returned at 2 pm the lot was crammed. On my way out I saw a brand new MB ML 320 CDI parked at the side of the road. I passed it slowly only to discover that I knew the owner who was standing outside the vehicle. I stopped for a chat, but I realised the guy was in distress. Embarrasingly, he admitted that he was stuck: both front and rear tyre on the right side was submerged in the snow. I tried to help with my .5 bhp available but to no avail. The car was stuck in the snow. I did not even try my BMW for pulling it out. I visited the nearest fa...

I recently cancelled my ISDN subscription. Since the installation of broadband, I found the monthly NOK 230 a waste of money. Cancelling the phone completely was tempting, but since this involves a NOK 60 fee added by the ISP I settled for a "mini" subscription at NOK 89 a month. Calls cost about 0.45 a minute and I started looking for viable alternatives. IP telephony is very popular and are offered my most ISPs. Although it is indeed very cheap to make a call, the monthly fee is still +100 NOK. For us averaging about NOK 50 in calls a month we don't benefit much from this offer. Since I recently bought a USB headset for my PS2 I started looking into the possibilities of making calls over the internet. Of course, voice calls over MSN, Google, Skype etc. is nothing new but the problem is that most of the neccessary phone calls can't be performed this way. Well, the exception is Skype. Skype makes it possible to call regular subscription phones at a low rate. As an exa...