I just wrote an article for HP. It should come as no surprise that it is about my love for HP calculators 🙂
The article is in Norwegian: Fra liten nerd kalkulatorentusiast
And I have included a Google Translate link: From little nerd to calculator enthusiast (I make no guarantees about the accuracy of the translation)
After almost 1000 comments on the post “Scientology – does it work?“, I came to this conclusion:
I find it an imperative responsibility for every Scientologist to make up his or her mind what in Scientology is workable and what is not. Lest the good will inevitably be thrown out with the bath water while the Scientologist stand watching and screaming “Objection!”, “SPs!”, “PTS!”, “O/Ws!”, “Out Ethics!”, “Misapplication!”, “MUs!” (Scientology terms for various wrongs).
And in order to sift the good from the bad – one must be able AND willing to recognize the bad and speak openly about it. As a whole body of knowledge – the totality of Scientology – it is indefensible. But parts are so good and so worthwhile saving that it would be a shame to see it yield under the weight of whats obviously bad in it.
Future generations will judge our sifting – and as attention span decreases, so will people’s patience with the unworkable parts of Scientology and they will let it reflect quickly on the whole subject. I see the general products created by Scientology since its early years up till now as being insignificant, riddled with bad apples and with some heavy bad results on the way. And I want to salvage the good from the bad that created this.
And I cannot think with all the bad being just “misapplication of a perfect or highly workable philosophy and technology”. I see the bad results as systemic, rooted in the technology and the philosophy themselves.”
When the traffic gets high, when posts get more than 500 or even a 1000 comments, I am bound to miss questions from my readers.
I want to answer your questions, and to ensure you are not left without an answer, I propose you ask any questions you may have to me as comments to this blog post.
Just add your question as a comment here and I will get back to you with an answer. Ask anything – from my views on life, IT, Scientology, my favorite HP calculator, music, art, preferences in any part of life or whatever else you may have on your mind. Do not hold back. I am not shy.
This post is not an arena for long discussions – or I may again miss some questions buried in long threads. Interesting topics may instead earn separate blog posts.
There is one noticeable area of my life where I am weak. This is the area where I get most easily hurt, where I tackle situations irrationally and where I shed the most tears. I have added to my two quests to become better at handling these situations – because they hurt me and because they hurt others when I handle them badly.
I am weak in handling threats or actual damage to the relations I have with the people I love. Specifically; My relation to my sons, to Anette and to Brendan. Whenever something threatens these relationships, I really feel it in my guts. This is my most prominent “button” in life – the area in most need of betterment. This is where I need to learn to not give a fuck, where I need to take more responsibility, where I need to get my key back to my own emotions.
Your thoughts are welcome. I am a work in progress.
I have coached several hundred people in all walks of life. From executives of international companies and housewives to artists, top athletes and business people of widely different trades.
I have used many different tools and methods to help others. And the coaching has almost uniformly resulted in great success. But it is only recently that I managed to distill the reasons for success into two simple keys:
That’s it.
Sure, there are perhaps many different aspects of life the person needs to tackle. But from my experience, a person’s inability to handle a situation is always linked to the person’s own tension, stress or drama. He simply cannot let go of being uptight about the problem. The problem is never that serious, and the less serious the person thinks the problem is, the better equipped he is in handling it. Usually, the person knows how to handle the situation, he only needs to let go of the up-tightness, simmer down and do what he knows is right. Sometimes the person needs some new knowledge – then I help him get that. But as long as the person remains uptight and serious, he won’t be of much use to himself.
And the best way to help the person not give a fuck is to get him to start doing something about the problem he is facing. Not to indulge in mental exercises, visualizings, meditations or other indirect attempts. A gradual tackling of the actual situation will help him see that the mountain is not unsurmountable. Get him to clean out the garage, talk to his wife, quit the job he hates, whatever. Tackle the main problem, not anything else. No beating around the bush. This will ease the tension. And he will relax. Finally, he will be on top of the situation, any situation. Be there for him. All the way.
Try it.
Update: Anette pointed me in the direction of this great article on this subject.
From 1987 till 1990, Stein Halvorsen and I ran the legendary Norwegian weekly radio show “Midnight Magic”. Interactive radio featuring role-playing on the air. After 22 years off the air, we did a comeback just before X-Mas on Pål Hverven‘s radio show “Magic Beat“.
Pål was a big fan of Midnight Magic – both the role-playing and the music we played on the show – Italo Disco, Depeche Mode, SpaceSynth as well as the regular crop of hits. Five years ago, Pål started his own music radio show – the Magic Beat where he mostly plays SpacSynth. An oasis among the run-of-the-mill airings.
SpaceSynth, greatly inspired by Jean Michel Jarre and similar artists, was born in the mid-80’s and served by Koto, Laserdance and their ilk. Around the start of our show, Koto came out with one of my old-time favorites, Dragon’s Legend:
During our comeback a month ago, I rediscovered SpaceSynth – and much to my delight, I discovered that there has been a renaissance of the genre. Lots of new artists such as Galaxion and Resource X had entered the scene – and the scene is more active than ever. And so I have spent the past few weeks listening to tracks like this:
this:
and this:
and even Laserdance is delivering new music:
It’s a Renaissance! Oh Joy!
And without further ado, here’s the Midnight Magic comeback:
Midnight Magic comeback 21st December 2012.
You can also get it streamed from Radio Nova (click on the program dated 21.12.2012). I am sure the world didn’t go under because everyone was anticipating our comeback.
It may mark the start of a renaissance for our program. We’ll see if Pål can come up with some time slots for Midnight Magic. If it happens, I will let the readers of this blog know. Perhaps we can do a couple of programs in English as well.
…space.
I am sitting at Wayne’s Coffee, downtown Oslo preparing an IT course I will hold for a client the day after tomorrow – while I listen to Galaxion.
I could have picked almost any of their tracks. Here’s how I feel right now:
…or at least two of them are:
In the first quest I seek to rid myself of any expectations. I have yet to find a good and solid business case for having expectations. They are great for generating disappointments, but not for much else. They detract from fully experiencing the here and now by putting some of my attention into the future. I would rather live here and now.
In the second quest, I seek to observe situations and people without labeling. Seeing people for what they truly are instead of seeing them through filters such as “Wog”, “Gay”, “Terrorist”, “Strange”, “Jerk”, “SP”, or some such.
I still have expectations and I still use labels. These are quests. I am a work in progress 🙂
What are your quests in life?
I used to feel most harmonious alone. Away from the intentions of others to change me, shape me or nudge my ways just the slightest in some direction. Away from explicit of unspoken criticism, silent treatments or looks of disapproval.
I have since a long time now felt great alone. Total harmony, no issues, no unwanted (by me) thoughts or behavior. Great bliss.
I am a rebel, yes. But with a cause. Not conforming to certain norms or set behaviors. Not using the fork correctly, talking to the right people at the right times or utilizing the appropriate phrases at conservative social gatherings. All true. But in turning the table, I wouldn’t care. It didn’t matter to me if people were conforming, if they were socially odd or spent too much time playing Lego with the kids instead of talking to the right people at the wedding party.
Very seldom did I feel that I could be myself fully. Nowhere was this more true than in the Church of Scientology. One step out of the party-line, and it was straight into an interrogation interview with the Ethics Officer. And as I progressed up through the upper spiritual levels of Scientology (the OT levels), the demands for conformity grew beyond that of the old East Germany, the DDR.
I got fed up of the frowning or disapprovals. I quit the church. I got new friends. And tolerance became a most wanted quality in people I spend time with.
As I write this, there are a few people that I feel I can be completely free, myself and in harmony around and with. These are the people that when I am with them, I feel on par with being alone. Brendan and Anette are such remarkable people of tolerance. Grand and generous.
I will continue to seek out the grand and generous – an ongoing quest.
Would you like to share the qualities you seek in others?
Geir Isene - uncut 