Torfinn Nome - Life as a …

I actually did it. I defended my thesis last week. Believe it or not. I certainly do not. At least not yet.  A summary of the thesis can be seen in the above picture (courtesy of Wordle).

Now what?

Lately, being part of an academic environment, I have increasingly been aware of the insufficencies we face as human beings. Not that I don’t gape in astonishment of what is being achieved in both medical and technology related research advancements these days. But we have the potential to achieve so much more. And I feel, more than a little, annoyed by the way we seem to deliberatly waste resources on obviously counter productive projects. Productive projects that eventually would make, pardon the cliché, our lives better. Pouring billions of dollars into military operations is obviously an easy way to make friends with people running the military industry. But it’s not much affecting the way we deal with treating cancer, enhancing ways of expoiting alternative energy sources, speeding up the making of a space elevator, or understanding the complex ways of gene transcription interactions. And I do believe those extra billions could make an impact. However, thankfully, we are making progress nonetheless. And the progress is gaining speed in a way only J.B.S. Haldane and H.G. Wells could dream of (while Ray Kurzweil knew all along…). But it’s not enough. Professors and other scholars, with life long knowledge and experience, do retire. And even tho they are able to share their valuable knowledge through their companions and peers before leaving academy, much is lost. I want humanity to be able to pass on this knowledge in a new way. I want us to be able to share everything. Knowledge. Experience. Not in writings. Not in teachings. The process is too slow. But in a way numerous scifi story writers have been telling us for years. My new boss, Stig W. Omholt (director of Centre for Integrative Genetics), showed me not long ago an article in New Scientist. About researches involved in technologies “extending human capabilities“. We don’t have time waiting for evolution to make human brains inter-connect, sharing intelligence, knowledge and experience, vastly improving our scientific progress. We need to understand the way the human brain store information, and its nearly endless creativity. And be able to reproduce it. Thankfully, The Singularity Is Near. And it will change everything.

8 weeks have passed. I’ve been able to force myself doing short 15-25 minutes short runs, until my knee starts hurting. 2-4 times a week. It’s been frustrating. Especially since I need all the endorphines I can get after struggling with lack of results in the lab, and other, more personal issues… BUT! Today, I managed one hour! I feel I’m back on track, and my spirits are already rising (obviously the endorphines talking). Hooray!

…meters. One hour, forty-nine minutes. I expected worse. Having gained interest in running during the summer, heavily influated by Lasse and fellow co-workers at Folkehelseinstituttet, I started running early August. Yesterday, I participated in Oslo Marathon, running the 1/2 marathon. I guess I’m kind of hooked. In September I ran a 11km off-road race, Sørkedalsløpet. October 14th I will run the 9.7km Nøklevann Rundt race. Even tho I much prefer running off-pist tracks, I have a goal; completing a full marathon within two years. I feel kind of wasted today, my legs are extremely stiff, and I just feel like doing nothing. But, I will follow Anita’s (co-lab-student) advice of running at least 40 minutes, “with a pace that would ashame your gramma”.

Update: I didn’t manage 40 minutes. I managed 20 meters… Now, a week later, I still struggle with something that might be the classical “running knee”. Sigh.

Busk and myself have been on a movie spree the last three days. Three movies in as many days. And it’s been great. Not only did I enjoy the movies (”Good Night, And Good Luck”, “Capote” and “Mi:3″ (the last to a lesser extent than the first two)), what made it great was: Capote. 80 seat theater. All leather. Middle/middle seats. Alone. No disturbance. Ah…

I have a racing bicycle, and have been biking since the snow melted some 4-5 weeks ago. Nothing (that I know of, at least…) beats the feelig of cruising along the fields on a sunny day doing good speed on your bike. Anyway. I use tubless tires. Mostly because the bike was equipped with such tires when I bought it, around ten years ago. One day last week, having biked around 25km, the tyre blows. In the middle of nowhere. Sure, no problem, I always carry a spare tyre. So, I swap tires, and continue riding. 30 meteres down the road: BOOM. Bah! Hero of the day: Busk, which picked me up when I called and explained the … situation.

Initiating a new transformation process this Friday, I spent most of the weekend in the lab. Mostly … waiting. This evening, at 19:30, looking at the result (after restriction enzyme cutting): The transformation was successfull! Nothing to write home about, really… But. After a week of feeling crappy. Lacking results. Nothing going the way you want them to. Finally looking at a successfull result materialising in front of your eyes somehow makes it all worth while, and then some!

Walking home today, oblivious to the rest of the world (or pretending to be) , hidden in my sphere of in-ear plugs and music, my playlist finally reached the Passengers track “Your Blue Room”. It’s been a while since last time. But it happens everytime, strong as no other tune: I’m back in 1995. In Fredrikstad. I sit in a dark room. Extremely dirty and dusty. With buzzing computers all around me. Blinking lights from numerous modems and hard drives the only source of light. Glenn in front of his monster monitor and monster computer, named Mother (as the starship). Joakim and Daniel programming. HP complaining about living outside the city, in Rolvsøy, with poor bus connections, far away from this room with it’s dedicated Internet connection. And me cursing the hellish sendmail.cf syntax. Us trying to run an ISP. In a time when only a few had even heard the word Internet. With the Passengers album running on repeat…

Nettopp tilbake fra noen særdeles avslappende dager på hytta (i Valdres, Aurdalsåsen). Dagene (fredag-onsdag) ble stort sett benyttet til skigåing og lesing. Det var dessverre begrenset med snø der (ca. 25cm), så få langrensløyper var kjørt opp. Men siden jeg kjøpte nye ski i fjor hadde jeg ikke mye valg; daglige turer ble utført. Tirsdagen ble brukt i alpinanlegget. Jeg står såklart telemark. Og det var såklart digg! Selv om kun én av bakkene var åpnet. (Og jeg inrømmer at jeg dagen etter såvidt kom meg opp fra senga. Jepp, rimelig støl.) I alle fall. Jeg fikk en hyggelig overraskelse tirsdagskvelden, etter å ha ligget på sofaen og lest om Don Quijote de la Manchas utrolige eventyr: 22:00 skrur jeg på P1 for å høre nyhetene, og jaggu er det ikke 10-års jubileumssending for Herreavdelingen! Herreavdelingen er nok det første radioprogrammet jeg begynte å høre fast på, den tiden jeg jobbet i Telenor Bedrift, og de hadde sendinger på PeTre midt i lunsjtiden… Finn Bjelke, Marius Müller, Glenn Rodney Skog, Janne Rønningen, etc. Men aller best husker jeg nok Arve Fuglums cricket-nyheter. (Dette må ha vært i 1997.) Sukk… Etter at de hoppet til P1 og kveldssendinger har jeg ikke hørt mye på det. Mest fordi det vanskelig lar seg gjøre å unngå å ikke minst én gang vekke hele huset med lattersalver.

I want an alternative way to sort my music. When I choose what to listen to, my mood decides. If it’s music that I relate to the mood I’m in. Or a mood I would want to be in. A combination would be great. Guess I have to compile a heavy list of playlists to achieve this. Or find me a new player supporting these tags.

The last few weeks have been rather busy. I finished all my exams (and they went better than I would have believed only a few weeks ago, thanks, Maje!), and now I’m back at my parents in the town of Fredrikstad.

My grand mother (Mormor) passed away last week. The funeral will be next Thursday, with plenty of family members staying over. I’m looking forward to seeing them all, even tho I certainly wish it would have been in a happier setting. But in times like this it will be nice to be together. This Christmas will definitely be different.