On recycling

Since I am still lost in the Norwegian mountains, I have decided to take the advice of blogging buddy DL Hammons. He suggested that we all start a blogging recycle station, where we can repost posts (you have no idea how long I struggled with that phrase. "Repost posts" isn't exactly the height of elegance, but what to do? I already spent ten minutes trying to figure out a better phrasing, and I failed. I'm doomed!) from way back when we were blogging nobodies. Many of the blog posts I wrote when I was in the US, for instance, would probably entertain many of my US readers who didn't even know I existed back then. So, since I am away and not writing anyway (or at least not writing blogs. I'm fairly sure I will be writing about trolls. There is just something about those mountains that make it completely impossible to fend them off), I'm taking this opportunity to recycle one of my early posts. Ironically, I am choosing one of the posts that has the most pageviews (according to the Blogger stats, anyway). I don't think the reason it has so many pageviews is because it's been read so many times, though. See, my hit counter occasionally informs me of google searches that lead to visits on this blog. One of the top hits is someone searching for pictures of fraggles...


With no further ado (after all, there was quite a lot of ado in the previous paragraph), this post was originally posted (there we go again! Post posted! If I die of shame, please make sure to do a post-mortem on me!) on September 5th, 2009, and I was trying to make sense of living in the US of A:




Remember the Fraggles? I used to love that show (dubbed to Norwegian, of course). I knew the songs, I loved the characters, and I dreaded every visit into the Gorgs’ garden. One of my favourite parts of the show (apart from the Doozers), was the recurring event of the postcards Gobo receives from his Uncle “Traveling” Matt.

These postcards are video-clips from “Outer Space” – aka our world. They show “normal” human activities or items, seen from Matt’s outsider perspective. It always amused me how the creators could make something everyday and normal so exotic and foreign, and I enjoyed Matt’s interpretation of the situations he observed. What I didn’t realize, though, was that someday I would feel just like him:

Dear Gobo (aka everyone at home),

The Silly Creatures have really outdone themselves. Outer Space is just so BIG! The cars, the roads, the shops… It’s a miracle they don’t all get lost.

In addition to being big, Outer Space is also very, very different. It started the minute I stepped off the plane – the driver who was supposed to take me to my lodging was blabbering in this strange tongue of theirs (I must say I’m starting to get the hang of it now). He continuously asked me about something he called “the AC” – I still have no idea what he was talking about, but I wish he would have opened a window, since the car was sweltering.

The next thing I noticed about the Silly Creatures is their fondness for cinnamon. Everything either tastes or smells cinnamon. Bagels – a little unusual, but actually delicious. Coffee – I can get behind that, sometimes. Chewing gum – on this they lost me. Public bathrooms – that’s just weird.

A possible explanation to this is that the Silly Creatures have developed different taste buds than us. This would also explain why they have yoghurt that tastes sweeter than sugar. How that is possible – since there is bound to be something else besides sugar in the yoghurt – I have yet to figure out.

Now I must run to the shops which I’ve heard are crazy this weekend. The Silly Creatures are talking about preparing for “Labor Day”. I don’t know what they mean by that, but it sure sounds like hard work.

May this postcard not be intercepted by Sprocket.

All the best from your Uncle