So sad. I guess it just wasn’t going to end well for him, was it?

I just heard the news about Michael Jackson dying from a heart attack about 2 hours ago and I still find it surreal. I can only imagine the potential chaos and fallout that will come from his personal affairs and the string of London concerts he was set to perform next month. But despite all his strange behavior these past 10+ years or so, his musical gifts will continue to live on and bring joy to people around the world.

My most memorable things about Micheal Jackson’s career:

1. My parents original vinyl copy of “Thriller”.
2. “Billy Jean” video that I watched ENDLESSLY on MTV.
3. Rocking a bootleg white glove for several months during the 4th grade.
4. Watching live on T.V. Michael burning his hair doing a Pepsi commercial.
5. Moonwalker.
6. Disbelief in 1993 about molestation allegations (later dropped) first hearing the news in my parents car driving along the Palisades Parkway.
7. Marrying Lisa Presley and thinking to myself “weird”.
8. Southpark parody of the King of Pop.
9. That super hard lean he does for Smooth Criminal.
10. And of course, the Thriller video.

What’s your most memorable moments from Michael Jackson and his career???

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Probably most know for being one of the principal stars of the popular 1970’s hit show “Charlie’s Angels” the iconic actress Farrah Fawcett died earlier today after losing her battle with anal cancer. She was blessed both with beauty and talent and handled her career with class and grace.

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(CNNsi.com)

Since I can’t really watch the NBA FInals live on T.V. here at home (mainly to do with he time zone difference between England and the USA) instead I have to catch up with what happened the following morning on the web. ESPN’s video recaps are handy for this, although admittedly it’s just not the same. However my Spanish flatmate is all into the games too and we chat about it in the evening for a little bit. Of course he is a Pau Gasol fan and he even seems to know that the Knicks really suck these days driving home the point that my hometown team’s woeful reputation in the 21st century has gone global now. Such a warm feeling that is, huh?

Anyway, the first couple of games seemed to be interesting and fun, and I have made a few observations that I think are worth sharing here. First of which is that the Lakers white home uniforms suck. I hate them! Please stop using them. Instead, keep to your gold & purple ones for the home games, they work just fine if not better. I’ve always liked this about the Lakers look, how it bucked the home white jersey standard league wide, but also digged how well it contrasts against most (if not all) visiting teams’ road jerseys. Those gold jerseys look so well against the Magic’s baby blue road uniforms in Game 1 so why would you wear those ugly white things for the next home game??? The Lakers should have lost Game 2 just because of this in order to teach them a valuable lesson about jersey feng-shui.

Which brings me to my second observation: The Magic are done. Stick a fork in them. After getting blown out by Kobe Bryant in Game 1 (with some help from Gasol and Lamar Odom) and having missed a great chance of stealing a home game from the Lakers in Game 2 they are now down 0-2 to start the series which is not a very good omen. Something like 95% of teams that win the first two games of the series go on to win the whole thing. Good luck NEXT YEAR Orlando! BTW, great Game 2 analysis here from ESPN’s Bill Simmons. However I’m still not sure myself if that last play should have been given a goaltending call, but even so it was very slightly so. Either way of it, the Magic had their chances they just seemed not able to seal the deal. And all this stuff with playing Jameer Nelson at the expense of playing time for Rafer Alston is just plan ol’ disrespectful to the player SVG. But then again, the AND-1 mix-tape tour didn’t quite prepare “Skip-to-my Lou” for these kind of high stakes, now did they? Just play the game and quit yapping ’bout yer playing time, ARRRRRRGGGHHH! That was my pirate voice, matey.

But in the end it doesn’t matter, Kobe will finally win a title without Shaquille O’Neal and we can finally put Shaq’s rapping career to rest once and for all.

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I’m not sure if this is a sign of the apocalypse in American sports culture but just earlier this week the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA signed a 3 year sponsorship deal with LifeLock, an identity theft protection company, that will make the Mercury the first WNBA team to feature a prominent corporate logo displayed on the front of their team jersey. The team logo will now instead be regulated to a smaller badge type presence on the front. All of this is in an attempt to remain fiscally viable as a franchise and league by finding various ways to generate money to finance their operations and personnel costs. But before there could even be an uproar from any sector of the sports fan news broke earlier today that the L.A. Sparks also plan to do sponsorship deal of their own with Farmers Insurance just in time for the start of the new season this year.

Although this isn’t very common in sports leagues across the United States (MLS already does it, with the New York Red Bulls being the most blatant example) the rest of the world is used to seeing their pro sports teams wearing the logos of corporate sponsors big, loud and in the center of their team uniforms; even the leagues and championships themselves are being sponsored (case in point is Barclay’s Premier league sponsorship) but is all of this really necessary? From a business standpoint, if it generates revenue, sure, why not? But from the fans perspective are we not already bombarded enough by advertisements from every which way on a daily basis that we now have to endure more of it during our leisure pursuits?

Or is that the rub here, that we as a sporting public prefer the “illusion” that we are in the free & clear of ads even though the reality is far from that. Everywhere around us during the game, televised or live at the stadium, we are constantly surrounded by advertisements. So from this viewpoint, why not just place the ad on the jersey itself as that’s where our attention is focused mostly anyway — and the key to any good advertising strategy is to be noticed, right?

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But can you really imagine if the New York Yankees,San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Celtics or even the L.A. Lakers were to wear a corporate logo as big as a target on their jerseys? Shouldn’t that bother us?! Even a little bit???

Personally I hope that these type of sponsorships don’t invade the major American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, and NFL) but I guess it’s only a matter of time before it eventually does. Even if the games themselves have become somewhat of a spectacle over the past couple of decades (they are businesses after all) and even if the stadium itself is littered with ads, I’d still prefer to watch the games free of all that visual pollution adorning the playing field as well as the players themselves. But perhaps that is just me?

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I finally broke down and ordered a Print Gocco PG-11 model listing I saw off of eBay last weekend and the kit just arrived this morning! Although I love my B6 model and it has treated me right these past ten years or so, it still wasn’t always the easiest to align multiple print screens with, especially if you required tight registration. The PG-11 vastly improves upon that limitation with an adjustable printing bed as a well as a transparent (and removable) registration plate to help accurately line up your prints below it. Now I can do away with most of these crazy methods I’ve employed over the years just to get consistently registered prints — but I will also have less excuses when my prints are misaligned from now on too I suppose, ha!

Interesting enough, along with the standard PG-11 components came a mini Gocco printing kit that creates 1×1 inch square stamps. I have never see such a device before and since all of the instructions are in Japanese I don’t even know it’s exact name! But it’s not hard to tell from the illustrated instruction manual on how to use it: basically you place the metal plate onto the PG-11 printing pad which houses your design, then you flash the original art work as you normally would with the printer except this time the original artwork has to placed backwards since you will ultimately print it as a stamp. I may have to ask around first before I try this since I have never used (or seen for that matter) this device before. Plus I have no idea where you would get additional stamp screens & supplies for the contraption.

All in all I’m super excited to finally have a PG-11 to call my own, and that new mini-stamp printer was a bonus! Hopefully I can bang out some prints on this system before the month is over.

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Okay, so I’m a week+ late with this but if you’re a lover of all things Futura, fellow MCAD compatriot Aaron James Draplin is having his very first solo art show in Portland, Oregon from May 27th until June 20th. If you happen to be in that neck of the woods around this time and want to check out his work you can get the 411 of the exhibition details here.

NOTE: if you are graphically inclined, iconary obsessed, enjoy perusing 8pt.+ thick minimum borders of various 2D logos, and like hanging out with famous playboy Daschunds named Gary then this is your crowd! Unfortunately I can’t make it so hopefully somebody will post some pictures from the opening for me to scope out and feel as if I actually was there. That’s almost better than teleportation itself. Almost.

Below are highlights of some of the design nuggets & insights produced over the years at the Draplin Factory:

• Coal Headwear promotions
• “Things We Love” Gocco screen print for the Wurst Gallery
• Various DDC Merchandise
• Field Notes — ‘Nuff said!
• Thoughts on American Signage sprinkled with some F-bombs to make his points clearer.
• A kick-ass blog and early pioneer of the medium

Except for a dinner catchup here in London a few years back I really don’t get much of a chance to chat with Draplin since our fine college days. Hell, who am I kidding, we hardly socialized then! But here’s the deal: Draplin is a 100 megawatts of pure design & typographic enthusiasm, so secretly (until now) I’ve been loosely keeping up with his various exploits over years and I’m always amazed by the work he produces as well as his design knowledge. He’s truly an inspiration and one of the classiest people you’ll ever meet. So, it’s disappointing that I’ll miss his exhibition, but for those of you that can make I think you you’ll enjoy his work and its evolution over the years — even if he uses the same damn font for nearly everything he produces.

In the meantime you can learn more about the legend that is the DDC here in this comprehensive interview at Hear’ Hear over (no pun intended) here.

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All of a sudden Apple’s Safari web browser decides to suck. It’s been almost two weeks since I used it last (version 3.2.3) because all it ever seems to do now after 5 minutes of being open is just crash. Five minutes. That’s three hundred seconds. After so long it gets very annoying. Even when I open it and don’t use it somehow it still manages to crash. It’s so awesome, in that pulling your hair out kinda way. I’ve tried everything I could think of from resetting the preferences, emptying the browser cache, and even reinstalling some suspect plug-ins, but nada, nothing, zero improvement. Not sure what I’m overlooking but I just can’t figure out a solution.

In the meantime I’ve been using the latest version of Firefox which is a fine temporary solution to my internet surfing needs. I’ve used Firefox before, just never for such a long and consistent stretch; I’ve mainly used it for checking that things are cross-browser compliant whilst developing backend code for websites. I must say, it’s a slick little browser and I really like how easily extensible it is. Still some things to get used to while using it (I hate the way it currently renders 2-3px dotted lines) but for the most part its been doing right by me thus far.

Oh, and since I haven’t been running Safari for the past two weeks I’ve noticed my computer OS has been crashing a lot less frequently… down by 75%! Things that make you go hmmmmm.

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(Photos by Getty Images)

So it’s now official: the Los Angeles Lakers will battle the Orlando Magic for this years NBA crown. Should be interesting to watch Shaq’s former team duke it out with a post-Shaq L.A. squad for bragging rights. Just imagine if Kobe Bryant & Co. lose to Orlando what insightful questions the Big Saguaro might ask: “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste?”. Other than that I really don’t care who wins, but I see the Lakers having the edge overall. And if Lamar Odom decides to show up for every game in the series then L.A. should win the trophy in six.

Also, what is with these finals playing schedules they keep putting out?! Take a look:

2009 NBA Finals Schedule
No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 3 Orlando Magic

• Game 1: Thursday, June 4 – Orlando at L.A.
• Game 2: Sunday, June 7 – Orlando at L.A.
• Game 3: Tuesday, June 9 – L.A. at Orlando
• Game 4: Thursday, June 11 – L.A. at Orlando
• Game 5*: Sunday, June 14 – L.A. at Orlando
• Game 6*: Tuesday, June 16 – Orlando at L.A.
• Game 7*: Thursday, June 18 – Orlando at L.A.

* if necessary

How can you have two nights off between games 1 & 2, and 5 & 6 4 & 5 which are in the same city, yet have games 2& 3 and 5 & 6 only be a night apart from each other while having less time to readjust from switching coasts to play the next game??? That’s just stupid. Plus, isn’t that an unfair advantage to the team that doesn’t have home court? And finally, I’m sick and tired of that 2-3-2 format, get rid of it already!

Okay, my rant is over. For now.

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Credit goes to Olive47 and Sara for sending me this jewel of a video clip that accurately describes the b.s. some clients try to pull on vendors and freelancers in real world applications. It’s so true it almost hurts actually, but nonetheless it’s a funny depiction on their lame attempts in trying to screw you over.

As a freelancer I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to turn down a potential contract just based on principal. It’s not always easy to do, but there is nothing worse than realizing after the fact that you got swindled by some narcissistic lying control freak who is only willing to offer you a lopsided contract exclusively in their favor and then have the nerve to pitch it as if it’s a “bargin” for you. That’s all they are trying to do when they pull this crap is to sell you on a lie at the very beginning of a project. Nice working conditions, huh?

That’s why this video rocks, it’s so spot on. Who ever made it is a genius. I’ll definitely be showing it to my next prospective clients.

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It’s really disappointing to see that California’s Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages this past Tuesday. Out of all of the states in the union California shouldn’t still be having this debate. When the state of Iowa (along with 4 other states) offer marriage licenses between same sex couples and not the Golden State that is just too surreal to me.

(And mucho props to Iowains for doing the right thing, they’re much more progressive in that state then we usually tend to give them credit for on the coasts.)

From my understanding of it all keeping Prop 8 in effect doesn’t repeal any gay marriage that took place in California prior to the voter approved bill banning gay marriage last November — rather it’s the semantics of not referring to any consentual “domestic partnership” as a “marriage” that has been repealed. Under current California state law there is no real legal difference between a “marriage” and a “domestic partnership” in terms of rights granted to the couple other than the name used to describe each type of marriage union.

So I find it very interesting that although the majority of Californians from all walks of life really have no problem with gay couples getting hitched in substance, they just prefer it’s not called a “marriage”. My question to those people is this: WHO CARES WHAT YOU CALL IT, WHY DOES THAT EVEN MATTER??? You can call it the dog’s bullocks and that still doesn’t make it any less of a marriage now does it?! If the majority of you support it in substance then why is it such a problem to you if it’s referred to as a marriage?! I mean, that IS what it IS isn’t it?

Jack Cafferty from CNN aks a very good question on his blog: “What will it take for Americans to embrace idea of gay marriage?” I’m curious to know too, because at some point in the near future all our kids are going to ask a similar question: “what was the big deal?”

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(photo from CNN/AP)

When the city of London was dead quiet around 10pm I knew things weren’t looking too good for the Manchester United faithful. The match was taking place in Rome and Man U was trying to repeat as back-to-back champions of Europe, the first time it would have been accomplished in 19 years.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch the game tonight but from the lack of noise out in the streets it seemed fairly obvious what the result was. From what I was told (and read) FC Barcelona just mopped the floor with Manchester to win the Champions League (Eurocup) by a score of 2-nil, out classing them the entire game. Damn, that’s gotta hurt. But nice to see artistry won over industry.

Barcelona Fans cheering on their team in Rome before the match.

The Red Devils have much to be proud of this season, wining several league titles, so don’t hang your heads too low guys. And don’t be sour about Kobe Bryant being a Barça fan. If anything just give Barcelona props for an amazing season, as they also won Spain’s Primera Liga, and the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) to go along with their Champions League trophy to complete the rare trifecta — the first time any Spanish club accomplished that feat during the same season. And congrads to Henry Thierry, you are the f’n man!

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I guess a LeBron vs. Kobe NBA Finals matchup isn’t imminent after all. Even though they were my preseason picks to reach the finals this season, a Denver vs. Orlando finals wouldn’t be a bad championship series to watch at all either.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are getting out-played by the Orlando Magic who have owned them this entire season and if it weren’t for that game winning buzzer beater in Game 1 by LeBron James the Cavs would’ve been sweept out of the conference finals. Lebron is playing his ass off but needs much more help from the rest of his teammates — Mo Williams is disappearing at the wrong time of the season and offering a “guaranteed win” resulting in a loss only adds insult to injury. I just don’t see the Cavs bouncing back from being down 3-1, and in fact based of the way they’ve played so far I will bet the Magic will finish them off in game 5 at Cleveland on Thursday night. Either way of it, the Cavs are done. Move over “The Shot”, move over “The Drive” here comes “The Choke”.

Denver Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony laughing at the idea of the L.A. Lakers reaching the NBA finals.

As for the Lakers-Nuggets series, which is all tied up at two games a piece, one must watch out for as the Birdman cometh. Not since the likes of Scot Pollard has the NBA seen a colorful supporting player as Chris Andersen is with his tattooed arms and current stylish mo’ hawk. But his specialty is defense and blocking shots. And he put a nasty block on Shannon Brown that was squeaky clean the other night. Ouch!

But, as much as I wouldn’t mind seeing the Lakers get dropped by the Nuggets to reach the finals, I just want the games to be played cleanly. That trip caused by Dahntay Jones on Kobe Byrant was a dirty play along with this blatant shove of Kobe during game 3. It’s one thing to play tough, but that kind of stuff is unnecessary, and dangerous. And I don’t understand why the NBA is fining Lakers Coach Phil Jackson $25K for protesting these type of plays? NBA refs & management are really dumb sometimes. But hey, the Lakers could’ve been down 3-1 by now so, at least technically they are still in the series. But from the looks of things thus far the Lakers will probably lose this series if Denver beats them tonight in game 5. Kobe and Pau “soft” Gasol just can’t do it by themselves.

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(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America)

Granted I didn’t know who she was before the news of her Supreme Court nomination earlier today by U.S. President Barack Obama, but the more I read up on Sonia Sotomayor the more in favor I am of her getting the nomination. Clearly she has the judicial experience to be on the bench, but she would also add a MUCH NEEDED breath of fresh air on the highest court in the land by infusing it with perspectives gained from real-life knowledge and not just of those from a life of priviledge. If confirmed by the senate Ms. Sotomayor would be the first Latin-American to sit on the Supreme Court (a Puerto Rican woman from the South Bronx at that!) and the third woman ever in that post. That’s history right there!

Interesting enough, Judge Sotomayor should be familiar to the sports world for some of her rulings dealing with NFL draft eligibility as well as helping to end the 1994 MLB baseball labor strike which were both some high profile cases at the time.

Lastly, I’ve noticed that there are grumblings around some conservative camps that think Judge Sotomayor is too “activist” in her judicial style — as if it’s wrong to identify with who you are as a person within the construct our social-economic society? Race, gender and class DOES matter in the USA precisely because the “playing field” isn’t level yet, especially in the courts. But her confirmation would do a great service to the country in addressing that aspect of our society. It would also fundamentally help redefine our values and perceptions of ourselves for the betterment of everyone involved bringing the United States that much closer to it’s moral ideals.

Good Luck Judge Sotomayor!

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Who doesn’t love Mr. T?! But what the hell was he thinking wearing those Zubaz pants during his ceremonial pitch at Wrigley Field?! Lord have mercy the 90’s are over bro. Otherwise, he did a fine job hamming it up for the Chicago Cub faithful early today and his singing during the 7th inning stretch is classic. But still, you gotta respect yo’ fashion sense just like you gotta respect yo’ momma, nah mean!?

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Four years strong and I’ve officially reached my 750th blog post today. Basically, that’s a lot of cyber-yakking going on. But those that know me my offline version ain’t too much different I suppose. Time sure has flown by very quickly with all of this as it only seems like yesterday I started messing around with this stuff.

I have a new design in the works to revamp the website and make it more streamlined both in content and presentation so just hang in thee, all will be revealed soon, hopefully by July if goes as planned. Ha! In the meantime thanks for chiming in from time to time, the extra thoughts and proses definitely adds more fun and flavor to it all. For now I’ll celebrate with some much need sleep to help fight off a stubborn head cold I have at the moment.

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Yesterday, Norway celebrated it’s independence also known in Norwegian as “Grunnlovsdagen” (Constitution Day) or “Syttende Mai” which literally means May 17th. Since 1814 Norway has celebrated it’s independence as a nation and annually huge parades crowd the main streets to mark the occasion, the biggest by far taking place in the country’s capital of Oslo.

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I had no idea I would be around during Syttende Mai so it was a real treat to see the parades. From about 6am everyone is out in the streets celebrating and waving Norwegian flags, with many school bands performing and marching along Karl Johan Gate all the way up to the Royal Palace. Plus many Norwegians dress up in their native folk attires which are very ornate and detailed to the specific region in which they hail from. Meanwhile, I’m sure everyone was still high off Norway’s win in the Eurovison contest Staurday night courtesy of 23 year old singer and violinist Alexander Rybak, who become a household name overnight. Watch the video of his performance here.

And the day couldn’t have been any much nicer with clear skies, lots of warmth from the sun and plenty of festive attitudes all around. Oslo is actually much more ethnically mixed than you would imagine at first. It was cool seeing different races of people celebrating the national holiday together.

About halfway through the day I meet up with Odie again and hung out with the rest of his family. His daughter was sporting a custom folk dress made by her grandmother, but was a little too long at first so they were running late as Odie hemmed up the skirt for a better fit by hand. Who says men don’t have those skills anymore?!

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After the parade was over we all headed over to the kid’s school to relax a little bit and have them have some fun at the playground for a spell. Heidi and Odie inviting me over for a delicious home cooked meal and I got watch them put the finishing touches on the yummy homemade strawberry cake. Once we were all properly stuffed Odie gave me a lift back into downtown Oslo were I meet up with my new best friend Yvonne over some pints in Grünerløkka which is the hip part of town. In a surreal moment much later in the evening, as we were leaving a kebab joint one of the cooks there asked where I was from and I said “New York”, and then he coolly handed over my food saying “well, I’m from Iraq”, and it was quite the awkward moment form that point; what could/would/should I have said in response to that? It was a strange moment in an otherwise very fun trip to Norway.

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Quite literally I’ve been all over Oslo today. First I walked around The Royal Palace before heading over to the Edvard Munch museum to see all his classic works including “Madonna” and “The Scream”, but was amazed at seeing a variety of his earlier sketches and prints for the first time. Security is SUPER TIGHT here, especially after a couple of his paintings were stolen from the museum just several years ago. He’s kind of a big deal over here, and not just the rest of the world.

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Then I was off to the opposite side of the city to check out the Vigeland Museet featuring the sculpture work by Gustav Vigeland which was nothing short of breathtaking! I also trekked about the Vigelandsparken to see his famous monolith, and it was one of the most expressive works of art I have ever seen on the state of the human experience. Everyone of those statues (including the dozens of others throughout the park) felt alive despite their granite and copper skins. Impressive both in scale and craft to say the very least.

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While I still had some extra time I made it over to the National Gallery and took a quick tour of the collection there. Too many Norwegian artist names to list here worth checking out I but definitely want to look more at John Salvo’s work which was currently on exhibition at the museum; some great woodcut prints he had that I found truly inspirational.

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Lastly, I managed to get back over to the Nobel Peace Center to finish my tour of the museum from yesterday, and it was well worth the extra holes in my sneakers to make it happen before closing time! In the main hall was a beautiful B&W photography exhibition centered around a theme of “The Dream of Europe” which presented a contrast to the “American Dream”.

However, the main thing to see here was all launderettes of the Nobel Peace Prize and the way in which the museum presents the kiosks for each is nothing short of state of the art. There was even this (I think laser guided) interactive book that once you open it begins to animate the content onto the blank pages. With each turn of the page a new spread of content appeared and you could even interact with the page elements expanding and collapsing menu items. One of the coolest interactive pieces I’ve seen to date. Definitely visit this museum if you ever have the chance because you won’t be disappointed.

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Today was a busy day soaking up all the sights here in Oslo. I woke up a little later than I had originally wanted but I was soon on my way around noon and hopped on a ferry to the island Bygdøy to check out some Norwegian history and culture. The first place I visited was the Norsk Folkemuseum to take a tour of their open-air museums showcasing how Norwegians lived as far back as the 1500’s. This is where the famous Gol Stave Church is and you can go inside of it to look at the alter place as well as the high ceiling. I also wandered around the current exhibitions they had inside the main museum, including the “Back to the 80’s” collection which was such a time warp showcasing Nintendo gaming systems, He-Man toys and computers that are dinosaurs by today’s standards.

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Next it was time to see some boats and what kind a trip to Norway would it be if one didn’t go gander at some Viking ships? Well that’s what the Vikingskiphuset is all about, showcasing real life sized specimens of these famed vehicles from Nordic history. And in person these Viking ships are quite impressive, they look frail yet don’t be fooled as they are very agile and durable; although they do leave it’s passengers to the whims of the elements which is a drawback. Still, amazing stuff to behold.

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After plundering Viking ship imagery with my camera I headed over to the Kon-Tiki Museet to check out the legendary voyage by Thor Heyerdahl to prove a theory that Polynesia was reachable by prehistoric South American seafarers. He even won an Oscar for best documentary in 1951 which detailed this expedition he took with his wife. The museum showcases various artifacts, equipment and notes from his voyage.

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My last place to visit in Bygdøy was the Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum which is the National Maritime Museum depicting many of Norway’s accomplishments as a sea traveling nation. Lots of models of boats, ships, paintings and various life size interior quarters of crew and passengers are on display here in this museum. There’s also some nice views of Oslo bay from the third level along with a panoramic theater downstairs showing off the various scenic coastlines and geological landscapes of Norway from the air.

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After I got back to downtown I took a hike around the grounds of Akershus Fortress but just missed seeing the castle itself. After today I’m not sure if I’ll be walking much again as my feet are killing me now.

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