A Naive Norwegian Viewpoint, Doctor Who Squee and Icon Meme

[misscam]

Bit of a chase going on in the Barents sea at the moment - Russian trawler flees Norwegian coast guard

Figures that it's the day we get a new government and they get a potential diplomatic row with Russia. Latest I heard was that we had five ships chasing it. My, my. This ought to be fun.

I watched a documentary today on Norwegian prisoners in "custody", as it's called and it got me thinking. Basically, in Norway, our longest punishment is 21 years. We do not have a life sentence. But we do have "custody", where prisoners deemed a danger to society is placed to attempt to rehabilitate them to no longer be a danger. (For instance, a repeat killer may get 10 years for the murder and then 5 years of "custody".) In custody, there are more rehabilitation offers than in normal prison. It also costs more money - but it's either having that or having an actual law of life sentence - putting people in prison and throwing away the key.

Should Norway get such a policy? There is occasionally debates on this and our unarmed police, and maybe we have a little naive country to run things the way we do. I was reminded of this when I went by the American embassy the other day, which is now fenced off and you have to pass through a security check and have your possessions gone through before being allowed in. I have to go through less than that to get access to our ministries.

Maybe we are naive, but in the end, I think maybe it's worth it. I don't want us to be a society where the key is thrown away. And even having some personal experience with being a victim, I wouldn't want that done even as justice for me. We may pay the price of our ways sometimes, but everything has a price. I think we're better off paying this one than to let go of the humanitarian angle.

Because once you start stripping away humanity, where do you end? Can you afford that price?

/naive, eternally optimistic Norwegian rant

In decidedly less serious news - Thanks to a tip of tioan (thank you!), I managed to get my hands on two Doctor Who books (Winner Takes All and The Monsters Inside. There's hand-holding and hugging and Pissed!Off Doctor and even alien bondage jokes. I may be in shiny heaven. The plots were a little so-so at times, but they definitely had their moments. And just to show when you've found a new obsession, you see it everywhere - Doctor Who gets on fanficrants

Nicked from gypsyjr

Take a look at my icons.
Comment with the following:
1. one that makes you automatically think of me.
2. one that you think I should TOTALLY use more often.
3. one that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why I have it.

Comment using an icon of yours that you LOVE, and tell me why you picked THAT one too.

If you're wondering how to get the icons to show up, piece of cake. Use the "img src=url" code in < >. The url you will get my clicking at the icon with your other mouse button and select properties. It'll show the url and you can copy and paste it. Simple, ne?

For example, this is one of my own favourite icons at the moment:

Code: < img src="http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/35923366/522606" > minus the spaces

Comments

[chunkylimes.livejournal.com]

I wish you would use your BBC icon more; it's very pretty. I am torn between "You live and learn. At any rate, you live" and your evil smiley. I'm pretty sure I understand all of your icons.


As for my icon of love, I like this one because it describes what happens to me sometimes, and I think it's funny.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Heh.

BBC is love indeed. I tend to use it for mainly news posts, though. It feels appropriate.

[b2wm.livejournal.com]

1. one that makes me automatically think of Cam:

2. one that you should TOTALLY use more often:

3. one that needs more explanation:

The Magic 8 Palantir: because that's all they really are, and it's my best photomanip.

[chunkylimes.livejournal.com]

I love your Magic 8 ball palantir. I break out into fits of giggles whenever I see it. Especially since I keep getting mental images of Denethor going, "Will Osgiliath be taken this time?" every time an orc so much as breathes.

[b2wm.livejournal.com]

Thank you! All my iconeses are available for stealing, given credit to the original maker where applicable.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Got a / too much on the middle one there, but I figured out it was my Daily Show one, right?

Ah yes. The spanking Warrick. Well, basically, it devloped from this. It's become a bit of a running joke.

[b2wm.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's what I get for shoddy Ctrl+C work...

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

1. one that makes you automatically think of me:
2. one that you think I should TOTALLY use more often: (*squee*)
3. one that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why I have it:

Mine: This is actually my least favorite icon at present in terms of looks, but I love it because of the original picture I made it from. My mom and I were visiting Inis Mór (one of the Aran Islands around Ireland), and while wandering around the touristy places by the water, this adorable little kitty followed us around and let us pet it. I had wanted a picture of the boats around the island, and the kitty just jumped up on the wall as if to pose in front of them for me.

Oops...

[sinneahtes.livejournal.com]

I meant *this* icon. The icon I used by mistake in the last comment is also from Inis Mór, but no kitties in sight. :P

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Heh. That's easy enough - it's from a Monty Python sketch about a dead parrot. Read it here. You'll soon see the sense.

Here's the kitty. Happy now?

[chem-nerd.livejournal.com]

1.
2.
3.

As for my favorite(for the next 5 minutes, at any rate), bonus points if you can guess the molecule...

[misscam.livejournal.com]

3 is easy enough. That's Lister from Red Dwarf, trying to teach Kryten how to insult people with helpful signs.

The trout icon is so old and the joke's gone a bit lost in time, I fear.

Um... Does it have nitrogen in it?

[chem-nerd.livejournal.com]

It does indeed (those would be the blue ones). The formal name is 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, if that helps any.

[briasoleil.livejournal.com]

1. It's either the Evil Brunettes one or the World Domination one.
2. The icon of you. You're so pretty!
3. I think I understand them all.

This is a Wonderfalls icon. And it fits me to a Tee, which is why I love it so much. It's cheeky and funny, but poignant. And if you've never seen Wonderfalls, let me recommend it to you.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I am not pretty. I am sometimes cute. But that icon's been photoshopped, anyway. It lies.

Haven't seen it, actually. What is it?

[briasoleil.livejournal.com]

I disagree. You're extraordinarily pretty. I love your features.

Wonderfalls was a short-lived, but quite funny (imo) show about a girl named Jaye. Despite a degree in philosophy from Brown, she worked retail in one of the tacky gift shops in Niagara Falls. She's sardonic as all hell, doesn't fit in with her family, has little ambition but knows that this isn't what she wants for herself. And it goes on from there. I managed to hook falena84, who adores the show now.

This icon is also from Wonderfalls. It's Jaye.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Probably why it never aired in Norway, not lasting too long.

:P

[briasoleil.livejournal.com]

They filmed a total of 13 episodes, but only 4 made it to air, before it was canceled. Fox treated it abysmally. Which is unfortunate, because it was quite good.

Watching it makes me all giddy. I adore Jaye's sense of humour. Very sardonic, very dry, very biting. Plus, I can relate to her personal existential crisis mode.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

I do admire your optimism. And that's not meant to be ironic in any kind of way. I mean I'm opposed to capital punishment or crackpot schemes like castrating all sexual offenders or tranquilizing everybody convicted of a violent crime etc., but sometimes, when one takes a look at the victims, the desire to "just lock'em up and throw away the key" becomes overwhelming. So it is amazing how manage to hold on to your beliefs and convictions.

Sorry, I shouldn't probably try to get serious at 7:15 in the morning... So how about the more frivolous icon meme?

1) :D

2) Just because I like the Nazgul so very much. :)

3)

Hmm, I love all my icons, but for this comment I've used one that I both love and should use more often. It's one of the very few icons I have seen where someone decided to iconize Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey novels, my favourite murder mysteries. The writing on the icon is the motto featured in the aristocratic hero's coat of arms: "As my whimsy takes me." And as I'm a rather random person sometimes, I think it also fits me. :)

And there are really people who manage to get the word Dalek wrong? Bad spellers of the world, untie... *facepalm*

But I've also had my share of the strangeness of Doctor Who fandom already, i.e. wanky rants by obsessive-compulsive hard-core old skool fans ("if you haven't listend to episode XY of audio adventure 254, then you mustn't call yourself a fan...") versus all the "The romance is pastede on yay!" shippiness amongst some newcomers. Strangely enough, I ship Doctor/Rose, too, as you might have noticed (*g*), but too much shippiness makes me feel slightly queasy.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's an overwhelming urge at times. That doesn't make it right. There are parts of me that thinks of cruel tortures for various bastards, but that has nothing to do with justice or what's best for society. That's just me, feeling vengeful. As hard as it is, sometimes you just have to look at the logic of things.

3 is easy enough. That's the ever-popular "bitch, please" catchphrase is Norwegian, with Greg from CSI, who is Norwegian decendent.

I've read a bit of Wimsey. Good books, though not sure the whole marriage bit served it. But mostly good. And very British.

I think I picked up just a taaaaad. And yeah, some of the shippers go a bit.... Overboard. I love all the hugging and handholding and general cuteness of our pair, but I ain't watching the show soley for that and heck, it's not making up all of the show.

I guess we'll have to carve our own corner out, somewhere between all the hardcore old skool and the more obsessive TWUWUB4EVA. *gets out chisel*

[aervir.livejournal.com]

As hard as it is, sometimes you just have to look at the logic of things.

Yeah, but still, I sometimes feel with highwindpav that the logic of things might be, as she says, that there are some people who should be...well, perhaps not locked up in jail for life, but kept out of regular society for life for the safety of everyone. However, this topic is far too sensitive and too complex to make such sweeping generalizations about it, as I have just done.

Hah, now I could go ahead and randomly insult people with "bitch, please" in Norwegian. Um, how does one proununce that, by the way? :)

I actually liked the marriage bit in the Wimsey books, mainly because Gaudy Night provided me with a mystery novel that suddenly turns into a campus novel and then offers an outlook on gender equality and female education in the 1930s from a contemporary conservative perspective, and that really wasn't what I'd expected from a "normal" whodunit. However, I still like The Nine Tailors best. It's so ... very British *g*, with its bell-ringing theme, the country rectory and the setting in the East Anglian fens.

And if we proceed to carve out our cosy corner in the Doctor Who fandom, far away from holier-than-thou fans and the TWUWUB4EVA crowd, may I bring the comfy cushions, the tea and some chips? And the Doctor. Naked. :)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. But there lies danger in starting out thinking like that, IMO. Becomes easier and easier to assume it about people who perhaps can be saved.

And of course, there's also the matter of those who have certain mental problems who make them dangerous, but that's another issue.

Cripes, that's near impossible to explain without any sound.

Part of why I like Christie too, me thinks. She also has some very british settings. What is it with all these British things, anyway?

Yes. And biscuits. Just make sure he doesn't freeze too much, yeah?

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Well, as I have said, I wouldn't want to generalize about that topic. IMHO, it's rather an agonizing decision to make in each and every particular case: Do we possibly put other innocent by-standers at risk? Or do we mess up for good the life of someone who could be willing and able to change? And I must admit I'm rather glad that I will never have to make such a decision. The power and responsibilty involved are just ... awful.

Yeah, Agatha Christie is also very nice! Coincidentally, I discussed exactly this topic -- the "clichéd very-Britishness" in Christie -- with some friends of mine a few days ago. We were rather amused to hear that all of us had started reading her novels as kids and had really had a similar mental image of Britain at that age: all villages called St. Mary Mead or Chipping Cleghorn with lots of vicars, butcher boys and gardeners, shabby seaside resorts and old-fashioned pensions full of knitting spinsters and retired colonels. And of course, all colonels were called Arbuthnot, had a grey moustache and would talk of tiger hunts in India. :D

Okay, I'll bring biscuits, shortbread and scones. Well, he may keep on his leather jacket. But only this.

[highwindpav.livejournal.com]

OK, let's see if PA can make it through an icon meme frought with HTML and not dink it up!

1.
2.
3.

I have a lot of icons I like, but this one is a favorite because while I don't have occasion to use it often, it's based on such a lovely accident of cinematography--the composition and expression appeal to my aesthetics, have absolutely squat to do with the actual scene in the show, and the shot lasts for less than an instant.

On the subject of naive eternally optimistic Norwegian rants...I have to agree to with you to a point. I think life sentences are often just too much, and it really hacks me off when someone has done their time but still get treated like they're permanently criminals. Although...I do know there are some people who should be...well, perhaps not locked up in jail for life, but kept out of regular society for life for the safety of everyone, but those people aren't the majority.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

3 is from Whale Rider, one of my favourite movies ever. It's about a Maori girl named Pai and her grandfather, who is chief. And he doesn't see that she's meant to be chief too. Lovely story, got quite a saga feel to it.

Yeah, there are perhaps some that will always be a threat, but at least we try, you know? If you give up on them, you've lost half the battle. At least this way, we can cling on to our belief that there is something human worth saving in people.

But then, I was born in a country that is far less violent than some.

[puredeadthingy.livejournal.com]

I <3 Winner Takes Al, if only for the salt thing and the teenage boy that was far too close in mindset to me. Haven't read the others, and I ought, I have 'em all.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Grrrr. *plots to pinch missing book from you*

Yeah, that one was my favourite as well. Loved the Harry Potter spoof.

[immoralilly.livejournal.com]

The icon above cracks me up. Plus it effortlessly combines LOTR and Monty Python fandoms.

1- This = your sense of humour.

2- PLEASE use this one a lot, for it cracks me up.

3- OK, I admit, this needs no explanation. I just like to see Warrick nekkid.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. I plan on using it a lot, it's just very new still, so haven't been aired too much.

:) Dirty woman.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

1. one that makes you automatically think of me.

hmm. Bit of a toss up, but I think wins.

2. one that you think I should TOTALLY use more often.

Cos I just watched that ep. It rocks.

3. one that you don't get/needs more explanation/you have no idea why I have it.

Ummm, yeah. WTF?

Comment using an icon of yours that you LOVE, and tell me why you picked THAT one too.

...because I just remembered I never finished making it, and now I just finished making it, and I like it.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

It does, yes.

Um, yeah, 3 was explained above, so to copy and paste - 3 is from Whale Rider, one of my favourite movies ever. It's about a Maori girl named Pai and her grandfather, who is chief. And he doesn't see that she's meant to be chief too. Lovely story, got quite a saga feel to it.

Chris!

[roguem.livejournal.com]

I think they should be more strikt with the sentencing in Norway.
I mean you can kill 1 to 100 people and you won't get more that 21 years... there should at least be 21 years per murder.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I don't think we really have the kind of level of crime currently to need that strict punishment.

But sentences on certain crimes could perhaps be stricter.

[roguem.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of those two guys who killed those girls in Kristiansand, they should have gotten more.
I think the sentencing should be strickter... 3 months for rape is just insane.