Now with shorter, darker hair!

Another day, another IBM party :P

This time it was a surprise party for one of the Scottish IBMers, and it was entertaining to put it mildly. They brought out a hookah and we all got high, including my team leader ;)
They're all nice people, and everyone asked how I liked it in Greenock and at IBM, and so far it is to my liking.

Went to a goodbye party for one of the Finnish IBMers yesterday and it was pretty cool. It was all Nordic people save for a few Dutch guys. Nobody told me about the theme of the party which was "Dress As The Locals", and one girl had the best costume: Bruises painted on her face, too much make-up, tacky clothes, a pillow under her shirt to simulate pregnancy and a baby sticking out* :P
Others wore kilts and football jerseys, and ironically, dressing as a local meant they couldn't get into any clubs downtown ;)
I couldn't either since I was wearing my neon Adidas trainers, but I didn't try either.
Anyway, everyone got shitfaced as you would expect when Danes, Finns, Swedes and Norwegians get together.
I hooked up with the Norwegian/native American guy who hosted the party and who is the only other gay guy I've met so far :P
Spent the night there and today we went down to a pub for some hangover-curing food and then back to my place for tea and scones. Very nice ;)




*Seriously, Scotland's youth are one big social case. Most kids and young people just hang around on the streets, and the average person has already had a baby by my age (23)...

"Cleans, bleaches and disinfects"
Honest to god, that was my first discernable words, according to my parents. I was sitting in front of the tv, watching a Chlorine commercial.
Before that I'd been stuck saying "goya-goya"

You know you're working for a major corporation when the intro video features George Bush Sr, CEOs from Mitsubishi and eBay, Nobel prize laureates and is narrated by... GEORGE CLOONEY! (which I picked out immediately)

Elvis Presley
John Lennon
Michael Jackson

Anyway, my short work day started with a trip to the bank with my HR manager. Along was a nice mademoiselle Belgique who also started today and who lives right next to me in the dorm. Opening a bank account was surprisingly easy and painless :)
Next and last stop was the IBM centre; a vast building painted the same blue as their logo. Seems like a nice and organized place, with a vast main room full of intertwining desks and flags of all the nationalities of the employees on the wall.
Had to sign a storm of documents, and was told about some basic things about working here, as well as an explanation of the Scottish words "aye" and "wee" (yes, really).
I was told that 300£ will be deposited in my account for relocation money and I also agreed to take a 400£ housing loan with no interest or charge, so I'll have 700£ by Friday ;)

Got dropped off and went out for lunch as well as a bit of shopping in the local mall.
Got some dress shirts, a pair of chinos and the mandatory umbrella at Marks & Spencer as well as Kasabian's new West Ryder Lunatic Asylum album. Also stopped by Orange and got a cellphone (SonyEricsson T303) with a pay-as-you-go contract, because it's too expensive to be using my Danish cell.
Cutest little cellphone ever and it only cost me 20£ with a decent contract that gives me international calls for 7p/minute, so it's all good. I'll still be keeping my comparatively monster spec Xperia for my Danish number.

Also, Scotland still has Dr Pepper!
Anyone who knows me, knows that this is my poison, and I've been longing for it since they pulled it from the Danish market ;)
I also enjoy the irony of EU Dr. Pepper being made and bottled by Coca-Cola :)

Kiss Kiss Kiss is a new band from my hometown of Aarhus, although they've only released one song, they're already racing out of oblivion.
It's gonna be the most played song on the biggest radio station in Denmark this week, so hopefully they can crank out an album to back up this fucking brilliant song ;)

( CLICK FOR VIDEO )

For those of you interested, here's an excerpt from an email with a schedule for the first 5 days of being in Scotland:
( Cut for length )

Just crawled through the door after hosting a 4 day furmeet (SFM IV) in my dad's summerhouse
Really cool to see tadcougar, mortianna and everyone else who showed up (13 total).
However the first 2 days we had to endure one persistent rain storm... Some places in Denmark got over 160 mm of rain (an average of about 5½ mm per hour for 48 hours).
Still turned out to be a cool furmeet, without even a shadow of drama. Quite the rarity in DKFurs, and despite a few select people grating on my nerves, it was pretty successful as well as fun, especially because it was probably the last I'll see of Danish furs for a while.
Still haven't really decided if I'm gonna actually seek out any furs in Scotland. So many friends and family members have shown interest in visiting me while I'm overthere, so even if every Scotsman I meet is a douche-fag (most likely not), I won't feel completely dissociated and exiled ;)

Anyway, 4 days of cooking and cleaning for 10-13 furs, with all the things that follow, as well as rigorous drinking and smoking, my brain needs a little peace and restitution...

If anyone is thinking of buying the new album from The Black Eyed Peas, don't.
It's weak, uninspired and lackluster. No wonder most reviewers give it 2 or 3 stars.
What a waste of money.

Citroën has unveiled a little more material about the upcoming luxury mini, the DS3 (actually the DS Inside concept).
Judging by the interior and exterior shots, companies like BMW, Audi and other makers of small luxury cars have something to fear. It's interesting to see the logo pattern on the roof and dashboard and all the other nifty little details ;)
And seeing how Citroën is creating a whole new line of luxury alternatives to the existing C-models, I don't think reliability will be a problem like back in the 90's/early 00's.

Ah yes, today's voting day in Denmark and several other EU countries, as it is the last day of the European Parliament elections.
I'm gonna vote what I always vote: Social Democrats.

Unique to Denmark, we also have to vote about a change to the constitution. Last time that happened was in 1953, where the 2 chambers of parliament was merged into one, and women were allowed to inherit the throne.
This time, it's equality between genders according to the line of succession, which means that the oldest child of a monarch will inherit the throne, instead of the oldest son.
Honestly, trying to squeeze equal rights into the monarchy is a bit silly, especially since it won't be usable, until the baby Prince Christian (third in line) has kids of his own.
But since every other monarchy in Scandinavia has equal rights between genders, and since I believe in equality, I'm gonna vote yes.

-EDIT-
And 6½ minutes later, it's done.
Gotta love having the voting place just up the street :)

PS. Also sold my old ASUS laptop for a reasonable price.

First of all, thank you for all the comments! :)

My internet has been down ever since I got the job actually, so that's why I haven't been online or responded to anything. It's annoying as hell.

Anyway, not much has happened while I've been away. Been to both my mom's and my dad's birthdays. Got to take a ride in my step dad's '61 MGA, which is really nice ;)

Anyway, I'm visiting a friend so I'll get off again.

I GOT THE JOB!!!

Yup, I'll be moving to Greenock, Scotland for a year to work for IBM :)
I'm actually leaving on June 23rd, so I've got about 3 weeks to pack and move most of my stuff down to my mom's for storage. Is till don't have a clue about how much and what to bring to Scotland, or even how to ship it overthere.
Oh well, things to figure out.

My immediate family have all been surprisingly supportive (seeing how I'll have to postpone my education plans 1-1½ years), and maybe not all that surprising, seeing how they've all done something similar. My dad worked as a sales rep for several large companies, traveling around the world on business, my sister worked in Brussels for 8 months, and my mom left Norway to live in Denmark.

Anyway, it's nice to have a little forward momentum in my life. Hopefully, it'll be an interesting experience :)

Just came home from a job interview.
And not just any ol' job, I might be relocating to Scotland for 12-18 months!
I applied for a job yesterday and got a call early this morning, asking me to come to a job interview 2 hours later. Interview went fine and I even had to take a few tests, but it was by proxy, meaning that I was interviewed by a recruitment/temp agency, instead of IBM itself, so if I make it further, I still got a couple of interviews with IBM staff.
To be a little more specific, it's a position as customer service rep for IBM's call center in Greenock, Scotland, working with support for Danish customers.
So it's a pretty standard job, answering calls ("Have you tried rebooting your supercomputer?") and to a pretty standard wage as well (around 14.000£/year), but the kicker is the location of course ;)

For some reason, IBM wanted 2 references that weren't family or work related
As irony would have it, IBM's offices are in Greenock, which is literally a stone's throw from Gourock where my ex lives (or used to live, dunno), which is also why I asked king_parliament to be one of my references, since he's actually visited that area.
I haven't to my ex in years, so I have no clue if he will ever talk to me if I do temporarily move into the next town over, but either way I'm fine with it.


In the end, I won't be terribly disappointed if I don't get this job, but it sounds like an okay job, plus it's in Scotland :)

Oh yes, there will be destruction ;)