Random Town Hike

Hiking through town with Enok is an interesting experience. I decided to make a net series all about Bergen and elsewhere as well. Which I probably have mentioned before. He is a local celebrity from a viking themed reality show, an avid environmentalist and male fashion model. Quite eccentric in a good way though. Enok enjoy a lot of the things relating to Vikings and old architecture. The kind that has charm and a lot of workmanship put into them. Unlike the direction modern architects seem to enjoy a bit too much. Which is what the series is gonna be about. Anything that makes Bergen a charming and unique city.

One of the places we visited was a all natural produce store in a cellar in the middle of town. The store specialize in products that have been made through organic farming, with as few chemicals as possible. While being environmentally friendly and tasty to booth. The problem is price though. The boutique itself is a charming place, that looks much like a farmers market, with wooden shelves lining the walls and small stalls with fresh produce. Within the store I also got some nice fish footage of the interior, or at least that is what I hope I did. Wide angle manual focus objectives can be tricky to get just right. The way products are displayed looks a lot better than most grocery stores. It's quite charming indeed. Incidentally its also the perfect place to make a little video about in Bergen.

https://www.reindyrka.no/

The other place we visited was a small white house down by the docks. These old white wooden buildings was originally built for workers and are stupidly small in size. With three floors with a steep winding staircase. The man residing within the abode was also refurbishing the lot. The old wooden panels are practically ancient at this point. However it gave me a nice look into the way old buildings was cobbled together. On the way over there we came across a rickety wooden building held together by straps and physics. The poor old thing stood out like a sore thumb and had probably done so for ages. Weather had slowly peeled the paint of the wall, exposing wooden boards to the element and needn't collapsed the structure. It's an amusing sight, but the true reason for this obvious neglect I can not tell. But what I do know it's an interesting find and such abandoned places exist here and there. On that note though, it really clashes with the neighborhood, since all other buildings in the block looks well maintained b on a surface level.


While recording and talking about the town we went down a charming little cobble stone street of historical significance. A place where most of the buildings kept their original looks, there was at lest one exception. One one side there is a small flower store, with colorful plants on display, where several hangs from the railing outside the store. On the opposite side of the street the facade was made of glass and was obviously been designed by a modern architect for better or worse. These blocks really breaks down the aesthetic coherency of Bergen. Within this place, an eatery know ad Pastryworld. A British company that sell traditional English pie. Quite tasty, that's for sure and well worth a taste.


Next to this building is another one, where an old sign protrudes from the wall and several old paintings adorn the front of the old style ale house. While the place have style and a lot of charm. I have never been inside. Witch is definitely an adventure for the future. Pub visiting, everyone's major pastime. Around the corner is the place that takes care of less fortunate folks, whom have lived a terrible life and now pays the price. These weather logged fellows is also a staple of Bergen. Yes there is a collective of ragged people, whom may or may not have drunk themselves to oblivion, or consumed too many drugs. It's not my place to pry too much into people's past, but these persons often have a story to be told. Because once we stopped there to record, it was obvious that we made someones day, since we ended up talking city history. Interestingly enough there is a church next to the place as well. A tall grey worm out building with two small castle style towers. Another feature of Bergen is the insane amount of church buildings, but that is a tale for another time.
#Zaceron

Independence day 17 of May

Bergen on May 17 is a festive day of joyful celebration and spoiled brats spilling their ice. Independence, national pride and tradition dictate the local events, after all, we're celebrating our independence.
In Bergen and everywhere else  starts with a parade, where people walk in honor of the day and to be social. The one in town also has a commercial aspect to it, since various clubs, organizations and schools highlight their pride and existence. From reenactment, to cheerleaders, museums, larp and a slew of other ones. Those whom abstain from the human train usually watch as it walks by. Outside of Bergen people aslo do the walk. However those are a lot more traditional, with a lot of people scoffing at colorful deviations from their precious norm. Such as dressing up in cosplay, to promote a club or the hobby.


Both men and women dress up in nice clothes, be it traditional folk dress or a fancy suit. Since Norway is an old country, the various places ask over have their own version of the bunad. A mainly black outfit, with elements of wite and lavish decoration. Red floral patterns is common place, while some of the clothes have blue or green around the chest area. These tailor made clothes is often inherited, along with their silver studded decorations. Which also makes it a very expensive to acquire one, but when you look at the number of times it's used through a life time. It will last longer than the wearer.

The exception from the festive clothes includes high school graduates, whom dress up in various colored pants, depending on the course. Which we decorate with stickers, our name and the year, people also write various stuff on the pants as well. Most russ carry a card with a picture and some funny line. Kids loves to collect these colorful cards. Accompanying the work pants there is a long tailed cap. The idea is to complete challenges on a list. The range from relatively silly and simple, to dangerously stupid. Some focus on sex (a lot), whist some is about drinking and consuming some sort of food. There is an also a bit more combative side to this tradition. A good old fashioned red versus blue, the two most common russ colors. Green and black is pretty much non existent. Unfortunately this event has been commercialized to hades and back, with expensive apparel. Not to mention the horrendously expenses spent on rides. A lot of people insist on allocating a whole bus to this month long event. In essence its about sex, fooling around and celebrating the final year of high school.

The local schools host competitive events for children, people meet up and have  a merry time. Costuming cake, gallons of ice cream and a lot of hotdogs. When I grew up we usually held a very vicious water war. With a lot of water balloons being thrown around. Whilst dodging the crowd. Every now and then some collateral does occur, to the dismay of surrounding people.

This year the mayor held a speech, from top of a viking vessel shaped stage. Followed by the somber national anthem. A little bit later various parachute jumpers landed in the nearby fountain. A quite nifty commercial stunt I dare say. Eventually two tall poles with loot bags on top where raised up. The idea is that people can collect the swag on top, if they can climb up. It's an amusing spectacle, with few winners. It's only five meter tall. To be fair I can't do it at all, but the ones with most success did it barefoot.
All in all a good day, if you look away from the guy I lost in the crowd.
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Njål Sand

odd ones in Bergen and the bus

Bergen is a small cozy town with a colorful history, fascinating people and odd architecture. One day I was taking the bus, a man wobbled out of the ride, wearing a big winter jacket, with a huge hood. Where his phone was, which blasted rap at full volume, as he brandished a butterfly knife and a can of beer. He was quite drunk and rowdy to say the least. Knocking at the bus side with his knife, before he angry shambles away like a zombie.

Another oddball was a two meter tall man, a fellow with a unkempt beard, stained yellow with tobacco. He quietly shuffled through the town in his signature blue trench coat, smelling like piss and vinegar. He had a habit of sitting at various bus stops, asking for coin, with a stern voice. He usually spent money on ice cream or more tobacco. When he eventually passed away, there was a big news article about him.

The fact that Bergen has an institution for people with various mental issues and a selection of annoying drug addicts, combined with the relatively small size makes spotting then easy and encountering then just as easily.

Norway is also a very religious land, with a lot of Christians, some more devoted that other. I've seen several scarfed women caring big signs, while preaching abut Jenova or somesuch, the alleged name of god.

For the most part they squat in various parks, l like a collection of dried out corpses, devoid of life, lacking that spark of life. Mostly harmless though, even if they participate in a lot of petty thefts, especially bicycles gets stolen frequently.


Commuting is usually a simple process, unless you live far outside town, then you've got less alternatives and at lest an hour, if not more travel time. While we have a lot of regular buses, some of them will eventually break down at stupid moments, or develop odd quirks. The same holds true for the drivers. The other day I got a very impromptu call from a potential business partner in town. I do dislike on the same day appointments, anyhow the most remarkable thing happened during the ride. The bus started to wail like a bloody whale, flooding the airways with an ear piercing shriek, a series of high pitched noise vibrated through ventilation grid in the roof.


Another bus had water stuck between the double glass, which made for a fascinating effect as it sloshed back and forth along with the acceleration of the bus.

The most notable driver I've ever seen was an elderly man, whos head was spasming all over the plass while driving. He had a steady hand, but his head not so much. Which made everything a tad bit disturbing.

Bad for business bakery

Being a baker has some benefits, but I'm not one so that point is a bit moot. At highschool I went to a course revolving around waiters and cooks. It was an interesting and uplifting experience. But entity l sure why I thought it was a good idea. Probably because someone said that chicks love a good chef. That year was an interesting one, a bit of a train wreck to be honest. I'm truly bad at obsessive studying and performing well at tests. There are two things I really recall quite clearly. One was the very repugnant and pudgy science teacher. She strutted around in a smelly t-shirt, whilst talking in a high pitched voice. She knew her stuff and did her best I suppose. But her body odour and breath was bad. Imagine the smell of compost, mixed with coffee and smelly sweaty arm pits. Mind you this is bad enough, but imagine having her in close proximity as she is helping you with the course work.

As bad as she was, there was this bakery I was to work at for a week to get some practical experience. Next to Puddefjord bridge in Bergen there is a tall, tall industrial office block. A building where many companies resides, among them a bakery near the top floor. For the most part the company made confectionery and sub baguettes. The place had problems and I did something really stupid. Not that stupid, but my delivery could be better though.

The place was anything but pristine. Various baking machine was placed across the floor, with a reception desk by the entrance. The wall opposite of the one with the windows had several long shelves, containing various ingredients and several construction tools in between. Yes this place had seen better days. In the middle of the shelves was a wardrobe with a humongous stack of empty bottles. Every inch was coated in a thin layer of flour. A fine white powder, which also extended to the rest of the location as well. I could practically skid across the floor. In order to store and move great quantities of baked goods about, several practically ancient wheeled shelves where used. Each one was brown by rust and made a horrid screeching sound as the personnel struggled to push it across the floor. The sounds emitted is up there with nails on a blackboard. Several of the floor titles were broken as well, however it was especially bad next to the cargo elevator. Where a crummy old sink was attached to the wall. The floor tiles where practically strained black by an unknown substance and damage which had built up over time. From what I could guess it was a mix of water damage and possible dirt. The various mixing machines had old pieces of dough attached to various rolling pins. The whole place stood out to me as a mockery of good hygiene practices. Would it hurt them to scrape and wash the machinery? Clean up the flour dust? Its only a fire hazzard and I'm sure people love old pieces of dough in their buns.

The stupid thing I did was to write a report, which I left out in the open. Which a disgruntled employee decided to read. But as we all know, humans hate criticism, especially from the new guy.
This is unacceptable he said as he threw my carefully penned paper into the rubbish bin. I got fired on the third day and my teacher was anything but pleased. Maybe I should have waited a couple of days before dropping the bomb, never the less, there was practically no consequences for me. Not a bad outcome I'd say, since it makes for a slightly interesting story.

Zaceron

Monkey King Cosplay WIP

Warriors Orochi is an interesting odd ball of a game, its a crossover between Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. Two very distinctive series with the same mash buttons and hordes goes flying, with a colorful cast of character from history. 

The monkey king is a very well known character from Chinese mythology. An insanely strong monkey man with an extendable cudgel he usually hide in his ear. He shows up in several moba games, such as Dota2, League of Legends, smite and many, many more. The character also shows up in various anime series and stories across the world or derivatives. Despite how well known and loved Wukong is. A great deal of the cosplay community has very little knowledge of him. Then again a lot of cosplayers have very little knowledge of series outside the ones they know of and will be very, very biased. Then gain so am I. My idea for a cosplay this time around is the Sun Wukong, the Monkey king, the one Goku is based on. In fact the basis for  Dragonballs story is based on a Journey to the West. Ironically a whole series about the legend of Monkey was released on Netflix, the day before the competition.

Despite this most people I know is willfully ignorant of this wonderful and whimsy story revolving around the character. Yet another obscure cosplay I have a brilliant plan behind, where the choices I make will be unknown to most people. Aside from this very blog. last weekend there was a lan known as Hordalan, where they held a cosplay and an outfit competition. Where I promptly lost to a woman with two lit lighters and a waving Disney princess. My dignity hurts badly, so to make up for this I will use my spite to make an even more awesome display, worthy of Wukongs legend. In the end he is a wushu monkey and I'm a wushu practitioner. Otherwise known as Kungfu, often associated with Hong Kong cinema and Bruce Lee. After all I am a professional, which means I have to make a better costume that I will use more than a day to complete. Whilst practicing monkey staff wushu. The art of acting like a monkey, climbing the staff and beating the living snot out of people. Hopefully it will not lead to such monkey business.

Anyhow the idea is to combine my skills at making professional looking and quality cosplay, while retaining movement and being comfortable in a hot location. Plus I can use it for wushu competitions and practice. I have a staff, a waistcoat and a not so magical headband. I'm more or less done with the arm guards, that only leaves the red part on the pants, painting and the leg bracers. 

On a side tangent, every one and their brother loves Worbla, that mythological thermoplastic that can be molded with heath. However it comes at a price, its expensive and usually requires a basic foundation to build on top of. The sheets of material acts a lot like dough, but to get to that point, it will become finger scorching hot. Which is why I found a glass of water very useful to have nearby. Especially when smoothing out some of the Worbla, since it's very warm.

Today I embarked on the first step of my cosplay. Recreating the red arm guards with black lining and gold decorations on. For those whom wants to make their own version, I have posted the schematics.Crafting an arm guards is a simple affair, especially this one since it only has a slight curve. The tricky part is the piece that goes above the knuckles. The 3D model only require two places to attach it and that's purely visual fluff. An actual set of these requires at least three and a joint strap as well. For this build to even work I have to attach straps from the knuckle guard to the underside of my palm. The pattern was traced onto cardboard, so I had a guide to use on the craft foam, which I eventually put a layer of Worbla on top. Like I mention earlier its a very simple build, with few tricky parts. The issue is simply comfort and accuracy. 

As usual I live stream the process and do a token effort to make a youtube video.

https://www.twitch.tv/zaceron

Here is the the clip from the 5 minutes long competition. 

Enjoy, Zaceron out.

#warriorsOrochi #wukong #monkeyking #mydignity #zaceron #sandcos #lol #dota #smite #cosplay #monkeyBusiness 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-eN-B81_fk&feature=youtu.be