Leo Utskot
Managing director, project leader and designer at Copyleft Solutions
August 2008
New Byggfag site launched
Today we launched to new website redesign for Byggfag,
the main trade union for builders and constructors in Norway. Most of
the work was cosmetic, although they also got a few new features and
seem to be happy with it.
A picture is worth a thousand words:
He-man ringtones
After a discussion about whether to use "Powered by:" or "About:" on the footer of the Bonanza system, my He-man argument won.
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
Fatherhood
That's right, I'm gonna be a daddy! We're expecting him/her in early December and although it's quite scary, I'm trilled about it. The whole thing is a little unreal still, but Paola is starting to show a tiny belly now which in makes it seem a bit more plausible that she has a little human growing inside her.This have been going up and down in Norway, the business started really well this winter and then cooled down a bit. I'm starting up a couple of projects now that are very exiting, but have a higher risk then I'm used to (I've been spoiled with 0 risk in Mexico a while now). Paola has had a hard time adjusting, especially before the summer came. Right now I'm sitting on the veranda enjoying 24 degrees and sun in shorts.
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
HOWTO: Cure cat/dog allergies
I found this post in my old blog from last December:---
I've always loved cat, but as an allergic kid I could only last a fewminutes with them before having a full blow allergic reaction withasthma and everything. One of my most hippie friends, Christianne, wasone of many people who told me that you can get rid of allergies byjust being around whatever you react to long enough. I wrote it off asBS together with Reiki and the homeopathic medicine. Don't get mewrong, I'm not planning of eating sugar pills and diluted herbs nexttime I get a cold, but I may have been wrong about the allergies.Afterbeing around Otto, the neighbors dog, for prolonged playstationsessions I noticed that I could be around him for a lot longer than atthe beginning. By the time I left Mexico I could be around a big GermanShepard for at least 3-4 hours before reacting.I now live with3 cats and training myself to withstand them. I intentionally hangaround them and pet them, making sure to wash my hands afterward. If Iget home early I have to take a half a pill, but I've managed to gowithout for 8 hours at a time which is a huge step for me. Overallliving with cats is cool. We have an cuddly old one, a playful 2 yearold and a shy redhead. All the damn hair sucks, but it's nice to havepurring fuzzballs all over the place.
---I'm now 100% cured of cat allergies and live with Daniel's cat and never take any pills. So this solutions seems to work. As far as I understand allergies are caused by overly sensitive autoimmune systems which think that the dead skin-cells of animals are foreign organisms trying to get into your body (like parasites or viruses). It seems that the sensitivity is not 100% hardcoded and that you can adjust the sensitivity by staying around the animals long enough so that your body figures out that it's just part of the background noise of the environment you live in and excludes if from the list of enemies. Luckily we now have anti-histamine medicine which just counters the symtoms, enabling us to stay around the animals without suffering too much durring the process.
I've always loved cat, but as an allergic kid I could only last a fewminutes with them before having a full blow allergic reaction withasthma and everything. One of my most hippie friends, Christianne, wasone of many people who told me that you can get rid of allergies byjust being around whatever you react to long enough. I wrote it off asBS together with Reiki and the homeopathic medicine. Don't get mewrong, I'm not planning of eating sugar pills and diluted herbs nexttime I get a cold, but I may have been wrong about the allergies.Afterbeing around Otto, the neighbors dog, for prolonged playstationsessions I noticed that I could be around him for a lot longer than atthe beginning. By the time I left Mexico I could be around a big GermanShepard for at least 3-4 hours before reacting.I now live with3 cats and training myself to withstand them. I intentionally hangaround them and pet them, making sure to wash my hands afterward. If Iget home early I have to take a half a pill, but I've managed to gowithout for 8 hours at a time which is a huge step for me. Overallliving with cats is cool. We have an cuddly old one, a playful 2 yearold and a shy redhead. All the damn hair sucks, but it's nice to havepurring fuzzballs all over the place.
---I'm now 100% cured of cat allergies and live with Daniel's cat and never take any pills. So this solutions seems to work. As far as I understand allergies are caused by overly sensitive autoimmune systems which think that the dead skin-cells of animals are foreign organisms trying to get into your body (like parasites or viruses). It seems that the sensitivity is not 100% hardcoded and that you can adjust the sensitivity by staying around the animals long enough so that your body figures out that it's just part of the background noise of the environment you live in and excludes if from the list of enemies. Luckily we now have anti-histamine medicine which just counters the symtoms, enabling us to stay around the animals without suffering too much durring the process.
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
Friggs vei 7
Thanks to Daniel I know have a new place to stay, with my own bed and everything, starting on the 15th of December. People have been telling me that it's imposible to find a decent place in Oslo, but we actually landed a sweet 1/2 house on you first try and closed the deal in about 2 hours. 90 square meters, upper floor of a house with a huge balcony for 7,000 kr/mnth. Rocks! The kitchen is a bit shaby, but overall I couldn't wish for more. There's a forest directly behind it and from the balcony you can see all the way to the Oslo fjord. I'll be living there with Daniel at least untill Paola gets here and maybe longer if she likes it.
Here:View Larger Map
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
Some Copyleft screenshots.
Getting together a decent portfolio of your work is always hard. First you need clients, then you need to make sure the projects are actually launched and then you need to sit down and take the damn screenshots. Today I started to play around with ViewBook which at least helps with the last part. Large view
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
Snow!
Today I woke up to falling snow. The Norwegians (the real ones, not like me) where all pretty unimpressed by it, but I found myself standing like an idiot at the bus stop watching it fall for 10 minutes, amazed at the fact that this stuff just falls out of the sky. Can't wait till I get back on a board again!
Speaking of busses I bought my first monthly bus-card yesterday. 720 kroners! For 1500 pesos I can probably hire someone to drive me back and forth to my job on their car every day for a month. This place is so expensive it's silly.
Posted by email from Leo Utskot (posterous)
