go go algae!

Here's a great piece from the local San Diego CBS station on algae biofuel.  I'm thrilled for friends at SIO and Sapphire Energy.  Yea 'green crude'!!

nearing the finish line,

lisa liv

KONY 2012

I'm bursting with pride right now. 

A little trip down memory lane.... I was very involved in musical theater growing up, and back in high school I was in Christian Youth Theater's (CYT) San Diego central production of 'Beauty and the Beast'.  The show was great fun in large part to a stellar and jovial cast, crew and leadership.  The director of the show was Jason Russell.  Jason and I both ended up at USC where I was studying business/marketing/cinema-tv and he was studying film making.  We were both in the Greek system so our paths crossed here and there and it was fun to joke about old times, etc.

Jason and two other young film makers fresh out of USC ended up on a film making adventure to Africa.  While there they stumbled upon child soldiers in Joseph Kony's child army in Uganda as well as the children that walk far distances to 'safe houses' every night so they are not abducted in their sleep and forced into this rebel army.  The filmmakers were beyond shocked and made a moving piece, Invisible Children.'  They also felt called to launch a movement to spread the word about the injustice. The movement quickly grew and has now spread around the world.

I can truly say this as I sit in my room in Bergen, Norway and my Norwegian friend, Marius, facebooks me the link to the latest Invisible Children film, KONY2012, saying it's worth every minute of watching.  Woah!   

I couldn't be more proud of and happy for my friends from San Diego, CA who have started a movement which is now buzzing around the world.  Bravo Jason and Invisible Children supporters!!

KONY2012 is the next installment and I encourage you to watch it here.  Check out the movement and get involved.

www.KONY2012.com

buzzing and feeling inspired,

lisa liv

Back to B-Town, My Second Home

Aside from fighting some gnarly jet lag, it's great to be back in Bergen.  My body won't let me fall asleep so I just ran 7 miles, took a hot shower and am working on a generous glass of wine.  Come on home remedy!  Until then, I'm all yours.

I arrived in Bergen on Thursday afternoon and it looked much like this picture which I took from my flat in December just before heading home for the holidays.  Yup, from 70 degree sunshine in San Diego to this.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thursday evening some NHH masters friends were having a gathering a few blocks away.  Many of these friends were abroad last semester so it's great to have them back and many living close to me in 'sentrum'.  One of these is dear friend Bea who I got to visit in Paris last December.  Ahhhh Paris!

Fondue with Bea!

Notre Dame.. went to mass on Sunday for advent



Cite Universitaire- where Bea lived for the semester,,, rough life

Le Tower Eiffel

Back to Thursday night- I left the pre-party since it had been a long day of travel.  I'm so darn responsible :P  I swung by Cafe Opera to say hi to all the 'jam session' friends which was fun.  Then, upon arriving home, my fabulous flatmates, Bjornar and Kenneth, from last semester (I'm in a new flat this semester- sublet each semester) had texted they had a beer waiting for me.  Ugh!  How can a gal say no?!  So, like any responsible person, I promptly walked my way back out to meet up.  I love that I can walk everywhere in Sentrum- it's awesome!  So, Thursday night was a wonderful night of reconnecting.

A big thanks to all my wonderful friends in SoCal who made the winter break at home truly wonderful.  And, thank you mother nature for providing some insane weather.

Up next- a very full week at school.  And, I think I'm headed off to a cabin next week for some friend time and cross-country skiing.. so excited!! 

hugs from the great north!

lisa liv

48 hours...

.... until I'm up-up- and away back to lovely Bergen, Noway.  I've been enjoying a nice extended stay in San Diego while starting work on my thesis.  As mentioned I'm looking at algae as a biofuel source.  And The Algal Biofuel Organization (ABO) just launched AllAboutAlgae.com (click on it to head to the site).  Cool!  It's a nice little intro to everything algae.  Enjoy!

More posts about life in Norway soon, I promise.  I've been laying low at 'Garza', the family home.  A big thank you to all the wonderful friends I've been able to see while I've been in SoCal.  You've been a real highlight.  And, thank you sunshine for being so abundant.  I've soaked you up and stored you for the next few months in Bergen.

back to packing,

lisa liv

ps. weather looks good to go in all my connecting cities- Chicago and Copenhagen.

pps. i checked my seats and I have all isle seats, score! 

sum sums summertime

What a whirlwind of a month.  I wrapped up finals, wrapped up life at Hatelberg (my home for my first year at NHH) and made my way back (taking the long way due to volcanos and hurricanes) to sunny San Diego for the summer time.  And, since returning home, I've been keeping busy.  But, for those of you who know me, I'm sure that's not a big surprise :)  Now that I'm settled back into life in SD, I'm looking forward to blogging much more regularly.  There's so much I want to share! Just so little time to sit down and gather my thoughts.  

Let me start with my super last weekend in Norway.  My birthday was May 20th and my dear friends Bea (Germany), Vale (Italy) and Martha (Norway) organized a fantastic weekend to Stavanger and hiking Preikestolen (or the 'Pulpit' rock.... you will see why below).  We are a little posse (all ENE majors) and have a great time together causing trouble..... but mostly being nerds.  Martha's bday was May 16th and this was our last weekend together until next spring.  It was the perfect wrap up to our year together.

We didn't take this photo but just to give you a different perspective

my BV gals!

Isn't Norway beautiful?!  I really loved all of the outdoor activities this past year and I'm looking forward to more hiking this fall. 

I also wanted to share a neat graphic I came across at the end of the semester.  I think this is a great visual of something one of my classes looked at this semester- potential energy from natural resources.  The amazing thing is how much energy the sun gives us- really enough to cover the energy we consume it's just a matter of harnessing the power (goodness that sounds like a bad movie line).    Check it out:

Some interesting numbers I just saw from the EIA (source EIA) on electricity generation numbers over last year in the US:

solar generation in march 2011 up 37% over march 2010

wind generation in march 2011 up 20% over march 2010

hydro generation in march 2011 up 52.2% over march 2010 (and up 28.9% from Feb 2011)

natural gas generation in march 2011 up 5% over March 2010 (up 0.5% from Feb 2011)

nuclear generation in march 2011 up 1.6% over March 2010 (up 1.3% from Feb 2011)

Next up I'll write a little about what I've been learning about being back in SD.  Hello algal biofuels!  Also, I've been enlisted to help on my parents kitchen remodel and I might end up teaching surfing?  Ahhhh, never a dull moment.  Oh yes, and last Monday I ran up to LA to play a show at The Mint.  All good things.  I'm grateful for my opportunities.

Heading off to the San Diego Wind Energy Symposium tomorrow.

hugs from sunny (with some June gloom popping up) So Cal,
lisa

beeeeeeeveeeeeee

More night time fun with photography this past weekend. I was out and about capturing some of downtown San Diego and enjoyed working with the night lights. 

The Balboa Theater is 'historic' San Diego.  I always laugh at the idea of 'old' in southern california, the west coast or even the US in general.  While the Balboa is old opening in 1928, it's still very new in the whole scheme of things.  It was built as a dual use movie theatre and live performance stage.  Thankfully a large renenovation brought the theater back to life recently and it is back in business for live performances.

Horton Plaza (right) opened in 1985 and was a leader in the revitalizing of downtown San Diego.