First, I took my NwN Dwarven monk through a couple of levels. Which is always fun, as they get so many feats and special abilities, it’s a treat to play them. Then, just as I had cleared level 7 and killed Head Gaoler Aelfinn, I was roused by my flatmates who desired my company for [...]
Posts filed in Conflicting emotions
The tag for posts where I express that something made me experience several emotions, some of which were opposed to each other — such as bliss and misery. Some examples are the posts concerning the final episodes of “Buffy” and “Angel”.
Slaughterhouse-5, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaugtherhouse-5, or the Children’s Crusade. A Duty-Dance with Death.
By Kurt Vonnegut.
156 pages, Torstein Bugge Høverstad’s Norwegian translation from 1970.
First published in English in 1969.
How to describe Slaughterhouse-5? Some other random site that had a review of it simply raved on about it being the brilliant ramblings of a madman on LSD, but I feel that [...]
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Name of the Wind,
by Patrick Rothfuss.
2007.
662 pages.
Gollancz trade paperback.
This is the tale of Kvothe, a legend in his own time, as he tells it to Chronicler, a man who records the truth. Apparently, the book’s only the first third of a novel which ended up too long to be published as a single unit. [...]
Concerning Documentaries
I just watched an Australian documentary about Mullah Krekar (whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad), one of the founders of the militant, Kurdish, Islamist organization Ansar al Islam, and an asylum seeker in Norway. The guy whom the Americans tried to use to link Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden a couple of years [...]
2007-11-13 — Quote of the Day
“It was in midsummer, when the alchemy of nature transmutes the sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogenous mass of green; when the senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the subtly indefinable odors of the soil and the vegetation. In such surroundings the mind loses its perspective; time [...]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream seemed like a really boring play, at least when compared to the splendid Othello (Iago for teh win! ), so I decided to skip reading it, and just go to the showing of the 1999 movie that was arranged as part of this course I’m taking.
The movie didn’t exactly make [...]
X-Men: The Last Stand
I hadn’t watched this one since it was in theaters, so it was about bloody time I got around to it again. I guess I might have been postponing it for the last year or so because I wasn’t too impressed with the movie the first time I watched it. I thought they’d crammed too [...]
Ultimate X-Men, issues 66-74 and Annual #2
Marvel finally published the seventh Ultimate X-Men hardcover, collecting “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical”, “Breaking Point” and the second annual, “Why Xavier’s Cat Is Named Mystique”. The four normal “issue-collections” — “Date Night”, “Phoenix”, Magical” and “Breaking Point” — dealt with pretty much the same storylines. the Professor’s dealings with the Shi’ar; Jean’s relationship with Cyclops [...]
My Gods, I feel lucky…
… to be born in this day and age, and in this country.
As an example of the former, I choose the fact that it’s no more than perhaps two hundred years since chimneys became common in Norway.
As an example for the latter, I must say that even though I am baffled, at times, at how [...]
Gudenes Fall
Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]
Scrubs, season 5
Yeah, yeah, I know: they’re occasionally repeating the same jokes, and the whole concept might be getting a tad tired.
But I still love it. I still think it’s fun to watch the Janitor torment JD, I still laugh when Turk tries to stand up to Carla, I still pity JD one moment only to hate [...]
Movies Galore: A Summary
It’s nearly two months since my last movie review — a review, I might add, where I was unreasonably hard on the reviewed movie, as the fact that I’m in a foul mood shouldn’t really count against it. Anyway, since then I’ve watched a lot of movies: excellent movies, great movies, good movies, mediocre movies, [...]
Romeo + Juliet
For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the [...]
A silent prayer of thanks to the patriarchate and all male chauvinists
Oh, patriarchal social structure!
Oh, male chauvinists of the past!
I praise thee!
While thy general wisdom might leave something to be desired, and while I dislike thee quite strongly, thee have done me — and in fact the whole nation — a great service!
And while thy rancid ignorance and silly prejudices have also done us all great [...]
A Clockwork Orange
I know I’ve often asked for more resistance in movies, for less comfort, and more challenges. But this is too bleedin’ much. It’s a fucking nightmare, is what it is.
Still, though, a fascinating nightmare. Kinda like a train wreck. 8.5/10.
And to think I was 11 or 12 the first time I watched it…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I finished the book five minutes ago, some 18 or 19 hours after I found it in my mailbox. I’ll try to review it, and I’ll do my best to do so without any spoilers, but for those who doesn’t want to know a godsdamned thing, I’ll hide it. Naturally, there will be spoilers for [...]
Noooooooooooooo!
Spoiler, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 385:
It’s here!
I just picked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out of my post box, and because I am terrified of spoilers and want this to be an unblemished reading experience, I will now commence “radio silence” until the deed is done. No Internet, no newspapers, no TV, no radio — none of anything in which [...]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, #2
Watched this one again last night, and it was surprisingly much better than the first time. Mostly, this was because I focused on what was actually there rather than on what wasn’t, and it turned out that even though they could have spent another half hour for emphasis to a couple of scenes, and done [...]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I finally got my arse over to the nearest movie theatre to watch “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”.
As most of you probably know, the last instalment in the series saw the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Harry has spent his summer at his aunt and uncle’s, as usual, pining for news [...]
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