“Given the stress that is laid on spelling by prescriptivists, and the existence of so many dictionaries which provide standard spellings for English words, it is perhaps surprising that there should be any variation in spelling within standard varieties. But there is. Some of this variation is variation between varieties. More often, though, there us [...]
Posts filed in Misery
No, not miserly, MISERY! Like in: “a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune; ‘the misery and wretchedness of those slums is intolerable’” or “a feeling of intense unhappiness; ’she was exhausted by her misery and grief’”. You know?
Concerning music and laziness…
I used to like Minor Majority. I considered them to be one of my favourite Norwegian bands of all time, and there were few things in the world that could soothe me and calm my nerves more effectively than the first couple of chords of “Think I’m Up For You And I”. And the album [...]
Oh, the shame! The shame!
During my medieval history exam on Monday, I managed to confuse the Battle of Poitiers with the ditto of Agincourt.
I feel like I’m going to melt; at least that would allow me to forget that a professor of history will read my mistake and shake his head in disappointment and disbelief at my folly…
Valentine
Heh, one of my flatmates and I just spent the last couple of hours taking cheap shots at Valentine, a rather silly slasher movie from 2001.
A bunch of snotty girls have picked on a nerd all through elementary school, until they in 9th grade get the kid sent away to a mental institution by claiming [...]
Night of Knives, by Ian C. Esslemont
Night of Knives,
by Ian C. Esslemont.
2005.
Bantam Press.
282 pages, hardcover edition.
Even though I enjoyed the book, and ripped through it faster than I have ripped through anything since I had a severe cold about two months ago, I am not sure if I see Esslemont as an independent author. Sure, he is the co-creator of the [...]
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 [...]
Angel: After the Fall
This one took me somewhat by surprise. I’d heard that it was scheduled for release on 29 November, and then, last Thursday, Loki exclaims at me that this was some seriously good stuff. I, naturally, become flabbergasted, run home from downtown Trondheim (I was shopping for Christmas and November-Me presents when I got his message), [...]
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 [...]
A Near-Vomit Experience
The maggot cheese and the boiled duck fetuses nearly caused my supper to exit my body via the nose.
Oh, and check out the mock lutefisk ad.
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, [...]
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, [...]
Van Helsing
For some insane reason (I believe it’s called “my sister” ), I’ve just watched “Van Helsing” for the third time or so.
And while it was a decent enough action flick the first time around, it’s not a movie you’d want to watch again. The thrill of that first viewing is no more, as you know [...]
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 [...]
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:
Diabolical spam
It’s not even 48 hours since the last time I deleted all the spam comments the spam filter has filtered out for me, and yet, this.
Hume
I was reading Oxford University Press’ ”A very short introduction to Philosophy” just the other day, and in that book I came across something that has bothered me for a day or two now.
This is a book in which the English (I presume) professor of philosophy Edward Craig attempts to present examples of philosophy and [...]
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
I watched “Dead Man’s Chest” with my sister last Saturday, although I almost wished we hadn’t.
Because while it distracted us for two entertaining hours, it is so bleedingly obvious that “Dead Man’s Chest” is nothing but a money maker; a bridge to the concluding volume; a movie I felt was only made because trilogies seems [...]
Mellom Slagene
Grufullt lite foredrag jeg holdt på museet i kveld. Et språklig togkrasj, siden jeg skrev førsteutkastet på riksmål, før jeg plutselig innså at syntaksen min når jeg snakker er mer nynorsk, hvorpå et kaotisk og halvhjertet forsøk på å tilpasse stilen muntlig framføring oppsto.
Som sagt, språket er katastrofe, innholdet noe bedre. Poster foreløpig tekst, så [...]
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