… was last weekend, when I and one of my flatmates (who’s a linguistics student) spent a quarter of an hour having fun with the IPA map in general, and the voiced bilabial trill in particular.
But hey, the voiced bilabial trill really is one of the funniest phonems in the world. Alright, the “schwa” and [...]
Archive for November, 2007
The day I realized how much of a nerd I really am…
2007-11-28 — Quote of the Day
“In the second century C.E., Loukianos of Samosato wrote, ‘Everyone’s writing history now, and I don’t want to be left out of the furore.’ Loukianos, who was also known as Lucian the Scoffer, then produced a fantasy story called True History.”
— John M. Ford,
in the “Historical Note” to The Dragon Waiting.
The nerd’s ant farm
Or wait, isn’t the ant farm the nerd’s ant farm?
Anyhoo, awesome xkcd today. But saying so feels really redundant.
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 [...]
Burn Notice, season 1
A couple of months ago, one of my flatmates tipsed me of a TV show called Burn Notice, which he claimed to be some of the best stuff he has seen in years. As this is a guy whose tastes I respect, and who spends most of the day watching TV shows, I thought I’d [...]
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 [...]
München
München has also been neglected for a while.
It portrays both the murder of half a dozen Israeli athletes in München during the 1972 Olympics, and Mossad’s retribution afterwards. The emphasis is on the latter, and follows a team of agents who are given a list of 12 names, of prominent Fatah members they are to [...]
V for Vendetta
I watched V for Vendetta a couple of weeks ago, but bloody useless Neverwinter Nights has been stealing all my time since.
I love Evey’s story, and the way they’ve managed to keep so much of the comic’s plots. Inspector Finch is great, as is Deitrich, as well as most of the other characters. The “morale” [...]
X-Men: The Last Stand
I feel like beating myself around the head with a heavy stick. Over a month ago, I watched X-Men: The Last Stand, and I have neither reviewed it here, nor entered into my movie log. Action must be taken; amends must be made!
Knowing my very exclusive readership, I’ll skip my usual half-arsed attempt at a [...]
2007-11-25 — Quote of the Day
“‘Vi vet hvordan Universet ender -’ sa guiden, og Jorden har ikke noe med dét å gjøre, bortsett fra at også den blir ødelagt.’
‘Hvordan - hvordan kommer Universet til å ende?’ sa Billy.
‘Vi gjør at det eksploderer mens vi eksperimenterer med nye brennstoffer til de flygende tallerkenene våre. En Tralfamadoriansk testpilot trykker på en startknapp [...]
Take a gander at that share ratio
I’m such a great guy.
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. [...]
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), [...]
An Exercise in Humility
About two weeks ago I made some rather rash statements about the nature of Roman intellectualism, which I just a few days later realized were founded almost entirely on my prejudices against the poor Romans. Thus, I felt that a post would be required to make up for things. This post, to be specific.
In addtion [...]
2007-11-15 — Quote of the Day
“Attacking his opponent Disraeli in Parliament, Gladstone remarked that ‘the honourable gentleman will either end on the gallows or die of some loathsome disease.’ To which Gladstone rejoined: ‘That depends on whether I embrace the honourable gentleman’s principles or his mistresses.’”
— An example of a witty repartee,
A Glossary of Literary Terms.
And!
Just in case anyone was wondering (right!): Yeah, the reason I’ve increased my posting rate is that that fiendishly swift “Lotta” is catching up. He’s currently reduced my lead to a meagre 323 posts!
Also, this post’s title is fun, if you pronounce it in Norwegian.
Or do I only think that because it’s a [...]
I feel mighty clever!
Because, you know, it took my until yesterday to think of subscribing to TOotS and xkcd through RSS…
2007-11-14 — Quote of the Day
“What each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed.”
— Friedrich Engels,
in a letter to Jean-Richard Bloch, September 21, 1890.
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 [...]
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