Punctuated by Philosophy

Look!

2008-11-27T18:27:00.003+01:00

Dexter Morgan doesn't eat his pizza crusts either!

Dexter

2008-11-17T20:20:00.004+01:00

I love this show!

But... I'm a TV eater. I don't mean that I have to eat whenever I watch TV, but rather that I have to watch TV whenever I eat. So the problem with Dexter is that it includes quite disgusting scenes of torture and dismembered body parts, with all that follows of blood, screams and disturbing sounds of electrical drills and plastic sheets... Not exactly something to whet your appetite.

But I still love this show! Though I feel like I shouldn't...

Daydreaming

2008-11-05T15:28:00.004+01:00

Of course I decided to have a little look at the Internet. You know, as you do when you have no time at all to do so... I googled my favourite car and fell in love with it all over again! If I had the money for it, I would've bought it in a heartbeat!

I'm thinking peace-signs.... I'm thinking painted flowers and white doves... I'm thinking a John Lennon poster on the inside wall... I'm thinking carpeted floor and colourful cushions... I'm thinking hard plastic plates and portable barbecue.... I'm thinking amazing road trips!

I'm guessing it won't help saying I want one for Christmas....?

Why do today the things you can avoid doing tomor...

2008-09-17T18:57:00.002+02:00

Procrastination reaches a whole other level when you find yourself watching 7th Heaven just for the sake of not doing anything useful.

That being said, look what I found on Etsy.com (while happily avoiding writing an e-mail to my professor):

I love these pictures! They'll look magnificent on the wall next to the Morrissey print I bought earlier! Well, actually they won't, but I could always put them on opposite walls! Unfortunately, the last time I opened my wallet I swear there were moths flying out of it. But in case you feel like buying them for me as a Christmas present, you can find them here: how i got my stutter and The Butterfly Suicide II . *big, shiny puppy eyes*

PS.
I meant to post this earlier today, but one of the characters in Home&Away is dying, so I had to catch that first. And then there were dinner and Friends and Scrubs... I also meant for it to be a longer post, but if I stop now I can watch Miami Ink and avoid reading that boring chapter on The Penal Laws in Ireland in the 1700s for another hour. Come to think of it, I think my room needs tidying up too!

happy grin

2008-09-13T14:02:00.003+02:00

These are my new boots, and I love them! Which is good, because I couldn't actually afford them, in a "had-to-take-money-from-my-saving's-account"-sort of way. Not because they were in any way expensive (500 NOK, which isn't too bad), but simply because only had 39,90 NOK left on my account.

(To the left you can see Robin Hood, and to the right you can see his tennis ball. Lovely background, I must say...)

Robin says....

2008-08-30T13:43:00.003+02:00

The new addition to our family, called Robin Hood, has found a favourite place to have a snooze. Problem is, sis is taking this backpack to Spain on Monday. Hopefully without the little hitchhiker in the top pocket....

Treat yourself, or else...

2008-08-05T15:30:00.003+02:00

Amazon scares me. It’s like the traffic accident that people tend to overuse as an example to these things: you don’t want to look, but you can’t look away either. It (Amazon, not the traffic accident) keeps you constantly logged in from the first time you order something, so that as soon as you visit them again, you’re met by the words “Ada, we have recommendations for you.” Oh, excellent, just what I need on this dreary August evening: ideas on what to spend money on next.

I involuntarily push the link, simply out of a healthy curiosity about whether or not they get it right this time. You see, sometimes they can be totally spot on, or “scarily accurate”, as those crappy facebook applications keep promising (without going completely off-topic, I have to say that they’re really not!). Other times Amazon has gotten it so wrong that I have to double- and triple check that it’s really my name on the recommendations list. And they underline their choices by more or less good excuses, like “We recommend this unofficial biography about a man who once got close to almost touching Prince’s guitar because you added “Meat is Murder” by The Smiths to your wish list.”
Why, of course!

But that’s sort of okay, though, and easily fixed, because all you have to do is check the “not interested”-box, and refresh your recommendations until the whole page is filled with only things you really want. Which is basically when it gets scary. The computer now has a fairly good idea of who you are and what you had for breakfast, and starts suggesting one temptation after the other, almost addictively.

- What’s this? A DVD collection of Dylan Moran’s stand-up shows?
Add.
- Yes, as a matter of fact I would like this Belle & Sebastian-album.
Add.
- A biography about Patti Smith would be heavenly.
Add.
- And I’d adore another Morrissey DVD.
Add.
- A previously unheard of superhero costume that wouldn’t even look good on Heidi Klum? Well, you never know.
Add.

It all ends up on the wish list because otherwise I might forget that they exist. Which I do anyway, I should put in, and am only reminded every time I visit Amazon and they go “Buy something from your wish list today! Go on, you know you want to! Look, here’s a small selection of the things you’ve forgotten that you decided you couldn’t live without just a week ago. Come on, treat yourself! After all, it’s only Tuesday once a week, and you could die crossing the street tomorrow!”

And the emails they send! Like, why do I want the collector's edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, when there’s a perfectly ordinary edition available at a much, much cheaper price? Why? Well, because the collector's edition features "a reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction; 10 illustrations not featured in the Standard Edition or the original; metal skull, corners, and clasp; velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling's signature; replica gemstones; and tucked inside a case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library". That’s why. I'm not 100 % sure what gemstones are, but I know I want them!

And if Amazon hadn’t sent me an email with a picture of it, jovially telling me to Pre-order it now!, I wouldn’t even have known about this edition in the first place.

I think I need to take a nap.

Aaaargh!

2008-08-01T22:15:00.000+02:00

The only reason I'm not giving this computer a good old kick right now is because I know it wouldn't actually help!!! So I point my finger accusingly at it and swear loudly instead. No, that doesn't help much either, but at least I feel like I have a say in things.

Rosemary for remembrance... and stuff.

2008-08-01T20:56:00.004+02:00

It's Friday, which tends to happen once a week, and again I'm left wondering where the hell time went. I know where I spent it - a little cabin up in the mountainous Norwegian midlands, with an outhouse and a TV, but no shower - but not how I spent it.

Well, let me count the ways:

- I read some old Donald Duck magazines I found behind the sofa.
- I listened to the new Coldplay album I bought at a gas station (it's my new guilty pleasure... Coldplay, I mean, not gas stations).
- I solved some sudoku, and read two editions of Science Illustrated (man, the popes had some hard times in the 800s, and what about those supervolcanoes, eh?)
- I sat in the car for hours, looking at... mountains. And trees.
- I dreaded going to the outhouse, because I've seen too many scary movies, and it was located by the edge of the woods.
- I slept.
- I smashed my head into something every time I turned around in my sleep (the wall, the shelf above the bed, the ceiling, the bed frame... you name it. It's amazing, the things you put up with just to sleep in the top bunk!).
- I finished a brilliant book called "The Secret of Lost Things" by Sheridan Hay... and for some reason can't stop thinking about the scene in Hamlet where Ophelia goes mad.
- I took a million pictures of a very famous church.

And thus the week went by. Apparently. Thank God uni starts up again soon!

Weeeeeee!

2008-07-31T20:35:00.000+02:00

I pushed the happy-button on the Internet (you know, the one that says "pay by credit card"), and today I got books in the mail!

It's brilliant!

And free!

Well, until you get the bill, but that's a whole other story.

My next be-happy-project is this book. But even I have to think twice about that...

My lips are blue....

2008-07-19T16:52:00.007+02:00

They're blue because I made smoothie today, all by myself, for the first time. With blueberries in it. Which makes your lips blue. It started in the shop yesterday when I suddenly remembered that somebody gave me a blender for Christmas some years ago, and I thought I at least knew of a few places where it couldn't possibly be, leaving only a limited set of other places to look for it. Enthusiastically the ingredients for a smoothie were bought, and today - being alone and left with not much else to do but the dishes - I decided to finally look for the aforementioned blender.

No blender was to be found. The panic rising slightly (I mean, what else can you use bananas, strawberries, blueberries and raspberry yogurt for, but make smoothies?), I started looking at the same places twice and three times, in that open-cupboard-and-peer-inside-without-actually-moving-anything-around-way that used to make my Mom go crazy when I was a kid.

As I opened the cupboard below the sink for the God-only-knows-whichth-time, suddenly there it was, looking at me as if to say "Jaysis, woman, what took yeh so long?" (my blender has an Irish accent, you see). I grabbed it, plugged it in, lost the lid, regained the lid and put it in a safe place, cut the fruits and berries, poured the yogurt, wondered where I had put the lid, slightly pondered the possibility of using a plastic bag around the blender in lid's place, when I stepped on lid, blew the dust (and some black hair from the cat we don't own but lives here) off it, put it on blender and pushed the make-noise-button. No noise was made.

I realised - cunningly - that the actual blending part of the blender wasn't properly attached to the giving-electricity-to-the-thing-and-thus-moving-the-knives-part, so I gave it a twirl until it made a clicky sound, and tried again. Noise and chaos ensued, with the colours blending magnificently into a shade of purple I didn't know existed. I felt like Jamie Oliver. I felt like Nigella Lawson.

I felt like a klutz when I tried to get the blending part loose again, and made the lid fly off. It rolled majestically across the bench and eventually landed - with a loud clang! - in the sink. As lids will do. Magically, the contents of the blender stayed inside, but mostly because it was incredibly thick... Pouring it into the tall glass took forever, and when I was finally pleased, I had to take a picture of the finished product. To underline the naturalness of the drink, I took it outside for the photo session. With trees and grass in the background, as suits a drink like this.

The darker dots are supposed to be there. Though I think they're blueberry leaves, mostly...

Only a suggestion...

2008-07-07T23:38:00.001+02:00

If you happen to be bored out of your mind, you could take all the books down from the shelves, catalogue them and put them back up, using some sort of advanced sorting system, like themes, countries of origin, colours, or - revolutionary thinking here! - the alphabet. But ye be warned, it gets boring somewhere around book no. 150, especially knowing you have at least thrice that left, and probably more.

Trust me, I know of what I speak: Yours truly now has a room filled with books (my floor and bed are practically invisible at this point), only about 150 of which have found their way back onto their shelves. I'm sick and tired now, and still have doubts regarding that infinitely important question: alphabet or theme? I started on theme, but this is a less precise system than that of the alphabet... And I'm overwhelmed by the pressuring need to get a life. Like, right now!

But first I need to find a way to remove the books from my bed and to some other temporary spot while I sleep (no doubt having nightmares about towers of books threatening to fall down on me, only to wake up and see that I wasn't really dreaming). Problem is, I'm not very good with the temporary stuff. I mean, I'm the one who lived temporarily in a student dorm in Oslo for five years. Temporarily! For five years! Well done, indeed...

Well, if you never hear from me again I guess it's safe to presume the tower did fall.
Death by literature... Why does that sound like the title of a crime novel? Jeepers, I haven't even gotten to the crime novels yet. And I have about 40 by Agatha Christie. I think I'll take special care in putting those under my bed for the night. What? No reason!

Oíche mhaith!
Night, night!

Status report

2008-07-05T13:34:00.002+02:00

I'm wearing mismatched socks, and eating strawberries with custard and whipped cream out of Mom's fancy dessert bowl. I'm trying hard not to spill it on the computer I've been sitting in front of for several hours. Damn you, Internet!

It's raining outside - not heavily, but the kind of steady-dripping rain that makes me miss Ireland, where I lived from January until June this year. And I've got so much I should do that I end up doing nothing. For one I should start looking for a job. I also should try finding a place to live. And pick up those books from the floor of my room. And answer at least two emails and one facebook-message. And unpack my second suitcase (it's been lying on the floor next to my bed for over a month now - I've no idea what's in it anymore). And make that CD for Sophia. Oh, and send it to her!

"...and I say that as a neutral Irish person..."

2008-06-30T14:28:00.001+02:00

(Dylan Moran - Like Totally, part 3/ 7)

On this day

2008-06-24T13:00:00.001+02:00

...but way back in 1842, the American author Ambrose Bierce was born, famous for his short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, as well as the satirical book The Devil's Dictionary.

I don't know why I felt this was important, but there you go!

L'Ennui

2008-06-22T18:24:00.001+02:00

Testing, testing!

Pretty bored, now...